 |
Re: [RC] pin pricks/punishment/rewards,etc - Chris PausI've never said not to admonish a horse. I did say that horses accept admonishment if it is fair in 'THEIR' eyes... And I've found this to be true! My horse Star could probably put Chico to shame. I was Star's last hope before becoming an Alpo horse. He's beautiful and he's 17 going on 3. I got him as a 10 YO. He came to me with a whole bag of issues and his gift to me has been teaching me to be a much better horsewoman. I can tell you that I ran the gamut of punishment, stronger bits, round pen work, etc. But when I took 6 months off from competing and worked with a classical trainer, Star and I started coming to gether as a team. We'll never do levades or canter pirouettes, but he now has a much nicer trot, he's more rounded, and I know how to ride better and communicate with him better. I've also gone from harsh bits to a really mild one and have a better whoa than I ever had before.... Yes, I "punish" or admonish him from time to time. He has felt the smack of a crop on his shoulder, but it's not something I do very often. Usually the tone of my voice is all he needs. Many many times when he has misbehaved, I've learned later that he was telling me that something hurt or something wasn't right. I don't want to punish a horse for speaking to me in horse! One day he was really a butthead spooking at everything in our neighbhood, things he's seen a hundred times. When we finally got home and I untacked him, he had a nasty welt on his right side where the saddle blanket had a pucker in it. Poor guy, he was trying to tell me that he was being pinched and I didn't get it. Another time in jumping lessons, he kept avoiding the jump and running out. I took him to the equine chiro and found out that he was very stiff on his right side and very sore... well, he knew it was going to hurt to jump! Unless it's an emergency, I now try to figure out what the horse is telling me rather than resorting to punishment first thing. nine times out of ten, he's got a good reason in his mind for his behavior... Unless a horse is trying to kill me, I just can't think of many good reasons to use a nail to get a point across, not even with my stallion. I've found that overusing punishment usually escaletes the problem. chris ========================================== "EGAD"? Egad indeed. Can you think of any person you admire who has gotten that way without ever experiencing ANY negative reinforcements or learned ANY painful lessons? Re "Influencing the horse in a way it can understand us is, IMO, true horsemanship".Well,they understand punishment just as well or better than reward. Does anyone think horses only communicate to each other in a physically friendly way? Chico is the most friendly,and willful,and stubborn horse God ever created. He sent him to me because there was no other place Chico could go except into an Alp can. Chico understands what I want and need him to do perfectly well.I win every argument except the ones that leave me eating leaves and dirt.But the debate NEVER ends. Quiet moments in the shade of the trees? All the time. ZERO correlation to under saddle debates.They are not dogs. ===========================================================You don't have to be a 100-mile rider or a multi-day rider to be an endurance rider, but if you want to experience the finest challenges our sport has to offer, you need to do both of those. ~ Joe Long ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================ ===== "A good horse makes short miles," George Eliot Chris and Star BayRab Acres http://pages.prodigy.net/paus ============================================================ Black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough ~ Theodore Roosevelt ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
|