Adventures With Horsemanship: ADVENTURES, LESSONS and EVALUATIONS

LESSON & EVALUATION DAY

The Lesson: It is an overcast Sunday. The riding area and pastures here at Lucky Star Ranch have not dried out much at all. The recent rain (and incoming storm) are really making it difficult to work as we would like to work with our horses. So…time to get creative. Loping is pretty much out of the question so we worked on feel and timing, bend and subtly with all the horses. Argent and Ronan quickly adapted to this plan and were rock stars, even when our pup Skyla decided to “help” by attempting to herd Ronan.

Jazz had a lesson with his human. The focus was on the human’s position, clarity, intent and application of techniques that would improve their communication based on what we have been working on in previous sessions. With four days off we were curious as to how he would be, especially since his human was here. We sent him into the round pen and removed his halter/ lead as his human and I discussed the lesson plan. He walked (not raced) around a bit then stopped and gave me two eyes. BIG improvement. We then went through the human’s lesson. His human did okay but got frustrated over the fact that the physical aspects of the lesson were not as easy as originally perceived when I demonstrated them (getting better responses and performance from Jazz than his primary human). The lesson for the human: Horsemanship is SIMPLE but is NOT EASY. This is usually the “ah ha” moment that happens when humans try something “new” that they think they already know. A true student of the horse is open and receptive to these learning moments. They did well overall.

Jazz did really well. He was focused, lighter and more into the exercises than on Day 1 and even Day 3. He did lose a little of the crispness in his hindquarter yield when at liberty (expected) but did well on the line. Cues were “softer” in feel and he rose to the challenge. It was a very productive session.

Skyla.

Jazz

Chatting with Jazz,

Desensitizing.

Goofing around together.

The Evaluation: Earlier in the day we headed over to the nearby town of El Dorado to help a family evaluate a horse they purchased two months ago. The family stated that they as horse-folks, were novices. They purchased a horse and trailer for the same person. Fast forward and the horse – a 12 year old mare – is developing bad behaviors and is very difficult to load in the trailer and exhibits some “scary” behaviors in the trailer itself.

This is an all too common tale. Awesome “new to horses” family is “all in.” sadly they get a horse that is not the best fit for them at the present time. They need help. They call folks like us.

After a family member gets the mare from her pasture (she is very energetic and a bit of a challenge to handle) we head over to the small arena they have. Our goal is to get through the sixteen (plus) exercises to see where this horse is at mentally, physically and emotionally. Of course we had to see the issues with trailer loading first hand.

This mare was very pretty and very opinionated. Took a little bit to “convince” her that the human in the middle of the pen was important. The “tools” we brought in the pen were interesting. The pom-pom on the stick was no big deal. And the footing (because of the recent rains) was not to her liking at the lope. Once we caught her attention and moved her feet with lots of direction changes we had her brain engaged. We went through the evaluation process. Her average score was a 5.5-6 with some scores being as low a 3 and has high as 7. Very athletic, quick minded and curious. Also very opinionated and convinced her way was better. A strong leader who can blend firmness, clarity and patience is needed to win this mare over.

The session was a learning experience for everyone. On the ground she was exhibiting what we would call “disrespect” in that she took a while to get her attention and focus, blew through certain cues and wanted to do things her way. Given her history (or at least the history the new family was given) this was expected.

Then we tried the trailer.

Now we had to work with the “fear” side of the behavior coin.

The footing made things difficult for horse and human which did not help. We did lots of advance and retreat and almost got to the point of “I point, you load” like we do with our horses. We did get all four feet in the trailer twice. We called that a win. However, when we asked her to back out of the trailer she fell apart, locked up, tried to bite and push with her head. We had to have a conversation about that NOT being okay, ever. It was clear that she was allows to turn and bolt out of the trailer. Again, that was not okay. We called it a “win” when on the second time she loaded up with relative ease, stood calmly for several minutes and then was allowed to turn around, stand and then walk out calmly. Not ideal but we had to start someplace.

The process allowed the family to see exactly what they have to work with, what they need to do if this horse is going to be a part of the family and now has some things to work with.

It was a bit of a workout but a great learning experience for all concerned. We love meeting families like this, who have such heart and drive to be involved with horses. We try our best to support them in this as best we can.

The Mare.