First time here?

I have a couple of young horses that have no concept of the world outside of the DallyPost Ranch. Today I decided to change that. I loaded these two guys on the trailer and headed for our local rodeo arena.

Tri is a four year old gelding that has been ridden for a couple of years and is a pretty nice horse. He has one problem that is, at times, a bit of a pain. Tri sees goblins in just about everything. In his case, I think this issue is pretty much hard wired into his firmware. If I am right, this is an issue that will be a part of our relationship forever. Dang it!

When I first swung a leg over this guy, I could tell that we had some work to do. His head was up and his eyes and mind were on everything but me. After a bit of flexing, we headed out for our first lap around the arena. As we walked along he saw horse eating fence posts, barrels, bucking chutes and gates. But the worst was the team roping chute. These things have teeth you know.

As we eased closer to the chute, his bravery would reach the breaking point and he would wheel around and try to leave. No problem, I thought, we can go over here and WORK. And work he did.

After thirty seconds or so of strenuous work including rollbacks and backing, I would point him again toward the chute. He would approach as much as he dared and then wheel and leave again to find only work waiting. This process continued for some time. Finally, I noticed that he was trying a little harder to go to the chute. When he reached out and touched it with his nose I thought, Success. A minute later he was standing quietly next to the chute and enjoying a well earned rest. And what do you think I did? Well, I scratched and rubbed and patted and talked and allowed the rest to go quite long. The chute is no longer an issue, in fact, he likes it.

There were a few other really scary things, but since Tri now understood the game, the process became very quick and easy.

So, what did Try learn? Well, first of all, he began to trust my judgment. If I say "it is okay", Tri says "I'll give it a try".

Next was Peppy, green as grass and as quiet as a summer afternoon, or so I thought. Peppy's head was also high when I got on. I think his biggest problem was that Tri was now in a pen behind the bucking chutes and he felt so all alone. Waaaa!

Peppy's big problem was that his anxiety made being calm very difficult. I tried to walk him quietly around the arena. He, however, had all that worry to burn off and did so by continuously speeding up. Each time he broke into a trot, I would slide a hand up the rail side rein and pull his nose to my knee. This, of course, would cause him to grind to a stop. I continued to hold the rein until he stopped his feet and became soft in my hands. This was repeated dozens of times as we made circle after circle around the arena. Finally we made a few laps at a quiet walk so it was time to move to the next level.

Oh sure, he can walk quietly but can he stand? The answer was... "No!". This little horse is a great stopper so I would sit down and say whoa and he would go right to ground but never relax. Within a second of two his feet would be moving again.

Each time he walked away without me asking him to, I would back him hard and fast for fifteen or so feet. He is also an amazing backer so this was kind of fun. Then I would quietly walk him back to the place where I first stopped him and the process begin again. This also continued for a time but soon enough, he was standing quietly for five or six seconds before he would move off. I made those few seconds heaven for him by rubbing, scratching and talking.

With each attempt on his part, the rubdown just got better. Pretty soon I was scratching his ears and down his face. If he had a dogs hind leg, it would have been pumping! From that time on, standing quietly seemed to be the thing he wanted most.

With both of these horses, I did not force them to do the thing I asked. They could refuse and I would allow that. Of course, each refusal resulted in hard work until it became their idea to do what I wanted. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to get a horse to do something when he thinks it is his idea?

On the flip side, have you ever noticed that when you try to force a horse, they just resist all the more? I don't mind fighting with a horse as long as I choose the battle field, set the rules and have the advantage. In both of these cases, instead of trying to make the horse do what I wanted, which would have been impossible as long as they wanted something else, I chose a fight I knew I would win. When they got tired of fighting and loosing, they decided to stand by the chute, walk quietly or stand peacefully. They thought it was their idea so they were willing. I knew that is was my idea so we all won and we were all happy.

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