By  Chris Irwin

Have you ever heard the equestrian term of using our riding “aids” when describing the use of the seat, legs, spurs, hands, whip, bridle, etc, etc, with regards to control of the horse? At first, it seems a bit far-fetched, perhaps just another sugar coated contradiction of terms to refer to someone as “aiding” a horse when we see them using various means of “pressure” to control a horse. In fact, whether a rider uses his or her various body parts and tools of the trade as “aids” or as “weapons” depends entirely upon their knowledge and skill with regards to how they “get through” to the horse and what the message truly is that they are sending to the horse.

Take for instance the quintessential image of both dressage and reining. Of all the myriad of spokes on the wheel of horsemanship no two disciplines are more obsessed with creating specific “shapes” in a horse then dressage and reining. Why? Well, in an ideal situation the truly enlightened dressage or reining rider knows that the body and the mind of the horse are literally, meaning physiologically, connected as One. In other words, how a horse thinks, feels and behaves is directly related to the shape and gestures found in the body of the horse. Hence, the way to the mind of the horse is through the body.

The old expression “frame of mind” speaks volumes when defining the nature of the horse because it refers to the mind as a “shape”. What I’m getting at here is that the ideal shape of true “collection” as it is defined in classical dressage and reining is directly associated with a horse that feels calmly confident and assertive with a relaxed but intensely focused work ethic.

Having said that, before I go any further, it should be noted that just because someone wears full-seat breeches that does NOT mean that they are riding a calm and collected dressage horse and just because a rider wears a cowboy hat and chaps does not mean that their reining horse is supple and confident. Too often when riders want to “collect” their horses they are riding what coaches often refer to as “backwards” and/or they do not have a “seat” and they are either “ahead” or “behind” their horse. It is impossible to define each of these terms within the confines of a column but if we look at riding from the metaphor of driving a car with a standard transmission then we can say that there are those riders who are good with a clutch and there are those who are not. Too often a rider either “pops” the clutch on the horse or is “grinding the gears” of their poor horse. If a rider truly is good with the clutch of the horse then the rider can “aid” the horse into moving with a frame of body that makes the horse feel more wonderful while being ridden then it ever feels on its own.

A rider who is good with the clutch (the “back to front” relationship between the seat and legs into the bridle) is “user-friendly” to the vertebrae of the spine of a horse and can create shapes in the horse such as a “long and low” frame or a “well rounded” frame, and both of these shapes aid the horse by creating endorphins that soothe the naturally nervous and stressed equine mind. On the other hand, a rider who is hard on the clutch of a horse by pulling on the bridle in a manner that causes the back of the horse to drop while the neck and the head of the horse are elevated (in what is often referred to as an “inverted” or “upside down” spinal column), is a rider who is inadvertently creating a shape in their horse that produces adrenaline and will immediately trigger behaviors in the horse such as fear, anger or defiance. Another metaphor that applies here is that the rider is a sculptor using the aids to shape the animated clay (body) of a horse into shapes that hopefully relate to feeling good instead of feeling bad.

The concept that the body and the mind of the horse are one and the same is why I titled my first book “Horses Don’t Lie”. Our horses tell us exactly and honestly how they feel about everything, including how they feel about us and how well we ride them, by the shapes and gestures of their body. So, keeping this in mind, it can be a bitter pill for some people to accept that the behavior of a horse is directly proportionate to how we shape them into feeling. Or, to be blunt, the behavior of your horse = the way you make it feel. This can be a big ouch for some people and send many riders into tailspins of blame and denial but, again, Horses Don’t Lie.

So, if your horse doesn’t want to be “caught”, or your horse has issues taking the bridle, or standing still for saddling, or if your horse can’t stand quietly and always needs to move, or if your horse won’t engage and become as forward as you want, or too forward and will not stop, or will not jump, or cross water, or is “barn sour” and refuses to let you take it on a trail ride, or your horse bites, kicks, or strikes, or any and all vices and issues that people become frustrated and want to “fix” in a horse, please remember that your horse has a clutch and this particular vehicle, unlike your car, also has a mind and emotions. If there is anything about the behavior and performance of your horse that you don’t like then please don’t blame your horse. Your horse does not conspire against you, he or she simply reacts to how you affect his or her body shapes and how those frames of body make them feel.

In closing, remember, knowledge is power. I believe that if we all learned how to find just the right feel for the clutch of our horses then we could truly aid them into moving in such a way that they only feel better when we are with them and never feel any worse for the wear. If it was every riders goal to have their horses become addicted to how good we can make them feel then there would be no more frightened, angry or shut down horses. Instead we’d truly have calm and collected, focused and contented partners who appreciate how we make them feel and in return they reward us with affection and loyalty. It sounds too good to be true but there are indeed riders who can walk the talk of aiding their horses into being the best that they can be. So please make it your goal to ask not what your horse can do for you but instead ask what you can do to aid your horse.

Thanks to Polocrosse-international.orgDo You “Aid” Your Horse?

The Internet is a wonderful thing, providing great information in a matter of clicks.

The Internet also spews out more bunk, bull and incorrect information faster than you can ask, “Who are these idiots rushing to provide so much bad advice and nonsense?”

Don’t get me wrong…I love the Internet and the fact that it is open to everyone; I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I just think it needs a warning label:  Reader Beware!”

When it comes to horse training, the vast majority of information found on the Internet is wrong, dangerous and certainly not beneficial to horses.  And the websites carrying such bunk call their contributors “experts.”  Certainly both the websites and the contributors are delusional about the accuracy and value of their knowledge.

Of course, the same is true for the “hot button” issues, such as horse slaughter, EIA regulations and wild horse preservation.  Few accurate facts are ever given; plenty of emotional misinformation and myth can be found on most websites appealing to that special group of “kiss them on the nose” horse lovers.

Search for almost anything about horse training and you’ll get 211,678 hits that will provide 211,670 bits of advice that aren’t worth the time it took you to type in “horse training.”

It seems that anyone who has even seen a picture of a horse is willing to offer their opinion on how to train them.  While most can’t give you the footfall sequence of a horse at the walk, they still consider themselves an “expert”.

When I want advice from an expert, I want two things.  I want an expert who has been there and done that.

Now some will say that winning isn’t that important.

Winning is “everything,” and the most important aspect when you are measuring expertise.

You may not want to show your horse.  You may think that showing is just a lot of fancy horses, fancy saddles, fancy clothes and a ton of expense.  It is that, but it’s also a lot more.

Don’t show if it doesn’t appeal to you.  But don’t discount how much knowledge, experience and expertise it takes to “win” in the show pen.

You want to know how to train a horse: seek a winner for advice.

Winning on any show circuit (and there is a circuit for everything and anything you want to do with horses) means the person knows how the horse is supposed to move in any and every gait.  The show horse trainer/rider knows specific maneuvers and foot-fall sequences, how to gain collection, how to change equine behavior, how to communicate and how to do the most to enhance the horse’s natural ability; all of great benefit to any horse.

Show horse trainers that win are usually generalists in horse training, but experts in specifics.

They’ve learned that there is so much to learn that you can’t learn it all, so it’s best to learn as much as possible about a small subject.

Reiners train reiners, jumpers train jumpers, trail horse riders train trail horses, race horse trainers train race horses (usually choosing sprinters or distance horses) barrel racers train barrel horses.  Learning all they can about a single subject is what makes them experts at that event.  Ask them general questions about horse training and they can give you general answers.  Ask them to get down to the nitty gritty and they can really explain what to do and how to do it.

Before you take advice from an Internet expert or super-star clinician (very few have ever trained a winner), ask the hard question which exposes the truth: what have you won that makes you an expert?

If he or she hasn’t won it, he or she may still be a really nice person with good intentions…..the horse world is filled with nice people, but that doesn’t make them experts.

And if you don’t think you need answers from a winner, at least go to a winner for the sake of your horse; your horse deserves advice from an expert.

Thanks to Polocrosse-international.orgA Horse, Of Course

There’s no shame in solving a problem from the ground.

When a horse reverts to the reactive side of his brain, you can gain control of the situation either on the ground or in the saddle by moving his feet until he starts to use the thinking side. There’s no shame in getting off the horse and working through his fear on the ground, especially if it puts you in a safer position. You can move the horse’s feet forwards, backwards, left and right on the ground just as well as you can from his back. A lot of people are under the impression that you should never get off a horse when you run into trouble because the horse will get away with his bad behavior and think that he won. The horse only “wins” if you get off and put him away, not if you get off and hustle his feet. Personally, I would much rather solve a problem on the ground than be in the saddle wishing I was on the ground. Once you have the horse’s feet moving, he’s using the thinking side of his brain and is no longer frightened, you can get back in the saddle.

Thanks to Polocrosse-international.orgClint Anderson

Jenny Sheppard, August 3, 2010

AT THIS year’s World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, spectators will be entertained by a multitude of equine demonstrators.

Among them will be South Australian Clinton Anderson, who is known around the world for his training method, Downunder Horsemanship.

Anderson, who grew up in Australia, became infatuated with riding at a young age. His grandparents bought him his first horse, Casey, when he was nine.

Anderson became involved with polocrosse, which originated in Australia.

“We’ve gotten to where we have been by a lot of hard work and dedication,” Anderson said.

“I started studying the famous Gordon McKinlay training method when I was 13 and once I realised I liked the method, I decided to make a career out of it.”

Anderson decided to leave school at the age of 15 and become an apprentice to McKinlay.

After two years with McKinlay, Anderson pursued more training in reining and cutting, working for champion reiner Ian Francis.

Anderson’s success in the Australian national reining arena influenced him to take his knowledge overseas.

After making the US his second home in 1997, he began training, touring and conducting clinics – and Downunder Horsemanship took off.

“Downunder Horsemanship is idiot-proof horsemanship,” Anderson said.

“We make it simple for people to understand how to train their horses at home.”

Anderson will be giving demonstrations at the Equine Village throughout the Games, which will be held from September 25 to October 10.

Thanks to Polocrosse-international.orgAnderson will be at games

Clint Anderson

Buy a horse that will build your confidence when you first get into the horse business. When people who are just getting started end up buying the wrong horse, things go downhill in a hurry. I can’t tell you how many people buy their first horse, get into trouble, get bucked off, fall off, lose their confidence, sell the horse, sell their saddle, sell the trailer and never want to ride a horse again! Let me save you some trouble right now – buy a horse that will give you confidence. Don’t buy a horse based on emotions because all of those emotions aren’t going to mean a thing when you’re getting drug down the road by that shiny Thoroughbred or when that green-broke filly throws you head first into the dirt. Instead, buy a horse that’s seasoned and uses the thinking side of his brain. Remember, horses teach people, and then people teach horses.

Thanks to Polocrosse-international.orgAre you a new rider? If so, do yourself a favor.

Chris Irwin

Have you ever heard the equestrian term of using our riding “aids” when describing the use of the seat, legs, spurs, hands, whip, bridle, etc, etc, with regards to control of the horse? At first, it seems a bit far-fetched, perhaps just another sugar coated contradiction of terms to refer to someone as “aiding” a horse when we see them using various means of “pressure” to control a horse. In fact, whether a rider uses his or her various body parts and tools of the trade as “aids” or as “weapons” depends entirely upon their knowledge and skill with regards to how they “get through” to the horse and what the message truly is that they are sending to the horse.

Take for instance the quintessential image of both dressage and reining. Of all the myriad of spokes on the wheel of horsemanship no two disciplines are more obsessed with creating specific “shapes” in a horse then dressage and reining. Why? Well, in an ideal situation the truly enlightened dressage or reining rider knows that the body and the mind of the horse are literally, meaning physiologically, connected as One. In other words, how a horse thinks, feels and behaves is directly related to the shape and gestures found in the body of the horse. Hence, the way to the mind of the horse is through the body.

The old expression “frame of mind” speaks volumes when defining the nature of the horse because it refers to the mind as a “shape”. What I’m getting at here is that the ideal shape of true “collection” as it is defined in classical dressage and reining is directly associated with a horse that feels calmly confident and assertive with a relaxed but intensely focused work ethic.

Having said that, before I go any further, it should be noted that just because someone wears full-seat breeches that does NOT mean that they are riding a calm and collected dressage horse and just because a rider wears a cowboy hat and chaps does not mean that their reining horse is supple and confident. Too often when riders want to “collect” their horses they are riding what coaches often refer to as “backwards” and/or they do not have a “seat” and they are either “ahead” or “behind” their horse. It is impossible to define each of these terms within the confines of a column but if we look at riding from the metaphor of driving a car with a standard transmission then we can say that there are those riders who are good with a clutch and there are those who are not. Too often a rider either “pops” the clutch on the horse or is “grinding the gears” of their poor horse. If a rider truly is good with the clutch of the horse then the rider can “aid” the horse into moving with a frame of body that makes the horse feel more wonderful while being ridden then it ever feels on its own.

A rider who is good with the clutch (the “back to front” relationship between the seat and legs into the bridle) is “user-friendly” to the vertebrae of the spine of a horse and can create shapes in the horse such as a “long and low” frame or a “well rounded” frame, and both of these shapes aid the horse by creating endorphins that soothe the naturally nervous and stressed equine mind. On the other hand, a rider who is hard on the clutch of a horse by pulling on the bridle in a manner that causes the back of the horse to drop while the neck and the head of the horse are elevated (in what is often referred to as an “inverted” or “upside down” spinal column), is a rider who is inadvertently creating a shape in their horse that produces adrenaline and will immediately trigger behaviors in the horse such as fear, anger or defiance. Another metaphor that applies here is that the rider is a sculptor using the aids to shape the animated clay (body) of a horse into shapes that hopefully relate to feeling good instead of feeling bad.

The concept that the body and the mind of the horse are one and the same is why I titled my first book “Horses Don’t Lie”. Our horses tell us exactly and honestly how they feel about everything, including how they feel about us and how well we ride them, by the shapes and gestures of their body. So, keeping this in mind, it can be a bitter pill for some people to accept that the behavior of a horse is directly proportionate to how we shape them into feeling. Or, to be blunt, the behavior of your horse = the way you make it feel. This can be a big ouch for some people and send many riders into tailspins of blame and denial but, again, Horses Don’t Lie.

So, if your horse doesn’t want to be “caught”, or your horse has issues taking the bridle, or standing still for saddling, or if your horse can’t stand quietly and always needs to move, or if your horse won’t engage and become as forward as you want, or too forward and will not stop, or will not jump, or cross water, or is “barn sour” and refuses to let you take it on a trail ride, or your horse bites, kicks, or strikes, or any and all vices and issues that people become frustrated and want to “fix” in a horse, please remember that your horse has a clutch and this particular vehicle, unlike your car, also has a mind and emotions. If there is anything about the behavior and performance of your horse that you don’t like then please don’t blame your horse. Your horse does not conspire against you, he or she simply reacts to how you affect his or her body shapes and how those frames of body make them feel.

In closing, remember, knowledge is power. I believe that if we all learned how to find just the right feel for the clutch of our horses then we could truly aid them into moving in such a way that they only feel better when we are with them and never feel any worse for the wear. If it was every riders goal to have their horses become addicted to how good we can make them feel then there would be no more frightened, angry or shut down horses. Instead we’d truly have calm and collected, focused and contented partners who appreciate how we make them feel and in return they reward us with affection and loyalty. It sounds too good to be true but there are indeed riders who can walk the talk of aiding their horses into being the best that they can be. So please make it your goal to ask not what your horse can do for you but instead ask what you can do to aid your horse.

Thanks to Polocrosse-international.orgDo You “Aid” Your Horse?

By Don Blazer

It’s a shame about dressage. Or at least to me it is.

I always thought of it as such a “pure” thing; such a “beautiful thing; harmony in union.”

For me, Dressage was practiced by those who wanted “art with horses.”

It was for horsemen and women who wanted to take a horse to his maximum performance ability, suppleness, flexibility, balance and grace. It was a work of art between a rider and a horse, and that is all that it had to be.

It was, but it is no more.

Dressage: a noun, French, originally meaning “basic dressing.”

The basic dressing was applied to all horses and at all levels and that was the extent of it. It was done with any horse that a nobleman (and only noblemen could afford both the luxury of a horse and the time to develop its gaits, grace, balance, suppleness and flexibility) saw fit to ride.

The idea originally was not to compare horses, but to enjoy the development of a single horse’s unique talents.

One horse and one rider, being all they could be.

And that was the original goal.

Then disaster struck; dressage became a competition.

One of my most admired dressage authorities, Waldemar Seunig (he attended the French Cavalry School at Saumur and the Spanish Riding School at Vienna and from 1922 to 1930 was the Master of the Horse at the Court of King Alexander of Yugoslavia; he was the coach of the successful German Olympic Team.) says this about perfecting the art of dressage: “it is the practical, creative artist, the equestrian genius, who is fused with his horse into one unit, who makes its will his own, and who proves that there are no limits to art.”

Great thinking….and he could do it…and many in the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s could do it……but by the 1900s competition had corrupted that simple idea of dressage for the sake of dressage.

Seunig was not only an equestrian competitor, he was a judge of international competition. He too was corrupted, and winning became more important than dressage.

But in the 1950s and 1960s, dressage was still defined as training, exhibition riding or horsemanship in which the horse is controlled in certain difficult steps and gaits by very light movements of the rider. The horse is to be relaxed and the performance is to appear “effortless.”

Light and gently and subtle were the key words for dressage riders such as Colonel Alois Podhajsky, Jessica Newberry and later Reiner Klimke, a world champion and winner of 6 gold medals in 5 Olympics (1964 to 1988)

When I see pictures of Podhajsky and Newberry riding, or I watch Klimke ride, I see a horse that is relaxed and appears to be performing effortlessly. I see a rider not strained or stesssed or rigid, but in a beautifully balanced position with a willing partner.

It’s a shame about dressage.

When I see upper level riders today, the art is gone.

Don’t misunderstand me. It is not that I am not in awe of the performances they achieve. They are getting more from their horses than the past masters did. (Of course, the horses they are riding have evolved along with training knowledge and techniques.)

What I see in today’s advanced level dressage are horses performing phenomenally; they are giving every ounce of effort they have to give. They are reaching new heights in suppleness and flexibility.

And they are unhappy, tense and showing the exertion needed to respond to their rider’s demands. Nothing about it appears “effortless.” It is not light or gentle or subtle.

I watched a video of a horse score the highest dressage score ever recorded.

The maneuvers were fantastic and the accomplishments of the horse should be applauded again and again.

But the horse hated every minute of that performance; the tail wringing and swishing and twirling and shaking, the ears back, the face knotted with tension.

It wasn’t the art I had hoped it would be…it was man forcing his will onto the horse in the name of competition.

Oh, for the original idea of any horse being helped to reach his potential, with no intention of ever comparing one horse to another.

It’s a shame about dressage.

Thanks to Polocrosse-international.orgA Horse, Of Course

There are a lot of heroes in the graveyard.

When I was studying under legendary Australian reining and cow horse trainer, Ian Francis, he used to remind me that there are a lot of heroes in the graveyard. What he meant by that was that too many people get on horses that aren’t ready to be ridden and get bucked off. They break their necks and die because they don’t use their heads. Preparation is the key. Groundwork exercises are designed so that you can get control of your horse’s feet on the ground before getting in the saddle where you have less control. Remember, there’s no shame in getting off your horse if you’re having problems or if you feel unsafe. The horse only wins if you get off and put him away, not if you get off and move his feet. I’d much rather fix a problem from the ground than be in the saddle wishing I was on the ground. Get your horse to respect you and use the thinking side of his brain on the ground. Then get on his back. You only get one body so take care of it.

Thanks to Polocrosse-international.orgThere are a lot of heroes in the graveyard.

By Chris Irwin
I remember a long time ago in high school seeing a sign behind the desk of my algebra teacher that read: The older we get the more we realize how much we don’t know . I also remember that at the ripe old age of sixteen that I thought this was a stupid statement. I naturally assumed that this was just another example of false humility designed as a politically correct manipulation of young rebellious minds like mine in yet another attempt to coerce us into minding our manners and conforming to the standardized norm of the educational system. That was thirty years ago when I was 16. However, it didn’t take me all these thirty years to realize the profound truth in the statement that I had once assumed in the wisdom of my youth to be so ridiculous. Years later, while coaching in a clinic, I heard myself spontaneously uttering the words the more I work with the horses, the more I realize how much I don’t know. That realization suddenly dawned on me when I was about 40.

When I produced my first 2 training videos back in 1997, one on round penning and the other on riding, I was very fortunate to receive rave reviews in the horse industry magazines. But it was only 5 years later that I started realizing that I needed to re-make those initial videos because I had learned to work with horses more effectively, softer, more proactively instead of re actively, and as a result, more humanely. By 2004, seven years since my first videos were released, I couldn’t stand to see them being played at the horse expositions and my conscience wouldn’t allow me to produce and sell them anymore. In fact, it was time to start reproducing my entire video line. Why? Who did I meet that changed my perspective so much that I had to start all over with a new and improved methodology of horsemanship? The answer may surprise you as much as it did me. I met the true mind and nature of the horse.

The awareness for the reality of the cause and effect between humans and horses and the realization that horse trainers tend to want to fix or train problems and behaviours in horses that we, as humans, aren’t aware of our roll in causing in the first place, slowly began to dawn on me as I stepped out of the circle of influence of doing with the horses in the name of training and began to teach or coach from the outside looking in as a so called expert. In other words, I had very little awareness for the fact that I had become a master fireman who did not know that he was teaching people how to put out fires with horses that we had inadvertently started in the first place. It wasn’t until I had spent more then a few years on tour as a clinician that I finally began to realize how much I didn’t know about what was really going on between people and horses.

Today, as I travel the world teaching what I have learned since I started teaching, it is not uncommon to witness people experience a myriad of emotional roller coaster reactions as they see with their own eyes what they have never seen before and they realize that they have unknowingly been causing so many of the undesirable issues that they have with their horses. Reactions commonly range from giggling with childlike delight on the upside to the extreme downside of sadness, guilt and despair, or sometimes an emotional meltdown complete with rivers of tears.

It can be a bitter pill to swallow when we are face to face with the glaring reality that a good trainer knows how to fix problems with horses but that a truly great trainer has learned how not to cause problems in the first place. It can pull the rug out from underneath our self image and our ego can have a very hard time accepting that a good trainer has the seat and the courage to ride the buck out of a horse but a great trainer rides a horse that has no need to buck. The older we get, the more we find out that so many of those old sayings are so true. We get in the way of what we want. We are our own worst enemy. We get ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. We so often create a situation of no-win, damned if we do, damned if we don’t. Then we want to shoot the messenger. And here’s the rub – somewhat like us, the horses do not know that we do not know our role in what we are causing.

Here’s an example. Let’s say that we are in the round pen or working with a horse on the longe line. As I’ve demonstrated in so many of these columns in the past, a horse will read our angle of approach when we are moving on the ground as a signal of our intent. Now, if the center of our body (meaning our belly button) is aiming at the shoulder or girth of the horse as we step in from behind to say go forward, then we are interpreted as herding the horse from behind and it is clear that we are simply moving the horse around us in a turn or a circle. This shape of body typically leads to a comfortable way of going and does not typically stress the mind of the horse. However, at least 95% of the people I meet are aiming at the head of the horse with their body while they work the horse from the ground. It is indeed human instinct to confront and to talk face to face so we think nothing of it. However, the horse interprets this as bullish body language and sometimes even as more of a threat to capture then a signal to herd. This stresses both the body and the mind of the horse and, depending on the confidence of the horse, will initiate fear, annoyance, frustration or even angry aggression. Then we need to fix the horse that is timid or needs to be shown who is boss. Most often, if the horse is merely annoyed and is saying so by contstantly swishing his or her tail, then people don’t seem to see, or care to listen, to the message coming from the horse.

This is just one example of hundreds of cause and effect issues that are commonplace in everyday horsemanship. My point here is that when we unknowingly send signals to the horse that cause it to become stressed it does not know that this is our mistake. The horse does not know that we do not know our role in causing it to behave the way it does. The horse is a sentient being that lives in the moment and when we make it feel confused, frustrated, frightened, angry, sullen or any other feeling that does not feel good, then the horses associate that feeling with us. The horse looks at us as, uh oh, here comes the guy that makes me feel bad and they do not know that we do not know that we are causing this feeling. Here’s an example without horses that we’ve all seen that we can all relate to.

Imagine a young child holding a kitten in its arms. The child is enjoying loving the kitten. We see that the child is happy and simply wants to show the kitten affection. However, we see very clearly that the kitten is not enjoying how the so called loving is being communicated and while the child is having a feel good experience the kitten feels trapped and mauled. We find this scenario somewhat cute because we know how innocent and niave the child is as to how the kitten is perceiving the experience. The child does not know what he or she does not know about the reality of the situation. The kitten also does not know that the child does not knwo but then the kitten says enough is enough and claws and scratches at the child in order to break free of the human being causing it distress. Then the child cries out in pain, releases the kitten, and then most often feels sad or angry at the stupid cat that does not appreciate the love it was receiving.

Now exchange the word kitten with horse, the young child with almost any human being of any age or background, and exchange the kitten clawing and scratching for horses that are biting, striking, kicking, rearing, bolting, bucking, jigging, pawing, refusing to stop, refusing to go, won’t stand still for mounting, can’t be caught, won’t pick up their feet, refuse to load in trailers or wash racks, will not accept the bit, will not respect the leg, the list goes on and on.

The performance and behaviour of your horse is a direct reflection of how it feels about your performance and behaviour. Fact: If you keep repeating the same techniques over and over again, believing that practice makes perfect, but the methods are not working and getting for you what you want from your horse, then you’re missing something and you need new information. Practice does not make perfect, only perfect practice makes perfect. Perhaps Einstein put it best when he said: Problems can not be solved at the same level they are created.

While it is indeed true that there is not a horse that can’t be rode or a cowboy that can’t be throwed it is also true that nobody is perfect and none of us know everything there is to know about what the horses truly need from us in order to be the best that they can possibly be. My point here is not to give you a practical tip to fix anything about your horse but simply to remind you that we are supposed to be the one who leads the dance between human and horse and a horse can only follow as good as it is lead. If your horse has even the slightest issue such as his or her tail swishes even when there are no flies around, or it carries itself just slightly inverted, or not quite engaging and tracking up enough, or any number of little things that all add up to a less then ideal experience with your horse and for your horse, then please remember that the buck stops here and it is up to the human, not the horse, to acknowledge there must be something I don’t know that I need to figure out in order to resolve this issue with my horse. Knowledge is power and the more we know the softer, kinder, gentler and more satisfying our relationship with horses can be.

In closing, I could sum up this column with ask not what your horse can do for you – ask what you can do for your horse.

Thanks to Polocrosse-international.orgWhen We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know

Thanks to Polocrosse-international.orgGuiding One-Handed Part 1