Post by Calaminty Jane on Mar 23, 2012 8:47:56 GMT -5
Horse Training Tips – Protecting Your Space
by Linda Parelli
There are two reasons a horse will invade your space or run over the top of you: He’s terrified and you’re in the way of his escape, or he does not see you as his alpha.
We’ve all heard Pat say the word "anthropomorphic” [an-thra-po-mor-fick] and there is no more graphic opportunity to understand the danger of thinking this way than in this situation. Anthropomorphic means “attributing human characteristics to nonhumans,” and we see it all the time in comics, movies and TV shows when animals are dressed up as humans, are able to speak and have human issues.
Anthropomorphism is alive and well in the horse industry on a different level. Here are some examples:
“My horse would never hurt me; he loves me.”
“He’s competitive. That’s why he always wants to be in front.”
“He loves to pull back.”
“He did it to get back at me.”
These comments apply human rationale to horse behavior, which is not only a misconception, it is dangerous. We need to apply equine rationale to horse behavior or we are at great risk of getting hurt, simply because we don’t understand the nature of horses. So let’s look at these again.
“He would only hurt me if he felt his life or dominance was threatened.”
He doesn’t even know he’s hurting you; you just got in the way of his survival instincts. He doesn’t know you’re not as resilient as another horse! This is why it’s so important to be savvy around horses. You need to know how to read behavior, handle horses, ride and develop them without inciting fear or fight.
“He’s afraid and lacking leadership. That’s why he’s tense, impulsive and restless.”
It’s not usually the most confident horse that’s at the front of a running herd. It’s the one that gets there and then can’t get back to the safest place—the middle.
“He panics when he feels trapped and pulls back because he’s trying to get away.”
A horse that pulls back is acting in fear, is claustrophobic and panics because he cannot get away.
Horses don’t seek revenge, but they do react according to their feelings about people who treat them badly. That’s why a good relationship is so important!
When a horse is afraid, his logic is all about survival, and he has two primary instincts for protecting his life:
Flight—A prey animal’s first reaction is to run!
or…
Fight—If trapped, fight for your life. Fight to get free.
If the horse is not afraid, then the equine logic has to do with dominance, which is mostly about breeding rights. This is one of the reasons many people get hurt handling stallions; they fail to realize they are interrupting a horse’s sex drive. Aggression and hormones are a very dangerous combination, and this applies to any horse that is “entire” (stallion or mare). Some geldings can have stallion-like behaviors due to being gelded late or ineffectively, but all dominant, Left-Brain horses can decide to push over or charge at a human who is threatening them in some way. Again, savvy is important because the idea is to not drive a horse to that point of frustration, defensiveness or aggression.
Horses don’t run over their leader
Probably the most humbling thing to realize is that a horse rarely runs into or over his alpha. Even when afraid, horses do whatever it takes to try to avoid bumping into their alpha! So what does that tell you about a horse that runs over a human? Obviously he does not see that human as his alpha.
The more you allow your horse to push you around, the less he thinks of you as his leader. And the more you allow your horse to be fearful when in your presence, the more likely he is to run over the top of you when afraid, especially if you hold him short and close. It’s vitally important to learn how to calm* your horse down and to do less sooner rather than more later. The more worried your horse is, the farther away from you he should be. I have a little saying when a horse that is high on adrenaline: “You are in no condition to be close to me!”
*Rapid and repeated disengagement of the hindquarters helps horses get calmer, and you can disengage from several feet away.
Respecting Alpha vs. Fearing the Human
How do you know if it’s a respect issue or a fear issue? Of course, in both cases the horse does not respect your space, but understanding the origin is important because it will help you successfully prevent the problem.
Respect issue:
The horse is…
a Left-Brain Horsenality™ (extrovert or introvert)
pushy, shoving you with his nose
invading your space slowly or “casually” (is not spooking or afraid at the time)
aggressive or dominant, especially at feeding time
confident around humans
coming “through” you with purpose—to move you
using his head like a weapon
Fear issue:
The horse is…
tense
spooky, over-reactive
moving quickly
wide-eyed, head up
coming at you with his shoulder, head looking the other way, running “blind”
trying to run toward safety—the barn, another horse
Being a prey animal, any horse has the potential to run over you when afraid; that’s why it’s so important to teach every horse to respect your space as a habit, so it becomes his default. Remember, horses don’t run over their alpha! Their alpha is a horse they both trust and respect.
Protecting your space
One of the first things to do with a horse is teach him to stay out of your space. It’s hard to get hurt when a horse is well outside your “bubble!”
Without moving your feet, use the Porcupine Game and the Driving Game to…
move him backwards and away
move the hindquarters
move the forehand
move the horse sideways
At first have a Carrot Stick and Savvy String, but get to where you can do it with just your hands.
Here are some more tactics to practice:
Do jumping jacks without looking at him.
Walk him halfway through a gate, turn toward him and back him up. This will teach him not to rush through gates.
Back up a few steps when leading him. This will teach him not to crowd you and to move away or back up when you back up. At first you will want to use jumping jacks or flapping elbows to assert yourself.
Swing the end of your rope like a propeller in front of you as you walk to drive your horse sideways away from you, then walk backwards and get him to back up the same way.
As your horse starts to understand and yield more easily, you can surprise him more and go a little faster. In this way you will simulate something sudden happening and install a habit of moving away from you rather than running over the top of you.
What do you do if your horse gets scared or spooks at your actions? Simply stop and wait until he is calm, allowing the rope to feed through of your hand as far as the horse needs to go. You may even need a longer rope if your horse is particularly flighty, but don’t stop the education. You may need to be less animated at first so you don’t scare him so much, and as he starts to understand you can increase the intensity. It’s important to allow him to drift and move away as much as he needs to, so be careful not to grab the rope and stop him or it will confuse him and even make him more worried.
Your horse needs to get out of your space but not be afraid of you.
Blocks
Blocks are martial arts moves in which you do something like stick your arm up to stop your horse’s head coming at your head. It blocks the move, but it is not a hit. Your arm shoots out and stops at a certain point; it has energy and strong intention to literally block any further advancement of your horse’s head into your space.
This is particularly useful with Left-Brain horses that tend to use their heads like weapons, casually wiping you out with a single swoop! Blocks can also be useful for preventing bites and have a completely different result than smacking a horse. They’re more effective, and there is no emotion behind a block.
Practice doing blocks with a friend. Ask your friend to clasp his or her hands together with outstretched arms and then imitate a horse swinging his head into your space. As your friend does this, throw your arm out to block it with the side of your forearm (not your hand). You’ll need to move your feet into a power position, spaced apart and diagonally opposed, and project your energy from your stomach, which will add a lot of intention to the block and prevent it from being flimsy. As you get better at this, have the friend do it from the side and from behind you to help develop your peripheral vision.
Remember, the block is not a hit or a swipe! It is a block that stops hard at an invisible point a couple of feet from your body, as if you have an invisible shield around you. Your horse needs to feel as though he ran into a wall, even though he couldn’t see it. There should be no force projecting into his space, just enough force to protect yours.
Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!
In the beginning you need to do some or all of these every day for a minimum of seven days. Then two or three times a week, and then intermittently after that. You want to test it every now and then to make sure it’s a well-installed habit. You are rehearsing for the unexpected and the unthinkable, so that if something suddenly happens, both of you will automatically do the right thing.
Make no assumptions when it comes to being around horses, and teach your horse to respect your space, not just for yourself, but for the safety of others who come around him…especially children.
by Linda Parelli
There are two reasons a horse will invade your space or run over the top of you: He’s terrified and you’re in the way of his escape, or he does not see you as his alpha.
We’ve all heard Pat say the word "anthropomorphic” [an-thra-po-mor-fick] and there is no more graphic opportunity to understand the danger of thinking this way than in this situation. Anthropomorphic means “attributing human characteristics to nonhumans,” and we see it all the time in comics, movies and TV shows when animals are dressed up as humans, are able to speak and have human issues.
Anthropomorphism is alive and well in the horse industry on a different level. Here are some examples:
“My horse would never hurt me; he loves me.”
“He’s competitive. That’s why he always wants to be in front.”
“He loves to pull back.”
“He did it to get back at me.”
These comments apply human rationale to horse behavior, which is not only a misconception, it is dangerous. We need to apply equine rationale to horse behavior or we are at great risk of getting hurt, simply because we don’t understand the nature of horses. So let’s look at these again.
“He would only hurt me if he felt his life or dominance was threatened.”
He doesn’t even know he’s hurting you; you just got in the way of his survival instincts. He doesn’t know you’re not as resilient as another horse! This is why it’s so important to be savvy around horses. You need to know how to read behavior, handle horses, ride and develop them without inciting fear or fight.
“He’s afraid and lacking leadership. That’s why he’s tense, impulsive and restless.”
It’s not usually the most confident horse that’s at the front of a running herd. It’s the one that gets there and then can’t get back to the safest place—the middle.
“He panics when he feels trapped and pulls back because he’s trying to get away.”
A horse that pulls back is acting in fear, is claustrophobic and panics because he cannot get away.
Horses don’t seek revenge, but they do react according to their feelings about people who treat them badly. That’s why a good relationship is so important!
When a horse is afraid, his logic is all about survival, and he has two primary instincts for protecting his life:
Flight—A prey animal’s first reaction is to run!
or…
Fight—If trapped, fight for your life. Fight to get free.
If the horse is not afraid, then the equine logic has to do with dominance, which is mostly about breeding rights. This is one of the reasons many people get hurt handling stallions; they fail to realize they are interrupting a horse’s sex drive. Aggression and hormones are a very dangerous combination, and this applies to any horse that is “entire” (stallion or mare). Some geldings can have stallion-like behaviors due to being gelded late or ineffectively, but all dominant, Left-Brain horses can decide to push over or charge at a human who is threatening them in some way. Again, savvy is important because the idea is to not drive a horse to that point of frustration, defensiveness or aggression.
Horses don’t run over their leader
Probably the most humbling thing to realize is that a horse rarely runs into or over his alpha. Even when afraid, horses do whatever it takes to try to avoid bumping into their alpha! So what does that tell you about a horse that runs over a human? Obviously he does not see that human as his alpha.
The more you allow your horse to push you around, the less he thinks of you as his leader. And the more you allow your horse to be fearful when in your presence, the more likely he is to run over the top of you when afraid, especially if you hold him short and close. It’s vitally important to learn how to calm* your horse down and to do less sooner rather than more later. The more worried your horse is, the farther away from you he should be. I have a little saying when a horse that is high on adrenaline: “You are in no condition to be close to me!”
*Rapid and repeated disengagement of the hindquarters helps horses get calmer, and you can disengage from several feet away.
Respecting Alpha vs. Fearing the Human
How do you know if it’s a respect issue or a fear issue? Of course, in both cases the horse does not respect your space, but understanding the origin is important because it will help you successfully prevent the problem.
Respect issue:
The horse is…
a Left-Brain Horsenality™ (extrovert or introvert)
pushy, shoving you with his nose
invading your space slowly or “casually” (is not spooking or afraid at the time)
aggressive or dominant, especially at feeding time
confident around humans
coming “through” you with purpose—to move you
using his head like a weapon
Fear issue:
The horse is…
tense
spooky, over-reactive
moving quickly
wide-eyed, head up
coming at you with his shoulder, head looking the other way, running “blind”
trying to run toward safety—the barn, another horse
Being a prey animal, any horse has the potential to run over you when afraid; that’s why it’s so important to teach every horse to respect your space as a habit, so it becomes his default. Remember, horses don’t run over their alpha! Their alpha is a horse they both trust and respect.
Protecting your space
One of the first things to do with a horse is teach him to stay out of your space. It’s hard to get hurt when a horse is well outside your “bubble!”
Without moving your feet, use the Porcupine Game and the Driving Game to…
move him backwards and away
move the hindquarters
move the forehand
move the horse sideways
At first have a Carrot Stick and Savvy String, but get to where you can do it with just your hands.
Here are some more tactics to practice:
Do jumping jacks without looking at him.
Walk him halfway through a gate, turn toward him and back him up. This will teach him not to rush through gates.
Back up a few steps when leading him. This will teach him not to crowd you and to move away or back up when you back up. At first you will want to use jumping jacks or flapping elbows to assert yourself.
Swing the end of your rope like a propeller in front of you as you walk to drive your horse sideways away from you, then walk backwards and get him to back up the same way.
As your horse starts to understand and yield more easily, you can surprise him more and go a little faster. In this way you will simulate something sudden happening and install a habit of moving away from you rather than running over the top of you.
What do you do if your horse gets scared or spooks at your actions? Simply stop and wait until he is calm, allowing the rope to feed through of your hand as far as the horse needs to go. You may even need a longer rope if your horse is particularly flighty, but don’t stop the education. You may need to be less animated at first so you don’t scare him so much, and as he starts to understand you can increase the intensity. It’s important to allow him to drift and move away as much as he needs to, so be careful not to grab the rope and stop him or it will confuse him and even make him more worried.
Your horse needs to get out of your space but not be afraid of you.
Blocks
Blocks are martial arts moves in which you do something like stick your arm up to stop your horse’s head coming at your head. It blocks the move, but it is not a hit. Your arm shoots out and stops at a certain point; it has energy and strong intention to literally block any further advancement of your horse’s head into your space.
This is particularly useful with Left-Brain horses that tend to use their heads like weapons, casually wiping you out with a single swoop! Blocks can also be useful for preventing bites and have a completely different result than smacking a horse. They’re more effective, and there is no emotion behind a block.
Practice doing blocks with a friend. Ask your friend to clasp his or her hands together with outstretched arms and then imitate a horse swinging his head into your space. As your friend does this, throw your arm out to block it with the side of your forearm (not your hand). You’ll need to move your feet into a power position, spaced apart and diagonally opposed, and project your energy from your stomach, which will add a lot of intention to the block and prevent it from being flimsy. As you get better at this, have the friend do it from the side and from behind you to help develop your peripheral vision.
Remember, the block is not a hit or a swipe! It is a block that stops hard at an invisible point a couple of feet from your body, as if you have an invisible shield around you. Your horse needs to feel as though he ran into a wall, even though he couldn’t see it. There should be no force projecting into his space, just enough force to protect yours.
Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!
In the beginning you need to do some or all of these every day for a minimum of seven days. Then two or three times a week, and then intermittently after that. You want to test it every now and then to make sure it’s a well-installed habit. You are rehearsing for the unexpected and the unthinkable, so that if something suddenly happens, both of you will automatically do the right thing.
Make no assumptions when it comes to being around horses, and teach your horse to respect your space, not just for yourself, but for the safety of others who come around him…especially children.