You all have given me a lot to think about and I spent the entire week thinking and reading and pondering and not writing a sale ad yet.
I talked to my trainer yesterday - our first phone conversation - and she wants to help me with my horse on the trails, so that's encouraging. She said she is working with another horse with the same issue right now. She also agreed with me that when I'm in the saddle on trails, Mara feels she has to take care of both of us, despite respecting me as a leader on the ground or even behind her, driving. I wanted an independent, dominant horse, and I got it, and the baggage that comes from it - a horse who will take charge the moment the rider is not actively directing.
CM suggested I look at Clinton Anderson, and I think he is the epitome of alpha (check his video of his robotic, ultratense horse Mindy), but.....
Clinton got me thinking. He was talking about a lady whose horse is great in the arena and horrible on trails. He said "What do you do in the arena?" "Dressage." "What do you do on trails." "Enjoy?" (Paraphrased a bit.) Wait, really? So you ride completely differently in the two places? In one the horse must do this, this, this, and in the other, the horse must pretend to be a moving couch?
However, I don't like the way CA treats his horses on the
trail - he requires his horses to perform difficult tasks on trail,
basically wearing the horse out EVERY time the horse looks at something,
he says he wants the horse's head down, not looking at anything,
thankful for a chance to rest. Not only would it be dangerous in real
life, it seems cruel to me. (Watch him do it and you'll see what I
mean.) Tiring a horse out to make him behave - that's not horsemanship
(remember who said - "I ride a green horse 40 miles, he learns to be
good").
I'm not a Parelli follower, but LP said, "What the horse needs is more important than the task at hand." This is an enlightened training perspective, what I'd expect to hear from this enlighted trainer, and I'm happy she's teaching that. Then she admits to times when she's been impatient and ignored what the horse needed, and the way the problem intensified. She said she had to wait a long time, doing nothing, until her horse sighed and she was able to finally make the request. But since she waited, the horse regained trust in her.
Yesterday I was thinking about these things and a memory came back to me. It was the first time I got on Mara's back. What does this horse need? Ah, she's green - she needs to be directed, to do something different constantly. So I turned, circled, then serpentined, then changed gait, etc, never just letting her walk along. She's not the kind of horse who appreciates the chance to do nothing, then again, I don't tire her out either.
Why is it that I instinctively give Mara what she needs, but only in an arena? Years of just "having fun" on trails must have wiped my brain.
Perhaps that is why Mara is always trying to walk off trail. Remember the video of my man riding her, how she walked right off the trail and was bush-whacking along?
LP says anger and frustration come from a lack of knowledge. We feel frustrated when we don't know what steps to take to fix a problem, and we hate to feel helpless.
Probably the answer lies in a compromise, giving her tasks on trail, but not exhausting her or frustrating her. I need to find tasks that are actually possible on muddy hilly rocky trail with barb wire or small cliffs on one side.
UPDATE: Today I invited my trainer Mell to simply take Mara out on a trail ride. I tried to stay far behind and watch. I think we found that compromise.
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9 comments:
I like Linda P. because she's real. She makes mistakes and admits it and teaches others what she learned from it. Her main horse spooked big time and ran off with her in one clinic I saw her in, so stuff like that happens to all of us, even with the most well trained horses.
She sounds a lot like my Red - he'll take charge if he needs to, but really would prefer someone else to provide him with leadership.
I really dislike Clinton Anderson - he's all about dominating the horse and basically forcing horses to do things - they may comply because they have no choice but there's no softness or partnership there - a great example of "forcemanship" in the guise of "natural".
Actually, I think Mark Rashid addresses this the best. He relates a story in one of his books where he is trail riding with the old man and he zones out, thinking about other things and just sitting like a lump on his horse. His horse shies at something and dumps him. He complains to the Old Man, who in turn asks why he is surprised since he stopped riding hours ago.
The point is that we have to be actively engaged with our horse, all the time. If we are actively engaged in the arena, we also need to remain actively engaged on trail. This is especially true of horses that demand engagement (like our Arabians). They want an active partner, not someone who is just along for the ride.
I'm excited to hear more about this ride! Tell us all your thoughts and observations. I really hope that you can get Mara sorted out, and that both of you end up happy. Looking forward to hearing more. Kay
I definitely think you are onto something Really Important here.
It's not necessary to *wear out your horse*, body and mind, to keep her engaged. Ask for a shoulder in, haunches in, swing the belly left for 6 strides, then swing right. Then go forward. When trotting, I swap diagonals every tenth stride...then every ninth...then every eighth...etc.
After a while, the pony learns to "continue doing what you're doing until I give you new instructions" but that isn't automatic to some of them.
Mara is apparently one of those who wants the intensity of a dressage session even when she's on trail...which, eventually, will make her into a phenomenal trail horse!
NM, i recently found a youtube video of pat and linda quasi-apologizing for things they've done that have offended people. the parelli.com site has some articles and linda's are really good.
kate, omgosh did you make that up? forcemanship? can i use it? too late, i already told SS about it (i quoted you). did you see CA and his horse Mindy in that link? i can't watch the whole thing but almost everyone said "beautiful, gorgeous NH harmony!"
karen, there is so much wisdom in those books. keep writing, mark!
kay, i'm feeling like there's hope, after watching mara deal with her fears yesterday.
aarene, dangit, you're giving it away! *lol*
lytha - no I didn't make it up but don't remember now who did - Calm, Forward, maybe?
No, I didn't invent it and I'm having trouble remembering where I got it - one of our fellow horse bloggers - Calm, Forward, Straight, maybe?
I tried to leave a comment the other day but it didn't work. I echo the comments about Clinton Anderson -- I don't like his approach at all. I do like how Mel is working with Mara. We don't want zombie robots, we want partners.
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