Turn out versus living out

Or show us your mud rugs!

Another phrase that should have made me a millionaire;

“my horse could never live out, he loves his stable. He’s always begging to come in at night.”

Apart from the fact that this begging is a learned behaviour, because horses live for routine, we also need to understand the difference between providing ‘turn out’  versus providing adequate facilities for them to live out full time in a suitable environment.

Now don’t get me wrong: I would much rather horses spent a measly hour turned out than no time out at all. But we have to acknowledge that horses are movement, and the more they can move the happier and healthier they are. And that all our husbandry practises are a compromise chosen by humans between cost, practicality and ease of use of the animal. Turn out versus living out is a good example of a human chosen compromise.

I tolerate thick mud on my horses from November through to March, and many other days in between.

Other than competition days, I only groom to ride. I only wash a tail or pull a mane to compete. And I am comfortable with those choices. You won’t shame me into bathing my horse in winter- he needs his greasy coat for waterproofing. Likewise his feathers stay full all winter. And I very rarely brush his legs- layers of super dry mud wellies are the best protection against mud fever.

Mud wellies and ice baubles in fetlocks- natural insulation

Many people mistakenly believe that how a horse behaves in a turn out situation will determine how prepared that horse is to live out full time.

But there is a huge difference between turn out versus living out.

To understand why, we need to know more about the behaviour of the wild horse.

Horses much prefer to be too cold than too hot. They can warm themselves up, by increasing their activity, or by eating plenty of forage that then gets fermented in the caecum a.k.a. hindgut, producing heat. Effectively horses have their very own central heating system, and as long as they have adequate access to forage, will keep fermenting that forage and keep warm.

Horses left in their natural state will grow a fabulous winter coat. This has at least two layers, an underneath fluffy insulating layer and a longer coarser protective layer on top. If you have ever turned your horse out naked in the rain you may have noticed the herringbone pattern that the dried in rain has left?

Gorgeous herringbone courtesy of Sarah Oliver

This is no accident. The herringbone acts like a guttering system, allowing the water to run off the top of the coat while keeping the fluff underneath dry.

Sarah Oliver’s trackie in Cumbria
Mud herringbones for a cold night- Rocky's mum Willow in Weymouth

As long as the fluff has enough air in between the hairs it acts as an amazing insulation layer.

It used to amaze me, coming home after work to ride and pulling a naked horse in from the field, how dry the horses’ backs actually were most of the time.

Mud herringbones- dry underneath- Willow again

And all horses can grow a good coat if left to adapt. Paddy is 7/8 thoroughbred, thin skinned with a very fine coat, so I thought. The first year, we moved to Delamere from livery in March so all the horses were rugged. The second year we just didn’t rug.

I trace clipped Cal to allow me to work him, but with a shallow trace clip, he still didn’t need a rug. He’s half Irish Draught so grows the most beautiful fluffy winter coat, and thrives on fresh air.

Cal’s working and living out clip

Incidentally I also never dried him off after riding- I had to walk him back to the field from the house so he cooled off a bit; then the first thing he would do when turned out was roll in the cool sandy mud, good for his coat and his body temperature.

Rocky’s mum Willow in her mud rug

When it did snow, the horses loved rolling in the snow- it was like a spa day.

Insulation properties of snow- Sarah Oliver
Moustache definition – Sarah Oliver

Snow is also strangely insulating- the horses all wore snow rugs when they could, and their backs were toasty warm underneath!

Snow rugged pony in North Wales- Jo Ellis’ Rockstar

Snow pony in the Cumbrian fells- Sarah Oliver

Rolling is also a bonding activity I discovered. I took a book down to the field one summer day to sunbathe. I was flat on my back reading and enjoying the damp grass on my sweaty back when all 3 horses came over to join me for a rolling session. That was a pretty cool moment.

Rolling is a bonding activity – my 3 in Delamere

Paddy grew a good enough coat year 2, although he still looked a bit poorer than I would have liked coming into spring. Year 3, a really cold, wet year , he grew the most amazing triple layered pelt and wintered really well.

Environment is key though. Our horses had a field shelter, which they rarely used, but also had really good hawthorn hedges all around the field perimeter, good tree cover in the bottom corner, and most importantly the field had dips and hollows that offered varying natural windbreaks.

Their favourite spot was down in the dip in the bottom corner of the field. Eddisbury Hill formed a high level wind break, the hollow has quite deep sides and is south facing. I used to think they had all escaped as you literally couldn’t see them until you were on top of them, sun bathing down out of the wind.

Sun bathing in the dip in Delamere

Each part of the field served a different purpose. The sandy area near the field shelter was the sand rolling area. The steeper side of the slope below the field shelter was the mud rolling area.

Snoozing in the sand pit

The horses were very particular in their personal grooming routine. They would do a very thorough sand roll every morning after breakfast. The mud roll occurred in the afternoon generally, coating themselves up with extra insulation for the night.

Fluff and mud- super high tech thermal protection – Lyddy Putt’s ponies in North Wales

The Pzrewalski horses in Mongolia coated themselves in mud in the morning to keep the midges away but our field didn’t have good mud in summer. I could always tell when a cold night was due though- they would be coated in mud from eyelash to fetlock.

And the undisputed winner is- Lyddy’s Tawela

They never got rain scald- the twice daily self grooming regime works much better than the human version.

When it rained, they might occasionally hide in the field shelter for a half an hour break if it was really relentless. More often, they would be found grazing down in the dip, or browsing huddled under the hedge. Once there was a lull in the weather, they would charge around a bit to warm themselves up, then get back to the serious business of grazing.

They would graze for a couple of hours, then nap, then have some haylage, roll or groom, then go for a wander around the perimeter and stop for a drink. I used to love to spend the hours watching them just being horses.

So if your horse is “begging” to come in at night, ask yourself

1) have you trained that behaviour (yes obviously) and

2) what is missing from that turnout environment that would make your horse less keen to come in?

Does he have #friendsforagefreedom

Tearing themselves away from the hedgerow for a fuss

Is there enough forage? Enough stimulation?

A place to hide from the sun? A place to shelter? A place to roll? Room to get up some speed and play?

A place to look out over the surrounding area?

Now we are back at livery my 3 wait by the gate at 3pm, expecting to come in.

Before we moved back to livery, they used to wait by the gate of the big field at 6pm for evening feeds. But they weren’t asking to come in. They would eat their dinner, say thank you and then wander off down the field to the water trough and the haylage feeders.

Dinner al fresco

Now they know their new routine – they are coming into a stable for dinner, and the turnout, although lovely, isn’t an environment good enough to support happily living out. They have adapted back to overnight confinement, for now.

But when we find our next dream Nelipot, I’m determined that I’m going to need a school dinner bell to call them down off the big wooded hill 😎😎

Because even happy healthy filthy horses should work occasionally 😜

 

buy the book- “Bare Hooves and Open Hearts”

If you have enjoyed this blog then please consider buying an author signed paperback copy of my recent book. It contains more of my philosophy on husbandry and training, based on my experience, research and learning. Price includes 2nd class postage to anywhere in Europe. Other regions may cost more- email me and we can always arrange.

£13.99

This New Year brings in a New Energy

With the New Year come resolutions, statements of intent, affirmations, SMART goals, whatever your preference. I’m sure we all share a feeling, around about this turning of the year that it is a time of change and that we can try to focus this for the better.

My statement of positive intent is that this New Year brings in a new energy.

First things first. Rocky went to the physio for assessment on the 2nd and got a very good report. The muscles in his back are no longer in spasm, and appear to have developed a bulk more in keeping with the size of his vertebrae. This is despite him essentially being left to rest, recuperate and just grow for the last three months.

My friends will know that my life has been somewhat changed over the last few months. I decided to give us all a break and go old school with Rocky’s mild kissing spine injury and try a bit of Dr Green and a whole lot of love.

I’ve probably managed to work him in hand one or twice a week since we moved back to livery in mid-November, he’s been out in the field every day and in at night, and we did a course of treatment with the Arc equine. Rocky, me and all the other animals are also learning about energy healing, after what in retrospect has been a tough time emotionally and psychologically.

Rocky looks really good. So the plan now is to do a couple of months in hand, building a back that one could sit on, and then aim to get back on and hopefully get going.

And hopefully we will find that the new year brings in a new energy, and a new positive start.

It’s a funny old thing, life. It is completely possible to keep trudging on from day to day, keep oneself busy, particularly with a demanding job and horses at home, and completely fail to check in with ourselves.

I liken my recent experience to working in the office at dusk; it gradually gets darker and darker, but as long as we can see the screen and keep typing, we don’t realise how much we are actually struggling until a colleague walks in and turns on the light.

Once the fluorescent striplight is on, it throws everything into sharp focus, the seemingly familiar is briefly and strangely illuminated. If we happen to glance up at that moment of unguarded change, we may get a surprising flash of clarity. The pile of boxes in the corner may seem more intrusive than usual, or the mess more disturbing.

And in that moment of stark illumination, we get to choose. We either blink and carry on, ignoring the familiar mess, or we decide that the situation must change. And from that point, if a decision is made to change, then nothing can ever look quite the same again.

And the New Year brings in a new energy.

I have always said that to learn about horses is to learn about life. Horses are first sentient; however their language isn’t one of words but of energy. The power of positive expectation cannot be over estimated

https://blog.dressagenaturally.net/107-the-power-of-expectation?utm_content=81684869&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&hss_channel=fbp-58052143396

nor can the power of negative energy be understated.

https://www.wikiart.org/en/edvard-munch/the-scream-1893

We have to remember our responsibilities

And to look after ourselves first

and to make sure that we spend enough time doing the things that make us happy

Photos by Jo Prestwich

Positive energy gives you wings!

And the greatest energy is love, self love and universal love.

Simple. But not always easy xx

May you also find that the New Year brings in a new energy.

Thanks to the fabulous Jo Prestwich for the lovely photos.

And to Charlie Mackesy for permission to share his wonderful drawings. Do check out his other work.

https://charliemackesy.com/

Every Opportunity to Praise- the power of positive feedback

Finding every opportunity to praise- the power of positive feedback, and the soundbite that summarises my current training philosophy.

I don’t get too hung up on R+, R-, I do use so-called aversives like spurs and whips and bits but I try to use them in the non-aversive way that we are taught is possible by 2000 years of classical tradition. And I am willing to learn and evolve, with the horses as my most reliable and honest teachers. So this article summarises where I am now. It’s a long way from where I was 10 years ago. And we may all read this in another 10 years and think what nonsense?

I seek to share my current understanding because writing it down helps me to clarify my thoughts, and because occasionally it seems to help other people too.

So, I seek every opportunity to praise…the horse, the junior doctor, myself. It becomes a way of being, seeking the opportunity to praise the positive in every action or interaction

As some of you will already have read, my glorious warmblood was recently diagnosed with a kissing spine.

https://www.nelipotcottage.com/the-rocky-road-to-rehab/?fbclid=IwAR0j8hIJFXag31z0ciYySH4UgIRnTSgVYgTPgnoKqFIlU3NaPQslSuz77Ho

As he is still young, green and growing, and as my personal circumstances have been a bit complicated recently, I have made a conscious decision to take his rehab very slowly. To allow the growth spurt to complete, to let him down and let the spasmed muscles relax, to get him pain free and in good shape physically and mentally and then to start again from the beginning. This time I will pay meticulous attention to posture and correct muscle usage and see if we can end up with a better back that will allow me to sit on it without causing trouble or pain.

This rationale also gives me time to completely rebuild our training relationship, from the ground, so we have trust and a good communication system in place before I get back on. And this process has set me thinking about how I train: what is my methodology?

And I have arrived at the soundbite; seek every opportunity to praise.

Proud pony loves praise

I’m not very good at clicker training. Currently I don’t own a horse that is more motivated by food than by praise, so the premise of training to a click backed up by food doesn’t work for my current equine partners. I’m also not as quick to click as I am to praise with my voice, so for me it is much easier to ‘mark’ with my voice. And as horses are basically telepathic, even if they don’ t hear the word, they hear the thought…so for me a clicker just introduces a layer of delay.

I’m also put off by the tragic story of Tilikum- when clicker training goes wrong, the result can be dangerous frustration for the animal.

https://youtu.be/fLOeH-Oq_1Y

I’m sure the horse will come along one day that forces me to learn clicker training and I will have to eat these words, as I have so many others!! But life is a journey…

The key question is what to praise. Now the horses and I are back in company rather than living at home in our little private bubble, we are once again exposed to other humans and their relationships with their horses. One can learn a lot by listening.

The other day our neighbour was grooming her pony. Every other word seemed to be a No, or a Don’t Do That, or a Stop That, or another No.

Now I am a proud survivor of surgical training; in the good old days, you knew you were doing well if the boss kept quiet, and you only got spoken to, or rapped on the knuckles, if you were doing it wrong. When we read about how to raise children, we read that “the average toddler hears the word “no” an astonishing 400 times a day, according to experts. That’s not only tiresome for you but it can also be harmful to your child: According to studies, kids who hear “no” too much have poorer language skills than children whose parents offer more positive feedback.”

Disciplining Your Child Without Saying No. – Redbook

https://www.redbookmag.com/life/mom-kids/advice/a2560/how-to-say-no/

But if we just randomly say Good Boy, how will the horse, or the child, learn what was good or desired?

It’s all about timing.

Here’s an example. Rocky, the young warmblood, has really mobile shoulders and very expressive front legs. His reaction to food, to buckets, to grooming, to challenge, is to wave, particularly his right, foreleg around, and for me the waving is often at waist height. There is no point telling him not to do this; by the time we are saying No Don’t Do That the foot is already up in the air. He doesn’t choose to do it, it’s a reaction, an instinct. Horses don’t reason or plan, they react. There is no possible way of teaching the horse Don’t Do That once the action has already occurred.

Instead, how about we teach him to put the leg back down on the ground on command? At first this is opportunistic training; every time the leg hits the ground as he’s scraping or waving, I praise- “Down- Good”. Eventually, we just have to say ‘Down’ and the leg will land.

I don’t want to teach him not to wave the leg around; who knows, we might want Spanish Walk one day, although I’m not sure gymnastically that this particular horse will ever require that exercise LOL; his shoulders are already mobile enough. 

Goofball Rocky with his very mobile shoulders

So the principle is: rather than trying to teach a negative after the unwanted behaviour has occurred, instead we teach a positive correction to the unwanted behaviour, a correction that we can cue and then reward. This has the advantage of not preventing a behaviour or movement we may want to access again in the future, and also gives us the opportunity to praise our horse rather than rebuke him. Horses, like children, respond much better to positive feedback than negative. They enjoy being right, and being rewarded for being right. 

Another common misconception is that we can get a horse to calm down by stroking or patting them when they are on high alert.

Effectively, what we are doing here is rewarding the horse for being anxious or fractious. We are reinforcing the unwanted behaviour. Far better to change the mood and then reward the following calm, which is the desired behaviour. How do we change the mood?

Laughter or yawning are my two favourite strategies here. When Cal was a youngster and we were hacking around Kingsley as the annual scarecrow competition hit full swing, I used to giggle at the crazy stuff in the hedges. The best one was a pair of legs, sticking up out of the hedge, as if diving into a pool; I think it must have been London Olympic year. Cal would be eyeballing the scarecrows and sidling past at speed and I would be chuckling and giggling, but with hands loose on the reins and concentrating on loose legs and relaxed seat. He’s pretty bombproof now.

At competitions with Cal, or handling Rocky recently when he’s been in pain having physio, I focus on boredom and yawning. Boredom slows your heart rate and lowers your energy, while yawning relaxes the jaw and the neck, and therefore the hands, as well as changing the frequency of your thoughts. When the horse comes down in energy, relaxes or yawns, then we can take the opportunity to praise the relaxation and the calm, because that is the desired behaviour.

Now I’m far from perfect. I’m not trying to preach, just to share some stuff I have learned. Tonight was worming night, and Rocky still had me swinging around the stable because yet again I didn’t do enough prep work in between wormings. But I will do the prep work, and it will get easier. 

Butter wouldn’t melt

When I’m riding nowadays, I’m alway looking for the moment to praise, the topline stretch or the moment of throughness or relaxation that I can mark as desirable so I might get offered it again. I am also careful to praise myself- although that’s much more subtle. I don’t vocalise those moments so much, although maybe I should, but a turn in balance or good use of a seat aid will get noted as a nice feeling, or a good moment, with a nod or a smile.

More importantly, I don’t beat myself up for the not perfect moments anymore- I have a giggle, regroup and do it again, better. I no longer hate my disobedient legs, or my flappy elbow, or my gripping left hand, instead I notice them, change them, forgive myself, correct them again…until the corrections become fewer and further between….and then you notice your flappy knee or your sticky out toe and move onto to the next bit of homework.

Finding every opportunity to praise, ourselves and our horses, keeps training fun and rewarding, and beats the winter blues.

So here’s some homework. First spend an evening wth your horse just listening to what you say to him, is it no or is it yes, is it don’t do that or clever boy?

And then spend an evening being really careful to look for the moment to praise, both you and him, for the good stuff, and to replace a Don’t with a Can You Do this instead. And then observe both your moods. I predict your horse will be proud and puffed up and loving at the end of a positive session.And you will go home energised and enthused and looking forward to the next session, no matter what has occurred, because you have both had more fun.

And then suddenly might just happen over a very long time 😉

https://www.nelipotcottage.com/suddenly-happens-over-a-very-long-time/

Because there is pure magic in the power of perfectly timed positive feedback.

Seek every opportunity to praise xxx

The Myth of the Alpha

Or busting the myth of the alpha! I’m learning energy work at the moment. The first few sessions with a new teacher, even one infused to the hilt with energetic information, are always about seeking a common language. No matter how connected or enlightened we are, as humans we still need a framework of communication, and that communication can occasionally be clumsy. Sometimes one might drop a complete clanger.

It may occur as an attempt at shorthand, to convey a feeling, or it may reflect confusion stemming from a different understanding of words. My teacher’s clanger today was “the horse trusts you….you are the alpha in the herd.” There we have it, the myth of the alpha!

Now first, let me just clarify; I’m not bitching here. I spoke up at the time and between us, we found a different set of words that conveyed the feeling required in the moment. But it did get me to thinking…..

The myth of the alpha or herd leader is all pervasive. Depending on who you read, it may be the alpha male, the stallion or herd defender, who fights off all comers to protect his harem of mares and pass on his genes. Or it may be the alpha mare, the real herd leader, who makes all the important decisions in the herd, including when to move, when to drink, eat and sleep.

So much training methodology, in equine and canine training, is based on this flawed concept. We are told we have to be the pack leader, to dominate, to demand respect, if we expect to earn obedience or cooperation. The whole Natural Horsemanship movement is based on repackaging this belief in various shiny guru-based guises- “control the feet and you control the horse”, the use of “pressure release”, the “round pen” work and “join up”.

None of this methodology really stands up to scrutiny if your primary aim is a willing partner, either equine or canine. When an animal shows aggressive behaviour, the others will quietly choose to remove themselves from the aggressor’s proximity. When humans use coercive or alpha based training methods, the animal is never given the chance to remove himself from the unpleasant stimulus. Instead, he is subjected to ongoing dominance behaviour with no release or reprieve. What’s natural about that? The round pen work particularly, if you watch carefully, shows stressed horses, running around, demonstrating displacement behaviour not submission. And who wants submission anyway?

Modern cross country training ethos seems to rely on the fact that the horse will be more scared of the consequences of not jumping the fence than he is of jumping the scary fence. How many sales adverts say “never stops”? Personally, if I completely miss at a fence, I would rather my horse save us both rather than turning himself inside out to take off and hopefully get to the other side. I want him to trust me so when things get scary he asks me, are we ok, are we going, what do we need to do, not just to launch himself in desperation. 

Training classical dressage, especially, can not be done by force. We are incrementally teaching the horse to experiment with new and different ways of using his body; the reward is that the new muscle usage feels better and so the horse will spontaneously offer it again. This relaxed experimenting on the horse’s part simply cannot occur in a coercive relationship.  Classical training, similar to dance, is the very antithesis of the myth of the alpha.

I have spent many hours observing my horses in the field, while doing pooh picking and fencing and other jobs. They are three geldings, a bachelor gang, that have been together now for 5 years, mixed up with various short term visitors. Paddy, the eldest, is 23, Rocky is the youngest at 6. There really is no clear leader among them. They definitely all have different jobs. Paddy is the sentinel- I cannot get within half a mile of them in any situation without him fixing his eyes on me and saying Hi! I have owned him the longest, and the bond is close, but not as close as the bond I have with Cal. Still, it is always Paddy that announces my presence to the herd.

Cal is very controlling about food. He really flexes his muscles and his teeth at meal times; I have always fed him first for ease and safety. This doesn’t necessarily make the others want to hang out with him, and often when he is snoozing, or if I take him out to ride, the other two will spend the Cal free time stuffing themselves at the Haylage feeders. Cal is Irish born and bred, so I guess food has been scarce at some point. That’s resource guarding, it’s not leadership. 

Rocky still loves to play, mostly on two hind legs. Cal and Paddy take it in turns to entertain him, and to chastise him when he gets too annoying. No one in particular decides when to move, or when to drink, or when to go for a mosey to the vantage point; those decisions seem to occur organically and any one of the 3 horses can take the lead.  When we had a little mare in with the boys, she did move them around a lot, I guess because she liked to prove that she could!

All these observations however are based on horses in captivity. No matter how much we had enriched our field environment, it still had fenced boundaries, Haylage feeders and limited grass when they were allowed on the middle; i.e. rationed resources.

Lucy Rees has studied horses extensively in the wild.

“There’s a lot of fiction written about wild horses” says ethologist Lucy Rees. By that, she means that many books and even scientific studies describe horse behaviour in terms of “dominance hierarchies” – something which has never been observed in horses living under truly natural conditions, but which nevertheless form the basis of many schools of horsemanship… even ones purporting to be “natural”.

Her fascinating series of videos can be accessed for free. They should be required watching for all horse owners and horse lovers.

“In this video series, we meet the Pottoka ponies of the Gredos mountains in Northern Extremadura in Spain. The ponies lead a natural life in over 1000 hectares. The purpose of the project is to study natural horse behaviour and also to keep the mountains clear of shrubs which can start forest fires.

 https://www.epona.tv/real-ethology-with-lucy-rees

Briefly, where there are adequate resources, and adequate space, there is no dominance behaviour demonstrated. The wild horses live in peaceful, co-operative family groups, and show cooperative bonding behaviour and virtually no aggression. There might be some posturing at breeding time, but there is no true conflict. Humans could learn a lot from horses.

Likewise the seminal study that led to the myth of the alpha wolf, was based on an observational study in the 1940s, performed on wolves in captivity. Mech then published a book on the theory in the 1970s, which he has recently been trying to get withdrawn! A wolf pack in captivity, a bit like our domestic horses, is a group of disparate individuals who have been forcibly grouped together by their human owners, with no family relationship or accounting for personalities, and who are then made to compete for resources which are controlled and rationed by the humans.  Funnily enough, the captive wolves fought a lot. The study has been compared to learning about the behaviour of human families by observing people living in refugee camps! 

http://www.sketchyscience.com/2014/08/the-alpha-myth-real-science-of-wolf.html

It is not just our animals who suffer from our obsession with this flawed paradigm

https://qz.com/910561/the-myth-of-the-alpha-leader-is-destroying-our-relationships-at-work-and-at-home/ 

Imagine how much less stressful and more fun life at the office could be if we all worked together for the greater good rather than allowing behaviour that would not be out of place in a small shark tank!

So if we are not to be their alpha animal, what role can we assume? How about being their most trusted human? How about an equal relationship between two different species of animal based on mutual trust and affection? Believe me, these animals know you have two legs. Of course large animals need to understand physical boundaries, for everyone’s safety, but we can set those parameters with energy and intent as well as very simple training- rewarding the behaviours we like and either not rewarding or discouraging the behaviours we don’t like. 

Positive reinforcement does not have to involve treats; dogs and horses are first sentient: your approval and love is reward enough. (Although treats do help in the early days when puppies are super distractable.) I’ve never yet had a horse for whom I needed to use treats for simple training tasks. I’ve used food as a distraction e.g. when clipping and trimming, but not as a specific positive reinforcement training aid. I’m not saying I will never need to, but in my current skill set, with my current equines, my timing and marking is best done with verbal praise and a pat or a stroke. Horses are so good at understanding intent, they know when they have done well. 

So please do your animals a favour. Look your horse or dog in the eye and try communicating with the smallest possible whispers or signals. Imagine you are in a war zone, or out hunting, and need to communicate with silent gestures and just a thought. Once you start to whisper, they will start to listen more closely. And once you observe them carefully, and try to only praise rather than constantly saying “NO don’t do that”, you will be amazed at how they blossom. 

So please, join me in going out and help us all bust the myth of the alpha. The world will be much better for it.

Another useful article with a load of references to boot

http://www.eurodressage.com/2018/12/27/usemisuse-leadership-and-dominance-concepts-horse-training?fbclid=IwAR1s4Y325sjrJdoTlMrdUMORX1kP1t7H3mevxQxp4_XNwGD4HKrAcaLkbVQ

Suddenly happens over a very long time…

Suddenly happens over a very long time… this is another of those annoying contradictions that is so true of dressage training, of deep learning, or of developing expertise. How many times have you heard someone say- “we were stuck for ages and then suddenly, it just happened, as if by magic.”

Or the converse, “everything was going so well and then suddenly, out of nowhere, it all went horribly wrong. ”

Suddenly happens over a very long time.

Watching good dressage training

can be like watching paint dry. Cal and I have a fairly predictable school routine now; first we cover the arena with many random footprints, changing direction, weighting different hind legs, suppling the shoulders and the barrel.

All the while, I run through my position; are my legs kicked out of my hip sockets, are my knees down, are my calves long, are my seat bones open and my pelvis neutral, have I got 3 good spines, a good flat back, a solid frontline, and most recently, a seat that moves through my hands.

Then we move on to checking the 4 corners of the horse, have I got control of the 4 corners, is the weight equal between sides, is the bend even in both directions, have I got directional control, is he full from tail to poll, have I got lift and stretch?

Then we start doing laterals, in walk first and then either focus on trot or canter work. We pick an exercise to use as a test, then another to improve on the dilemma we find, then test again. Suddenly happens over a very long time.

It sounds very serious but we actually laugh a lot together, Cal and I. He is much less perturbed these days about having to be right all the time. The key for me is not to mind the moments where we lose balance, or lose steering, or just lose everything. I practise non judgmental observation, then make the change required (hopefully- there’s a 50-:50 chance of being right usually)  and then test the result. It’s taken me a long time to get to that stage- I used to get annoyed by our mistakes, or frustrated by my incompetence, or so focussed on achieving the task that I was rigid in my aiding and obsessed with task completion not quality of gymnastic (riding the exercise not the horse).

I rode last night in my winter jodhpurs, which don’t have a sticky bum, and I’ve been a bit short on riding hours the last couple of weeks. So, when I lost my rhythm, I slithered all over. I’m sure Cal was giggling, but he kindly didn’t drop me, or object!

Now these days I know that while it is important to complete the exercise, because there is magic in the patterns as well as in the aiding,  it is also important to be able to notice and change each step….or at least some of them. Suddenly happens over a very long time.

Every moment I am asking what do we have, what do I like, what do I want to keep, what do I want to change? I say every moment, in horse time it’s probably every 600 moments, in between running the human position check program, doing the steering, checking the bend, the weight, the back, breathe, check my position…you get the idea. We take frequent rest breaks and we accept one or two steps of good initially because we know these few steps will build up to a whole long side one day.

The last time I went to watch Charles de Kunffy teach, I had been playing with canter half pass on the long diagonal the day before. Cal could do about 3 steps of canter half pass before it all fell apart. I practised a good few times across the diagonal and then when we got to 4 passable strides I stopped. Charles asked for 3 strides canter half pass, then 3 straight then another 3 strides canter half pass. The horses were empowered, rather than pressured, and the few strides requested got better and bolder with each repeat. Such a simple lesson, and such a good reminder.

Likewise with your baby horse, if you only have 4 reliable strides of canter, take the 4 strides, ask for the trot, then ask again. The magic is in the transition, the taking weight behind occurs in the moment of change, the shift in the back occurs in the switch of rhythm,  not in the lolloping around.

The trick to make suddenly happen over a very long time is to notice the quality of each moment and then to make the appropriate change. As Charles says so eloquently in “The Ethics and Passion Of Dressage”-

‘There is no neutrality in riding: you are either actively improving your horse or actively breaking him down’

Cal’s neck has ‘suddenly’ got huge. Over the space of a few weeks, it seemed to deepen by about 3 inches. Did I do anything differently to cause this sudden change?

No- we were doing the same work, the same basic regime, although the exercise are getting more advanced, laterals on a circle or curving line, transitions in shoulder in, smaller patterns.

Building muscle, and building a horse is incremental, and exponential. If the foundations are good, and the details attended to at the beginning, then latter progress can be rapid.

Charles writes about this too-

‘we remember that the “finished horse” is born of daily attention to minutia in schooling. Careful consistency, repetition and elaboration are part of that daily work which produce the supple horse.’

I have really done my homework over the last few years. I have worked on my position with every spare brain cell and bit of muscle memory I could muster, I have used any precious arena time as efficiently as possible, I have done thousands of transitions, of bend, of weight, of speed, of topline…

I’ve had a lot of fun as well, farm riding, eventing, charging around the forest, but every moment on the horse I have genuinely tried to ride as well as possible, in that moment.

And suddenly my horse is looking really fancy. Suddenly, over a long period of time, my horse has become magnificent.

And in the process, I have learned a huge amount, about positive thinking, about discipline and change, about body and mind, and about life.

Because once you have seen something, you cannot unsee it. Once the feeling of true flow has been experienced, nothing else will do. Suddenly happens over a very long time. You are either improving something or breaking it down. You get to choose which, every minute, every day. I would recommend that, rather than coasting along, you focus on improving the daily details, the gymnastic, the posture, the flow, so that you suddenly find magic, not despair.

And if you get into the habit of checking every moment for what do you like, what would you keep, what would you discard, some unexpected patterns emerge, in human life as well as in the arena.

And when effecting positive change, in the moment, by choice, becomes a way of life, then the world might just shift on its axis.

Good riding should be therapeutic. It turns out that good horsemanship can also be therapeutic, for the human as well as the horse.

Suddenly happens over a very long time….and then nothing will ever be the same again.

“The horse is indeed the only master of his forces that our own strength is quite unable to augment by itself alone. It is hence up to him to use them to his liking and to determine the way to employ them in order to respond in the best way possible to the rider’s indications. Should the latter want to act by himself, the horse lets himself be carried and adjusts his efforts to those that the man makes him feel. But if the horse knows that he can rely upon his own means only, he will use them without expecting anything but indications, and then he uses them in full, with all his stamina.”

Beudant

Change is inevitable. You can choose

The Rocky Road to Rehab

It’s taken me a few weeks to be able to write about our glorious youngster’s diagnosis and the Rocky road to rehab.

I know all about the road to rehab- it’s almost 7 years since Cal fractured his carpal bone. And I completely believe a good outcome is possible – Cal’s fracture taught me to trust the process and detach from the outcome. He has become the most fabulous horse you could wish for. And the fracture, although well healed, made sure he was another horse I could never sell. (How does anyone manage to sell a horse?)

I clearly remember the early uncertainty, the agony of box rest, the hundreds of miles we walked in hand, and then finally the relief when he jumped his first course and stayed sound.

I just never expected to be on the road to rehab with Rocky.

We bought him as a yearling.

Well bred, well handled, but completely unspoilt, from a trusted source. He came home with us from the South Coast, after Paddy dumped me in the ditch at Longleat. Paddy did share some wise words with him on the trip home though- he travelled like a pro and learned to eat out of a haynet on the way.

We turned him out with another colt at a friend’s place and let them be boys, living out and razzing around together. We brought him in to the livery yard aged 3, a couple of months before we moved into our own place. Once our land was sorted the three horses went out together full time, and gelled as a little herd straightaway.

Paddy was hiding – Ernie thinks they are his brothers anyway

The pity party

The reason it’s taken me a few weeks to share a bit more is that I have been having a proper pity party. Everything we have learned about over the last few years, the entire focus of our horsey learning, has been about correct classical training, that is meant to preserve the health of the horse and prevent this type of injury.

The stages of balance, from Egon Von Nendirf’s beautiful book. Rider is Melissa Simms, who passed away only recently.

Good work is meant to be therapeutic. Rehab is really just about going back to absolute basics, working on the ground for now, opening up those intervertebral spaces and building the muscle in between. It’s basically what we should be doing all along.

Rocky had the joint space medicated, and this was followed up with some ultrasound to the muscles of his lumbar region, as these also were in spasm.

Rocky working at camp this spring

The ODGs knew all about kissing spine- correct classical training focuses on opening the back, elongating the top line, thereby preventing them occurring. Piaffe, the test of collection, also shows maximal length from tail to poll, when done correctly, along the arch of the top line.

Nuno showing an exemplary piaffe- all on the seat

Levade requires even more topline

Einsr Smit-Jensen archive
The lumbar back is curved, the loins coiled, the hind legs and hocks flexed.

We’ve taken it really slowly

We did 6 weeks of in hand work and sat on him briefly at 3, did about 3 months in hand work and rode him away for 6 weeks at 4, and then did a bit more with him in his 5th summer, a few fun rides, a bit of light schooling and hacking, a bit of polework.

This year, his 6th year, was meant to be when the work got a bit more consistent. As often happens, our working lives have been the limiting factor, as well as Rocky’s ‘tricky nature’.

Do we even believe horses can have tricky natures?

https://sophieshorsetales.com/done-with-well-behaved-horses/

This is not a young horse that has been over-worked…

Or was he?

I was starting to use judgmental words about him though- ‘backward’, the ‘work ethic of a flea’, because he would stop dead when tired and have a little buck when asked to go forwards.

I’ve written about this before

https://www.nelipotcottage.com/use-your-words-carefully/

I should have known better.

So the pity party has been all about where did we go wrong?

Have we done too much ridden work with him?

http://www.equinestudies.org/ranger_2008/ranger_piece_2008_pdf1.pdf

Have we ridden him too much, when we should have been building a stronger horse with good in hand work and just riding a little?

Is the injury the result of an unfortunate conformational glitch?

Did the injury occur when he got stuck under the partition in the truck a couple of years ago? He didn’t thrash around or panic but still…

And then after a couple of days madness, I gave myself a slap and a talking to. It doesn’t matter how it happened- we just need to focus on the rocky road to rehab.

Rehab is a rollercoaster of emotions, hopes and dreams, where actually we just have to knuckle down, do the work and trust the process. All the previous learning, all the work on posture, timing, training, helping horses find biomechanically correct movement, will surely get put to extra good use now.

The value of good in hand work

The value of good in hand work can not be overstated. I never manage to do as much as I should. Only last week, Cal, my supposedly advanced horse, was the demo pony for a Patrice clinic, which meant I was the demo human (gulp). We found a few holes in the simple work- for example the SI left has too much neck bend, and so doesn’t weight the inside hind or stretch along the outside, and leg yield left, he doesn’t actually choose to step past his barrel with his hind leg-the mistakes are much easier to feel and correct from the ground if we are observant and honest enough with ourselves.

It’s also important not to pussy foot around with the rehab horse. We mustn’t look at them as if they are broken- they find this really disconcerting. Instead we should look at them with soft eyes, taking in the details of the movement, the stretch needed here, the balance needed there. We should do all the best work, asking nothing less than enough, yet noticing and rewarding every try that gets us towards better. We should remind them of their magnificence, encourage them to use themselves fully and correctly, and welcome the moment when the whole fabulous horse turns up.

In hand work also teaches us about our horses’ training brain. Rocky has always thrown his whole genetically gifted body at any task. When I ask him to slow down and actually work within himself, paying attention to the details of which leg goes where, he then needs to work really slowly, with lots of breathing and thinking breaks. This is timing and observation I will need to take forward to the ridden work once we get back on.

Some vets recommend a Pessoa or similar training aid when rehabbing a horse with kissing spines. The advantages are that it stretches the horse ‘over the back’- that horrid modern phrase. The disadvantages are that any training aid attached to the mouth only serves to teach the horse to avoid the bit- imagine jagging yourself in the teeth every time you move a leg?

In classical training, the bit belongs to the horse.

The horse has to learn to trust the bit, to take it forwards, to use it as a point of reference to reach towards and work around. The bit should never be used against the horse, neither as a means of control nor as a tool to ’round the neck’. Even the subtlest of left/right actions backwards on the bars of the north or downwards on the tongue teach the horse to avoid the aversive pressure and duck behind the bit to relieve the pain. Working them in a training aid that attaches to the mouth isn’t subtle, and there is no way the bit can act in the corners of the mouth, as it should, when the head is strapped down.

I have been using the equi-bands, to encourage Rocky to lift his tummy and round his back – this specific training aid has no front part so all influence on the head is from the human hand to the front of the cavesson, teaching the horse to stretch forward over the topline. The connection to the cavesson should be like the connection to the rein- and the line held like a rein- it only acts forward and up, and continually places the contact in front of the horse so that he learns to take the contact forwards.

Manolo- the photo shows beautifully how asking for a forward long neck extends the spinous processes. His contact is a bit vague in this moment but you get a good sense of elbow bent, line held correctly, lower arm opening forwards encouraging the topline to reach.

And perhaps most of all we should never underestimate the healing power of love, positive energy, and sunshine.

Rocky chilling out after a work session with his Arc gizmo on in the sun

Naming your horse

Naming your horse can be a real challenge. Choosing passport names can be great fun, but I’m starting to wonder if naming a horse is a prophetic process or even if they help you find the perfect name?

Paddy arrived with a stable name but no passport. He needed a good name for Eventing so after much deliberation I called him Wise Words.

This name did turn out to be prophetic- Paddy taught me lots, over the years. His most important lesson was to teach me to listen to horses.

I’ll never forget the relief in his whole demeanour when we took his shoes off for the last time. Suddenly the trimmer was his favourite person, whereas the Farriers had always been the enemy.

And his jumping improved no end once he could feel his feet and adjust himself.

He always had an opinion though, especially about ditches. Classic quote from the commentary box- Fran McNicol getting some wise words from her horse at the ditch.

His last event was the unaffiliated 3 day at Longleat- some clown had put decorative little wooden lizards and alligators in the ditch. I’ll never forget him back-paddling in mid air over the part A skinny like a cartoon character when he spotted those.

He was the greatest on his good days though – I have some wonderful memories when our wise words were in tune 😀

Cal arrived with a green passport, a microchip and no name. He was bought to be the fabulous cross county horse so I named him Cloud Warrior.

Surprisingly he’s turned out to be a bit of a dressage diva, who offered Pesade very early on. I wonder if I might have a secret Airs horse in the making- I need another few years for that Naming to come true.

He also loves posing

In the meantime at Shelford this year we had an average dressage, a surprise stop in the show jumping but he was storming around the cross country, with speeding penalties, when the commentator struck again. “Cloud Warrior- this horse is very well named, not had the best day in the other phases but he’s storming across the country. Good name for a good cross country horse!”

Rocky’s real name is Royal Magic.

I have no idea yet how that name will come to be true!!

Do you have any funny stories to tell about naming your horse?

Another self trimming horse

After owning Cal for 7 years I am very proud and pleased to announce that I have another self trimming horse!!

And once again, now it’s a reality, I’m wondering why it took me so long to understand that even funny feet Cal could be a self trimming horse.

For any self respecting hoof nerd, a self trimming horse is the ultimate aim. The self trimming horse has a perfect balance between wear and growth, balances his own feet through work to the shape that suits him, and is sound in the work he does.

I never thought Cal could be a self trimming horse, until my barefoot life seemed to come full circle.

I’ve written previously about how my barefoot journey began

Barefoot Brain-ache

And about my trials and tribulations with funny feet Cal

Horse needs shoes and pads

Including the point where we thought we had really cracked it.

Barefoot Breakthrough

but all along, I was operating from within a false paradigm, despite hoof geeking obsessively all these years!

I thought a horse’s hooves had to be good before he could become a self trimming horse.

Barefoot beginnings

Now, I started my barefoot journey thanks to Sarah of Forageplus. Sarah wrote a book with Nic Barker (of Rockley Farm rehab fame) called Feet First

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feet-First-Barefoot-Performance-Rehabilitation/dp/0851319602

which was the original barefoot bible for those brave souls bucking the trend in the late 90’s!

Diet

It was early days- barefoot horse owners were considered eccentric freaks. Sarah drove around the county to trim clients horses with a huge tub of magnesium oxide in the back of her jeep and a set of scales. Who knows what the police would have made of her white powder delivery round?

We didn’t know as much about best nutrition for healthy feet as we do now, although we knew diet was the key.

As was work.

Exercise

When I transitioned Paddy he was being looked after by Mel the polo groom. He did at least 5 miles daily plus whatever I did with him in the evenings and weekends. And luckily, due to the facilities locally, he was able to do that comfortably from the first day his shoes came off. Glass smooth tarmac really is the best surface for conditioning rock crunching feet!!

Hoof boots were really hard to buy, really clumpy and mostly imported from America and made for little horses with dainty feet. I didn’t bother for Paddy- he never needed them.

Then along came Cal. He arrived from Ireland in the most horrific set of shoes. Looking back I’m really not sure how I didn’t spot the really funny feet.

I can’t find any early feet photos but believe me the whole of the hoof capsule sat in front of a line dropped down the cannon bone!!

This photo is from about 18months after I bought him. In that time he had fractured a carpal bone (in shoes) tripping over that toe, and was about a year into his barefoot rehab.

Now you would never say that foot could belong to a self trimming horse would you?

Environment

Shortly after this photo was taken we bought our own place and started applying everything we knew about creating the perfect feet. We had our six acre field which we proudly put a track around, our very own #paddockparadise

I mineral balanced to our now steady supply of late cut meadow hay, and then later Haylage.

We soil tested and actually applied the chemicals as recommended by the Albrecht protocol.

Grow your own….

We tried to do our rock crunching milage around the fabulous #Delamereforest and surrounding area.

Trim

and we kept looking for the perfect trim that would finally turn that peculiar set of feet into something functional. I went through a posse of trimmers over the first few years. Sarah wasn’t trimming much as her business grew, so we needed an alternative. My first choice wasn’t flexible enough to fit in around my hectic work schedule. The next was lovely but then got poorly and needed a couple of operations. I went back to a UKHNCP trimmer for an alternative view. The alternative then moved down south! I sought a couple of second opinions, one of whom did a really radical trim which left him sore for weeks. Then I eventually met Emma Bailey, who is a good listener, really knows her nutrition and is always keen to discuss with and learn from all horses and clients. She is also good friends with Nick Hill and Ralitsa, the holistic vet, so we got 3 heads to scratch.

We went through gentle trims, more invasive trims, leaving the flares, taking the flare off, trim the bars, leave the bars, attack the toe, swipe the heels… yet no matter what we tried, the feet improved a bit month by month yet remained stubbornly slipper like

With thin soles, shallow collateral grooves and little heel height.

He was surprisingly functional over the years, despite the feet looking flat and poor, he has worked hard on all surfaces except stones and we have had some great fun

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL55sjNB8nhYVHUrASlthXCJkdGsqql_RF

Then Emma went on a workshop with Nic Barker and my barefoot life came full circle.

Any self respecting hoof nerd will know of Nic’s seminal blog piece ‘Celery’

http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/2011/04/dont-even-think-of-touching-that-hoof.html

And in the most recent blog follow up on that theme, not much in her learning and experience has changed

http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/2018/09/put-down-rasp-and-pick-up-celery.html

Now I always have believed in self trimming horses! Paddy was essentially self trimming apart from a check every 3 months, and a touch up for trips out, and Rocky looks like he will go the same way, but for some reason, it had never occurred to me with Cal. How could those pathological feet possibly become healthier without help?

Luckily Emma is a good listener. She cane back from the workshop and basically waved a rasp at all 3 horses. And told me to get out there and work them and see what occurs.

There’s been a sub solar abscess or something funky by my hand on this foot- there’s a load of false sole and a chip out of the bar

And guess what?

Cal’s finally growing the feet he needs.

Yes -there is lots of bar- he obviously needs it.

Yes -theoretically you could tighten the foot up to the white line…but it opens up again more or less straight away.

Yes -there looks like some flare from the top but from the bottom they are actually not too bad.

And yes- that toe can still come back, and it does, a few gentle swipes every time I ride.

And best of all- look at the depth of those collateral grooves!! That is new and special and exciting!

Now I’m not saying he’ll never get trimmed again. Those toes need touching up, as do any cracks and chips.

But the more we trimmed, the more hoof he grew, but exactly the same foot! Now we are not trimming so persistently, the foot is growing more slowly but is also building itself up, from the inside.

And so I’ve come full circle, back to celery – in a healthy horse, barefoot is never all about the trim.

I think I finally have a healthy horse- that’s been another journey, getting the diet right, and now we have stopped messing around ‘fixing’ his feet, we seem to have acquired another self trimming horse.

I’ll leave you with the Rockley rehabs for inspiration. The feet in this barefoot ‘hoof porn’ film are all self trimming, and all incredibly functional.

N.B. Until you’ve seen a horse move and the hoof land you cannot judge the level of function.

http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/p/barefoot-in-slow-motion.html

Is your horse self trimming?

Does it land heel first?

If not, have you ever thought that less could be more?

End of season report

It’s that time of year, as the evenings are drawing in, to reflect on the end of season report.

This year I decided to see if I could manage a whole season of quality Eventing without affiliating.

Using the website

http://www.bdwp.co.uk/

And the Facebook group

https://m.facebook.com/UnaffEvents/

As well as searching the local pony club, event centres and riding club websites I managed to find 8 quality unaffiliated events within a 90mile radius.

We did the riding club Horse Trials qualifier at Llanymynech- at 80 again because due to the big trip I couldn’t have committed to getting him fit enough for 90 champs had we qualified.

we had a great day but 2 of the team missed a fence in the show jumping so no road trip for us this year.

Then Eland Lodge 80

Epworth 90

Mongolia messed up the middle of the season a bit 😆

Full length film of trip by the very talented Matt now available on YouTube- cup of tea and a comfy seat required.

https://youtu.be/3drxZJEtytY

On return we got ready in time for Shelford Manor 80

And then finished with the Intermediate (90) class in the Delamere Forest Riding Club event at Smallwood.

Checking for oxer monsters

XC dragon

Apparently checking my knitting!!

Overall we had a great season. Dressage was a bit mixed- I kept forgetting Cal can be a headshaker. It’s mostly on windy days, and the neighbour’s school, that we mostly use, is quite sheltered so he rarely does it at home. I have bought him a Shakeaze nose protector but keep forgetting to take it with me. The last two events had dressage in quite exposed fields so we didn’t get the marks to reflect all the hard work we do at home.

He remains a cross country dragon though- the Intermediate class at Smallwood had plenty of technical questions ; certainly more than one would get in a BE90.

I decided to finish our season there so I could concentrate more on Rocky, our posh young warmblood. He’s been a bit tricky over the last few months. I had put it down to lack of consistent work but then something sad in his eye after an ‘episode’ at the last Patrice clinic made us decide he needed investigating.

Selfie practise waiting for the vet

And we found this

Evidence of a kissing spine at T14/15, just to the left of the marker – caught early

So I will be mostly concentrating on rehab over the next few weeks/months. The narrow space was medicated and he is moving forward much better so hopefully it will be a straightforward journey back to health. Whether he will ever be a straightforward horse remains to be seen, although his mum and 2 sisters are all fabulous personalities so he should turn out OK.

Hard to believe this fabulous back hides a problem

so my winter will be about much more in hand work as well as close attention to a stretched top line when riding.

Cal might not get such an easy time after all- it’s fun ride season which is Gary’s favourite time of year

Gary and Cal enjoying Cholmondeley Castle fun ride

The weather people keep saying we are in for a lovely autumn- why don’t you make the most of it and bring your horses on holiday to stay with us in the fabulous Delamere Forest?

https://www.facebook.com/nelipotcottage/