Horse Training: Blink Blink Equals Think Think

Did you know that in horse speak blinking equals thinking? It does. So do ear twitching, trembling lips, and faster breathing.

Horses can't speak to us in words so they use body language, and you can read a horse like a book if you know their language. There are lots of horse training manuals out there by big-name horse trainers who detail all of this, and yet it's always so much clearer when it happens to you and your horse.

A Horse Training Example of Blinking and Thinking
I've been slowly preparing my quarter horse gelding, Walker, for a roping clinic that is starting soon. Every clinic participant was sent a "how to prep your horse for roping" manual. This manual, provided by Mary Duke and Dusty Healy of Stirrup Cup Farm, offers step by step instructions on how to accustom your horse to the rope.

The manual features really simple instructions, big pictures, and lots of explanation. All of this should have been easy to do with Walker, except for one vital fact: Walker had been roped to be caught as a three-year-old. He had to be roped because his former owner had dropped him off at the reining trainer's place without bothering to halter break him.

The trainer had to rope Walker to catch him. Once caught, Walker was gelded, shod, and put into intense training. It's no wonder Walker associates a rope, or lariat, with "bad news"!

Well, Walker and I did fine on the groundwork preparatory exercises, but when I got in the saddle and lifted the rope off the saddle horn, Walker lost it. He ran like a bat out of hell and only skidded to a 10-foot sliding stop when he encountered a panel he couldn't jump. Yikes.

Off we went to Mary and Dusty's for some help. We started back at the groundwork level. Walker let me touch him all over with the rope, but when I started to swing the whole lariat gently at my side, he got upset and threw his head up. Mary told me to keep swinging my rope in the same rhythm and look for "signs" that Walker was thinking. These included:

- blinking - faster breathing - twitching his ears - trembling lips

Whenever Walker showed these signs of thinking, I would stop swinging the rope and praise him. Within a few cycles of thinking, praising, and resuming my exercises, Walker would offer a release, which included any of the following behaviors:

- moving his feet - licking and chewing - snorting - yawning - taking a deep breath - shaking his head and/or whole body - dropping his head

The whole process was fascinating. When I tuned into these signs of thinking and released the pressure as soon as I saw one of the signs, he would process the information much more quickly and give a "release." A release indicated that he had accepted the exercise and was ready for me to either repeat it or move on to another exercise. If I repeated the exercise, he would offer a release more quickly than the previous time.

Using this approach, we proceeded from groundwork to work in the saddle quite quickly. Only once while in the saddle did he "lose it." It was a brain fart more than anything else. We had been doing the exercises in the saddle quietly for 15-20 minutes when he suddenly bolted. I immediately dropped the rope and we started over with the saddle exercise, looking for the same signs of thinking and release.

After that, Walker was fine. I was impressed with how subtle his signals of "thinking" were, and how much I had to focus my attention on him see those signals. Once I did, though, he rewarded me with a lot of fast learning and releases.

Without a doubt, Walker associates the lariat with trauma, but by tuning into his body language I can help him more quickly overcome that. All in all, it's been a whole lot of fun and a very interesting experience all the way 'round!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Also, check out my ebook for wacky horses and humans, or holler at me if you want to know how I fund my horse addiction ... and you can, too!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shedboy/ / CC BY 2.0

Which is Cheaper and Better: A Shrink or a Roping Clinic?

Actually, I can't tell you from personal experience whether a shrink is better than attending a roping clinic, but I can tell that in the whole time that I have owned horses I have never needed the services of a shrink. Plus, I know what they charge, and it ain't cheap.

The reason I bring up this question is because, as all Colorado horse people know, we are heading into the deep dark tunnel that happens this time of year. It's called winter. Unless you live the life of Riley and have an indoor arena, winter basically sucks for horse people in our neck of the woods. The snow, wind, and icy footing (normal conditions for deep winter here) are a formula for disaster and injury. So unless we want to haul to an indoor arena to ride every day, it ain't happening.

But a day without riding is like a day without sunshine, as they say (at least horse addicts like me say that). So what's a zen cowgirl horse addict to do?

Did You Say Cheap Horse Activity? Invent a Roping Clinic
Well, zen cowgirls who don't want to go crazy will invent new cheap horse activities that have never existed before. My whole goal, on this blog and during this winter, is to come up with as many fun, cheap, mostly safe horse activities as I can so that as many horse people can have fun as possible.

So here's one I've come up with recently: a series of roping clinics. I know a pro roper who, aside from having won a ton of money and stuff, also has a fabulous indoor arena and lives about 10 miles from my house. I also know a bunch of crazy cowgirls like me who are pinching pennies and trying not to go stir crazy. So I call them all and ask them if they could like to participate in a series of inexpensive beginner roper clinics taught by this pro roper. I call the pro roper dude and I ask if he's interested in making a few bucks teaching a bunch of crazy cowgirls how to rope (we only know how to do penning, jumping, reining, and trail riding). He says, "Sure!"

So we're scheduling a series of beginner roping clinics in his indoor arena this winter. The curriculum will go something like this:

Session 1: Meet your rope.
Learn how to hold, swing, and throw your rope while standing on the ground. Learn to avoid hitting yourself in the head with your rope. Bonus: you don't need to haul your horse to this event because there's plenty to learn standing on your own two feet.

Session 2: Learn to rope a dummy.
After practicing throwing the rope for a while, it's time to learn to rope the Robo Steer, still from the ground, of course. Still avoiding hitting your head, of course. Again, no horse needed.

Session 3: Learn to rope on horseback.
Learn to throw the rope off a calm, gentle, caring school horse. Learn to avoid hitting yourself in the head in this new position. Learn to avoid hitting the poor horse in the head. Learn to rope the Robo Steer in this new position. Again, no horse needed, school horse provided.

Session 4: Learn to rope off your horse.
Hah! This should be fun! Starting with twirling a mere lead rope around and over top of your own horse, teach your horse to be comfortable with the lariat, with you on the ground or on his back. Yee-haw!

Session 5: Learn to swing the rope while your horse is moving.
Again, yee-haw! Learn to juggle reins and the rope, and swing the rope, while your horse is moving at various gaits. Learn to avoid runaways and whacking your head, your horse's head, or other objects in your vicinity.

Session 6: Learn to rope the Robo Steer from your horse.
Need we say it again? Yee-haw! Some horses will need help even getting near the Robo Steer, never mind following it. Then there's you--with the rope, reins, and black eye!

Get the picture yet? These clinics are fun, fabulous, and could generate reams of blackmail tape to be published on YouTube. I love it. In total, I'm quite sure that this activity will keep me from going stir crazy this winter, plus I'm sure I'll love it more than I would love seeing a shrink.

Do you agree? What similar crazy events could you come up with for your horse and your area?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Photo credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34419934@N03/ / CC BY 2.0