Brandi, foot handling
Brandi, the young mustang mare from the Sand Springs HMA in Oregon, USA. She’s been at her new home since September 6th. She can be groomed and sprayed, which my clients have worked on on their own, and haltered, which we’ve done together. I’m now starting foot handling with her. To be brief, here are some notes about my approach:
🟤 Why I use a pool noodle: I don’t want to put my face (or any other parts) down there, because I don’t know what to expect from her (which turns out to be a good decision).
🟤 The buoy: used as an anchor rather than tying (which is a separate skill), as well as an additional way to get reinforcement when she’s confused, and to keep momentum going.
🟤 Using hay: even timothy pellets are too high value, and dropped hay is an opportunity to take a break if she needs one.
🟤 Changing how I use the noodle: just touching the fetlock was not enough information and probably surprising, so combining the contact with the hip with using the noodle provided more continuity and less surprise.
🟤 The beginning doesn’t always look like the end: she’s kicking because that makes the most sense to her in her repertoire of behavior, and because I’ve reinforced it before in order to get the leg lift to start, not because she’s trying to be malicious.
🟤 Shaping the kick to just a lift: slowing the speed at which I moved the noodle allowed us to explore different responses.
#positivereinforcementhorsetraining #brainsnotreins #mustang #experientialequitation #experientiallearning #feralhorse #lettherebelightness #thepathisthepath #hoofhandling #husbandry #cooperativecare #husbandrytraining #cooperativecaretraining #artoftraining #problemsolving
Brandi
This is Brandi. She’s a three-year-old mustang, unhandled, from the Sand Springs HMA in Oregon, USA. She belongs to some lovely clients who have five other mustangs they’ve already tamed/gentled (I dislike both of those terms, but don’t have a better one). Brandi arrived on Friday September 6th, and this video was taken four days later. My client had spent time with her over the last few days and had been able to go in and feed her and touch her. This is the second time I’ve met her, but the first time I’ve actually worked with her other than chucking food in a tub from outside the pen two days ago, when she wouldn’t take food from my hand.
We know we need to be able to reliably catch and halter her before she can be let out of the pen, and since she was doing so well, I thought I’d get that process started. This is about a minute and a half at the end of a longer session (over the course of about an hour, with several breaks and scratches), where she not only learned to put first her nose, then her whole head, then her neck in a loop, she decided to come to the loop from across the pen and “halter” herself as though she’d never *not* done it. There were a few previous steps, but otherwise almost no “formal” work.
This little mare is so different than I expected, and I feel so much relief and wonder in that surprise. I’m largely stepping back from social media for a while due to some painful life events, but I wanted to share this very bright spot in the darkness of the moment. I will have more to share when I’m in a lighter place.
#positivereinforcementhorsetraining #brainsnotreins #mustang #experientialequitation #feralhorse #lettherebelightness #thepathisthepath
I’ve been working with Fool’r since the very end of April. I’ve needed to have a rotation of behaviors to select from so I wasn’t drilling any one thing, in order to keep him calm and engaged. We have worked on SS/FF (stand still, face forward), but it was initially a challenge as he can sometimes be a somewhat anxious horse. Now that we’ve had some time to learn the game from different perspectives doing different things, we can begin to refine all the things we’ve started in our time together.
This brings up the question of whether you have to have a behavior solid and “finished” before moving on to another one, especially one that’s related - standing still is related to movement as they are essentially opposites. As with all things, I think it depends on several variables, including the temperament of the horse, the tasks you’re looking to do, how long you’ve been working together and how comfortable and confident the horse is with the training, and the gap between what that horse is initially comfortable with vs their comfort level with where you’re taking the training.
For example, Fool’r is pretty comfortable, I could even say he finds it necessary, to be really close to the human. He was not initially comfortable putting his feet on novel objects like the blue mat. If I had drilled SS/FF in the beginning, insisting on him stationing on the mat and looking for distance and duration away from the human, it would have been really challenging for him and may not have worked at all. But now we’ve been working together long enough that he’s much more comfortable with me moving away from him while he hangs out on the mat.
Of course there are benefits to having a horse that can stay in one place for a length of time and be content to do so, but this skill will have a knock-on effect for all the other skills. The overall effect is building the meta skill of being comfortable and confident - something every horse (and human!) can use
A few weeks ago I was honored to be invited back to Trudi Dempsey: Equine Trainer and Behaviour Consultant's Lead a Horse to Water podcast, and as I’ve mentioned, we talked about bridleless riding. One of the points we talked about was the opportunity for exploration, on a number of levels. I won’t spoil the podcast for you (do go have a listen!), but some of the opportunities include being able to explore rider balance without the use of reins as “handles” (because we’re wired to use hands that way), the horse exploring balance and posture without the restriction of reins, and I’m not sure we talked specifically about this but there is an opportunity to allow the horse to make choices about direction and even speed, especially when negotiating obstacles. Now, does this mean you should go find the nearest string with which to make a neckrope, and head out on the trails? For the love of all that’s holy, please don’t do that. Bridleless work, just like work with any kind of headgear, takes some training. Please do at least some of that first. However, you can do little bits of it in your regular training, and there are eleventeen million ways to do that. Let me know if you’re interested in giving it a try!
This video is some of a short ride I did outside on my horses’ track, mostly letting Siri go where she wanted and at the speed she wanted, though I asked questions here and there. Like most of my work, it’s not overly exciting, but to be able to trust a horse in an outdoor setting with just a saddle pad and a neckrope is a wonderful thing. Maybe it gives you an idea of what’s possible when you literally let go of the reins.
If nothing else, it gave me a small opportunity to do some video editing, which is something I really enjoy and want to do more of. Though I admit, shooting and riding is something I need more practice at.
Listen to the podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2wFyQXG2PiSD4dxkkSRYpK?si=VJH-Rt3uRqaj4UgvoyU7pQ
#br
Relationship matters
Sometimes modeling can be a really effective way to show a horse what we’d like, and that it’s safe to do. During the previous session where we introduced the mats, we had an unfortunate incident where the wind caught the mat and blew it towards this lovely mare. We managed to get things sorted and she was able to approach again, but was understandably hesitant this next time. I asked my client to stand on the mat herself, and this was the difference that made the difference for her horse! The mare was able to approach and stand quietly on the mat to be fed “open bar” style. We were able to do this a few times, and now we’re well on our way to using the mats for groundwork and starting the riding process.
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #matwork #groundwork #experientialequitation #mustang #relationshipbasedhorsemanship #basicskills
Keep it in perspective
Well! The “quadrants” post I made earlier did not include the video! Here is my rant on that.
This is a longer video going through a training plan for teaching a cue involving tapping on the shoulder to ask the horse to turn his head to receive food. It's deliberately and unapologetically boring in that it's not sliding stops or jumping huge fences or canter pirouettes, but it is a horse saying "yes" to me asking if he's comfortable with me over his back when he has the option to say "no." This is the foundational training that starts with teaching him a way to get reinforcement, which will come in handy with a rider later on, but it's also him being able to make decisions about what happens to him. If I do the "boring" work of not only trying to make him comfortable, but learning when he’s not, his confidence in saying “no” will make his “yes” mean something.
Plus it’s just super fun when you’ve got a horse that’s fairly new to R+ and you can communicate and teach a new skill in about ten minutes!
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #targettraining #cuetransfer #experientialequitation #bridleless #bitless #bareback #lettherebelightness #choice #horse #goslowtogofast
The following is a breathing exercise developed to help you connect more deeply with your body and with your horse. It can be done sitting in a chair, standing or sitting on your horse. The more places you try it, the better!
Once you have this basic pattern, and you start to get an idea of what sorts of things come up for you, try just sitting on your horse for a few minutes (not so long you strain their back), and see if you can continue the flow of the breath into your horse's back. Note any changes that happen, both in yourself and in your horse.
As with anything related to horses, please use caution and be mindful of yourself and your horse. Stop the exercise if you feel faint, light-headed, or otherwise uncomfortable or if your horse becomes unsafe to handle.
More information on my approach to riding can be found here: https://equusintegratus.com/services/riding/index.php
#brainsnotreins #breathing #experientialequitation #metaphor #riding
Bridleless giggling
Yesterday I had the privilege of being invited back to Trudi Dempsey: Equine Trainer and Behaviour Consultant's Lead A Horse To Water podcast, and we talked about bridleless riding. This year, I’ve mostly been focusing on riding outside with my horses, since this is the first year they’ve truly felt comfortable being outside in an area they don’t normally have access to. But I was so inspired by my chat with Trudi that I thought I’d do a little video of some bridless work, both to show the beginnings of it, and a little more advanced work like leg yields and shoulder-in. Fi was really game, and almost too enthusiastic! However there was a lot of giggling on my part as she offered me some surprises. This is one of those moments, and underscores the reason I love working bridleless so much - all the things you learn from what the horse will offer when tack is not a constraint. I don’t know what I was laughing at the first time, but the second time was the start of an offer for a passage-like trot she likes to do when I on the ground, but has never offered it during riding. Sound on for best effect!
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsestraining #experientialequitation #bridleless #bridlelessriding #bitless #bitlessriding #bareback #barebackriding #lettherebelightness
#brainsnotreins
I followed my intuition rather than my extensive training plan and hopped on a horse I’m restarting for riding for a client. Was it technically the correct thing to do? Nope! But his response was so nonchalant, which was so balanced with his willingness to move forward without tension that I feel pretty good about taking the chance. I’d still like to see where he’s at with more direction, since I let him take me where he wanted to go and stop where he wanted to, but that’s also part of the training process because he’s not accustomed to making choices and was worried about doing so when I first started working with him. So, not a “clean” or “traditional” way to go about it this time, but it does say something about seeing the learner in front of you and not the plans you’ve made. At some point I’ll do a more in-depth review of this client and her horse, but for now I just wanted to celebrate this.
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #barebackriding #bitless #bitlessriding #experientialequitation #thepathisthepath #newstart #modernhorsetraining #trustyourintuition #arabianhorse
Track RRP
Using the track as a reverse round (rectangle) pen. Siri gave up this time, but she was previously game. I love the fact that it’s on a hill so all movement options are fairplay.
#brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #reverseroundpen #intrinzeninspired #movementscience #thepathisthepath #movementvariability #antifragility #tracklife #horsetracksystem
Using the track as a reverse round (rectangle) pen. Siri gave up this time, but she was previously game. I love the fact that it’s on a hill so all movement options are fairplay. #brainsnotreins #positivereinforcementhorsetraining #reverseroundpen #intrinzeninspired #movementscience #thepathisthepath #movementvariability #antifragility #tracklife #horsetracksystem
