I used to be like that, but not really “MY JOB” to keep track of others in a horse facility. I don’t have time for that. Empty arena? Guess I can use it!!
As mantioned, I would think empty arena meant someone was finished, just had not got back to clean up jumps or (unkindly) figured they were not coming back to clear the arena. So (also being a nice person) I HELPED by clearing jumps out!!
And just a different point of view and not lecturing. Just saying there is a different way you may not know and other people might be interested. There are more than one person reading.
It was said that it could not be done with a well trained horse and I was asked if I had ever done it. The answer was yes. All the time without a problem.
I know both methods and find this one works in all sorts of situations, like if you are on horseback and want to enter a paddock, with another horse in there at the gate. You just wave your finger and say back, (always 2 commands for back), the horse backs up, you say halt the horse halts, you lean down and open the gate and close it behind you. That is so much easier than dismounting to try and shoo the other horse away and go through the gate and have to mount.
At the chiropractor’s when I go by myself I keep hold of both horses as the gate is never shut. I can lead both horses and take off float boots and rugs and grab a nearby shovel to remove manure and put it on the manure pile. They then graze without pulling me in different directions.
I don’t say anything when hubby is with me with the same horses and gives me his horse’s lead as he can’t do any of these things with one horse.
I read on the forum about a girl who fell off a Clydesdale on a trail ride. He stood on her foot. She could not move him come h**l or high water, as she could not walk to lead him, pick up his hoof or anything else she tried. A simple click is much easier to get them to walk.
I forgot to say the horse walks before you walk and the horse halts before you halt. With and without a halter.
The comments you will always get is, you are lucky you have quiet horses.
Yes a lot of green riders. I grew up on a do it yourself agistment property. More than once - a week after buying a horse - they come to you in tears. Horse has lumps on its legs they never noticed. Will he have to be put down? Let me see. No he is okay they are called chestnuts, all horses have them. Said with a straight face and no eye rolling.
They lead the horse everywhere the horse follows their feet. All smiles. They tie the horse up, the horse goes to follow them and the smiles are gone. Stupid horse. Stupid horse was doing what he thought was right. It goes down hill from there.
I love having my own place now. The only person doing stupid things is me. I hate it when other people doing stupid things affect me, which it always seemed to.
i do
For some people, background noise absolutely helps them focus. For others, it’s a distraction.
For me, I can’t stand a TV or a news program on, it’s distracting. But if I really need to focus on a data problem or am doing something really fiddly in Excel, I have my ear buds in and music on - THAT helps me focus.
So it’s highly individual and idiosyncratic. DD has high functioning ADHD and always needs music on to study, the music occupies the part of her brain that is otherwise bouncing around looking at 100 distractions and drowns out the white noise, then she can focus.
I don’t know why music works and TV/radio news doesn’t, or why the TV works for other people, but there it is - people’s brains work differently.
i always appreciate another trainer going into detail explaining their process. I might not agree, but i’m not offended.*. I think some people paint a pretty clear picture of how they train or what they are thinking in trying a particular thing with their horse. I’m really on here to read stuff, so i like to see interesting things to read. And horse training is probably the most interesting thing for me.
*(unless that take things to a personal level, as in: "epf is too ____ or ____ or ____ …insert insult of choice, as some here are want to do)
Of course I like hearing about other people’s training methods, that is one of the pleasures of a forum. However, this isn’t a thread ABOUT training methods, it’s a venting thread about the daily dumb things we encounter.
So to respond to posts complaining about sharing an indoor ring and trying to set fences while leading your horse with, in essence: “You’re only finding it difficult because your horse is trained incorrectly. If you trained your horse MY way (insert detailed description) you wouldn’t find it hard.” is kinda rude, or at least tone deaf.
I might have been interested in finding out more about the method if not presented this way or if it was presented in a thread where we were actually talking about training methods.
Again, maybe I’m just cranky, maybe I’m offended for my friend, trubandloki. Maybe it’s a case of not being able to read tone over the internet.
Maybe y’all have better life experience with offering unsolicited advice - my experience is that it’s usually not well received, especially when prefaced with “You’re doing it wrong.”
I also firmly believe there is RARELY one right way to train. There are good ways and bad ways, and some of the good ways suit some horses and situations but not all. I am instantly suspicious of being told about the ONE right way.
right. there IS no one true god way of horse training. We all have our own unique way. And to me, that process is beautiful. If people can put into words what they do/how they do it/and what they are thinking they are doing…well, more power to them! Personally, i find training more an artform than science. I’m interested mostly in a person’s process than their results actually. Of course results matter, but the journey…well THAT’s the thing of it for me.
All threads meander around…i mean, this one has more than a thousand comments, so you know it’s wandered off track many times.
We are ALLLLLL prickly nowdays. All of us like a bunch of goddamn hedgehogs. I do wonder if society will get worse or better…? But whatever, we’re on this rollercoaster and we’ll all see it to our individual ends won’t we LOL
I actually find this thread, and the discussion of this particular issue, encouraging.
Nobody has name called or taken the conversation to a personal level, you and @goodhors have pushed back against my point of view but in a respectful way, and I’ve taken in what you had to say.
Suzie has posted and explained her point of view, but not in a defensive way, in an explanatory way.
I’ve allowed that my point of view 1.) may be cranky or 2.) may be a failure to read tone.
NO ONE has doubled down or dug in their heels on their point of view.
I think that’s remarkable and refreshing.
I never said incorrectly. I meant differently. There is a huge difference in those two words. I responded to the post that said this is not easy to do with a well behaved horse ‘And’ specifically asked if I had ever done it. I feel being rude would of been to say yes it is possible and yes I do it everyday and not say anything else. That would have irked a lot more I am sure.
There are many ways to skin a cat and as I said my horses are trained both ways. They will follow my feet to run when I run and halt when I stop and stuff like that.
I do not train this stuff every day. It is reinforced with being called to come, going through gates in front of me and halting while I close it and stand still while I groom and tack, go back to get anything I forgot, get the manure fork or move poles and caveletti. I don’t go up and move the poles and cavelletti first and then tack my horse. Honestly I have never even thought of doing that.
I don’t think society will get better in the same way that many of us are used to thinking of as “better.” I do think society as some of us have known it is crumbling. Just being on the Internet the past several years has taught me that American “society” is actually a lot of different societies, and that the American idea of being a “melting pot” may have been just the hopeful philosophy of a few who have had power/influence/loud mouths. I don’t think we’ve ever been a melting pot, and the salad I once heard someone use instead is, I think, falling apart.
So, to answer your question, no, I don’t think it will get better (read: back to “normal.”)
I don’t care. I don’t have kids or grandkids, so I frankly don’t care if society cremates itself after I’m gone on elsewhere.
For those people who do have kids, I don’t think the kids will know the difference. Their society is so different to the one that cultivated my generation and my parents’.
Just look how COTH has changed in the past 15 or so years. Not just the content of the forums, the structure of the whole board. It’s crap now compared to what it used to be. Hard to use, hard to navigate, the opposite of “user-friendly.”
I dunno… I kinda think there is really only one way to skin anything…
Well you gotta decide if you’re hanging it from the front or the back feet?
Personally, I have extremely limited experience in skinning anything. I do, however, totally agree with the notion that there are several ways to achieve a particular end. With horses, who have their own firm opinions, it is necessary to be aware of multiple ways to achieve anything at all.
haha just another example of how different we all are. I love the new format, I find it super user-friendly and love how useful the search function is.
Preference just boils down to what you are used to and what you are comfortable with. One of the reasons I like working at my company is that I regularly interact with people aged mid twenties to early seventies. Everyone has a super different perspective and different strengths, and all are valid.
The other night I was riding in the indoor. Our indoor is in the center of the barn, with stalls on both long sides. I had the hall light on on one side, casting a soft lighting across the arena. I was just doing flatwork, no poles, so no need for the big overhead arena lights to be on.
Trainer Man walks in. He’s surprised to see me riding, and proceeds to tell me how dangerous it is to be riding without the big overhead lights on. That my horse can’t see and will trip. And the shadows will spook her!
I calmly explain 1) that the arena is flat, 2) horses can see in less than stellar lighting, 3) if my horse is spooking at her own shadow I will address it, and 4) our board is the lowest in the area and me doing flatwork in less-than-stage-bright-lights helps keep it that way.
He keeps on. I tell him that if he plans on doing some work with his horse, that he’s welcome to turn the big lights on. As for me, I am fine in the soft lighting from the hallway.
Horses can’t see in anything but daylight, folks! Don’t tell the predators, shhhhhhh…
A trail riding club I used to belong to does some moonlight rides every year. This is in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in Virginia and West Virginia - not exactly well-lit after 9 pm. The moonlight rides are usually mostly on gravel roads, but always include some actual trail riding. They’re usually really fun rides. The “trainer” doesn’t know what he’s missing!
Someone ought to clue the Tevis riders in. People and horses might get hurt!
My husband was riding back to the trailers on a group trail ride in the pitch dark. On the way, the horse went to make a hard right. DH didn’t remember making a hard left on the way out so overrode the horse’s decision and had him take a left. He ended up on the far side of the parking area a goodly distance from the trailers.
I rode for years with a trail riding group at a several thousand acre state park, where we would camp together multiple times each year.
The organizers would select weekends with a full moon, and one would take us on a late night moonlit ride. Those rides were wonderful!
"Night Vision
A horse’s night vision probably isn’t as good as an owl’s, but it’s probably far better than most people’s. Horses’ eyes seem fairly sensitive to low light, and they can see reasonably well at night. Dr. Hanggi, who is conducting experiments regarding the horse’s night vision, relates a good example of this.
“I was in the high desert with ERF program director Jerry Ingersoll on our annual trip to observe wild Mustangs. One night at midnight, we were awakened by what sounded like the thunder of an oncoming train. Within a minute, a large band of Mustangs came galloping right past our tent-in the dark, through rough terrain made up of hills, gullies, rocks and sagebrush. It was an amazing experience for us and, clearly, they saw where they were going.”
Also notable is that horses can adjust to major differences in brightness and shadow fairly quickly, but specific situations may affect their reactions to a great degree. The reason your horse might hesitate at entering a darkened doorway or be “looky” at a log on the trail as you are passing from a bright field into darker trees might be because he can’t see right away what he’s being asked to go into or over. He might need more training to develop confidence in those sorts of conditions."
Quoted from:
It’s me, yet again.
Trying a western saddle on my Super Size Thellwell pony while we go through another saddle fitting journey. How the heck does one get in and out of these saddles without ripping one’s thumbnail off? Dumbest horse related injury to date for me.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
