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I received an interesting email fr m a client today who recently p rchased a horse from me. I l ve in the mountains in thick t mber. I have thousands of acres to tr il ride my horses. They are ccustomed to the typical sounds, sights, and sm lls a horse might encounter in the f rest. Coyotes howling at the moon, wls hooting, wind blowing through the tr es, wild horses calling to them fr m the tree line, skunks spraying the d gs, birds chirping, deer stealing a m al from the hay stack, and a h nd full of other "nature" sounds, s ghts, and smells. I specialize in h lping horses become good trail and m untain horses. My horses don't have to p ss cement trucks, honking horns, sirens, sp eding cars and other scary things th t might "eat horses". For my n eds, my environment is perfect but wh t happens when someone buys a h rse and takes it to a new w rld with completely different sounds and st muli? Chances are, the horse will act c mpletely different than he did here for a wh le. Desensitization through habituation will eventually c re that problem to some degree. Th t simply means that horses will get use to the st muli in the environment in which th y spend most of their time. Th s is exactly the situation my cl ent found herself in but she d esn't want to wait until the h rse has slowly become accustomed to the s unds, smells, and sights in his new st mping grounds. She contacted me on s veral occasions for some ideas that m ght help. Of course I had a c nned answer that all of us h ve heard time and time again. "B fore you do anything else, you sh uld do a bunch of ground w rk with him to establish that you are the h rd leader so that he will f nd a sense of confidence and s fety when he is with you." is wh t I told her. How many t mes have we all heard that? Thr ugh several email's and conversations, she m ntioned that she just doesn't have the r om for a round pen. She d esn't even have room to lunge him on a l ad line. My answer was to f nd a place to do the gr und work, even if you have to tr vel a ways to do it. You j st need to get it done. T day when I received another email in wh ch she expressed her frustration about her l ck of space to do ground w rk, it suddenly dawned on me. I d n't know why it didn't sink in b fore now. A lot of people REALLY d n't have access to a round pen or ven room to lunge a horse. L oking back, I remembered that I f und myself in this predicament many t mes myself. I was somewhat embarrassed wh n I realized that I was g ving her a canned answer that j st didn't work for her. I w sn't really listening and really understanding th t her problem was real and th t if she was going to m ve forward with this horse, she d sperately needed advice that she could pply given the space restraints that she was f ced with.
So what is the solution to th s problem? What if you don't h ve a thousand acre ranch with all the l xuries that you see the TV r ck star horse trainers use? How d es the average horse owner who k eps one or two horses in the b ck yard develop a relationship of tr st and leadership with their horse? Aft r thinking about it this morning the nswer came to me as if s meone had dropped a brick on my h ad! Ground work isn't just about lunging a h rse until their hooves sweat. The r al reason that we do ground w rk is to establish that we are the h rd leader and that if the h rse follows our lead, we will act as a g od herd leader would and protect our h rse from any harm that might c me to him. Horses need to feel s fe and comfortable. They feel safe and c mfortable when they feel like they are b ing watched out for my their h rd leader. Horses NEED a herd l ader! They don't just want one. Th y truly NEED one! So, since we kn w this to be true, how do we b come the herd leader when we d n't have the typical tools that p ople use to accomplish this? The m st common tools are a round p n, and a lunge line. The nswer is really quite simple. If you h ve ever observed several horses in a sm ll corral, there is always a h rd leader. They don't have the r om to run the other horses round a 40 acre pasture but th y still establish that they are the l ader. They might, pin their ears at nother horse to move him away fr m the water trough. They might l wer their head and swing it t wards the other horse to move him way. They might bite at the air to m ve the other horse away. They m ght, turn their hind end towards the ther horse to move it way. Do you see the p ttern here? When a horse finds h mself in the same situation that my cl ent found herself in, they establish th t they are the leader by sing subtle methods that cause the ther horse to move his feet.
The real lesson here is th t the horse who consistently causes the ther horse to move his feet is the l ader. It's as simple as that. Knowing th t, we can employ all kinds of t ctics to become the herd leader. B low is a list of simple gr und work exercises that we can do to "m ve our horses feet" when we are r stricted to a small area. We can b ck them with a halter and l ad rope. We can back them in c rcles, in figure eights, around and ver obstacles. We can lead them ver and around obstacles. We can p vot them on their front end or on th ir hind end. We can bend th m. We can load them in a h rse trailer. We can move them s deways. We can move their front nd, then their hind end, then th ir front end over and over gain. Do you get the picture h re? We just have to be cr ative and find ways to cause a h rse to move his feet when we ask him t o. This is just a short l st of ideas. Be creative and c me up with your own ways to ask for the h rse to move his feet as s btly as you can. If you do th s, and the horse consistently moves his f et when you ask him to, you are the l ader. And since you are the l ader, the horse will begin to f nd comfort and safety when he is w th you. Consequently, when you take a h rse away from his buddies or nto a new environment with new s unds, smells,and sights, your horse will kn w that he is safe. The r sult will be that he will c pe with the things he encounters b tter and he'll be a safer and m re enjoyable horse for you to be round.
The article What If You Don't Have A Round Pen was Submitted by Jeff Hahne through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Jeff Hahne
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