Expert

Yesterday I had a young sales clerk inform me that NO ONE is truly an expert at anything.
I have to admit that triggered my geezer mode.

I figure when there's a group of a hundred people who know something about a subject and one person in that group knows more than the other ninety nine the expert hat can rest on that head.

After spending all my life studying horses I think I'm entitled to wear the "expert" label. I remember the comment my very first riding teacher made though. She was in her seventies and one of the best in her field but she said, "The more I learn about horses the less I know." I keep it in mind.

I certainly know what she meant. I know a lot about horses, but now I look out over a vast body of knowledge and realize that, as much as I know, there is far more I don't know about horses and, furthermore, will never know. Still I'll claim that "expert" title because I feel like I've darn well earned it. I will continue to learn even though I know I'll never know all there is to know about horses.

Ain't Gonna

This morning Star decided she was not going out to pasture. She balked in the gate and refused to move forward. This also blocked all the other horses as well.

Now, there are different levels of balking, or refusing to move. One is caused by human impatience. You don’t take time to remember the cycle of; from your brain to your muscles, to the horse’s muscles, to the horse’s brain, back to its muscles, back to your muscles, to your brain. This is a LONG chain of events and most people forget to allow for it. In other words, you did not allow enough time for all the information to be processed and acted upon. The horse did not balk, it just didn’t have enough time to do what you ask. Slow down.

There is the case of the true balk, but only for a moment. Something happens that the horse needs to study before deciding whether or not it should proceed. A good horseman will acknowledge the horse’s concerns before proceeding with the task.

Then there is the balk where the horse says it absolutely will not go where it is being asked to go. This calls for some serious thinking on the part of the handler. Is the horse justified in refusing to go? Are you asking your horse to do
something it cannot do? Are you asking your horse to do something YOU cannot do? All of these questions need to be reviewed before taking any drastic action.
If the horse truly is balking for no apparent good reason then the first action should simply be to attempt to untrack your horse, i.e. move one step to the side, then one step to the other side, until the horse moves forward.

The last and most serious type of balking is the most dangerous. All prey animals have a mode where they shut down. They cannot process any information. This seems to be nature’s way of dealing with the cruelty of being eaten while still alive. When a horse hits this mode you had best get away from it and wait until it comes out of this particular mode.

As quickly as possible, make certain you have some control of your horse, get the reins over its head and go to the end of them (be sure you are off to the side, not in front of the horse). If it’s in an enclosure of some sort tie the reins out of it’s way and get away from the horse. Some horses will just suddenly come back, shake themselves off, and be ready to continue. However, there are horses that will explode wildly out of this mode, and begin fighting for their lives. You do not want to be near the horse that does this.

If your horse has displayed such a behavior you need to review what you were doing. It is important to determine how to make certain you don’t stress your horse so much that it feels as if it is being “eaten alive”. In other words, you need to learn how to stop acting like a predator.

The reason Star was balking? A neighbor's dogs were in the pasture and she wasn't going out there until they left. Lucky for them as her usual mode for dealing with dogs is to roll them up and play soccer with them.

Cheese with that whine?

Today was going to be a whinney post about busted pipes, but then a friend sent me a wonderful email about a pony named Molly.

Molly is a survivor of Katrina with an amazing story. Pam Kaster wrote a book called Molly the Pony, that is now available. I think it is going to be a best seller.

Molly is an example to anyone going through incredible difficulties. She just keeps going and others, seeing her perseverance, take heart.

Her story reminds me of a little Tuxie cat we had that got hit by a car. The vet didn't think much of his chances of regaining control of his back legs and tail, but Taz kept trying. Each day he would try to do a little more and eventually he fully recovered from his accident. It was amazing to watch and gave all who saw him lessons in taking things one day at a time and doing what you can when you can.


Lazy Trainer Tip

Our animals can teach us a lot about moving forward instead of just giving up and wallowing in the past.

Pep Talks

If yesterday’s blog seemed aimed at writers more than animal trainers that’s because it was. Specifically this writer. I need reminders that many projects are not going to be accomplished in one day or even one year. I need the occasional pep talk to keep me on track.

Currently I’m working on an equine version of Marley and Me with Doc as Marley. This is going to take awhile. I already have about a quarter of the first draft done. I tend to begin a book with a vague idea that I jot down on an index card. I add index cards as more ideas present themselves. I try to have only one idea/scene per index card. Usually a book takes about 100 index cards; give or take a few.

Once I have my cards I put them in some sort of order and create an outline on my computer. The outline is a little more detailed than the index cards and gives me a better idea of how the narrative is going to flow.

This is somewhat how I deal with training animals. I acquire the horse, dog or cat, i.e. idea. I then spend some time observing it and learning its personality. Usually I give a horse or dog a week to get used to its new environment. I keep it in a stall or pen so it won’t get into trouble and has a chance to see how things work between us and the other animals. New cats are also kept separate from the clowder, but it usually takes longer for them to settle in and be comfortable with the new life.


Once an animal has settled in I begin with a grooming session. As I’ve mentioned before this translates with horses to “I’m the leader.” I’m not sure exactly how this works with dogs, but I do know things go better once a dog accepts my right to groom him. As we go through grooming I find all the areas the animal isn’t comfortable being handled and begin to work on these. This may take minutes or months, but I keep going.

My usual pattern for training sessions with animals or people is to begin at the beginning and keep going forward until a problem shows up. That is where the day’s training/work session begins. Over the years I’ve discovered I have to do things slightly differently when I’m writing; especially when I am writing a book.

I cannot allow myself to review previous material too far back (in fact I try to set things up so I only see the last paragraph I wrote the day before) or else I’ll be rewriting before I’ve finished writing my first draft. Down this road lies confusion, aggravation and unfinished manuscripts, so I try very hard not to do it anymore.

First draft first; THEN rewrite. I make notes about potential changes as I go and use different color text so I know when I begin my rewrites that this is a particular area that needs work.

When training horses (or dogs for that matter) I had to learn to keep moving forward. Doing the same thing over and over hoping for perfection led to the opposite result. Finally a dressage instructor gave me an important key to the problem. She said, “Once you get fifty on something, move on. Staying there will only lead to boredom and frustration. Moving on to the next thing will result in improving the previous exercises.”

If you are wondering about the significance of a fifty—when taking a dressage test the score is determined on a scale of zero to ten. Tens are so rare anyone getting a ten frames the test and puts it where everyone can see it. Sixty and seventy is good enough to win gold.

Lazy Trainer’s Tip

When you and your horse have a good feel for the task, move on to the next one. Warm up and cool down will be sufficient to keep the previous lessons fresh and on the road to improvement.

Free

That cute little mare in the photo came free with several other minis. All of them are nice animals and well cared for, but before it is over they will cost my friend a significant amount of cash as well as time and effort.

As a kid I’d have been thrilled if anyone offered me a free horse or pony. It never happened. Now I have people approach me on a regular basis wanting to do just that. Because of past experience I look that gift horse in the mouth every way I can. I’ve learned there is not only no such thing as free, but a free animal can cost you more than if you went and bought one outright.

Case-in-point Our last “free” animal cost us over five hundred dollars before we’d had her a week. We acquired her this way:

We went out for a nice Sunday drive in the Texas Hill Country. For those of you unfamiliar with Texas that is, roughly, an area west of I-35 that extends north from San Antonio to the Dallas/Fort Worth area and west to the Edwards Plateau and Staked Plains. We had a nice drive and stopped at a rest area to check out the view.

There was a young black and white kitten. I judged her to be about 16 weeks old and she wanted to approach us, but was terrified. We went back to the nearest town and got a big box (we were driving our new car and did not have a crate in it yet) as well as some cooked chicken.

Cooked chicken is something cats and dogs find irresistible. I carefully lured her close with the chicken and Larry grabbed her and stuffed her in the box. But not before she laid his hand open.

It was a good thing we’d been given a full “tour” of our new car and knew about the first aid kit because we needed it. Her back claws really did a number on his hand.

We eventually named the kitten Kewtie Pi (she’s an engineer's cat after all) and she is a very loving little girl now that she's recovered from her scare of being out in the big outdoors.

Lazy Trainer’s Tip

Check offers of free animals carefully. Sometimes, as with the kitten, you just have to take an animal. If you have a choice though be as choosey as if you were putting down big bucks for the animals. Because, one way or another, you will be.

Just what IS lazy?

I thought about this question after watching a woman and her dog in one of the pet allowed stores get in a major battle over whether or not the dog was going to get to keep a bag of dog bones it grabbed. It was a pretty good sized dog and it took several minutes for her to get the bag back. Just out of curiosity I kept following the pair and watching the show.

Now a lazy dog owner would have taken a different path to resolve the various issues. Some, the truly lazy, would never take their dog into such a store anyway. Another type of lazy would put the dog in a basket and push it around.

A smart lazy, the kind I am and advocate, would stop the problem before it got going. A quick correction when the dog first looked (a dog looks with its nose first incidentally) at the shelf of goodies would have kept the whole ruckus from happening.

Something I had to teach my students over and over again is that you can’t just sit on a horse hoping it will behave. You have to take an active part in the process and the quicker you get active the less work you’ll have to do and that is being smart lazy.

This is a pretty good plan to follow with children, employees, dogs, horses or any other being you are in charge of. See the problem and take steps early on to redirect. Don’t just wait and watch, hoping the wreck won’t happen.

Incidentally the wait, watch, hope strategy is really unfair to all concerned. When you do this it takes a LOT more effort to correct any problems and can leave the one corrected feeling confused and abused; which then sets up a whole new round of problems.

Lazy Trainer’s Tip

When you see the very first hint of a problem take action right THEN and THERE. An huh-huh, a tiny sideways tug on the leash, a stop of the hands on the reins or the seat in the saddle, can keep a tiny problem from becoming a major one and will not cause the resentment a bigger correction can.

Voices

I love to watch Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe has a wonderful voice, thanks to his training as an opera singer. I also have to admit that when watching him deal with horses I frequently end up laughing myself silly.

Last night I was watching him handle a group of draft horses and was amused at both his body language and his voice. While trying to lead four Belgium horses (he called them Percherons, but if you want to know what a Percheron really looks like look at Doc's picture) he tried to slow them down and stop them by repeating whoa in an increasingly higher tone of voice. The body language alone was enough to cause the horses to ignore him, but add the voice and you were assured those horses were not going to regard him as anyone to take seriously.

When I was a teen I thought I wanted to be a vet. It was the wrong time because women were not allowed in vet school; which was a good thing in my case. While I’m very good at dealing with animals I’m lousy when it comes to dealing with humans. A vet has to be good with humans as well as animals.

Nevertheless, I got a job in a vet clinic while I was in high school and learned a lot there. One thing I learned was the importance of quiet confidence when it comes to handling any animal, regardless of species.

An early example of this was the day a woman brought her Peke in for his annual check up and shots. When the little guy strutted into the examination room I said "Hi, kiddo," and reached down, grabbed him firmly and hoisted him onto the table. Everyone, the Doctor included, gasped. It seems this particular dog had quite a reputation for biting.

I’ll have to confess here that I had an advantage concerning this particular dog. He was one of my mother’s breeding. I knew how he’d been started out and his basic temperament so I had confidence that he was a sensible dog. Which he was, he’d just been allowed to think he was top dog in his household and took full advantage of it. When confronted with a person who knew better he was perfectly willing to behave.

That absolute confidence is what every animal trainer needs in order to handle animals safely. Without it even a Chihuahua can control the human. With it a human can control an elephant. The confidence has to come from knowledge and skill. But we humans like to use our voices. We are a very vocal species. We can use this tendency either in a right way or wrong way.

It is necessary to learn how to “read” an animal and its body language. Dogs are fairly easy because they are predators and humans are predators. We have a common language that we can use. Horses are difficult because they are strictly prey animals and have a vested interest in doing just the opposite of what we want them to do.

One of the first things I always tell students is “Everything you want to do naturally is wrong.”

In working with horses we have to completely retrain ourselves in order to gain a horse’s trust and cooperation. This takes years of effort and practice. Gaining that absolute confidence is a long journey and there are more than a few pit falls along the way.

None of this is to say you can handle dogs without making the effort to acquire knowledge and practice skills; because you must learn how to meet their needs and communicate in a manner the dog can understand in order to have a successful partnership with your canine companion.

One huge mistake a lot (really most) people make with both dogs and horses is using a high pitched voice. The reason this is so wrong is because among horses high pitches signal danger and distress. Dogs have a different take on a high pitched voice. To them this is the sign of a prey animal they can take down. As you can see the reactions of horses and dogs are opposite, but the result is bad for humans in both cases.

Low pitches to horses are friendly. These are the pitches used among companions, mares and their foals, a stallion to a mare. Low pitch is good.

Likewise low, calm pitched voices are good with dogs because this doesn’t rev their hunting and killing drives.

In addition to low-slow speech is also a good thing. Animals have lightening quick reflexes and the more you can slow these down the easier it is to handle your horse or dog.

Lazy Trainer’s Tip

About the most important thing you can do when around animals (besides using correct body language) is always use a low pitch when speaking. Practice using the lowest pitch you are capable of until it becomes second nature when you are in the presence of a horse or dog.

Don’t forget to add slow to this practice as well. While body language is how both dogs and horses really do most of their communicating they do use some vocalization and we can take advantage of this by keeping the low and slow mantra in mind.

Beginnings

I trained my first horse from scratch in the summer of 1964. I was 16 years old at the time.

For many years after I focused on all the things I did wrong training that colt, but now, forty-four years later, I can look back and see alot of things I did right.

One important thing I got right was training the colt to have good grooming and ground manners. At the time I was riding some good horses, including a California Spade Bit horse. For those of you who don’t know about this type of training this is the equivalent of an upper level dressage horse. The horse is started in a bosal hackamore at age four and finished at eight, finished meaning ready to carry a spade bit. The critical word here is carry. A properly trained spade bit horse has a mouth that is so sensitive and delicate that you can ride it using silk thread as reins. The real key is you use your seat and legs to give the signals.

Maybe it was being raised by people who raised dogs, but one thing I noticed at even that early age was the fact that many horses were excellent riding horses, but had terrible manners when handled from the ground. Some to the point of being dangerous. I saw one friend get her leg broken by one of these ill mannered horses and knew of a young woman who was killed when her horse lashed out and kicked her in the head. It seemed to me at the time it was just as important to teach good manners when you were handling the horse on the ground as it was for the horse to be well-mannered under saddle. I had no idea of just how right my idea was.

That almost perfect California Spade Bit horse was so bad about having his feet handled that there wasn’t a good farrier in San Antonio who wouldn’t charge extra to shoe him. I knew how much importance my mother, grandfather, and uncle placed on good manners while being groomed. I didn’t understand why horse trainers didn’t have the same standards.

When I found a book by Margaret Campbell Self I discovered someone who did place importance on good ground manners. In fact, when I trained my first horse I did so consulting her book every step of the way. That was one of the smartest things I ever did with horses. I still recommend that anyone just starting with horses find her books, read them, and take her words to heart.

I still didn’t realize just how critical good manners while being groomed were when I wrote an article for Horse and Horseman magazine in 1987. Side note here, this was Doc’s first official modeling job. He was two and I was just beginning his training. We used him as the demo horse in the pictures that accompanied my text. I got a lot of comments about his size.

It was another eight years before I finally realized the critical factor in grooming. Horses groom one another. Everyone is familiar with the picture of two horses standing nose to tail scratching one another.

What took me so long to realize was that grooming among horses isn’t just a mutual friendship thing. Grooming is a way of establishing rank. Only a higher ranked horse can start the grooming session. What Parelli likes to call the Friendly Game is actually a game of dominance. This dominance begins a few minutes after they are born when their dams (mothers) begin licking them and nipping at them to get up and get moving.

If your horse will not accept grooming with good manners it is because the horse thinks it has a higher rank than the person doing the grooming. Having to cross-tie a horse is a sign that the horse does not consider the human to be in charge.

When meeting a horse for the first time it is important to be quietly confident and to be the one to initiate the first physical contact. The act of reaching up and rubbing a horse’s neck is establishing your right to be in charge. In a horse that is absolutely convinced it is superior to all humans this simple gesture can provoke a reaction such as a lightening fast bite or kick. So don't assume "petting" is a safe thing to do to any horse you meet.

If the horse you are working with does not have impeccable grooming manners then you need to seriously work on this. You need to play that Friendly Game until the horse will accept your touch anywhere on its body with any object you choose. Anything less is not enough.

Lazy Trainer’s Tip

If there are any problems with grooming your horse then that is where you need to begin your work with your horse. Start by rubbing your horse with your hands and do not use anything else until it will accept you touching all part of its body. If you have problems please consult my book How to Have a Civilized Horse for detailed instructions about how to resolve these issues. There are links at the bottom of the page to my books.

Oops

Forgot the Lazy Trainer's tip.

Learn what is really important to the animal you are dealing with. For horses comfort, play and a safe enviroment are critical. They need a herd and a secure place within that herd. They need to move. In the wild a herd will travel a sixty mile loop in a week. That's a far cry from a few hours in a paddock or an hour ride.
Dogs need to move. They need to know their place in the pack. They need to know the one that is in charge will meet their needs.
Other animals will have similar yet different needs. Meeting these basic needs will enable you to be a better trainer with far less effort.
I wish I didn't have to say this, but I know I do--be sure your animal has adequate amounts of water and food as well as suitable shelter.

Some Definitions of Leader

The Encarta Dictionary offers some of the following definitions of what a leader is;
1. Someone people follow
2. Someone in the lead
3. Someone in charge

I’ll add the definition most of us pick up in our first years in school
4. First in line

Notice that the idea a leader should be trustworthy is not included. Yet that is the very foundation of being a leader of a herd of horses or pack of dogs. It is also critical to cows and goats. I do not include other animals because I have not had a chance to observe group interactions as I have with these animals.

A common mistake a lot of people make is that control and leading are the same things. They are not. Most of us want control of our immediate environment, but we don’t want to be the one responsible for everybody else. This is okay. Too many leaders can lead to chaos as anyone who has dealt with two alphas (i.e. leader types) in a group of animals can attest. Something many don’t realize is that among horses two omegas can cause just as much chaos. I’ll do a blog on that later.

I was raised as an only child among older adults. I saw my cousins a couple of times a year and occasionally played with a little girl that lived several blocks away from me. I had no skills in dealing with groups of other children when I went to school.

We started in first grade back in those days. I was a leading baby boomer so the class was large—about thirty children. Further more I was the only one who spoke English for the first couple of months. Everyone else in class spoke Spanish. They also had lovely, straight, black hair, large brown eyes and beautiful tanned skin that didn’t burn to a bright red when they stayed out in the sun for fifteen minutes. I had curly light brown hair, green eyes and the pale hide that burned.

I was raised by people who were accustomed to dealing with animals. The closest thing I had to a sibling was my mother’s stud dog, a Pekingese with the kennel name of Pug, and a cat of my grandmother’s. My grandmother had been a horse trainer in her youth (someone had to teach horses to wear sidesaddles and not spook at skirts) and kept a few chickens even in the heart of San Antonio, Texas, which is where I grew up. Animals I knew. My perception of people was they were big and wanted me to stay out of their way.

My first grade teacher decided I was going to be a “leader” because I already spoke English. I wanted to learn Spanish so I could talk to the other kids. Because of this we all got in trouble. The other kids decided I was not a good leader because they got a lecture on the main rule, which at the time was, “Spanish is not allowed at any time during school.”

What they didn’t know was I got taken to the principal’s office and my grandmother (my primary caregiver) called in to deal with my disobedience. Because I spoke English I was some how supposed to know better than to break the RULE!

The next thing that happened was later in the year when I won a spelling contest. By then there were several other children in the class who were not Mexican American. One was Chinese American and the other three were like me, northern European and/or British mutts.
Just in case you haven’t figured it out I know very well what it is to be a minority. It wasn’t fun.

Back to the spelling bee. I won it and got a mechanical rabbit for my prize. When I got back to my table the girl who was my best friend declared, “I hate you. I wanted that rabbit and I’m never going to speak to you again.”

Forever was ten minutes, but I never won another contest. In fact, I decided third place was a good safe place to be. No one gets too upset if you place third. Any first place prizes I acquired after that were by sheer accident.

That was also when I decided being a leader meant having a big bull’s
eye painted on your back.

It was twenty years before I connected that what I was doing with animals was leadership and that I could use the same techniques with humans.

Being the leader does not just mean being first. It can mean being the one who knows which direction to take. Call it being the navigator if leader is an uncomfortable title. The leader/navigator of a herd or pack is the one that knows where food, water and safety is. They know where they are supposed to go and what to do when they get there. The one that knows these things will be the real leader even if they are in the middle of the herd.

When watching a herd of horse the way to determine the lead mare is not by who is first in from pasture, but which horse all the others turn to when something out-of-the-ordinary happens. That is the true leader of the herd. The true lead male (who can be a gelding) is the one that gets between the herd and danger.

So, being the leader to you horse or dog means; knowing how to meet the needs of your animal, keeping it out of trouble and protecting it when danger threatens. It isn’t about being the one who yells the loudest or beats up on others. It is about knowledge and protection. It is also an excellent way to take care of your family.

Once I realized those points I sometimes did allow myself to be the leader of a group of humans as well as an animal leader. Sometimes a group needs someone to pick a direction and when someone does that person tends to end up leading the group.

There are a lot of bad leaders in our world. They are all about being first and doing things for themselves. We don’t need that kind of leader any more than a herd of horses or a pack of dogs does. We need superior navigators who will guide the group and protect it.

This is what we need to be to our animals. We take them into our lives and unnatural circumstances therefore it is up to us to teach them the rules and guide them to the safe places in our world.

Horse Trains Man

We had a family/friends get together and naturally wound up out with the horses. It is usually that way at our place.

Most of the people at our summer BBQ were experienced animal people and some were experienced with horses. We saddled my daughter’s horse, a twentysome-year-old Thoroughbred mare, and let anyone who wanted to ride. Foxy was a great horse. I didn’t get her until she was eighteen, but for the next ten years she took care of my daughter and students while teaching them good horse etiquette.

While she was giving rides Doc, my black stallion (now a long time gelding) was hanging with the people. He likes people, but he is also an alpha horse and any human, horse or other animal that comes within his reach is going to be tested. Most of the people instinctively (read—were well trained) knew to not give him an inch of ground. One man, the new husband of a horsewoman, didn’t know anything about horses.

Doc homed in on the man and when he got too close the man would move. It didn’t take long for the rest of us to notice what was going on. We all watched in unholy amusement as Doc herded the guy all around the group. When the man noticed us smiling, snickering and some (the kids of course) laughing outright he demanded to know what was so funny.

I finally explained to him that one way a dominant horse will exercise its will on another horse is by making the other horse move. Then the higher ranked horse will stand where the lower ranked horse was standing. Doc was training him to be an obedient herd member. Since the man was a fairly successful business executive this information came as an unpleasant shock. He was used to being the alpha and the notion that a horse had dominated him so quickly and effortlessly was not easy to accept.

It is easy to see this type of horse behavior in action at any place there is a gathering of horses and people. If you watch you will see people standing, holding their horse, talking to another person and, when the horse moves too close, they will move and let the horse stand where they were standing. The horse is convinced it is the dominant one of the pair.



Tip For The Day

The Lazy Trainer’s secret here is this--anyone dealing with horses should train themselves to never move when a horse begins encroaching on their territory. It is important to train yourself to always respond to a horse that is trying to move in on you by making the horse move and standing in its territory. At first it takes time and alertness to teach yourself this, but by making the effort consciously, all the time, you will eventually reach a point where your automatic response to a horse trying to move into your space will be to move the horse over and stand where it was standing.

Incidentally, this technique of occupying territory and claiming it also works with dogs. It isn’t always possible to transfer training methods from horses to dogs or dogs to horses because one is a predator and the other is prey. This means sometimes they have opposite reactions to stimuli. In the case of occupying territory though, both horses and dogs are inclined to regard this as a test of who is dominant within the group.

How much effort should you expend doing this? As much as it takes. How much is this? Well in my next blog I’ll tell you how much energy it took to convince a mare that’d been alpha to humans for a decade to move her feet and let me stand in her spot.

Black Stallions

Last month I went to a meeting that takes place among horse people in my area. Vets, farriers and other horse experts come together and people can bring their horses for evaluation and treatment.

I met a young woman who had her first horse since she was a child. Like many, if not most, of us she dreamed of owning a black stallion. Unlike many this is what she bought, a two year old black Arabian colt. Now when he was four she confessed she was afraid of him. Despite two years of professional training and gelding he was still too much horse for her.

It is a story I’ve heard over and over. Someone has dreamed of having a horse and finally reaches a place in their lives where they can have one. So they set out to get their dream horse. Usually the afore mentioned black stallion. It is the sort of mistake that drives people out of the world of horses on a regular basis.

What the first time horse owner really needs is a twenty to thirty year old horse with many years of experience and training. Such a horse may not be totally sound, arthritis takes its toll on all of us in time, but with proper care it can teach the first time horse owner many things before it passes on. Unlike a younger horse, while this older horse may need special care it will most likely not get in trouble because of racing around and injuring itself. When something happens an experienced old horse will stand there and wait for some human to show up and extricate it from its predicament. The young horse will panic and run up an unbelievable vet bill in no time. I simply cannot say enough good things about the older horse for the first time horse owner.

In fact, if the first time horse owner is bound and determined to have that black stallion they can find one in that age bracket and fulfill their dream in a much safer manner than by going out and acquiring ANY young horse. I don’t recommend that the tyro horse owner begin with a stallion because stallions do have special needs, but if nothing else will do then by all means get a stallion of twenty plus with lots and lots of training and then place yourself in an environment that will help you learn to cope with your black stallion.

What does this little tirade have to do with being a Lazy Trainer? Well, in my next blog I’ll introduce my black stallion and tell you how he taught me to be a better, more effective, horse trainer; as well as enabling me to increase my status as a Lazy Trainer.

Whose Fault Is It?

I am a lazy person. I've been assured of this many times in the past by family and teachers, so of course it must be true.
"It's never the horse. It's always the rider."
I heard that quote over and over as a kid when I was learning to ride. It was the response I got every time I said, "This horse won't do what I tell her too."
I used it myself when I began teaching and students whined, "This horse won't do what I tell it to."
The fact is the horse was ALWAYS doing what it was told to. It wasn't until I was involved in higher level dressage when I whimpered, "I know it is me, not the horse, but it is so tempting to blame her." that a teacher pointed out, "It really doesn't matter whose fault it is. You are the one who wants to do this. The horse would rather be out in pasture, hanging out with her friends, so it is up to YOU to make this possible. If you don't want it enough to make it happen it isn't going to happen."
My epiphany at that moment was that, no matter what animal I'm dealing with, I, the human, am the one that has brought this animal into my world. It is up to me to make things right. When I introduce an animal into our civilized world it is my job to take care of the animal and keep it safe. It is up to me to make sure the animal doesn't get into trouble with other people and animals.
It is not possible to accomplish my job of taking care of a horse, dog, cat or any other animal if I focus on the idea that a problem is the animal's fault. The animal is being what it is and I'm the one responsible for bringing it into an unnatural enviroment. Therefore it is my responsibility, no matter what my dog or horse or cat is doing, to make certain things go well.
If I've rescued an animal I cannot look at previous owners, circumstances or anything in the past and spend time blaming. That will not solve the problem in the now. I need to get on with resolving the issues that are before me right now.
In fact, when I look at life in general, I realize that as long as I focus on the idea that my problems, no matter what they are, are someone else's fault I cannot make my life better. I cannot make an animal's life better. I cannot make another person's life better. I have to own my own life and problems before I can get down to fixing anything.
In order to accomplish anything I have to be clever about it. So my first line of attack concerning any problem is to own it. My dog is barking because...my horse won't canter because...my cat is clawing the sofa... because I haven't trained it differently.
There it is; the whole Secret to Being a Lazy Trainer. It is always up to me. No one else can or will do it for me. Therefore I have to train myself first.