Much of my appreciation for classical dressage training comes from my lessons with Karl Mikolka. One of the (many) things I remember him saying (probably while my horse was having a fit) was, “the horse is allowed to say NO!” I’m not saying that fits are desirable! Of course, what we’d prefer is a resounding YES. But if you want to be more than ‘just’ a rider you need to be willing to listen to the horse and if he says No then you need to accept responsibility for that feedback. Then you [more...]
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In my Secret Weapon post I talked about how important it is to remain focused on what we want and rewarding that and only that. Read it here if you want to be reminded about it or missed it the first time. In her article in Psychology Today titled, Trainers with Jackhammers Need Not Apply, Susan Friedman, Ph.D. talks about this very issue from a slightly different point of view. And, hearing the same thing said differently is always a useful learning strategy. She brings up two key points to consider when training (any animal, horses included): Identify what you want the [more...] Lots of rain and mud means I’ve only managed to say hello to my girls at feeding time. On nicer days I’ll visit, groom and massage. Actual riding is a distant memory. Ha! So posts have been thin at best as I await the inspiration of spring and more riding exploits! Something interesting did come up recently in conversation, though, that I thought I would share. The topic was what I call my “secret weapon”. Do you want to know the secret to getting along with pretty much every horse? It isn’t a [more...] Here’s the thing about using clicker training for stuff that the horse is afraid of (demonstrated by some escape behavior), like using electric clippers on whiskers, if you try to click ‘for’ letting you approach with the buzzing thing you are invariably going to get the timing wrong. They are already thinking of leaving long before you click and if you click when they are thinking of leaving then you will only make matters worse. So, what I would do, is pretty much the same as what I said last time about mounting. It isn’t about the mounting (or [more...]  The lovely Danke I thought I would follow up with my own observations of the experience with Danke and the massage therapist. As you may recall (and if you missed it you can read about it here) Danke was not OK with having Heather standing on the hay bale while she worked on her croup area. This was the first time she had attempted to work with her like this. In the past if Danke needed to move Heather would just stay with her till she settled. But, since Danke is so tall (17+hands) it was [more...]  The author, Heather Davis, with Cheyenne By Heather Davis I am a certified equine “massage” therapist, applying principles of touch to encourage horses to release old neuromuscular strain patterns and relearn how to exist without previously held pain and resistance. Much of my work is informed by the work of Ida Rolf (known as “Rolfing” or Structural Integration), osteopathy, shiatsu, and myofascial release. Many horses, when asked to “let go” of old tension and memory stored within the body’s vastly intelligent network of innervated structural soft tissue, will take some time to relax into the willingness to release. [more...]  Recently my husband and I decided it was time to get rid of the burn pile. We have a small excavation project coming up that requires we finally burn the darn thing. The burn pile consisted mainly of small cherry trees we had to remove when we decided to bring the horses home. With all the rain we’ve had the pile of tree limbs, branches, and leaves were quite wet. But the task needed to be taken care of, so one sunny morning we got out there. The whole pile burning experience was really quite a [more...]  I wrote this article in 1998. It appeared that year in the New England Dressage Association’s annual “Salute” publication. It is interesting to read it back 11 years later. Although I’ve grown a lot in those years the core message remains true. I would only make one change. Looking back on 16 years with Tulsa, I realize that it is she who is the teacher and I the humble student. The author with the lovely Miss Tulsa. How many times have we heard that there is so much to learn about dressage it would take a life time (or several!) [more...]  I get asked this question a lot: What is this clicker training business and what could it possibly have to do me? My goal in this article is to dispel some of the more common myths about clicker training that have emerged over the last several years as the method has increased in popularity among horse owners. Once the horse understands the clicker you can use it for liberty work in the round pen. Photo by Cynthia Mallard. Unfortunately, at the moment clicker training still conjures up visions of silly pet tricks or dolphin training in the minds of many [more...]  Let’s be pragmatic. Compared to horses, we humans can’t compete if the test is one of brute strength. We need to enter the training arena with our wits about us and use our brains to get to the horse’s brain. The more we can get the horse to want to go along with our ideas the less strength we need in the equation. The males among us can afford to play power games with the horse, using their height and strength to their advantage. As such they are willing to take bigger risks that the more slightly built [more...] |
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