The History of Horsemanship - part one

'It is essential to appreciate that the rider is the leader of the equestrian partnership and, for better or worse, sets the physical and psychological scene - not the horse. The true horseman lives by the premise that nothing is ever the horses fault.'

I have been dipping in to a few old horsebooks recently and I am continually coming across this kind of stuff. This was written in 1980 (or at least, published then) by some German dressage geezer called Herbermann. The book has a whole section of really sound practical, helpful explanations and advice that is useful to even basic horsemen such as myself. To be honest it makes a lot of the fancy illustrated horse books published over the last twenty years or so look like magazine articles.

Because my wife is a very keen student of horsemanship and riding, I get to watch/read/hear an awful lot about very accomplished horsemanship. You might think that could only be a good thing, and I would have to agree, but it does have its downside - I often feel like I should give up now! But one thing I have realised, which is good, is that good horsemanship has been with us since the beginning of time. What may seem to me to be a major breakthrough and realisation in my horsemanship is, to some of these old guys, nothing more than common sense that they have been practising for years.

That got me to thinking about all these people who sell their own brands of horsemanship as though they have discovered something new. And that got me to thinking about what happened to Baucher when he published his 'nouvelle methode' in the 1830s. There was a huge backlash against it, and people were saying, 'there's nothing new here' and so on and so on. I'm not a great fan of anyone who pronounces 'my methods' as though they have come up with some revolutionary new idea, but as far as I can tell, Baucher, at that time, did come up with some pretty new stuff. I really like a lot of what he says, and I have found some of it pretty helpful in my horsemanship.

To be specific, I like the exercises to 'relax the jaw', and to get the 'flexions' which really help my horse, and even more importantly, I like how my understanding/interpretation of this has really helped me to understand how my hands and the reins work with the horse's mouth.

Ah, the mysteries slowly unfold, and all for why? I have no idea!

The Broken Horse

A few months ago I read a little book by Jack Brainard. In the book is a chapter titled 'What is a "broke" horse?'. It's a nice book that I enjoyed reading, but that one particular chapter made a big impression on me because I realised that the horse he was describing there was the horse that I want. This broke horse does all this work willingly, happily ties up while Jack has coffee with his mates, and then goes and does a load more work. Then the next day he takes out a lady who hasn't been on a horse in years on two hour ride around the farm, and then he goes on to be ridden by one of Jack's friends in a parade, and so on and so on.

Jack goes on to say that, 'you too can ride a broke horse and he doesn't have to be a futurity winner to be a great horse. You can still be riding him when he's 20 and enjoying every minute of it. All of this, because he was trained properly with some consideration.'

It made me realise how much time we spend working and riding unbroken horses. It's just so much more fun riding broke ones. I think this fact has got a bit lost in all the modern day discussions around what kind of 'relationship' we want between us and our horses. In the end for me, it just comes down to when I ask my horse to do something, I want him to do it how I want it done, willingly, now. If that's not happening and he's not happy with it, then somewhere along the line, I reckon I've left a bit of a hole in the training. I've left my horse asking questions that I need to give him answers too, and that is where my work needs to begin.

It's just so nice to have horses around the place that are happy to get on with the job.

Could horsemanship be simpler than we think?

I'm no trained rider - that's for sure! Most of what I know I've worked out as I go. Over the years I've heard so much about how to ride though. Loads of phrases like 'on the bit, 'a good seat', 'on the forehand', 'outside rein inside leg (or it might be the other way round, I'm not sure)', 'take up a contact', 'drive the horse forward'. I have no idea what all this stuff means - I mean that, I really don't, and what's more, I don't want to know either.

I've watched a few people ride who I thought looked pretty comfortable. I'd like to ride like they do really. And I've learnt quite a bit about how it is mentally and physically best for the horse if he goes in a certain way. I've worked out that you can pretty soon trash horses if you don't look after them and you ride them wrong. I've taken that on board.

I was wondering if I pitched up on a remote island, and there were some horses there, untouched horses, and I'd never seen a horse before, how would I get along with them. This is quite a big island, by the way. Big enough for me to have a bit of a farming operation going, so over the years I build up my herd of cattle and my flock of sheep. I eventually get round to taming one or two of the horses and it's not long before I work out that that bit of curved back there just behind the withers looks about right to sit on. I also work out that for control and steering purposes I need something on the horses head, so I make a bridle (I guess I'd start with a bitless, so that's the first thing - I'd miss out on all the communication I get with the horses' mouth).

So there I go, riding my horse all over the place, getting the jobs done, rounding up the animals, stopping and starting, twisting and turning, and working out the best way for me and my horse to get along. But this time I wouldn't have all the helpful information that I have picked up along the way in the real world. I wouldn't know that I needed to spend twenty years working on my seat, or that I needed to study the great masters to learn the art of riding. I might just work out that it's best not to fall off too much though, and that things are easier if I have a bit of balance between me and the horse when I go for a turn. I'd probably work out that that balance I feel in the turn is pretty nice to feel in most of what I do too, and I'd probably work out that that balance, when I find it, can only really come through for me and the horse when I relax.

I do sometimes wonder if we have maybe made it all a bit more complicated than it is.

What, where, when and how!

I loved working with Connor and his hunter.

* * *

We've just come back from a week in Ireland. We did a four day clinic with a day off either end. Some people were in for one day, some for two days and some for four days, so all in all we got to work with fourteen riders and their horses. I learnt stacks!

Pretty much every time I do clinics nowadays, at some point I become really aware that I only have about one thing I know about horses. I use it in every job but it does sometimes gets thinly disguised as different things. So I may be doing a loader, or I may be helping someone get their horse to stand still at the mounting block, or I may be helping someone do a move that I don't even know what it is, or even how to do it myself, or I might be helping a horse understand the bit, or I might be messing about at home playing around with the balance in my horse, or anything really, picking up a youngsters feet for the first time, or the second, or just picking up a youngsters feet - it's all the same stuff!

So whatever the job what is that thing - I'd say it is that you want to keep your horse feeling safe. Working with that anxious or fleeing horse, in the immortal words of a friend of ours, 'is at best a waste of time'. Over the last few years I have learnt so much about horses, but still one thing that I found out years ago stays the same - if I set up the boundaries and stay in charge of the movement, then I get the best out of my horse.

* * *

I heard Harry Whitney say, 'The horse needs to know what, when, where, and how'. I've worked out that if I get that lot in place most things go well, and conversely, if things are not going so well, I've left at least one of those jobs up to the horse, for sure.

A little less worried arabian horse

We've just arrived back from doing a couple of clinics in Kent. I got to work with a little arabian gelding who was really struggling with his life. Well, let's be accurate here - struggling with some parts of his life, but mainly the riding part. I think some of the bit work he had learnt in his showing days had pretty much done his head in.

He was ridden a lot in a halter which worked fine on a good day, but when he wasn't feeling so good, or when too much was going on, the halter didn't really give his rider much opportunity to help him through. He would alternate between being massively spooky to being pretty shut down, with not much time in between. Basically not much fun!

In a previous clinic we had introduced him to the bit, but to be honest we hadn't really got him to understand it. I tried using long lines to help him see how it worked but I never really got it sorted. This time I had some new ideas. The first thing to do was show him that the bit wasn't there for him to lean on or to push on. I did this by taking the bit in my hands and just offering him softness when he relaxed. If he pushed or leaned I backed him off - not heavily, he is an arab and learnt pretty quickly. I then moved on to showing him how the steering worked. When he feels the cue on his mouth he needs to just turn his head that way. The cue is a very light feel with no backwards in it. It took him a while to relax with this. He was very worried about what the bit might do, and he came up with lots of different ideas about how to deal with it. Lots of pushing and neck twisting, and at times he would completely zone out because he just felt he couldn't cope.

It took me an hour to have him walking around, quiet, following the bit, and with a nice relaxed mouth. Then I got on him to see if it worked from on top, and it did. Over the next three days Sarah and his owner rode him around, just in a 'safe' (to him) part of the school, doing nice bends, halts, and also working in some neck reining to move his shoulders. He was a pretty happy and relaxed horse. This isn't a done job, but it's a start. It's nice to see a horse understand something that previously terrified him, and it's nice to see the rider have some way of helping him through those moments when he starts to lose his focus. I would say, as his confidence grows his world can get bigger.

More and more I'm convinced that the way to go with this horse training game is to find the first thing the horse isn't comfortable about, and get it sorted. And then the next one etc etc. The horse soon starts to behave like he's thinking, 'mmmm this guys quite handy to have around'.

Working with horse trainers

Inspired by a post on my favourite friendly proboard ( http://feelforthehorse.proboards.com/ ) about the implications of working with several different trainers, that got me thinking about getting to the point where you feel confident enough to work in your own right.

When I first watched Mark work I knew pretty much instantly that he had something I needed to learn. That was how I wanted to work with my horses. I watched him for a few years (and hopefully will continue to do so) and slowly slowly I began to get the hang of it, to the point where I'm pretty happy with most of what I do around the horses now.

From there I found I had the confidence to begin to work things out in my own right. I began to get an understanding of how I think a horse should perform in a way that he is both physically and mentally comfortable with. As it turns out, not surprisingly really I guess, I found this is also the way that is most comfortable for me too.

At that point I realised that I had in my mind a kind of overview of how to be with my horse and how to train him to be how I wanted him to be. Of course it is not a finished product, and it is unlikely to be one for me either. I know I am never going to be an incredible horse person, but I do think I can be a pretty reasonable one.

There is another question that ties in to this subject and actually really interests me too - what level can we really expect to get to with our horsemanship? Are some of us doomed to forever not really know how to do this? I don't believe that for a minute. I do believe that it is in quite a lot of peoples interest to make us believe that though, because that keeps them in work. I was listening to a trainer having a casual conversation the other day and in all seriousness, he said, 'I'm not showing them how I do this, it cost me a lot of money to learn that'.

I thought at the time, 'well, good luck to you mate, you haven't understood the way this game works. Horsemanship is not some list of facts you learn and then buy and sell for money - it's a lifelong apprenticeship that is way beyond that'. Needless to say I didn't have the bottle to say it out loud, so I just sneaked away and wrote it on my blog.

Nurturing the natural try

'We shall take care never to vex the horse, or cause it to abandon its affable gracefulness in disgust. For this is like the fragrance of blossoms, which never returns once it has vanished'.

Antoine de Pluvinel 1685

As I go on learning more and more about horses I keep spotting more and more stuff. Improving my horsemanship is in fact an endless quest.

Anyway, I don't know if I have ever mentioned Hugo before, but he is interesting, mainly for one thing - he is totally lazy and only half there. Now, years ago I would probably have been fine with that - a nice slow horse that even my granny could have sat on, but now I am looking at him and thinking, 'how the hell did he get in to that state?'.

He's lost his 'try'. So here is what I think. The try is there in the horse, he wants to find a peaceful place, and through selection man has bred it into them maybe even more. Horses are born with try - loads of it. A bit like working dogs, they want to get it right. Our job is not to kill that try, but to actually nurture it. There is nothing so much fun as sitting on a horse that tries - it is a powerful and inspiring experience. There is nothing so dispiriting as sitting on a horse that has lost its try - feeling the pain of its history, and then feeling the pain of trying to rebuild that try - I think it is one of the hardest jobs and I'm not sure it's even possible. I'm not sure they can ever be the same again.

So here is my plan. Any horse I am working on, I want to preserve and nurture the try. I don't want to be the one that is responsible for taking that out of the horse. So how can I do that? Well the really obvious things to avoid are quite simple. Get your releases right. Don't just go in all guns blazing - ask small and release on the first signs of a try. Once you've asked don't just release without getting a response. Don't keep asking when the horse is already doing what you asked for. Don't confuse the horse by asking too much too soon, or by asking in inconsistent unclear ways. And here is the big one that I'm still thinking about, but I am pretty sure is true. Keep the horse happy working for a good release. In other words, don't go upping the reward, because then the horse won't be so keen to work for less.

There is nothing so good as a horse that is naturally happy to work.