Mind Meld

Four star sentence of the day from –ellie. “But then I realized that I'm fourteen. I don't want a crazy wired-up fantastically skilled grand prix horse. I want a horsey.”

I have a fantastical plan going here. I'm not sure how to do it...probably a second blog attached to the Chronicles??? A training guide, written by all of us. We start here, and I'll begin building it.
I can start going through my old posts (yes it will take forever) and pick up the training questions. I'll start with the ones I've answered, try to find the ones I haven't and they will be part of the training blog....This could turn into an absolutely astounding reference guide.
You're input and opinions will be included. People looking for help can go with the approach which suits their situation. Whoa baby, is this as good an idea as I think it is?

First Day With a New Horse

My Start –
When I first get to know a horse I turn him loose in a round pen or arena. If it's a round pen I want it to be pretty big because I want the horse to be able to be able to stay away if he chooses.I like to be outside (let's make it 75 degrees, no wind and I've got a beer, ya wanna?) with lots of distractions and noise.I'll sit on the fence and watch my horse as he moves around, looking at the interesting stuff. If he comes over and tries to crawl in my lap I'll push him away. If he sticks to me anyway I'll go get a longe whip.If he'll pause a second while he explores, whinnies, runs, whatever and sniffs my boot I'll be pleased.I won't get in the pen with him until he relaxes and begins walking and sniffing the ground a little. If he is really agitated I'll wait until the next day if I need to.

Bif’s start - It depends on my amenities (pastured or stabled). If stabled, I make sure I am the one leading horse in and out every time for the first few weeks. They have so few memories in the storage banks of proper leading behavior that I want all the input for awhile to be as correct as I can make it. I always slip the lead over the neck before I halter, so they never learn they can get away from the halter going on.I will go and visit them a few times a day in the field, say hi, scratch good scratchy parts. I always end the encounter first, walking away.

If it's a domesticated;-), broke animal, I'd get it into the "barn routine" the first day, always making sure he respects my space and leadership and ignore anything negative that isn't a respect issue, i.e. fear based. I provide calm leadership, and expect they'll follow along soon enough.

Crappyrider’s start - So, for now she's learning she's not all that cute muggy puppy she thinks she is. She's learning to move out of my space right now. I drive her off until she faces up in the pasture. No walking into my space.

Glenatron’s start - I think when a new horse arrives I would expect to put them out in a pen or paddock for a while to let them get a little used to their surroundings and once they had settled to be able to rest off any immediate stress or tiredness from their journey. That presents a good opportunity to get a first idea of what kind of horse they are, based on what they do or don't do, and how they move.When it came to working with them - probably the next day - I would work on a lead. Most horses in this country that are old enough to work with ( which is probably old compared with when they would be started in the US, particularly western ) are accustomed to the basics of being caught and handled. So I would bring them into the arena and start just exploring what they know and how they relate to me. Do they know how to follow a feel? Do they understand about my personal space? Do they push onto pressure or run away from it and by how much? Which eye/side do they find it easier to work on? Are there areas where they are shy about being touched, do they tend to be relaxed or twitchy about that? Where are the thresholds in terms of their responses - what is the least I can do to create a change in them?

Golden the Pony Girl’s start - I like to start my first encounter in the round pen too. I keep it simple and work on just getting the horses attention on me. Depends on where the horse is in their training of course I just pick something that I know the horse can say yes to. I want the first encounter to be easy and simple.

Gttyup’s start - Somehow a lot of the colts I get in to start are hardly halter broke. So, they usually get ran into the round pen (not lead in). My round pen is outside (which I prefer). There are other horses around. My dogs are doing their doggie things. Normal daily stuff. After they've had a chance to investigate the pen and I watch their reactions, I start their round pen 101 which is ditto to Mugwump's.

Tansy’s start - When I got him, the first few days I would catch him, bring him in and groom him. Noticing how he reacted to going through gates, being haltered, being touched everywhere, giving me his feet. I would ask him to move away from me. I did some nice relaxing body work on him. I found the bits he looooves to have scratched.

Shanster’s start- When I brought home my mare and my gelding (different times) I put them in the smaller of my 2 dry lot pens - by themselves and I just watched them for a week. I'm never in any hurry and I'm a huge slow poke.We feed 2x a day and I may walk up to say hello, scritches - that sort of thing.

Rocky mouse’s start - When we got the little Appie a few months ago, he was put in the square pen for a few days, where he could have the other two horses on the other side of the tall, solid fence. He could touch noses and see everybody.The first day, we hunkered on one side of the pen and just watched. If he came up to us, he was patted and urged to move on.

Caitlyn’s start - The first day was all about how the horse would act under the worst circumstances I could come up with. They got enough time to eat drink and for me to have breakfast before I caught one. I didn't waste my time, I wanted to see how spooky they could be and i'd go back and work on things later. I brushed then tacked up quickly, loudly and dropped brushes and such around them to see their reactions, then headed to the roundpen for their first ride. If they acted like a complete idiot i'd teach them to round pen and flex then hop on, otherwise I climbed on up. The first few minutes I rode around at a walk and trot then I got enough confidence to lope. After that I tried to find out their buttons then I acted as insane as possible. I flopped around, yelled, waved my hat around etc. If this horse was going to break in two I wanted it to be with me, not a customer.

Rheather’s start - I start by just hanging around them as much as possible for the first couple of days, both to get them used to the newness of being here(I suddenly pet cats or trip over them alot, and I have screaming, bouncing goats) and to let them start to adjust to a different situation.

Funder’s start-I've only bought (theoretically) broke horses, so my method is to assume that they know how to act and immediately correct them if they don't. I'm a little slower and "quieter" when I go to catch a new horse out of a paddock, but otherwise, I just expect them to behave.

--ellie.’s start- That's how it went the first day. We let her out in a pasture to gallop around for a while, then took her into our fenced arena (no round pen) and lunged her. She didn't know how to lunge, but learned quickly.

Slippin’s start - When I first got my gelding, he had just gotten off the trailer from a 1800 mile road trip. I left him in his stall for a few hours to let him settle in and eat and drink and relax. Then I saddled him up and rode him around in the arena. I didn't work him hard, just enough to get him "Out".

Common Approaches : Most of us agree on an initial period of observation. Observation can entail just watching to see how the horse responds to the activity around him to leading and basic handling 101.

Caitlyn, I've got to tell you, the Big K would love you. The reason we got on our colts and dug in as quick as we did was because he wanted to find out the worst they had right away. His point was that then we (OK, he meant me) would realize we could handle whatever they had in them and then continue to train without fear.

There is a level of horsemanship needed to pull off Caitlyn's approach. Funder's seems to be close too. The rider has to be good enough to live through what the new horse hands her. She also has to be able to find out what the horse has without making the situation worse.

This is not a beginner's approach.

I make the handling of my horse an ongoing process. My horses learn as we go. So I'll be working on handling feet as I'm working on loping circles. They learn a lot just because life shows them, so I use it.

My priority is, standing tied, accepting the saddle, then me on them. It took me 3 days to a week, it took the Big K less. Not always, sometimes we would get a real wild child in and it could take 30 days.

Many of you do things in a progression.

Touching all over and feet seem big.

So lets talk about initial handling. Why do you want these things done first and how do you do it?

I want me horse to let me halter him. So I work them free until they learn to move out, stop, and look at me. I will crouch low (think cougar about to get lunch) and run a them to create my forward. I'll use a longe whip or halter on a rope (whichever is handiest) to get the colt to MOVE when I say move.
I stand up and back away to release pressure and teach them to stop. I haven't said whoa yet.
I do this because I want my colt to know I can control his movement. He doesn't have to like me. He has to acknowledge me.
I don't teach them to come to me. I go to them. I feel safer this way. It plants the seed of personal space.

I want him to let me halter him. I will stroke his neck if he wants me to. So I walk toward his shoulder with the halter clearly in sight.

If I can halter him I do. If I can't we work some more. Not angrily, just quiet. But we practice Go, Turn, Stop until he would like the halter on please. Then I'll let him go, work him and halter him one more time before I'm done for the day.

If he's not quiet and happy I don't mind. We'll just try again the next day. But when I halter him the last time I take him to the tie rail. I tie him up, usually with a quiet, decent minded horse tied nearby, and there he stays.

I have accomplished the first steps of control on the ground and the colt now begins to learn standing tied is a social time for him, a rest time and his first lesson in patience.

I have become very nonverbal with my horses as the years have gone by. I've been told I have kind of a low, muttery conversation going with them. I think I'm just thinking out loud, because in my head I'm not talking to my colt, I'm training him with my body movements. But that's what happens when you work by yourself for too many years. It's not a training technique, it's more crazy old bag lady.

I'll leave leading for another day.

So do we agree on observation as our first step?

I've explained my next step and why. Now it's your turn. Don't worry if it's different from me, philosophically or technique. Just describe and explain.

I am so jazzed.