Satori Center

We've got a new addition!   And she has a new name: Mia!  Mia Morning Glory.  

Mia is a 12yr old Thoroughbred who kind of exemplifies what happens to a lot of horses.  Now that she is with me, I'm hoping to chronicle how I work with horses.  This will, at times, highlight the things that have gone wrong in the past.  I think it's safe to say that everyone in her past wanted the best for her, but maybe they weren't aware of everything going on, and so "these things happen."  My chronicle is meant for education -- and everyone involved in the past automatically gets A's for effort!   And today I'm counting my lucky stars that I get to work with her.

One the first things that I do when checking out a new horse is to slightly over-challenge the horse.  The reason I do this is to find out how the horse handles 'a crises.'   To be sure, this is a very small 'crises!'  I don't want the poor dear to come unglued.  I do want to know, though, is this a horse that works with me?  or blames me?  gets confused but stays calm?  or gets confused and looses their brain?  or stops.  or flings themselves to the ground.  Where does this horse go when it gets nutty?

If you remember Carlos, one of the reasons I took him in was that when I asked him to do something he didn't know anything about, he was scared, but he also gave me 110%!  This is a horse you can work with.  If you recall Tammy, Tammy gets scared and gives you about 5%.  This is not a horse you can work with.  much.  So where is Mia in this mix?

Ride the Right Horse, by Yvonne Barteau has an elegant, easy system for categorizing horses.  She has four categories which can be used for evaluating a horse.  These are:

• friendly - amiable, sometimes goofy, often distracted, can forget about the rider/handler
• aloof - keep their distance, often perfectionist, can't be bribed with treats or affection 
• fearful - if not majorly fearful, will accept and relax with consistent and fair leadership.
• challenging - aka domineering.  if they accept you as leader, you have a partner for life! 

Each of the profiles presents benefits and challenges.  Interacting with Mia around the barnyard, in hand, and a few times under saddle, I am thinking that she is friendly-fearful, possibly friendly-challenging.  (Maybe even challenging-fearful!)  Obviously I haven't settled on a category just yet.  :)

Why the friendly?

This is a horse that greats you.  She comes up to you, she wants treats.  She'll mug you if you let her.  Then she's interested in the next person.  The next treat.  Then maybe it's a horse here, a horse there.  The cat, the dog, the bush.  The car.  The treats.  Let's try the other pocket...

Her mind doesn't stay in one place very long and she doesn't seem to capisce boundaries.  Lap dog?  Try Lap HORSE.  Not a good thing.

Sure, this seems for all the world like a horse that wants to be your buddy, but this doesn't translate into a horse that wants to do what you want to do.  And therein lies the rub.

The down side to the friendly horse is that you have to get a consistent message into them long enough for them to recognize the message coming in and in order for it to matter they have to be paying attention to receive a reward for the behavior you want them to respond with.  It's a matter of getting and keeping their attention long enough.  It's not enough to send the message, they have to receive it, process it, react to it, ask you if that's what you want, and pay attention to your response to their question.  They have to get the message and then have enough correct responses to reward and then they have to recognize the response and the reward are connected.   This is like the tortoise (the human) communicating with the hummingbird (the friendly horse.)

It quickly became apparent that somewhere along the line Mia has missed out on a few of the basics.

The first order of business for Mia?  Got OFF of me.  And any other two legged being.  Your face, your butt, your legs belong no where's near me.  I get to walk into your space.  You get to stay out of mine unless I give you permission.  Right now, no permission.  This is a hard line to make the point.  Later on, when she shows contrition, I will be inviting her in.   

The second order of business?  Just stand there.  Don't fidget forward, don't wander sideways, don't turn around and mosey off.  You've got a little 4' x 8' mat to stand on and I expect you to entertain yourself right there.

Which sounds kind of harsh, put like this!  But it's essential.  Horses are too big to blunder about on top of people, and teaching a horse to just stand there is an excellent, easy way to build communication and gain respect.

The trick is to tell them to stand still just as the thought to move wafts through their head!

And the good thing about a friendly horse is that, (done right!) treats work wonders.

Why the fearful?

When Mia arrived I kind of decided I'd be the one to unload her, so I just took command and did it my way.  (I am maybe a challenging type?!)  Partly it's because I like my way of educating horses about how to get out of trailers by using body language and voice cues to let them know where they are in space and what to anticipate.  It's usually rather successful and avoids a lot of drama and nonsense.

Mia was a bit nervous realizing she was about to unload but no more than usual.  When I jumped in and took hold of the halter and lead she seemed to quiet some as I anticipated.  When I asked her to back, she got a bit nervous again.  When we got to the edge of the trailer, a step down, she kind of tried to lose her mind!  Over-reaction much?  But I held firm and consistent and she then decided just putting her feet on the ground would be ok.   

This is a very typical dynamic with a fearful horse.  

They test the waters a little - how nutty can I be?  Will you get nutty with me?  Or will you remain solid and unfazed?

To be honest, there is a little bit of bluff to it on the part of the handler, but it can't be much.  As a leader, you have to have supreme confidence that it will all be taken care of, so much confidence that it spills over to the fearful horse and the fearful horse is calmed by your confidence.  With a fearful horse, you assume the alpha position -- no debate, no questioning, no equivocation.  You become the supreme authority and they turn into the meek follower.  

On the ground, I noticed everyone was jumpy.  She was jumpy and the people with her were jumpy.  She would walk past them and they would back up.  She would swing her butt and they would back up.  (!)   Now, to be fair, she's a good sized horse and I had only just met her, so I had no real idea why this dynamic was in place.  Still, watching it, I'm thinking, ummm.... not good.

With a fearful horse, if you start behaving in a fearful manner, they kind of take the approach of "OMG!  If YOU'RE AFRAID, it must be REALLY BAD!!!!!"   

And - ok, yes, if you've been around me, you've seen me jump at times, too!   And now that Mia has been here a couple weeks, it's apparent she's a kicker.  When she gets into it with another horse in the field, she takes aim with her back end.    So that could easily explain why other people were getting out of her way.

So here we are back to the boundaries thing, in a lot of ways.  This is not acceptable behavior in a horse.  In fact, if a horse threatens, the only response from the head mare, or the head mare's lieutenant, is to nip that behavior in the bud.  By whatever means are necessary.  She has to be given a set of rules that she isn't allowed to quibble about, and they have to be delivered fair and consistent until she receives them and begins to follow them.  (By the way, these aren't arbitrary, unfair rules -- these are simple etiquette rules!  This is manners 101!)  And it all has to be done in an extremely levelheaded, calm, and consistent manner.   While she might take aim at another horse, she is not allowed to show any aggression towards a person.

Is she challenging? 

There is an odd dynamic going on between her and a couple of the other horses.  I don't think Mia is assuming head mare status but she does seem a bit oblivious at times, and the behavior of both fearful and challenging horses can seem similar.  They both want to do things their own way.  With both of these profiles, the answer is firm, consistent handling.  

In some ways, I prefer challenging because I feel like these horses can be reasoned with.   A scared horse is kind of brainless.  Of course, a challenging horse that has an ax to grind is a pretty special case to avoid, too.

So the problem is ...

With a friendly horse, the attention span is such that the training may have been delivered but never received -- and no-one noticed!   And then there is a very real danger that people seem to be arbitrary and bizarre.  If the handler/trainer is sending messages and the horse isn't paying attention and then the handler/trainer reprimands the horse, it will seem to come out of the blue and for no reason.  It will appear to violate the horses sense of decorum and the handler/trainer will be viewed rather skeptically -- the horse will begin to lose respect for them.

Coupled with a fearful trait, and depending upon the type of reprimands, the apparent randomness of the handler/trainer will feed the distrust and disrespect.  The horse is thinking "Not only are these people random, but they are 'mean' to boot."  To further complicate things, there were some physical issues going on which probably made being ridden rather uncomfortable at times, if not downright painful -- so any riding that was being done was probably really messing with her mind as well.   ie "I want to be friendly, but then these people do these things that hurt me and I can't figure out why....   they really can't be trusted."

If a fearful horse ever truly decides two-legged creatures can't be trusted, then that's a bad day.  When that happens, the last vestige of 'let's play nice' is gone and people are in danger because the horse is now in survival-at-all-costs mode.

The Good News

It is quite apparent Mia has been loved by people!  She has been well fed and well groomed.  The bridle and 'clothes' that came with her are of high quality.  The Mom before me loves her immensely and will continue to keep coming out and seeing her.  Mia still approaches people with high expectations.  She still thinks well of people and wants to engage with them.  This is good news.

She also appears to be able to listen to 'a higher authority.'  Although my first ride on her, she kind of wanted to lose her brains, and it was maybe a little bit of a toss up about whether or not there was any success, the second ride went very, very well.  She was attentive and able to work through what I was asking her to do and also able to realize she was being rewarded for her efforts.  That's all we need to have the beginnings of something great!