Julie Goodnight On the Road

Horse Trainer's Visit to The Elephant Farm

2012-05-07T16:18:00.000-06:00

Sometimes my job and my standing in the equine world opens up some incredible doors for me. I am so fortunate to do what I do and I have met so many interesting people through my travels; some of whom have becomes friends for life. Yesterday was no exception.

It was like a dream come true for me. I got to meet, up close and personal, five amazing Asian elephants: Dixie, Rosie, Becky, Kitty and Tai. What incredibly beautiful, intelligent, kind and gentle animals! To stand in the middle of five huge elephants while they surrounded me, sniffed me all over with their trunks and felt around my face; hearing their deep guttural purring, their barking and screeching calls as they greeted us; and getting fanned by their giant ears was a special thrill I’ll never forget.

I had met the owners and renowned elephant trainers at a horse expo in California a couple of years ago (they also have a team of matched ponies that perform liberty acts) and after hearing of my fascination with elephants, they extended an open invitation to come visit their farm and yesterday, Twyla and I took them up on their standing invitation, after we finished a clinic in Norco, CA.

Their facility is incredibly beautiful with spacious areas for the elephants to hang out; it is meticulously clean, neat and safe for the elephants and the care these animals get on a daily basis far exceeds what you would expect to get at a 5-star spa. Here, they explain to Twyla and I how the bull's pen was constructed, while Kitty and Tai have a drink behind them.

We arrived at the southern California elephant farm a little after 8:00 am, two hours after the daily chores had begun and just as the last elephant was finishing her daily bath and head-to-tail scrub down (with Murphy’s Oil Soap). She’s not inside an enclosure or restrained in any way as picks up her feet, lifts her trunk, lays down and turns around on command as three handlers scrub every square inch of her body; they use a power washer to rinse. This daily cleaning is essential to maintain healthy skin but it is clear that the elephants love every minute of it. Their hide is thick and leathery with coarse hair all over.

The entire time we were at the farm (about 4 hours) the elephants were totally loose, with no restraints of any kind and all the gates wide open (except, of course, the perimeter fence which doesn’t so much keep the elephants in as keep the rest of the world out). Keep in mind this is a private training farm-- not open to the public. Most of the time the elephants obediently walked by the handler’s side, doing anything they asked with simple voice commands spoken softly: “Rosie, come here,” “Kitty, move over,” “Becky, lay down,” “Tai, trunk,” (means lift your trunk and prepare for a command). The elephants are happy, content and want to be with their handlers; obedient to every cue and repsonsive to the slightest gesture.

After bath time, it’s time for their daily exercise and with the simple command, “tail,” they got in a single file line, grabbed on to the tail in front of them, and began their march around the large pen (with the wide open gates). They walked in a line, trunk to tail, deep into the corners, maintained a steady march and went through their paces without argument or protest. I thought about how hard it is to get a horse to do this when you are on top of him and holding onto two reins and guiding his every step yet these gentle giants (mega herbivores—the technical classification) did it willingly from one voice command from the handler standing at a distance, with no physical contact.

After about 20 minutes of walking, Gary showed us some of the tricks the girls use in their performances—a 360 degree spin, lay down, sit up, do a hand-stand, wave their trunks, stand on their hind legs. All of this done with simple and quiet voice cues. With incredible grace and strength, they happily performed these difficult maneuvers, clearly eager to please Gary and perhaps to show off in front of us. Here’s a video—turn up the volume so you can listen to his soft simple commands.

When the girls were told it was okay to do whatever they wanted, with an “alright, go on,” cue from the handler, all five of them immediately came to us, clearly eager to check out who we were and to say hello—just like a friendly dog would. It was an incredible experience to be surrounded by five elephants, each over eight feet tall and weighing over 8,000 pounds. In their excitement, they started screeching, barking and making deep guttural purring noises as they vied for our attention, feeling and smelling us up and down with their trunks, fanning us with their ears, but all the while moving gently and carefully around us. While I would never stand in a the middle of five strange horses vying for attention, I had no concern with the elephants—they are so polite and gentle, coming close but never pushy. Here’s the video I took while holding my phone—again, turn up the sound and listen for the deep purring.

We toured around the farm, looking at all the specially designed pens, barns and trailers. These elephants perform in movies, commercials, parades, circuses and fairs around the country and around the world. Every detail of their safety, care and well-being is catered to—from the 9” diameter pipe fencing, to the spotlessly clean barn, to the custom built trailers that carry such a precious load. During our tour we found out that there are only about 300 Asian elephants in this country—in all capacities, including zoos, privately held and performance animals. Each one is precious and the responsibility of their handlers is keenly felt. They have worked relentlessly, all of their lives, to take care of these majestic animals and help preserve this endangered species and educate people about them.

After showing us around the exquisite training farm, two elephants had head dresses put on so that we could ride them. The huge halter-like head-dress fits over the ears and under the throat and was not there for control or restraint, but just for the rider to hold on to. I got to ride Tai, a forty-six year old female and the star of Water for Elephants. Her trainer of over 25 years asked her to kneel down, I stepped up onto her leg then hoisted myself up onto her neck much like getting on a horse bareback. As we paraded around the farm in their slow lumbering gait, I felt like I should be wearing leotards and sequins. At one point, Gary said, “Hold on Julie,” and gave the command and Thai lifted her front legs up into the air like a rearing horse. Holy cow! What a ride!

The trainers were awesome to show us their precious elephants and let us get up close and personal with them. They answered my constant stream of questions about their behavior and training and care. Oddly, they said that training elephants was really no different than training horses. You break it down into small components, reinforce and reward; you maintain a strong and quiet leadership and authority and the elephants want to be with you and please you. At least the females—the male elephants are only tractable until they are about 15 years old or so. Once they reach sexual maturity, they become very dangerous to handle or be in the enclosure with.

After four decades of living for and with elephants, the trainer's sense of responsibility for their charges and indeed for all elephants everywhere is very clear to anyone listening or observing. At this elephant farm, there is only one way to do things—the best way. Their entire word revolves around the elephants—not just to the ones that they feel so fortunate to have spent their lives with, but to all elephants everywhere, Asian or African. Since elephants have a life span similar to humans, and they are all middle-aged, the trainers hope to spend the rest of their lives with Kitty, Rosie, Dixie, Becky and Tai. In a perfect world, they and their five girls will all die peacefully of old age in the same week.

Thank you for a meaningful experience I will never forget. I cannot wait until the time when our paths cross again.

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

How Working Cattle Helps Your Horsemanship

2012-04-13T15:25:00.002-06:00

I asked Julie to tell me a little about why she loves cow work and how it has improved her overall riding.

Read on to find out what Julie loves about cow work, then check out the clinic and join us there to teach your horse to work cattle, or to get some great tips if you already love the sport: http://juliegoodnight.com/clinics/chino.html

--Heidi Nyland Melocco, Horse Master Director

Julie, when did you first start working cattle?

It wasn’t until I graduated from college and moved to Colorado that I first enjoyed the thrill of working cattle from a horse. After the hunter/jumper identity of my youth and the race track jobs of college, I was eager to try something totally new with horses and learning about western performance horses became my personal ambition. My professional ambition still kept me busy teaching people and training horses of all persuasions, so it was really only in my down-time that I got to pursue the nitty-gritty work of the cow horse.

Since I already knew a lot about herding, from a lifetime spent with horses, moving cattle, rating cattle and sorting cattle was easy for me to understand, in concept. But putting it into practice, slowing down the high-adrenalin rush that comes with working cattle and learning the precision of the technique takes a lifetime to master. I’ve had the opportunity to train with many great cow horse trainers over the years and continue to study as much as I can, but not as much as I’d like to. Like a lot of you, my real job keeps me pretty busy.

Working with cow horses that are bred for the sport and live to conquer the cow, is a thrill all its own. The concept of letting a horse do his job and think on his own, of putting your hand down on the neck and trusting the horse to do the job for which he was selectively bred for many generations is an important lesson in letting go. Working with an incredibly cowy horse and keeping him well-disciplined while letting him think and work on his own is an interesting exercise in trust.

What did it feel like to rope your first cow?

I never really threw my first loop until about 10 years ago. After more than 40 years of riding, the most important thing for me to work on in roping was building a loop (the first great challenge), throwing with accuracy and learning when and where to swing and throw. Unfortunately I was not very disciplined about practicing on the dummy but fortunately, I had a finished rope horse that was great on both ends and knew exactly how to get you to the right spot to throw. So I did practice some. He taught me a lot, once I managed to learn how to handle a rope.

I’ve taken a bunch of roping clinics and learned from some top-notch pros in the sport, from Florida to Hawaii. Beyond rope handling, rating a cow and throwing with accuracy, you have to learn how to dally and stop a cow and that is the tricky part—the part where you can lose your thumb. From ponying colts for years, the dally wasn’t too foreign to me and again, with good instruction, I learned to dally fast, safe and without looking down (thank you Charlie).

I threw a bunch of loops at live cows before I finally caught one. It turned out my first catch was during a competition—quadrupling the thrill that comes with roping, catching and stopping a running cow. I had participated in a ranch roping clinic the day before with one of my favorite clinicians, Merritt Linke. The day of the competition, I sat outside the arena with Merritt and watched the dozens of competitors that went before me. He showed me the predictable pattern the cows were following and where the sweet spot in the arena was to throw your loop. Rider after rider, I saw the cows turn and memorized that spot in the arena and now many strides before it I would start my swing.

It was the working ranch horse class—the hardest of the five classes of versatility ranch horse competition. First you ride a reining pattern, then call for a cow, box the cow on the end of the arena, turn him twice on the long fence, then get your rope out, build a loop while you are following the cow and rating him, then throw, catch and stop the cow. All of this within six minutes of entering the arena, so there is a little time pressure.

My horse reined well, boxed brilliantly, then we took the cow down the fence and made two high-speed turns. I got out my rope as we loped behind the cow, my horse patiently rating the cow while I built my loop. Then I looked up and saw we were about two strides away from the sweet spot—just enough time for two swings and a throw. It was exactly as I visualized talking to Merritt but still I was stunned as I watched the loop settled around her neck, seemingly in slow motion. Miraculously, I kept my wits about me long enough to straighten out with the cow, dally and stop. What a thrill! What an honor to ride such and incredible horse that works so hard in so many different things and teaches me how to ride.

How has learning cow work impacted your riding?

First, what I love about good cow horses is how athletic they are, quick thinking and even quicker reacting. To work cattle head-to-head like with cutting, with a horse that is hooked on to the cow so hard that every cell in his body is attuned and you are just along for the ride—one hand on the horn, pushing yourself back into the saddle while your rein hand sits on the neck of the horse, sitting back and trusting him to do his job. The stops and turns the horse makes on his own cause a real rush of adrenalin; staying in the middle of the horse and staying out of his way requires balance, relaxation of all your joints, good reflexes and the ability to move with the horse exactly as he moves.

Turning a big cow running at full speed down the long side of the pen is a thrill that has to be equivalent to sky diving, but you’re much closer to the ground. When I was youthful, I got this kind of thrill from riding jumpers; in college it was race horses. Now, to me, the ultimate ride is on the back of a good cow horse.

Cutting horses and reined cow horses are among the most elite equine athletes. To be able to ride one, knowing that it is trained and bred to do the job, with only your occasional guidance, and knowing that at best, you will stay out of the horse’s way as he performs, makes you want to become the best rider you can for your horse.

The skills of the ranch horse are many and varied—trail obstacles, riding a pattern of transitions similar to dressage, reining maneuvers, cutting, working cattle, dragging logs, roping, opening gates. Having total body control from head to tail and being able to put your horse in any situation and rely totally on his compete obedience. Any one of these pursuits are fun and challenging; to have a variety of things to work on keeps the horse and rider fresh.

What does it teach you about your horse?

Moving and controlling cattle is like herding horses. Understanding and putting into practice all the spatial understanding involved in herding, learning the balance points, how to move cows slowly, one step at a time and control their every movement makes you a better horseman too since horses and cattle behave the same way in this respect. Whether you are working a horse in a round pen, on a lead line, in a pen full of horses or even riding in a group, it is useful to know how to move horses and where the pressure points are.

Working with a horse bred to work cattle is much like working with a champion border collie or retriever. They instinctively know how to do their job and they live for every moment of working cattle. The rider just keeps the horse correct and makes him follow the rules of play, work on command and remain obedient to the rider. One thing I learned about my over-zealous cow horse is that his reward for performing correctly is getting to work the cow. If every time he makes a mistake, I pull him off the cow as punishment and he has to endure his personal walk of shame for losing the cow, those mistakes soon disappear.

Not all horses can become high-level cutters or cow horses; most are not athletic enough and not all horses will be cowy enough to hook onto a cow intensely. However, most horses can learn the job of a ranch horse and although they may not be naturals, they can be taught how to work a cow with the rider’s help. The same could be said for jumping.

In versatility, since the ranch horse has to do all the tasks of the ranch horse, he may be a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. Hence the term “ranch cutter.” In ranch cutting, the rider is not penalized for assisting the horse and picking up his hand from the neck for guidance while he is cutting. The ranch cutter may never beat a “hand down” cutter, but if he performs well in all the other disciplines, he’ll rise quickly to the top in the competition.

What skills does it help even if you don't necessarily want to compete in cutting or cow events? What's the benefit for all?

Learning total body control of your horse and how to communicate with imperceptible aids through transitions and turns. Working in partnership with a horse that is totally obedient and willing to listen to the cues of the rider in any situation that might occur on the ranch. Challenging yourself and your partnership with your horse to try new things, cross new obstacles, teach a horse to work cattle. Set a variety of goals to improve your own horsemanship and your horse’s training, while having fun and never getting stuck in a rut. Even if you never worked a cow, learning the skills required of a cow horse—go forward willingly, stop, turn, back, leg yield, stay calm and focused—are sure to improve your horsemanship and your horse’s training and are lofty goals.

In my ranch horse clinics, we work on understanding the requirements and skills of the working ranch horse; the classes and procedures, the rules and philosophies of judging versatility ranch horse competition. We explore the skills required of the horses and riders; and work to progress toward those goals. Join me there: http://juliegoodnight.com/clinics/chino.html

--Julie Goodnight

Is saddle fit more important to the horse or the rider?

2012-04-05T16:40:00.000-06:00

I’ve just recently returned from my first clinic of the year in Topeka, Kansas. It was a great group of riders and horses and I enjoyed working with all of them. We had green horses, finished horses, novices and experts, a variety of breeds and disciplines and everyone had fun and progressed well with their horse. I learned a long time ago that the more I can help the people, the better off their horses will be.

I don’t always know exactly what topics I will cover in a clinic because the content is often shaped by the group. Although I have some standard sessions that I always include in a clinic—the fundamentals of our sport that all riders need refreshing on—often people in the clinic have specific goals or issues to work on. I start each clinic by asking the riders to introduce themselves and their horses, and ask them specifically what they want to work on throughout the weekend. I always make a list, to make sure I cover it all.

For the most part, the lists from one clinic to another all look more or less the same: control, communication, hone riding skills, confidence, bit problems, slow down/speed up, canter cue, leads, and of course, the inevitable, flying lead changes. Sometimes a person has a specific training issue, like their horse won’t take the right lead or their horse won’t bend to the right and so on.

At this clinic, I one of the riders was a lovely woman from Arkansas, who had hauled her Paint mare eight hours to ride in the clinic. MaryAnn was a sponge of a student—my favorite kind. She was knowledgeable, experienced and a very good rider that couldn’t learn enough. In the introductions, she stated that her biggest problem was that her horse bucked at the canter. Never a good thing.

We did ground work all morning, and the mare seemed pretty good; MaryAnn seemed to have a good handle on her. I started getting the picture that the mare perhaps had a touch of what I call PMS. Pissy Mare Syndrome. Kind of cranky and kind of bossy, but overall doing what MaryAnn asked of her.

It wasn’t until after lunch that I first saw the mare under-saddle. As we warmed up at the walk and trot I didn’t see much that concerned me; although the mare was a little cranky, she did everything asked of her. The first time I ask people to canter, in a clinic with 15 horses that are unfamiliar to me, I always ask them to canter two or three at a time. That keeps my blood pressure down.

When it was MaryAnn’s turn, her horse stepped right up to the canter on the correct lead, but as she proceeded around the arena, it was obvious her horse was not happy—crow-hopping around like a pogo stick with her tail was wringing like a propeller. Unlike a cold-backed horse (check out my Training Library if you aren’t sure what this means), the mare didn’t warm out of it. Taking a closer look at the picture, my mind went immediately to a physical problem; specifically a saddle fit issue.

MaryAnn had a very nice saddle with a Wade tree—a popular kind of Western saddle that is built up in front with a deep seat to help keep the rider seated. Very popular amongst colt-starters, for the same reason MaryAnn liked it—helps you ride through the bucks. Although it was the right saddle for MaryAnn, it just wasn’t the right saddle for the mare.

When I evaluate the saddle fit on a horse, the overall balance is important, as well as checking some specific areas on the horse. If I step a few paces back and look at the horse from the side, I want to see the saddle (be it English or Western) sitting pretty level on the horse’s back. If it is sitting downhill, the horse’s shoulders or withers could be uncomfortable and if it is sitting uphill, the horse may be getting undue pressure at his loins. In either case, the rider’s balance and position is impaired when the saddle does not sit level and balanced on the horse.

I could see from looking at MaryAnn’s saddle, and the uphill slant, that the horse was getting a lot of pressure on the loins from the way the saddle fit her. It is not surprising she protested the canter since she has to round up her back and lift it with each canter stride; not to mention that the rider’s weight can come down hard on the saddle at the canter. So I tactfully suggested that perhaps MaryAnn might like to try the demo saddle I had brought to the clinic. I knew the saddle she had was not cheap, nor was it the first one she had purchased for this mare, so I know the thought of getting yet another saddle to resolve this problem was not what she wanted to hear. But of course she did.

It was at the end of the first day—all the horses and riders were beat an headed for the barn, but quite a few spectators stuck around to see what happened when MaryAnn tried the new saddle. She trotted a circle or two and cued her horse up to the canter. Although the mare still seemed tense and tight in the back—there was a noticeable improvement in my opinion and many of the spectators saw it too. Unconvinced, MaryAnn was eager to try the saddle again the next day.

After the ground work, MaryAnn saddled her horse with my Monarch Arena Performance/Trail saddle. We spent a long time working at the walk and trot and when she cued her horse for the canter, she was smooth, relaxed and with her ears perked forward. Gone was the crow-hopping, wringing tail and pinned ears. MaryAnn went home with a brand new saddle and a smile on her face, thanks to her sweet husband who watched the transformation and bought the saddle before MaryAnn got off her horse.

It’s amazing how often horses work day in and day out with ill-fitting and inappropriate equipment. Imagine working on your feet all day in shoes that caused you pain. Did you ever notice the number of horse’s that have white pots on their backs? Did you know those white hairs are scars caused from pressure points? Sometimes, when the fit-issue is fixed, the hair color comes back but over time the scars become permanent.

The other things that are important to check on the saddle is the clearance at the withers (can you stick your whole hand in there?)—even the pad pressing on the withers can cause painful pressure. Check to make sure it is not pinching at the withers at the front of the tree and, in the case of Western saddles, that it is not too long for the horse and or pressing into the loins or hips.

Most of the saddles in my line of saddles made by Circle Y have a Flex2 tree. Although the flexible tree is not suitable for all riders (can’t rope in it; the rider must weigh under 230#), it offers greater comfort to the horse and fits a wider variety of horses than a traditional wood tree Western saddle. It has enough rigidity to distribute the weight of the rider while flexing enough to conform somewhat to the horse’s back. As the bars of the tree flex slightly, the front of the bars open up just a little, giving the horse much more freedom in the shoulders.

Since I have a demo saddle with me everywhere I go, I’ve tried it on a lot of different horses around the country and have been very impressed by the fit and balance to most horses. The design of my saddles also takes the rider into consideration—the saddle should be fitted to horse AND rider and be comfortable for both. So for the rider, my saddles have a very narrow twist (the part that is just in front of the seat), close contact to the horse’s sides, highest quality pre-softened leather, pre-twisted stirrups and memory foam in the seat. Need I say more?

The seat size of the saddle should be comfortable for the rider—neither riding on the cantle or crowded by the pommel. With Western saddles, the style of the saddles vary so greatly that you probably need to sit in a saddle, to know for sure how it fits you. The stirrups should be the right size for your feet with the leathers short or long enough so that you ride in the middle hole. The width of the saddle is important too—you should not feel outward pressure on your seat bones or get the feeling that your legs are being wedged apart. The comfort and balance of your saddle are huge factors in how well you ride so these are things you don’t want to compromise on.

There is much to know about saddle fit, for both horse and rider, and I always appreciate advice from professional saddle fitters. I am by no means and expert but after decades in the business and working with thousands of horses and riders, I’ve developed an eye for it. If you’re not sure about the fit of your tack, consult a professional and get the best advise you can. If your horse has “issues” under-saddle, always consider a physical cause first. If you have “issues” in your riding, you may want to check your saddle.

I’m glad I could help MaryAnn and her mare and I look forward to hearing more about how they progress. One down, thousands to go!

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

Preventing Herd-Bound Behavior

2012-03-15T08:22:00.001-06:00

Horses are instinctively herd-bound. It’s one of seven categories of instinctive behavior in horses and it is known as gregarious behavior. A desire to be with others. BTW, the other categories of instinctive behavior in horses are flight, combative, ingestive, eliminative, reproductive and investigative behaviors.

Yet, even though gregarious behavior is instinctive in horses, somehow we speak of it as if it is an affliction. Barn-sour, gate-sour, buddy-sour, herd-bound, spoiled and even ruined. Horses are instinctively drawn to the herd; it’s up to us to provide the training and leadership the horse needs to transfer this draw to us instead of his own herd.

What motivates the horse to want to be with the herd are two simple things: safety and comfort. That’s what horses seek out the most and that is what motivates their behavior. Teaching the horse that he will get those two things from you, even more than he does from the herd, is the secret to success. Unless and until your horse gets the same feeling from you that he does from the herd, he will not want to go anywhere with you.

For your horse, a sense of safety comes from being in the presence of a truly alpha leader, an individual that is confident, aware of the environment, in charge and in control of all those around. An individual that dictates and enforces rules and is fair and consistent in punishment and reward, thus providing structure and meaning to an otherwise chaotic world.

Comfort comes in the form of feeling of accepted, reassurance, rest, praise and stroking. Discomfort comes from having to work hard, admonishment or aversive pressure such as the bump of the lead rope. Make your horse comfortable when he does the right thing and uncomfortable when he does the wrong thing. He will always seek out comfort.

Keep in mind that all behavior in all animals, is either instinctive or learned. Horses are extremely fast learning animals and highly sensitive to their environment. Sometimes instinctive behavior can turn to learned behavior over time or on the very first instance.

For example, if a horse is being led away from the barn and the safety of the herd, he might become emotional and distraught (instinct) and his antics may cause him to break free from the handler and run all the way back to the safety and comfort of the barn. From this experience, he may learn that all he has to do is break away from his handler to get what he wants and thus it becomes a learned behavior.

A riding horse is considered to be well-trained and obedient when it goes in the exact path dictated by the rider and at the speed dictated by the rider. A horse is disobedient when it voluntarily varies from the path or speeds up or slows down, unauthorized by the rider. Almost always, when a horse varies path or speed, it is intentional and in a direction he wants to go, like toward the barn/gate/buddy.

It has become increasingly obvious to me, through the decades I’ve spent teaching people to handle their horses, that most people are totally unaware of the small infractions horses make all the time, particularly as it applies to barn-sour behavior. When small disobediences are ignored, it leads to bigger ones. If they are corrected, the barn-sour behavior goes away.

Does your horse pull toward the gate? Is he looking around all the time, never focusing on you and the path you have dictated? Does he slow down when you pass the gate and speed up as you round the corner toward the gate? Does he turn easily toward the gate and sluggishly when you turn away? These are all small and subtle disobediences—even if he only varies the path by six inches, he knows he’s doing it and he knows when you ignore it (or don’t notice it) and therefore you condone the disobedience.

All a rider needs to do to stop this disobedient behavior is first and foremost—notice it—be aware of what your horse is doing with his whole body at all times and be aware of what motivates him. Then, call him on it (“I know what you’re doing!”) and admonish him appropriately—finding the amount of pressure that motivates him to change.

When you ride in the arena, put your horse on the rail then lower your hands to his neck and expect him to stay there. You shouldn’t have to constantly tell him to stay on the path—if you do, your horse is disobedient and you have a co-dependent relationship with him. If he comes off the rail or cuts corners (moving on a path that you did not dictate), pick up the reins and correct his direction right away, scolding him as you do. Get him back on the path and drop your hands again, expecting him to stay on course.

Insisting on your horse’s obedience and focus on the task at hand is a minimal requirement for your horse to think of you as his leader. Be aware of his behavior and motivations and correct him consistently, with enough pressure that he feels like he’s gotten in trouble and thus, looks for ways to avoid getting in trouble again. Reward his good behavior with a release of pressure, a few kind words, stroking and letting him rest. With this kind of strong leadership, your horse will accept you as a capable and authoritative leader and will gladly go with you anywhere.

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

Here are some related articles from my Training Library that may help:

http://juliegoodnight.com/questionsNew.php?id=67

http://juliegoodnight.com/questionsNew.php?id=110

http://juliegoodnight.com/questionsNew.php?id=286

http://juliegoodnight.com/questionsNew.php?id=309

Adversarial Relationships with Horses

2012-01-29T17:01:00.001-07:00

I see it all the time at clinics, expos and at TV shoots. Sometimes it’s between untrained horses and inexperienced riders/handlers—a constant battle of the wills; but sometimes the opposite is true—often I see experienced handlers with trained horses and everyone is going through the motions but the horse has his ears laid back and a sour expression on his face. Maybe he’s doing what’s asked in the groundwork, but he’s giving subtle signs of disrespect such as crowding you with his shoulder or moving sassily with his hind-end cocked for action.

There are many causes for this type of adversarial relationship with your horse. Generally there exists poor communication between horse and human—either the rider giving conflicting signals (a painfully common occurrence) or the person over-cues the horse (then jerks back on the reins when the horse goes too fast). Or the rider drills the horse relentlessly, never recognizing the efforts of the horse and not releasing and rewarding the horse often enough.

Often a horse’s crankiness comes from the feeling it is being shouted at when it knows the cue well and is perfectly willing to do it. The cues of novice horsemen are often awkward and obtuse or, as an experienced handler trains a horse new skills, the cues are exaggerated and reactionary. But the horse is an extremely fast learner—he learns the cue and appropriate response right away, but the rider/handler doesn’t lighten his aids and is still, in effect, yelling at the horse to do it.

The horse has every right to be cranky when it feels like it is being yelled at constantly and for no reason. Too aggressive cues (especially when using a hard stick as a “motivator”) and too many repetitions can make the most willing horse begin to display signs of irritation, aggravation and even rebellion. Often, when a person has an adversarial relationship with their horse, it stems from a failure to read the signs of submission and obedience in the horse and thus, the “golden moment” is missed.

When a horse shows that he is willing to acquiesce to your authority and you keep hounding him—do it again, and again, and again—he starts feeling like he is being bullied. Some horses will take the bullying indefinitely while others will begin to fight back; but in all horses that are bullied, resentment will build and an adversarial relationship will develop.

Learning to “read” a horse, looking for the subtle changes in your horse’s behavior and emotions and giving the appropriate release of pressure, will make him eager to please you. Looking for changes in the elevation of the head, the licking and chewing when he understands, the relaxing of his frame, the head bobbing to the ground and rewarding this compliant and submissive behavior by letting him rest and giving him lots of praise will develop a horse that is respectful and eager to do your bidding.

At some point, you need to trust your horse and give him the latitude to prove he can and will do what you ask from a simple request and not from forcefulness. Sometimes this means loosening the reins or putting down the stick and asking him softly and kindly. He may make a mistake every now and then, which you should tactfully correct, but if you’re always pushing him around and doubting he’ll do what you ask, he’ll lose his willingness.

I don’t want a horse that is “jumping through the hoops” but with a bad attitude. I don’t want a horse that has animosity toward me and is only responding for fear of getting walloped with a stick. Instead, I want a horse that looks up to me, is always willing and attentive to my commands and who is eager to please me and win my approval. One that wants to be with me and knows that I will always treat him fairly and recognize his efforts.

Horses, being herd animals, are strongly inclined to seek out the approval of their peers. Acceptance into the herd is essential for their survival. I want a horse that seeks out my approval, is willing to try anything to get it and who craves the stroking and petting he gets from me for a job well done.

Beyond all else, horse seek comfort and security. That’s why making the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard is an incredibly effective training technique and why horse’s thrive on strong leadership—for the security it gives them. Horse gain security in knowing that rules will be enforced, good effort will be rewarded and discipline will be meted out as necessary.

In spite of what many trainers would like you to believe, there is no “cookie cutter” training recipe that works on every horse. Each horse is an individual with a distinct temperament and its own experience and view of the world. Your training methods have to be adjusted to the individual—the strong pressure used to motivate one horse might over-whelm another horse. But all horses seek comfort and security and all horses respond to good leadership.

It’s not to say that I never get in a fight with a horse—sometimes it is unavoidable. But I try not to start a fight with a horse—the risk of losing is too great. When you do butt heads with a horse, it should be a very temporary situation and should result in the horse acquiescing and your acceptance and appreciation of his subordinate attitude. If you continue to treat him as an adversary after that score is settled, he will continue to be one.

When you examine the relationship you have with your own horse, would you say it is cooperative and based on mutual respect? Does your horse respect your authority, look up to you and seek your approval? Or does he constantly challenge your authority or do what you ask of him but with resistance and a bad attitude? If the latter is true, it’s time to examine your relationship, see what culpability you have and look for ways to make a positive change. I love to help people (and their horses) make this change—so maybe I’ll see you at a clinic this year!

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

Ready to Ride

2012-01-07T11:00:00.003-07:00

Lately, I’ve been focused on editing my newest video, a full length training video on starting a young horse under saddle—what we used to refer to, crassly, as “breaking” a horse. It is a good sign for the state-of-the-horse-union that this term has fallen out of favor. However, keep in mind that there is nothing better than a very “broke” horse.

No more snubbing posts, no more wild bronc rides (hopefully), no more drama in the colt-starting process that leaves some horses scarred for life. These days, after decades of breeding horses for temperament and performance, horses have gotten pretty tractable and training techniques have changed drastically. A well-bred, well-tempered horse can be so easy to start under saddle that sometimes it seems as if it was already trained. Sometimes; but not always.

When a young horse is well-prepared and a solid training foundation is in place, the first few rides should be uneventful. Still, there are many steps involved in saddling, mounting and riding a young horse for the first time and a mistake at this crucial stage in its training can cause problems throughout its career. And more importantly, there are many mistakes that can be easily avoided, if you know what you’re doing.

For years, I’ve had requests for a colt-starting DVD, but it’s taken me a while to get it done (please pardon the use of the slang term “colt” which, in this case, refers to a young untrained horse, not gender). For one thing, that much info won’t fit on one DVD, so first I had to make three full-length DVDs about all the foundational work that comes before saddling, mounting and riding. In fact, the colt-starting DVD turns out to be the fourth in my “From the Ground Up“ series. Round pen work, lead line work and training the horse to respond properly to bit pressure comes before saddling up and riding.

Then we had to find the right horse, the right time and the right place to make the video. Turns out we found the perfect young warm-blood to feature in the colt-starting video. She was a three year old Hanoverian filly (now four) named Picabo YC http://www.yarmonycreeksporthorses.com/picabo.html and she is a well-bred, well-tempered youngster whose foundational training had been done using my methods and by a trainer who used to apprentice with me. The right time and place was my ranch, in the heart of the Rockies, in the middle of the summer. Perfect on all accounts!

Picabo YC was a very cooperative subject for the video—she was very tractable and compliant, with just enough acting-out to show that she really hadn’t been ridden before. At first, the training went so smoothly that I was concerned that it might look like a set-up. But as luck would have it, she did protest being mounted just enough to add a little excitement to the video. The sessions went so well that we decided to use some of the footage for a four-part series on colt-starting on Horse Master, which will air on RFD-TV in February/March and again in April/May.

The TV series and the full-length training video, called “Ready to Ride”, is divided into four parts: first saddling; mounting/dismounting; getting the horse used to the weight and balance of the rider; and teaching the horse to accept cues from the rider (the video has about twice the content as the TV series). We taped one section each day, four days in a row. Within each section, we broke it down into even smaller steps, discussing all the little things that can go wrong at each turn, how your horse might respond, how to be extra-cautious in the critical steps and when to move onto the next step.

Picabo YC moved through all four stages outlined in the video with relative ease. She fussed and kicked a little over mounting, but with patience, repetition and releasing the pressure at the right time, she got over it quickly and put on her big girl pants. I know she will turn out to be an awesome sport horse and I know her training has progressed well since we taped the video last summer. I look forward to sharing her individual progress with viewers as well as all the information on colt-staring within the video.

The advantages of sending your young horse to a reputable and professional colt-starter are many; experience is invaluable. An experienced trainer makes fewer mistakes and is better able to foresee and avoid training problems. Under a qualified and experienced trainer, your youngster should progress faster and have fewer set-backs. Still, a lot of people would prefer to train their own horse, and for those people, I made this video. It’s not rocket science but it sure helps to know how to avoid common mistakes.

Starting your own horse under saddle is a fun and rewarding experience that will give you a long-term sense of satisfaction and is a major milestone for serious horsemen. For riders that are skilled and knowledgeable, colt-starting is the next logical challenge. Having a systematic, step-by-step approach and having the knowledge ahead of time about what can go wrong and when, makes starting a young horse under saddle much easier. In making this video, it is my hope that this critical stage in a horse’s training will be easier, safer and less frustrating for both horse and human.

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

NOTE: We are in the final stages of editing for Ready to Ride, and we hope to have it to the replicators by the end of January, delivering the first copies in February. A pre-release special is currently running ($5 off and free domestic shipping) and expires 1/31/12. http://shopping.juliegoodnight.com/Ready-to-Ride-Colt-Starting-DVD-RTR.htm

New Year's Resolutions

2011-12-31T09:42:00.001-07:00

The last day of 2011 is shaping up to be memorable around here, but not in a good way. We are having what the meteorologists call a “fierce wind event.” Living just below the Continental Divide and at the mouth of a river canyon (a big wind funnel), the wind can definitely wreak havoc around here. Right now the wind is howling—shaking the window panes-- but later today we are expecting gusts over 100 mph.

Even the horses are staying holed-up in their stalls rather than coming out to soak up the first rays of sun as they usually do. They don’t have to see the weather report on TV to know what kind of day it’s going to be. Today is one of those days where being in a stall and bundled in a blanket doesn’t seem so bad to them.

I love making NYs resolutions. I do it every year and almost always keep them. Last year one of my resolutions was to use up all the food in my freezer. I almost succeeded. This year, I have three resolutions that have to do with my personal life, my horse and my professional life. Here they are:

First, I resolve to finish my project of cleaning out every nook and cranny of my house—getting rid of unused clutter and organizing the remaining stuff. I’ve made it through my dressers and most of the bathroom. Just have the mud room and kitchen to go. Watch out Good Will—here I come!

Secondly, I resolve to work on Western Dressage with my horse and perfect our bridle-less riding. This doesn’t really take much resolve on my part because I love doing it but a person needs to have goals. Actually, I set these goals because of some presentations I will be doing at expos this year, so I thought I’d co-opt my goals and turn them into a resolution. Why not? If you’re going to do it anyway, may as well make a resolution out of it!

My professional resolution is to focus on bringing our new programs to fruition. We have been working on developing a “study club” for individuals and groups who want to get together with others and study horsemanship. Think book club. We have also been working on an apprenticeship program and I am hoping to bring both these programs to fruition in 2012.

I love this time of year because looking ahead to the new year-- it is all potential. A fresh new start. New opportunity awaits and who knows what exciting adventures the new year could bring! I love making resolutions because it is an opportunity to challenge yourself and do better. What about you? What’s your resolutions?

With all the wind today, it looks like a good chance for me to hole up in my house and start cleaning out closets. Believe it or not, that sounds like fun to me!

Happy New Year!

Julie

Horse is Terrified of Being Mounted

2011-12-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

Hello Julie,
I have a 4 yr old registered paint gelding, Zippo Pine Bar bred, tall and gorgeous that I have had for just over a year!!! But, he is terrified of being mounted. I bought him knowing he had a troubled past, but I can't seem to make any new progress with mounting. I have done a ton of ground work and desensitizing which he does great with. The problem comes in when I am on the mounting block. His body gets very tense, his lower lip will quiver with concern and his eyes look terrified. I usually stand on the mounting block doing stretching exercises and touching/patting him all over until he relaxes- which sometimes doesn't happen! If I get on without using my stirrup he is OK, still nervous but stands fine. However, if I even start to put weight in my stirrup he will bolt away from me, and once that has happened I will not be able to mount that day (he gets way too freaked out). Strangely enough though, once I am on you would never know he is such a challenge to get on. He rides like a dream, still green, but a wonderful 4 yr old! I have all the time and patience in the world for this horse, he truly is an amazing animal that was damaged by an uncaring human by no fault of his own. I just want some direction on where to go with him!
Thank you so much!
Nichole

Nichole,

Sounds like your horse was lucky to find you! It is not hard to make drastic mistakes in the process of starting a horse under saddle. There are many steps at which things can go very wrong and there are many stupid mistakes to be made by people in the complicated process of training a young horse to be ridden.

Who knows what happened with your horse, but chances are it was entirely preventable. That’s why I always encourage people to hire a professional to put a good foundation on your young horse—it is a time that can make or break a horse’s riding career. In your case, it seems like his previous training left him broken, but not broke.

During the process of introducing a horse to the saddle, to mounting, to balancing the weight of the rider, to taking cues from the rider, there are many crucial steps that, done wrong, can turn into a very negative training experience for the horse which may cause problems for the rest of his life. Something went wrong with your horse—either something hurt him physically like an ill-fitted saddle or something scared him so badly that his reaction caused him to get hurt (a self-fulfilling prophecy to the horse).

So now you are left to undo the damage that was caused when the horse was “broke.” Good training and many many repetitions (until the good experience far outweighs the bad) will fix this horse. The good news is that he is young and still impressionable. It’s really good news that he is working well under-saddle—it tells me if you find the right technique, he will be entirely fixable.

It’s critical to make sure your saddle and/or poor mounting technique is not causing the problem. If it is digging into his wither or shoulder when you mount, he has good reason to react poorly. Unfortunately, the fear of pain may have originated from his previous training so even if your saddle is not currently causing a problem, in his mind, he may think mounting will always hurt him.

After you’ve ruled out a physical problem, only time and patience will reprogram your horse. You need to retrain the mounting process as if you were starting from the beginning, only it will take much longer. It always takes much longer to undo training mistakes than it does to train a horse right to begin with. Wouldn’t it be nice to know about all the potential mistakes you could make in training a horse before you actually do it?

We have four new episodes of Horse Master coming out in February 2012 about starting a young horse under-saddle—each step you take, how to do it right and what mistakes to avoid. This same info is also available in my full-length training DVD, Ready to Ride. One whole section is on mounting and I would use the same process on your horse. It is my hope that this information will help people avoid making the mistakes that were made with your horse.

Based on the info stated in your question, the first thing I would do is get rid of the mounting block. It is possible that it is contributing to his fear and I would want to see what his reaction to mounting was without it. I’ve seen a lot of training problems that involve a mounting block.

Of course, this means you have to be very good at mounting from the ground and getting your weight centered over the horse’s back as soon as possible, so as not to hurt his back. I have also seen many mounting issues caused by poor mounting technique on the part of the rider.

Next, you’ll break down the mounting process into tiny steps and then use a process known as pattern conditioning, where you repeat a certain pattern over and over until the horse has a conditioned response that is relaxed and accepting. Your horse already has a conditioned response to being mounted, but it is not a good one. Breaking it into small steps, releasing the pressure on the horse when he responds correctly and repeating this pattern again and again, will fix your horse.

There are a lot of articles in my Training Library, http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php, on desensitization and dealing with fearful behavior. You may want to read some of them—even if the articles are not exactly the same as your horse, you will likely find some info that helps. It is important that you fully understand the process of advance and retreat desensitizing and when you give the release.

Also, be sure to tune in to Horse Master on RFD-TV in February to see the episode on first mounting. If you don’t get RFD, you may want to order the DVD, Ready to Ride. It is the fourth DVD in my “From the Ground Up” series and covers the very critical stage in a young horse’s training when you first begin riding him. BTW- the previous three videos in the series are pre-requisite to this stage and cover round pen work, lead line work and training the horse to respond properly to bit pressure.

Take your time, have lots of patience and you will get past this problem with your horse. He sounds like a good egg—he just needs some reprogramming.

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

A Winter for Riding Indoors

2011-12-27T18:30:00.001-07:00

I love the meditative state we get into, my horse and I, riding round and round in the endless monotony of the indoor arena. Nowhere to go, nothing to look at, no distractions, no surprises. But don’t get me wrong, every day through the winter that I ride in it, I thank my lucky stars for having it.

With more than a foot of wind-packed snow blanketing the outdoor arena and treacherous ice on all the trails, the indoor is a blessed sanctuary. Almost any avid rider that lives in Colorado would kill for an indoor arena this time of year. But they are so expensive to build, few people can justify the cost.

I live on a dead-end county road where there are less than a dozen homes—most of them horse owners. And there is an indoor of moderate size on about every other property. When you live in the high mountains of Colorado, the value of an indoor to a rider is way bigger than the hit to your savings account.

My arena is insulated and passive solar heated, so you can see why I thank my lucky stars. It’s cozy warm and a solid barrier against the wind and blowing snow. The kind of riding I do in the winter is far different than the rest of the year. Circles, collected work, school figures, reining maneuvers (minus the big stops because our horses are barefoot this half of the year). Later in the winter we usually set up the cutting machine, for a fun change of pace.

Always in the winter I find one or two major goals to work on. It helps you forget about the monotony in the indoor. A few years ago I rode bareback all winter and my end goal was to cut a cow on my horse bareback—not an easy feat with the quick dives he loves to pull on a cow. I made it as far as working on the cutting machine before the spring thaw and I went back to riding outdoors in a saddle.

This year, I have two different-but-complimentary goals for the winter term, both having to do with new presentations I will be doing this year at horse expos: western dressage and bridle-less riding. My horse and I have been doing both for some time, but doing presentations on it requires a lot more focus, practice and contemplation.

There’s nothing like taking your bridle off while riding in front of a large crowd in a huge stadium to motivate you to practice a little more. Dually and I actually practice bridle-less riding a lot, so he’s pretty good at it. Lately, I’ve found a workout pattern that makes him even better.

After 20 minutes of collected trot and canter, transitioning through all the specified gaits of a western dressage test, http://westerndressageassociation.org/ circling and school figures, Dually is ready to shed the bridle and work in the frame he wants. He loves the freedom of riding bridle-less and he is willing to work extra hard at finding my signals for the chance.

Based on the condition of the outdoor footing, it looks like we’ve got a lot of time to practice between now and the expos that start in February. http://juliegoodnight.com/schedule.php We had a great work out today and I’m looking forward to tomorrow, even if it’s single digits again. What’s your winter riding plan?

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

Horses Aren't Pets

2011-12-15T06:41:00.001-07:00

I watched a new sitcom this week on CBS, called Two Broke Girls. The reasons why I didn’t like this show could fill a book, not the least of which is how it portrays women and how it portrays horses. In my opinion, the show does a great disservice to both.

The story line involves a very rich and privileged perky blonde whose father is in jail due to white collar crime and she loses everything and is suddenly broke and waiting tables. She moves in with another server—a buxom rough-cut brunette. Turns out the rich girl had a show horse, which she could not part with so the horse lives in the back yard of their apartment, hanging his head into the kitchen whenever he wants a cookie, reminiscent of Mr. Ed, although he does not talk.

The show is predictably full of sexual innuendo and while there is some clever writing, I just can’t get past the stupidity of the premise of the show. The women are portrayed as idiots and loose and trashy. I used to wait tables—you actually have to be smart, organized and have good people skills. But my biggest objection is how the horse is portrayed.

For starters, the horse’s name is “Chestnut.” A particularly clever and creative name, since the horse is bay in color. That was my first clue that the writers, producers and actors know absolutely nothing about horses. You’d think maybe they’d hire a consultant. But when it comes to horses, most people don’t know what they don’t know.

So it’s no great surprise that the horse is in the back yard of their tiny apartment and that they think they are doing the horse a big favor keeping him there. Now I seriously doubt that someone will watch this show and rush out and acquire a horse to live in their back yard, without any thought to his physical and emotional needs. But I just hate it when horses are portrayed this way.

These days, with critical numbers of unwanted horses in this country, the last thing we need is for the average person to think of horses as pets. They are not pets and horse ownership involves a higher level of skill, knowledge and responsibility than owning a pet.

While I appreciate a good laugh on TV and I realize that even reality shows do not portray real life, I think I’ll stay away from this show. Have you seen it? What did you think?

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

horses in the cold

2011-12-06T22:04:00.001-07:00

It was 6 below zero this morning. Relatively warm by some standards, when you compare it to 25 below, which our neighbors had. That’s why our valley is known as “the Banana Belt of Colorado.” http://coloradoheadwaters.com/chaffee_county/colorado_mountain_weather.cfm

While we recorded a mere -6° this morning, the valleys to the north, west and south of us all were all in the 25 below range. Now, you may think there is not much difference between 6 below and 25 below, but I’m here to tell you there’s a big diff! while we got well into the 20s today, the South Park (yes, there really is such a place in CO and it is much like the cartoon!), Gunnison and San Luis Valleys were lucky to crack zero today.

That’s the difference between being able to work horses or not.

We have all kinds of rules about the weather—from what blankets the horses wear-- according to the temperature, to when it is too cold to work them. When it is single digits or below, we don’t work the horses because of the potential for lung-burn. Have you ever experienced it yourself? I have, and it is a serious physical issue that can turn into a respiratory nightmare (a factor of high-altitude, dry, cold air and breathing heavily).

Also, it’s very tricky working horses in ultra-cold weather, especially in a warm indoor arena (ours probably got up to 40° today). If the horses get warm and break a sweat, not only do they have to go back out to the sub-zero temps, but if they are wet, they will NOT dry and will have a serious chill all night.

That’s why we blanket, ironically, to try and keep their hair coats down so we can work them in a warm indoor without a huge amount of body sweat and to keep them warm at night even if they are damp. It’s a complicated scheme. Thank goodness for the Bucas full-body coolers and power turnout blankets!

When the weather is so extreme, you have to be diligent to check the waterers (are the heaters working, are they drinking?), feed extra hay (make sure you have straight grass hay so they can eat all night long), are their feet getting sore from cold and hard ice?

Horses are incredibly adaptable animals and able to adjust to the most extreme environments. That’s how they’ve not only survived but thrived through the millennium. But adjusting them to meet our personal demands (live in a high-altitude mountain environment but still be on a performance horse regimen) sometime takes some strategy.

Thankfully, tomorrow should be a warmer day, but we still have plenty of sub-zero temps to go this winter. The horses will be waiting for the first rays of sun in the morning, no matter what the temps—standing in the very spot the early morning sun hits first. And I’ll be watching out my window, wishing them warm thoughts.

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

Do you leave your horse's halter on?

2011-11-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I was driving home from my last trip of the year, relishing the thought of being home for eight weekends in a row. As I drove through South Park (yes, there really is such a place and it is well depicted in the cartoon), looking out over hundreds of thousands of acres of pasture land with thousands of cattle, horses, elk and antelope ranging, I was fantasizing about how much I will enjoy being home over the next couple months.

My day-dreams were rudely interrupted by a scene that irritates me every time I see it: horses turned out with halters on. Unfortunately, we see that a lot around here; sometimes the horses are turned out in rope halters, which is even worse since they will not break. I am not sure whether this is done out of ignorance, laziness or simple incompetence, but I am sure it is not a good idea.

In my opinion, there’s no good reason to turn a horse loose in a halter and leaving a halter on 24/7 is very poor horsemanship. It is uncomfortable, potentially dangerous to the animal and it will not resolve any training issues that the horse might have. Turned loose in a halter, the horse may potentially snag the halter on something and be stuck. Maybe he’ll panic and break free, maybe he’ll throw himself on the ground and struggle; either way the potential for hurting himself is huge.

Besides, how would you like to have that thing on your head all the time? Maybe some people think because we leave collars on dogs, it is ok to leave halters on horses, but a dog does not have the same capacity for panic and destruction that horses have.

Often I hear people say they leave a halter on because their horse is difficult to catch. But guess what? That’s not fixing the problem—it’s avoiding it. Training and good handling will fix a hard-to-catch horse (how? http://juliegoodnight.com/questionsNew.php?id=12 ); leaving a halter on 24/7 will not. I’ve worked with many wild, unhandled or traumatized horses and the temptation to leave a halter on is great. But until the horse is desensitized to your approach, your touch and the halter going on and off, your problem is not solved.

I can imagine that in some circumstances leaving the halter on might be a reasonable temporary solution, but at some point the horse has got to be trained. Leaving the halter on 24/7 does not train the horse to accept these things—only physically doing it will. Have you worked with a horse you had to leave the halter on? Why? Was it temporary or permanent?

There are some horses in my neighborhood that have their halters on 24/7 and it makes me cringe every time I drive by. I am not sure who owns them or why they leave halters on some horses and not others, but I’ve never seen anyone handling these horses or doing anything with them. My guess is that it is done from sheer ignorance.

I’ve known a lot of horse breeders through the years who like to halter break their youngsters by leaving a halter on and dragging a lead rope for weeks on end. I’ve even known people that will tie the lead rope to a big tire and even to a mule. This has always bothered me because I think it is very uncomfortable and confusing for the young horse.

There are a lot of training techniques out there that I would never use but I respect the rights of others to use them as long as they do not hurt the horse and if they have good results. But for me, it has to make sense to the horse and respect his right to be comfortable on his own time. What training techniques have you seen or heard of that don’t make sense to you? I’d love to hear about them.

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

Why a horse is not like a dog

2011-11-06T11:28:00.001-07:00

In almost every clinic I do, we start with ground work to help establish a productive relationship between horse and human—to develop respect, obedience, focus, communication and control. Frequently, someone will remark that training horses is just like training dogs. While I can imagine some similarities, it is not a statement I would agree with whatsoever.

In fact, I think many of the problems that people have with horses stem from treating them like a dog or like a pet, instead of like a horse. While there are some similarities between training horses and dogs, perhaps in authority and leadership, there are some very distinct differences.

First, I like to remind people that chances are good that your dog will not kill you; but your horse might kill you without even trying! So when it comes to training horses, there is a huge difference in risk of injury. That’s why being safe around horses is more critical than anything else—it is nothing to take lightly. When we talk about learning about horses through “the school of hard knocks” we are being literal. This is not a sport for weenies.

And while you can physically force a dog to do something (like sit or heel)—you cannot physically force a horse to do anything—he’s way too big! You have to make him want to do it and that requires much deeper thought into his behavior and motivations, as well as the techniques you will employ. This sounds challenging, doesn’t it? But it is far more challenging than it sounds.

Understanding the origins of a horse‘s behavior (is it instinctive or learned?) and reading his emotions (is he scared, mad, obstinate or confused?) and his attempts at communication with you (why is he doing that?) takes knowledge, experience, understanding, observation, confidence and persistence.

A horse is not initially willing and eager to please and wanting be with you like a Golden Retriever. He is instinctively drawn to the herd and indifferent to you, unless and until you prove your leadership ability to him and give him the same sense of security and comfort that he gets from the herd. Then he will gladly go with you anywhere and be happy to be part of “your herd.”

There’s an old saying that fully addresses the inherent difference between horses and dogs. It says, “A dog will leave safety for food; but a horse will leave food for safety.” I am not sure who said it or when, but it is a simple statement with a depth of meaning. Dogs are pack animals and they hunt in packs—they are reliant on the pack for food and that’s the reason why using food in their training is so useful (it’s the only way I can get my dogs to do anything!). Dogs are programmed to ingratiate themselves to the higher-ups in the pack (and that includes you) because then they are more likely to get some food.

But a horse is not reliant on the herd for food—just turn him loose and he will find the food just fine, thank you very much. A horse is reliant on the herd for two things: safety and comfort. If you can give the horse those two things that he wants most—safety and comfort—he will not only want to be with you but he will be very eager to please you, so that he stays in good standing in your herd and can hold onto those good feelings.

In fact, food is often the source of major problems between horses and humans because of the hierarchy of a horse herd. You don’t have to be around horses long before you begin to understand the pecking order or herd hierarchy—which the behaviorist define as a “linear hierarchy,” meaning each and every individual of the horse herd is either dominant over or subordinate to each and every other individual (and like it or not—you fit into that hierarchy somewhere).

I have written and talked a lot about how horses establish hierarchy; there are only two factors involved. The dominant horse always controls the resources of the herd (food, water, shelter, etc.) and always controls the space of the subordinates (by backing them off and herding them around). If a horse ever comes to believe he is taking away food from you (because you hand-feed him treats or you allow him to rip the feed out of your hands when you bring it to him), he knows he is dominant over you and your relationship is going nowhere fast.

Same thing if he is allowed to walk all over you, head butt you or back you up. He's controlling your space; therefore he's dominant. While a dog that begs for food at the table is obnoxious, you might still be able to have a productive relationship with him. Not so with a horse—their disrespect quickly turns into disdain.

Here’s more FFT (food for thought). A poorly-behaved dog is obnoxious and no one like being around them—dogs that jump on you, scratch at the door, ram their nose in your crotch, insist on being petted or drop a slobber-covered tennis ball in your lap. But again, the obnoxious dog is less likely to hurt you or others.

A poorly behaved horse on the other hand—one that walks all over you, throws tantrums, bites or kicks, drags your through the mud, spooks, bucks, runs off-- is a dangerous animal that can cause significant injury to you and the other people that have to handle him. I believe that horse owners have a greater responsibility to make sure their horse has manners and training that cause him to be safer and more pleasant to be around.

Finally, when comparing horses to dogs, you have to realize that your horse is not going to give you his unconditional love and devotion like your dog does. While you can develop a relationship with your horse that is very gratifying—where he is eager to please, obedient and looks up to you—this does not come for free; you have to earn it. And get used to the fact that no matter how much you do for your horse—buy the best feed, organic salt, high-tech all-weather blanket, the best fitting saddle, a clean stall with a fluffy bed, give him the best supplements and medical care—what he will give you in return, is his unconditional indifference. That’s just who horses are; get used to it!

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

Up Close and Personal Clinic Tour

2011-10-31T11:42:00.000-06:00

Recently someone asked me how I settled on the format of my Clinic Tour. Why do I do things the way I do? I’ve developed the format after learning something from each clinic—and there have been lots of clinics over the past two decades to help teach me the best style...

Years ago, I did clinics here at my ranch in rural Colorado. I had up to twenty school horses and people came from all over the country for 5-day intensive horsemanship clinics. Now, I travel over 150 days per year and give clinics across the country— and not at home. Thank god I have great people to help me with all of that planning! As my crew will be the first to tell you, I just go where they point me.

From the time the clinic starts until the last rider leaves, the format of the clinic is totally up to me. While I have say, I’ve probably never done two clinics that were exactly the same (because the horses and riders somewhat determine the direction of the clinic), I do have a clinic format that I am quite comfortable with and one that I think works well for the riders. But my clinics have evolved every year. I always have the goal of making them better, and I also grow the way I teach things as I develop new techniques and gain new perspectives throughout my career.

These days, clinics are really more of an intimate affair for me; at least compared to horse fairs and expos, where I make presentations to thousands of people and in-between presentations I might talk briefly to hundreds of horse owners face to face. But during clinics I get to work hands-on with the horses and their humans, with plenty of time to make sure each person/horse gets the time and attention s/he needs. I can check the horse’s health and well-being, their tack and fit, their manners and attitude, the relationship with their human. I can ask appropriate questions about the horse’s training, experience and care. And best of all I can handle the horse, ride the horse and experiment with him to figure out his needs. As much as I love teaching people, for me, working with different horses and helping them get along better with their humans is the most gratifying.

I prefer to have my clinics in settings that are comfortable and up close and personal for both the riders and spectators; usually in first-class private facilities where the owner is dedicated to providing education for horse owners. I learned a long time ago that every facility has an atmosphere or culture, if you will. I love doing clinics where the atmosphere is open-minded, friendly and welcoming. I do not want barriers between the people and me, like you might get at huge commercial facility—I want a casual atmosphere where riders and spectators alike feel comfortable asking me questions, having casual conversations at lunch; where I can watch people as they unload, tack-up and hang out with their horses.

I start every clinic with an introduction of the riders and their horses and I always ask people, if there was only one thing you could learn or work on this weekend, what would it be? It’s always interesting to hear what people’s goals and interests are—there are often lots of similarities in the list from one clinic to another and often many people in one clinic share some common goals, like building confidence or gaining more authority over their horse. Sometimes a rider will bring up a topic that is not normally in my plan for the clinic, like saddle fitting, so I’ll make a plan to add in an extra session after lunch for those that are interested. It’s important to me that everyone-- riders and spectators, goes away happy at the end of the weekend and with a renewed enthusiasm for horses.

In my clinics, I am not interested in force-feeding information to people nor am I interested in forcing my techniques/equipment/beliefs on others. I want to provide the information that people need to be more successful with their horse, no matter what discipline they choose or what level they ride. It is not so important to me the actual techniques used, but it is important to me that people understand their horse’s behavior and know how to influence it and why what they are doing works or doesn’t work. I do not need people in my clinics to fit into my mold—dress the way I dress, use the words I use or renounce other trainers. I am happy to meet people wherever they are in this journey and help them move in the right direction to achieve their goals—I don’t need them to become a mini-me.

The content in my clinics is user-driven, from the bottom-up. I start every clinic saying to the riders, “I am here for you, not the other way around. My goal is to make sure riders are safe and have a good time; and I certainly hope that you will learn something about your horse and about yourself in the process.”

One thing I love about clinics is that it is my time to actually get to know you and your horse, observe the good things and see what road blocks we may need to work on. In clinics, I like it that I can take the time to work with a horse from the ground or hop on and ride him, to see what works and/or to show the owner what she needs to do. What I love most about my job is being able to help horses and riders be happier with each other.

I am excited about my 2012 Clinic Tour and the places it will take me and the horses and people I will meet along the way. I can see by the early-bird registrations that many riders are excited about it too; many of our clinics are already half-full. Now that I’ve completed my last clinic for this year, I am eagerly looking forward to 2012 clinics and I hope to see you there—with or without your horse!

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

PS—Click here to see the dates and locations for my 2012 clinic tour and to find more information on our early-bird specials! http://shopping.juliegoodnight.com/Clinic-Sign-Up-to-Ride-Clinic-Rider.htm

Mastering the Canter

2011-09-27T13:57:00.001-06:00

Everywhere I go—whether it’s to clinics, expos, conferences or just riding with friends, there are riders working on mastering the canter. Whether it is a novice rider just figuring out how to cue the horse and keep it going, a rider trying to slow down the gait and smooth out a wild ride or an advanced rider working on collection at the canter and difficult maneuvers like flying lead changes, we all have skills to master at this complicated and exhilarating gait. And that’s one reason why my canter DVD, Canter with Confidence, is our biggest seller.

I’ve been training horses and riders for several decades now, so I know that people have the same problems with their horses and horses have the same problems with their riders. That’s one reason I started my Training Library years ago and compiling all the questions I get and the answers I gave. In addition to the face-to-face questions, I get emailed questions every day and they even still come by mail occasionally. Most of the questions I’ve already answered or written about so I am always on the lookout for new and unusual questions. Of course each individual’s issues are unique but some of the back stories on the horses or riders reads like a docu-drama. Still, no matter how unusual the question is, the answers usually fall into a few common themes: leadership, authority, release and use your seat.

Today, I am very excited to see the big Yellow Freight truck arrive with two pallets of my new video, Canter Master. I am even more excited to see the huge stack of packages going out today to the hundreds of people that pre-ordered this new DVD—you’ll be seeing it real soon! In this new video we were able to address some of the most common issues at the canter from cueing to lead changes, with real-life riders, horses and issues.

Working with five different horses and riders—all at different ability levels—I was able to address a multitude of common issues at the canter in a visual format that allows the viewer to see the problem and understand the solution. Our first rider is on a nicely trained horse, a very sweet mare, but she was blasting into the canter at warp speed because the rider was over-cueing, stiffening up and interfering with the horse’s mouth. When I rode the horse, she transitioned very smoothly and cantered slowly. Once I showed the rider how to prepare for the transition and cue the horse systematically and smoothly, she was able to loosen her death-grip on the horn and sit back and actually enjoy the ride!

Our next subject was a really intriguing horse ridden by an up-and-coming young rider. It was a half-Arabian sport horse, and they were showing in Arab shows and huntseat equitation. It was a gorgeous horse, very athletic and very forward and each time the boy cued for canter the horse would launch into a bucking fit and run like a freight train. Bucking and/or running through the bridle at the canter are common problems and there can be many causes—sometimes rider induced, often stemming from physical problems in the horse. But in this case, it was an extremely common rider-horse co-dependence—a chicken and egg thing between the horse and rider (was the horse causing the rider to do that or was the rider causing the horse to do that?). Regardless od=f the cause, the cycle needed breaking and only that rider can do that. The solution was in first teaching the horse to lower its head and get rid of the stiff and bracing neck he had developed from years of being pulled on because he was going too fast. Then to get the rider to use his seat and not his legs to cue the horse and to give the horse the release he needs. You’ll see a big transformation in a short time.

For the next short story on this video we shift from a teenage boy with a bucking horse to a 60-something lady and her gorgeous show horse who are working on collection at the canter. I loved working with this rider who had recovered from several back surgeries and was still actively competing. Teaching her to use her seat, legs and hands together in a soft rhythm in timing with the stride of the horse, she was able to slow down and round up her horse and smooth out the gait.

Rounding out the video, is perhaps one of the most common questions I get about the canter—how do I get my horse to do a flying lead change? Well, if it were that easy, anyone could do it, right? First you must have all the pre-requisite skills like perfect canter departures, leg yielding, collection, etc.; the rider in this case was ready, on a horse that she had raised and trained herself. But every time she asked for the lead change, her horse would change to a cross-canter, if he responded at all—very common issues. The horse actually changed really well for me, it turned out he just needed more of a pre-signal from the rider (the most common fix for lead change problems). By breaking the preparation and cue down for the rider, she was able to make the leap and do some great changes.

Do any of these issues ring a bell for you? How about all you instructors out there—do you think people and horses struggle with the same old issues and if so, are we getting any better at teaching it?

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

Soaking Up the Last Rays of Summer

2011-09-18T08:33:00.001-06:00

I awakened early Friday morning to make my three hour commute to the airport, leaving for a clinic in Virginia. The temperature was in the 30s for the first time in a few months and the mountains peaks were blanketed with snow. That, and the fact that I was headed across the country to a clinic (my first business trip in eight weeks), were sure signs that my summer break had come to an end. Flashbacks of the first day of school after a wondrous summer came to mind.

I certainly can’t complain—I had a great summer break. A couple weeks on the beach in Kauai, several boating excursions, lots of golfing, walking and hiking and of course, plenty of time to ride my own horse for no other reason that my own personal pleasure. Rich and a had a good summer, but still, I hated to see it end.

But once I was on the road, already my mind was fast-forwarding ahead to the clinic and my other fall trips. When I got to the airport, my guys at the curb check spot I always use were happy to see me (I tip them well) and couldn’t wait to tell me they had seen my TV show. They’ve always treated me very well, pulling my 70# suitcases right out of the truck and taking good care of me. But now, since they saw me on TV, they felt compelled to treat me like a celebrity. This always cracks me up because I certainly don’t think of myself as one, but I don’t mind the extra service!

We had a great clinic in Chesterfield VA, near Richmond. It seems like every clinic has its own theme and this weekend, the theme was youngsters. We had a two year-old, several three year-olds and a couple more under six. It was fun to see the youngsters blossom and it was great to give the owners the information they needed to ensure the success of their young mounts. As usual, there was a variety of breeds, issues and rider’s ability, which makes the clinic fun and interesting for me—as well as for the spectators that are watching. All the riders and horses showed significant progress and I think everyone left with lots of ideas swirling in their heads and definite plans of action. I know sometimes my clinics fall into the category of information-overload and at the end of the weekend, sometimes the riders have a glazed-over, but satisfied look in their eyes. I’d rather err on the side of too much information than to have someone leave my clinic wishing they had gotten more out of it.

As sad as I was in Friday to know that my summer was over, it is exhilarating to get back to work and to meet new horses and their people. I’ll never grow tired of learning from new horses and helping people achieve their goals. My fall will be consumed with clinics, expos, state fairs, horse shows and conferences. Hard work as always but lots of fun too. I am fortunate to have a fun job and to have made a career out of something I am very passionate about. But there have been some tradeoffs—nothing worth having comes easily.

It seemed fitting to end my first week back from summer break sitting in the classroom at Colorado State U with a hundred or so incoming Freshmen. I attended the annual meeting of the CSU Equine Advisory Committee in Fort Collins this week. In order to appreciate the curriculum, we sat in on several classes—equine repro, equine anatomy and intro to equine sciences. It was fun to see the students and professors at work and I always enjoy the other committee members, who are real movers and shakers in the horse industry. Where else can you eat dinner with the leading cloner of horses? That makes for some very interesting dinner conversation!

Next week, with my fall in full swing, I’ll be headed to WA state for three days of clinics at the Central WA State Fair. Looking forward to it!

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

First Time for Everything

2011-08-30T08:52:00.001-06:00

I’ve enjoyed a lot of ‘firsts’ in my career and each has been exciting and fun to do—first article published, first time doing a live interview, first time I was a headliner at an expo, first cover on a magazine, first time on TV, first time roping a cow, first time riding a horse that was over 19 hands…. I’m thankful for all the opportunities.

This week I chalked up another first—I recorded a voice-over for an animated film. It will be for Spalding Laboratories-- about biological fly control and how those perky little predators actually work. Mine was the voice of the main character, Zara. She is a mamma fly predator of the species Muscidifurax Zaraptor Parasitoid. Try saying that three times fast. I can (now).

It was fun working with a professional film-making crew that I didn’t know—lights, cameras, action! It was unusually easy because 1) there was no horse to work with and around, and 2) I could read from a script and didn’t have to memorize anything. I only had to read it the way the director wanted it to sound; and since he directed me each step, it was easy.

In addition to recording the voice-over, we also taped some promotional video. Even the voice-over was recorded on video because the computer animation program can use the movement of my mouth to program the mouth of the animated character I was playing. I find animation intriguing and I cannot wait to see how Zara comes off in the film!

And I learned a lot about fly predators! I thought I already knew a lot about them because I have used them for about 25 years and Spalding Labs has been a major sponsor of mine for years, but I never paid too much attention to exactly how they work—I just knew they did work. As long as the flies disappear, why ask too many questions? In recording this voice-over—an educational film about effective fly control and how fly predators work, I learned a lot of interesting facts about the Muscidifurax Zaraptor Parasatoids. For instance, all these decades, I thought fly parasites ATE fly larvae. But they don’t. The females (like Zara) lay their eggs in fly larvae and their offspring consume the larvae and one tiny mamma predator can kill about 70 adult flies. Since we release about 20,000 predators each month—that’s a lot of flies that never hatch! Goo Zara!

I had fun with this commercial shoot and know it will help educate horse owners and in turn, make horses more comfortable. I count this opportunity to work with a sponsor as a blessing. After all, it would not be possible to do the TV show without Spalding and all of my sponsors. We love the comments and feedback we get about the show and it helps us shape the program into something that is even more interesting and useful to our viewers. But sometimes people don’t understand that our sponsors make what I do possible. From the TV show, to clinics, expos and even my writings, our sponsors make it possible.

So while we appreciate all the comments we get—positive and constructive, those comments saying that we should have fewer commercials or I should have fewer logos on my shirts or that I am too commercial always make me wince a little. I wouldn’t be where I am without sponsors and, ironically, the people that are making the comments (and they are few and far between) wouldn’t be watching and learning from the show without them.

Besides, horse owners frequently ask me what products I use and I’m happy to point them to what I know works and the products I’ve used for years than to have them hunt and “test” products for themselves. If I can help test and decide what works, I’m all for it and consider that part of my job. I hope it goes without saying that I would never endorse a product I didn’t believe in and that I would always be upfront and candid with people when giving them advice.

Fortunately for me, we are able to limit the sponsors we take resulting in a few select sponsors-- all companies with products that I have used for years (or decades) and whose products I can whole-heartedly endorse, knowing that it will help horses and horse owners. It’s easy to do my job when the products I am promoting are products that I use every day and believe in. I’ve made it a point to carefully select who I work with. If by accepting a sponsorship from a company whose products I rely on to take care of my own horses, I can offer a multi-faceted educational program for horse owners all over the country, and in turn help a lot of horses—bring it on! If that’s becoming “commercial”, I say, commercial I am!

It was a busy week and I struggled to get everything done, but I truly enjoyed checking off another “first” in my career. Who knows, maybe Disney will hire me as a voice talent for their next animated horse film! I could play Zara, the sage old alpha mare!

Enjoy the ride,
Julie

The Shoot to End all Shoots!

2011-08-23T16:53:00.001-06:00

Many years ago, a dear friend of mine told me that if I was going to keep up the pace I had set in my career, I should take a big fat red marker and block of time on my calendar each year that would be me-time—time away from business travel and time to devote to replenishing my soul. And since then, I have done that every year—it’s the first thing I do when I start planning the year. In fact, it has become sort of a ritual for me and I love seeing the red ink on my otherwise hectic calendar.

I always block off all of July and August in red, since this is the most glorious time in Colorado and because that is a time when my husband can get away from the ski area http://skimonarch.com/ . Rich and I went to the North Shore of Kauai for 12 days in July and had a fabulous time there; what more could I want for my birthday? I‘m not sure how you could have a bad time there—perfect weather, beautiful beaches, friendly people with a laid-back and mellow style. We’ve been going to the north shore for years and have many good friends there, so we spent lots of time walking the beach, catching up with old friends, riding on our friend’s cattle ranch and eating fabulous seafood every day. It was almost too much fun.

After catching the red-eye home and landing in Denver Friday morning, we drove straight to Brighton Saddlery to help celebrate their annual saddle sale. We literally stood in the gas station parking lot and changed from shorts and sandals to starched jeans and boots. What a wake-up call! I could hardly even get my boots on because my feet were swollen but I managed to get the uniform on and show up on time to talk to people about my new line of saddles made by Circle Y. With the sounds of the ocean still crashing in my head, it was all I could do to distinguish the cantle from the pommel at first, but it didn’t take me long to get back in the groove!

Once home, Rich and I were on the hyper-drive plan to get our ranch ready for the upcoming Horse Master shoot, which we tape at our place every summer. Before the shoot we have to buff up the place—kill weeds, mow every nook and cranny and rake the barnyard until it looks like a Japanese rock garden. Then there’s all the menu planning, logistics and finding all the horses and cast members—it’s a lot of work to pull off a shoot! But alas, we were ready and the crew and cast and horses descended upon us on Monday the first of August. That night we all gathered for pizza and meetings, where we talked about camera presence, quiet on the set, how we film close ups after the take, etc. Miraculously, over the next four days we taped TEN new episodes of Horse Master—the most we’ve ever done in one shoot—sending our total number of episodes to 102!!

I won’t say nothing went wrong—we had plenty of weather delays and technical delays. And although we’ve gotten very efficient at taping the shows, we weren’t able to tape 10 episodes because we made the most of every minute. This time of year in Colorado, we have monsoon weather which was both a blessing and a curse during the shoot. The cloudy days meant we could film all day long without harsh light and weird shadows. The rainy afternoons kept it cool and the arena footing looked like new plush carpet. A couple of times we ran inside because of lightning and rain. We worked for more than 12 hours each day—literally dawn to dusk. It was during the rain delay on the first day that we decided, much to the chagrin of the producer, editor and videographer, to make two extra episodes.

It really made good sense to me (except for the long hours it would entail). Usually at a shoot we tape eight shows with eight different horses/owners. Last winter at a shoot in AZ, we turned one episode into two (“to be continued”) and taped 9 episodes instead of eight—two with one horse. This time we taped four episodes with one horse—a three year old Hanoverian filly that we started under saddle. It worked out perfectly because we taped one episode each day; in four days we did four steps-- first saddling, first mounting, desensitizing to the rider, taking cues from the rider. We were also able to tape plenty of extra footage to complete my feature training video, Ready to Ride. This will be the fourth video in my From the Ground Up video series (Round Pen Reasoning, Lead Line Leadership, Bit Basics, Ready to Ride) and we are hoping to release it by the end of this year.

The filly was almost perfect—as to be expected since she was well-bred, well-tempered and well prepared to be ridden for the first time. If she had not protested at all, it might’ve seemed fake. She made just enough fuss that she appeared unbroken but was otherwise good enough to allow us to progress through the intensive outline I had prepared for the video, without much hesitation. Our cast member, Jennifer Babeon, had been preparing the filly using my methods. Jennifer had spent a summer working for me years ago when we were starting lots of colts, so she was a natural for this role. The horse was well schooled in the round pen, on the lead line and was fully bitted out. She was a pleasure to start under saddle—any trainer’s dream. Here’s a link to her webpage: http://www.yarmonycreeksporthorses.com/picabo.html

The other six episodes we taped involved a mustang who was too clever, a talented young barrel racer with a horse that had some baggage, a reined cowhorse that was under-performing, a lovely dressage horse trying to move up to level 4, a mare that threw up her head a ran off when cued to canter, and teaching a horse to open/close a gate properly. I can tell you, it took a lot of concentration to move from one thing to the other over the four days, especially with such long days!

Amazingly, my crew stuck with me and we muscled our way through the shoot. It was the most productive four days I’ve had in a long time and already my crew is threatening a mutiny the next time I get such a wise idea. I’ll write more about the other episodes we taped in later postings. Right now, I need to get back to enjoying summertime in the Rockies.

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

2011-06-24T20:04:00.001-06:00

I drove home from Denver through a mountain snowstorm on my way home Monday. It was the last day of summer and it was my son’s 24^th birthday; after so many nights on the road this spring, I was eager to get home and ready for some real summer weather. I was returning from a weekend clinic in Des Moines IA; it was a wonderful clinic—everyone did well and had good fun, with one minor exception.

The clinic was at Jester Park Equestrian Center, an exceptional facility that is part of a large state park. They have a perfect indoor arena for clinics—extra wide and long with plenty of room for riders and good seating for spectators. A full clinic makes for a busy arena but all of the horses were so good that things progressed smoothly throughout almost the entire clinic. During the ground work, the horses were all so good that I could hardly find a victim for my demonstrations.

It’s rare that in an arena full of horses at a clinic to have all the horses be well-trained and obedient, but that was pretty much the case in Iowa last weekend. After all, people come to horsemanship clinics to further their goals and learn to deal with their horse better. So I expect some riders to have “issues.” Generally it doesn’t take long to get a handle on the exuberant horses and usually after 15-20 minutes of guidance and instruction, the horses all fall into the routine, regardless of their “exuberance.” But at the Iowa clinic, everyone had a pretty good handle on their horse from the start of the clinic, so it was all about simply getting better. And there’s always plenty of room for that.

Many of the people in the clinic had already done lots of groundwork with their horses and it really showed in the strong relationships they had with their horses. Still, as with riding, there’s always room for improvement. The actual groundwork techniques people use is less important to me—at my clinics, there’s always some people with “fancy sticks” and “magic wands” and “wonder halters”, with various techniques learned from various trainers, ranging from clever to clown-like. What’s most important to me is that the people understand what they are doing in the groundwork, what behavior they are influencing, what the correct outcome is and why a particular technique works (or doesn’t).

I always start my clinics with groundwork because it gives me a chance to get to know the horses and their people; their authority, their confidence and their competence. It’s not to say that the horses or people that are good at groundwork are good at riding—that is certainly not the case. Sometimes you have a horse that has a lot of time and money invested into its under-saddle training but none in groundwork. These horses might be total brats on the ground but wonderful under-saddle. And the opposite can definitely be true. But after teaching literally thousands of horses and riders, I can make a pretty good guess of what level the horse and rider team are at, from watching them from the ground first.

As the clinic progressed last weekend, I had increasing confidence in the horses and riders and I found the group to be very consumed with learning—both in terms of physical skills and intellectual learning. We talked a lot about horse behavior, the science behind training horses and the subtleties of good horsemanship. The questions were astute and the progress was considerable. By Sunday afternoon, I had a comfort level with this group that allowed me to relax, sit back and enjoy the clinic.

We were working on cantering—everyone working at their own level; some not even cantering but enjoying the learning and watching. I think we were working on perfecting the canter cue and departure. The riders were working at their own pace—some walking on the rail, some cantering round and round, some just cantering on the straight-aways. I was sitting back, enjoying watching everyone work—coaching riders independently as they came around—when things went suddenly wrong.

Unbeknownst to all of us in the arena, just outside the rail—in the attached horse barn-- a worker accidentally bumped into an air compressor, knocking loose one of the hoses. Suddenly there was a very loud hissing sound and the three horses nearest the barn aisle spooked, spun and bolted. Although my back was to them at the moment, between the sound of the released compressed air and the sound of the hoof beats, it got my attention real fast. When you work with an arena full of riders—15 to 20 riders is normal for me—you learn to observe with your ears.

At any given time when I am supervising an arena, some of the riders will be behind me. Although you learn to always position yourself in the arena to visualize the maximum number of riders, there are always some horses that are behind you. To compensate, you learn the sound of normal hoof beats—to listen to the cadence—so you know what a horse is doing even when he is not in your direct sight. In this instance, my mind registered the sound of the bolting horses before I figured out the sound of the runaway air hose.

Of the three horses that bolted, two of the riders managed to stay on their horse and bring them to a stop before reaching the other side of the arena. But one rider lost her balance as the horses changed directions and had an “unscheduled dismount.” My eye is trained to watch the rider fall—a lot of information about the potential for injury can be gleaned from watching the fall closely. She hit the ground pretty hard but in my mind, the impact was less conducive to serious injury. Still , the breath was knocked out of her and if you’ve never had that happen, it is very frightening.

Naturally, we took all precautions and we had good medic support at the clinic with EMTs, a nurse and a physical therapist. It was decided that the rider should get checked out before remounting and therefore she ended up missing the last hour of the clinic. Before she left, she said to me, “I had SO much fun!” Imagine saying that right after you hit the dirt! What a trouper!

I made a point of emphasizing to her that her horse had done nothing wrong—he’s a great little horse and had not missed a single step during the clinic. He had worked hard, done his best and was a very nice horse. I wanted to make sure she would not hold it against the horse or be unnecessarily afraid of him. After the clinic was over and I was headed for the airport, I called her to make sure she was okay. She was—no broken bones, just a bruised hip and some sore muscles. But something she said in that phone call affected me profoundly and it is that statement that I wanted to share with you.

Earlier that day it just so happened that I sat next to this rider at lunch and we had the chance to chat a little. I had discovered that she had two young children, I think she said 5 and 7— a girl and a boy. She was feeling guilty that she had left her husband at home to deal with the children alone on Father’s Day. I remember saying, “Hey, that is what Father’s Day is all about!” I could tell she felt a little guilty for taking some time for herself and following her own dreams, but I was proud of her for doing so. I was much older than her before I realized that I could do things for myself and still be a good person.

What she shared with me after the clinic and after her trip to the emergency room was both surprising and incredibly meaningful to me. She shared that she normally did not wear a helmet when she rode but that she had on this particular weekend because she knew how I felt about it and so she did so out of respect for me. She also shared that she would never ride without a helmet again because she had figured out that no matter how good her horse was (and he was very nice), stuff happens. And she has two beautiful children and a kind and generous husband that she needs to be around for. Why take the chance?

Truth be told, it was hot and humid and wearing a helmet was perhaps not the most comfortable thing. But on the off-chance that something goes wrong—something totally outside your control and influence, isn’t it a nice insurance policy to protect you from preventable head injury? My heartfelt thanks goes out to this rider for sharing her thoughts with me; I’ll never forget it. I don’t really know the impact I have had on someone unless they share it with me.

And BTW, thank you to all the kind souls who have asked me about my son, who is recovering from a near-fatal head injury that he incurred about a year and half ago. I am pleased and proud to report that he is defeating all odds in his recovery and he is well on the way to resuming a normal and productive life. I am so proud of him and so grateful for all your genuine concern. As it turned out, I made it home in plenty of time to celebrate his birthday.

Right now, I am high in the air, on my way to California for my last clinic this summer (I have a few clinics in the fall). I am hopeful that this clinic will be just as fulfilling as the other ones I have done this spring and I am equally hopeful that my summer break will include some long over-due time riding my own horse and just having fun with horses.

Ride hard, but ride safely,

Julie

why one rein is better than two

2011-06-08T11:18:00.001-06:00

This is the heart of clinic season for me and I have been on the road almost every weekend—WA,CA, OH, CO, MA. They were all great clinics with interesting people and horses. This weekend I head to MA again, then on to IA and back to CA. May and June are my busiest months—a clinic almost every weekend. Rich and I did manage to take a little break over Memorial Day weekend and we spent three glorious days on our boat at Lake Navajo, in the four corners area.

People often ask me how I can manage all the travel I do. It is hectic and frustrating at times but really it’s not so bad. This time of year I fly out on Friday and come home on Monday. Usually I have 3-4 days at home during the week. I say usually because this week I was only home one night before heading out again with my husband to attend a ski resort conference in Aspen. Then tomorrow we are headed to Estes Park, CO, to attend the wedding of Heidi Nyland, my marketing manager, TV show producer and friend. It makes for a busy week for me, since I fly out to MA on Friday, but I am enjoying some time in Colorado’s most beautiful mountain resorts.

A couple weeks ago, we had the Women’s Riding & Yoga Retreat at the C Lazy U Ranch in Granby CO http://clazyu.com/. Although it was cold and wet most of the weekend (we even had snow on the ground one morning—much to the surprise of the flat-landers!), we all had a fabulous time riding in the toasty heated indoor arena, enjoying yoga sessions, gourmet food, the fantastic hot tub and the company of many fun and interesting women.

I know it’s been frustrating to many people who have tried to register for this event and couldn’t get in. I do this program twice a year and both clinics fill 6-12 months in advance. C Lazy U has a policy of allowing previous attendees to register first for the event the following year and so far, everyone has re-upped, making the clinics full from the beginning. We will be having the programs again next year in May and October and I have also agreed to a third weekend at C Lazy U, which will be a “Ranch Riding Adventure,” open to men and women, and it will include a clinic with me, trail riding challenges and introductory cattle work. This weekend will be in September—the most glorious month here in CO and we will be announcing dates and opening it up for registration later this summer.

At the CLU clinic a couple weeks ago, most people there were from out of state and everyone was riding one of the ranch’s trail horses. I have to say, these horses (and riders) did an awesome job. They carry riders (mostly beginners) down the trail for a living; they are not arena horses. But in spite of that, and with some understanding from the rider, they did great in the arena. The theme of the weekend was definitely working on not pulling BACK on the reins and not pulling on TWO reins at the same time when you want to turn. This is one of the most common problems I see at the clinics I do and it is highly detrimental to the horse. Some horses will take it, day in and day out, but many horses will shut down and become nonresponsive when the rider pulls on two reins. Allow me to explain.

First of all, most riders are stuck pulling BACKWARD on the reins any time they ask the horse to do anything (and sometimes even when they aren’t doing anything). ANY backward pull on the reins is known as a “rein of opposition” and interferes with the horse’s forward motion. If what you are trying to do is stop, then it’s not so bad, but if what you are trying to do is turn while you keep the horse going, it doesn’t work too well. For instance, we were doing a lot of canter work at the CLU clinic but most riders could not keep their horses going all the way around because as soon as they’d get to the corner, they’d pull back on the reins to turn and it would automatically slow the horse down to a trot. It’s asking him to do something he can’t—go forward around a tight turn while you are pulling back. It’s very unfair to the horse, although it’s the horse that usually gets blamed.

Another bad problem is to pull on both reins when you want the horse to turn, crossing your outside hand over the midline of the neck. So basically you are pulling his nose in two directions at the same time—what’s he supposed to do? Often people think they are neck reining when they do this, or they just have trouble separating their hands, or sometimes it looks like they are trying to turn their horse like their hands were on a steering wheel, but the horse is definitely the loser in this game. Many horses, when you pull on two reins at the same time, will just completely shut down, become nonresponsive and either head to the middle of the arena, head for another horse or just stop in frustration.

I know these are difficult concepts to understand and hard habits to break (especially when you don’t even know you are doing it) but when you consider it from the horse’s POV, it makes no sense at all. Pulling on two reins at the same time is rarely a good idea. The good news is that I think it sunk in for everyone at the clinic! As we worked through the different ways to use the reins—for instance using the leading rein (which has no opposition) to turn instead of the direct rein—and the one rein stop, I think everyone could see the difference in the way their horse’s responded. Although everyone would have loved to be able to bring their own horse to the retreat, in a way it’s good to ride different horses and work through specific challenges—it broadens your horizons and teaches you a lot. Would you agree that you learn more from riding different horses than you do from riding the same horse all the time?

I have written a lot about this problem of using two reins when one would work better http://juliegoodnight.com/questionsNew.php?id=44. There’s also an article in my Training Library that explains the different ways you can use the reins and the theory behind the rein of opposition, http://juliegoodnight.com/questionsNew.php?id=26. There is also detailed info on my riding DVD, Refinement and Collection—volume 5 in my riding series. http://shopping.juliegoodnight.com/Goodnights-Principles-of-Ridingvol-5-Refinement-Collection-GPRV5DVD.htm

What about you—have you ever had problems with your horse when you pull on two reins? Is he stiff-necked, hollowed out and resistant to your cues? Is he breaking gait all the time or are you struggling to keep him going? Or maybe he’s running right through the bridle when you try to stop? Have you ever tried to break the habit of pulling on two reins or have you ever discovered that to be a problem?

Riding is not an easy sport and unfortunately it’s our horses that pay the price for our mistakes. I am willing to bet that most of you reading this already know this simple truth—99.9% of all horse problems are rider induced. The good news is that the more you know and understand and question, the better you will be and the more your horse will respond!

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T15:45:00.001-06:00

We’re not big on celebrating florist holidays, so Mother’s Day has never been much of an ordeal in our family. Heck, we barely celebrate Christmas. Although I do confess to spending way too much money on wilting flowers for my mom this weekend, so in that way, I am still contributing to the economic event of this “holiday.”

I am, however, celebrating this entire weekend—just the simple act of being AT home is worth a celebration to me. And as it turns out, mother’s day is the reason why I am enjoying a well-deserved weekend off. I learned many years ago that clinics scheduled on mother’s day weekend were harder to fill and had more cancellations. Turns out many a mother had signed up for the clinic, only to find out that her son or daughter or husband had planned something special for mom that weekend.

I always found it incredibly ironic that in most cases, what the mom wanted to do the most was spend the weekend riding and learning about her horse. I only do 12-15 clinics a year from coast to coast, and I try to visit as many states and regions as possible, but in some cases of mother’s day clinic cancellations, she had already waited a year or two to get in a clinic. What she would have enjoyed more than anything was a weekend to herself, maybe staying at a hotel, no kids, no cooking and focusing on herself and her horse the whole weekend. But alas, we are mothers and when family duty calls, we answer and clinics get cancelled.

So I owe a big THANK YOU to mothers everywhere for their devotion to family. Mother’s day weekend is cleared on my calendar every year, along with Easter and memorial day. I get to spend those weekends at home, with my family, riding my horse, walking the dogs, cooking and gardening. After a long hard three months on the road almost every weekend, I so needed the break, so thank you!

I’ve been able to ride my horse several days this week and after a very long layoff, we are getting back into a groove. A week ago we had 7” of snow on the ground, so we relished having days in the 70s this weekend.

I guess florist holidays aren’t all bad. And I hope you enjoyed mother’s day too, rather you’re a mom or not!

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

Bucket List

2011-05-03T21:12:00.001-06:00

Starting last week, new episodes of Horse Master airing for the next nine weeks, which were filmed in Queen Creek Arizona back in January. As usual, I was happy with how all the episodes turned out, but at our “wrap party,” at the end of a long week of taping shows, we always vote on which were the best episodes and brainstorm what the titles should be. The whole crew agreed that one episode really stood out and as we pondered the titles, we dubbed this one “Bucket List.”

The show featured a beautiful blue roan QH mare named Lady, who belonged to a vivacious, delightful and camera friendly woman named Cynthia. She introduced the show with a sad but inspiring story about the death of one of her closest friends, who had made Cynthia realize that life is too short and that she needed to make the most of it and follow her dreams. It wasn’t long before Cynthia went horse shopping and found her dream horse, Lady.

Lady and Cynthia had been together for some time when we met for the shoot and Lady was everything Cynthia had hoped for in a horse except that she was a “star gazer.” For years she had been riding totally inverted and staring up at the sky, to the point that the underside of her neck muscles were bulging the wrong way and her gaits had turned rough and choppy. Otherwise, she was all Cynthia had ever hoped for in a horse: beautiful, well tempered and willing.

I knew right away that changing the bit would have a big impact on the mare, and it did, but I was concerned that after nearly a decade of being ridden in that inverted frame that she would be difficult to re-habituate—both physically and mentally, especially within the strict time constraints of a half-hour TV show. Our viewers are often surprised to learn that pretty much everything that we do with the horse appears on the TV show. I guess they assume that since we could work the horse “behind the scenes” that we do.

But the honest to god truth is that we try our best to show everything that happened with the horse. Sometimes it takes a little longer to get the needed response from the horse than the allotted time for that segment. We always film the training part from start to ‘finish’ (the part where I get on the horse to retrain and/or show the owner what to do) and if it takes longer to get the response I want from the horse than the segment allows, that segment gets edited into a “montage” which shows that some time has elapsed and shows the progression of the horse. Plus I usually mention in the narrative that I have spent about 20 minutes up to now, or whatever time has transpired (the record was 1 hour 40 minutes to get the horse we were working with to walk across the tarp).

In the case of Lady, I changed the bit to something more conducive to training and then started riding her to teach her to lower her head and round her frame. The technique is simple—just apply pressure to the bit when her head is up and release the pressure when her head moves down. The key ingredient is good timing—an expedient release as soon as the head begins to move down.

Keep in mind that I have done this a lot in my career—get on a horse with a high headset and teach him to lower it—and in most cases, I can get the response I want in just a few moments. But Lady took a lot longer than normal; it was 15-20 minutes of working with her before she figured it out (which isn’t very long but the segment only allows me about five minutes for the training part). She was trying hard and not fighting me at all, but after a decade of riding this was, she just really didn’t know what to do. Muscle memory is huge.

After what seemed like a long time, with the camera running and all of the crew and Cynthia watching silently, Lady at first tentatively dropped her head and realized that it got her the release she had been looking for. It was like a light bulb finally went off in her head and from that moment forward, she dropped her lead low, rounded her frame and looked like a show horse. Her gaits became surprisingly smooth and as I looked up at Cynthia to see if she recognized the progress, I saw a big grin on her face and tears streaming from her eyes.

The next step in the episode (and in real life) is to see if the owner can have the same success that I had and this is the trickiest part. Horse Master is not about me coming in and showing how it’s done; it’s about getting the rider to do it. Our show has always been about every rider mastering the skills they need to become their own horse master. Lots of trainers could have the same success I had with this mare but if I can get the rider to understand and enact change, then I feel like I have really accomplished something. And Cynthia did not disappoint me!

Even though it took a while to get Lady to understand what I was asking of her, once she got it, she had it. And when Cynthia mounted to give it a try, it wasn’t long before she got the same response from Lady that I had. It was a beautiful sight to see and Cynthia was no less than thrilled at their progress. After the training/teaching segment, the rider has about 24 hours to get in a few practice sessions, under the supervision and guidance of my trusted assistant trainer. Then we film the closing segment the next day, hoping to see huge progress, and once again, Cynthia and Lady did not disappoint us.

In the closing segment, you can see that Lady looks awesome—her head is low, her trot is slow and collected and together they look fluid and in total harmony. With Cynthia’s closing remarks about how thrilled she was that her horse was now everything she had ever dreamed of, there was not a dry eye to be seen on the crew. We were all so happy for her and so pleased to see her lovely mare in a much happier and comfortable state. I just knew they were destined for great things, but sadly, I was wrong.

A week after the shoot we received the horrifying news that Lady had succumbed to a violent bout of colic and in the end she had lost the battle. Cynthia’s dream horse is now gone forever and she only has happy memories of her now. Sometimes it seems like this only happens to the best horses. Why is that?

Needless to say, Cynthia has been devastated by the loss of her lovely mare and I know that many of you, like me, know all too well the pain and heartaches of seeing a horse die of colic. It leaves a scar on your heart along with the feeling that you’ll never have a great horse again. It’s hard to even think about another horse.

Many old-time horsemen will say that you’ll only be blessed with one really good horse in your lifetime, but I don’t believe it. Currently, I have my fourth “best horse of a lifetime.” The first was my first horse—a trusted Morgan mare named Mini that I had from birth to 14, when she died of old age. The second was my first real show horse, George. He was a push-button Thoroughbred show hunter that carried me to the winner’s circle many, many times. My third best-horse-of-a-lifetime was Pepsea, another Morgan mare, drop-dead gorgeous, who would go anywhere and do anything. She’s still alive but semi-retired. And maybe the best of all is my horse Dually, my current “best horse” who is my partner and friend and who has taught me a lot. He had a near-death experience with colic last fall and we thought we would lose him, but I got to keep him. For now. And I count every day with him as a gift.

I heard from Cynthia after her episode aired last week; nearly three months after she lost her lovely mare. The hole in her heart is slowly healing and although it was previously inconceivable, she now is beginning to think about another horse. Cynthia wrote, “Yes, seeing our episode was bittersweet. I loved seeing us together again and the work you did with her. I have such wonderful memories of the shoot. I can't thank you enough for this experience because the great memories and the wonderful episode are priceless to me. Also wanted to share that I have heard nothing but great comments from my circle of horsewomen friends about the show and they are a tough sell. Am thinking possibly another month or so and I will start shopping for my next "great horse" and with some luck I'll find her. I'll make sure that I share that good news with you when I take that step.”

And I will make sure I share it with you, my readers. In the meantime, I know Cynthia would love to hear your thoughts and comments and encouragement—you can do that here. The moral of the story is to make the most of each day because we never know what tomorrow will bring. When I get home, I am headed out to the barn to hug my horse.

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

PS- in case you missed Cynthia’s episode, it will air again the week of June 27^th.

A Smile in the Face of Adversity

2011-04-15T20:28:00.001-06:00

Last week I was a presenter at Equine Affaire in Columbus OH. In case you’ve never been to this expo, it is huge—with hundreds of vendors, every kind of junk food imaginable (and some that are unimaginable—like fried Oreos), marvelous entertainment and an educational program from some of the top trainers in the world. I love this event and always have a good time, even though it is non-stop action and long days.

This year, in addition to doing presentations every day, I also was the emcee for the Equine Affaire Versatile Horse & rider competition. I enjoy narrating as each riding negotiates the course, commenting on what the judge is looking for or educating the spectator on why the particular obstacle is a challenge and throwing in a little humor when I can. It’s not always easy to do all of that without offending or embarrassing the rider but for this year’s competition, the quality of the horses was so high that it made my job easy.

The top 10 riders in the final round of the competition were all very impressive and represented a variety of breeds. In years past, Quarter Horses have definitely dominated this type of high-action trail obstacle contest but this year, the top 10 included a Gypsy Drum, a Lusitano/Kiger Mustang cross, a couple Paints and a spotted saddle horse. But, as it turns out, the best horse of the weekend was a mule! He was absolutely perfect and even though he was competing against some really awesome horses, he was flawless and machine-like in his performance. Nothing beats a good saddle mule and if you have never ridden one, you don’t know what you are missing!

In addition to helping with the competition, I also did several presentations over the weekend on topics including riding better, building confidence, horse behavior, ground manners, canter leads and even one about riding challenging and difficult horses. Needless to say, it was the latter topic that got interesting.

Actually, it was a good clinic, with several horses and their riders that were dealing with minor but annoying behaviors like spooking, refusing to go somewhere, being distracted or going too fast. I spent a lot of time talking about establishing authority in the beginning of your ride and how to do that, controlling your horse’s path and speed, how to use your arena wisely and exercises to help get your horse’s attention. The horses were just the right amount of bad—enough to be interesting, but without any extreme or dangerous behavior and they all made tremendous improvement. But there was one minor mishap in the clinic when a rider fell off.

To be honest, I’ve never had that happen to me in a demonstration in front of a large audience. While it occasionally happens at clinics (not very often), usually at expos, with just a few horses in the arena that are hand-picked for the job, things are pretty controlled. In this case, even though it was a clinic for challenging horses and even though the horse in question was not easy to ride, it really was not the fault of the horse nor was it stemming from any malice on his part. But with a rider down in the arena, I was a little unsure of what to do next.

Frankly, I did not see what happened to initiate the problem—I was clear at the opposite end of the arena from that horse and looking the other way when I heard a loud “ooohhhh” go through the crowd. I turned to see what the commotion was all about, just in time to see the rider hit the dirt and the horse immediately stopped and stood quietly. I have learned over the years to watch closely when a rider falls because you can get a lot of information about how badly hurt they may or may not be and what injuries may have occurred. In this case, I could see that the rider did not hit the ground very hard and although I thought the chances were good that she was unhurt, I did the prudent thing and told her to stay on the ground and not move. While paramedics attended the rider, I caught the horse and returned my attention to the audience.

It was sort of weird; with the rider laying on the ground and paramedics in the ring, I wasn’t sure if I should keep going or stop the clinic, which still had about 45 minutes left. Ultimately, after sharing my concerns with the audience, to try and divert some attention from the rider as she very publically lived out this very private moment, I kept going.

I mounted her horse right away so that the horse had to keep working and regain his focus and to see if it would be safe for the rider to remount once she was cleared by the medics. As I mentioned, he was not easy to ride, but he was just a green 3 y/o—no fault of his own; he just didn’t know much. After I was up for a few minutes and had resumed the clinic, the rider was pronounced healthy and allowed to get back up off the dirt. Ironically, this caused spontaneous applause from the audience, which sent the horse into a spooking bolt across the arena. For a few seconds, while I struggled to stop the horse, I saw this same scenario playing out only with me laying in the dirt this time. But I got the horse stopped and after settling it down again the rider remounted with a big smile on her face.

I was so impressed with this young lady’s composure and maturity. Imagine the embarrassment of falling off in front of a huge crowd (over 1,000 people watching), not to mention the blow to your personal confidence. She picked herself up, dusted off the dirt and got right back up on her horse and rode it like a champ. No tears, no anger, no blaming; but she did have a smile on her face the whole time. She just rode like a cowgirl (but in breeches and tall boots) and I think everyone in the audience, like me, was both empathetic and impressed.

And by the way, you might wonder what led to this incident to begin with and why we were quick not to blame the horse. As I mentioned, I didn’t see the whole thing start, but the rider and audience filled me in on the details. She was riding along just fine when the horse suddenly stopped, put his head down (pulling the reins out of the rider’s hands) and shook his whole body (sometimes, when you have an itch, you have to scratch it). Don’t you hate it when that happens? Unfortunately, not only did she drop the reins, leaving her with no means to control the horse, but then when he shook, she slipped back behind the saddle, startling the horse and causing him to run bucking across the arena. The rider had no reins and she got way out of balance when the horse turned to bolt, so with the first little buck she was air borne. It was a very unfortunate series of events but there was no malice or intention on the part of the horse and the rider knew that.

This gal was young; but her composure and maturity were that of an old soul. I was so impressed with her attitude and that she did not blame the horse. She was an excellent role model to all of us and I just hope I can be that classy when and if it happens to me.

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

It's Not "Just" Trail Riding

2011-03-28T07:10:00.002-06:00

While I was making a presentation recently, in front of a large crowd at a horse expo, I heard myself say, while justifying why the horses in the huge coliseum were a little overwhelmed, “please understand their discomfort, after all , they’re just trail horses.” I knew it sounded wrong, even as it came out of my mouth and even though I was reiterating the disclaimers of the riders to please excuse their horses because they had never been in an indoor arena. The fact that they were “just” trail horses and “just” trail riders has given me some food for thought. The truth is, trail riding requires the same horsemanship skills as any other type of riding and given the fact that you are riding in a totally uncontrolled environment and often in unpredictable circumstances, you could argue that trail riding requires an even higher level of horsemanship.

In the past decade, I have seen the nature of the riders in my clinics change. It used to be that the riders were more interested in showing—in improving their riding skills to perform certain maneuvers better or in making their horse go slowly on the rail so they could win more ribbons. It used to be that people who were “just trail riders,” didn’t show up at clinics because they weren’t interested in showing, performance or going ‘round and ‘round. These days, my clinics are full of trail riders who have realized that the more they know, the better they ride, and the stronger their partnership between horse and human, the safer and more satisfying their horse activities become.

After all, it doesn’t matter whether you hit the trail or ride around in circles, you need to have authority over your horse, he needs to respect and admire your leadership so that he is comfortable leaving the herd in your presence and going wherever you say, and he needs to have good ground manners before, during and after your ride. You need to know how to stay balanced on your horse (arguably even more for trail riding), you need to know how to cue him and control him in all gaits and you need to be able to rate his speed and put him exactly where you want him to be—maneuvering around challenging obstacles. These horsemanship skills are important no matter where you are going with your horse and they require study, practice and experience.

The truth is, good horsemanship is good horsemanship, no matter what discipline you ride or what activities you pursue—there are no horse activities exempt from this. For instance, take a look at some of the topics, just released in my new video, “Trail Solutions.” Starting out with the ability to evaluate a horse to make sure that it is the right type, age and training level, so that you have the greatest chance for success out on the trail or in whatever discipline you choose. Trailer loading is not “just for trail horses”—but it’s pretty important and almost any horse is going to have the need to be transported at some point, but especially a trail horse. Having a horse that steps right into the trailer without pushing or prodding is as important for a person going to a horse show every weekend as it is to a trail rider. Knowing how to safely train him to lead willingly and eagerly into the trailer is a skill almost any horse person needs.

Side passing is not just a cute show ring maneuver or a fancy dance step; it’s a way to completely control your horse’s body and maneuver him to an exact position that you dictate. When you’re out on the trail, being able to maneuver around obstacles, keep your horse in control in tight and confining spaces or sidle up to a gate to open it are valuable and essential skills. And having a horse that stands dead still for mounting is perhaps more valuable for a trail horse than it is for any arena horse, since mounting out on the trail can sometimes be precarious. Here's a clip from the Trail Solutions DVD:

What about desensitizing a “cinchy” horse? Most people that have been around horses for very long have at some point encountered a horse that is resistant and resentful about tightening the cinch/girth and it is as common in trail horses as it is in any other type. It can strike the easiest going, best tempered horse if pain is inflicted by the cinch. Learning how to eliminate this undesirable and potentially dangerous behavior might make the difference in salvaging a good trail horse. That episode is on another Horse Master compilation that trail riders will also find helpful--Troubleshooting. Here's a clip from that one:

You can call to get both or either DVD at: 800-225-8827

Studying and perfecting good horsemanship skills is equally important for all types of riders and like in any discipline, trail riders will be safer, have more fun and get more satisfaction if they ride better, have a trusting and willing horse and know how to handle “problem” situations. I’ve met lots of very experienced riders that used to compete and/or rode at very high levels, but now they find their greatest satisfaction in “just” trail riding. Trail riding can be a challenging and sometimes difficult pursuit and, as with anything challenging in life, it helps to know more. That’s why I love having trail riders in my clinics and I expect the same level of commitment to excellence that I do from any rider.

Trail riding can range from a leisurely stroll down a mowed path around the barn to a 100 mile trek through the mountains. Any event that involves riding horses requires skill, knowledge, lots of practice and lots of patience. An accomplished horse person is admirable in my eyes, not matter what path she follows. What do you think?

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

Emergency Dismount

2011-03-15T07:21:00.001-06:00

I had an interesting question recently from one of my good Facebook friends: “If you want to stay on, at what moment does the rider decide to execute an "emergency dismount"?”

This is a good question and one to which there is no definitive answer, except, “it all depends on the circumstance.” In general you are usually better off and safer staying on the horse if it is at all possible. Even teaching the emergency dismount is somewhat controversial for two reasons. First, practicing the emergency dismount is risky and injury-prone; when vaulting off a moving horse, it’s easy to fall down, sprain an ankle or worse. So practicing something that you may or may not ever need but may cause injury just by practicing is questionable. Of course, you could certainly argue the opposite that if you were to ever need it, having practiced it may make you less prone to injury. When I taught kids, I had them learn and practice the emergency dismount routinely. Now that my student base is middle-aged and older adults, I don’t teach it at all—because of the potential for injury in the practice.

The second reason why it is controversial to teach the emergency dismount is because you may end up with a rider that bails off the horse for no good reason when they should have stayed on and this can cause a lot of problems. Again, you are usually safer on the horse than off, because once you come off you are probably going to hit the ground (or some other hard object) and you may become a victim of the horse’s hooves. However, like everything with horses, there are exceptions to the rule.

In my entire riding career, I have only voluntarily come off a horse a few times. I have certainly had plenty of “unscheduled dismounts” through the years, but those weren’t by choice. Most of the time I have come off a horse, I have realized that I couldn’t stay on because I was too out of position or out of balance and I came off knowingly but not exactly executing an emergency dismount—more like being ejected. It’s funny how time seems to be suspended in those moments and usually there is time to think about the fact you are going to come off and how and where you might land, but not enough time to execute an emergency dismount.

The few times I have voluntarily done an emergency dismount, there have been some extenuating circumstances, and these are probably the only situations in which I would do it. In both instances I can remember, the horse was running away with me, out in the open—not in an arena-- maybe bucking maybe not, but I had already tried my best to regain control and I determined I couldn’t do it. Running away, in and of itself, is not enough to make me bail because the one thing about a runaway horse, which I learned riding race horses, is that eventually he will run out of oxygen and stop. In both cases that I did bail, the horse was headed for something dangerous, like a barb-wire fence, with seemingly no concern about his own well-being. Running away is one thing, but when the horse is in such a panic that it loses its sense of self-preservation, you’re in trouble. And BTW—this is a good thing to remember—when the horse is willing to cause injury to himself, he is way beyond rational control and both of you are at great risk.

There are probably a few circumstances where in hind-sight I should have bailed off but didn’t. But my tendency is to stay on board if at all possible. I think that if a rider is too quick to bail off, not only is she risking injury in the dismount but there will also be times when she would’ve stayed on if she had tried. But a controlled crash-landing is usually better than an uncontrolled one. I do think there is some value in learning how to take a fall—tuck and roll. And I think it is valuable to know the process of an emergency dismount.

There are two really critical factors when you are coming off a horse-- whether it’s an emergency dismount or not. First, you have to get your feet clear of the stirrups ASAP. You’d be surprised how many people, in a panic, go to dismount and forget to take their feet out. The potential disastrous results are obvious. Secondly, DO NOT hold onto the reins—let the horse go! You’d be surprised how many people try to hang onto the reins when they fall, in a last-ditch effort to maintain control, and then end up pulling the horse down onto them or breaking an arm or dislocating a shoulder. If you are coming off a horse, voluntarily or not, get your feet out of the stirrups and let go, pushing yourself as far away from the horse as possible.

It is an unfortunate characteristic of the sport that things sometimes do not go according to plan. And even with the most docile, steady horse, there may be times when bad things happen. Keeping your wits about you and continuing to think through the crisis are the most useful tools you have. The emergency dismount has its time and place, but it should be a method of last resort.

Here’s to hoping you always stay on the topside!

Julie