Stable Horse Training

04/21/2024

Luke and Baby Mocha.

10/16/2023

Finally brought to the forefront.

08/08/2023

Totally agree.

08/06/2023

Mustang makeovers are bad for horses and good for those pushing these animals as hard and as fast as they can. Ego driven competitions never benefit the animal and in many cases are abusive. We're behind this cause to and will be sending out the appropriate messages.

07/09/2023

The horse sees you for what you are.

I recently was reminded of the idea of "if I don't carry my whip then my horse takes advantage of me", and it's something I utterly hate. If you'll indulge me for a few minutes, I'll explain.

The idea that a horse can only be convinced to do something with the threat of violence is abhorrent to me. I quite literally despise that there are "trainers" and "teachers" out there that convince people of this idea. Now, don't get me wrong, my very first teacher said this, did this and practiced this and I followed along.

I'll never forget this one day where I was dutifully carrying my crop and my horse was definitely not doing as I was asking which led to demanding, and of course that leads to taking advantage of the idea that I'm carrying a weapon that I can (and should) use against my horse. That was the last day I ever carried a crop.

The concept that is taught and seemingly very happily so, is that if you have to, you hit your horse with your whip at the first sign of insubordination. Imagine that.. Imagine doing that to any other being in your life. Got a hamster? Guinea pig? Rabbit? Cat? Dog? Human? Of course there are people that will physically hurt their pets, children, friends, spouses but we never look at them with forgiveness, or "well, I guess you had to because they didn't do what you taught them to do". We look upon those people for what they are, disgusting abusive people that should be charged. Not the horse world... those types of people are put up on pedestals, given lots of money and trophies and ribbons.

The horse world is full of "trainers" from the olympic level, to the rodeos, down to the tiny little barns like the one I went to with people that teach others to do what we would never do to another living being. To think of how to treat them in a way we would never consider with another and it starts with "if I don't have my weapon in hand, my horse won't listen to me" and "your horse is taking advantage of you, you need to teach it a lesson".

For the second part of the statement that a "horse takes advantage of me", I would say this simply isn't true. How that part is perceived is what drives the idea that you have to hit a horse to make it do what you want. Without the threat of violence (as that is the choice method of most "trainers") a horse "won't listen". Horses don't take advantage of people, they just do what they are allowed to do. If a horse steps into your space and you don't step it back or step out of it's way, well, it's allowed to do that.

The horse isn't "taking advantage" and it's a disempowering thing to say even. We should be perceiving this as a "I allowed my horse to do a thing and I don't want it, how can I fix it". This statement is empowering and puts the responsibility on our shoulders to make a change in our behavior to make a change in the horse.

So, if we empower ourselves and see how our own behaviors are affecting our horse, and if we empower ourselves to make the choice to be a friend to our horses, and if we empower ourselves to be introspective on how we can change to benefit the relationship, isn't that infinitely more powerful than resorting to violence and pain to get something done with a being that we supposedly love or just care about? Too many trainers consider violence as the path to "power" or winning that power struggle with a horse. Why is that? Why do they think that?

This concept should be resounding and reverberating throughout the horse world and changing how people treat horses, and I believe it is slowly.. one person and one horse at a time. We don't treat any other being the way we treat horses and there needs to be more people standing up those trainers that clearly hate their horses, because if they don't hate them, how on earth do they justify it to themselves to do the things they do that they'd never do to another or accept having done to them.

Or they're sociopaths.... something to ponder.

In the end though, horses see us for exactly who we are and we show it so clearly to them and to those that are looking.

06/25/2023

Remember Solstice Pecile? The young woman that dragged a horse behind a truck and ground down it's back feet? Well, she finally has to go to court after delaying for almost a year. Here are the details:
Court House, 860 William Street, Cobourg, ON. I encourage those who are following this case and would like to know what a pre-trial is about, please phone the office of the Cobourg Crown Attorney at 1-905-372-8784. The more phone calls, the better. And even better still would be showing up at the Court House on August 9th.
https://youtu.be/tHaFSn7Y_q0

05/30/2023

I think it's really important to treat the lead rope and halter as an extension of ourselves. Many trainers have taught people to flick it, or snap it, or whip the lead rope around on the halter to cause a horse to "react" or "respond". This particular signal is the equivalent of a punch in the face in my mind and has no place in horsemanship, despite many people using it regularly.

Here I give 3 reasons why we should NEVER snap a lead rope downwards on a horse's head and face. At best it's very poor horsemanship and at worst it's horse ...

05/26/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPxwq46Xycg
Just this past weekend I had the privilege of spending a couple of days learning from Miles Kingdon about ranch roping. It was a heck of a lot of fun and most definitely took me out of my wheelhouse and comfort zone.

After we were done I asked Miles if he had a bit of time to sit down for a talk and he said yes. This is a really good interview and I'm incredibly appreciative of the time he put aside when he could have headed home a bit earlier to his wife.

If you've never heard of him, you should definitely check out his page linked above and see what other clinics he's putting on.

In this video I sit down with Miles Kingdon of Miles Kingdon Horsemanship https://www.facebook.com/mileskingdonhorsemanship/ We talk about horsemanship, usin...

05/14/2023

https://youtu.be/FG_i7uoA7y4

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and those that are acting as moms to those that need it! This is an appropriate video for today as I put Baby Mocha in wit...

04/27/2023

6 years I've been meaning to do this! Had a previous sign up for a while that stuck in the ground but it looked like a realtor sign... This is a custom CNC carved sign, painted with a solid cedar post and crossbar. Looks absolutely fantastic! Might go in to the sign making business! If anybody wants a custom sign then let me know!

04/19/2023

Here is part 2 of the interview I did with Cambie over at Born Free Equine (https://www.facebook.com/groups/bornfreeequine/) where we talk about how our B.C. government classifies these horses despite our neighbour province Alberta being the exact opposite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk8vMpA8OCU

In this part of the interview we talk about the how and the why our B.C. Wildies are not classified as wild and instead will forever be feral. Main site: htt...

04/18/2023

I've posted the first of a pile of questions I was able to ask Cambie Gulick of Born Free Equine (https://www.facebook.com/groups/bornfreeequine/) about B.C. Wildies in an hour and a half long interview. I was able to get everybody's question answered that had asked in the previous post too. As I get time I'll put them up one by one. The very first question was, "Are B.C. Wildies the same as mustangs?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxvsMpKKY6A

This is from a longer interview I did with Cambie at Born Free Equine talking about B.C. Wildies, which are our Canadian mustangs.Main site: https://stableho...

03/28/2023

10 bucks! This is a local rescue just north of here.

Canada-wide registered charity Horse Rescue Fund is now running TWO fully licenced 50/50 CASH JACKPOT RAFFLES, one in BRITISH COLUMBIA & one in ALBERTA.

In British Columbia? Go here ==> https://horserescuefund.org/bc-50-50/

In Alberta? Go here ==>

https://horserescuefund.org/50-50-cash-jackpot-raffle/

The winner takes 50% of ticket sales so the more tickets sold, the bigger the prize for the winner -- and the more good Horse Rescue Fund can do.

🐎 Tickets of various amounts starting at $10 can be purchased online until April 5th.

Proceeds from the BC 50/50 benefit Second Chance Cheekye Ranch. Since SCCR has rescued over 200 horses & re-homed over 160.

++++++++++

Twitter: https://twitter.com/horse_fund
Instagram: https://instagram.com/horse.rescue.fund

+++++++++

British Columbia: Licence # 140649
Alberta Licence # AGLC-635664

++++++++++

Lippert Patti Michele Bruno Marie Bennett Vivian Bell Lindsay Morris Second Chance Cheekye Ranch Shane Kelley Allison Dawrant

03/25/2023

I've been getting a few messages here and there on what is happening with Solstice Pecile. If you want direct information, call here:
Ontario Court of Justice, Provincial Offences Office, Cobourg 1-905-372-3329 - Ext. 5300

There is one lady that keeps me up to date and she has let me know that the court date just keeps getting pushed back. The first one went to the next when she didn't show. Then she didn't show for that one I think and it got pushed to March, not sure what happened there but now the next date is Wednesday, April 12, Court Room 5, 10:30 a.m. Cobourg - "to be spoken to". I've been informed that this could just go on for months or years even where the courts just never really get to it properly. There will be a time where everybody just moves on and forgets about it probably. Maybe that's the goal? I have no idea....

My personal opinion is that we can't find any updates because the one person that should be making the biggest stink of all and putting this information out there is not only silent but has been specifically turning down any attention, the horse's owner. If that person doesn't give a crap, why should we?

03/15/2023

One of the reasons so many people are working towards raising awareness of these B.C. Wildies. I can imagine the reasoning and I can imagine the police won't find any leads and I can then imagine that this will just be swept away. Unlike Alberta, we don't have any protections for the horses that are out on crown land. B.C. government doesn't care and I've heard they even want them gone, seems to be the same across North America... More people need to be fighting for these horses, raise awareness and more attention will be put towards hopefully protecting them. Anyways, very sad situation.

The animals were all recently shot; RCMP are investigating

03/02/2023

I get this question a lot: "Why don't you bring out more than one horse at a time when bringing them in the arena?"

The answer is very very simple:
The risk is not worth the reward. If you can imagine any scenario where if something bad happened that it would have been worth it to you to have taken two horses or more at a time. I can't think of any outside of emergency situations. Horses weigh a minimum of 800 to 1000 pounds full grown, it goes up from there. They are very fast and react very quickly to what we see are the silliest things. Any branch could fall out of a tree here, a coyote could pop out, one of the horses could react poorly to the other horse and it escalates. The question for me is "was it worth it to bring two out a time? Did I save energy? Did I save time? If so, how much? and was it worth it?" The answer is ALWAYS "no".

It's a very simple and basic rule to live by when working with horses, always ask yourself if you were to get hurt for what you're doing at the time, "was it worth the short cut I just took?".

To add to this as there was a comment about how a lady was made fun of for not bringing in more than one horse at a time and called names like "wimp" and "lazy". Remember, anybody who is calling you names, is a bully towards you and makes fun of you for doing what you feel is safe, they do not have your best interests in mind. Ever. It's a weakness in that person for doing such a thing to another person and is a reflection of who they are as a person and how they feel it's ok to treat somebody. They should have no value to you as it's not a reflection on you, just them. A person of true strength shows support EVEN IF they think you're being "a wimp". People of strength encourage, support and care. The opposite is the case for those that are weak, they try to further break you down, discourage and lack care of your thoughts and feelings.

02/27/2023

Worth reading! Applies to our BC Wildies too

The Re-Introduced & Native Species of North America

Horses are a RE-introduced native species to North America with fossil evidence found here- from the NE to the SW and in pockets in between. Fossil evidence of early horse directly related to modern domestic horses are found only in North America. Indisputable scientific evidence, and while not all agree yet and prefer to downgrade them to domestic ferals ... but it's just a matter of time for others to catch up to science and put this quarrel to rest.
To jump right in, here’s just one fossil example of many http://www.smithsonianmag.com/evotourism/evolution-world-tour-ashfall-fossil-beds-nebraska-6171451/?no-ist

Also, the area that really interests me, early horse history/paleontology, and interfacing with ancient Native tribes suggesting a number of horses were still present in North America prior to Spanish explorers. We'll cover that a little later.

As geneticists have stated, a few thousand years of domestication has not changed the horse from it's ancestor. Human domestication has not altered the hardwiring of millions of years of evolution, though we've put our personal likes and spins in breeding but even that doesn't last as generations of survival revert the animal to what is best for the species. "The fact that horses were domesticated before they were reintroduced matters little from a biological viewpoint. They are the same species that originated here, and whether or not they were domesticated is quite irrelevant. Domestication altered little biology, and we can see that in the phenomenon called "going wild," where wild horses revert to ancient behavioral patterns. Feist and McCullough (1976) dubbed this "social conservation" in his paper on behavior patterns and communication in the Pryor Mountain wild horses. The reemergence of primitive behaviors, resembling those of the plains zebra, indicated to him the shallowness of domestication in horses." -Jay F. Kirkpatrick, Ph.D.
Born wild they are wild.

We really don't know why horses were even considered to have been "extinct" in N. America as there is now more compiling evidence to the contrary. As to the theory of so-to-speak extinction, several possible hypothesis to large scale 'die-out' but if that's the case than in was more likely in the northern half of North America as ice shelves did not cover all of North America, much of the southern portion remained unaffected by snow and ice. Obviously for the northern region deep snow, ice, and glaciers were not conducive to forage and survival for the horse... and some migrated across the Bering Land Bridge to Asia ... and many just may have continued following food sources farther south on the North American continent. The other probability exists to a wide spread effect on north American wild equines and that is they were hunted by early man. I suspect the "complete extinction" theory however may be overturned one day as the ice age effected much less in the lower southern half of the continent... See image link below on how far-reaching the ice shelves were during the Ice Age.

Further compelling is the archaeological evidence of cave dwelling paintings and petroglyphs of Native Americans which illustrate another story entirely in more southern states of the US. And while 'various' early familial equid fossils may be found around parts of the world, however, most interesting is that the equine fossils most closely related to modern horse are only found in North America. As is known, horses during the ice age thought to have crossed the Bering Land Bridge to Europe and Asia. But it seems they also migrated and/or remained in the southern region unaffected by the expanding ice shelf. What I have researched and what many of us are learning, not just one old standard model fits... as it appears, some horses remained, some domesticated, some domestic horses from early explorers were reintroduced hundreds of years ago the North America... but to re-iterate a profound statement by a geneticist regarding the wild and re-introduced horse... according to Dr Jay Kirkpatrick, states that "... simply a few thousand years of domestication does little if any altering of the natural horse/genetics."

As we all know, currently still the common belief is that the horse became "extinct" in N. America... However, through archeological evidence, there are those who claim that some horses actually remained as mentioned already, depicted on cave dwelling walls as petroglyphs and pictographs that had nothing to do with the Spanish explorers, as these archeological areas pre-date their arrival.

I find Native American history fascinating as well ... especially when horses are part of that history and the Native species formula. There are ancient cave and rock images (both pictograph and petroglyph) of both riderless horses, and horses with riders on cave/rock art dated to the late Pueblo II through the 'Pueblo III periods, AD 1050-1300 (Hayes 1964:88), as well as the Utes which span 1,000 years, from the Christian era.

Great reading (pages of interest:) riderless horses page 102/135 (or report page 80), 122/135; 105.. I could go on. And this is one report... just one such example of an isolated area.

Fascinating. Protect to preserve our Native species and historic treasures.

Keeping it wild~ Mustang Meg

Early horse prior to Spanish explorers to North America by BYU:
“Hard” Evidence of Ancient American Horses
https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/hard-evidence-of-ancient-american-horses/
Specifically sections:
*Early History of the Native American and the Horse, and
*Horse Survival in the Americas after the Ice Age

Also good reading: the debate, LA Times 2011: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/06/wild-horses-nevada-blm-native-species.html

Native American connection to evidence of wild horses in NA pre-Spanish Explorers: http://thewildhorseconspiracy.org/2013/07/02/exciting-article-about-by-phd-steven-jones-re-more-recent-surviving-native-horse-in-north-america/

NEW: Oldest fossil record- a horse- found in North America dated at 700,000 years ago(published 2017): http://westerndigs.org/700000-year-old-horse-found-in-yukon-permafrost-yields-oldest-dna-ever-decoded/?fbclid=IwAR2eVhw_ug6QhdFb1c5EBMLGOSHR6Mf8t4QiJGoSIqrtxnuwP_ORVYMhG8M

NEW: Were there Horses in the Americas Before Columbus:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303446285_Were_there_Horses_in_the_Americas_before_Columbus

Fossil image by Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History- Protorohippus, early horse living 52 million years ago in N. America:
https://www.facebook.com/9974533229/photos/a.84275098229/10158227424873230/

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01/26/2023

Hoof cracks. These things are everywhere in the horse world, you can't barely look around without seeing cracks or the beginnings of them. Unfortunately horses that have to put up with hoof care that induces cracking in the exterior hoof structure are not unusual. I've done a few videos on this topic (link to one of them at the bottom of this article) but I thought I'd summarize a bit here as I have finally got the picture I've been waiting on for almost 2 and a half years!

This is a hoof that came into my care with all four feet having one problem or another. This hoof was the worst with what is a chronic toe crack due to what is called "mechanical leverage". If you're unfamiliar with the term, here's an example to define it simply.

Say you have two popsicles stuck together, you know the ones I'm referring to I'm sure. They're packaged up as two together and you'd tear them apart, each with their own stick, and you'd get one and your friend or sibling would get the other.

You tear them apart using a method called "mechanical leverage", even if you don't know it. Either you'd put them on the edge of a counter and press on the outsides of the popsicles and it would split the two, or you would pull from the popsicle sticks and split it apart essentially using the tip of the popsicle as the leverage point to break from the bottom up. If we're holding the bottom and pulling outwards, the top becomes the point last that comes apart making it the leverage point.

With that happy summertime thought in mind, the second method I give there is EXACTLY how toe cracks start and continue in hooves. The bottom of the hoof wall is the popsicle stick. How it goes is essentially the hoof wall gets long, the horse walks forward, or just stands there even, and the leverage of the pillars of the hoof (if the toe is 12 oclock then the pillars are at 2 and 10) split it apart like a 2 popsicle treat. Simple. The weight of the horse is your hands and arms as the force applier, the bottom of the hoof wall that touches the ground is the popsicle sticks.

Now, a lot of times you'll see all kinds of archaic ways of dealing with it, the absolute worst being a wedge carved into it increasing the size of the crack. If you think about it though, if you had a small wedge further carved into those popsicles, it would be even EASIER to split them apart. Making a bigger wedge makes the popsicle sticks "longer" and it's the length of the popsicle sticks that gives you leverage right? If those popsicle sticks were half an inch longer than the actual popsicle itself then you'd struggle to split it. The ability to leverage the hoof wall and popsicles needs to be taken away to fix the capability available to create a split or crack.

The solution is always primarily getting rid of the pillars. This hoof is the result of doing that while also making sure to balance the hoof front to back. I never dug out the toe crack, I never treated it with some concoction of chemicals or some chlorine based gas. Proper trimming on a good schedule has fixed what years of very poor trimming and harmful shoeing with toe clips did.

Now, unfortunately this horse is a bit older and the years and years of time spent in poor shape has done enough to the coffin bone to create a crena that will never heal (more on that in a future article), but the outer protective barrier of the wall has finally completely healed up to create a more functional and healthier hoof for this horse after long last for the rest of it's life.

It takes a lot and a long time of poor care to create massive cracks that go that far up a hoof wall and I firmly believe it's not abnormal at all for it take as long to heal something in the hoof that it took to put it in. Being resolved to solve this problem is the key here and I encourge everybody to not give up on a process that may seem slow but in fact is being helped to heal from the inside out until finally you'd never know there was a problem to begin with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ZgnA0Ml_w