Rescued at the right time

When the need is great, help is close, so they say. And in my case, I am happy that the saying was accurate. Our newly bought filly, a one-year old North Swedish Draught horse had already early in life realized that she is stronger and faster - both in reaction speed and movement forward than us humans.

My limited experience of NH was not enough. Lena, who has a little more experience, managed to hang in there a bit longer but even she found herself outmaneuvered. Our little lady had learned that when she was sent out on the volte, she could, by going in the tangent direction, escape our influence. When Lena managed to stop her a few times, she just a stylishly rose on her hind legs and added a light twist to release herself from us. Thereby she transformed a small victory to a big loss for us.

Now we had do put our heads togheter, this maneuver was so effective that we felt that if we were to continue, it would only result in her developing and refining her escape technique.

Who could help me??! I did not want someone who would "push through" anything, nor was I interested in putting a bit in her mouth to gain some sort of control through pain and discomfort...that kind of control is only an illusion and often leads to other problems later in the training program. There is a risk that the horse's trust in people is effected. It was then remedy materalised itself in the shape of a man from the American plains, Ed Dabney.

Madam Fortuna arranged that Ed was giving a clinic in northern Finland (Kokkola) and that he had the opportunity to dedicate one day to my challenge before he had to move on.

We had a demo at out house, where Ed showed "Six Keys to Harmony" the program he developed to train riders and horses to a better relationship. Before we started the day we had agreed to do all six keys, and then "provoke" a escape-reaktion after lunch, we did not have to wait so long ...

At 11, without warning, Houdini Horse pulled from Ed's daughter Elizabeth and disappeared into the forest. After the escapade Ed took over the rope and even he saw the horse's rear end disappear in between the trees.

The duel had begun. Ed picked his weapons. Lasso. Single pillar.
When Ed chosed the lasso, he removed the rope halter - one aid at the time. He made sure that he never (and I mean n e v e r) was the one who began to pull, our filly had to run out lasso rope before Ed put it to a stop by using a tree pillar. When she after a while realized that there was a stop to run into, Ed changed back to the rope halter.

Now an interesting moment occurred. Ed let her go on a volte, we all saw that she was considering pulling but, at the moment when she could have left, she reconsidered her descision and chose to remain on the volte. At that point two hours had passed and we took a break for lunch.

After lunch, Ed continued the training and showed me how I could break the escapes without ever having to pull on the rope and thus her head. And this is when it struck me how strong the habit is within me (and probably for some of you too) to just "pull on the head" of the horse when it gets hot. I had to be very observant of myself so that I had a good slack in the rope when I asked her to give the hind legs. If I was hanging on to her, albeit tiny, I could feel how she "took my force and leaned into it" and that force, really was something we wanted to avoid provoking...

Ed pointed out that the hand is the primary aid and that, by virtue of being it, should always be light. Especially in my case, it seemed relevant. I want her to be with me but without me needing to hold on like mad, be it reins or rope, and I can achieve that lightness by letting the secondary aid make my will clear. I can let the rope whiz in the air or cause it to land on the horses hip as a reinforcement, and thereby I need not to compromise on the lightness in the rope.

Now it has to be said that Ed possesses a cobra's speed in his work with horses. At one point, he worked my old mare and I saw that she tried to slip away from work by moving forward instead of sidways. He made the necessary correction long before my brain even had taken the decision of a correction. I have a little left to work on...

So the recipe from Dr. Ed reads that I should under no circumstances lose the filly as long as she demonstrates a tendency to go against the rope halter. Believe me, she was smooth as butter with Ed but showed evidence of her old behviour as soon as I took over the rope. They know who runs them. My shift begins at the single pillar before I move out in the paddock. Pure classical training in other words!

The day gave me a lot more insight, such as the horses adapt more quickly to each of us than we do to any of them. They read us better, they outsmart us faster, they establish leadership hierarchy faster than we can imagine.

Ed left a question for you. Out of one hundred horse owners, how many are there who have a functioning leadership in relation to the horse?

Think about it, the answer will be in my next posting.