El Nido Horse Experience

23/03/2023

Summer is here!
Enjoy a different tour with us, book now!

05/02/2023

https://www.facebook.com/elnidocrystalboat?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Eco friendly double crystal cayaks with Electric engine and driver. Enjoy with a unique experience!

20/05/2022

22/03/2022

Today these ponies had the first complete groom and first time saddle! They were really nice and fun to work with!
Love to teach!

13/03/2022

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23/02/2022

To all our clients and friends, sadly El Nido Horse Experience will close it’s doors temporarily.
We hope soon, you can all again enjoy the horses and ponies in our new facilities.
Thanks for your support and understanding.

Ferran Gibert Ledesma,
General Manager.

11/02/2022

"Horses don’t think the same as humans.
Something that’s most unique about the horse, that I love, is not what he possesses but what he doesn’t possess..........and that is greed, spite, hate, jealousy, envy or prejudice.
The horse doesn’t possess any of those things.
If you think about people, the least desirable people to be around usually possess some or all of those things.
And the way God made the horse, he left that out." - Buck Brannaman.

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07/02/2022

Always a pleasure when our Farrier Rick C Johnson come to visit us in El Nido.
Today we had all the family because they are on their fourth anniversary, congratulations 🎊
And thanks for your help and time!

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04/02/2022

"But horses don't give each other treats"
A copy&paste of of a thoughtful reading.

One of the arguments I often hear against the use of positive reinforcement in horse training is that it is unnatural “Horses don’t give each other treats!”. Until the recent growth in popularity of “natural horsemanship” this argument wasn’t very popular because after all, nothing equestrians do to horses is natural. Horses may not exactly be giving each other peppermint sweets but they don’t ride on each other back either. The entire argument can very much be dismissed straightaway simply by listing the extensive catalogue of unnatural behaviours, management and training procedures used by equestrians. However for this article I want to do something a little bit different, by pointing out in what ways a training using food rewards can be far more natural than any other, more mainstream, self proclaimed natural ones.
Most horse to horse interactions are affiliatives.

Humane, science-based horse training and natural horsemanship both claim to derive their training strategies from observations of natural behaviour of free-roaming horses. Yet the first believe in the use of positive reinforcement and the other doesn’t. How is this possible?
image[1].jpg
Illustration by Fed up Fred
High-profile practitioners of natural horsemanship have based their training on two things: personal observations of agonistic behaviours in horses (and rushed deductions.) and misinterpretation or cherry picking of scientific data such as Schelderupp-Ebbe ‘pecking order’ or Konrad Lorenz’s book on aggression both of which were contradicted later on when animals were studied in their natural environment rather than in captivity.

Not only does natural horsemanship focuses on outdated (eg. pecking order) or misinterpreted concepts (eg. dominance) but in it’s mislead focus it lost most of the picture: While antagonistic interactions do exist between horses, they aren’t the norm. In fact they make less than 1/4 of all horse to horse interactions (Rees, 2017). Therefore a training based on the use of aversives (negative reinforcement and positive punishments) does not reflect how horses naturally interact between each others. Yes horses may pins their ears at each other, kick and bite but those behaviours are nowhere as prevalent as resting and grassing together, nursing, playing, grooming etc. So of course adopting training and management techniques, which promote affiliative interactions, is far more natural than a programme, which instructs horse owners to mimic antagonistic behaviours such as chasing.

Motivation

Horses will move away from threats such as another horse, a puma, a whip or it’s rider legs. But moving away from something does not make up most of his natural time budget. What does however is moving toward something, seeking appetitive resources such as water, shelter, food or companionship. Horses naturally spend 16 to 18hours of their day seeking and consuming food (Davidson and Harris, 2002). Going to a target (seeking) and getting a food reward (consuming) isn’t something completely unnatural for a horse.
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Horses learn through positive reinforcement just as much as through negative reinforcement.

How we train horses is not a human invention. The ropes and pens may be but the laws of learning are the same in the wild as they are in the barn. They are part of nature, just like gravity, believing in them or not don’t stop them from affecting you. Horses are born with the capacity to learn through several processes one of which is known as operant conditioning and along with classical conditioning is one of the most used learning processes in the equestrian world.

-At the barn: The rider pulls on the reins (aversive stimuli), the horse stops, the rider let go of the tension on the rein. The horse is learning through negative reinforcement.
-In the wild: A horses pins his ears (aversive stimuli), the other horse moves away, the horse stops threatening him. The horse is learning through negative reinforcement.
-At the barn: A horse approaches a human and is given a carrot (appetitive stimuli). The horse is learning through positive reinforcement.
-In the wild: A horse approaches another horse and they engage into a mutual grooming session (appetitive stimuli). The horse is learning through positive reinforcement.

Both types of reinforcement are natural but of course something being natural doesn’t necessary make it ethical. And when there is no need to apply aversive stimulus to obtain a desired behaviour (because positive reinforcement works just as well) one must beg the question… why?

01/02/2022

Today I had a nice visit from a student from Manila and her father Mac.
He never rode a big horse before, he was a bit scared, but was easy to convince him to share the experience with her daughter Zia. Our mare Brandy was a big help to get him relax…
Did you enjoy Mac?? 😉

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30/01/2022

Weekend lessons

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30/01/2022

Today we learn that ponies also need manicure

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22/01/2022

In ENHE We aim to promote teamwork starting with the first lessons. Respect & care to the horse, to teacher and to other mates.

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22/01/2022

Living in an Island has many challenges, this time is to find a deworming for Storm.
But I take the challenge, ivermectin + fenbendazole + honey.

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20/01/2022

https://equusmagazine.com/diseases/veterinarian-antibiotics-14590/

Here are 7 vital facts to keep in mind when handling these powerful medications.

18/01/2022

Lovely picture,
Happy birthday guys 🎂

16/01/2022

Wonderful memorices that my phone bring to me. That was a clinic in natural horsemanship . This time I brought with me one of my horses in trainning, and the students were in a professional formation to become trainers. People with skills learning new things!

13/01/2022

Princess got her new 2022 gear!!!

11/01/2022

⚝LIVE ANONYMOUSLY.

"WANTING TO BE FAMOUS IS SOMETHING VULGAR"

Have you ever thought about this? You want to be famous as a writer, politician, singer or whatever.
Why? Because one doesn't really love what he does. If you loved to sing, or to paint, or to write poems - if you really loved it - you wouldn't be interested in whether he is famous or not. Wanting to be famous is something vulgar, trivial, silly, it doesn't make sense; but,
Because we don't love what we do, we want to enrich ourselves with fame.
Our current education is lousy
because it teaches us to love success and not what we do. The result has become more important than the action.
See, it's great to hide our shine, cover it up, be anonymous, love what we do and not bring it up.
It is good to be affectionate, kind, without being famous. That doesn't make you have a reputation, it doesn't make your photography
appear in the newspapers. Politicians will not come to your door. One is simply a creative human being who lives Anonymously; and in that there is richness and immense beauty.

Krishnamurti. The book of life.

08/01/2022

A rich father, wanting his son to know what it means to be poor, made him spend a day with a peasant family.

The boy spent 3 days and 3 nights in the field.

Back in the city still by car, his father asked him:
What about your experience?

Well, exemplary! - The boy answered.

You learnt something?

Yes a lot...

1- We have a dog and they have four.

2-That we have a pool with treated water that is no bigger than two bedrooms. They have a river, with crystal clear water, fish and other good things.

3-That we have electric light in our garden but they have stars and the moon to illuminate them.

4-That our garden reaches the wall. Yours, to the horizon.

5-That we buy our food; they grow it, harvest it and cook it.

6-Let us listen to CDs ... they listen to a continuous symphony of parrots, crickets and other animals ...
... all this, sometimes accompanied by the song of a neighbor who works the land.

7-We use the microwave. What they cook tastes over low heat.

8-That we, to protect ourselves, live surrounded by fences with alarm ... They live with open doors, protected by the friendship of their neighbors.

9-That we live connected to the telephone, the computer and the television. They are related to life, the sky, the sun, the water, the fields, the animals, their shadows and their families.

The father is very impressed with the son's feelings about him.

Finally, the son concludes:
Thank you for showing me how poor we are!

Every day we get poorer because we no longer see the richness of nature!

Come to El Nido Horse Experience and connect again with Nature 😍

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08/01/2022

In the Netherlands a study has been carried out on the most common causes of death in older horses. For this, all deaths have been followed for 8 years in a geriatric center for horses, which houses an average of almost 200 animals.
During the 8 years that the study lasted, about 80 horses died in this center. Of these, 12 were between 15 and 19 years old, 25 were between 20 and 25 years old, 32 were between 25 and 30, and 11 were 31 or older.
The average age of death for the horses was 26 years.
It should be noted that the study focused on a single location, so that all the horses were equally well treated, properly dewormed, with routine check-ups of their teeth and tailored diets for those who required them.
The 5 main causes of death were: first, colic (20%), second, old age (understood as a cluster of ailments associated with normal degeneration over the years), third, lameness, fourth, degenerations neurological and fifth, not being able to get up after lying down.
Equinews font

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02/01/2022

For the first of january nothing better than a good ride with friends!

Happy new year everyone!

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29/12/2021

Thanks for the ride Cabal & Eena

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19/12/2021

Today we will be in Kalye Artisano from 4 to 6pm and you can win a trail ride for two people to raise founds for typhoon victims!

18/12/2021

17/12/2021

A RIDING HORSE FIRST

Long before a horse becomes a dressage horse or a barrel horse or eventer or a police horse, it must become a riding horse. Being a riding horse is the first thing a horse must learn before it can excel at any discipline.

The notion behind teaching a horse to be a riding horse is to help them become comfortable and familiar with the preparation of being caught, brushed, fitted with headgear and saddle, carrying a rider at all gaits, yielding its thought to the rider’s reins, leg, and seat. It’s about teaching a horse to feel okay when a rider takes off a jacket, mounts from the right side, opens a gate from horseback, bashes through the bush, have dogs running joyfully around, walks through puddles, and streams and over bridges. It’s about a horse learning to feel okay if it was ridden by a 10-year-old boy with a mischievous, carefree, adventurous spirit.

So much of the time a horse comes home from being started by a trainer and is expected to go on a program of turning it into a showjumper or barrel racer or team rope. This often happens long before the horse is comfortable with its new life as a riding horse.

I have watched quite a few c**t starting clinics and it seems very normal that on the first ride people are not expected to do much more than sit on their horse and let it go where its mind takes it. Most clinicians I’ve seen tell the student to go with the horse, do a few turns here and there and stay out of the way of the horse. I understand the sense of allowing a horse to just become familiar with somebody in the saddle without too much interference.

But by the third or fourth day the clinician is encouraging the students to do a lot more directing and less passenger riding. I’ve even heard clinicians espouse that by the third or fourth day of being ridden the horse should be on the payroll with a job to do. Without a doubt, there is the occasional horse that might be ready to go to work by then. But in my opinion, such horses are rare. Most horses do not yet have ingrained in their brain that having a human sitting on their back is perfectly fine and normal by the third or fourth ride. It still feels uncomfortable, perhaps scary, and maybe even life-threatening for some.

Horses are incredibly submissive by nature. Without the level of submission most horses possess, we would not be able to ride them and certainly not get away with doing many of the things we do to them (like loading into a float or face up to a charging bull). However, just because a horse succumbs to our will without protesting does not mean he feels okay about it or that what we do is good horsemanship. Obedience is neither a measure of the quality of training nor the emotional comfort of a horse.

It is so important that a horse feels okay with just having a rider and being directed before any of the next steps of turning it into our dream horse are started. If a horse feels anxiety about walking, trotting, or cantering around a paddock with somebody on its back, how can it possibly be ready to teach to jump a log or perform at speed or rope a steer or work in collection?

I know horses that months and years after being started still hump or buck when the saddle girth is tightened or fidget when being saddled. I know horses that can’t be walked or trotted or cantered on a loose rein without rushing. I know horses that fling their head when being bridled. I know horses that won’t stand still when being mounted. I know horses that won’t move forward when a rider’s leg is applied. I know horses that can’t trot without their head being held so high you can’t see their ears through the clouds. All these things are common even after years of being ridden.

These things are just very basic, fundamental things that should not be a problem for any horse that feels okay about being a riding horse. The list of what it takes to be a comfortable riding horse is much longer than what I have indicated and it is rare to find a horse that exhibits no sign of trouble with the fundamentals.

A horse can benefit from just being ridden than being trained. This means instead of picking on every little mistake, we just ride. We are more patient and more tolerant if they change gait or rhythm or get a little crooked or their thought strays a little more than we like. Just take a long loopy rein and ride somewhere. It could be an arena, a trail, a paddock, the desert, or bushland. Stop training on them for a while and just get them feeling ok about having somebody on their back and going somewhere. When that doesn’t feel so terrible to them, then think about your training again. It’s training without training.

Sometimes it takes a horse many days to have developed a firm feeling of comfort with the basics of being a riding horse. Sometimes it takes weeks. Sometimes it takes months or years and sometimes it may never happen. But in our impatience or our ignorance, we rush or gloss over the part of training that helps our horses become okay with just being ridden. We are in such a hurry to make them the horse we want them to be one day that we leave holes in their education and trouble in their emotions. The irony is that oftentimes it’s our hurry that slows our progress or possibly even brings it to a halt. When a horse is comfortable with the basics of being ridden, you’ll be astounded by how quickly the rest will fall into place.

Photo: This brings back memories of starting my mare Six.

13/12/2021

Wonderfull beach rides this weekend at ANGKLA Beach Club & Boutique Resort

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02/12/2021

A neighbor from Victoria, Australia, applied to the local authorities for permission to build a shade structure in the paddock for his horses. The city council rejected his request, claiming that the land was not authorized for permanent construction. 🐴
The man pondered the city council's decision for a week and then requested permission to build an outdoor table and chairs to place in the meadow. The city council replied that no permit was necessary to place outdoor furniture in a meadow.
So that's what he did:

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