Success with horses

A couple weeks ago I was shooting at a ranch in Colorado and rode four naturally trained (and barefoot) Tennessee Walking Horses – two mares, a gelding, and the stallion pictured here – before lunch. It was a blast. Each was a little different, which meant I had to be a little different rider with each one. It got me to thinking about the trainers who ride ten horses or more every day. Or the colt starters who have a few thousand starts to their credit. No wonder they are so good at what they do. At one time, I was certain that quantity was necessary on the road to success with horses. Now I realize that’s not true. There are countless examples of superb horsemen who’ve focused on quality instead, taking a small number of special horses to new heights. Then there’s the rest of us. We won’t be starting 10,000 colts, winning world championships, or giving command performances for royalty. Still, we are achieving success with horses in our own ways. We are allowing them to change our lives, to add quality, to create purpose, to make us better as people. Along the way, we are finding joy and satisfaction. If that isn’t success, I don’t know what is.

“In the beginning, you play with horses because it’s fun. It’s a pleasant diversion. Then you find that it feels good in a deeper and more lasting way than many other recreational past-times. You may love riding motorcycles, but your Harley doesn’t nicker at you in the morning. There is something very special about horses that makes you want to do better with and for them.”

The Revolution in Horsemanship and What it Means to Mankind
by Robert M. Miller, D.V.M. and Rick Lamb

Craig's Day

If you count the predecessor to Road to the Horse, Craig Cameron has competed in this World Championship of Colt Starting four times. 2010 is the year he'll remember best.

He picked horse number 10, a scruffy-looking palomino with a thicker-than-usual winter coat. Craig admitted that he didn't really have a reason for his choice. "You never know what you've got until you get in the pen," he said.

What he got was a tough colt, as stand-offish as they come, who refused to look at Craig for the first hour. Nothing Craig tried seemed to work. He seemed to be running out of ideas, and that's probably when the tide turned for him.

The strategy that seems to work best at RTTH is simple: Let the horse set the pace. Work on the relationship first and the training second, even when time is running short and 5,000 people are watching your every move. Whatever you do, don't scare the horse.

When Craig plugged into this plan, things started getting better. Come time to ride, Craig abandoned the snaffle bit he'd gotten the horse to accept in favor of a rope halter and rope reins.

The test went well - not great - but that counts for relatively little in the judging anyway. What counts most is what happens in the training pens. The judges - and this year the audience, who registered their votes with text messaging - liked what they saw there and gave Craig the nod. The sixty-year-old Texas cowboy has a way of lighting up a room with his smile. This time, the smile came with a few tears. In a life chock-full of memorable days, I suspect this one will always be special.

Rick

Obsession with Time

As I write this, Hawaii is under a tsunami alert, the result of a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile. Our thoughts are with our island friends as they prepare for the worst.

Shooting a program last summer about the wild horses of Waipio Valley on the Big Island, I spent a day with native Hawaiian, Charlie Anderson. A gentle bear of a man with sun-bronzed skin, a tangle of curly black hair and twinkling blue eyes, Charlie grew up taro farming in that sacred and remote valley. He plans to retire there at 40 to live a simple, off-the-grid life with his young family.

To make that happen, Charlie now works 12-hour days at his landscaping business in town. Time is important to Charlie but it does not rule him. He remains deliberate but unhurried in all he does.

This is a good way to be with horses, too. Just as the typical horse is obsessed with safety, the typical human is obsessed with time. Before I can fairly ask a horse to give up his obsession, I must be willing to give up mine.

As guiding principles go, “letting it take the time it takes” is a particularly good one, but we can’t just snap our fingers and change our attitudes about time. And we don’t have to. Sometimes in life it’s okay to pretend. It’s okay to pretend to be interested in what someone is saying. It’s okay to pretend to like the boss’s wife’s cooking. It’s okay to pretend we don’t care how long it takes to load the horse in the trailer. Invariably, pretending we don’t care about time speeds things up. What’s more, the subconscious mind doesn’t realize we’re pretending and before long the feelings become genuine.

Ray Hunt said: “You’re not working on your horse. You’re working on yourself.” Coming to grips with our time obsession is a great place to start.

Rick

Ride fast. Take chances.

This week’s TV show is a bit different. For one thing, you’ll see extreme sculptor, Ben Risney, carve a horse’s head out of a pine stump with nothing but chain saws. I was there and I still can’t believe what he did! You’ll also meet Tommie Turvey, Jr. and his sister, Karen, two consummate horsemen who routinely do things with horses I also find difficult to fathom.

The Turveys are two of the hardest working people I know. They live show business every moment of every day. Not the popular image of showbiz, with the glamour and parties. They live the real showbiz with its long hours, hard work, countless details, dirt, sweat, and sore muscles. It’s a family tradition started a generation earlier with mom, Corky, and dad, Tommie, Sr.

Tommie and Karen have caused me to see things a bit differently. The popular wisdom in natural horsemanship is that you get a horse because of his mind and his temperament. “A good horse is a good color” is the catch phrase often used. Tommie does just the opposite. “I choose a horse for how he looks,” Tommie explains. “That’s the only thing I can’t change with training.”

Tommie and Karen have also adopted the motto: Ride Fast. Take Chances. Again, not what I would advise my audience, but I sure understand why they say that. Their stock-in-trade is thrilling an audience and they are masters of it. Watch this week’s show – just click on the gold arrow and give the file a couple minutes to load – and you’ll see snippets of some of their performances, as well as Tommie teaching me to drive a chariot.

I suppose the take-away message here is simply to keep your mind open to new points of view. Try to learn from every person and every horse you run into. And if you ever feel like you have it all figured out, ask the next person you see to give you a swift kick in the pants. Ride fast and take chances … or have fun and ride safely. This week, you take your pick.

Rick

Lameness Locator

Two decades ago, Dr. Kevin Keegan at the University of Missouri wondered how good subjective lameness detection was. He gathered together a group of experienced equine veterinarians and had them evaluate the same group of horses for lameness. He discovered that they disagreed a lot. A whole lot - 75% of the time.

The vets all knew what to look for. With a sound horse performing a trot, the movement of the left half of the body mirrors exactly that of the right. If it doesn’t, something is amiss. But when lameness is mild, the human eye isn’t fast enough to register the subtle asymmetry, much less pinpoint the limb involved or the internal structures of the limb that are responsible for the pain.

Determined to find a way around the limitations of the human eye and brain, Dr. Keegan began experimenting with treadmills, markers, and high-speed cameras, collecting any and all data he could with no clear idea of how he might use it. Eventually, with the assistance of top-flight electronics engineers at Mizzou and in Japan, he arrived at the system he now calls the Lameness Locator.

It is a far cry from those early treadmills and cameras. For one thing, you can fit the entire system in a briefcase and take it directly to the horse. Physical components include matchbox-sized sensors mounted on the horse (two accelerometers and one gyroscope) and a tablet PC receiving wireless transmissions from the sensors and doing the motion analysis. Sophisticated custom software ties it all together and produces graphic reports. Watch the show here and you can see it at work.

I’m a bit of a technology geek but I still find that many new gadgets are solutions in search of problems. This is one case where the cart did not get in front of the horse. A real problem was solved with really cool technology. Now in its final stage of testing, the Lameness Locator should be in widespread use in the years to come.

Rick

The Horseman’s Strength

Working on this week’s TV show about the Budweiser Clydesdales got me to thinking about why big horses allow us puny humans to control them. I’ve heard it speculated that they simply don’t know how strong they are. That may be true. There are many things horses don’t “know” the way we humans know them.

What horses do know – and we conclude this by observing them – is that it’s very important to be able to move one’s feet freely. In fact, in the horse’s world free movement is more than important; it’s an obsession. It is the key to living another day.

Accepting this fact about the horse’s nature is where every horseman’s journey must start. It’s why so much emphasis is placed these days on groundwork, for it is through groundwork that the horseman proves he can control the horse’s movement. Riding then becomes much simpler.

Note that control comes not from the horseman’s weight, muscular strength, or athletic prowess. It comes from understanding, respecting, and expertly using the horse’s nature as a unique animal species. We cannot force a horse to do anything but we can manipulate conditions to where it becomes easiest for him to do our bidding. Our idea becomes his idea. Outthinking the horse, rather than overpowering him, is the horseman’s stock-in-trade.

Horses do not think the way we do, but they do understand this basic truth: a creature that can control the movement of my feet is worthy of my respect. A creature that can do it without making me fear for my safety is worthy of my trust. Someone I respect and trust is someone I will follow, no matter how big he or she may be.

Rick

Light Hands

One of the highlights of my year is emceeing the Light Hands Horsemanship Clinic each May in Santa Ynez, California. It’s always a learning experience for me and it renews my dedication to being light with my horse. Now, I’ll admit right up front that I’m just a pup in all this compared to the great horsemen who teach at Light Hands. But I’m learning, and I can tell my horse is grateful for the effort.

What is so good about being light in how you cue your horse? Well, it’s more humane, for one thing and that means it’s more worthy of a human being. It’s also more just in the sense of being fairer to the horse, allowing him to respond to the smallest amount of pressure possible. But here’s the real kicker: it works better! I’ve been experimenting with this, being as light as I can with the reins and legs. It means being really tuned in to the horse because the response may be just as light as the cue. But when you feel that and reward it and are able to build on it, well that’s one of life’s really special moments.

The other thing about getting light in the hands is that it requires you to be light throughout your whole body, even your mind. For us humans, the hands are so special. I mean, think of what is done with the hands. Everything from a piano concerto to brain surgery. The eyes may be windows to the soul but the hands are hardwired to the heart. You can’t be impatient or angry or aggressive and still have light hands. Conversely, when you consciously and deliberately lighten your hands, your heart, your entire being must follow. It has no choice. Exquisite prey animals that they are, horses respond to that.

So here’s my parting suggestion, which can be applied with horses and with people: the next time you are inclined to turn up the pressure, first try turning it down. You just might be surprised at the result.

Rick