Post by kigermamma on Nov 4, 2009 18:55:16 GMT -5
I have been reading articles and watching videos every chance I get lately. I've come across a lot of great information and training tips, but I really liked this article and thought I would share it. I'm sure a lot of you already know this stuff, but it's a good read anyway 
I found it on Martin Black's website:
What makes our horses unresponsive?
The answer: Boiled frogs. Our horses are extremely sensitive animals. They can also be very trainable, that’s what makes them such good partners. They can learn to be very tolerant, even to pain and discomfort. At one point a horse can be afraid and fighting for their life and we may not even have physical contact with them. That same horse later in life can be unresponsive or desensitized to the same and even greater pressures or pain.
How do we do this? Or my question in many cases is “why do people do this?” I believe in many cases the people are getting boiled along with their horses and don’t even realize it.
Frogs adapt to any temperature as long as the change is gradual. If you take a frog, put it in cold water and slowly turn up the heat, the frogs’ body temp will slowly increase with the water and the frog will not notice or respond from the change. On the other hand, you can drop a frog directly into hot water and it will jump out realizing the sudden change it was exposed to.
This is what I see so many times with people and their horses. They slowly increase the pressure and wait for their horse to respond, then increase the pressure and wait, then after no response, add a bit more pressure until it takes quite a bit of heat to get a response. When we make gradual changes, our horses learn to tolerate it. The slower we turn the heat up the less noticeable it is. When we want to desensitize areas this is an effective and positive method. But let’s do a self evaluation; do you need to kick or ask repeatedly to start or maintain motion with your horse? Is your horse desensitized to your cues? The horse can feel you getting ready to kick them and if they understand the direction and rate of speed intended they can respond accordingly.
The fly lands softly on them then suddenly bites them causing a quick change of awareness. The horse makes a sudden adjustment by attempting to get rid of the fly. If this is all it takes to get the horse to react, maybe we should reevaluate what it takes for us to get a response.
It is important that we reward the horse for acknowledging our request, and not expect a specific result, only a change. If they are acknowledging the pressure, they are responding. It may not be the response that you want and if it is not, then you need to ask them in a different way. When we ask them to go, if we give a light comfortable signal then reinforce it with enough to get a response like going from a comfortable 65 degrees to an uncomfortable 100 degrees, they will hunt the 65 degrees. If we want to operate between 70 degrees and 80 degrees, when the horse experiences 81 degrees we should suddenly increase the temp to 90, 110 or even 150 degrees if we need to until the horse realizes and responds to the sudden change. Then when the horse knows they can stay between 70 and 80 degrees, they wont want to experience 150, 110 90 or even 81 degrees.
Our presentation will determine the response we get from our horses. We can softly motivate and direct them like the fly or we can slowly boil them like a frog. Some people may think of it as being rough or harsh when a horse may get startled, but it only happens periodically in carefully measured doses and is always preceded by a warning. It may be a lot more humane than boiling them without anyone noticing, even the horse.
Good horsemanship is no doubt a fine art. People can’t teach people horsemanship. People can help people learn about horses and develop their horsemanship, but it has to come from the horse. The horse is the only one that can and will confirm if your horsemanship is effective.
What’s the message you are giving your horse?
Why can one rider have trouble getting a horse to respond and another rider take the same horse and get along great? We may be familiar with the influence of feel and timing, but something that could be quicker for the rider to learn is the effect of the rein or reins in different positions.
We can observe different places we position one or both reins and note the response we get from our horses. Also, note the direction of pull along with the amount and time of pressure applied in relation to the horse’s response. It makes no difference whether we wanted the response they gave us, the important thing to note is what action got what reaction.
Experimenting with the following rein positions can potentially give you completely different results: try pulling one rein to your hip, or pulling straight out from the horses shoulder, in front of the saddle lifting the rein against the wither, or with a short rein lifting and pushing against the jaw. All this is done with one rein, different lengths, different directions and different amounts of pressure, to get totally different responses.
Using one rein to get them to start or stop their feet will get the horse to respond without pulling on our hands as much as they can when we pull on both reins. For example, if we pull both reins evenly to stop and the horse doesn’t respond with the feet properly and starts pulling on our hands, we can relax one rein and pull on the other rein enough to put a bend in their neck. Then they won’t be pulling as hard as when their neck is straight and this can transmit through the loin to the hind quarter which will step to one side instead of pushing straight ahead, which will help them to slow down.
When backing, if they are heavy, we can take one rein to move the hind feet first, then draw both reins to get the front feet to follow the hind feet back.
Whether it is speed regulation, stop, back, change of direction, or any combination thereof, there is a place that can maximize the message you desire by positioning the rein. Once the horse learns how to interpret our desire and learns how to prepare to do what we are asking, our hands don’t need to be in such drastic positions and we can become more uniform with our signals.
Once we understand the effects of one rein, then we can realize the difference when we add the second rein. Again, experimenting with the position and pressure of each rein and all the effects of it; head elevation, speed or change of direction. It is important to identify how the horse places its feet when changing direction. The front quarters can be reaching left while the hindquarters are reaching right, or both front and hind can be reaching the same direction, or one can be neutral, pivoting while the other has all the motion. Also note whether they are in a forward motion or a reverse motion, all of these variations can change because of the position of the rein.
Instead of us trying to force confusing messages to our horses, if we can step back and observes the cause and effect, learn from that, understand that the horse isn’t trying to frustrate us and make trouble for themselves. The horse is always looking for the path of least resistance, although we may not understand why they do what they do, we can understand what we did to cause them to do it, and use that to get what we want.
I found it on Martin Black's website:What makes our horses unresponsive?
The answer: Boiled frogs. Our horses are extremely sensitive animals. They can also be very trainable, that’s what makes them such good partners. They can learn to be very tolerant, even to pain and discomfort. At one point a horse can be afraid and fighting for their life and we may not even have physical contact with them. That same horse later in life can be unresponsive or desensitized to the same and even greater pressures or pain.
How do we do this? Or my question in many cases is “why do people do this?” I believe in many cases the people are getting boiled along with their horses and don’t even realize it.
Frogs adapt to any temperature as long as the change is gradual. If you take a frog, put it in cold water and slowly turn up the heat, the frogs’ body temp will slowly increase with the water and the frog will not notice or respond from the change. On the other hand, you can drop a frog directly into hot water and it will jump out realizing the sudden change it was exposed to.
This is what I see so many times with people and their horses. They slowly increase the pressure and wait for their horse to respond, then increase the pressure and wait, then after no response, add a bit more pressure until it takes quite a bit of heat to get a response. When we make gradual changes, our horses learn to tolerate it. The slower we turn the heat up the less noticeable it is. When we want to desensitize areas this is an effective and positive method. But let’s do a self evaluation; do you need to kick or ask repeatedly to start or maintain motion with your horse? Is your horse desensitized to your cues? The horse can feel you getting ready to kick them and if they understand the direction and rate of speed intended they can respond accordingly.
The fly lands softly on them then suddenly bites them causing a quick change of awareness. The horse makes a sudden adjustment by attempting to get rid of the fly. If this is all it takes to get the horse to react, maybe we should reevaluate what it takes for us to get a response.
It is important that we reward the horse for acknowledging our request, and not expect a specific result, only a change. If they are acknowledging the pressure, they are responding. It may not be the response that you want and if it is not, then you need to ask them in a different way. When we ask them to go, if we give a light comfortable signal then reinforce it with enough to get a response like going from a comfortable 65 degrees to an uncomfortable 100 degrees, they will hunt the 65 degrees. If we want to operate between 70 degrees and 80 degrees, when the horse experiences 81 degrees we should suddenly increase the temp to 90, 110 or even 150 degrees if we need to until the horse realizes and responds to the sudden change. Then when the horse knows they can stay between 70 and 80 degrees, they wont want to experience 150, 110 90 or even 81 degrees.
Our presentation will determine the response we get from our horses. We can softly motivate and direct them like the fly or we can slowly boil them like a frog. Some people may think of it as being rough or harsh when a horse may get startled, but it only happens periodically in carefully measured doses and is always preceded by a warning. It may be a lot more humane than boiling them without anyone noticing, even the horse.
Good horsemanship is no doubt a fine art. People can’t teach people horsemanship. People can help people learn about horses and develop their horsemanship, but it has to come from the horse. The horse is the only one that can and will confirm if your horsemanship is effective.
What’s the message you are giving your horse?
Why can one rider have trouble getting a horse to respond and another rider take the same horse and get along great? We may be familiar with the influence of feel and timing, but something that could be quicker for the rider to learn is the effect of the rein or reins in different positions.
We can observe different places we position one or both reins and note the response we get from our horses. Also, note the direction of pull along with the amount and time of pressure applied in relation to the horse’s response. It makes no difference whether we wanted the response they gave us, the important thing to note is what action got what reaction.
Experimenting with the following rein positions can potentially give you completely different results: try pulling one rein to your hip, or pulling straight out from the horses shoulder, in front of the saddle lifting the rein against the wither, or with a short rein lifting and pushing against the jaw. All this is done with one rein, different lengths, different directions and different amounts of pressure, to get totally different responses.
Using one rein to get them to start or stop their feet will get the horse to respond without pulling on our hands as much as they can when we pull on both reins. For example, if we pull both reins evenly to stop and the horse doesn’t respond with the feet properly and starts pulling on our hands, we can relax one rein and pull on the other rein enough to put a bend in their neck. Then they won’t be pulling as hard as when their neck is straight and this can transmit through the loin to the hind quarter which will step to one side instead of pushing straight ahead, which will help them to slow down.
When backing, if they are heavy, we can take one rein to move the hind feet first, then draw both reins to get the front feet to follow the hind feet back.
Whether it is speed regulation, stop, back, change of direction, or any combination thereof, there is a place that can maximize the message you desire by positioning the rein. Once the horse learns how to interpret our desire and learns how to prepare to do what we are asking, our hands don’t need to be in such drastic positions and we can become more uniform with our signals.
Once we understand the effects of one rein, then we can realize the difference when we add the second rein. Again, experimenting with the position and pressure of each rein and all the effects of it; head elevation, speed or change of direction. It is important to identify how the horse places its feet when changing direction. The front quarters can be reaching left while the hindquarters are reaching right, or both front and hind can be reaching the same direction, or one can be neutral, pivoting while the other has all the motion. Also note whether they are in a forward motion or a reverse motion, all of these variations can change because of the position of the rein.
Instead of us trying to force confusing messages to our horses, if we can step back and observes the cause and effect, learn from that, understand that the horse isn’t trying to frustrate us and make trouble for themselves. The horse is always looking for the path of least resistance, although we may not understand why they do what they do, we can understand what we did to cause them to do it, and use that to get what we want.
they dont think to look at other things first....like the horse not knowing or reacting to something they did...oh well!