Remedy Ranch

24/08/2024

So common...

What if we have it wrong?
I remember being so excited to show a dressage rider client footage of one of my favorite horseman riding one of his more advanced horses.
I still go into a trance-like state watching him ride, and I, perhaps foolishly, expected her to feel the same sense of awe.
Her criticism came fast and sharp. His lack of contact was harming his horse, apparently. That horse was going to break down, physically, if he didn't get him into more of a frame.
I tried hiding my disappointment, but I showed more and more footage to gauge response, then I asked her to show me footage of "better riding". Stressed horses held in a frame followed.
My take away from this interaction, because I know this horsemans herd well, is that the dressage rider had a skew sense of what is important for the horses physical and emotional well being.
The horseman she critiqued has a herd of 8 horses, some well into their 20's, sound and happy. The rider herself has 4 horses. 2 Grand Prix dressage horses, and a 6 year starting it's journey to Grand Prix and a horse retired at 17 due to soundness issues.
Both of the Grand Prix horses have been through surgery, and the 6 year old was on stall rest at the time for a mystery lameness.
Workload is undoubtedly a variable, because the horseman in question enters one Ranch Roping event a year, while the Dressage rider competes most weekends. Every single one of the horsemans herd work a 3 day week on the ranch though.
When I mentioned this to my dressage rider client she got a little angry with me, and intimated that said horseman probably just doesn't notice the soundness issues in his herd, being so uneducated.
Let's say that's true. Let's say he doesn't pick up subtle soundness issue caused by his lack of contact. This lady has 2 horses out of 4 that can't trot without a limp, and she is critiquing someones ability to spot subtle unsoundness, with no actual evidence in front of her.
I don't want to spread heresy, but what if we have it wrong? What if those vet bills aren't just because "horses are badly designed?' What if some of these backwards work horse riders are doing something right?
I am not saying all dressage must be wrong, I love dressage, and I do know happy, sound dressage horses. I also know the downfalls of ovwr specialized breeding play a part in soundness issues.
I do, however, feel we need to be open to the possibility that people working horses 8 hours a day, and relying on those horses staying sound, may also have something to add to the conversation.
Photo by Talya Mari

01/08/2024

Watching the Dressage events always raises mixed emotions... I admit hearing them talk about play with their horses and time out on trail helped ease some concerns... I do enjoy bonding with my horses, thought admittedly, have had a few glue babies...😊

I don't want a bond. Because I do not need a horse stuck on me like glue. Bonded like glue.
At the Tokyo Olympics, the FEI had this rather bizarre and kind of cringe marketing campaign called "WE DON'T PLAY". Saying that "real riders" don't play, they compete, they piaffe, they jump etc. Postulating their prowess through the lens of this grim, stoic worship of suffering as something we should aspire to. That they were too serious about their sport to actually have fun. I am not making this up. This was their marketing campaign. And it was a total PR failure in my opinion.

Flash forward to Paris, and the FEI has clearly had some crisis conversations in a board room somewhere. Perhaps a new marketing team has stepped in. I speculate, in an effort to soothe the fried nerves of the "ethical army" that continues to on-look with horror at what they are presenting as peak performance, in an effort to rebrand themselves as horse first, this year their marketing campaign did an about face; A BOND LIKE NO OTHER. A SPORT LIKE NO OTHER.
I don't have to cringe this time. It speaks for itself. And I will not be hypnotised by it.

Miriam Wester offers us the following definitions of BOND.
1. a relationship between people or groups based on shared feelings, interests, or experiences.
"there was a bond of understanding between them"

2. a connection between two surfaces or objects that have been joined together, especially by means of an adhesive substance, heat, or pressure.
"there was no effective bond between the concrete and the steel"

2.
join or be joined by a chemical bond.
"neutral molecules bond to the central atom"

Sure, bond does denote a friendship. But what kind of friendship? All interactions with horses are an exercise in relationship. Some trainers say they are relationship focused, others say they are something-else focused. But the minute we do anything adjacent to another living being, we are in relationship to them. The question is not "Do we have a relationship?". The question really is "WHAT is the QUALITY of that relationship".

I personally don't want a bonded relationship. Because healthy relationships to me include
1. Togetherness
2. Doing the same things together
3. Physical, and emotional closeness, proximity

But also
1. The ability to disconnect, and disagree
2. Doing different things that allow us to maintain our own identity. Having different preferences.
3. Distance, but loving each other anyway

I am not wanting codependence with my horses. Nor do I need them to do everything I ask of them without divergence in order to love them, enjoy their company and succeed in training together with them.

I have been through things with my horses, where if they were co-dependent in their bond to me, it could have killed them, or injured them. Yesterday for example, we got hit with the worst summer storm I have ever seen. I ran out to shutter the shelter windows. And instead of glomming onto me, they ran out into the open, safe from falling trees and limbs. If they bonded to me in the storm, they would have trampled or crushed me when it began to hail and make a horrible noise on the stable roofs. I didn't want them bonded to me. I wanted them to see me, hear me soothe them, but take care of themselves, comforted that I was nearby, and ready to step in as soon as the storm passed.

My farm manager says to me
"When the door to the house opens, the horses immediately look to the house, looking for you"

But they rarely come to meet me unless I explicity invite them to.

Sometimes, when I train and ride, I ask for something and my horses say No Thank You. And they almost always offer something else instead. Sometimes their ideas are even better. Actually, they always are.

But you cannot score an Olympian based on the quality of the horses divergence. Maybe we should. We need new parameters of success. What about a score box entitled
"How Well They Disagree with Each Other"

What about mandating a percentage of disobedience as NORMAL and preferable, and non-penalised? So that competitors and horses do not have to push so hard for perfect bonded obedience?

Just thinking aloud here.

What is the quality of relationship you are looking for with horses?

25/07/2024

As I drove home last evening, I was horrified as we witnessed a charro riding a magnificent black horse who was rearing and running backwards to escape the pressure of the rider ripping at his mouth unrelenting... It has become a popular pastime to witness these beautiful horses under such control... I was outraged and then realized that until our education of these practices changes, we continue them under different names; Dressage & Thoroughbred racing just to name a few... Let's put our self righteous swords away & commit to do better...

A worthwhile read...

So, when Charlotte (Dujardin) was in London 2012 Olympics with Valegro, she got my attention. Because Valegro was the first competitive dressage horse I personally saw in recent memory, in recent records, compete and win without an abundance of overtly obvious calming signals and signs of stress. Valegro did show stress, lots and lots of it. But in an environment to his left and right, horses showed stressx100000, and he showed stressx100, he appeared relaxed by comparison. Not relaxed according to what I prefer and try to practice. Putting myself in the shoes of an other, I saw an exception in Charlotte then. I do not see an exception in her now.

So she got my attention.

In subsequent years, when Valegro (Blueberry) retired and I saw her riding of other horses, it became clear to me that Valegro might have been an exceptional animal and an anomaly, and then digging a little deeper into personal research, I tried to find quotes from Charlotte herself talking about her champion horse.

A person always tells you exactly who they are, if we believe them.

I heard a rumor, that Charlotte described Valegro as "Hard Mouthed". I am not sure if that is true. Because much of their press is glossy and idolised. Like this article, still on the FEI website, attributing Charlotte and Valegro to inspiring a whole new generation of dressage riders. https://www.fei.org/stories/sport/dressage/5-things-learn-charlotte-dujardin-valegro

So if a Gold Medallist is describing her champion horse as Hard Mouthed, what does this mean for the training process that horse went through when nobody was watching? I guessed, wildly speculated for myself, that Valegro might be a horse who tolerated more pressure, than perhaps other horses would. Perhaps a horse who was predisposed to working under an enormous amount of compression, without feeling emotionally off-kilter about it. And was therefore able to demonstrate high level competitive riding with her, without an abundance of signs of stress (not no stress at all, just drastically less than is typically seen in those contexts). And actually win. Valegro actually looked... sort of happy... with her. By comparison to the horses around them.

But in subsequent years watching her ride Pumpkin and others, I personally did not like what I saw. I saw too much of the modern, Continental Euro-Dressage culture in the horses body. I felt quietly she needed to listen more to Carl Hester, and less to the Continental Hyper-Mobile style that is so rewarded now across the board.

So in recent years I waned my interest in Charlotte, after initially feeling pleasantly surprised at how much I found an affiliate image in her public body of work that I felt I could... maybe, just maybe, enjoy watching and supporting.

Charlotte is currently under-going the effects of Cancel Culture. Cancel Culture is something I would like to cancel. Let us not throw the baby out with the bath water. Here is a competitor who demonstrated at the Olympics that once in a blue moon, 1 horse in a million could compete -and win-with a drastically minimised output of overt signs of stress. Charlotte showed that to us. She also popularised and brought into fashion the era of helmets in competitive riding. Before that, it was all tuxedo's and top hats. And now helmets are popular and normalised at upper levels. She was the first to really popularise that. She, together with Carl, also used her enormous platform to advocate for the ample turn out of their horses. They even hack their top horses on country roads. At a time when some competitors horses never saw light of day, or had a chance to roll in a field, or play with their buddies, this person was returning from world championships, and instead of posting a photo of her ribbons and trophies, would post of video of turning the champion horse out in a field with their buddies.

And then we see a video of her abusing a horse with a whip. In my opinion, the video is egregious. Her actions in the video are horrific. They appear well practiced. They appear to be perfunctory, like she had done them before. There is NO EXCUSE for what she did. It is bonafide abuse.

But there are explanations why. And understanding WHY is crucial for us right now if we are to avoid the pitfall before us. The pitfall of making camps on the left and right, while we hurl abuse at each other. Let us have enough self restraint to pump the breaks on our outrage, and understand why. We must, if we are to use this moment as a crucial turning point in the development of horse welfare.

I have made mistakes with horses. So have you, yes you. I have done things with horses out of frustration. So have you. Nobody is immune to that. All of us have sinned. But I have never whipped a horse like was shown in the surfaced video. I have never done that. To the laughter of those filming? Sickening. And the inaction of the rider. And the entitlement of Charlotte.

And yet, I do not agree that now is the time to cancel Charlotte.

It would not occur to me to blame the victim. The timing is perhaps suspect to speculation. But perhaps the timing has nothing to do with it. I know what it is like to wait years, 10 years in fact, to blow the whistle on my abusers. I have abusers who I am still waiting for the right time to blow my whistle on them. Now is not the time. I waited for a time when the groundswell of support was such that I could blow the whistle and not stand alone. Perhaps Charlottes whistle blower waited until they had enough support around them, so they COULD be brave. I do not know. But we must not make this about the whistleblower that is the lowest hanging fruit here today.

Let us make this about WHY the top competitor in our industry, so completely failed. Why we cannot sanction almost any competitive riding in 2024 through an ethics lens? And why we need to stop cancelling peoples mistakes, and instead learn from them. So we never-ever- repeat them.

Two things can be true at the same time.

Someone can be abusing horses. And in the same breathe, make great choices for them. It is the human-problem. We have a heavy, clever, abstract brain that needs another 50 millions years of evolution to refine this new bio-computer and de-bug some of its glitches. The human brains most common glitch in my opinion, is the glitch of incongruence. Say one thing. Do one thing. Next minute contradict that entirely. It is almost like somebody left the paddock gate open in the human psyche and all the horses got out. Running chaos across the road. It is the reason why we so wholly engage in acts of abuse, torture, murder and systematic annihilation of others. Just like cancel culture is the annihilation of others we abhor, the same way abusive horse training is the annihilation of the horses well-being in real time. Be careful, outraged or not we may be, be careful to track the threads of aggression and hostility through our bodies, lest we make hypocrites of ourselves.

To use hostility and aggression and lack of listening to others and lack of compassion of others to cancel another, is the same human trait of lack of listening, hostility, aggression and lack of compassion shown to the horse in Charlotte's scandal. To weaponise the same weapons of the person we cancel... is by definition incongruent. The best way to no longer sanction the sort of abuse Charlotte engaged in, is to eliminate those same urgings from ourselves... wherever they show up. Yes- even when directed at Charlotte.

The human brains most common glitch in my opinion, is the glitch of incongruence. Our brains have not fully re-connected recent complex brain developments into our body, our ancient wisdoms, our empathy and our kindness.

I mean, we can. But it takes a Herculean effort to do so. In order to live a congruent life, one must be actively anti-social to the mainstream. Because mainstream living requires incongruence to fit in, survive and be successful.

Charlotte, like tens of thousands of top equine professionals, is part of this problem. Stuck in a system where she must force performance, force compliance, by any egregious means necessary, so that she can maintain her safety, her success, her image and her acceptance. Imagine being an Olympic Gold Medallist, training someone elses "lesser" horse, and the horse is not doing it the way your Valegro did it for you. Imagine doing that in front of an audience.

"I saw Charlotte at a clinic and actually, she couldn't get the results. It must be Valegro, not her"

Such nasty phrases are common place and directed everyday to all trainers, everywhere. Trainers are under enormous pressures to prove not only competency, but competency RIGHT NOW, and the means necessary are not important. This is a dynamic I work hard everyday to counter. It is so hard to do.

If we cancel Charlotte now we risk the following
1. Not learning from this. WHY did the TOP COMPETITOR in that industry still fail at horse ethics 101. If she is failing, we all are.
2. We risk covering up the positive impact she did make towards helmet culture, turn out culture and showcasing, 12 years ago, a relaxed horse. Even if he was one in a million. She still showcased that.
3. We lose an opportunity to understand the popular culture of training and how we need to double our efforts to reform it.

We actually need new parameters of competency. New parameters of success. We don't need to cancel Charlotte. She will get what is coming for her.

Cancel Culture in my opinion is the epitome of a diversion tactic. It is also hostile, and aggressive. And eye for an eye and we are all blind. Someone grappling with their own conscience in what they did or are currently doing to horses, can redirect their internal turmoil onto another and heap their own self loathing onto a scapegoat. They get an adrenal hit out of it. They feel better about themselves. The Germans call it "Schadenfreude" direct translation is Crappyfriend, or happiness at the misfortune of others. It is a toxic trait in my opinion to cancel an other.

We cannot talk a storyline of holding space for misbehaving horses, for troubled horses, if we cannot hold space for misbehaving and troubled people.

I see someone like Charlotte whipping a horse the way she did and I want to throw up, but I also acknowledge how troubled she must be. Troubled and damaged, before, during and after the abuse. not an excuse, I hold no sympathy for her. But damn, how damaged must someone be, to do what she did. How damaged must someone be to believe they can cancel another. Deny their existence, like a death. The same way horses are denied their existence.

Be careful, outraged or not, to track aggression patterns through our bodies and stop them in their tracks.

I have been saying for months:
"S**t is going to hit the fan this Olympics. We need to be ready to catch the people who are abandoning ship"

Olympics hasn't even started yet, and here we are. S**t-fan-ship.

09/07/2024

motto to read daily...

“The student must make an effort to look friendly at all times, to caress his horse often, and not to correct impatiently. Even if not everything succeeds according to his thoughts occasionally, he should not get upset and choleric, and mistreat his horse, in other words pr******te himself in front of the observers.

For there is nothing more unpleasant than seeing a rider spur and beat his horse, especially when he himself is the cause for the mistake. And it happens quite frequently that the rider causes the horse to make this or that mistake through an imperfect seat or an unsteady hand, for which the horse is not to be punished, but the rider is to blame.

A horse that is trained to subtle aids and who pays attention to the rider’s smallest movement, will inevitably react as soon as the hand, the legs or the seat move incorrectly. However, the horse must not be punished, since he only did what the rider asked for with his careless movement.”

Anonymous ~ 18th century chief rider of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna

08/07/2024

Happy Monday...☺️

08/07/2024

Saddle fitting

08/07/2024

Great info on worming...

Worming Information for horses, ponies and donkeys. Which is the best wormer and why? Know the risk of using ineffectual wormers on your horse. Natural wormers, Worm counts -do they work and why?

12/06/2024

06/06/2024

Training horses and their riders is not without difficulty.
Many riders do not do as the trainer has asked; to send the horse forward.

Fear is often the driving factor and once the horse understands, he would learn to “go” from the leg, and any underlying contractions would finally disappear.

But riding not only takes knowledge, it also takes a little courage.
Instead of learning the lesson after numerous teachers trying to teach this lesson, the rider instead of having a little courage, goes to yet another teacher hoping for some miracle.
They never learn to think for themselves and what actions they are continually doing or not doing perpetuating further failures.

"Millions of people never analyze themselves. Mentally they are products of the factory of their environment. They don’t know what or why they are seeking, nor why they never realise lasting satisfaction.
By evading self analysis, people go on like robots, conditioned by their environment.
True self analysis is the greatest art of progress."
(Paramahansa Yogananda)

It is difficult to really look at oneself and it is easier just to blame 'another'.

The idea of forward is a classical teaching as taught by what I regard as the basis of classical horsemanship; the great French Masters de la Gueriniere, Baucher, Beudant and of course the late Portuguese Master Nuno Oliveira, who at the end of his life gave his heart and soul back to the teachings of the famous Baucher.
Francois Baucher, a Frenchman who was not part of the elite (even in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries elitism was a driving factor to those who felt image was above substance)
Despite this Baucher would again and again demonstrate his training in horses no one else could train, for that he was either revered, or maligned. Sad for such a dedicated horseman who tried to demonstrate that his method of training could work on “any" horse.

Training forward should be the feeling as Alexis Hotte described once as the shooting of the pip of an orange seed pressed between two fingers. It should be immediate.
This eventually becomes “psychological” for the horse, as each time he feels the slightest pressure from the leg of the rider he immediately goes forward. No question.

It is of course initially ‘trained’ with the lesson of the leg by the language of the aids, which is how we speak to our horse. It is not by using more leg, as many teachers seem to attest, but educating the horse as to the understanding of the rider's leg. (There is no point other than to make the horse numb to the continuing application of the leg which the horse has never been taught to understand!)

But we do not keep him going forward initially, so as to tire the horse, but come back to a slower pace and reify the lesson of the leg. So as to cement the understanding. And we give plenty of praise. Balance is the fundamental key.
As Nuno said if the horse is already on the shoulders, we do not ask him to keep going forward as now he not only is on his shoulders but all his propelling weight is too.
(It is no wonder so many horses have pain due to overloaded joints - they are never balanced on all four legs)

We introduce all lessons incrementally, from the simplest to the more difficult so that it is clear.
We always have recourse to the simpler teachings if there are contractions as we progress. We work on the weaknesses.
(That is not to say we do not send the horse forward immediately if he becomes 'stuck', but that we develop the feel and confidence to do that when it is required)

As in any good training the lessons must be of short duration and the slightest giving of the horse needs to be rewarded.
One must understand however that before we can have the horse go forward, he must learn balance and forward added incrementally. Then the rider can be assured he has a horse who is light to the hand and light to the leg. That he is in balance.

Too many riders think the French traditional school is all about flexions at the halt and there is no real forward.
That is of course totally incorrect, but the horse needs to understand balance first. Therein is the major difference between the German and French teachings. Riding in the French Tradition is simply “balance before movement”, not the other way round.
This takes a great deal of time and dedication. One must believe as well as it is this also, during the sometimes difficult road in training horses that keeps one true to the path. Equestrian tact does not come without a rider who can give deep thought to his training and his horses responses.

This is of course difficult to understand as it is rarely taught to the majority of riders ingrained in the competition arena.
Lightness does not come from laziness, it comes from activity, but the horse is trained in parts so that there is no confusion.
It takes longer, but it is a superior level of understanding for both the horse and the horseman.

23/05/2024

It's never about the horse...

Let’s repeat it for the ones in the back - or front, depends how you see it:

We can train and manage and condition our horses - but we can’t change the fact that they are horses.

Horses are prey animals. Their whole existence is wrapped around the ever on going play in nature between prey and predator.
Their whole being has evolved around the behavior and skills they need to play this game.

They played this game more than 50 million years.
The 5000 years of domestication won’t change that soon.

Your horse is supposed to spook from noise and sight.
Your horse is supposed to bolt when it feels threatened.
Your horse is supposed to buck off what’s on his back.
Your horse is supposed to search for food.
Your horse is supposed to be buddy sour.

All what we call „vices“ is simply a surviving mechanism, implanted deeply into the DNA of every horse.

Your horse lives in a human world, where he has no handbook for in his genes. He is just being a horse.

It’s your task to show him trust, patience, calmness, strength, assertiveness and fairness. But you have to be like this yourself.

You cannot expect what you are not ready to give.

It’s your responsibility to help your horse navigate.

Acts of aggression, confining him, calling him names, defining him as „naughty“, does not teach or proof any horse to behave the right way. It only shows your capability of teaching a horse.

There are so many techniques, methods, tools and trainers all defining „bad behavior“ and their solutions, all hustling and managing around a horse to bend and press it into a form. All of them, that claim to be so knowledgeable, so experienced, so wise, have forgotten, that the horse is just a horse.

21/05/2024

Sound advice, in horses and life...

When I take to writing something that is going to be consumed by the public, I'm acutely aware that despite my best intentions, once the words are seen by eyes other than my own I have no control over how they'll be interpreted. This is both a blessing and a curse. Sometimes it leads people down their own knowledge rabbit holes, lets someone know they are not alone in their thoughts and observations, or sparks a desire to learn more: this is always my goal. Sometimes it behaves a little bit more nefariously and gives people unintended fodder for their own campaigns or confirmation bias that is not reflective of what I actually meant or believe.

'Tis the way of world, to a large extent, and the danger of the internet. That said: many do not have access to good resources and equine education and seek help from the broad reaches of the internet BECAUSE it is so vast, in the hopes that we might fall upon some folks who value what we value, see what we have seen and might be able to provide, through their experience and/or knowledge, some level of comfort that we aren't alone in this journey that we're on with our horses.

For every person who agrees with us, there will be multiple who don't. None of us have all the answers. I've gotten really good and comfortable over the last few years with saying "I don't know", because many times I don't. It's liberating and I think takes those of us that act in a professional capacity off a pedestal and puts us at a more human level. We're just people, like you, with horses, trying to figure it all out.

I also recognize that it's rare that we have the ability to match, pound for pound, someone else's experiences with their horses when compared with our own. There are too many moving parts and pieces, too many complex influences and FAR too many things we don't yet understand or may not even be aware of being at play for us to state, unequivocally, "this is how it is", "this is how you should do it" or "this is what happened."

What I hope people do, more than anything, when presented with things they don't understand is to think. Don't jump to sudden conclusions, don't over-extrapolate and come to judgments about someone based on your experiences or beliefs. If you're triggered, ask yourself why. What soft spot did something hit within you to make you feel vulnerable? What can you learn from it? How you respond to something says a lot more about you than it says about the thing you're reacting to. I think this goes for how we navigate conversations with our horses as much as it does how we navigate conversations with strangers on the internet.

Lots of people have found this page in the past week or so. As someone who has quietly written about horses and horsemanship for several years, and taught horsemanship in my little corner of the world for nearly a decade now, it is both exciting and terrifying.

So, as my grandmother used to say, "be kind to your web-footed friends". And your hooved ones. And your fellow toe-d ones. We're all in this together. Be curious. Be open. Ask questions. Think.