Respect and Ground Rules

Carl just about sums it up. We try to spend as much time as we can doing meaningful work while they are learning. Dad is a full time dairy farmer and I have a fulltime job, a side business as well as helping on the dairy farm my wife and I have a 60 acre farm. That doesn’t leave much time for extra groundwork. As soon as we get them going at light work we try to find productive jobs that help us get some of our work done while they are learning. While they are working we reinforce their desireable behaviors and skills as well as work through the undesireable quirks that most young horses have. As a result we have some really good horses that we know well. Keep working your team at whatever you have time to do. The more time you spend actually working them will make for a better team/teamster relationship. Good Luck

Carl, could you explain what you mean by sending energy through lead rope to get a horse to yield and back? How do you escalate the energy?
Thanks,
Kristin

For those that want to spend a little more time teaching their animals to yield I have found the rope halter to be a valuable new tool. This halter is constructed with several knots designed to rest on specific pressure points on the horses head. With the addition of a long lead rope there are many diffferent yeilding techiques you can work on.

These techniques were offered to me as a possible solution for a mule that wasn’t working all that well. Pulling on the bit, ground manors not that good , etc. Intially I was resistant because I saw it as ground work for saddle horses and I was a farmer. I saw were you could teach the animal which foot to cross over and lots of other stuff I wasn’t sure applied to farming with horses and mules. Eventually I realized however that my mule was “locking up” everything from her jaw, to her head, neck, and everything else. Rather than try to address this issue with a harness, bridle, bit, and all the rest, I could first address it with just the rope halter and a lead rope.

The first technique I accepted was asking the mule to yield her head to the side with out moving her feet. At first you go around in a circle, but you continually look for any oppurtunity to reward them giving their head to you by giving a little slack. As with any training, as your skill and understanding grows it becomes easier to get the desired results. Over time you are trying to get the animal to yield with the least amount of pressure possible. This is much like what carl described with the tension up a lead rope technique. This one concept of yielding her head was like a revolution for this mule and I have not let her forget it. getting her to yield was the first step in getting her to relax in harness.

Right now I use it to teach an animal to put their head down, lead, back, yield their head to each side and change directions by turning toward me while circleing at a walk. I know for different horses and different activities this is just the tip of the iceberg for this training method. So far this is all I have felt might be useful to my work animals. I don’t spend a lot of time on it, maybe five or ten minutes a day. I don’t want anyone to mistake this for the work we are doing.

In the past I have always been one to get them in harness and then let the training happen. Start with something simple and work your way up. I still believe in that, but now I might use a few minutes with the rope halter for a trainee. It gives them a chance to remember they are paying attention to me know before I ask for something new or expand on what they have done before.

I don’t even know the proper name for these methods if there is one, or who to credit for them, as they were shown to me by a friend. I am sure some one here knows more about it than I do.

It just occurred to me this morning while milking (as always) that I may not have described this exercise quite right, as it is not tension in the rope that I am trying to describe.

A parable if I may; Many years ago I had a mare (still do, 22 years since) who was pretty bossy, and before me had been pushed around a lot by humans trying to dominate her. I used to say “you can put a piece of paper under every foot at the same time”. She just hovered.

At the same time there was an older man, well respected horseman, Floyd Fuller, who in his retirement traveled around the region floating horses teeth. As this mare was new to me, I thought she should have her teeth attended to. It was the first time I had met Floyd. He was 80ish (+/-), and an unassuming man with a generous and gentle demeanor. I had a healthy dose of apprehension about his being successful. She was in cross-ties (not all that restraining) and he just approached her, looked her in the eye, placed his hand on her nose, and gently slid the floating rasp into her mouth and started working off the sharp points.

I was astounded. I had know idea how he had done that, but I saw it happen. In fact he had done it to me too. My presence couldn’t have been anything but unhelpful, as I was convinced that she was going to explode. It was entirely through his presence that he was able to project to her his intension, and his capability, and his trustworthiness. I was bowled over with awareness, unable to describe it, or even understand it, but absolutely aware of it.

If you think of humans as energetic beings, we are emitting energy at all times. Some people may refer to this as an Aura, but it is also presence, demeanor, and attitude. If you can think of the energy being emitted from your body as having impact on those other energetic beings around you, then you may be able to imagine energy as an appendage, like an arm, that you can control, to have specific impact on others around you.

We do a lot of this involuntarily, like being shy, or angry, or amorous, or submissive. Because we have been trained to be so dependent on spoken language, we rarely understand the messages we are actually conveying through the energy of our body language.

The way this relates to the lead rope exercise is that energy vibrates. It travels in waves. Like sound waves, etc. The lead rope becomes the manifestation of the energy that you are emitting. When the rope is slack, and you are completely relaxed you are holding your energy, and not affecting anyone else, including the horse. As you wave the rope, you are sending energy waves up the rope directly at the horse. Low energy waves do not affect the horse, but as you put more and more energy into the waves, getting bigger and faster, your energy will begin to impact the horse. At a certain point your energy will be more than the horse is willing to resist, and they will move back.

You have shown the horse that you have control of your energy by escalating slowly, by concentrating that energy on that horse, and by immediately stopping when the horse yielded. This is communicating at the most basic level, body language. As you continue this exercise the horse will observe you increasing your intension, and will learn that it is safe for them to yield at even a very low level.

As I wrote before, the side effect is that you can also learn, by practicing the feeling that is the foundation for the body language that you emit. This feeling will become the presence that you carry with you, and the horses, cows, dogs, people around you will all respond to it.

The reason that I like this exercise, and I don’t do it a lot, is that I don’t have to touch the horse, or give any commands, or try to direct the horse in any way. It is pure and simply a demonstration of comfort, control, and communication. It has been the foundation for me in the way that I approach my horses. I think that I have a sense now of what Floyd projected to my mare. I can assume a presence that says I am here, I have intension, I am more determined than you, I am safe, and I am trustworthy, all at once.

This is not to say that I have nothing but success, this is not the case. However, the basis for constructive communication is well laid.

I think that it is important to recognize that in all of these different training techniques, the result should not be measured in how smoothly the animal crosses over, or follows, or yields, but how they perceive the teamster. Carl