Posts Tagged ‘horse sense’

What can we do to get more people involved in horse sports, and educate the public? It saddens me that especially in America people are losing common horse sense.

My pet peeve/most hated stereotype is that horses are elitist and only the rich can participate.
EDIT: Another pet peeve I have is liability. HOW on earth can we educate and involve more people with the ridiculous liability laws we have? This is what bugs me so much about the loss of horse sense. Horses require common sense, the insurance, contracts, liability laws and litigious culture are NOT helping the industry. We need to make horses MORE accessible to open more doors to ownership, protect green ways not just for horse riders but for EVERYBODY, and protect horse owners so that they CAN feel comfortable having the neighborhood kids come over and learn horsemanship.

And Michelle, what crack are you smoking? Come spend a week with my pony on the trails and see how "unhappy" he is. I guess the reason he lets me ride him with no bridle or saddle, or plays tag with me is because I beat the crap out of him.
Michelle C. Thanks for telling it like it is. Don’t you just hate it when you beat and starve your ponies and they still greet you with whinnies and hay bellies?

Just to clarify for the humourless out there, my pony is well loved and taken care of. Sarcasm = the gap between humour and those who don’t get it.

What causes horses rearing? Like everything else involving horses and their interactions with people, the answer usually boils down to one of two causes. Horses of course will engage in a threatening display like rearing if they are feeling well, threatened. So the first cause to look for is fear. A second cause of horses rearing is defiance. A horse may rear to intimidate you, or while balking about accomplishing some task you want him to do. In this case, the root cause of horses rearing is disrespect.

It turns out that fear and disrespect are two sides of the same coin when it comes to the horse-human relationship. The reason is simple. A horse isn’t going to have fear about a situation or task provided that he’s got a strong leader he can look to. Are you that strong leader, inspiring unwavering confidence in your horse? Or do you lack confidence, as exhibited in your actions or body language?

At the same time, a horse isn’t going to respect a handler that hasn’t shown leadership. Once again it boils down to confidence. Are you confident handling horses? Can the defiant horse sense weakness or wavering in your body language?

So we see that when it comes right down to it, the fearful horse or the disrespectful horse that rears is really doing so for the same fundamental reason: they don’t really have an alpha member of the herd. As the handler of the horse, it’s up to you to become the alpha and demonstrate calm and confident leadership at all times. Once it’s established, leadership will cause a horse to respect and trust you. So all at the same time, by being a leader for your horse, you can win over horses with all kinds of different dispositions. There is no need to study whether a horse is “left brained” or “right brained”, “introverted” or “extroverted”, “fearful” or “dominant”. Horses are naturally wired to follow a leader plain and simple, and by giving the right cues you can easily establish leadership and inspire confidence and get any horse to follow you. Horses that see you as their leader are going to be less fearful, so less likely to turn to rearing when something startling happens. A horse that respects you isn’t going to use rearing, or anything else, in an effort to intimidate you.

That sounds simple enough, but how do you establish leadership?

The first step in a leadership program is a good round pen training program. This means taking your horse in the round pen at liberty (no lead rope) and going through the exercise to have him hook on to you. This exercise really taps into the mind and emotions of the horse and like nothing else, helps a horse see you as the herd leader. You should always go back to round pen training first when encountering some major behavior problem.

The second task at hand is to simply get your horse listening and paying attention to you. This can be done on several levels-basic groundwork for example. Spend more time simply moving your horse around-moving the hindquarter, the forehand, backing up. Do some leading exercises.

One of the most important exercises for a horse with behavior problems in my view is lunging. Done correctly, which means continually asking the horse to pay attention by randomly asking for walk, trot, canter, slow down, speed up, stop, turn-is a great exercise for getting your horse listening for your commands. That helps cement the position of leadership you lay down as a foundation with round pen training.

When faced with horses rearing, like anything else, all it takes to solve the problem is getting back to basics. Punishment in the moment might give a short term fix, but it’s not a long term solution. Go back to a solid training program of round pen training, leading, groundwork yields, and lunging to fix that attitude.

David McMahon is a freelance author and horse owner. He invites you to visit http://horse-training-tips.com where you can learn more about horses rearing.

Author: David McMahon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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A young woman learns how to stop her harasser through one session with a horse. Sound incredible? It’s all in a day’s work for one Equine Guided Educator in northern California. Since 2000, there has been a 300% increase in programs that bring humans and horses together for healing and learning purposes. Some of those programs specialize in working with teens.

Teens and Horses

Adolescent challenges include changing bodies, peer pressure, and the yearning for acceptance. The problems of at-risk teens are magnified. Innovative programing using horses is helping at-risk teens in new ways. One program in northern California, “Horse Sense for Teens At-Risk,” helps youth in the Novato Youth Center teen pregnancy prevention program. The program uses horses to teach skills such as boundary setting, clear communication, and leadership skills. Horse Sense also serves homeless teens and adolescents with eating disorders.

Standing up to a Bully: It’s All About Congruence

A teen that came for a recent individual session had dropped out of school two months before. The young woman refused to return to school because she was being harassed and bullied. As the session began, the young woman talked to the equine educator about being intimidated by a fellow student, when suddenly the horse butted in.

Program horse “Toyota” walked over and began to knock his head into the girl’s shoulder, gently, yet insistently as the girl described her problems with the bully. The horse continued to “harass” the teen by pulling on her collar, pushing her around, and at one point even untying her shoelaces with his teeth. The young woman was clearly irritated with the horse’s antics; her jaw tightened, her breath quickened, and her speech got tense.

The young woman appeased, then pleaded with Toyota, saying, “Please don’t do that,” while simultaneously petting him on the neck. As she continued her efforts to ‘make nice’ with the horse, the horse continued the harassment even more until finally, in complete exasperation, the teen held both hands out in front of her and yelled, “STOP IT!” Instantly Toyota complied, dropped his head and stood quietly by her side. Until that moment, the girl’s actions were not in congruence with her intentions.

In just one session, under the educator’s firm guidance, the willing horse had guided the young woman to access her own personal authority in a powerful form of experiential learning. Through the horse’s antics, the teen saw that she was giving off mixed messages, which had worsened the situation. She learned how to stand her ground and mean it. Having practiced new skills, the young woman returned to school and successfully stood up to the bully who then stopped harassing her.

Learning How to Spot a Predator

Because horses are “prey” animals (they do not eat other animals, but instead are food for various predators), they are very attuned to their environment with what has been called socio-sensual awareness. For horses, predators are easy to spot because their intentions do not match their behaviors: they are incongruent. The horse has to recognize predators for survival and these are skills that our teens need to have as well.

Horses used in Equine Guided Education often “mirror” issues back to teens in ways that are easily remembered. In the example above, the girl was not congruent. She wanted the bullying to stop, but she also wanted to be in relationship, so she kept petting the horse, even as he was bothering her more and more. Her actions (the petting) did not match her desire (for the harassment to stop). Once she put some force behind her words, the horse backed off immediately, just as the bully did back at school.

Horse Sense for Teens: A Winning Combination

Taking Safe Risks.

Working with horses in equine guided education helps teens to take risks in a new environment under the guidance of trained adult leaders. Horses can be 1,000 lbs. or more, and the challenge of working with these magnificent animals can be daunting, but also feeds the adolescent desire to be challenged and “push the envelope.”

Authentic Communication

One reason that so many adolescents tangle with the adults in their lives is that they are often brutally honest and can spot a “phony” easily. Teens and horses have little tolerance for adults that say one thing and do another. Like the horses, teens appreciate authentic communication, and people that “say it like it is.” At the same time, teens need to learn to respect their elders, which the horses model.

Learning about Herd Behavior

Like the horses, adolescent survival in social settings is dependent upon getting along with the herd. Teens are often very savvy about picking up cues from their own “herd” or peer group. At the same time, they can fear rejection from their peers if they are honest about their feelings and life situations. The horses, with their large generous hearts, are very accepting and often will spontaneously go up to someone in need of the horse version of a hug.

Non-Verbal Cues

Teens respond especially well to working with the horses because so much of the learning happens non-verbally, and adolescents are often keen observers of the social cues around them. In addition, teens are often willing to face their fears and make positive changes. The non-verbal nature of the work is especially effective for English language learners.

Got a Bully? Get A Horse

Equine-guided education can be a powerful and effective answer to teaching teens important life skills. At-risk teens may be especially well-suited for experiential learning with horses because they like to take risks, want authentic communication, and because following the “herd” is so important to them. I urge you to support local equine programs that are helping teens navigate through the difficult passage of adolescence.

For more information on horses, healing, and psychology, I invite you to visit http://www.dreamhorsewomen.com

Author: Catherine Held, PhD
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Horse, like people have many different personalities. Many like to think that a horse is reminiscent of its owner. I must say I find this to be very true from my own personal experience. I think that it is very important for a horse owner or future horse owner to know how to handle your horse or potential horse, and understand how a horse’s senses work.

Healthy horses have a very keen sense of smell. Your horse more than likely will have a craving for grain or apples for example. An apple doesn’t have much smell, but if you have one in your pocket your horse will definitely smell it and know exactly what pocket its in. He will probably be sniffing at your pocket and nudging you for it. If you’re out on a trail with your horse your horse can smell many things before you even notice them, such as hikers, deer, mountain bikers etc… sometimes I find that horse will snort at certain smells, to me this is kind of an alert.

Along with smell horses also have a keen sense of hearing which they use in conjunction with the sense of smell. You will notice that your horse flicks its ears often sometimes pricking them forward and turning them to the side. This is an indication that your horse is paying attention to the sounds in the environment around him. This is a natural prey instinct. I also find that when horses prick their ears back towards you, they are paying attention to you and your cues as well. Horses use their ears to not only listen but to also talk to you. When a horse pricks his ears forward look at the direction they are pointing and you’ll find out what your horse is investigating. It could be another horse, coyote, hay truck etc… When you horse pens his ears, it’s usually an indication he’s angry, disgruntled, or upset.

A horse’s tail is another form of communication. A horse’s tailbone is actually and extension of its spine, but a horse can express himself through his tail. You can actually tell what a horse is thinking by the positioning of his tail. A relaxed horse usually lays his tail against his body in a natural manner. Sometimes a horse will hold its slightly out away from his body as a balancing mechanism while trotting or cantering. A scared horse tucks or clamps his tail to his body. A happy or excited horse lifts its tail high like a flag. And unhappy or irritated horse swishes his tail at you or another horse. Horses also use the tail to swat flies.

A horse has keen sight. The horse sees differently than people do. The horse’s eye has a different physical structure than the human eye. A horse will raise his head to focus on close objects and lower its head to see distant objects. In addition horses are also color blind. Due to the placement of the horse’s eye being on the sides of the head, he has lateral vision. Meaning he can see two separate images at the same time. It is a good idea when working with your horse, to work on both sides of your horse.

Horses also communicate by voice with other horses and by body language. If you watch horses in a pasture you will see this often. Horse will swish their tails at eat other when the want space. They will also kick at each other if another horse or human is too close. You will see horses push each other with their bodies when they want another horse to move or want to show dominance. Horses will also do this with humans and to my amazement many horse owners allow this. This is a definite no no, and needs correction.

By carefully observing your horses you will learn a lot about how to think like a horse.

Author: Gary Houston
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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