HI to you all,
- Tell me what you think about the topic please?
- How much the light hands of a woman effects our horses and their trainings?
- How much those light hands effects them while we are working with them specially when the most effective tool (The BIT) is in their mouth?
- Long time ago I put a thread up (in another forum) about Men and Women which could do best in training horses , but unfortunately did not get the right response to go on about the subject, I hope I do here.
- It will definitely benefit you , your horses , their trainings and their daily normal riding, as you all know I am a man myself.
Holding the REINS by light hands,
I will write for you some of what Dr Robert Miller explains on Light Hands in future posts I hope , all the work is done by the fingers and the reins does not go deep inside your hand and you make a fist with the reins in the palm of your hand, the reins should never go deep inside our hands.
Horse are SENSITIVE TO TOUCH.
I am sure the Demo you have seen Jann you would seen the reins are held with fingers and they don't go deep down in the palm of hand and that is important , the lightest touch you could ever give to reins which means the horses mouth , the horses GUM is by the tip of your fingers and also the tool in our hands (Reins) are the most important tool in the horses body.
If we train our horses properly we don't need them the reins I mean but unfortunately we don't everything is done by the weight of the rider as the weight shifts to sides , back and forward .
Horse could feel the touch of a mosquito on their total body.
Unfortunately some riders use reins as maintaining their own stability on the saddle or use it as a handle they don't feel how much pressure they are causing into the horses mouth, if you have a hard bit then it is another story for the poor horse.
Not only for the reins but for all things like Grooming for example , for even our Behavior around horses our own Body Movements , Like picking up our hands or when we want to put a bridle on a horses head, Saddling the horse , putting the rug on. The signals we give and we receive from the horse and specially understanding them in time and signal back in time or if our signals are to be with an action the timing is so important.
I think in all of these the most important one is Handling the reins , On the other hand all of the above is important .
This is where you would see the Light touch of a human:
http://www.lighthandshorsemanship.com/
PH
Hi,
When a foal is born I have a rug ready for him/her that I have made long before the mare delivery time and I put it under the place which the foal comes out, I keep this rug until the last day this foal would accept saddle and finishes his/her training under saddle. Any time I want to work I use that rug , I let the foal smell that rug and that rug would be with him/her until the learning session is over, This makes the foal and the mare more secure and would help the foal to accept each learning session and would accept things with a greater , secure and trusted grounds, the amount of fear and stress would drop in a great value when the foal experience something new.
I hope breeders would try it and see for themselves how much this works and makes the foal accept its environment known , something from the first day of life and has never experience negative from this rug ,
Always let the foal smell the rug before starting the session and place it on the subject you want to introduce to her/him , they would accept everything freely without any resistance.
I am sorry if I take your precious time but I thought to share some of my experiences with you guys.
WORD OF A DEAR READER:
What a very compassionate and sensible way to go. I've never had any dealings with foals, never seen one born except on TV but I think its the same with human babies. My two sons both had "cosy covers" when they were babies and it gave them comfort, so much I thought one son would be about 16 before he out-grew it.
On the web-sit about light hands someone was doing something to a foals ears. What was he doing and why? Wish you all the best,
MY ANSWER,
Rubbing the ears could have two meanings one is to Desensitize the ears and this is very much important for the horse so human could handle their ears especially when you want to bridle a horse if the ears are not desensitized they wont let you to touch them or to move your hand and the touch of the bridle to their ears it would make them to go in a flight position , therefore is best to desensitize their ears for long time handling them .
The other reason is the touch , Horses have different spots on their body which would calm them down for example,
1- Inside the mouth lower gum rubbing the lower Gum and the lip from inside it clams the horse down and the sign of it is when the horse lowers his/her head down.
2- The upper part of the shoulders is another part.
3- The Mane is another important place to calm a horse.
Yes it is a great tool , so handy and TRUSTED TOOL for the New Borne to accomplish without fear and less anxiety while you introduce new things to them during their young age.
PH
Hi,
What is the best Retreat and Reward for a horse?
Taking the pressure off from them in any kind and way. (my view).
When I want to work with a colt I would divide my work to three parts, in the end of each part I would unfasten the girth, Take the saddle and the saddle pad off, put a rug (depending on the weather) on the horse take him/her for a walk , when the breathing becomes normal and still the body is warm I put the saddle back on and fasten the girth and do my 2nd part of my session and I will do the same for the last part of my session also, Some times I don't do the other parts of my session if I see something is going wrong and I would stop right there and END it for the day.
The steps we divide for one session of learning (incremental learning) and it's time has not to be done to the end this is in the hands of the Trainer , Trainer decides when is the right time to work , work on what and when is the right time to end the session and this is important.
I would break a session in different parts and make my steps smaller , sometimes I should finish much sooner than I thought it would take for a session and I should of end it much sooner than what I thought.
I would show them what ever I see in my environment , what ever there is even a magazine well the sound of paper is so important for the horse or sound of plastic and the air coming out of a big ball, The crush sound of a dry bush. Learning the Rope and its shape and feel it with their body from the very first days of life, To introduce each of these I break it to different slices in each one for example if I want to introduce the sound and shape of a plastic pag I would do it in different slices and I might not go to the end in one session (horses are different in learning and have different characters just like human beings).
This is one of the subjects that could help many riders, if we know what to do and when to do it this is the greatest tool (well this tool is a little different with other tools because it is not just a tool it is lots of things combined when we want to Reward a horse by taking pressure off) for teaching and introducing something new to your horse specially the young horses , from the colt going to a well trained horse.
This is the most effective non violent tool for working with a horse at any age , also is a reward for the horse and the greatest of rewards which horse loves and understands in its nature because there is no Advance to be Retreated and Rewarded as we believe horses are flight animal and the most free wild creatures which they are living on lands which has no end in the wild as herds living by voices they only could hear and body language they could tell and survived for around 45 million years , we in prison them by domesticating them.
Work much better than food as treads.
Wish you the best,
PH.
