The Best Horse Sense

One day I was teaching Sharkie, a Percheron/Appaloosa cross mare, how to drop her head on command. If a horse mistrusts you, she will keep her head high. As you develop more trust, she will relax and drop her head more readily. While I was trying to teach Sharkie this task, she taught me an important lesson about asking quietly and politely.

My goal that day was actually to prepare Sharkie for the farrier. She needs to be able to lift her feet and stand quietly while the farrier trims her. In between working with her feet, I would do other tasks so that the whole session is not just about her feet. The variety help keeps her mind busy and not focusing on one task. Continue reading Ask Quietly, Listen Carefully

This doesn’t have anything to do with horses or leadership, but I thought I would share this bit of wisdom, anyway:

If you have to have surgery, it’s not such a bad deal to do it on your birthday.

Last November, I got bucked off a horse and landed on my wrist. The surgeon had to pin together nine pieces of my radius bone. (http://picasaweb.google.com/BastaRanch/WristInjury) After three months of therapy and healing, my therapist discovered that my bicep was torn. There was so much pain and trauma in the wrist area that no one had noticed, including me, that the bicep was just a useless puddle of muscle under my skin. Continue reading Birthday Surgery

Sometimes I read something I wish I had written. Dan Koch’s* reply to my latest post is so wonderful that I didn’t want it to get lost as just a reply. It deserves its own blog post.

The other day, one of my students (70 ish) came over to inform me how much she has benefited from the training received over the past year. She is a widow and just lost her brother. She shared with me how her lessons in horsemanship helped to work through the problems encountered during this sad time.

When horsemanship is truthful, it empowers the human. Taking responsibility for your horse

I was a little late getting out to feed the horses, and Sharkie was letting me know. She was banging on the fence with her hoof.

I realized that I hadn’t heard this banging for a while. She seldom does it any more.

Sharkie was a Premarin mare. She lived on a ranch in Alberta where they put pregnant mares into a barn in October, attach a collection device to their rear ends, and collect their urine. The drug company harvests the estrogen from these mares to make the hormone replacement therapy, Premarin (PREgnant MARe urINe). The mares are locked in the barn until April.

We have heard that the mares bang on their stalls at feeding time. I can’t imagine the cacophony of a 100 mares banging the stall walls with their hooves all at the same time. Continue reading She Bangs. A Lesson in Consistency

Last week Dan Koch (no relation, still) asked me some questions about my post “Why will a horse allow you to ride him into battle?”. I promised I would answer all of his questions, but the answers to the first questions started another conversation. Here are the questions I have not answered:

Also, are there times when you would tell someone not to let their horse just run? It has been proven that horses are creatures of habit, if they find the release from pressure in running will they not learn to keep running? and what about those of us who do not have the skills to sit on a run away horse? Isn

On twitter a few minutes ago, Elizabeth Alraune (@JoLoPe) asked me a question that I can’t really answer in a 140 character Tweet. She said that she was interviewing Diana Lees on World-of-Perspective-Radio.com. Diana teaches life lessons she learned from horses. Elizabeth asked if I want to listen, and “You two seem of like mind…who would you LIKE to meet? Who is the best type of person for you?”

I got excited because no one had ever asked me that, and I hadn’t really formed the words, but this is what came out in four Tweets:

“Horses changed my life. I became a better person. I want to share the lessons I learned. I know that not everyone loves horses but everyone loves SOMETHING. Many of the life lessons I learned translate to other endeavors. I want to share the universal lessons that I learned in the particulars of horsemanship. Others can then translate them to their own loves. So, what type of person? Anyone who wants to get out of their comfort zone and learn something about themselves.”

Then, Elizabeth asked me the $64,000 question: How do you do that? Continue reading How do you do that?

Dan Koch (no relation) sent me some questions about my post on leading horses into battle. His questions had so much depth that I figured I would create a new post, and not just answer in the thread. Here are his questions and my replies.

How do you know that horses crave leadership from a human?

The semi-short answer is: It’s a metaphor that works. Continue reading Craving Leadership

For the past couple of weeks, we have been moving our horses to our neighbor’s pasture each day. He has old grass that needs to be grazed down before the new growth starts, and our horses enjoy going to a different place to graze. It also saves me on feed because we don’t have any land that is grazable right now.

The horses are usually pacing the fence waiting for me to come out and let them out the gate, across the driveway, and into the pasture. They like to run toward the pasture as soon as the gate is open. However, this morning they all milled around the gate, but would not exit. Usually, if I walk ahead and lead them, they will follow. Not this morning. I could not get any one of the eight to go through the gate. Continue reading The Scary Big Blue Tarp

I was having a Twitter conversation with Daniel Berman (@danielcberman) this morning about horses, and I had some thoughts that just wouldn’t fit in 140 characters.

I was talking to Daniel about how smart horses are. They aren’t smart in the same way we are. They are smart in the ways they need to survive. Since horses are prey animals, they must always be aware of their environment. Their survival depends on being able to discern what is dangerous and what is not. If they perceive something to be dangerous, they are hard coded to run. On the other hand, they can’t run at every leaf that rustles in the bushes. As a result, horses are black belts at reading body language.

Daniel then asked an astute question: “Why do horses allow us to ride them into battle?” Continue reading Why Will a Horse Allow You to Ride Him into Battle?

Please let me know what you think of the three quick articles I wrote to be submitted to eZineArticles.com. They are in the “Pages” section in the right hand column.