Homo Caballus: arte ecuestre

Homo Caballus by Peter Bosman ... I posted a response to this website on the ImagineAHorse discussion group.

What a great website!!! The author makes such wonderful case for positive training methods. I was intrigued by the neck rope and will have to try it on my horses and mules.

I like what he said about getting the horse to really be looking to you for leadership. That is one of the things that really interests me currently..... how can you inspire the horse to see you as their safe haven and wise leader? How can you engineer circumstances that naturally give them this perception. One of the things I have tried, with some success is stashing a bucket with feed, out in the landscape, and taking them to it. They know they wouldn't have found it on their own and by the second trip, they are pretty interested in finding out where it is you want to go. All the resistance to leave the paddock and follow your guidance melts away.

As soon as our landscape dries out a bit, I plan to try a new related method. Right now, with a sea of slush, we have been doing a lot of small movement training on the porch or in a stall. They love this and will fight for their turns.... well, we are going to move small movement training to destinations out in the landscape.

In rehabbing these horses, sometimes I feel ashamed that I can't just "cowboy-up" and ride it out, but Peter Bosman's website, with its theme of using your intelligence, gives me a lot of comfort that I'm using a good approach.

Yrs,
Patricia

Experimental Results

I finally get to write up one of my horse training experiments.

Introduction

The importance of leadership in horse social dynamics is widely recognized. The Natural Horsemanship (NH) philosophy tries to use that innate pattern of herd leadership to control horse behavior. In most cases, the NH horse-trainer will try to gain a leadership position by demanding control of the horse, especially the direction and speed of the horses feet. If the horse trainer can assume the position of leadership, the horse will often relinquish all decision making to the leader, becoming especially tractable for further training.

The round-pen has become the NH trainers favored tool in establishing leadership. The trainer sends the horse around the periphery, changing directions and speed, until the horse shows signs of submission including chewing motions, lowered head, an ear pointed in the direction of the trainer, and glances at the trainer. The trainer usually measures success by the degree to which the horse then follows the trainer, a phenomenon called "joining-up" or "hooking-on". The problem arises, when the equine does not generalize the control the trainer has to situations outside the round-pen or other confined spaces. This may more likely to happen with equines that have lived in conditions where herd leadership was in continual change.

In a horse herd the herd leaders can also take leadership by another means. Leaders are also chosen by their ability to make good decisions for herd welfare. They are chosen because they know where to graze, find water, and when to run. This route to herd leadership is rarely exploited by horse trainers. It is probably the case that the bond between horse and rider develops out of this type of leadership function, but this consequence is rarely the objective of a training event.

This report details an experiment to specifically manipulate the human/horse training relationship by providing herd-welfare leadership.

Methods

An 8 year old gelding Indian Mustang (JD) was the subject of this experiment. His life history included abuse and neglect as a young horse and a history of bolting. His training history was 1 year with a professional horsetrainer who rescued him from the conditions he was raised in and green-broke him to ride, 2 years in the back yard of this investigator under a changing regime of traditional horsetraining methods that had given way to training by positive reinforcement, 2 months at another professional trainer who trains in the style of Clinton Anderson. His proclivity to bolt was observed by all three trainers. While he generally showed signs of deferment to the leadership of the humans, it was given only tentatively until he had other choices. This pattern was less marked under the positive reinforcement protocol, however, it may have been the case that he saw interaction with the trainer in exchange for food rewards as his best choice.

Two months prior to this experiment, the mustang was removed to the third trainers facility, where he was kept without shelter in a small pen. The weather conditions during this time were abnormally heavy snowfalls and unusual cold with sub-zero temperatures on most nights. He was fed alfafa hay and grain, but over the time he was there he lost weight. The patterns of daily life at this facility were erratic and not conducive to a horse's sense of well-being.

On 5 February, 2007, the mustang was saddled, trailered, and then lead across 16 miles of wilderness landscape back to his backyard home. In order to inspire his instinctive response to a herd leader, I provided him water and food along the way. He received handfuls of sweet-feed as a reward for reaching milestones such as cattle-gaurds, creek crossings, etc. He was lead on foot on a 12-foot leadrope tied to a rope halter. He was not familiar with the trail.

The subjective observed changes in his demeanor were monitored to assess changes to his mental state as a result of this treatment.

Results

Enroute

Four miles into the journey, the trainer slipped on the ice and panicked the mustang. The mustang ran back 2 miles until it got tangled in the leadrope which had become balled up with snow. The mustang did not attempt to escape again, though he did startle whenever the trainer would trip or slip.

The mustang did not show signs of realizing where he was until they were quite close to the end of the journey. He started calling to the other equines once he was in the yard. He was put in a separate pen with the other equines across the fence and immediately he started to remind them of his leadership in the herd hierarchy from across the fence. His need for food and water was secondary to his desire to interact with the herd.

Groundwork

On the day after the treatment, the horse was observed to interested in the trainer and be eager to leave the other equines to join the trainer for training. Training objectives were to start the horse on targeting, which were met by the mustang learning to target his nose, his ears, his knee, his chin, and his shoulder. He showed signs of wanting to be scratched with some degree of reciprocal grooming.

Riding

This part of the experiment has to wait until I am not alone in the middle of nowhere.

Discussion

My gut feeling is that this worked really well. Will update this later.

Trip Report: The High Road

We got up at 4 a.m. and fed the horses so I could get to Navajo City with John. We arrived there about 6 and I had a few hours to kill before I could bother Billy about taking me to the Carrizo, so I spent some time trying to get a different printer hooked up to the credit card machine. Then Debbie, the waitress, casually mentioned that Billy and Vicky called early this morning on their way to town to go to the dentist on kind of an emergency basis.

This is when I knew things could go south without me and my mustang actually going south. I was a tish aggravated.

At about 9:30 a.m. the day was starting to warm up and it didn't bode well for road texture. There is 2 feet of snow out there in various states of packing, but the predicted high was 50°F. The best I could hope for was slop. I told John I should just call it off and he advised me to just be patient.

Finally Billy showed up and we headed to his place to hook on the trailer and saddle the mustang. I knew the moment I saw JD that I had no need to pack the helmet or his hackamore.... he was tense and worried, his head went up a foot when ever Billy came near. All the calmness I had worked into him was gone.

By the time the trailer was ready to load, the roads were turning to slop so we started in on the General American road and only went three miles before I suggested Billy just turn around and I would go from there. JD unloaded nice enough, and we started off on our trip. There were two penalties to a late start... I couldn't get hauled as far as I wanted and the road was a total mess.

But it was a lovely day. Before too many hours we were about to reach the Carrizo Creek, when I slipped on a patch of ice and landed on my side. JD panicked and jumped free of me. He started running south, but quickly turned and ran through a snow covered slope to get around me and head north. I watched him gallop out of sight with the saddle slipping to one side and the things falling out of the saddle bags.

I found the dry socks on a snow bank. I couldn't find the burrito or my extra rope. The grain stayed in the saddle bag. My coat stayed tied on as well.

A truck drove into view. A typical oil field truck hauling a trailer load of portable toilets. I stopped it and asked the driver if he had seen the mustang. Oh, yes, about a mile up the road. Then the nice man volunteered to turn around and take me to the horse. I was thinking about the poopy symbolism of it all, when we saw the mustang standing in a snowy sagebrush field. I got out and thanked the driver then went to see if Jemez would let me catch him. The lead rope had frayed in the run and become a giant snowball seed, so JD had a bowling ball sized chunk of snow tangled around his feet. He couldn't really do much about it, so I loosened the girth and pulled the saddle back straight. This fiasco set us back about an hour.

I decided that it wasn't safe to have my coat on the mustang, so I started carrying it. I had been sweating with it tied to the mustang, so now it was really miserable with my down jacket draped over one arm. The road was so sloppy that I couldn't help but have wet cuffs on my pants. I started getting worried when it was 2 o'clock and I was not yet at the Carrizo.

I called John back at the cafe. Our cell phone connection was bad, but I finally made him understand that I was in trouble and needed him to plan to come looking for me after work. Good hubby that he is, he made arrangements to get out of there early, and he headed home to take care of the other animals and make me a thermos of hot tea. The toilet-hauler came back by and offered me food: chicken wings to share with the dog and an apple turnover to share with the horse. He said he was worried about me. JD and I stopped at the Carrizo where a spring is burbling out from under the ice and creating this magical looking little pool. A peregrin falcon flew into a nearby tree and watched us walk by. I thought it was a good omen. Just knowing that John would be there sooner or later, lightened my heart a great deal.

At about 4:30, I entered Martinez canyon and two of the sloppiest miles on the whole road. The good thing was that the sun had already set in the canyon so we cooled down and things started gradually to ice up. At five, we had gained enough elevation that we were in the snow and the going was easier.

I would say that JD went through several mental states on the way. When we left he was in a good mood and enjoying my company, but after I fell down, I could no longer be trusted in his estimation. He didn't really want to follow me, but he had no idea how to get anywhere they would be serving alfalfa. He turned into a sluggard, following but on as much leadrope as I would allow. Then by sunset, he seemed to have reconciled with the epic journey and just got into following mode.

It was a stunning sunset, with Venus and Mercury on the horizon, the indigo blue sky giving way to a starry heaven where the milky way lit up the snowscape. As long as we were in open land with snow, we had plenty of light. John came rolling into the picture with a box of hay, a bucket of water, a thermos of tea and a burrito. I was so glad to see him, though his bumper was so muddy I had to put a plastic bag on it to sit.... I hadn't sat since I got out of Billys truck so my legs appreciated the rest. It didn't last long though, I knew everything would start to hurt if I didn't keep moving. The lead rope had frozen into a funny shape.

In the dark, I tried to keep right at the interface between ice and mud, so that I could keep the traction of a little frozen dirt. The mud made inky lines down the snowy roadway. JD would just follow in my footsteps since to stray too far from that meant slipping around.

What was kind of funny about this was that Andy Becks daily horse news message yesterday said "you should take a flash light when you go riding." I considered packing on, but it seemed so pointless at the time. By the time we were ready to go down Ice Canyon, I really wished we had.

John was driving one mile segments then waiting for us to catch up, but when we got to Ice Canyon, I asked him to just go really slow and let us follow in the light. That was working out pretty well until John started using the dog, Chica, to determine if we were close. Chica had no problem just running along side the vehicle, so they disappeared down the canyon for a while. Ice Canyon was icy and JD was the one doing the slipping this time, I thought he was learning to snowboard on his big fat hooves. Finally we caught up with John and Chica and asked if they could follow us in the vehicle instead. The head lights behind us doubled our rate of speed and it wasn't long before the lights of our house could be seen glowing in the canyon below.

Jemez Dancing started suspecting that we were actually in familiar territory as we entered Largo Canyon. No more pulling on the leadrope... he was keen to move out. We crossed the bridge and the three big dogs came out to escort us through the gate. JD started neighing to his old family and the herd just about crushed the pipe fence trying to reach him with their noses.

He is separated from them in the Ox Pen, with his own hay and water. I think he will be very very content to be home. Billy told JD before we left there that he was one lucky horse to not be going to the sale barn. I think the episode wasn't so lucky for JD but it did one thing for me... it gave me confidence that the reason that traditional horse training hadn't worked for me with JD was not that I had lost my skill, but rather that traditional horse training just doesn't work with that kind of horse. Billy, I am sure, did his best and then got very depressed that the trainee wasn't coming around as promised. He couldn't finish JD out because he was stymied by his inability to connect with this horse.

We are set back three months of training in addition to the two months JD has been over at Billy's , but now I have confidence that we can quickly change the equine attitude with some positive reinforcement. I have confidence that the only way is the slow way. This experience was lucky for me, despite the blisters on my heels and the fact that I probably am going to be very sore tomorrow. I really feel like I learned something.

The Wet Hinny Experience

The professor has an assignment for you:

1. Read the Equitation Science Symposium proceedings and write an essay on how these results will affect the way you train horses.

Of course, that is all good news, but let me introject a little cold hard reality here. I was up on Cracker Joe, just intending to do some stopping and turning, when he got agitated by my request to walk-on. He wanted to just do neck bending, I suppose. Well, it was wet and his back was wet. I hadn't put a saddle on him and I just had a halter with slobber straps on the side-rings. He took a notion to duck out, hump up his back, and run across the paddock. We were in the little paddock with tight corners and very high IRON PIPE RAILS. I knew he was going to duck out from under me and I didn't want it to result in my face impacting the iron rails, so I reached over and grabbed the fence. You can stick to a wet hinny better than just about any equine in the world, so my legs kept traveling with Cracker until my back had stretched to its limit and I snapped back to the ground with a thump. I collapsed to the ground and laid on the muddy paddock dirt until my habitual physical inventory told me that no serious damage had been incurred. Then I got up and was just a little hot under the collar.

I went to the tack shed and got a lunging rope and a lunging whip. Cracker got to learn to do half circles up against the rail. No mercy. No horse cookies. It was pure negative reinforcement and intentionally more negative than usual. He got release for good behavior, but he had knocked all the "nice guy" stuff out of me. I gave him all the commands I groundwork into my horses.... then I notice that just across the paddock fence Paisley is intently carrying out every one of my commands. Back, forward, gee, haw.... she is just working herself into a frenzy in hopes of getting a reward. Of course I had to start bridging her and rewarding her. She is such an awesome horse; I can't wait until she is old enough to ride.

Cracker Joe has dumped me a few too many times. I keep thinking that because I am training with positive reinforcement, he will maintain a more level head, but he gets really excited and is borderline disrespectful in his enthusiasm. One of the papers presented at that symposium showed that counter conditioning to a scary object (targeting the object) was less effective for desensitization than systematic approach/retreat. That is so to the point of what I am working on.... where will positive reinforcement give you a good result and where will it set you up for failure??? I think to maintain control over a hinny one needs to insist on absolute subordination.

Before I let Cracker go to his stall for dinner he had to let me handle his ears. Normally he is okay with that, but I knew that because he was mad at me, there would be resistance. I just stood by the gate and told him he had to put his ear into my hand. He knew what I wanted and finally made a tiny attempt to comply. I bridged him and opened the gate. There was two more gates he needed me to open, so by the time he got to eat dinner, he really didn't care if I touched his ears or not. He just wanted some alfalfa.

I have made a vow that from now on, I will wear my helmet and use a saddle. My shoulders and lower back are really going to be stiff tomorrow.

Yrs,
Patricia

Each in its own time

I have to admit that I actually know how I sabotage my equine training. I am way too erratic and proceed far too often without a plan. Being without a plan when you have one or two animals is one thing. Being without a plan when you have more than six in training is just suicidal. Horses like familiar patterns of activity. Everyday I surprise my critters with some spur of the moment training agenda. This is regrettable. In fact, everyday I think about committing my plan to paper, and some days I actually do it. It takes a lot of time to have it all thought out. Every one of my animals has a weak spot and generally that is what I focus on, barring some group wide training experiment in process. I am going to spend some time getting organized to be a better planner next week when I have to be running the restaurant at Navajo City.

I rarely halter or tie the animals, but I know that I need to force myself to halter them everyday and tie them for at least a minute or two. Well, they actually catch me all day long... any equine that is roaming the yard is likely to follow me around and if I go into the paddock it is only moments before I have an entourage. Normally I clean their hooves at liberty, but when they are all crowded around, it is really quite dangerous to be lifting hind legs, etc. You have to get them one at a time, or at most two. Okay, you can probably do three donkeys if you take turns doing all the right fronts, left fronts, right hinds, and left hinds so no one ever feels too neglected for more than a moment. But now I am trying to force myself to find the halters, put them all on, then work my way though the lineup, grooming and cleaning hooves, then removing halters to signify that they have been processed. Nine halters is a tall order. I hate the buckle on Solomans halter.... I wonder if it can be fixed by bending the catch?

I couldn't get Rita to let me halter her, but we broke it down to smaller chunks. I first just wanted her to touch her halter, then I wanted to touch the halter to her neck, then rub the halter on her neck, then lay the halter on her crest, then dangle the halter over her neck. We got that far without too much stress and quit on that for the day.

Later I went in and wanted to just pet her withers. She wanted no part of that plan. She is funny in that she is hyper dominant and she shies and bolts, but she shows no signs of submission normally. I have tried getting her to join up with round penning, but I never got any signs of submission until today. Today, she was not changing direction when I asked but rather just looking at me like I had a lot of nerve. So I stepped right in front of her, square to her face, my shoulders high and I stomped on the ground. She yeilded the space immediately but didn't freak out in a panic. We had to do that twice before she decided not to mess with me and just follow orders, then she joined up and came in with a humble attitude. Petting withers was okay, and infact it must have felt pretty nice judging by the soft look in her eyes. I am trying to interact with her at least four times a day and she is really starting to come around. Hopefully I will be able to get some antibiotic on that nasty cut on her leg.

The surcingle was too small for anyone so I found another cinch and buckled it onto JD. I hooked the driving lines to his halter and ran them though the surcingle rings and asked him to "walk on". I have seen this animal bolt away too many times, so I am totally shocked to watch him just walk around the lot like a big old draft horse. Actually I couldn't be totally shocked, but I just forget about all the afternoons we spent getting to this state. He was super good and responded to my request for gee and haw quite well. Someday I will feel brave enough to ride him out of the lot. It would help to have someone to ride with. Actually I would like to have someone who rides vaquera doma ride him because he is super light and totally responsive.

Cisco is doing well with his longeing and whoa at the longe-trot. His problem is sideways bolting in a panic, so this is teaching him to face up in response to a pull on his lead rope and the command whoa. He is rather proud of himself. You can see it in the way he comes in for his reward and then prances off in the new direction since we alternate directions after every stop. He has a noble attitude. He is going to be the most awesome horse to ride if he ever gets beyond auto-panic. Hey, if JD overcame auto-panic, Cisco should have no problem. JD was actually abused by humans, where as Cisco has had only the kindest methods of training since his capture from wildness. Except probably he was traumatized by the BLM cowboys since he kind of freaks out about anyone wearing a black cowboy hat. Well, they had to geld him after all. Sorry, Cisco, well get into the funny hat box later in the winter.

Paisley has reached a very exciting plateau in her ground work. She will now dance with you. She will follow your hand around the corral and keep in synch with you whether you are walking fast or running. She will slam on the breaks and rocket backwards if you stop and back swiftly. Paul Dufresne challenged me to get the horses to dance and ride them from the ground without contact. Paisley is well on her way to doing it. I was pretty proud of her when I realized that dancing was what we were doing out in the big paddock running around having fun with each other.

Paisley and Chester wanted a horse treat when I was working with Cracker Joe. They looked so pitiful so I went to the fence and asked them to stretch out. I thought they wouldn't do it for me across the fence and then I could just ignore them as the penalty for non-performance, but sure enough, there they were competing with each other to see who could stretch the farthest. I had to give them rewards. Chester doesn't really get a fair shake, since he is not my mule, I always have reasons not to mess around with him. This, naturally, breaks his poor little mulish heart. He loves to be the trainee and he will do anything for you. He got to get his feet cleaned and I brushed out his short mule coat so he was happy.

The donkeys are mastering the response to "back!" Soloman will take five steps, Tobiah only two. I don't expect Zekey to perform at his age, he just gets the treat anyway. The donkeys all do well with giving me their feet for cleaning. It took months for them to realize that they had to perform for their treats, but now they are open to the concept and we could probably move on to new areas.

It was one of those days when everyone is doing good. The light snow falling was actually heavenly because it provided a sense of intimacy with each animal having its turn.

My advertisement for an assistant is coming out in the Caretakers Gazette. I am hoping that someone who wants to work with equines will land here as a volunteer for at least a couple of months. It's not a traditional horse kind of job, but I dare say that whoever goes along for the ride, will come away knowing something very useful in the rehabilitation of troubled equines. If you know anyone that might be interested have them contact me 1-505-568-9131 leave a message if I am out.

Yrs,
Patricia

Look, Ma, no bridle!

I spent a couple of hours in the round pen on Monday. I ran all the horses in... I hearded them in, no lead ropes. Then I asked them to "Walk-on". They didn't like it, especially Ms. Paisley and Cracker Joe. We kept reversing and walking around and around. JD was the first one to calmly accept the task and walk around with his head low and one ear tuned on me. I called him into the center, asked him to follow me, and lead the way out of the round pen. He was free to go and for a moment he was confused at his liberation.

Paisley and Cracker Joe had no humility in their hearts so they kept dashing around the back side of the pen. Around and around. If they just walked calmly I asked them to whoa and to follow, but it took another 30 minutes before Paisley quit looking to Cracker for guidance and she listened to her conscience. Several times she did the whoa and the comeup just fine, but she wouldn't follow. Around and around, reverse, reverse... reverse. Finally she gave in and consented to follow. She followed out the gate.

Cracker was a hard nut. He wasn't going to just walk calmy around, but we just kept at it. I drug a tire to the backside of the roundpen that he would have to go around so I could force him to travel near the rail. He started working it out after 45 min. The slow down was all it took. He is a good follower.

Tuesday, I ran all the donkeys out of their run and used it as an equine grooming parlor. One by one they were allowed in for brushing, hoof care, and fly spray. They stood just outside the gate waiting their turns. After grooming they got three circuits around me on the lead rope, a turn and three circuits the opposite way. I made a big deal out of compliance by lavishing praise and cookies on them.

Today (Wed) we did a repeat grooming session and then a refresher on back up. The rules had changed. If they took two backward steps when I said "back" they got an X and a horse cookie. If I had to wag the lead rope, they didn't get a cookie, but I stopped as soon as one foot moved. If I had to wave the stick at them, I just swung it back and forth between us and let it wack them if they didn't get out of the way.

My plan is now to reinforce total compliance with cookies and just use negative reinforcement as their second opportunity to respond. Hopefully compliance itself will become the reinforced behavior.

After the backing each one got to do what they do best. Joe and Paisley got to do the circle and turn dance. Paisley did so well, I let her get up on the pedestal, which she always really likes. I sat on Cracker Joe for a few moments and fed him cookies. Then I rode JD bridless.

YES!! The wiley mustang allows himself to be ridden with nothing more than a string around his neck! Maybe the bad ride with a resistant hinny put me off on positive reinforcement, but riding that mustang in total trust and with excellent control of his speed and direction is living proof that positive reinforcement builds relationships worth having.

The lesson I learned from this is 1) get the critters respect by controlling its movement; then 2) train for relationship using positive reinforcement. Find a balance between using the natural dominance hierarchy and operant conditioning. The critters all benefited from their time in the round pen, and once they were giving me the respect I wanted, it was easy to work with them again.

Baseline Measure of Respect

Training - PK Equestrian Center

Paul Dufresne is currently my favorite trainer. Watch his video linked to his homepage. Phenomenal!!

He says: "So as a human being you want to be the herd boss and a leader. This is easy to say but to establish it in a respectful manner by their rules is not always so simple. " He describes one way of doing that is over the food dish. You simply assert your dominance by controlling access to the food, requiring that the animal be respectful and compliant before you allow them access.

Experimental Protocol: Feed bucket and 6 1-cup servings of sweet feed. Put the feed bucket in the middle of the paddock and allow one animal at a time to eat their portion of the grain. Keep all others away by facing off to them, talk softly to chosen animal and don't face him directly while he is being allowed to access feeder.

Results: Animals did not fight. Chester repeatedly had to be shooed away. JD stood back and watched until it was his turn. Soloman quit eating and left the food dish when Chester would get too close. Toby stood next to me and tried to touch me. Paisley retreated a short distance and stared at the food dish.

Discussion: In general, this experiment proves the animals to be generally tractable to my dominance. JD and Zekey were the least invasive. Soloman was easily intimidated and showed no confidence that as the leader, I would protect him. Toby clearly knows which side of the bread to butter. Paisley had probably never been prevented from eating in her young life, as a mare, she was most likely to kick, but did not.

We will know that there is a significant improvement in my leadership when they all line up in a que to take their turn.