Cure for the Cinchy Horse

If your horse bites or threatens to bite or even swings his head around in a threatening manner when you tighten his cinch strap, you’ve got a problem. Today you learn a simple fix that requires no equipment and works every time.

How to start. Stand in the usual position, facing the near side of the horse, right hand on the latigo strap, left arm crooked slightly so your elbow is pointing in the direction of the horse’s head. Tighten the cinch a little at a time, always while the horse is exhaling (Parelli style).

What to do. If your swings his head around, the first part of your body he’ll encounter is the point of your elbow, the hardest part of your body. If that alone doesn’t deter him, you can flap your arm like you were having a muscle spasm.  Practice this right now. It’s amazing how quickly you can move your elbow, far more quickly than you could jump out of the way or raise your hand to the horse. Before long, you will instinctively flap your arm when you pick up head movement in your peripheral vision.

Your attitude. Other than flapping your elbow, don’t react at all to what your horse has done. Remain relaxed and focused on the cinching as if nothing happened. If he comes around again, flap your arm again. If he’s persistent, you may have to adopt an animated style of cinching where your left arm is flapping almost continually. Once the problem goes away, you can go back to being calm and quiet during cinching, occasionally reassuring your horse with a touch or soft word.

Why it works. Your horse experiences an unpleasant (but not painful) consequence to the action that he chose to take. In a scientific sense this is called punishment, but don’t get hung up on the word. It’s unpleasant to him because 1) it surprises him, 2) if he makes contact with your elbow, it is a bit uncomfortable, and 3) he finds himself moving into commotion or energy. It also gains him nothing because you kept right on with what you were doing as if nothing happened. He will try again but it will be with less enthusiasm. Finally, he’ll just give up.

Where I got it. I saw a video clip once in which Tom Dorrance was demonstrating this technique using a dowel rod tucked under his arm. I found I could accomplishment the same thing with my elbow. However, if you don’t feel safe using your elbow, use a dowel rod or training stick or anything else that’s handy. The important thing is that you have something sturdy between you and the horse’s head.

Why it’s good. The big advantage of this technique is that the horse doesn’t realize that the punishment has come from you. He believes he did it to himself. Some of the best old-time training techniques were like this. I like this sort of technique because it cures a dangerous behavior without putting the relationship at risk.

Before you start. There’s always a chance that the horse has a medical issue that is causing him pain when you tighten the cinch. Examine the girth area and call your vet if you see or feel anything unusual.

If you found this article helpful, please like, share and comment. Thanks! 

The Sad Truth about Negative Reinforcement

You love your horse. Why in the world would you use negative reinforcement in his training? It sounds horrible!

Yes, it does, which is too bad because negative reinforcement isn’t horrible at all. In fact, you are probably already using it. The worst thing about negative reinforcement is its name. But more on that later.

Here’s the real meaning of negative reinforcement: rewarding a desirable response by removing an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus. Read that sentence again. “Negative” means a stimulus is removed. “Reinforcement” means that the horse sees this as a reward. Negative reinforcement is used to increase the likelihood that a given behavior will be repeated.

In plain old English, it’s what we call pressure and release training. Any time a trainer puts pressure on a horse and releases the pressure when the horse gives an acceptable try, the trainer is using negative reinforcement.

But back to the name. Negative reinforcement is a scientific term coined by American psychologist, B. F. Skinner (1904-1990). Skinner used the labels “positive” and “negative” because they invoked the ideas of adding and subtracting stimuli in response to behavior demonstrated by a subject.

Negative reinforcement has an identity crisis today because the public doesn’t use positive and negative this way. To us, these words are synonymous with good and bad. We say, “She has a positive attitude” or, “The movie got negative reviews.”

It is truly ironic that Skinner’s naming convention made it seem like rewarding the horse was really punishing him. This is an epic fail! It’s also a bit sad. Skinner was absolutely brilliant and is considered the father of Behaviorism, one of the big three learning theories of the 20^th century. But words matter and he was a lousy wordsmith.

Your Horse Doesn't Love You. Get Over It!

Your horse doesn’t love you. 

Them’s fightin’ words to some people. Now, I’m not saying that’s you, but since you’re here, let me lay this out for you. There’s a point to this, I promise.

We all know that there are different senses of the word “love” in English. I can say I love ice cream and I love horses and you wouldn’t be confused by either statement. Get out of our shared culture and there is more opportunity for misunderstanding. I would be very careful how I talked about loving all things equine when ordering in certain European restaurants. It only gets worse when we try to translate a nuanced concept to another human language, and it’s a complete disaster in inter-species communication.

The human and the equine are as opposite as can be. Dr. Miller and I coined the terms “ultimate predator” and “ultimate prey animal” back in 2004 to drive this point home. That a relationship of any kind can exist between these two polar opposites in the animal kingdom is amazing on its face. That this relationship can be taken to the highest levels of mutual trust, respect, and communication is … is … well, it’s why I’m writing this and you’re reading it.

Why can’t we use “love” to describe how a horse feels about his human partner? Two words: It’s dangerous. It’s dangerous because it feeds the notion that the same thought processes and mental structures are in a horse’s noggin as in yours. Your horse has a more primitive brain than you. He lives in the moment. He has no principles or values. His perceptions of the world around him are those of a highly successful prey animal. His first instinct when there is any question about his safety is to move his feet. Yes, you can train him to look to you for leadership when he’s worried, but the instinct to survive at all costs remains. Every horse is capable of spooking and running right over anything in its path, including you. Your belief that he loves you won’t stop that.

Now think for a moment about your essential nature. Humans are tool users. Our hands, not our feet, are our first lines of defense. We can imagine things we haven’t seen, we think about the future, we have the capacity to read and write, we have empathy, and we can reason. And since I brought it up, is it reasonable to think that this already-complicated concept of love that occupies our thoughts can also exist in the horse’s very different mind? Hmmm?

So, if it’s not love, what exactly does your horse feel when he’s around you? When he bats those big brown eyes, when he nuzzles you, when he nickers at the sound of your footsteps approaching? He feels safe. That’s it. He may like what happens when you’re around. He gets fed or brushed or ridden. But none of that would matter a whit if he didn’t feel safe. Pat Parelli used to say that a horse’s priorities are safety, comfort, and play (food has since been added to the list). Safety is first for a reason. It’s more important than you.

This truth may stick in the craw. You may fear it will ruin what you love about horses. Take a deep breath. Accepting this essential truth about horses is a rite of passage on the horseman’s journey, and you know what? It won’t change a thing for you. Horses will still be wonderful and they’ll still be the most perfect vehicle for human fulfillment and self-actualization that has ever existed on God’s green earth.

You love your horse? I’m happy for you. Really! Just don’t tell me your horse loves you back. Because he doesn’t.   

Showing a Tired Horse

Marilyn recently asked my opinion about the following scenario. I later found out that she was talking about her horse and her trainer,

"A Reining horse is hauled 13 hours to a big Reining show.  Once he is unloaded and put in his stall, the rider and trainer ties him in his stall so he can't lay down.  When questioned about his reasons for this, he replies he wants the horse to be tired so he will be more relaxed and listen to him as he runs the reining pattern. This seems to border on the side of cruelty to me.  Wouldn't you think after 13 hours in a trailer you would want the horse to relax before he is scheduled to show?  And isn't it true that horses are more likely to get injured when they are tired?”

Thanks for the question, Marilyn. First, remember that you are not only the customer, but also your horse’s number one advocate and last line of defense in a world where his natural self-preservation tools are largely denied him. You need to be ready to jump in and take charge if you see something happening that doesn’t seem right to you. That could mean changing barns or even pulling him out of a show at the last minute.

Second, let's be fair to the trainer. Trainers aren’t mind readers. When you hire a trainer, you need to be clear about the goal of the training and what is acceptable to you in reaching that goal. Don't assume anything. A frank conversation might still preserve this relationship. If not, pay the trainer’s bill, wish him well, and move on.

Third, horses adapt to unnatural conditions and treatment remarkably well. On the scale of unsavory training practices, showing a horse in a tired state ranks relatively low and your horse will probably be just fine. But again, this is your horse and you need to be comfortable with how he is being treated. Making sure your trainer’s values align with your own will go a long way toward avoiding this problem in the future.

Rick

Hard to Catch

Annelisa listens to The Horse Show on Rural Radio Channel 80 (Sirius/XM). She wrote to ask for more information on catching the hard-to-catch horse in a round pen. Normally, I would expound a bit on what the guest on that particular program said. Problem is, I can’t figure out which guest Annelisa heard.  So, Annelisa, these are my thoughts on the hard-to-catch horse.

First, a basic principle: If you want your horse to make a change, you have to give him a reason to do so. The hard-to-catch horse is happy being away from you. To change that, you need to convince him that it’s better to be with you.  The round pen is a great place to do this because, in order to stay away from you, the horse has to keep moving, and eventually he looks for an alternative to wasting all of that precious energy.

So here’s the basic technique. With the horse loose in the round pen, bring up your energy and focus it on the horse’s hindquarters. Mentally push on them, move toward them, throw a rope at them, whatever you need to do to be sure the horse feels that energy pushing on his hind end.  One of two things will happen. Either the horse will squirt away from you and exercise his flight response or he will disengage his hindquarters, which is a fancy way of saying he will swing his rear end away from you and face up. If the horse runs away, keep the pressure up until you see that he wants to slow down. Let him stop and begin the session again.

The facing up is what you want from the horse because that is an act of submission, an offering of sorts. What you do when he begins to face you is critical.  You instantly turn off the pressure and start backing away him. Remember, you began this session by pushing energy toward the horse’s hind end; now you’re pulling energy from his front end. Pushing energy has a driving effect and pulling energy has a drawing effect. You want the horse to continue this change he has made in turning toward you by actually taking a step toward you, then another, then another. It’s easy for him to do this as long as you are backing away. When you begin to see other signs of submission such as licking and chewing or lowering the head, you can stop moving backward and let the two of you rest in that position.

So where are we now? The horse has decided that, at least for the moment, it is better to be with you than away from you. The pressure to move his hindquarters is gone and he’s felt this urge to move toward you.  This is an important mental shift and the moment it occurs is called joining up or hooking on. It’s a fragile moment and getting greedy can undo what you’ve accomplished, so go slowly. If you are still getting these offerings of submission, such as lowering the head, licking and chewing, softening the eye, or blinking, it is a good time to give your horse a gentle scratch on the forehead.  Don’t dwell there; just get in, scratch, and get out. Turn and walk slowly away from the horse. Feel the invisible connection between you. The horse should follow. Turn and scratch him while he’s still mentally connected to you . When you’ve both gotten comfortable with this little dance, you are done for the day.

Whaaaa? That’s right. You are not going to do anything further with the horse on that day. This is called ending on a good note and it may be the hardest part of training a horse. Think of it as an investment in the future, a way of patching up the foundation of your relationship. To continue that metaphor, the mortar needs time to set. You are going to leave your horse on a good note in order for things to firm up in his mind. Remember, you’ve rocked his world a bit. You are not the same person he thought you were. He needs time to process that. The idea beginning to form in his mind is that being with you could be his first choice rather than his last resort.

Tomorrow, you can repeat he whole thing again, paying special attention to how you use your energy and how he responds to it. You’ll be better and he will probably respond more readily. But maybe not. Horses always test us and progress isn’t perfectly linear. Don’t let that upset you because that negative energy will also be felt by the horse and will interfere with the other signals he’s picking up from you.  The time will come, maybe on that second day or maybe later, when you can put his halter on him and walk him around a bit. As before, don’t get greedy about this. Surprise him by ending on a good note, when he’s relaxed and willing to do more. In the future, mix it up like that. Some days, you’ll catch him to go do something. Other days, you’ll catch him just to give him a good scratch or a carrot. You will keep your horse engaged and interested in you – and easier to catch – if you are just a little unpredictable in your daily activities with him.

Rick 

The Adaptability of Horses

Looks like it's been about two years since my last blog post. I didn't fall off the planet and was using my time wisely, I promise! More on that later. Here's something that's been on my mind.

In the early days of my radio show, I interviewed a well-known farrier who advocated natural living environs for our horses. Big pastures, varied terrain, lots of other horses around, emulating the aspects of life in the wild that he felt were important. Working with the nature of the horse instead of against it is fundamental to enlightened training and horse keeping, so I was eager to find out how this gentleman translated his ideal to the real world. I asked a simple question: “What about those of us who don’t have big pastures?” His answer has stuck with me for more than a decade: “You need to get one.” 

I’ve encountered this sort of dogma about horses elsewhere and it always irritates me because it casts horse ownership as some kind of exclusive club for people with a lot of money, and land, and time.  Trust me, you can have horses in your life with modest amounts of those commodities, and you can do it responsibly. But let’s start with what the farrier got right. It’s good for horses to be outside where they have room to move around, even run around if they want.  It’s good for horses to have forage-based diets and to spend at least part of their time grazing. It’s good for horses to be with others of their own kind and interact freely with them. All of that is absolutely true. But the most defining characteristic of the horse as a species is its adaptability. The fact is, horses do quite well with a scaled-down version of the ideal as long as certain principles are respected.

For 14 years, I’ve practiced what I consider to be natural horse keeping on an acre and a half in a big city. It’s a great setup for two horses but we can easily accommodate another three equines when friends are passing through. Why does this work? Because the essential principles of horse keeping are respected: freedom to move, natural diet, and socialization.

As if on cue, our two horses are at this very moment nibbling at each other’s withers, standing in the shade near the water trough in our sandy arena.  Their grass hay sits half-eaten on rubber mats, in their covered, open-air stalls probably fifty yards away. They’ll get back to the hay when they feel like it. Later in the day, I’ll open a gate and turn them out in a grassy paddock where they can nosh for the entire afternoon. Our quarter horse mare has a very thin hair coat and our Icelandic has a very thick one but they both do just fine in triple-digit and single-digit temperatures. We don’t blanket them and we rarely bathe them.  In fact, we make a point of leaving them alone as much as we can.  

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying this is how you should be keeping your horses. This is how I adapted the principles of good horse keeping to my particular situation. If you show your horse, or have horses that are genuinely incompatible (more than the little tiffs that are normal when horses are together) then you might need a different arrangement.  The important thing is that you make your choices with a solid understanding of the ideal. There’s an old saying: You have to know the rules before you break them. That’s how I feel about horse keeping. Fortunately, your horse is a willing accomplice when it comes to making intelligent compromises.  If you listen, he will tell you how to fine-tune his living arrangements. And I doubt that he’ll demand a big pasture.

Rick

Spurs

Recently Greg emailed the following question about spurs: “Why would a Natural Horseman need such a cruel aid??”  Greg gets triple his money’s worth because I’m going to treat this as three questions instead of one.
 
First, are spurs cruel? Well, the simple answer is no. Spurs are tools and the effect they produce is entirely in the hands – or, in this case, feet – of the user. A more complex way of looking at this is to consider their potential for misuse. The rider who becomes angry or frustrated or embarrassed may use spurring as a convenient way of punishing the horse. This is where the effect becomes cruel because the horse feels under attack; an even-tempered rider might arrive incrementally at a similar amount of pressure and never produce the mental state that goes with cruelty. So, maybe a better answer to the question is … it depends.
 

Second, why use spurs? Clarity, pure and simple. Without spurs, you still have numerous aids available to you: seat, legs, hands. Even weight, voice, and the picture you’re holding in your mind could be considered aids in communicating your wishes to the horse. But with the spur, you have precision. It’s like you’re saying to the horse, “Move THIS part of your body away from the pressure you’re feeling.” It’s a very specific request. Incidentally, spurs are most useful for 1) lateral (sideways) movement of some body part, and 2) collection, which means elevating the back, getting the hindquarters more underneath the horse, and lightening the front end. Note that I’ve said nothing about spurring to get a horse to go faster. Horses can learn to go faster when spurred but it’s an unnatural way to ask for speed since moving away from the pressure causes the horse's back to elevate and stride to shorten.   

 

Third, how do spurs fit into natural horsemanship? The natural horseman is committed to working with the nature of the horse and communicating in ways the horse instinctively understands. If you do this, you’re a natural horseman whether you call yourself that or not. Horses understand and respect pressure exerted by a more dominant horse. It doesn’t scare them even when it makes them uncomfortable. Natural horsemen use this knowledge in all they do. A rider using the same level of pressure emotionally or without regard to the horse’s nature triggers a very different reaction, which is not only cruel but dangerous and counterproductive, as well.

 

I would sum it all up like this: Spurs are useful and humane tools when used by riders committed to the principles of natural horsemanship, whether they embrace the term or not. For everyone else, spurs are not appropriate. My hope is that the “everyone else” group is shrinking all the time. My hope is that one day we can drop the adjective “natural” and just talk about horsemanship. We’re not there yet, though. The distinction is still important.

Spooky horse

Barbara asks:
I have a mustang/Morgan who is sweet, kind and respectful but a little fearful of things like smoking burn piles, moving noisy electric gates with plywood figures on them. He refuses to go past them unless lead. The real issue is my friend says I should wear spurs and force him to go on. The smoke had him trembling. She says I’m letting him call the shots. I’m 63 I don’t need to get dumped. Should I force him when I know he’s scared? He minds me pretty well and will even leave my mare while she is screaming for him and goes down the road alone with me. Thank you.

Rick's response:
Barbara, you have good instincts. You are observant and thoughtful. You are trying to come up with the best deal for both your horse and yourself. Most important, you are not allowing someone else to pressure you into doing what you feel is wrong.

Now, let’s get to work. First, your friend's analysis is partially correct. Your horse is not completely confident in your leadership or ability to keep him safe. However, spurring an already frightened horse is liable to escalate the fear. I don’t think that’s the right approach for you. Instead, give your horse a job to do to take his mind off what scares him. This requires that you be an active rider, not a passenger. This will change how your horse sees you and how he sees the scary object.

Let’s say the scary thing is the burn pile. First, expect your horse to walk right past it with no problem. Visualize your horse doing that and carry yourself as if that is happening. Often horses live into our expectations of them. If your horse still spooks, stay calm and direct him away from the scary thing. Be careful here because he might want to pick up speed. Put him in a tight circle and disengage his hind quarters repeatedly if he does. Once he is calm, trot around where he feels safe. I don't mean a dainty little Western jog. Get him really moving and using his air! When he gets a bit winded, let him walk toward the scary object. Even let him stop and rest there. Repeat as needed until he is calm near the thing that scared him.

You see, horses are naturally worried about things that are not familiar to them. But they are also worried about using up their energy and air. At some point, the latter concern becomes greater than the former. What used to be scary is now a place of rest and comfort, a place to replenish his stores of energy and air. Incidentally, this is a good underlying strategy for getting a horse to load in a trailer. Make the inside of the trailer the easy place to be and the outside of the trailer the difficult place. Final thought: You are your horse's ultimate protector. Never abdicate that responsibility to someone else.

Aussies win RTTH 2012

Let’s see. If you count the two wins of native Australian Clinton Anderson, the three wins of Florida native Chris Cox, who grew up on an island off the coast of Australia, and add in this year’s two Aussie winners, Guy McLean and Dan James, you come up with seven Road to the Horse buckles that have been won by horsemen with ties to Australia. Crikey!

The Aussies of 2012 earned their buckles the hard way. Trailing Team USA at the end of Day One, they suffered a setback when Dan James, scheduled to step back into the round pen at the start of day two, fell ill. While Dan rested and received IV fluids, teammate Guy McLean took the first slot and Dan’s business partner, Dan Steers, advised and assisted from outside the pen. By the second session on day two, Dan James was back in the contest, still not 100% but determined to compete. On day three, the Aussies were the only team to take Tootie Bland’s offer of an extra 30 points each if they would switch horses for the test. Using the saddling pen as a training pen for more than half of the 40 minutes allotted for their tests, each Aussie was able to connect with the horse his teammate had trained and go on to produce a winning performance. The most memorable moment came when Guy McLean coaxed his mount into the optional water obstacle, stood on the horse’s back, cracked two stock whips as fast as machine gun fire, and followed it all up with an emotional bush (cowboy) poem written especially for the occasion.

Jonathan Field and Glenn Stewart of Team Canada got extra points before training began for switching the horses they had each chosen, and they made exceptional progress near the end of the event, but time worked against them in catching the Aussies.

Team USA was the leader at the end of day one, which was actually a bad omen; historically, the person or team who leads after round one does not prevail at Road to the Horse. Team USA faced an additional challenge when Pat Parelli’s colt was scratched for medical reasons after the first day. Per the rules, Pat had to pick a new colt, start over on day two and show up at 5:30 am on day three to get in his second training session. The fatigue factor aside – and it was a factor for all of us at this marathon event – Pat was under the continuous scrutiny of all six judges during that second session, something no other RTTH competitor has ever had to endure.

All in all, Road to the Horse International made a fitting farewell to the Tennessee Miller Coliseum in Murfreesboro, home to seven of the nine Road to the Horse contests thus far. For 2013, the event will be held in the Alltech Arena at Lexington’s Kentucky Horse Park. Tickets are already on sale. Get 'em early.

Other notes: Publisher Darrell Dodds presented the Western Horseman Award to Dr. Robert M. Miller in opening ceremonies on Saturday. Only a handful of other horsemen have received the award, including two other RTTH judges, Bob Moorhouse and Jack Brainard.

This was the first year that judges' scores were posted on the big video screen during the event. Everyone loved the added suspense.

Finally, I'd like to thank my good friend and 2009 RTTH champ, Richard Winters, for assisting me with the hosting of Road to the Horse 2012. I could not have done it without him and I hope he will share the duties with me again next year.

The Situation

One of my favorite bits of horsemanship advice comes from the late Ray Hunt, who said, “Adjust to fit the situation.” Let’s drill down a bit on this simple prescription.

Every moment with a horse is a “situation” with a unique character to it. The first order of business is recognizing the situation for what it is. Second is having an alternative course of action that you can adjust to. And third is making the adjustment at the right moment.

An example that comes to mind is teaching a foal to lead. Since horses have an “opposition reflex” (a.k.a. positive thigmotaxis), foals tend to pull back when we apply forward pressure on a lead rope. That is a common situation. An alternative when they resist forward pressure is to immediately pull more to one side. Foals have less power to resist lateral pressure and are likely to take a step to the side, which can be rewarded and parlayed into movement on a curve and eventually straight, forward movement.

One of the reasons a good horseman adjusts to fit the situation is that he is always looking for behaviors that can be rewarded, and he is always looking for a good note to end the day on.

For more information on Ray Hunt, visit www.RayHunt.com.

Being an ambassador

Thanks again to all who joined me for my first ever Facebook Q & A session Wednesday. Great turnout. Great questions. Please vote in our FB poll regarding the format of the next one. Personally, I’m voting for video. (You can answer the poll here.)

I’d like to elaborate on the question of how we should go about converting more people to natural horsemanship. My short answer in the Q & A was to be a good example. I’ve been exposed to evangelists of all stripes and my reaction is always the same: I bristle at someone telling me how I should think or behave. I get a mental brace against the very thing an evangelist is pushing on me. On the other hand, if words or actions pique my curiosity, I open right up to the possibilities. Good ambassadors for natural horsemanship set such good examples with their behavior and the behavior of their horses that people want to know more. They open right up to the possibilities.

In NH, we talk about letting your idea become the horse’s idea. We talk about making the right thing easy for the horse to do. We also talk about giving the horse time to process what you have presented to him and finding a good place to end before he sours on the lesson. I think it’s pretty easy to correlate those ideas to our relationships with people.

A Buddhist proverb tells us, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” The teacher must also be ready, so as you go about your business of being a good ambassador, think about how you can explain and demonstrate what natural horsemanship means to you. You never know when a student will be ready.

A Step Back - Leadership

I’ve written and talked many times about the importance of backing a horse. Now I have a series of five short online videos that get into the why and how. Here’s the first one: Backing and Leadership. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Do we still need to call it "natural" horsemanship?

Reporting from lovely (and now snowy) Dillon, Montana where I'm halfway through teaching my first college course on natural horsemanship. This is UM Western's final course in a four-year degree program on NH so my class is very savvy. They think we should drop the “natural” and just call it horsemanship. What do you think? Do we still need to make the distinction?
Professor Lamb aka Rick

Every Rider is a Horse Trainer

"Every rider is a horse trainer." Those words, as modern as tomorrow's headlines, were uttered nearly fifty years ago by Monte Foreman, a great American horseman whose contributions to Western riding, horsemanship education, and saddle design cannot be overstated.

Monte was a maverick, a freethinking Renaissance man with diverse talents ranging from boxing to drawing. Fortunately for us, his greatest passion was horses. Born in Alabama in 1915, he grew up riding race horses, playing polo, and jumping fences. Then he went west to become a cowboy. During World War II, he discovered the value of film in educating his fellow soldiers about riding. After the war, he signed on at the legendary King Ranch in Texas, where he ran the horse training and horsemanship programs, and further refined his ideas.

In 1958, Monte took his show on the road in a groundbreaking series of clinics designed for riders and their horses. Much of his riding focused on leads and lead changes, which were unknown to most Western riders at the time.

Monte was highly opinionated about riding and he was determined to elevate Western riding to the sophistication of other riding disciplines. Using slow-motion film, he was able to break down the mechanics of riding to allow anyone to learn.

Along the way, Monte found time to reinvent the Western saddle. With forward-hung stirrups, a closer contact seat, and a bulkless cinching system, the Foreman Balanced Ride Saddle made it easier to ride as Monte prescribed.

Monte Foreman died in 1987. He did not receive the recognition he deserved during his lifetime. Today, a handful of teachers and saddle makers actively carry forward his legacy. His influence can be seen if you know where to look, but the public remains largely unaware of him.

Monte wrote a book and produced three films, which are available today at VideoHorse.com. A TV episode and three radio interviews are available at my web site, TheHorseShow.com.

The most poignant of my radio interviews was with Monte’s son, Gary, who took Monte’s methods to the top of the show world. That interview airs in hour two of my radio show this week.

Thank you, Monte.

R

Balancing Gentleness and Firmness

It feels good to be gentle with a horse but sometimes he needs something else. Just as with a child, a horse sometimes needs to be reminded of who’s in charge and where the boundaries of space and behavior lie. When this is done without anger, without impatience, without emotion of any kind, the horse readily accepts the reminder and becomes more relaxed and willing, not because he’s afraid but because he recognizes that he is in the presence of a competent leader. This makes sense to him because it’s the way things are in a herd.
This is a very difficult message to get across to the riding public. Some clinicians tackle the issue of firmness head-on and refuse to mince words about it. Others dance around the issue to be sure they don’t lose anyone, hoping that the real message laid between the lines comes through. Clinton Anderson walks this fine line about as well as anyone I know. I’ve dug into the archives for a radio interview I did with him several years back on balancing firmness and gentleness. Enjoy.
R

Is natural horsemanship a myth?

Dear friends,

Just wanted to climb on the old soapbox for a few minutes. I came across a well-written article online that put forth the argument that natural horsemanship is a myth. I won’t say who wrote it, but I was surprised. I expected him to know better.

A myth is a story that can’t be proven true. Natural horsemanship is a protocol, a system of foundation training and relationship building that is based on a particular mindset: a commitment to understanding the nature of the horse, using that nature instead of fighting it, and making every situation a win for the horse as well as for the human.

Natural horsemanship is not a story, so it can’t be a myth.

But that is nitpicking. My real problem was the way this article characterized modern clinicians of this ilk, especially the more successful and visible ones, as charlatans intent on selling gullible people things they don’t need. No names were used, of course, but the writer obviously thought we’d know whom he meant.

I don’t. The fact is, I know most of the clinicians. It’s my job to interview them, write about them, analyze their ideas and help my listeners, viewers, and readers make sense of it all. I’ll admit, some are better teachers than others, but I honestly know of none that deserves this sort of slapping about. They, like all of us, are simply trying to make a living providing something of value for the marketplace. The good ones succeed. The not-so-good ones go on to something else. None that I’ve met are charlatans.

The article, as it turned out, was really an excerpt from a book about a “real” horseman, one who wasn’t so well known but who had really special talents and had taken the moral high road with them. He worked very hard and helped many people. But he wasn’t a national phenomenon, and, presumably, he didn’t make a lot of money doing it. I knew of this horseman and considered him the real deal, every bit a natural horseman, whether he used the term or not. The writer was a relative newcomer to horses.

It was more than a little dishonest, I thought, for a writer to be promoting the sale of a book by lambasting horsemen who promote themselves. Fortunately, the public is smart enough to see through this. In my experience, they look at what’s being offered. If they find value in it, they buy. If not, they don’t. Period. They aren’t swayed all that much by what some writer says from the sidelines.

One last point. The article also called these natural horsemanship clinicians “horse whisperers” and didn’t mean that as a compliment. I guess the writer thought it sufficient indictment of the term that it was associated with a successful book and a successful movie. (What does he have against success, anyway?) The horse whisperer term has a rich history going back more than two hundred years. I can recommend a good reference if the writer would like to learn more ...

You know, my friends, everyone is selling something and I for one do not consider that a bad thing. I’m glad the grocer sells me bread, the airline sells me tickets to the places I need to go, and clinicians sell the fruits of their labors. But I can’t stand it when someone adopts this holier-than-thou attitude about free enterprise at the same time they’re trying to sell me something.

Don’t let anyone tell you that natural horsemanship is a myth or that the teachers of it are crooks. Let the work speak for itself.

R