Movie Horses

There have been a lot of great movie horses - both fictional and true - Black Beauty, Secretariat, Seabiscuit, War Horse etc.

However, it has been hard for animated horses to make the grade. The first that caught my attention was Maximus, the horse in the movie "Tangled." Maximus had a great horse personality and a half-way reasonable horse spirit.

Today Betty and I saw the new Pixar movie "Brave" and thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is interesting, moves well and has a lot of enjoyable characters.

What made it really interesting for me is Merida's horse, Angus. He is much more a real horse than Maximus. Maximus had a great personality, but he was more of a horse caricature. Maximus' horse spirit was captured, but in a funny way - not a real way.

The Pixar artists have finally come close to capturing the spirit of a real horse in Angus - including his joys and fears and how he reacts to both. Plus he's a big, beautiful Clydesdale.

If you want an enjoyable afternoon catch "Brave" but don't spend the extra money for 3D. The 2D is great in it's own right.

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Persistence vs. Insistence

Betty and I worked with Morgunn and Sugar yesterday and today, Thursday. Because of the hot days, we're starting about 7:45 in the morning and working with them for about 45 minutes to an hour. Both Sugar and Morgunn had pretty good days - not perfect - but decent.

We're trying to apply some of the learning from both the clinic I attended and the principles in the books we have just read (and reviewed on this blog in the last week or so).

One key principle from the book is the idea of persistence versus insistence. In the past, we rode with the idea of insistence - insisting the horses do a certain thing based on the cues we were giving them. We didn't realize it, but we were trying to ride with control over our horses. We might have gotten some obedience from them, but not a trusting willingness to work with us.

Persistence is based on the concept of giving the right cues, the cues you want the horse to respond to, and letting him learn how to respond and believing that the horse will eventually figure it out. The concept is not one of control, but one of believing that the horse will learn how to respond to consistent and appropriate cues - and in giving him the freedom to experiment we will develop a willing partner rather than an obedient serf.

Insistence is short-term thinking and action - do it now - whereas persistence is long-term and requires much more patience on our part.

The book we read told how the author, at a clinic, watched Bill Dorrance work with a horse with trailer loading issues. Bill worked with the horse for several hours. During that time, the author said she saw four different times when she would have gotten the horse to step into the trailer, but Dorrance chose not to do that.

At the end of Bill's time working with the horse, he still had not stepped into the trailer. When Dorrance discussed his work with the clinic participants, he said there were several times when he could have gotten the horse to step into the trailer, but that was not his goal. He said his goal was to have the horse feel good about stepping into the trailer when he did.

He never insisted the horse get into the trailer which most people would have said was a good, but short-term, goal. Dorrance persisted with his goal and belief that the horse would eventually load into the trailer and, when he did, he would feel good about it. Definitely a longer-term goal - and one we would all like to achieve.

Achieving long-term goals with our horses require us to give up our short-term, insistent thinking for a longer-term persistence and a whole lot more patience.

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Book Review - Of Life and Horses (2)

About a week ago I did a review of the first book that Ann Nyberg Bradley wrote called Of Life and Horses - The Nature of the Horse. Click here to see that review.

I recently finished the second book called of Life and Horses - Cooperation Through Communication. Whereas the first book focused on better understanding the basic nature of the horse, this book looks at how our understanding of that basic nature can influence how we communicate with the horse.

Again, there is way too much content to get into in just a blog post, so I'll share some nuggets as I did last time.

• From the introduction: Ultimately, the human/horse union is one in which our mind controls the horse's body. ... Some riders will attempt to physically control a horse's body, but he knows how to operate his body far better and more effectively than we do. So, in that sense, if we can convey the idea of what we want then we can let him do it. In that manner our aids can remain light, polite and tactful.
  
• From the chapter on the language of communication: When training a horse, there is a distinction between obedience and willing cooperation. It is possible to obtain obedience and/or submission through force, fear, pain, and/or intimidation, but willing cooperation can only be offered by the horse.
  
• From the chapter on underlying intention and expectations: The most important training tools we possess are our underlying intentions and expecations. They are projected through our body language and are how we communicate with the horse. ... It's important to be aware of the feel you present to a horse all the time, because the feel you present will dictate the response/s you receive.
  
• From the chapter on the flip side of the coin: The rider needs to feel what he wants the horse to do, even when the horse isn't doing it - and especially when the horse isn't doing it.
  
• From the chapter on punishment vs. reward: When people punish (correct) the wrong answer they think they are punishing the horse's behavior, but to the horse it is his try - his attempt - that is being punished. If his try is punished enough, he'll quit trying.
  
• From the chapter on first impulse: In our training, the first thing we need to focus on is the horse's first impulse. That is his very first reaction to what we do, the reaction that occurs in the first instant following a request.
  
• From the chapter on persistence vs. insistence: Insistence is our way of controlling a horse. Too often the feel of insistence from the human is met with opposition in the horse. Persistence has a different feel to it. Persistence is about waiting, accepting what is, making a request for a change, and then waiting for the change to happen. Ironically, we often have more influence over a horse when we give up our notion of controlling him.
  
• Again from the chapter on persistence vs. insistence: Insistence arises from a lack of inner composure, a lack of inner control, and a lack in the belief that we will be able to elicit a change. Persistence arises from an inner place of being okay with whatever is happening in the moment coupled with the knowledge that it can and will change.
  

As with the first book, there is so much more than these small nuggets suggest - feel, drive/draw, dominance and submission, point of view, power over fear, anxiety/tension and release, mind to feet connection, the rein aids, primary and secondary aids, balance vs. counter-balance, resistance and evasion, and more.

This book was as good if not better than the first and I highly recommend it to any person who wants to think deeper about their relationship with their horse.

Monday Video - Flehmen Response

Flehmen response may not be very familiar to non-horse people. It's when a horse curls up its upper lip which exposes that sensitive skin to smells. It's also fun to see.

Here's a video showing a good example of a Flehmen response.

Enjoy.

 

Sunday Reflection - Control

If you read this blog then you know that Betty and I have been working with the horses and with ourselves.

One of our learnings is our human desire to control. It is our nature to want to control our environment, our circumstances, our relationships, our horses - primarily to bring a sense of security. We feel safer if we believe we are in control.

That's why men love to keep the remote control - we feel empowered when we can change the channel and volume at will.

It scares us when we feel out of control of our world and those around us. When we lose a job or a relationship goes bad, it scares us and, in our fear, we often express that fear as anger. It's too bad they don't make a remote control for our world.

Notice that most, if not all, of the things/persons we want to control are exterior to us. The last thing we want to work on is interior control - i.e., self-control. I guess we think the world and people around us need controlling much more than we do.

The problem is the only thing/person we can really control is ourselves. We can try to exert control over our environment, the people in our lives, our horses, but this is deceptive. Control over our exterior world requires force which in reality is dominance.

When it comes to living things - people and animals/horses - dominance through force may bring compliance to our desires/needs, but they respond not out of relationship, but out of fear of the punishment of force.

Another way of saying the same thing is we cannot truly change anyone or anything but ourselves. We can force another person to act in a certain way, but we have not changed them. We have gotten compliance through force, but they have not changed. Yet, we can truly change ourselves if that is our desire.

As a Christian, I have chosen to give control over my life - exterior and interior - to the lordship of Christ. At first that seemed scary because I was so used to trying to control my life. Over time I have learned that this giving of control to Jesus brings a peace that goes far beyond any feeling or understanding. And he has done a far better job of controlling my life than I ever did. I have truly been changed.

Betty and I are learning that giving up our desire to control our horses can bring a peace to them. Christ became our source of peace and security when we fully gave ourselves to him. He never uses force or coercion to become Lord of our life. He gives us space - free will - to make our choice.

We're working on becoming the kind of people whom Sugar and Morgunn can see as their source of peace and security and who will fully and freely give themselves to us. It takes longer, but we need to give them the space to make their choices.

We can force them to behave in a certain way, but we don't have their minds and heart. Just as we have given our minds and hearts to Jesus, we hope to have Sugar and Morgunn freely give their hearts and minds to us some day.

God has been very patient with us and has let us, especially me, figure out what is true and best for us. We're learning to be very patient with our horses to let them figure out what is true and best for them.

 

We Keep On Learning

Yesterday, Friday, Betty and Morgunn had a good day while Sugar and I struggled, especially with her walking through my stop cues. Today, Sugar was a dream, stopping softly at every request while Betty and Morgunn struggled. It's a reminder that, as we've said before, horses have good and bad days just as we do.

The challenge for us is to learn from every riding experience. What can we learn from today, good and not so good, that will help us become better riders? One thing I'm learning is how important it is to try and keep my emotional state on an even keel regardless of the kind of day Sugar has. It was easy for me to get frustrated yesterday and feel really good today. My goal is to feel the same way every day regardless of how she does. Not easy, but it's something for me to work toward as I want to be a source of stability for her.

The other thing I worked on today was my arms and shoulders. I'm pretty sure yesterday as I closed my hands on the reins for the stop cue I was bringing my elbows in which tightened my arms and shoulders and that can affect my whole body, especially my hips and legs. That stiffness on my part may have been the reason she walked through the stop yesterday.

Today, I concentrated on trying to keep my arms and shoulders loose and relaxed even as I closed my hands on the reins. I also worked on keeping my legs down and my hips open so my lower body would be relaxed and would move with her movement.

Sometimes horses can make us feel good and other times very frustrated. The truth is Sugar is not making me feel one way or the other. It's my choice how I feel and I need to stay aware of that for her sake and for mine.

Friday Funny - See, Your Mom Knows What She's Talking About