Dressage and Natural Horsemanship -A husband's point of view part 1

Dressage and Natural Horsemanship -A husband's point of view part 2

Part 3

Disclaimer: I am not a trainer. I am not a professional. I was not present for all of Sequoia's training. I am just an observer, and thus retelling my observations. The reason for this retelling is not meant to teach you how to train a horse. It is merely meant as inspiration. I was simply inspired by Sequoia's transformation and my wife's ability to bring this transformation about.

At this stage, things start to ramp up a bit. It is one thing to be taught how to handle an old, calm, and well trained horse. The stakes were higher when my wife bought a scared, untrained, younger horse. His name is Sequoia. He is half quarter horse, half pony, cute, and kind. But his confidence was shot. He was head shy and jerky. He spooked easily. He had little to no dressage training. I went from thinking I knew how to handle a horse to realizing exactly how much I still had to learn.

Early in his training, Leslie realized she needed help. She turned to Ellie Neerdales, a natural horsemanship trainer here in Green Bay, WI. She began to learn this method of training, and began to use it on Sequoia. She was spending between 5 to 8 nights per week with her horse. (no that was not a typo) About 3 months in she hit her low point. She took Sequoia for his first trailer ride to another stable. If she wanted to be able to show him at some point, he was going to have to get used to travelling. She had all kinds of problems. All the progress she had made with him during the first 3 months just flew right out the window. He was back to spooking, and generally acting a little crazy. A girl at the barn even commented on how bad of a horse he was, and told Leslie she should give up on him and get a new horse. (I am not naming names, but I hope this girl reads this article someday and takes her foot out of her mouth long enough to say I am sorry). That night Leslie was a bit of a wreck. With the amount of hours that she put in she seemed to be at wick's end and possibly ready to cash it in.The next night, she was back at the barn and working as hard as ever. (Did I mention she is slightly stubborn.)

Most of the time, it seems as though a horse's fear is born out of new situations, new sounds, new places. In general, it is the unknown that causes the horse to freak out, and it is impossible to introduce your horse to every possible scenario or sound that may cause this reaction. Since you cannot prevent the scenarios from happening and you cannot fully prepare your horse for every scenario, then what you must do is reduce the level of your horses negative reaction to these events. In my humble opinion there is one way, and only one way to do this. Through TRUST. Trust must be built and earned with a horse. The most important thing in any relationship is trust, and that goes for both people and horses. Each time Sequoia ran into an obstacle, Leslie would break it down with time and trust. So many horse owners just seem to accept certain behavior, and by accepting the behavior they reinforce it.

Sequoia was afraid of the fly spray bottle. Rather than accept his fear, she beat it. She took him in the arena, set the spray bottle on the ground, and made him stand by it and look at it. When he seemed comfortable, she picked up. Not sure why, but as soon as she was holding it, it became a whole new threat. She waited til he calmed down and then made him look at it and smell it again. She then proceeded to rub the bottle all over his body until he was completely comfortable with it, and finally she was able to spray him with it. The process took over an hour, and it had to be repeated several times, but he has no problem with the spray bottle anymore.

Now I realize that most horse owners may not be willing to put in this much time in to get their horse over a fear of a bottle, but what they fail to realize is that this positive reinforcement was a brick in the foundation of the well balanced horse that Sequoia became. The time spent with the spray bottle served to increase the horse's trust in it's owner. He began to realize that she was not going to hurt him. Every time he conquered a fear with her assistance his trust in her would grow, and the time it would take to overcome each obstacle would slowly decrease. His trust has grown to the point where he not only trusts "her" to not hurt him, but to the point where he believes she will protect him.

Now when faced with a new and dangerous lawn chair, he no longer "spooks". His reaction is much more subtle. He looks to his trusted leader and seems to ask, "Should we be scared." And through the simple act of letting him see and smell the obstacle she seems to answer, "There is nothing to be afraid of."

Now that the horse is trained, it is my turn to be trained.

To be continued in Part 4...

My Knowledge Sources (bibliography)

• Karen Zoelle - Green Bay, WI Based Dressage Trainer
• Julia Cornette - Green Bay, WI Based Horse Trainer
• Ellie Neerdales - Green Bay, WI Based Natural Horsemanship Trainer
• Danielle Jauquette - Green Bay, WI Based Hunter Jumper Trainer
• And of course my lovely wife, Leslie Heyden