My mother always taught me to ride with soft hands, and soft aids. She emphasized that you want the horse to respond to the softest possible cues. She told me that if I had the opportunity to train a horse for myself, if I kept them soft, and trained them right, that it would be like magic. I would be able to communicate so well with my horse, that I could place each hoof upon the ground just so.
I must admit that on some level I never quite believed her. You were right Mom! I admit it. But still, when it came time to train my own horse, I knew that I wanted to follow her principles of training.
My mother taught me a lot, but Fritha has taught me so much more. Understand, despite my many years riding and training horses, I've never been the one to take a horse all the way through the process, from ground work to under saddle. I'd been in on lots of bits and pieces of it, but I'd never been through the whole thing myself, and I was pretty scared of messing it up.
Most of the training I've done on horses through the years has been retraining. I'm used to having to work to get the respect of a soured horse. I'm used to softening a horse, but I'm also used to lots of stubbornness.
The training I've done instilled a level of hardness in me. A quickness to jump in with correction. A tendency to discipline to sternly. Fritha has forced me to learn a different way, and I have to say, it has been nothing but beneficial.
Normally with horses there is a period of time where it must be established between horse and rider, who is the leader. With some horses, particularly dominant ones, it must be reinforced on a regular basis. Fritha is a very dominant horse. I knew this about her before going to see her the first time. She was also said to be very standoffish, and nervous in her own way. I expected that it would take some time working with her before she warmed up to me, and before she respected me. Instead, it happened within moments of meeting her. I still do now know how I lucked out, that she acknowledged me right away as being dominant, but she did. Maybe it has to do with the communication between us instead. Regardless, I never had to establish my leadership with her. This put us on different footing right away.
Fritha is a great horse to teach you things, because as I said before, she speaks to you. She doesn't hide her feelings in the least. I discovered very soon after meeting her that she was extremely eager to please. She worried constantly about doing the wrong thing, and getting in trouble completely frazzled her nerves. This was both wonderful for training, and difficult.
I quickly learned that most of the emphasis with her needs to be on PRAISING the good behavior, and that discipline needed to be limited, and used very carefully. The best lesson on this for me, was teaching Fritha to stand still for mounting.
My first inclination when Fritha started moving off before I had even hit the saddle at mounting time, was to correct the bad behaviour. A stearn "No" a check with the reins, reinforcing the Stand command, try again. This was a new behaviour for Fritha, and had to do with her being eager to get started, but the more I corrected the bad behaviour, the more nervous and upset she got about it, until mounting times had become dangerous, and I was back to having someone hold her for mounting, as I had done when first starting her under saddle.
One day I decided to work on just mounting and dismounting. She was OK in the arena, not great, but OK, but once we tried mounting in the back field her behaviour went down hill again. I would position myself to mount, she would fidget backwards. I would correct sternly, she would get more upset. I tried backing her every time she moved away from me, to show her it was easier to just stand, but this only frazzled her brain worse. Finally I stopped, totally frustrated, and then it hit me. I wasn't listening to her at all. I'd stopped listening to my horse. I was trying to train her using all of these "methods" I knew, but I wasn't using the strongest tool in my arsenal. So I gave my horse a hug, and walked with her a bit, she calmed down, and I started listening to her. We went back to the place we had been practicing our mounts, and I stopped her there, and praised her. I told her to stand, and then praised her for not moving. I stood stroking her shoulder, telling her to stand, and praising her for not moving. Then I moved back to the saddle and she stepped away a little. I didn't correct, I just moved with her, waited till she stood still, and then praised for not moving. A light bulb went off in her head "You mean you want me to just stand here?"
Yep, all that frustration, all that supposed training, she had understood none of it. All she really needed was to understand what I wanted. Within a few minutes of praise and repeated stand commands she was standing patiently while I hopped on and off. The best of it is, that training has STUCK.
Now I find that my horse training has improved over all. When I am working with the stubborn lesson horse, that has been spoiled by students, I'm more likely to remember to praise, praise, praise the good behavior, and the amazing thing is how well it works on all the horses. I've always known that you should train with a balance of praise and discipline, but this lesson was just the reinforcement of that ideal that I needed. I've made my over all training softer, more praise driven, and I think I am a better horse person for it.
So now I think maybe my Mother would be proud. I have softer training to go with the soft hands and soft cues she taught me. Now to see what else my horse will teach me.
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