mare's defensive/aggressive behavior

["Kimberly Price" <kim@plough-electric.com>]

*Melanie,

*What an excellent post!  I am a big fan of natural horsemanship and like
the John Lyon’s method.  It sounds to me like you’ve studied up on it more
than I have though.  I want to <snip> a sampling from your post and ask
you to clarify if you don’t mind.  Your entire post follows as I dont think
it would
hurt to allow people to see it a second time and I nominate it for an FAQ
post!
(so there!)
<snip>
The purpose of the round pen is to gain control of the horse by controlling
the movement and direction.  It is NOT to wear out the horse or punish it by
working harder or to have the horse come to you when it's the horse's idea.
<snip>
<snip>

The mistake many make (and this included me until recently) is to let the
horse come in to you when it wasn't something you were asking the horse to
do.
The horse has taken control from you.  Later in the round pen lesson you can
cue the horse to stop, keep its eyes on you, turn to face you and eventually
to take the steps to come to you.  But all of these things HAVE to be when
you
are cueing for them
<snip>

Melanie, I find this quite interesting because I understood this part to be
to help a horse
gain its trust of a human, especially a wild mustang or whatever.  I agree
completely
with later on the control is from you and the horse is to focus his
attention on you and
not wonder.   The basic reward is releasing the horse’s stress by stopping
the pressure as well as allowing a connection of trust between the horse and
human.  Why trust? The horse connects it is the human who has released it
from stress.  This helps later on when the horse spooks or shies..helps the
horse look to the human for the ‘what do I do now...how do I react stage’.

Hope this is clear and it is only my interpretation.  Please elaborate if it
is wrong...

Kimberly (&Mystery the Morab....”wow, you humans live in scary
 neighborhoods”!)
Off the mountain, now in San Geronimo Valley, CA

Original message follows:
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 17:20:15 EST
From: Horsestwo@aol.com
To: stepnout@swva.net, ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: RC:   mare's defensive/aggressive behavior


 The purpose of the round pen is to gain control of the horse by controlling
the movement and direction.  It is NOT to wear out the horse or punish it by
working harder or to have the horse come to you when it's the horse's idea.
You get the horse to move, then in the direction you want, using outside
(toward the rails) turns and inside turns.  The horse figures out how you
are
signaling the different turns with your body language and the fact you
IMMEDIATELY turn the horse back if it makes the wrong choice.  (EXAMPLE:
Horse
is going to the left and you signal outside turn but horse turns inside.
QUICKLY, you do whatever is necessary to get the horse turned back around
going left.  Then ask again to turn outside.  When the correct response is
given by horse you let it go a couple of times around the pen with no
pressure.  At any time if the horse tries to control its own direction you
must reestablish the control as above.)

Gaining control with the JL methods are not power trips for the ego. Don't
confuse control with having to be a tyrant.  We have an obligation to the
horse to make it safer to be around, calmer and more responsive.

The mistake many make (and this included me until recently) is to let the
horse come in to you when it wasn't something you were asking the horse to
do.
The horse has taken control from you.  Later in the round pen lesson you can
cue the horse to stop, keep its eyes on you, turn to face you and eventually
to take the steps to come to you.  But all of these things HAVE to be when
you
are cueing for them.  I will interject here that if you plan to teach these
things it would be a good idea to buy, rent or borrow the tapes on these
subjects as I am leaving out the "how to" part!  I am trying to give an
overview and positive outcome of using these methods.

 After the round pen lessons, it is imperative that your horse learn to lead
properly.  The goal is to have cues that the horse will never ignore no
matter
what the distraction.  Your goal is to have a horse that leads with no
pressure on the leadline but you can't start with your goal.  Lots of steps,
making sure you are being clear with your body language but there is no need
to exaggerate it.  JL has a saying that "you ride the horse you lead."
Improving your horse's ground manners will only improve her attitude under
saddle.

Your horse is not lying to you when it pins its ears or snaps its teeth; It
is
telling you in clear language what it intends to do.  No sweet talk or
ignoring the obvious threat.  I don't like the idea of pushing a horse away
from feed.  You can accomplish the same thing with proper round pen work.
But
the horse should never push you away when you are feeding either!  I
wouldn't
tolerate a bitchy look (with geldings it's a gritchy look?!) much less
pinned
ears.  Do whatever it takes to have the horse look with ears up whether that
takes a bark or yell to throwing a halter at her.  Stop that behavior NOW!
Praise only when she looks positive.  Don't hold grudge; expect better
behavior but be ready to correct negative quickly.

I highly recommend the JL magazine "Perfect Horse" as the articles on
training
are very informative and the rest of the mag has good articles on
feed/supplements, etc.  His newest book(s) called "Communicating With Cues
Part I" are essentially all the training articles from "Perfect Horse"
magazines since the beginning.  He also has a two tape set of videos called
"On the Trail with John Lyons" that has a lot of valuable info on what we
distance riders need in training a trail horse to be sane and sensible.

Enough proselytizing.  If you would like more info, contact me.  Whatever
you
do, be safe.  Good luck.

Melanie in AZ





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