Good examples - when trainers kept to horse friendly training

[netg]

So the obvious bad examples have been hitting us lately. I’d love to read about good examples of horsemanship! I’ll give a few different types.

One of the most important ones for me as a learning experience was the day I was laid off, my trainer told me not to ride because my sensitive horses would be too confused by what I was feeling emotionally. And he asked me to only handle my horse who would do well with me being upset. Great lesson for me that I have kept with me.

My mare is not naturally reactive, and I was having a lot of trouble getting her moving when I first had her. She did ok on a longe line, so my trainer asked her to move on one, and me just as a passenger. It helped identify what in my seat was confusing my horse because she stopped each time my balance was not 100% perfect so the saddle blocked my movement - as well as what I needed to do to find a saddle which didn’t cause that. While waiting for a new saddle, I used his 1970s-era slick, hard deKunffy which didn’t get in my way. No horse beating (or even touching) with the whip, just correcting the rider. Because I’m used to more naturally high energy and super reactive horses, it has been a continued process for me to remember the lesson, as well as how important it is to leave my legs off unless aiding with this horse.

There was a Debbie McDonald symposium here in which a rider who was working toward second level had a horse who was of a type who just didn’t want to react or respond quickly to anything. It simply was clearly not how this horse’s brain worked, and the horse was trying to be agreeable. None of the typical rapid fire transitions or other exercises helped because it wasn’t in the horse’s nature. Debbie stopped the lesson and explained she loved the horse, amd would be thrilled to have it in her barn, but it didn’t have the natural reactivity for what they wanted. She said you could train the horse with a whip and get it worked up and responding more, but it would be unkind and stress the horse out in a way she was unwilling to do. It was not a horse who struggled due to training, but rather just one who by nature was slower and less exuberant in responding.

[Bluey]

@netg

So the obvious bad examples have been hitting us lately. I’d love to read about good examples of horsemanship! I’ll give a few different types.

One of the most important ones for me as a learning experience was the day I was laid off, my trainer told me not to ride because my sensitive horses would be too confused by what I was feeling emotionally. And he asked me to only handle my horse who would do well with me being upset. Great lesson for me that I have kept with me.

My mare is not naturally reactive, and I was having a lot of trouble getting her moving when I first had her. She did ok on a longe line, so my trainer asked her to move on one, and me just as a passenger. It helped identify what in my seat was confusing my horse because she stopped each time my balance was not 100% perfect so the saddle blocked my movement - as well as what I needed to do to find a saddle which didn’t cause that. While waiting for a new saddle, I used his 1970s-era slick, hard deKunffy which didn’t get in my way. No horse beating (or even touching) with the whip, just correcting the rider. Because I’m used to more naturally high energy and super reactive horses, it has been a continued process for me to remember the lesson, as well as how important it is to leave my legs off unless aiding with this horse.

There was a Debbie McDonald symposium here in which a rider who was working toward second level had a horse who was of a type who just didn’t want to react or respond quickly to anything. It simply was clearly not how this horse’s brain worked, and the horse was trying to be agreeable. None of the typical rapid fire transitions or other exercises helped because it wasn’t in the horse’s nature. Debbie stopped the lesson and explained she loved the horse, amd would be thrilled to have it in her barn, but it didn’t have the natural reactivity for what they wanted. She said you could train the horse with a whip and get it worked up and responding more, but it would be unkind and stress the horse out in a way she was unwilling to do. It was not a horse who struggled due to training, but rather just one who by nature was slower and less exuberant in responding.

Interesting,
We had a slow horse like your last example once in our riding center.
I was assigned to starting him under saddle, wondered why, since he was a draft horse and I was told to just ride him slow and low and long for six months, which I did.
He slowly started to gain balance on his own.
I at 95 lbs looked like a gnat on his back, he was not wide, but heavier boned and thicker than the hotter riding horses we generally started under saddle.
We had two of those to start and see if one of those would eventually become our next drum horse for our musical ride and heavy rider mount for trail rides.
The comment the main instructor made was, you start him, he needs someone patient that can ride him slow, as there is a long way between his brain and his legs.
You can’t rush him, slow is who he is, we like him slow, which is good for a future drum horse.

Don’t know if this other story fits your title, but as a 13 year old barn rat that was already helping start under saddle and with trail rides, one weekend the riding center owner came with grandkids and asked the main instructor, that I adored, to furnish horses for a trail ride.
One kid wanted a specific horse, that was on the list to have the weekend off, she had worked hard all week.
The owner insisted she could make one more ride.
The instructor firmly stood by the horse, confronting the owner about it, telling him NO, the horse’s comfort was more important, she had worked hard for us.
She was not going to be working this weekend and he made it stick.
That lesson stuck with me all my life.

Did I say I loved that instructor?

[strangewings]

In college, I rode with and worked for a woman who did some things pertaining to horsekeeping that violated the standards that I grew up with that bothered me quite a lot at the time. But, I will respect her forever for stopping a lesson a clinician was giving at her facility with one of her horses and students. Nothing bad was going on compared to the recent public examples, but the lesson had tipped into drilling the same exercise and was not going to be productive for horse or rider. So instead of allowing the opportunity for things to go off the rails, she stepped in and said the horse was done for the day. It was the right call.

I don’t think the clinician was operating from ego or needing to prove a point or anything either, I think he was just doing what we all are liable to do, which is in eagerness to get to an “aha” that we are so close to, we get into the default of “ok if we try just one more time, we will have it”. That is the most difficult mistake to deal with IME. I suffer from this all the time.

[Edre]

Probably the most recent example I have is with my trainer/coach - young horse is a delight but she’s still a young horse with things she struggles with. Rather than forcing the issue with something that was challenging the horse (in a way that made her less confident), we went and reframed the exercise - did something the mare “knew” and was bold with and then incorporated the new element into the familiar exercise, to set everyone up for success.

At the end of the day, everyone wants a win. The rider wants to be able to say “I did something right”. The horse wants the positivity of doing something well (even if it’s not rationalized that way). Setting everyone up for success, and being willing to go “the way we’re approaching this right now isn’t working, let’s pivot to find something that works (physically, emotionally, intellectually - any combination thereof) for you/horse” is so, so empathetic.

Why get locked into a fight when you can just ask in a different way? “Is this really a fight, or is it just a misunderstanding that we can communicate better to resolve?”

I also saw a clinician once who was working with a horse/rider pair - the rider was sweet and enthusiastic, but not super educated or independent in her body, and the horse was young, sensitive, and reactive - it was a bad fit. The clinician, to their credit, really tried to have a kind, but clear conversation: what are your goals with this horse/your riding. What do you see as the things you need to improve upon to get there? And then articulated that what they were seeing was different from the rider’s interpretation (rider had a fantastical assumption of how things would go) and that it wasn’t fair to horse to set them in a situation where rider was constantly riding with so much tension/frustration because of a mismatch. Didn’t say to get rid of the horse or give up, but just to assess goals/expectations, and figure out what path forward the rider actually really wanted.
I think clinicians have a tough time because they’re brought in and generally expected to have “quick fixes” or show something “amazing” in one session, so for a clinician to sit down and actually open the door to that conversation (rather than trying to overbit the horse, crank the horse in, etc, to try to lock down misbehaviours which were just a symptom of how the horse was being ridden) I thought was quite brave.

At the end of the day, the trainers that are conscientious about setting horses up to succeed - mindful rider pairings, mindful choices in exercises, being willing to be flexible/change plans, being honest about what they are seeing… all of those things are things I look for and generally identify as hallmarks of horse-friendly training.

[VodkaRedbullx2]

I like to de-escalate. Can we normalize just taking the pressure off and walking for a few? Change the difficulty but not question.

It would be so kind if we could allow a super hot horse to breathe and walk for a second when pressure builds too much in a dressage test.

[beowulf]

I have one trainer that has impeccable timing when it comes to knowing when to utilize a walk break as the reward. She will ask me to do something twice to prove it isn’t a fluke - then she walks over, brushes their neck, and gives them a peppermint. She is old fashioned to the point of being militaristic, expects horses to WORK, and has very high standards for the rider and will tell you in no uncertain terms when you’re ruining something. Something about her eye for timing is incredible; my horses always perform their best in front of her. A lot of things I incorporate in my program come from her.

I think clinicians are often under pressure to produce incredible results. It’s a tough position to be in; they know the client spent a lot of money to be here.

Peter Gray did some horse friendly training with me in a clinic. My horse was not being his best self that day, and P.G was sympathetic while still expecting a level of competence from us. He also delivered some unflinching, much needed feedback about my lack of effectiveness - but in a way that was tactful and kind. I think of all of my clinics, that made a permanent change in my riding style for the better. He was very concerned with keeping things “below threshold” for all the horses, breaking down exercises so they were just challenging enough without pushing a horse’s confidence into the red zone. It was very horse-friendly.

[ParadoxFarm]

^^Back when COVID had closed things down, I did a ride-a-test virtually that was judged by Peter Gray. He gave me the biggest compliment of my riding life. He said he would let me ride his horses. I keep this as a souvenir. It helps to remember that even when we don’t ride to our own or our trainers’ expectations, we still have positive things happening!

[beowulf]

Now THAT is an honor!!