Working with horses…leadership vs agendas

[whoamule]

Jennifer, Your trip to Quebec City sounds awesome! In skijoring, you tow from the saddle horn, right? A friend of mine drags his seven year old son behind his horse over little jumps behind a walking horse gelding. Your horse is a cross of Arab and what? In response to your question of ‘happy horse vs. agenda” I say AGENDA trumps. Sometimes my livestock and I come up agaisnt some rough jobs. In my working life I’ve always had to buckle down and get the job done. One of my first jobs as a teenager involved scraping chicken manure out from under laying hen cages. Am I going to wimp out and mollycoddle my livestock? I think not.
Being more stubborn than my mules ( and they know it) I always manage to cajole them into working through the difficulty, of at the least making an effort in the right direction before calling it a day. I don’t subscribe to the ‘dog obedience school’ style of training, where your animal will obey you ‘if it happens to FEEL like it’ . The way I look at it, I give my beasts a good life. Good feed, medical care, entertainment, hair care, pedicures. I don’t feel like an abusive meany to ask them to WORK for a living. There will be consequences for disobedience as well as rewards for compliance. That’s discipline. It’s not a bad thing. There are plenty of times we go on rides that are fun for the beasts. If every outing isn’t a walk in the park for my horses and mules, that’s life! I’m sorry to hear that you’ve decided not to return to the fair. If your arab cross is anything like a mule he will have learned that Quebec, while being nervewracking, didn’t kill him……. I like Neitche’s angle: “that which doesn’t destroy us sacks us out better”… or something like that, ….. anyway, your horse lived through the experience, maybe he will be better next time. Thanks for sharing your adventure and concerns,
ed

[jen judkins]

@whoamule 8156 wrote:

Jennifer, Your trip to Quebec City sounds awesome! In skijoring, you tow from the saddle horn, right?

From the cantle, actually…though there are some leagues that use the horn. Its alittle less stable with the horn, as the saddle can easily get pulled over.

@whoamule 8156 wrote:

In response to your question of ‘happy horse vs. agenda” I say AGENDA trumps. Sometimes my livestock and I come up agaisnt some rough jobs. In my working life I’ve always had to buckle down and get the job done. One of my first jobs as a teenager involved scraping chicken manure out from under laying hen cages. Am I going to wimp out and mollycoddle my livestock? I think not.

I appreciate your feedback. I agree that sometimes a job needs to be done….but not all serve a sufficient purpose to make it mandatory. Skijoring is my agenda and although we won alittle money in Quebec, it wouldn’t hurt for me to go without my horse, help with the event and enjoy Quebec. For me that is the new agenda:rolleyes:

[Rod44]

I agree about parades. There is so much that could go wrong. I only do one parade a year and that is an all horse parade in the neighboring town. There isn’t quite the commotion and not as much starting and stopping as the normal parade. I get myself worked up and the horses feel it too through the lines.

[near horse]

Parades – here’s a quick story on what can happen.

A local guy used his team to haul the grand marshall(s) – in their 80’s – in a small town parade. It was a Memorial Day event so they parade string had to stop while they played Taps on a bugle and gave some speeches in front of a memorial. Well his horses started to get antsy (first time out that season) and wouldn’t stand still. Then they began rearing up, shaking the wagon all to heck – grand marshalls are hanging onfor dear life – finally they abandon ship – The teamster finally decides to unhitch his team (in mid parade string) and ground drive them down a side street away from the commotion to “cool their jets”. I think they calmed down and were able to hitch back up to the wagon after the parade had already moved on. That kind of stuff makes me not want to take my team out in the public arena.

[TBigLug]

@Joel 8335 wrote:

Good example of why one should practice, practice, practice.

Here is an example of what can happen in BFE. I was mowing in a 40 ac field in BFE. Couple of fighter jets from Whidbey Island had just finished “bombing” the Hood River bridge & were on their way to the range over by Boardman. They went by about 200′ off the deck going real fast right over us. Horses just kind of laid their ears back.

If one is going to do parades than practice at home. Play LOUD music. Have some children dart out from the side toward your horses.

Yrs ago a helicopter landed about 50′ from a stud colt I had. What a training opportunity. He just looked at it.

If one is working in the woods with your horses run a chain saw near them BEFORE you go skidding.

Think about one may be exposed to then create the scenario in the comfort of the home place.

We call that desensitization training. Heather rode for and trained the mounted dividion for years. You should see some of the training they did so that the horses wouldn’t be spooked during a crowd control exercise.

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