Post by Calaminty Jane on Feb 2, 2011 18:57:36 GMT -5
Hi All,
I sincerely hope you are all well and healthy. Most of you have heard me say “How you catch your horse, halter your horse and lead your horse are 3 of the 4 most important things you will do with your horse. How you leave your horse is the most important as that is where your will find him next time you are with him.” It’s not so much what you ask him to do, but how you ask him to do it. This is a good read, especially the last paragraph, by Mark Rashid’s former student Kathleen who now teaches on her own.
Haltering by Kathleen Lindley
Horsemanship seems to be a bunch of concentric, interlocking and overlapping circles and spheres. Just when we think we've got something mastered, we get a hint that there's yet another layer of mastery out there to be had within that specific skill. At least that's how it seems to work for me.
This past year I've been working a lot on haltering and bridling my horses. These were tasks that I'd begun doing kind of mechanically, without much feel or mindfulness because I did them so often and they were such mundane tasks. To be honest, a lot of times I wasn't mindful about my haltering or bridling because my mind was already working on the "fun" stuff: RIDING!!!! So last year I vowed to spend some more time studying and practicing haltering and bridling.
Winter time is a good time to start a project like this. We might have restricted time and daylight or poor footing. But we will be haltering our horse regardless.
Haltering is important, because if we're mindful, we can get a lot of information about a horse from how he halters. Mostly horses will bridle how they halter, so if we can work on haltering, we're also working on our bridling. And we've got an opportunity to take a leadership role with our horse right away by asking that they halter a certain way, with a certain feel.
Keep in mind that what follows is just one of an infinite number of ways to halter a horse. It's just a way I've been using that seems to help with a bunch of things that have become important to me with my horses. We can do this with any kind of halter, so that's not of critical importance for what we're talking about here.
First thing I'll do is ALWAYS have my halter and lead rope organized when I approach my horse. It's a bit rude to walk up to a horse and be all in a mess with one's halter and rope. Kind of like showing up for a meeting with your fly undone and shirt buttons unbuttoned. So we need to organize our halter and rope so we're able to move smoothly and straight-forwardly when we get to our horse.
Once I've caught my horse up, I'll kind of hug my horse around the neck and pass the crown piece of the halter over his neck from my left hand to my right. So I'll end up with the long piece of the crown in my right hand and the short end (the knot or the buckle) in my left hand, forming a complete loop around my horse's neck. This will allow me to use the crown piece of the halter to direct my horse's head down and toward me. I'd like him to reach for the halter eventually, and this is the start. I'd like him to halter at a comfortable height, say between my knees and my shoulders so I'm not on my tippy-toes as I halter him, with him leaning back away from the halter. I'd like him balanced on all four feet and soft through his body and his mind. When I use the halter to direct him here, I'm thinking already of the halter (or my hands on him) being connected not just to his head, but to his mind, his body and his feet. This is a spot where we can practice feeling the WHOLE horse through that physical connection we just made with him and we can feel the quality of his yield (or lack thereof). There's a difference between a horse who is reaching for me or the halter, and a horse who is pushy. I'd like him to reach without pushing. I don't want him to bump or bash me rudely with his head either, or drag me off.
With my horse's head tipped down and slightly toward me, with a soft arc (not a rigid arc) through his topline (vertically and laterally), I'll direct his nose into the halter. Interestingly, this is the same soft arc we might want to ride him in later. I'll then finish settling the halter into the proper position on his head, with awareness. I will work to keep the horse connected to me during all this, with his eyes and ears tilted toward me rather than away. A lot of times horses will start to hunt up the nose opening of the halter, so if my horse starts to do that, I'll certainly get myself set up so he can do that and we'll feel like it's really a team effort and I bring the thumbs for the buckles and knots.
I will finish buckling or tying my halter with my horse turned softly toward me and off we'll go.
It's worth noting here that doing something with mindfulness doesn't necessarily mean doing it slowly or hesitantly. Sometimes if we pause too much, the horse will get confused about that and fill that space with something. So smooth, assured movement is the goal. Look and feel like you know what you're doing and study what that feels like.
Un-haltering is important too because how we un-halter will set up how we will halter next time. Un-haltering will look and feel a lot like haltering. I'll ask my horse to reach out, down and toward me with his head and I'll slip the nose of the halter off his nose, returning to the position where I started, with the crown of the halter over the top of my horse's head/neck so I can direct him into that soft arc through his spine, his eyes and ears still connected to me. Once he's connected and settled and soft, with his head down, breathing well, I'll drop the halter off him.
We have many opportunities, every day, to further our horsemanship skills. Studying mundane, everyday tasks and doing them mindfully and with conscious feel while asking our horse to do these tasks to a high standard can provide benefits that reach far into our horsemanship. So this winter, pick a mundane task to study and see where that bunny-trail of awareness and mindfulness takes you.
Carol
"I Promise my horse... I will look for the smallest try,
always reward softness and never release on a brace."
ourlifeonthefarm.blogspot.com/
I sincerely hope you are all well and healthy. Most of you have heard me say “How you catch your horse, halter your horse and lead your horse are 3 of the 4 most important things you will do with your horse. How you leave your horse is the most important as that is where your will find him next time you are with him.” It’s not so much what you ask him to do, but how you ask him to do it. This is a good read, especially the last paragraph, by Mark Rashid’s former student Kathleen who now teaches on her own.
Haltering by Kathleen Lindley
Horsemanship seems to be a bunch of concentric, interlocking and overlapping circles and spheres. Just when we think we've got something mastered, we get a hint that there's yet another layer of mastery out there to be had within that specific skill. At least that's how it seems to work for me.
This past year I've been working a lot on haltering and bridling my horses. These were tasks that I'd begun doing kind of mechanically, without much feel or mindfulness because I did them so often and they were such mundane tasks. To be honest, a lot of times I wasn't mindful about my haltering or bridling because my mind was already working on the "fun" stuff: RIDING!!!! So last year I vowed to spend some more time studying and practicing haltering and bridling.
Winter time is a good time to start a project like this. We might have restricted time and daylight or poor footing. But we will be haltering our horse regardless.
Haltering is important, because if we're mindful, we can get a lot of information about a horse from how he halters. Mostly horses will bridle how they halter, so if we can work on haltering, we're also working on our bridling. And we've got an opportunity to take a leadership role with our horse right away by asking that they halter a certain way, with a certain feel.
Keep in mind that what follows is just one of an infinite number of ways to halter a horse. It's just a way I've been using that seems to help with a bunch of things that have become important to me with my horses. We can do this with any kind of halter, so that's not of critical importance for what we're talking about here.
First thing I'll do is ALWAYS have my halter and lead rope organized when I approach my horse. It's a bit rude to walk up to a horse and be all in a mess with one's halter and rope. Kind of like showing up for a meeting with your fly undone and shirt buttons unbuttoned. So we need to organize our halter and rope so we're able to move smoothly and straight-forwardly when we get to our horse.
Once I've caught my horse up, I'll kind of hug my horse around the neck and pass the crown piece of the halter over his neck from my left hand to my right. So I'll end up with the long piece of the crown in my right hand and the short end (the knot or the buckle) in my left hand, forming a complete loop around my horse's neck. This will allow me to use the crown piece of the halter to direct my horse's head down and toward me. I'd like him to reach for the halter eventually, and this is the start. I'd like him to halter at a comfortable height, say between my knees and my shoulders so I'm not on my tippy-toes as I halter him, with him leaning back away from the halter. I'd like him balanced on all four feet and soft through his body and his mind. When I use the halter to direct him here, I'm thinking already of the halter (or my hands on him) being connected not just to his head, but to his mind, his body and his feet. This is a spot where we can practice feeling the WHOLE horse through that physical connection we just made with him and we can feel the quality of his yield (or lack thereof). There's a difference between a horse who is reaching for me or the halter, and a horse who is pushy. I'd like him to reach without pushing. I don't want him to bump or bash me rudely with his head either, or drag me off.
With my horse's head tipped down and slightly toward me, with a soft arc (not a rigid arc) through his topline (vertically and laterally), I'll direct his nose into the halter. Interestingly, this is the same soft arc we might want to ride him in later. I'll then finish settling the halter into the proper position on his head, with awareness. I will work to keep the horse connected to me during all this, with his eyes and ears tilted toward me rather than away. A lot of times horses will start to hunt up the nose opening of the halter, so if my horse starts to do that, I'll certainly get myself set up so he can do that and we'll feel like it's really a team effort and I bring the thumbs for the buckles and knots.
I will finish buckling or tying my halter with my horse turned softly toward me and off we'll go.
It's worth noting here that doing something with mindfulness doesn't necessarily mean doing it slowly or hesitantly. Sometimes if we pause too much, the horse will get confused about that and fill that space with something. So smooth, assured movement is the goal. Look and feel like you know what you're doing and study what that feels like.
Un-haltering is important too because how we un-halter will set up how we will halter next time. Un-haltering will look and feel a lot like haltering. I'll ask my horse to reach out, down and toward me with his head and I'll slip the nose of the halter off his nose, returning to the position where I started, with the crown of the halter over the top of my horse's head/neck so I can direct him into that soft arc through his spine, his eyes and ears still connected to me. Once he's connected and settled and soft, with his head down, breathing well, I'll drop the halter off him.
We have many opportunities, every day, to further our horsemanship skills. Studying mundane, everyday tasks and doing them mindfully and with conscious feel while asking our horse to do these tasks to a high standard can provide benefits that reach far into our horsemanship. So this winter, pick a mundane task to study and see where that bunny-trail of awareness and mindfulness takes you.
Carol
"I Promise my horse... I will look for the smallest try,
always reward softness and never release on a brace."
ourlifeonthefarm.blogspot.com/