I think Rusty has Harvey’s distance beat.
Rewards Instead Of punishment
In the horse world, peoples biggest mistake when trying to teach their horse something new, is usually forgetting to reward.
We ask for a step. The horse gives the step! Then, instead of rewarding that step, of making a big deal out of how good they did in giving us what we want, or even instead of just acknowledging that they did what we wanted, we ask for more. We always have our sights set higher. We want more. We want better. We want perfection.
The way to perfection is never in seeking perfection. Instead the way to perfection is in the little steps.
If we could find the good, no matter how small and acknowledge it, that’s all it takes to change the world. And to teach our horses to do better of course.
Think how much further this reaches, well beyond our horse training.
We do the same thing to people all the time. Oh, you did good. That’s nice. I want better! I expect perfection from you every time, from the very beginning.
Your husband cooked super? That’s nice. But he didn’t cook your favorite, he over cooked it a little, it isn’t perfect. So we complain. Then we complain more when he never offers again.
Your child cleaned their room? That’s nice. But they didn’t get that corner. The floor isn’t clean enough. We want better. So we complain then we complain more when they don’t offer to clean again.
Outside of our immediate families this is just as true. Society demands a behavior. People being people are going about doing their best. They have to survive. They have their own things going on. They are not perfect. Their behavior isn’t perfect. So what does society do? Does anyone reward for the tries? Does anyone care about the attempts to do better? Or Does the world at large complain that nothing is good enough? Always demanding more and more.
That sort of punishment will stop a horse from ever offering what you are looking for. It will stop a husband from trying. It will stop a child from offering. It will stop the world from caring.
Remember to reward the tries.
Head Down, From A Distance
Bridleless
Riding without a bridle is not the huge difficult undertaking that many people make it out to be. It is a simple, safe, practice that anyone can and should experiment with.
What! Am I really saying that everyone should go out and jump n their horse without a bridle!
No, I’m not. That would be dangerous and irresponsible.
To ride bridleless we don’t have to take off the bridle. All we have to do it not touch the reins.
Go out next time you ride. Lay your reins on the neck and see how long you can go without touching them. Find where you are relying on them as a crutch. Find out if you are using your body clearly, Find out if you are using your body at all to communicate!
It is the fairest way to introduce your horse to bridleless work too. When we drop all form of our normal conversation we are dropping our horse off the deep end. Confusion is a strong form of punishment. The kindest thing we can do for our horses is to be clear and concise in our communication. That means bridleless can be very stressful for them. Not a the utopia many people envision.
Go ride bridleless. In your bridle. Find the things you need to work on. Removing the bridle can come, with time. Or not. The utopia is in finding communication and comfort between you and your horse. Not in the lack of a bridle.
Helping Hand
You all know Ghost. My sweet little white heifer.
She is back out in the corn stalks with the rest of the herd now living a feral life.
Why bother to train a cow? I have horses why would I want to ride anything else? What is the point?
Today she showed, once again, the advantage of having a trained cow in the herd.
My father in law fed the cows in a different field today from where he had been feeding. We’ve all seen the set up. A fence line with the gate way back behind and animals on both sides of it. The yummy food is on one side. Some of the animals are stuck in the corner on the other side. They could easily get to the food but they would have to turn and walk away from it back to the gate then around.
Animals can’t usually figure that out. They all stood there staring forlornly at the few head that had been in the right place at the right tie and were being fed.
After taking the et wrap off the bales I went and chased the cattle away from the corner towards the gate. They went easily enough but then stood at the place they had been being fed. Waiting for the hay bale that usually magically appears there.
I climbed over the fence and called Ghost. Her white coat glowed among the solid black herd. She was easy to spot.
It took her a minute. She stood looking at me through the gate. As much a creature of habit as the rest of them. Then, she came.
At a walk at first then trotting happily, she made her way to me. One cow then two followed her. Finally the whole herd streamed through the gate. I had grabbed a handful of cake to shove inn my pocket this morning. Some sort of premonition apparently. I never bring cake. She ate it happily as we walked together back towards the hay and where I had left the fourwheeler idling.
Leader of the pack
Treat Manners
Everyone knows that hand feeding horses teaches them to bite!
This is one of my favorite subjects. How is it possible that something that can teach manners and establish healthy boundaries between person and horse could develop such a bad reputation?
The way we go about it is what makes the difference between a finger hungry treat monster and a horse who waits quietly for you to place a treat in his mouth.
Behaviors that are rewarded will be repeated. If your horse is shoving at you with his nose, searching your pockets for treats, walking on top of you in excitement, and you give him a treat, that is what he is going to think earned him the reward. He will repeat it at every opportunity.
If instead you wait until your horse is standing quietly beside you not looking for a treat, them offer him one, he will learn that not asking got him the reward. You will be well on your way to developing a horse who is well mannered and respectful in the manner with which he accepts treats.
Rusty used to bite. He used to swing that head around and try to rip my fingers off with the cookie when we first started. I may not have focused enough on treat manners from the saddle to start with 😉
Now I swear he moves his head away from me when I try to feed him. Maybe we went too far with our treat manners 🙂
Out To Pasture
Ghost, Poppy, Baa, and Violet rubbed a panel open in their pen last week. I got a phone call that some cows and a goat had run past the in laws house and went out to see what they were up to.
They were standing across the electric fence from the other cattle looking that way longingly.
Life is crazy right now. I didn’t know what was going to be going on. It was unlikely I would be able to work with Ghost any tie soon. Violet is getting some size on her.
I opened the gate and let them in to the corn stalks.
Today was the first day I had been out there since I set them free to resume a feral life. I had seen Ghost off in the distance a few times but never visited with her.
She came running to me as I stood between her and the hay we had just rolled out. I didn’t have any cookies but I could offer her lots of scratches. Once when I paused too long between scratches she hopefully offered a spin.
Of course I hurried to get back to scratching. It’s good to see her still so eager to work when she’s back out with the herd.
Poppy did not come visit and Baa only stopped long enough to see that I didn’t have any treats.
Checking Fence
I needed to ride some fence.
The cows are grazing corn stalks over the winter. Picking up any corn dropped by the combine and putting fertilizer back into the ground. We put up electric fence earlier this fall but deer and antelope can be hard on things and the fences around the next field needed checked and connected before we opened the gate.
The last few days have been warm, especially for December. Not today though. Today it’s cold and cloudy, the occasional snow flake falling from the sky.
I had to decide. Would I hop on a fourwheeler and buzz quickly around the field? Or would I take the time to saddle Rusty?
A fourwheeler would be able to go fast, the tools I might need would already be in the tool box. I could get back to where it was warm faster.
On the other hand, Rusty always needs ridden. The work and exercise would do us both good. I always want to use the horses more around the place, if I’m going to say I want to then I better get to it whe I have a chance.
I wasn’t sure myself which option would win out, until I found myself pulling my saddle out.
All bundled up and in my long underwear, it was chilly getting started. On Rusty’s back I quickly got warm though. He was not happy about this and was jigging and asking to go back. The heat coming through the saddle felt great and I enjoyed focusing on the places I could feel it the strongest.
In the corn field he must have decided that if we had to work we might as well work fast and was ff at a trot or sometimes a canter. Not the most effective for finding places an electric fence might be shorting but warm and fun. We’d still be able to find anywhere the deer had destroyed the fence.
After closing gates I got off on the far side of the field to check for spark. While I checked Rusty sifted through corn husks and grazed on some corn.
There was no spark. I thought I might end up having to come back with a fourwheeler, more supplies and the ability to get to a far corner I couldn’t get a horse across the fence too. Despite that as we rode along I thought about how happy I was that I had brought Rusty instead of giving into ease and speed.
He is great working on tricks in the arena. It is good for his mind and to get him to listen to and work with me.
He needs this though. It’s so good for a horse to get out and have a job to do. The more a horse does the more a horse can do. Which seems obvious but think about it. Brains build new pathways every time we are exposed to something different or unusual for us. If we never see or do anything different our brains use the same pathways over and over again wearing ruts that are hard to get out of. Every time he stopped to stare off into the distance watching a semi go by on the highway, no more than a moving speck to us, or looking in the other direction at things to small for me to see, he was learning, experiencing, building those pathways in the brain.
Loping along down the fence line built muscle for him, balance and muscle for me. We worked together, each earning more trust from the other.
A job does a horse a world of good. Of course arena work will also do a horse with a job a world of good. One isn’t better than the other. Both is best though.
In the end we even found the place where the wire was hooked over a steel post stopping the spark. Our fence worked again!
And Rusty let me check it from his back without either of us getting shocked!
Hopefully the next time I have a chance to choose between quick and easy and getting the job done with my horse I will make this same choice again and get it done right.
Of course checking fence with Rusty is never just normal…
Beyond The Dummy
Rusty has been practicing on the dummy. He decided that after all that hard work he was ready to try the real thing.
He missed his loop but don’t we all when first starting out?
Roping Cows
Ghost is as much fun as the horses for sure. sometimes more fun.
We’ve been working on roping. Someone said they’d be impressed by Rusty’s roping when he was roping an actual cow.
I took that as inspiration and a goal. The first step was to teach Ghost to be roped. Turns out that’s a fun game in itself.
So we have a special roping cow….
Just in time for Christmas!
Need something for that special roper in your life who has everything, except talent?
If they can’t rope the animal get them the animal that ropes itself. A rare and unique gift to boost their ego or get the job done faster.
A self roping cow. Simply present the loop and get the job done all while letting them think they finally learned to rope.
For a limited time only, while supplies last. Don’t miss out.
(no, she is not actually for sale!)