The Try

No matter what your equestrian discipline, you have likely heard trainers talk about “rewarding the try”, or something akin to that. Maybe “release when he softens” or “quit asking when he gives”. Usually, there is a specific task or action the handler is asking the horse to perform, while standing by to reward the horse by releasing on the cue when he compiles. Depending on the level of training or prior preparation for the task at hand, it may be broken up into smaller pieces to build up to the whole.  In fact, we can get really creative in breaking down a complex task into tiny individual components or puzzle pieces, building a foundation from which you can go in countless directions with how you put it together or what you ask for next.

So, back to “rewarding the try” along the way.  What does this really mean? It’s not enough to carry this around as a meaningless mantra. If you say you stand at the ready to reward a try, do you know what that horse’s try looks like? Can you recognize the softening in the eye, the tension in the nostrils, the rate of breathing, the tiny shift of weight or energy, the blink-and-you-missed-it, subtlest of indicators? Do you know what else is competing for his attention today? Have you set the horse up to succeed?  Are you at a point in your skill, and the horse’s understanding, to responsibly ask for what you are asking? If not, you may set the horse up to fail.  And by that, more than anything, I mean this – you may miss a try, and not reward it, because you were busy looking for something else.   When you think you have set the bar appropriately, but the horse tells you otherwise, ask yourself, “Could I break it down further for him?”

In short, to reward the try you must be able to recognize it – and it may not be what you expect.  To recognize it, you must put in the time, ideally with many horses, to train your own eye and intuition.  Once you can recognize it, to acknowledge the try accurately and appropriately you must remain totally present and tuned in.  At its most graceful, intimate, and truly conversational level, this can be summed up as “capturing the whisper”.  If you are not tuned to listening for a whisper, you will miss it and wonder why the horses are not talking to you… while they wonder why you are not listening to them.

 A good example is in working with mustangs or other untouched horses. At first, the only thing I will ask for is acknowledgement. For a frightened horse who copes through hiding, avoidance, or flight, acknowledgement alone is trying hard.  It is on this seemingly insignificant foundation that trust and progress can be based.  It’s just the greeting, the first part of any respectful, two-way conversation. And yet how easy would it be to skip that initial moment because you didn’t realize that you had started a conversation?  How many of us skip a simple greeting with our trained horses and simply charge in there to go about our business because we think we’re “past that”?

The horses are talking. I’m not the first person to ask, “Are we listening?” But, I do stop and challenge my clients to recognize more about what the horses are saying at any moment, to train their eyes, ears, and gut to capture that whisper. It is then that you realize just how hard your horse is trying for you.

Sarah Lockwood, P.G. is a Holistic Equine Training & Management Specialist based in Sonoma County. Sarah provides Holistic Horse Training and Professional Geologic Consulting for Horse Properties. Visit www.EarthAndEquine.com to learn more. Email: EarthAndEquine@gmail.com. Phone: 707-239-2280.

Words Matter (Even the Unspoken Ones)

How many times have you heard these types of words spoken around the barn?

“This mare is out to get me.”

“That gelding is so stubborn!”

“That horse doesn’t like anybody.”

OK. I think we can all agree with my initial premise: Words Matter. Eloquence is praiseworthy, slander is punishable, and words have the power to create lasting impressions. So, then, why does it seem that so many horse people do not harness the Power of Words? Even more important: since words begin as thoughts, how many of us really examine and take responsibility for our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions when around our horses? The implications are absolutely critical for professionals and owners alike.

As prey animals, to keep their location undetected, horses are primarily non-verbal communicators. Masters of the non-verbal, horses use body language, energy, and telepathy to receive and distribute information within and outside of the herd.  In domestication, this includes whoever is in the horse’s zone of awareness or influence. Many people utilize equine psychology and body language in their horsemanship, which is great.   But if we stop there, at best we are leaving multiple powerful channels of communication untapped.  At worst, we introduce incongruence - outwardly or intellectually understanding and using the horse’s body language, but energetically, spiritually, and emotionally not tuning in to the holistic reality of the horse.  Incongruence is crippling to horsemanship and indeed to well-being in general.

In tangible terms, those who wish to be truly connected, fulfilled, and successful in their horsemanship must bring mindfulness to the thoughts we think and the words we speak, especially around horses.  We must practice diligence in recognizing thoughts and beliefs as they occur to us, releasing those that do not serve our highest potential, and that of our horses.  After all, a belief is simply a thought you keep thinking, usually reinforced by words you keep saying. If you arrive at the barn in a cloud of frenzied, stressful thoughts, you unwittingly introduce that unstable dynamic. Couple this with gossiping, complaining, or criticizing people or horses around you, and you reinforce the negative shock wave again and again.  It’s amazing to me that horses can tolerate being in the presence of such chaos at all.  Yet they’re always mirroring us, ready to immediately reflect our positive shifts and move forward.

Here are two examples. I observed an entire barn turn against one gelding due to negative chatter about him from a handful of boarders.  The paradigm resulted in his regular ear-pinning that reinforced people’s beliefs.  Daily revisiting of negative chatter truly created the reality of which they spoke.  Free of those limiting beliefs, my observations and work with him resulted in a different impression, one far more positive than the rumors.  

Names are also incredibly powerful. Last year I had the opportunity to gentle some BLM mustangs in Wyoming. One gelding in our group had been previously adopted by well-meaning owners who attempted to work with him in a round pen as they would have done with a domestic horse.  He reacted defensively, was labeled “aggressive”, and was subsequently named “Savage”. During the gentling program, the first thing we did was give him a new name that would serve him better: we called him “Savvy”. In the days that followed, he changed before our eyes from a “Savage” to a “Savvy,”
 gentle horse.

The beauty of working with or just being around horses is in their ability to help us to become better humans. Remember the power of your words and thoughts next time you head to the barn, and use them for good. If you realize you have ingrained patterns of thought or ways of speaking that are sabotaging your horsemanship, enlist help from an equine professional who can help you realign and move forward.

Sarah Lockwood, P.G. is a Holistic Equine Management Specialist based in Sonoma County. Sarah provides Holistic Horse Training and Professional Geologic Consulting for Horse Properties. Visit www.EarthAndEquine.com to learn more. Email: EarthAndEquine@gmail.com. Phone: 707-239-2280.

Reach Out To Horses Colt Starting Clinic 2015 - Dimock Ranch, Cody WY

The Reach Out To Horses (ROTH) Colt Starting Clinic in Cody, WY was beyond amazing on so many levels. We worked with several young mustangs, a Paso Fino, an Andalusian and a QH/Tenn. walker cross, all with only basic gentling, halter and farrier training. Over the course of 7 days, we brought them along through spookbusting, saddle and rider prep, long lining, ponying, and multiple rides. Moving at the speed of each horse, always allowing them to have a voice, and using whatever holistic and safe methods played best to their strengths and needs, we created success for them all. With multiple professional trainers on the course, there was a high level of skill and great rendezvous of talent and support!

Beaming after Taiee's first ride.

The Colt Starting Clinic is part of the ROTH Train the Trainer program into which I was invited and have chosen to pursue.  Designed to elevate the skill level of professional trainers, this two-year program encompasses three specialized areas of horse training: foal gentling, mustang gentling, and colt starting. There are also opportunities for working with advanced problem-solving cases and remedial behaviors. The beautiful thing about ROTH clinics is that every horse on every clinic (with the exception of the occasional student-owned horse) is rescued from some type of dysfunctional situation.  For each person enrolled on each clinic, a horse is selected and saved from a situation such as a feedlot, PMU farm, BLM holding facility, nurse-mare farm, and the like. These are last-chance horses, "dead horses walking," often ultimately slaughter-bound individuals were it not for being plucked out and given a chance at a functional life with humans... all because one more student enrolled.  After coming through a clinic, usually most, if not all, of the horses are up for adoption - and with success under their girths the future looks pretty bright for these horses who go out with the tools to functionally coexist and partner with humans. Needless to say, if you have a rescuer's heart like me, you want to be on as many of these clinics as you can just because each person, each clinic means another one saved, given a voice, and given a future.

So, flash forward to the 2015 colt-starting clinic. Each of 9 students was allocated a horse for the week. Always using the buddy-system for safety, we also had the opportunity to partner with as many other students as possible during the course of the week, to experience as many as 9 different horses and a piece their individual journey through preparation and starting under saddle. I was assigned Taiee, a Mc Cullough Peaks mustang gelding. A flashy bay with more mane that either of us knew what to do with, I had to braid Taiee's forelock each day just to be able to see his eyes and utilize that eye contact in our communication. This simple act of grooming became a grounding and intimate ritual for us each day.

Taiee had been gentled on a previous ROTH mustang gentling clinic, and resides at the Dimock Ranch. Like most of our charges, he was not easy to catch, especially on Day 1.  I remember feeling on the first day that he didn't want anything to do with me or the process at hand. But through the daily routine of catching, grooming, and gentle methods, we built a relationship and shared a sense of security and trust in working together.  He became easier to catch every day instead of withdrawing or sulking about the process, which was encouraging and beautiful to experience.  In fact, I believe this was the experience of all of the students and their horses. Six of us were allocated previously-gentled mustangs.

The ROTH colt-starting process includes a lot of well-thought-out building blocks and preparation including desensitization ("spook-busting" - non-flooding introductions of tack, instruments, and random objects), Reach Out, girth prep, obstacle courses in hand and at liberty, mounting block and rider prep, first saddle and bitted or bitless bridle, long-lining (ground driving), putting up a "dummy rider", ponying from a seasoned horse, and ultimately putting that first rider up.  With several ways to go about almost every piece, depending on each horse's strengths and needs, we were able to watch and participate in dozens of combinations of different techniques to bring out the best in each horse.

I was one of two students on the course who were a good fit - size and background-skills-wise - to be the first rider up on 7 of the horses. The QH/Tennessee Walker cross was larger and fit better with one of our male trainers, and one of the mustangs needed additional support before saddling and so did not quite advance to the rider piece during the 7 days. So, between Liv Bjerre (Denmark) and I, we put the first several rides on the other 7.  Clea Hall took over with her charge "Hopi" after the first ride and she brought miss Hopi along the rest of the way.  Each horse had a slightly different process and combination of methods applied, so we all got to experience first-hand many different paths to the ultimate "first ride".

Though we all expressed our deepest gratitude to each other in person, I'd like to again thank Anna Twinney and Vin Mancarella for everything that is Reach Out To Horses; ROTH Trainer/Instructor Braxton Dolce for his enthusiasm, knowledge, and keeping us safe; ROTH Trainer-Student Laurent Nicault for his creativity, support (and bravery), ROTH Trainer/Instructor Michaele Dimock and Chris Dimock for unbeatable hospitality and accomodations, and ROTH Trainer-Student Patricia Hatle for the gift of Nigel, Snickers, Nash, and her trust in ROTH to keep them safe during ponying.  I'm also so grateful for each and every participant in the course for their uplifting, supportive, collaborative attitudes and readiness to laugh.

I'll probably drill down and reflect on subtle details and lessons of the week in future blog posts.  For now, suffice it to say... it was difficult to leave Cody and return to everyday life! I'll be looking forward to the Complete Foal Gentling Experience of 2016.

ROTH Colt Starting Clinic 2015, from left: Clea Hall, Michaele Dimock, Gino "Horseman", Karen Jones, Liv Bjerre, Patricia Hatle, Sarah Lockwood, Anna Twinney (with little Joseph), Laurent "Niko" Nicault, Braxton Dolce, Staci Grattan-Fornshell, Anna Forre, Laura Schumann.