Horses and Leadership

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Comment by Jackie Cochran on May 15, 2010 at 10:36am

Hi Eve, welcome.
It is good that you are both getting trained. As the old saying goes "green on green equals black and blue."
One of the things you need to learn from your personal horse training is when to give a signal, when to release the signal, how to recognize when the horse STARTS to obey, and when it is valid to get tough (a hint--it is not when you are scared.) Once you get this basic "conversational" skill down you will find it much easier to work with your horse.

Comment by Shirley on April 22, 2010 at 2:26pm

Best wishes with all your pursuits in your horsey world. Sounds like fun, rewarding challenges. Sounds like so much fun...and work. I do get tired at the end of the day but being with the horses is so invigorating and keeps me going. Starting to satisfy my horse passions at 53 has left me feeling like a sponge trying to absorb information and experiences to make up for lost time. Biggest challenge has been fear issues. No little issue but slowly it improves and we do spend lots of time together besides in the saddle.

Comment by Liliane Jackson on April 22, 2010 at 1:08pm

Glad to join the group. I have a few horses of my own in training. 4 are mustangs, 1 welsh pony and 1 appy. My appy is the paint in the photo caption this week. He's pretty easy. My mustangs have been challenging trying to get information through. But persistance and repetition does them well. My welsh pony has a confidence issue. She was given to me a year ago with anxiety issues. I gave her time to be a horse and get comfortable in her new surroundings. she will be my biggest challenge this summer. Normally she would never approach you in the field. Catching her was impossible. Yesterday, I was finally able to get a halter on her with her acceptance. A milestone if you ask me. I have her seperated from the others with one companion - well I don't think he is much of a companion since she does pick on him. But she can see all her friends even the mustang. They are alwasy curious when I work with her and watch so inquisitively. It did take us many months for her to come near us. It was certainly with the persuasion of food. However, now she comes to us in an open field. Tonight I plan on re-inforcing the halter acceptance and moving her into the round pen. My next step will be to desensitize her to a long lead line. We have never been able to pick up her feet without fighting (when the blacksmith comes) so I hope to desensitize her enough to do some basic foot requests and get her feeling good about her accomplishments.

I will post a pic soon. Perhaps I can take one tonight if its not too dark. She is very cute and my challenge for this year.

Comment by Shirley on April 3, 2010 at 8:17pm

HI Jenn, How are you and your fellas doing?

Comment by Jennifer Lamm on April 3, 2010 at 1:17pm

cool Shirley.

Comment by Shirley on April 3, 2010 at 11:58am

HI Jackie! Haven't bumped into you in a while. Great advice as always from you.
Cash and I are moving forward at a good pace NOW! New trainer that has done lots of therapeutic riding. She helping with her general energy being calming to me AND lots of patterns and obstacles to keep Cash and I both focused and the BIGGIE~~Deep Belly breathing!!! Once I achieve a few good belly breaths Cash relaxes and does the same and then we move on and have a great time. He's moving forward with no fuss at the walk and going into the trot and staying in it much better with ENTHUSIASM!!! It's beautiful and exciting!! I've said for several years that I needed to do Pony Club but no one would take me serious. Now we have some young teens at the barn that are in Pony Club so I'm gonna have them show me their Pony Club games and I'll help those that want to with the Parelli ground stuff to help with their horsie relationship.
"Search and ye shall find!" I feel like my blind faith that we were going to make it together has turned into a more substantial faith based on current successes. Now maybe the hundreds of lessons I've taken will come to some use as I'm hopeful that information will start clicking in better for Cash and I. We've set some goals and I'm thinking they should be achievable. BREATH!!!!!
How are things going wtih you?

Comment by Jackie Cochran on April 3, 2010 at 9:43am

Hey Kaitlynn, if you have enough room where you can do it safely, I would practice handling Safire while either in the pen with Buckie or right on the other side of the fence. Do not try to do it all at once, first get her obedient to you while Buckie is nearby, then little by little extend the distance. This process may take you weeks, you are building up new responses in the horse's brain. Go slow.

Comment by cmos on November 22, 2009 at 2:36am

the key thing here is I gave this horse room to retreat and I was demanding respect, We still have a long ways to go but this is a big break through. I think this is a great page I'm on and thank you all for the your stories and the link horsetrainingresources.com as I could use some help to make progress easier. at one point he saw that I was breathing hard and thought he was winning ( my stemina is'nt like it use to be lol)

Comment by cmos on November 22, 2009 at 2:21am

Good evening everyone. I have had a good week with our stallion.yes we do have breeding plans for him so gelding him is not an option at this time although I suppose it would make life easier. I just do'nt like to break a spirit if I can work with it to bring it back to a gentle nature. I decided it was time to take the next step in establishing who's boss in the barn yard. I was waiting for the right time and it was time for me to push him and I did just that. I pushed this guy off the fence and across the correll. why? because he was struting up and down the fence darting his head over the top rail ears bck.snortin' and carryin' on at the mares and geldings I had tied out at the hitching rail so he could be out for a few hrs. for exercise. I took my launging whip and struted up and down the fence shaking my fist,popping the whip,shaking my head no and repeating over and over "No get away". With each pass I moved away from the fence and when he got around me and back to the fence I started all over again untill I had pushed him all the way across the correll to stand behind the farthst feeder munching hay,(not even showing any part of his body except his head)watching me struting back and forth. Oh he was mad damn mad as I was taking over his tarritory and he let me know by snoring,shaking his head at me(runnin' around me to get bck to the fence)and half rearing/bucking as he turned away. I pushed him off every smelly mound he tried to cover and would'nt let him mark his scent. I demanded respect and got it.Then he tried to make friends and I would'nt let him do that either (this seemed to bother him more cause he sulked all day) It took awhile but I won I had to. Everytime I started bck to the fence he'd be right behind me so I kept stoppin' and half turning to glareing at him over my shoulder.He finaly stayed untill I was through the gate and half way to the house before he came up to hang his head over the gate and watch me. When I came bck to check on him he was being very nice no more attitude showing and when I glared at him over the fence he turned away,when I went through the gate he moved away. only then did I alow him to come up to me to be friends. I do'nt recommend this style to anyone....it worked for me cause I know the horse. working with a stallion is a very touchy and dangrous perceedure. You should always be on gaurd even if you're working with an older quiter stallion that has been handled alot.

Comment by Jennifer Lamm on November 17, 2009 at 11:52am

Dear Laura. Thank you for that..... I am working with my mustang, Oliver. He is 4 and we have been together for 4 years, but he is a challenge to say the least..... I revel in my small wins that I get with him, in that I see that he is understanding what I am asking..... he seems happy when he gets it.... and not so frustrated. I learned body language from Chris Irwin, thankfully because Oliver and I were crashing before. I also had to learn to be the leader meant to have myself under control.... so I have to go slow with that too. As soon as I feel like I might not be able to be the leader anymore, my heart is racing, or I'm getting nervous, I have to quit. I've gone beyond my level of comfort. (I am really just learning for sure).... and I am so consistent.... I felt that was going to be my only weapon, time and consistency in the face of lack of knowledge and experience and bravery..... every day we accomplish a tiny thing that is better than yesterday... but Oliver is letting me lead. If things start to get out of hand, we must stop... I'd rather teach us both things in small intervals than have the big blow up. I do not like fighting with my horse...

Your method of teaching must be awesome.... I was on a board once where I stated that I thought I was giving the wrong signals... and I gave my horse the benefit of the doubt, that I even apologized to him on occasion when I knew I asked him for the wrong thing.. and I got tarred and feathered for it.... my body language is so much better, you wouldn't believe how much he will do for me that we could never do before... it is ALL about the person...... helping the horse to understand. :)

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