Thanksgiving Thought

On this day when we traditionally take stock of our blessings, I want to share a powerful statement with you. It was uttered 150 years ago by one of our most beloved presidents, a man who was burdened with pressure, self-doubt, and personal tragedy.

"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Abraham Lincoln.

The truth of this statement has been proven to me over and over. Happiness truly is a choice and when you make that choice, life often gets better. I can't explain it but I know that visualizing the person you want to be and the life you want to have makes it far more likely to become reality. Act happy and you will begin to feel happy. Be thankful for the blessings in your life and you will begin to see more of them at every turn.

Have a wonderful, happy Thanksgiving from all of us at The Horse Show.

Hand-feeding Treats - Part 2

I have mentioned several times a game that we play with our horses that reinforces the right way to receive a food treat. We call the game, “Pretend you don’t want it.” I’ve been asked to explain it in print, so here goes. I’ll use my mare, Candy, in the example.

I have Candy in a rope halter with a lead rope so I have a measure of control over her. I step in front of her and ask her to stand quietly and look at me from a respectful distance. I hold the treat up, say her name and make sure she is looking straight at me. Then I say, “pretend you don’t want it.” She swings her head around to one side, almost looking at her tail. I say, “good girl!” and give her the treat. (Going away from food is not instinctive to a horse. It must be learned. We also require our horses to back up at feeding time, but that’s another story.)

Teaching this game is no different than teaching any other cue. You reward the slightest try, and each time you expect a little more. You give her time to think about it between attempts, and you find a good note to end on. Don’t expect her to learn this perfectly the first day and don’t repeat it too many times. Better to work on it a little every day. Final tip: she will start anticipating you, meaning she will start swinging her head around before you’ve asked for it. Do not reward that! We don’t want to reward a horse for anticipating our cues, even if it’s to do something good.

Oh, yes – and this goes back to the actual technique of hand-feeding the treat – Candy is not allowed to move her feet toward me to collect her treat. I reach toward her and she stretches her neck out to gently take the treat from the palm of my hand.

Moving the Cheese

I’m about a decade (and 24 million copies) behind in touting a small but powerful book,“Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life,” by Spencer Johnson, MD. John Lyons gave Diana and me a copy many years ago, but in the hubbub or life and meeting deadlines, well, you know what happened. With time to kill on our recent road trip to the World Equestrian Games, we listened to the audio version. Wow.

“Who moved My Cheese?” is a parable that drives home a simple message: Change is inevitable and how individuals react (or fail to react) to it determines their success and happiness. Now, Diana and I were quite pumped after listening to this CD, not because we learned something new but because it validated the way we instinctively approach life. Upon doing a little online research, I discovered plenty of praise for this book and some surprisingly negative (even vicious) criticism. No matter. As far as I’m concerned, this is an intensely practical message, especially in these times of uncertainty and forced change. It offers a new way of looking at change and a strategy for making the most of it. Change is not the enemy. Every change brings with it new possibilities and opportunities to live into new realities. It takes courage and a strong sense of visualization to reinvent oneself in response to changes imposed from the outside. But it’s not rocket science. Neither is it metaphysical claptrap. It’s a way of deliberately creating a happier life. And whether horses are part of your life or not, I wish that for you. You can learn more at whomovedmycheese.com.

Hand-feeding Treats

This is a hot topic and there is no consensus, even among top clinicians and trainers. I once moderated a round table discussion between Monty Roberts, John Lyons, and Pat Parelli at a big horse expo. They seemed to agree on everything until someone asked about hand-feeding treats. Monty said we should never do this, as it was completely unnatural for the horse and dangerous for the human. John said he wanted his horse so broke that even his little grandson could safely do it. And Pat said … wait for it … you can do anything if you have enough savvy.

That’s a big if, which is exactly why many clinicians argue against hand-feeding treats. If your horse does not respect your space, introducing food into the equation is like throwing gasoline on a fire.

How do you get your horse to respect your space? First, you have to claim your space as your own and never, ever allow your horse to enter it uninvited. You must defend your space with whatever amount of energy is required to get the point across. And this is important: you have to be consistent. If crowding into your space is wrong today, it has to be wrong tomorrow and every day after that. There must be a negative instant consequence (a NIC, in Monty Roberts’s words) to that behavior every single time.

Once you have developed this absolute commitment to defending your space and consistently communicated it to your horse, the rest is pretty easy. Training with food rewards is a time-honored tradition with marine animals and circus animals, including horses. Clicker training uses it very successfully and you can, too. It’s effective because food means something to a horse. There is total clarity with food. Food is always good. In fact, Diana recently broke through a genuine impasse in training her horse, Fidla, by introducing food as a reward.

Bottom line, hand-feeding treats to your horse can be done safely and have a positive effect on overall behavior, but it is not a trivial matter. Please do not attempt it until your horse consistently respects your space and you feel completely comfortable around him. Be clear and consistent, and most important, enjoy it! Seeing your horse gobble up something tasty is one of horse ownership’s special little pleasures.

Next time I’ll share the game we play with our horses to reinforce proper behavior with treats. We call it “pretend you don’t want it.”

John Sharp

Years ago, clinician Frank Bell told me about a fine horseman named John Sharp, whose work with wild horses, square pens, and bamboo poles was an inspiration to all who saw it. Recently, Jim Rea, a frequent collaborator of Frank’s, shared more in a radio interview.

“While a round pen makes it easy for a horse to go,” Jim explains, “a square pen makes it easy for him to stop.”

Sharp’s square pen was just 24’ across, about half the diameter of the common 50’ round pen. The pole was 12’ in length, allowing a trainer to stand in the middle and touch the horse no matter where he went. Why bamboo? Bamboo poles have ridges connecting the segments and those ridges are handy for giving the horse a good scratching from a safe distance. It’s all part of Sharp’s novel way of building a foundation of trust.

Mr. Sharp’s square pen had a couple extra sections that came into play once the horse was responding well in the main work area. They formed a chute where the horse could be desensitized to humans touching it from the outside.

John Sharp is best known for his work gentling wild horses, but Jim also tells of Mr. Sharp calming the most troubled horses well into his nineties. Beside Jim and Frank, Sharp’s granddaughter, trainer and mounted shooting champ, Kitty Lauman, carries on his work today, and made an impressive showing with it at the first Extreme Mustang Makeover.

There are many paths to enlightenment for those of us truly committed to the journey. John Sharp offered one of them. Below are some resources if you’d like to learn more.

Listen to Rick’s full interview with Jim Rea
Listen to “Bamboo Pole and Square Pen” featuring Frank Bell (one minute)
Read Frank Bell’s full article on John Sharp’s method

Light Moments at Light Hands

The fourth Light Hands Horsemanship clinic will be hard to beat: Three days of superb horsemanship education at the beautiful Intrepid Farms in Santa Ynez, California, a chance to get up close and personal with a who’s who of presenters (see below), and some surprisingly funny moments.

Eitan showed us how he’ll wear his cowboy hat if he performs at the Spanish Riding School. Jack reprised the story of how he and his pals were introduced to electricity in the 1930s. (Sorry, can’t go into details here.) Bob sang a few long-lost verses of “Strawberry Roan” and Lester told of how a pesky journalist got his comeuppance with a Shetland Pony. Monty talked about letting a great racehorse, Alleged, slip through his fingers, and Sheila recounted meeting Tom Dorrance during his formative years.

The past has long hinted at the potential that exists for Light Hands. This was the break-out year. The program, the organization, the location, the vendors, and especially the audience. All were exceptional. Special thanks go out to Tom Spalding (presenting sponsor), Art Perry (owner of Intrepid Farms), and most of all, the tireless Debbie Beth-Halachmy.

One word of advice: get tickets for 2011 early. They will sell out. Dates are May 19-22.

LHH 2010 Clinicians and Speakers: Dr. Robert M. Miller, Jon Ensign, Lester Buckley, Eitan Beth-Halachmy, Jack Brainard, Richard Winters, Monty Roberts, Sheila Varian, Ernie Morris, and Petrina Day Mitchum. Hosted by Rick Lamb.

Backing helps

When things get squirrelly on my computer, I automatically reboot. It may not fix every problem, but it fixes most of them, and that saves me time and frustration. Backing my horse is similar to rebooting my computer. It gets us unstuck and reloaded for a fresh start.

Backing is the closest thing to a “silver bullet” that exists in horse training. It helps from the ground and it helps from the saddle. It helps in dealing with problems and in preventing them in the first place.

Why, you may ask? Best as I can figure, backing puts a horse in a unique frame of mind. It’s not as natural for him as going forward so he must think about placement of his feet. It’s a submissive act that reminds him of his standing. Most important, it puts him out of position to take flight. That makes him feel vulnerable. Whatever was on his mind before you asked him to back up is suddenly not so important.

When you get a horse to back on your command, you are demonstrating that you know what matters in his world and that you just might be qualified to be leader for the day.

Teaching a horse to back is surprisingly easy if you don’t get greedy. When you first request it, you must be satisfied with him just shifting his weight back and instantly reward him with relief of pressure, a reassuring stroke, and a kind word. Then, give him a moment to think about it and ask again. This time you will expect him to do more, but only a little more, perhaps shifting his weight and lifting one foot. Again, relief, reward and rest. In this fashion, where clear, consistent cueing is coupled with instant positive consequences, a horse learns incrementally to back from the ground or the saddle.

Helpful hint: Always back any horse a few steps before you mount him and, at the first sign of trouble, stop him and put him in reverse. Request, relief, reward, rest. Then it’s on to the business of the day.

Rick