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It Looks Like Merlin is Cheering Up
This was not a very calm weekend, I got awaked by a robo-call at 3:00 AM Saturday morning about a tornado warning. Luckily the local TV stations were following the weather so I saw that the real bad weather was not headed toward me and after an hour I finally got back to sleep. Saturday when I woke up I learned that a tornado had passed a around 10 miles to the north, destroying several houses and pulling the roof off of a local stable. Luckily none of those horses got hurt. I just got wind, rain, and a lot of paranoia.
By this morning the rain had all stopped and Shannon said I could come out and ride. She had Merlin all groomed when I arrived and she tacked him up. Shannon is a believer in tightening the girth gradually, walking the horse around between holes, and I noticed that Merlin was looking cheerful instead of sour and displeased about the prospect of being ridden. Merlin has a cute face when he is cheerful, a very different expression from when he is irritated and getting angry.
I went to the staircase where I mount, got up on Merlin, and Shannon started walking across with ring with Merlin following. I asked him to stop in the middle of the ring while Shannon continued to the fence and we stood. After a few minutes Merlin finally sighed and I did my escalation of the driving aids, saying WALK, waiting 4 seconds them squeezing lightly with my legs, waiting 4 more seconds then doing a light touch with my spurs. Merlin did not move so we stood in the sun and I talked with Shannon some. I practiced sitting in my new modified chair seat, sitting back in the saddle, back vertical, legs somewhat forward with no weight in the heel. Then I started practicing my escalation of the turning aids. I have found that the Arabs I ride respond very well to me alternating turning my outside hip and shoulder forward at the same time when the horse's outside foreleg moves forward, then going back to center as I lightly use my outside lower leg as the horse's inside leg moves forward. Last week Merlin had been very resistant to me using my inside rein so I was trying to move him to the side just using my seat and my outside leg. Merlin stood perfectly still, then he sighed again when I asked him to move forward again. No response at all.
Not wanting to waste my time in the saddle I started to do some suppling exercises, leaning forward and back, twisting my upper body from side to side while keeping my seat bones even in the saddle, and circling my arms around. Merlin stood like a statue. Then Merlin decided he wanted some grass. I have always let my horses graze while riding them so long as they do it politely and stop when I say ENOUGH and pull lightly on the reins. I let Merlin have a few bites, said ENOUGH, pulled lightly on the reins and he ignored me. I had to use alternate light pulls with my hands to get his head up. Then we continued standing with Merlin alternately needing to scratch his front leg and snatch a few bites of grass, but since he raised his head when I told him to it did not bother me at all. Then Merlin sighed again, I gave him the escalating driving aids and Merlin moved one foot forward. Good boy! We stood for about a minute and I tried my turning aids and Merlin again moved one foot, this time to the side. More praise. After a minute I tried the driving aids again with no result so we stood some more. Then, after around two minutes Merlin voluntarily moved off at a walk toward Shannon, letting me steer him around a barrel. I told him to go to Shannon and when he got there we both gave him plenty of praise, petting, and scratches on his neck.
I asked Shannon if she thought Merlin had ever been given a chance to cooperate with his rider. She said she does not know what type of training he had in Europe before he was imported except it was supposed to be "high end" hunt seat. Since Merlin was donated to the program when he was just 4 1/2 years old with bone spurs in each hock I seriously doubt that anyone gave Merlin the time he needed to learn to move forward to the leg, I think what he got was an aid with the leg rapidly followed with a whack with the whip. When she first saw him at the stable of the lady who donated Merlin and 3 other horses to Shannon's handicapped program, she saw him ridden by a little girl who carried a crop, and Shannon noticed that most of Merlin's attention was on the whip. Once he got to Shannon's each rider HAD to carry a crop or Merlin would not move. I know that when I rode him for a while several years ago I had to carry a crop and I used it some, I was guilty too.
Twice more Merlin voluntarily (ie. one to two minutes after the driving aids) gave me a good, free, long striding walk. He let me turn him away from Shannon with the reins (plus seat and outside leg) without any great objections, and when we reached the fence Merlin went in the direction I wanted to go (opposite of the direction HE wanted to go), again without any great objections. Both times when he went in the direction I wanted, I told him to go to Shannon and he got more praise and petting. The third time was at the end of my 30 minutes so I prepared to dismount. My body was not working right today, my right leg got caught by the cantle of the saddle and I hung there precariously until I finally got it over the cantle, hitting Merlin on the rump a few times with the side of my heel. Merlin stood through it even though he was not pleased. I was grateful, Merlin is 18.2 hands high and it is a LONG way to the ground. When I finally slid down I went to Merlin's head, telling him what a wonderful and perfect horse he was to put up with my clumsiness, and Merlin turned his enormous head and started breathing into my nose. He did this again when we untacked him. Shannon noted that Merlin did not stomp his foot at all today, and I noticed that while he started backing up in evasion twice today, he stopped after just one or two steps as I moved my hands forward, I did not have to use my legs.
Shannon thinks that Merlin is realizing that we are approaching riding him differently, and is responding in his own way. Even though Merlin is nowhere near a perfect lesson horse right now I am pleased with the progress we have made in just 3 thirty minute rides over the past month. He moved voluntarily today!!!!!
Have a great ride!
Jackie Cochran
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Comment
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Comment by Marlene Thoms on March 6, 2012 at 6:54pm
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A.nother issue is the Bond. I always believed that with a child,or a dog, or whatever, that you need first to establish a strong bond. Then when you want to control, influence, negotiate, or hand out measured discipline (as you say Jackie, at least they should have an idea of what you want and be capable of responding), then you have some ground to work from. Of course you don't want to push that beyond what the bond can withstand or you lose your basis for the relationship.
The other concept which I really only learned after quite a few years of dog training, was the that of the animal's spirit. So if you want a really strong working dog, you build up their spirit with play, and going for walks, and just hanging out together, helping them fulfill their drive to chase and jump and horse around. Then as they mature, you can shape that, but in the process their spirit is brought down just a bit with each command, each little correction, but then you work to build it up again with praise and play. Same idea as with horses where you might apply some pressure, but then there is release, reward, a pat, some little relaxation of the tension. That's how they know what you want. You don't have to generally clobber them to get what you want, sometimes as Jackie is doing, you wait for that response, and then slather on the praise. So what's wrong with this? Maybe it takes a little longer, but you get a much better result and I think make more progress in the long run because the pupil is not just desperately waiting for the teacher to go away and stop demanding. The pupil wants more, in fact they will work far longer than the human can stand if they are happy in their work. Well this is what I learned working with Schutzhund dogs. It is an outstanding learning/teaching approach which most people have no clue about. But it is very powerful and you get superdogs out of it who are capable of anything if you are smart enough to teach them.
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Comment by Jackie Cochran on March 6, 2012 at 6:11pm
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When I started serious riding the prevailing philosophy was that the rider/trainer gave an order and the horse HAD to obey, even if the horse did not yet know what the order meant! IF the horse did not immediately obey any command they were called defiant. Of course the human's ego was bruised when the horse did not obey perfectly (even the very first time), therefore the animal had to suffer punishment, at least that is the way I see it now.
I am very, very lucky that horses are forgiving creatures if they realize their rider is trying to learn right. My first horse was an angel.
Children also suffered from the same thing with adults that horses suffered with their riders. If we were never treated in an understanding and humane way, how were we to know how to treat a horse politely?
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I know plenty of people think or say that horses are very simple, and not like humans , and blah, blah. But let's just suppose that even if they are different from humans they still have some dignity, some sense of self worth. Okay this concept is a stretch for some people, but bear with me. If they due have a heart, how would any human feel if they were subjected to force and manipulation, bridled up, girthed up, sat upon, booted (however gently), smacked (light or hard) with a crop), and sent around and around in circles till they got it just right. And then not even let free at that point, but put back in a stall, to at best, be left alone and fed and watered. Well how many humans would put up with that. Yet most horses, do, and don't actually give us too much grief about it, even if maybe they hate it. Then there's a few horses that have just had it, and say "Enough", " Enough already, I can't do this. Leave me alone. Or maybe they snap and start really causing trouble". I think we just have to look carefully at what we are doing, and consider that maybe the horses would appreaciate a little more kindness.
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Comment by MagsNMe on March 5, 2012 at 7:14pm
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In the case of my horse, she never really got in front of the leg on the ground (longing), so, of course, couldn't be under saddle. So, my trainer took my 10 year old back to the beginning. I weep when I consider what she could have accomplished had we had the great fortune to run into this trainer when I bought her at 5. I don't think people, myself included, mean harm to a horse, or mean to rush them, or many of the things we inadvertently do. I think it's a basic lack of ability to deal with 'different'. The horses that don't fit into the usual way of things. And I'm not just talking about amateurs. There are lots of professionals who haven't seen hundreds of horses, so have no clue about doing anything differently.
There are many roads to Rome. I'm glad you found Merlin's.
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Humans have whipped and spurred balkers probably since horses were domesticated. Supposed cures,often very brutal, were recommended in early books of educated riding. I was also guilty of trying (note the trying) whip and spur. It rarely works and usually makes the problem worse. I found out that if ONE use of the whip or spur does not work it is worse than pointless use either a second time.
I now know more "cures" for balking, but I desire free willing forward movement. I decided that my only chance of getting free willing forward movement with this HUGE horse was to wait for cooperation, and I had to start off being willing to wait as long as it took him to decide to cooperate with me.
I tend to be impatient, but I have found that the quickest way to train a horse is to go as slow as necessary. If I do not go as slow as necessary when I induce a resistance the training is severly compromised. Sticking to a predetermined schedule can be bad, especially for an amateur.
Merlin just seems to be a horse who is slow to put a process together, but then no one ever seems have tried to train him to use his own brain. I am aiming for a thinking cooperative horse which moves freely.
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Sounds great Jackie. Of course he has not had anyone with the patience to wait for him to cooperate, because who would wait longer than, say thirty seconds (?), before they kicked him hard or hit him? I have trained dogs, and some work at lightening speed, and some work much slower (not as slow as Merlin), but you have to adjust to the timing of the animal. I'm not sure I (or anyone) would have the patience you have, so I think you two could be a good match. The proof will be in the puddin'!
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