Post by Calaminty Jane on Feb 4, 2009 12:31:34 GMT -5
Why do I care about how my horse carries himself?
For the last nine years, I have struggled to improve my horsemanship. My motivation has been to help my friend Mac become more content living in the human world. The path I have followed has brought me to understand more about how horses learn and how to motivate them. Along the way, I learned that much of what appears to be training issues can be related to physical problems. Many created inadvertently by me.
Horses in the wild rely on the instincts that nature has given them to survive. Their most important survival tool is flight. When alerted to danger.. the head rises abruptly. This quick rise of the horses head stimulates a burst of adrenalin and the horse is at full speed in an instant. This is a good thing for the horse… in the wild. But when this happens when we are riding, it can be dangerous to us and our horse. How else does this adrenalin affect our interaction with our horse? Think about any horse you have ever seen that required a tie down to be controlled. Even when walking, the nose is poked out pressing against the noseband. Horses that dance around when being held in hand and can’t seem to settle down. When I think about any horse I’ve seen that is upset for any reason…. His nose is poked out; his head is high and his back flat or even inverted. This posture….. even at a walk will stimulate an adrenalin response. The horse can’t seem to relax no matter what you do. It’s not his fault or yours. He is on some amount of adrenalin. There is only one way to get him off the adrenalin and that is to get him to soften his back and lower his head. Why does a grazing horse look so peaceful? When the horse lowers his head endorphins begin to flow. This is what releases the tightness in his back that produced the adrenalin. Being able to calm our horse any time they get upset should be an important goal for any horse owner. The answer is to encourage a position that will help the horse be as relaxed as possible when we are on the ground and under saddle.
Why when I ride my horse does he seem to be rushing or maybe he refuses to go at all? Does he just like to go fast or is he just lazy? More often than not, he is trying to stay in balance so he feels comfortable with your weight. Imagine carrying a 4 year old child on your shoulders. Where would you like his weight to stay so you don’t feel out of balance? If he leans forward, wouldn’t you rush to get under him? I he kept leaning so the both of you were out of balance, might you be hesitant to move? Horses have reasons for all that they do. As a good partner, we need to understand as much as we can about “Why my horse does that” and “What can I do to make it better for both of us”?
What if your horse is calm 100% of the time? Should you care about how he carries himself?? Only if you want to give your horse every opportunity to stay sound his entire life. Again, in the wild, the relaxed horse travels with a flat back….. head level… at all gaits. So why can’t he travel in that natural state as I ride him? In the wild, he is not carrying anywhere between 100 to 300 lbs of live weight on his back. The horse already knows how to do most of what we will ever ask of him. So, we are not training him to do these things, but training him to do them with us on his back in such a way that it is the best way for him, mentally and physically.
We need to be better riders and learn how to balance our horse on the ground and under saddle.
For the last nine years, I have struggled to improve my horsemanship. My motivation has been to help my friend Mac become more content living in the human world. The path I have followed has brought me to understand more about how horses learn and how to motivate them. Along the way, I learned that much of what appears to be training issues can be related to physical problems. Many created inadvertently by me.
Horses in the wild rely on the instincts that nature has given them to survive. Their most important survival tool is flight. When alerted to danger.. the head rises abruptly. This quick rise of the horses head stimulates a burst of adrenalin and the horse is at full speed in an instant. This is a good thing for the horse… in the wild. But when this happens when we are riding, it can be dangerous to us and our horse. How else does this adrenalin affect our interaction with our horse? Think about any horse you have ever seen that required a tie down to be controlled. Even when walking, the nose is poked out pressing against the noseband. Horses that dance around when being held in hand and can’t seem to settle down. When I think about any horse I’ve seen that is upset for any reason…. His nose is poked out; his head is high and his back flat or even inverted. This posture….. even at a walk will stimulate an adrenalin response. The horse can’t seem to relax no matter what you do. It’s not his fault or yours. He is on some amount of adrenalin. There is only one way to get him off the adrenalin and that is to get him to soften his back and lower his head. Why does a grazing horse look so peaceful? When the horse lowers his head endorphins begin to flow. This is what releases the tightness in his back that produced the adrenalin. Being able to calm our horse any time they get upset should be an important goal for any horse owner. The answer is to encourage a position that will help the horse be as relaxed as possible when we are on the ground and under saddle.
Why when I ride my horse does he seem to be rushing or maybe he refuses to go at all? Does he just like to go fast or is he just lazy? More often than not, he is trying to stay in balance so he feels comfortable with your weight. Imagine carrying a 4 year old child on your shoulders. Where would you like his weight to stay so you don’t feel out of balance? If he leans forward, wouldn’t you rush to get under him? I he kept leaning so the both of you were out of balance, might you be hesitant to move? Horses have reasons for all that they do. As a good partner, we need to understand as much as we can about “Why my horse does that” and “What can I do to make it better for both of us”?
What if your horse is calm 100% of the time? Should you care about how he carries himself?? Only if you want to give your horse every opportunity to stay sound his entire life. Again, in the wild, the relaxed horse travels with a flat back….. head level… at all gaits. So why can’t he travel in that natural state as I ride him? In the wild, he is not carrying anywhere between 100 to 300 lbs of live weight on his back. The horse already knows how to do most of what we will ever ask of him. So, we are not training him to do these things, but training him to do them with us on his back in such a way that it is the best way for him, mentally and physically.
We need to be better riders and learn how to balance our horse on the ground and under saddle.