Following a suggestion by PersianHorse, Kelly would like contributions for things which could be aimed at explaining to children ( for the IH kids section ) on this topic....
Unfortunately ONE PERSON (she is doing her best as a head of a gang which they are few to put me out of IHDG but I hope she gets what she is looking for and wish her the best of luck she is doing this to many of the member and many have left the IHDG unfortunately)and this person is still putting comments and nasty word into my blog I know who she is but because I honor the members of IHDG and Kelly Marks I wont put her name in this post anyway she did not like my points and started to put the main subject out of track as you all know how it is in an open forum therefore I started it on this Blog because up to my knowledge the topic is important.
I am sure many of you have seen the movie called The Horse Whisperer by the Hollywood actor Robert Redford, in this movie if we observe closely and know the body language of the horse we will realize in the beginning of the movie when the two kids saddle up their horses and start their ride in the snow they reach a road full of trees they cross the road and start going up the hill and that is where all begins the first horse goes up fell down to his knees then coming down hit the other horse and the other horse fell too with it's rider and they both slipping going down the hill into the road then the lorry arrives and goes over one horse and the rider and the 2nd horse stands up in front of the lorry and the lorry hits him this accident could of been prevented if the riders knew the body language of the horse , WHY because the first horse was resisting to go up that hill the rider forced the horse to go up that hill (in the movie it is clear and the poor horse is shouting to the rider that under my feet where you can not see there is ICE and it's slippery because you can only see on the top where the powder snow is but I can tell under the powder snow there is ICE and if I go I will slip and fell down but unfortunately the riders did not know the BODY LANGUAGE of the horse to understand what he/she is saying to them otherwise they wouldn't force the horse to go up that icy and slippery hill) therefore knowing the body language of the horse is crucial and the age of the human to know this language dose not matter as in this movie clearly shown. If they knew the Hors Body Language that accident would not happen because they would listen to their horses and never would go up that hill.
This is a comment by some one about the teaching of Body Language to children:
I do think that some of persianhorse's concepts are more appropriate for adults than children. Arcs instead of straight lines, and circles of security are things that would, I believe, mean very little to, say, a 5 year old. Even an 8 year old would probably struggle (and would some adults, I dare say!). Our concepts must therefore never go beyond a particular child's capabilities and must always remain attainable. Exactly as you would with training your horse. Children also need fun. Without fun, life becomes "boring!". Dry concepts are therefore hard to get across and instead need to be put into an easily understandable context.
Up to my knowledge today's children know things and learn things much better and quicker than us the new generation is amazing I am 47 years of age when I compare myself when I was 10 or 15 to these kids it's amazing how they learn and how much their brain works much better than us when we where their age so they can learn and we must teach them it's us that are behind , it's us that could not catch up with them they are way ahead of us in every way don't you ever forget that.
For Example:
Never walk in a STRAIGHT LINE towards a horse , We should always walk in a CURVE LINE , this gives the horse a chance to observe us completely.
Always be careful.
We must teach them everything .
Dear all Mothers and Fathers:
Always teach your kids the nature of the horse.
The natural environment which the horse lives in and has its own rules the rules of wilderness in that way your kids will learn everything Naturally and Intelligently.
Always tell you children the truth , tell them horses are food for everyone thats why we have to gain their respect and give and take confidence ,tell them our pulses will go through them instantly our behavior and temper will have an immediate effect on horses.
Tell your children that horses see us as predators unless approved otherwise.
Starting relationship , Kid's with Horses.
Listen but with your EYES.
Look and practice looking , YOU HAVE TO PICK EVERY LITTLE MOVEMENT AND INFORMATION FROM THE HORSE AND HIS/HER BODY LANGUAGE, therefor we have to listen to the horse by our eyes.
Always have a CIRCLE of SECURITY for the Horse . What I mean by the circle of security is never touch any part of the Horses body without KNOWING the HORSE and have a DEEP RELATION ,TRUST ON BOTH SIDES , BOND WITH THE HORSE & RIDER AND CONFIDENCE ON YOUR SELF AND YOUR HORSE HAS TO HAVE CONFIDENCE ON YOU (Very Important). More confidence your horse has on you the more confidence horse has about him/her self for SURVIVING IN WILD we have a great responsibility for ourself and the Horse.
Horse always gives us information about how to survive in wilderness the ability which human is not capable of . In OLD time human used much more from now days because in those days the technology was not in todays standards. But still they are (Horses) are much in head of us as personal knowledge , personal Ability and gathering Information.
For Example:
Touch but not without the horse invitation.
Never touch the horse mouth.
When we reach a horse have some space between us .
Never go around a horse when tied from under the tied rope.
When reaching the horse do not look to his/her eyes from the start point of your relationship , Look down into the ground but observe carefully and pick each movement and action , actually you are looking all over his/her body but not straight in eyes (No straight eye contact).
This is only my point of view no one has to do as I say , When I want to teach a child the relation with horses I start as I posted and in future posts.
Actually Monty was only 9 years old I think when he get his first Prize.
When as a mother you take your child with you to your stable therefor your child is with horses whether she/he wants or not so is best to give them the knowledge they need.
I am not talking about riding , jumping , saddling or long lining a horse by a child.
What do you recommend when either a child or a grown up reaches a horse for the first time he/she should go straight up to the horse and touch where ever he/she likes without the invitation of the horse?
What I mean is you never go anywhere which you are not invited , (to a horse).
Boys and Girls touching your horses with an invitation from the horse which is belong to you , how can you tell me if your horses %100 of the one's touched gave the children an invitation , actually you invited them not the horses.
See my Dear Friend we see horses widely differently with each other.
You are talking about a horse that is in your stable with your stable rule.
I look at the horse from my own perspective from my own point of view , I see horses as wild animal which kindly has accepted us in its nature and it has open the door of confidence, trust , and bound with us so it has the right of an individual therefore it has the rights to say I don't want to give a ride today, I don't like to see no one today , I don't want to stay in this black box today.
For the Age I am looking at it first from the horse perspective a human going towards a horse that dose not matter for the horse how old is he/she. This is a human matter and becomes a problem when a mother going to a horse stable the child's that are with her they don't have any age rating they could be at any age. the reason which the horse reacts differently to a child (small objects) is a different matter.
For example I always tell my students to be calm and relax when going to visit a horse or to be with a horse ,to ride or to do anything which got something to do with the horse always be calm.
When you are high tempered never deal with a horse.
When your pulse is high it will have a straight effect on the horse.
Always visit by appointment , never go to a horse without an invitation.
It is our duty to know and realize when we are invited and when we are not invited , even with a domestic horse in your stable because horses like us have different mood in different days.
I have a small class for teaching kids and adults for riding , handling , understanding , bonding , confidence building and establishing trust with horses.
In my class we have %70 of Theoretic and %30 Practical .
1-How could we be NON VIOLENCE towards horses from the first moment.
2-We learn and study the Horse living in its own natural environment.
3-What kind of animal the horse is we have 2 categories 1. The Predators , 2. The Preys .
4-How is the way of life in these 2 categories , especially MENTALLY and PHYSICALLY ?
5-How our temper and mental behavior reflects on horses as fast as a blink of an eye .
6-How do horses communicate with each other in the herd and in their own nature ?
7-How could we communicate with them and how to learn their language ?
8-How could we reach a point to think , act , behave , socialize and in general be a horse in order to understand a horse.
9-We have a horse statue (a horse model) in our classroom.
10-We always teach how to take safety and security in action and how to prevent accidents as much as we can.
11-What we should do in time of danger for example if we are on the horse and another horse gets loss and attacks our horse with a rider on it , what should the rider do as the first action ,then what dose he/she must do as the 2nd action and so on.
12-We teach how to warm up a horse and how to cool down a horse , when is the most crucial moment to unfasten the saddle's girth and how to dry out the horse for stabling.
13-How to feed and give water to a ridden horse (for example we never give water until 2 to 3 hours after unfastening the girth).
14-We take a note of what ever we see and what ever we experience during our 3 months of work and learning , (Taking note is very important for our understanding and our future work).
Each day we take a test from what we have learned the day before.
Each student has a dummy rider which has the name of it's owner.
For 30 days we study all the things I said in above and in these 30 days we never touch a horse in the classroom.
After 30 days we get an examination from the students and at list each student has to get 5 out of 10 points to be proved he/she has the knowledge to get close to horses.
Important Note: There are some students which they don't get the 5 points but I still use them and teach them more and try to use them in different ways in the horse learning and management.
Lets say a student dose not get the 5 points but this student has a lot of patients , I love the kids with PATIENTS and do my best to teach them . These students they don't know it themselves , why I put so much time on them until the end of their session. Horses need people with lots of patients around them .
After the day 30 : We start practically learning from the horse itself.
1-We have learned how to use our eyes instead of our ears to listen to horses now is the time to put it all in practice and observe the actions and translate what ever we see into words in our notebook.
2-We sit for hours and observe the horse and put our thoughts on a note book. One or two experienced horse handlers or riders start doing the things we have teach in the classroom and in the theory sessions , these things that students see from their own eyes its familiar to them they have read it somewhere before.
3-After one month of practicing Intelligent Horsemanship , Observing , touching , doing the horse work like cleaning their boxes , how and when is the best time to give them water , how to feed them , how to clean them and how to prepare their bead for sleeping and how to use the dummy rider.
4-We learn how to examine the saddle , the saddle pad (very important) and everything which belongs to the horse saddling and equipment and how to clean and how to keep them clean.
Now we start our first step into the stirrup.
The last moment and the crucial moment for all of us , (Student dose not know what is our strategy).
If a student is best and done everything perfect but the day he/she wants to go into the saddle he/she is tempered or his/her pulse are too high we stop there and do it the next time (this next time could be in the next hour or in the next day but the first contact with the saddle is very much crucial especially for me as a trainer).
One of the most important exercises which we teach our students from the starting point is to be prepared for all kinds of surprises in the 3 months of training period this means the student must be ready all the time and for all things related to horses and related to what ever he/she has learned in those days , weeks and months.
1st Month is Theory + Practice (The practice and the theory in action from some one else a 2nd person dose all the practice but the student observes from distance ) , Always a instructor is present.
2nd Month is Theory + Practice (Theory in action with horse from the ground but there is no 2nd person like the 1st month but no riding),
Always an instructor is present.
3rd Month is theory + Practice + Riding , (The theory starts in the classroom for one hour , Practice starts in a round pen for One hour, then the last part which is riding for only 10 to 15 minutes ) , Always an instructor is present.
NO hand feeding a horse from no one especially from a child (Kids).
With higher Knowledge and Intelligent of horses we could prevent lots of accidents which are happening in the time which we have no Knowledge or Intelligent what so ever.
To be honest with you guys , I have no child and I am not even married but that dose not mean I am not worried for other peoples children.
The important part is this if any child get a negative experience from a horse in the starting point this is the most negative accident which could happened to me , to the child and the horse itself , therefore we all will be in a bad and unwanted situation.
A child going to school and experience a negative accident in the first day of school what would happen to this child ? would he/she want to go to school anymore for the rest of his/her life ?
When there is less accidents there will be more people going towards learning about horses.
When there is more accidents there will be less people going towards learning about horses.
So as Mr. Roberts says Make the world a better place for horses to live in.
And I say - Make the world an intelligent learning place for humans about horses so people could intelligently live side by side with horses , Happily ever after.
We never say to our kids that we teach horses we always tell them each moment of my life is learning from them .
For training a horse to understand what he/she means and wants at least we have to become half horse . each moment means a lot for the trainer.
Somehow we have to train ourself first , then start the horse.
The Horsewoman(1-Zoe-RA/ 2- Catrin/ 3- Circusdancer/ 4- Eileen/ 5- Casper) of Britain in IHDG (Kelly Marks & Monty Roberts Website) paid and sent me the book : FROM MY HANDS TO YOUR'S written by Mr.Monty Roberts.
Bless you all my dearest friends which I never forget , each time I pickup this book you are in my heart and you always be.
Mr . Roberts says ADRENALINE UP > LEARNING DOWN .
ADRENALINE DOWN > LEARNING UP.
Bless Him and all others which think this way.
PH
1 comment:
Love your blog. Keep up the great work!
Dolores
www.zenhorsemanship.com
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