And yes, that is the very sentence that piqued my interest. Interesting about the age, perhaps maturity of brain and body helps?
I didn’t time my sessions, so I’m not exactly sure. On day 1, his relaxation had lots of starts and stops, so once he held it for about 30 seconds straight, I called it a win, and it was getting dark anyway. Total session was about 30 minutes.
Day 2 he relaxed much faster, so after about 5 straight minutes relaxed facing away from his buddies, I turned him around. Facing his buddies, I waited until he held it for about ten straight minutes. Total session was about 20 minutes.
I do some variation of this exercise but never for more than 30 seconds. Maybe I will start with five or ten minutes and see if it makes any difference.
Not sure but I think this exercise and the 2nd walking one too is all about ‘contact’.
Sounds like he rides into the manage on contact, then halts on contact, then lets the horse chew the reins out, on contact…once the horse makes his neck long on contact, then he lets go of the contact and stands as a reward… never again touching the contact.
He dismounts from there when finished.
Sounds like he alternates this meditation exercise with a walking exercise… the walk is done on a contact. I would think the walking one is a progression from the standing one.
I’m thinking both exercises help the horse learn that contact is good… maybe that is how the exercises reform from sins of the past
Yep, totally agree with you, he describes a mounted exercise with contact. So I wasn’t expecting much by trying a version of it on the ground sans contact, but figured that any kind of meditation exercise is a good thing. I was so surprised and pleased with how quickly he took to it on the ground, and can’t wait to try it mounted, with proper contact and release.
I tried a version of this last night! I listen to music while I ride and made my horse stand at the scary end for the duration of two songs ~5 mins last night. Reactions were varied over this period of time:
Confusion: “Let’s go over to the door and you can get off.”
Looking: “I’ve just remembered this is the scary corner!”
Acceptance: “I will stand as long as I get to chomp and chew.”
I guess the chewing the reins away from me is kind of the desired effect? I think I’m going to be trying five minutes again and gradually adding more if I see any positive effect.
Sorry I’m late to the party. And file this under “take what you like and leave the rest,” but from your description, I think I’d do a couple of other things, or add some thoughts.
If you can feel a horse’s heart beating underneath you and they are standing still for as long as your mare did, know that she has a ton of self-control and stoicism. That’s a very hard psychological place for a flight animal to be, let alone to stay.
Same goes for how long it took her to sigh.
All that background means that when she turned her head around to look at you, then saw something and got tense again, you just missed a little opportunity to help her. That is to say, this stoic, very obedient but self-sufficient horse was asking you for input or, perhaps, if you were still up there and “with her.”
In that moment, where she looked up at me, if she still felt relaxed in her body and all four feet planted on the ground, I think I would have picked up a one rein, away from the scary corner and suggested she walk off. I would have petted her in a long, hard, rubbing stroke or two on the neck for good measure, answering her question about whether or not I felt the relaxation, too. I’d want to provide her with the release of pressure) of standing still and perhaps facing something scary) when she got her mind relaxed and on me. I want to make myself relevant to her when she feels alone and needs help.
I love the cigar exercise as described here for the horse who needs to learn to wait (and that he can wait, and even that waiting is a normal thing to be asked plus, as he’ll discover eventually, and easy part of the ride). If a horse is a bit spoiled and thinks that he should always be able to leave a situation he doesn’t like (quite natural for a flight animal) and/or his rider owes him that or should accept it from him, the exercise of being asked to live through not being able to escape is valuable.
But! The stoic, self-sufficient horse isn’t necessarily the one that needs to be left alone and left alone and left alone to cope because that’s already their MO. This is the kind of horse where I’d also want to teach him/her that the handler/rider was a source of comfort and help. So if I saw a place where this horse actually looked to me for something, I’d be Johnny-on-the-spot to deliver it and exploit that rare opportunity presented by the independent-minded horse who actually allowed herself to feel vulnerable for a second.
I know the point of the cigar exercise was a long time. But I’m also always looking for a way to have the horse earn a release of pressure. So I might put the horse in a spot to stand still, wait for those signs of relaxation and then leave. Then I’d do it again somewhere else, and again and again. I suppose it depends on the horse. But what I’m looking for is the repetition of the situation where the horse learns to influence me by changing her mind-- both to relaxation and then to focus on me.
Old traditional European way, when you are riding and want to congratulate your horse, you give it a few strokes on the neck, with the hair, with one hand on the opposite side of the neck.
Why the opposite side?
When we were taught that, it was explained that if we use the same side, right side with the right hand, our weight is loading the right side, saddle twisting a bit on horse’s back.
Horse has to compensate and may not feel comfortable to the more sensitive horse.
If we stroke right hand on left side, we are the ones twisting, but our weight stays balanced over the middle, nothing changes for the horse in a bigger way than feeling that soft hand stroking in a way that relaxes.
We were told to watch after some jumping class, those riders happily bouncing around while slapping a horse’s neck, not stroking quietly.
Horses generally would act annoyed and pin ears and wring tail.
That may have felt more to sensitive horses like a mild assault than a good boy, you did well.
