Light in the Saddle Publishing

07/08/2024

I don't generally post about my own horses on Facebook. I've got two untrained Colonial S[anish colts, a two year old grulla and a three year old bay Jicarilla Heritage horse.

BUUUT anyone interested can copy,paste-n-search to find me at my wordpress blog.
https://. saraannon. wordpress. com/category/horses/

here is a sample....

I like to start teaching a horse to lead with a body rope. I use flat mountain climbing webbing as it is light weight, unties easily, and is easy on the skin…the horse’s as well as mine. I tie a loop in one end, slide that end over the horse’s body, bring it and the free end between the front legs, then slip the free end thru the loop and then thru the halter ring.

And, yep, the horse has to be pretty calm in order to stand quietly while I do all that. My stance is that if they aren’t ready and willing for me to slip-n-slide ropes all over their head and body, they aren’t any where near being ready to understand being asked to move forward with a pull on a halter rope.

So these photos illustrate pretty much what I ask for once I’ve got a body rope in position. Standing and waiting for the human’s next step is THE essential foundation for all training. If the horse decides not to stand and wait, there is no danger of a yank on their head.

If they decide to march off, no harm done. A hoof on the rope actually tightens the loop around their barrel. The horse can control how much tension by the position of their head. Both my boys are pretty good about stopping, taking a look and then lifting the offending hoof.

Then I get to tell them how wonderfully smart and sensible and charming they are. Then, when I take the tension out of the lead line, they are quick to figure out they can release the pressure around their barrel by stepping forward. Then I get to tell them how wonderfully smart and sensible and charming they are once more.

Moving forward in response to pressure on their sides, back and sternum serves me well throughout their training. A tightened girth doesn’t automatically inspire a buck… it inspires a step forward and then I get to tell them how wonderfully smart and sensible and charming they are.

Instead of restricting the movement of the horse’s head, risking panicking them as well as injury to the finely tuned proprioreceptive systems of their head and neck, my horses learn to stand and move forward on request.

The principle of scaffolding, building a structure that allows clear communication and a sound solid foundation for more complex interactions, is not nearly well enough known or appreciated in horse training circles

05/08/2024

Cowboy Cartel: Follows a rookie FBI agent uncovering a multimillion-dollar money laundering scheme orchestrated by Mexico's ruthless Los Zetas cartel through the American Quarter Horse racing industry.

05/08/2024

Charlotte Dujardin's video clip of her not just whipping her student's horse but giggling breathlessly and saying 'this whip doesn't sting' while doing so made me cringe. I was appalled when one comment in a group here on Facebook assured me that the practice was simply meant to 'inflame' the horse's movement. Saying that inflammation was exactly what that sort of beating left behind didn't make me popular.

My reaction was based on my own experience some decades back when I was initiated into the secrets of forcing the fancy trots. This trainer showed me how they clamped a lead fishing-line weight to the end of the lash on their whips to make sure that the blow 'stung' when they whipped their horse. Then they showed me how they tied yearling colts up against the wall and whipped them on the belly, sheath and flanks until they skittered about on the spot at the mere twitch of a hand.

Dujardins video has reopened a whole discussion on horse welfare in competition. I knew I was ahead of my times when I had no option except self-publishing of my series. Now the Five Freedoms are finally in the flow of conversation among equestrians. Of course, they have been updated since the original concept became the basis for animal welfare in the meat, dairy and egg industries.

What has not yet come into awareness is that in order to be able to ride horses humanely, free from fear and distress and able to move normally, we humans need to change our understanding and approach beyond the punitive good vs bad.

Equestrians need a solid understanding of equine biomechanics and neuro-physiology so riders can be sure that their horse is built for and fit enough to meet our expectations without injury or distress.

Equestrians also need a language of the aids so that there can be a discussion of how to communicate with the horse beyond a punitive good/bad mindset. Then we need exercises that allow us humans to develop the physical skills and body awareness to communicate kinesthetically with our horses.

Facebook no longer allows sales through third parties, so I cant post links to my ebooks. Facebook doesnot play well with wordpress, so you will have to cut, paste-n-search for my blog.
https:// saraannon.wordpress. com/ light-in-the-saddle-publications/

My whole award-winning series is based on the premise that learning how to improve your own ability to communicate with your body while making sure that your horse is free from fear and distress, able to offer you a partnership based on their own normal behavior offers the most rewarding path with the least damage to horses and riders.

If you search for Developing Independent Aids, Legs without Hands, Hands without Legs by Sara Annon, you should be able to find the specific book that I intended to give horse people clear definitions of our human aids to inform our conversations with each other and our horses.

17/01/2024

I got erased on FB today for pointing out that both parties in a video of a guy sitting on a horse in a round pen, then suddenly dragging the horse’s head around to the side so the horse spun, then ran into the fence, then hopped around in circles for a bit while the guy leaned back and raked the horse’s shoulders with his spurless boots before the horse stopped from exhaustion were mostly illustrating their mutual functional illiteracy in the language of the aids.

What I asked was ‘ How does this encounter improve this horse’s ability to figure out what people want him to do in the future?’

I asked because this horse was mostly doing his very horsey best to react as a horse naturally would to the incoherent yanking and bouncing and flapping of hands and seat and legs on the part of the rider.

I think the whole post went down, that it wasn’t just me getting blocked. And I hope it was because my question provoked at least some commenters into questioning a few of their assumptions. The overwhelming reaction was ” Ride’em Cowboy! My first horse bucked me off countless times! Teach that horse who is the BOSS!’

Insisting that people actually respond to the question I asked instead of going of on lengthy justifications caused a complete shut down.

Once I again I had to face the reality that MOST horse people are functionally illiterate in the language of the aids.

Not only that, they don’t even know that they should be literate because there is no common vocabulary to define the aids.

Without a common language there can be no discussion on how to develop human awareness and finesse of the aids.

Without a common language there can be no discussion on how to educate a horse so that they can figure out what exactly the two legged monkey mind flopping around on their back would like them to do.

So I’m plugging my training series here. I’ve got 140+ citations and an award for the series from the academic community. And when I can persuade a rider to buy and actually read them, they give me 5 star reviews.

Starting at the beginning is the best bet, same as starting schooling with a horse. That way neither side is making assumptions that create asses of both parties.

(ass-u-me, for those who don’t get literary jokes).

But for those who would just like to develop a vocabulary to argue their case with me, you can start by studying Volume IV, Developing Independent Aids, Hands without Legs, Legs without Hands.

I won’t hold my breath waiting for you, but I would be happy to engage in an educated exchange on the influence of the aids based on a shared common vocabulary.

My series on horse training began with the idea of turning my posts on riding and schooling into textbooks that could be marketed to equine science associate degree programs. The small publisher that originally contacted me with that idea quickly fell by the wayside and I ended up becoming an ind...

11/01/2024

Sad news! Horsetalk New Zealand is no more....

equine research and information

03/06/2023

When fireworks were present, 75% of the horses given detomidine were scored by their owners as having a good or excellent treatment effect on anxiety and fear.

29/04/2022

Luke Camper just sent me a photo of a saddle I could use to illustrate my point on saddle fit for Square Horses so I can finally share those post here. I did set up a group for riders to discuss such things as I am pretty sure the Equus Film and Arts Festival had to add a veterinarian to their review board when I submitted my manuscript!

The seed for my inspiration to write about saddle and seats in Rider Up, a Winnie award winning volume of my training series, is rooted in my experiences with the Colonial Spanish horse. When I looked into their history here in the New World, I was specifically baffled by why the American cavalry shot Indian ponies by the thousands instead of appropriating and riding them.

The Texas Rangers alone managed to fight on equal terms with the Horse Tribes, but that only came about when they adopted their style of horsemanship as well as their horses. And the poor quality of remounts was a chronic complaint from cavalry officers in Europe and America all during the 1800 and 1900’s. In the 1800’s, officers of the United States Cavalry even declared that the Horses and the Horse Tribes of the Great Plains were the finest light horse cavalry they had ever seen.

It was not until I understood more about how different types of horse are built that I realized slapping a saddle designed for the average cavalry remount on a Colonial Spanish horse’s back was quickly going to cause serious problems. And, as many riders are now realizing, a badly fitted saddle can ruin even the best horse. And the difference between the Army remounts and Colonial Spanish war horses is literally bone deep.

When ridden with a center rigged short-treed medium-gullet saddle as is found where ever Colonial Spanish horses are appreciated, these horses are prized for their willingness, weight-carrying ability, soundness, agility and endurance. Cavalry saddles are as uniform as the rest of military gear. in the 1800’s US cavalry gear was not designed for Colonial Spanish horses.

The long tree required by the average Army remount meant the bars of the saddle extended past the thoracic ribs of the short backed Colonial Spanish war horses onto their lumbar vertebrae.
The innate autonomic nervous reflex chains built into horse’s nervous systems cause them to buck when pressure is put on their loins.
The long bars also dug into those short backed Colonial Spanish war horses‘s withers, interfering with the free movement of, and even damaging, their shoulder blades.
The gullet of the saddle would either be too narrow or too wide, causing pressure points and saddle sores on their withers, and could even damage the upper edge of their shoulder blade.
The forward set, (¾ or 7/8ths) girth needed to keep the saddle in position on the average Army remount interfered with the free movement of the Colonial Spanish horses’ front legs, causing girth galls.

Realizing that a huge part of the answer to why the American cavalry dismissed the free-roaming horses of the plains as useless unmanageable broncos lay in how they approached saddle making and fitting led me further into studying the details of equine bio-mechanics, functional soundness and saddle fitting. My goal in writing Rider Up is to first to educate horse people so that they can ask the right questions of their saddle-makers and saddle fitters to get a saddle designed to make riding easiest on both the horse and the rider. And second, I wanted make sure that that evidence-based understanding of equine bio-mechanics and saddles could be integrated into the pragmatic schooling both horses and riders.