Peter Pfister liberty clinic and the Haflinger who made it fun (not for Peter)

I just got back from a liberty clinic because my friend Tami does liberty with her horses and it looks like a fun thing to do.


Before I get to the Haflinger incident, I have to talk about the mini horse. He was hilarious. He had absolutely no respect for his person, and felt the world owed him quite a lot for being there today.

As Peter taught the ladies how to lead their horses with the horses following respectfully at a distance, this tiny Oreo cookie would have none of it. He was clearly in charge and his position was always, "all over her."

Finally Peter noticed and intervened. She said, "He's just scared" and I heard people in the audience saying, "No, that pony is not scared!" and Peter tactfully said, "My personal feeling is that your pony is not, actually, afraid."

So then he took the line.

The first thing he did when the pony clobbered him was to "attack" the pony back with the NH lead line. He waved it around, catching the pony offguard (how rude!) and then even hit the ground with it to define his space.

Check out this video, where Peter says, "achte auf mich, achte auf mich!" to the pony, which means, "pay attention to me." Watch the pony blink his eyes in contemplation of his years being the boss of everyone.

The most hilarious thing, well, it's hard to pick, was when the pony was being lunged by the lady. The pony submitted to this indignity, but he would not suffer to look at his owner. No, if he had to actually trot around her in a circle, he was going to make it very clear he was only partially submitting to her. So he refused to look at her. I mean, he curved his neck to the outside of the circle, continuously, and gazed outward. At us, the audience, at the other horses, at the walls of the arena. He would not even show her his face. Peter noted that and laughed. I doubt he'd seen an animal take such a rebellious outlook either.

That poor lady. I'm almost tempted to go back tomorrow for day 2, except that I want to work with Mara.

Anyway, Peter made it a point to comfort the lady and say how sometimes the smallest ones are the most difficult.

***

Another girl in this beginner course had a lovely, affectionate Haflinger gelding. They caught on quickly to the leading exercises, except that he kept literally ramming into the girl whenever she halted. His chin would sail over her head until his chest bumped into her body.

I must go back. At the very beginning of the day, as the 5 ladies and their horses stood in a semi circle around Peter, facing us, I tried to guess which horse would be the most difficult. I tried to imagine which horse would treat its owner like a dog who thinks its leash is a pulling-game toy. I picked the Haflinger (although that pony was in a class of his own!).

That cute Haflinger was distracted, and kept maneuvering around the girl, bumping into her, and making her move out of his way each time.

This was druing the speech Peter made about how the "mover" is the leader of the "moveee".

But, this adorable Haflinger tricked us all. I watched his expression the entire time. He was a very calm, willing horse, he just needed to know what the girl wanted, and she wasn't so sure about how to do that.

Peter wanted to show the girls how to teach lunging on a NH line, which can eventually be refined into free lunging if I understand correctly. So, no lunge lines, just these 3 meter NH ropes with rope halters.

Peter politely asked if he could demonstrate the lesson using her horse.

He said there are three steps.

1. Look in the direction you want your horse to move

2. Point your rope-holding hand in that direction

3. Whirl the other end of the rope, in the other hand, at the horse's shoulder (not quarters, that just makes them swing their hips away and doesn't produce forward movement).

He did step 1.

He did step 2.

He started to do step 3, but since the horse was standing like a statue, and showed no inclination toward being a living being, he let the end of the rope strike the horse's shoulder.

BAM. That horse was outta there.

It was like realized at that moment that working with people could be confusing, and annoying. And when that rope touched his shoulder, he was gone, at a full gallop. Peter was pulled along the line like a salmon caught. After a few meters he had to let go or fall to the ground and be dragged.

He shook his head, laughing. It's always nice to have a good sense of humor around embarrassing, unforseen problems.

He caught up the horse and tried again. Very calmly, he signalled the horse to move on the end of the NH line. As soon as he wiggled the rope to request movement of the horse, that horse shot forward like a bullet from a gun again. Peter tried holding on, and finally had to let go or lose a body part.

This happened a third time, same as the 1st two times.

That Haflinger was very smart. He had lived his life knowing exactly how much stronger he is than people.

That Haflinger was the Incredible Hulk from the Avengers movie.

The third time, that horse ran around rejoicing. "Horse vs. Man. WE WIN! Take note, suckers!"

He probably also thought what a slow learner the human was, that the same thing happened each time.

Peter wasn't in a bad humor, but he said, "Will someone get me a pair of gloves. And a ......"

I wasn't sure what the thing was he asked for, but it turned out to be a lunging caveson of some sort.

The girl put that thing on the Haflinger, and Peter proceeded to ask the horse to move around him in a circle.

The horse, predictably, took off like a slingshot.

Peter dug his heels in and yanked the rope as the horse hit the end of the 12 foot rope.

I didn't understand why at the time, but the Haflinger put in the brakes and whirled around to face him. That must have hurt.

What was it?

I asked the lady next to me, she didn't know.

He asked the horse again, and got a very respectful jog trot in a circular direction around the man.

I heard, "That's a seretta."

That Haflinger came right to him, he sent it away, it flew out, but didn't pull at all.

He gave the gelding back to the girl, but told her not to take that thing off his head.

After their session, I expected to see trails of blood on that horse's face.

None were there. As she put that headpiece thing onto the rail of the arena, I waited patiently til the horses had passed, and then I ran up to it to see what it was. Peter noticed and watched me.


It was in fact a seretta, with a nosepiece was made of steel, wrapped in leather to protect the horse. Unlike normal lunging cavessons, it was built to create a little distance between ring and the solid noseband. That is, each ring was on a metal extension, so that you decide where to attach your lunge line, and you have that much more leverage, because when you pull on the ring, it places pressure on the metal nose-ring thing.

Since it did not include metal touching the horse, but rather, was designed to inflict pressure on the nose in an unforgettable way, I think it may have been the best solution to this horse's issue. It kept Peter on his feet.

I was thrilled, after that, to see the more advance people show off thier circus tricks and ...well, what looked to me like Parelli advanced work. I love to see a dance between horse and human and I got to see a lot of that.

Peter talked about "Those Frenchmen" - referring to Pignon. He mentioned how Pignon holds the whip, in contrast to how he does. I got the impression that skills with the rope and the whip are just as important as body language and timing.

There was another Haflinger who was the most advanced horse of the day - he could sidepass with handsignals, for example. As I watched their dance together, doing more and more complicated things, the horse seemed very in tune. Everything was done very slowly, with lots of stopping to think/rest. The horse was behaving beautifully until suddenly, he didn't.

Suddenly the horse said, "Enough" and took off cantering away from her. I did not see that coming. I guess that's the thing about liberty work - the horse can just leave when it feels it's had enough. She put him back on a lead rope the rest of the session.

It could be a Haflinger thing, or a coincidence.

My impressions of Peter as a trainer: He always insisted that horses receive a break after every new exercise, or every task accomplished. That worked out to a lot of breaks. And never less than 20 seconds. He told the students to stop and just breathe, letting their horses chew, which they all did. However, he also let the horses stop and take poop breaks. I don't get that. Everytime a horse lifted its tail, he'd say, "Oh, he needs to go!" and the student would stop what she was doing and let the horse poop. Hm. Must be a German thing cuz I see a lot of that.

I also noted that his energy level was always much clearer to see than the students. He understands how to use his body language effectively, something that we have to work at learning.

I did a few exercises with Mara and it's really fun. More fun to come..

Here are some videos I made of Peter and the horses (sorry no Haflinger action!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WOCqyQXjTc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5juAFAKRqdE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAcPPn5830k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MQvqj_6Hnyk