Well it was time off work, but more frustrating than relaxing. I have been flying in two UK National gliding championships. Both nine days long, the first at Lasham and that second at Husbands Bosworth. In the first competition we flew one day out of the nine, and in the second we flew 3 days. With the UK June now on course to be the wettest in 100 years I guess I should be grateful we flew that much.
Back to the horses now, with some fun flying sprinkled in.
Just to add to my frustration Ritchie spent two of those weeks at James Roberts with Bonitao. She had a great time with really good fun evenings as well. Now she had come home promising that me that I need to get really fit to cope with emulating what she has been learning. I will of course report on progress, including aches and pains.
At Shana I have had the opportunity to play with several horse new to me in the last month or so. It has been a real education to play with an ex riding school horse. He had learnt that he could push folks around as I guess lots of the students were less than effective, even frightened of him and had allowed themselves to be moved by him. The snag is that to overcome this propensity I have had to be quite firm. Remember that the "Attitude of Justice is Effective" so if the horse applies phase three pressure to me I can apply phase 3 1/2 straight back. This can be more pressure than an owner may wish to apply, after all they love the horse, but it is the amount they need at the time and gets the message across. If you can't go there then it may take many more applications of gentle pressure to achieve the same result during which time the horse continues to display unwanted or even dangerous behaviour.
Note I do NOT use the words "bad" behaviour or "naughty". I truly believe that if we let those words even enter our minds our natural behaviour as human beings rises to the surface and we start to act with the intention of punishment. In addition horses are just displaying behaviour that they feel will get them through the day a) alive and b) with as little discomfort as possible. As Mark Rashid puts it horses are just trying to find a way "to feel better" and will trial all sorts of behaviour to achieve those goals.
This is why I prefer to use the term "unwanted" behaviour, my aim then being to modify it into "desirable" behaviour.
Punishment is never effective when dealing with horses. Setting things up so the horse finds the correct behaviour and is rewarded for it by a release of pressure is far more effective. To an extent this is what separates Natural horsemanship from poor Traditional horsemanship.
I have had it reported that not only is this horse now easier to handle, but is also much more relaxed in himself. I suspect that he was looking for a leader to keep him safe and in the absence of one had felt he had no alternative but to reluctantly step up to the plate himself. Now human leadership has been re-established he feels more secure and has the weight of leadership taken off his shoulders.
Back to the horses now, with some fun flying sprinkled in.
Just to add to my frustration Ritchie spent two of those weeks at James Roberts with Bonitao. She had a great time with really good fun evenings as well. Now she had come home promising that me that I need to get really fit to cope with emulating what she has been learning. I will of course report on progress, including aches and pains.
At Shana I have had the opportunity to play with several horse new to me in the last month or so. It has been a real education to play with an ex riding school horse. He had learnt that he could push folks around as I guess lots of the students were less than effective, even frightened of him and had allowed themselves to be moved by him. The snag is that to overcome this propensity I have had to be quite firm. Remember that the "Attitude of Justice is Effective" so if the horse applies phase three pressure to me I can apply phase 3 1/2 straight back. This can be more pressure than an owner may wish to apply, after all they love the horse, but it is the amount they need at the time and gets the message across. If you can't go there then it may take many more applications of gentle pressure to achieve the same result during which time the horse continues to display unwanted or even dangerous behaviour.
Note I do NOT use the words "bad" behaviour or "naughty". I truly believe that if we let those words even enter our minds our natural behaviour as human beings rises to the surface and we start to act with the intention of punishment. In addition horses are just displaying behaviour that they feel will get them through the day a) alive and b) with as little discomfort as possible. As Mark Rashid puts it horses are just trying to find a way "to feel better" and will trial all sorts of behaviour to achieve those goals.
This is why I prefer to use the term "unwanted" behaviour, my aim then being to modify it into "desirable" behaviour.
Punishment is never effective when dealing with horses. Setting things up so the horse finds the correct behaviour and is rewarded for it by a release of pressure is far more effective. To an extent this is what separates Natural horsemanship from poor Traditional horsemanship.
I have had it reported that not only is this horse now easier to handle, but is also much more relaxed in himself. I suspect that he was looking for a leader to keep him safe and in the absence of one had felt he had no alternative but to reluctantly step up to the plate himself. Now human leadership has been re-established he feels more secure and has the weight of leadership taken off his shoulders.
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