The Sending Exercise is a handy tool that can be used in a number of situations you encounter with your horse on a daily basis. As prey animals, horses are claustrophobic by nature, and when made to go through tight, narrow spaces, they naturally want to . . . → Read More: Benefits of the Sending Exercise.]]> Training Tip of the Week: Clint Anderson

The Sending Exercise is a handy tool that can be used in a number of situations you encounter with your horse on a daily basis. As prey animals, horses are claustrophobic by nature, and when made to go through tight, narrow spaces, they naturally want to use the reactive side of their brains. This exercise will be beneficial in helping your horse use the thinking side of his brain whenever he’s in a situation he’s not comfortable with. It’s an especially useful exercise to teach a horse how to load into a trailer, getting him to cross over spooky objects and to follow the feel of halter pressure behind his ears. Remember, the more you move your horse’s feet forwards, backwards, left and right and reward the slightest try, the more respectful he will get and the more he will use the thinking side of his brain.

It is so easy to have a successful horse business that virtually anyone who wants to succeed can succeed!

All you have to do is: 1. get credentials, 2. focus on a niche, 3. become an expert.

Look around and you might think there is a lot of competition vying for . . . → Read More: Make Money With Horses]]> By Don Blazer

It is so easy to have a successful horse business that virtually anyone who wants to succeed can succeed!

All you have to do is: 1. get credentials, 2. focus on a niche, 3. become an expert.

Look around and you might think there is a lot of competition vying for the business you want.  But there really isn’t.  There are a lot of people offering services within the horse industry; but few that are truly qualified.

In the US today, less than 26 per cent of the population has a college degree of any kind.

Less than 10 per cent of those who operate a horse training or horse care business have any credentials at all; less than 1 per cent has a degree or professional certification in equine studies.  (And don’t let anyone tell you they are “qualified” because they have years of experience—experience is not a substitute for knowledge.)

Get credentials and start just about any kind of horse business you want.  You’ll be a success.

When you have credentials, you’ll be in demand.  Apply for a job and list your education credentials and it’s almost a guarantee you’ll get hired.  Business can’t find enough “credentialed” horse lovers.

There are more than 200 colleges in the US today offering equine study degrees, not to mention the “online” equine study degree programs available.

If you want an education, you can get it.

Decide on a niche rather than trying to be everything to everyone.

Most horse trainers today can’t earn a living training horses; they have a wife or husband who actually supports the family.  The main reason they fail to generate enough income to succeed is they aren’t recognized by potential clients for what they do.

Advertise and tell people about the horse services you provide is being visible.  But being visible isn’t good enough…you have to be “recognizable.”  When someone wants her horse trained for the show pen trail, your name and face need to be the first thing they think of.

The only way to become “recognizable” is to become synonymous with the service you offer.

Cathy Hanson, a HorseCoursesOnline.com instructor, trains world champion show pen trail horses, but not just any trail horses.  She trains American Quarter Horse trail horses.  Winning championships makes her recognizable to her market, as does the “visibility” of being an AQHA director and AQHA’s 2008 most valuable professional.

Hanson isn’t trying to compete with Hunt Seat, Reiner, Pleasure or Dressage trainers; she is focused on her niche.  Good economic times or slow, her barn is filled with clients who want to compete with AQHA show pen trail horses at the world championship levels.

Once you’ve decided on your niche, you want to become an expert.

Becoming an expert isn’t nearly as hard as you think.

If you read one book per week about the subject you’ve chosen…horses and whatever it is you are going to be doing with them as your business, within one year (52 books) you’ll have information equivalent of a doctorate degree on that specific subject.

If you know that much about a specific horse subject, you’ll be able to teach that subject to others at local community college continuing education programs, or for groups or organizations associated with horses.   You’ll be able to give clinics and seminars about your subject.

Local and national horse magazines and newspapers will be delighted to have articles written by you on your subject of expertise.

If it’s so easy, you ask, why doesn’t everyone have a success horse business?

The answer:  they have more excuses not to do it than they have desire to do it.

Anyone who wants to fail will tell you, “I’d do it, but….”

As soon as they say the word, “but” you know they are a loser.

Want to have a successful horse busy?  It’s easy.  Follow the three steps and make no excuses.

Don Blazer teaches The Business of Making Money With Horses for www.horsecoursesonline.com which offers equine study degree and professional certification programs.

There’s no doubt I’m technologically challenged.

I admit it…I can answer my cell phone, and I can make a call.  I have no idea how to text message, change the ring tone or add music to entertain someone calling me.

Maybe it’s because of my intellectual shortcomings that I like horses . . . → Read More: A Horse, Of Course]]> By Don Blazer

There’s no doubt I’m technologically challenged.

I admit it…I can answer my cell phone, and I can make a call.  I have no idea how to text message, change the ring tone or add music to entertain someone calling me.

Maybe it’s because of my intellectual shortcomings that I like horses so much.  I don’t think horses are any more impressed with technology than I am.

(I like my cell phone with voice mail; horses like techno-fitted saddles.  But let’s face it, we can live without them.  My cell phone drops calls and my voice mail often doesn’t show up for days… techno-fitted saddles are great the day they are measured, but don’t fit so well as the horse ages, gains condition or loses weight, and that could be next week.)

Getting along with horses isn’t rocket science….lucky for me!

But big words, icons and complex ideas seem to be the order of the day.

I was reading an article about the “biomechanics” of riding.

What are “biomechanics” anyway?

With a little help from Webster, I learned “biomechanics is the application of principles and techniques of mechanics to structure, functions and capabilities of living organisms.”  And mechanics is the branch of physics that deals with motion and the phenomena of the action of forces on bodies.

After reading five pages of text on the biomechanics of riding, I finally figured out the author was trying to impress me with her grasp of the “needed depth of understanding required to encourage a horse to move forward.”

It’s “biomechanics” today…yesterday it was a “leg aid.”

Technology, of course, has impacted all horse equipment.

People trying to sell you the latest bit tout the “technological advances” which create a happy mouth, a stress-less communication or no resistance response due to dynamic design.  They have all kinds of technological jargon about how the bit puts pressure on this part or that part of the mouth to provide instant understanding by the horse.   (Never mind that they’ve never given consideration to your horse’s mouth configuration.)

Careful analysis, however, reveals that each bit works in exactly the same way….they are comfortable or uncomfortable, and when uncomfortable the horse (you hope) reacts in an effort to get comfortable once again.

I think that’s KISS technology—Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Both horses and I function pretty well when KISS technology is applied.

If you want a horse to go forward, apply the principles of biomechanics to the horse’s side…if the force is not great enough, the horse will not move.  Increased force upon the inert body will create the phenomena of motion.

Once the horse responds to the principle of physics which created the motion, immediately discontinue the pressure.

In terms I can understand: ask and you’ll get a response.  Praise the correct response; confront the wrong response.

Or make the good things easy for the horse, and make bad things hard.

And you thought I’d never be able to master the technology “speak”!

Visit A Horse, Of Course on the web at www.donblazer.com

Defined goals are needed – marked on arena wall, cones, etc. Set approx. 4/5ft apart – depending on size of arena.

Players are not numbered and are allowed to use the whole arena (no areas). Mounted umpire preferred.

White polo wraps Bell boots Bridle (with brow band decorated) Saddle (with breast collar decorated) Gloves Helmet Racket and ball Riding boots Crop Tail pull Spurs Saddle pads Halters Head check Spare halter Spare rackets Spare helmet Spare bridle Spare saddle pad Any kind of bag for storage of horse equipment . . . → Read More: Personal things to bring to a tournament]]> Bring your self

White polo wraps
Bell boots
Bridle (with brow band decorated)
Saddle (with breast collar decorated)
Gloves
Helmet
Racket and ball
Riding boots
Crop
Tail pull
Spurs
Saddle pads
Halters
Head check
Spare halter
Spare rackets
Spare helmet
Spare bridle
Spare saddle pad
Any kind of bag for storage of horse equipment (hockey bag)
Hay nets/ bags
Grooming kits
Passport papers and coggins
Coloured  electrical tape
Horse blankets
Feed bucket
Shipping bandages
Rain gear
Lawn chairs
Camera
Bug spray
Flash lights
Tent/RV
Clothes (white pants)
Tensor bandages for arm
Feed
Drinking water
Leather sticher
Duct tape and wire
Hole punch

Farrier tools (spare shoes) Saddle cleaning things Video camera Water trough for each pen White board & pens Barrels of water for trip down Hay for trip Tarp for hay Wheel barrow & scoop Vet box Human first aid electric fence wires, posts & charger or panels Jerseys . . . → Read More: Thing to Bring to the tournament as a Club]]> Bring as a club or group

Farrier tools (spare shoes)
Saddle cleaning things
Video camera
Water trough for each pen
White board & pens
Barrels of water for trip down
Hay for trip
Tarp for hay
Wheel barrow & scoop
Vet box
Human first aid
electric fence wires, posts & charger or panels
Jerseys and pin on numbers
Tie lines
Tail rosettes
Fire pit & wood

I remember a long time ago in high school seeing a sign behind the desk of my algebra teacher that read:

“The older we get the more we realize how much we don’t know” .

I also remember that at the ripe old age of sixteen that I thought this was . . . → Read More: When We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know]]> By Chris Irwin

I remember a long time ago in high school seeing a sign behind the desk of my algebra teacher that read:

“The older we get the more we realize how much we don’t know” .

I also remember that at the ripe old age of sixteen that I thought this was a “stupid” statement. I naturally assumed that this was just another example of false humility designed as a politically correct manipulation of young rebellious minds like mine in yet another attempt to coerce us into minding our manners and conforming to the standardized norm of the educational system. That was thirty years ago when I was 16. However, it didn’t take me all these thirty years to realize the profound truth in the statement that I had once assumed in the wisdom of my youth to be so ridiculous. Years later, while coaching in a clinic, I heard myself spontaneously uttering the words “the more I work with the horses, the more I realize how much I don’t know”. That realization suddenly dawned on me when I was about 40.

When I produced my first 2 training videos back in 1997, one on round penning and the other on riding, I was very fortunate to receive rave reviews in the horse industry magazines. But it was only 5 years later that I started realizing that I needed to re-make those initial videos because I had learned to work with horses more effectively, “softer”, more proactively instead of reactively, and as a result, more humanely. By 2004, seven years since my first videos were released, I couldn’t stand to see them being played at the horse expositions and my conscience wouldn’t allow me to produce and sell them anymore. In fact, it was time to start reproducing my entire video line. Why? Who did I meet that changed my perspective so much that I had to start all over with a “new and improved” methodology of horsemanship? The answer may surprise you as much as it did me. I met the true mind and nature of the horse.

The awareness for the reality of the cause and effect between humans and horses and the realization that horse trainers tend to want to “fix” or “train” problems and behaviours in horses that we, as humans, aren’t aware of our roll in causing in the first place, slowly began to dawn on me as I stepped out of the circle of influence of doing with the horses in the name of training and began to teach or coach from the outside looking in as a so called expert. In other words, I had very little awareness for the fact that I had become a master fireman who did not know that he was teaching people how to put out fires with horses that we had inadvertantly started in the first place. It wasn’t until I had spent more then a few years on tour as a clinician that I finally began to realize how much I didn’t know about what was really going on between people and horses.

Today, as I travel the world teaching what I have learned since I started teaching, it is not uncommon to witness people experience a myriad of emotional roller coaster reactions as they see with their own eyes what they have never seen before and they realize that they have unknowingly been causing so many of the undesirable issues that they have with their horses. Reactions commonly range from giggling with childlike delight on the upside to the extreme downside of sadness, guilt and despair, or sometimes an emotional meltdown complete with rivers of tears.

It can be a bitter pill to swallow when we are face to face with the glaring reality that a good trainer knows how to fix problems with horses but that a truly great trainer has learned how not to cause problems in the first place. It can pull the rug out from underneath our self image and our ego can have a very hard time accepting that a good trainer has the seat and the courage to ride the buck out of a horse but a great trainer rides a horse that has no need to buck. The older we get, the more we find out that so many of those old sayings are so true. We get in the way of what we want. We are our own worst enemy. We get ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. We so often create a situation of no-win, damned if we do, damned if we don’t. Then we want to shoot the messenger. And here’s the rub – somewhat like us, the horses do not know that we do not know our role in what we are causing.

Here’s an example. Let’s say that we are in the round pen or working with a horse on the longe line. As I’ve demonstrated in so many of these columns in the past, a horse will “read” our angle of approach when we are moving on the ground as a signal of our intent. Now, if the center of our body (meaning our belly button) is aiming at the shoulder or girth of the horse as we step in from behind to say “go forward”, then we are interpreted as herding the horse from behind and it is clear that we are simply moving the horse around us in a turn or a circle. This “shape” of body typically leads to a comfortable way of going and does not typically stress the mind of the horse. However, at least 95% of the people I meet are aiming at the head of the horse with their body while they work the horse from the ground. It is indeed human instinct to “confront” and to talk “face to face” so we think nothing of it. However, the horse interprets this as “bullish” body language and sometimes even as more of a threat to capture then a signal to herd. This stresses both the body and the mind of the horse and, depending on the confidence of the horse, will initiate fear, annoyance, frustration or even angry aggression. Then we need to “fix” the horse that is timid or “needs to be shown who is boss”. Most often, if the horse is merely annoyed and is saying so by constantly swishing his or her tail, then people don’t seem to see, or care to listen, to the message coming from the horse.

This is just one example of hundreds of cause and effect issues that are commonplace in everyday horsemanship. My point here is that when we unknowingly send signals to the horse that cause it to become stressed it does not know that this is our mistake. The horse does not know that we do not know our role in causing it to behave the way it does. The horse is a sentient being that lives in the moment and when we make it feel confused, frustrated, frightened, angry, sullen or any other feeling that does not feel good, then the horses associate that feeling with us. The horse looks at us as, “uh oh, here comes the guy that makes me feel bad” and they do not know that we do not know that we are causing this feeling. Here’s an example without horses that we’ve all seen that we can all relate to.

Imagine a young child holding a kitten in its arms. The child is enjoying “loving” the kitten. We see that the child is happy and simply wants to show the kitten affection. However, we see very clearly that the kitten is not enjoying how the so called loving is being communicated and while the child is having a feel good experience the kitten feels trapped and mauled. We find this scenario somewhat cute because we know how innocent and niave the child is as to how the kitten is perceiving the experience. The child does not know what he or she does not know about the reality of the situation. The kitten also does not know that the child does not knwo but then the kitten says “enough is enough” and claws and scratches at the child in order to break free of the human being causing it distress. Then the child cries out in pain, releases the kitten, and then most often feels sad or angry at the “stupid cat” that does not appreciate the love it was receiving.

Now exchange the word kitten with horse, the young child with almost any human being of any age or background, and exchange the kitten clawing and scratching for horses that are biting, striking, kicking, rearing, bolting, bucking, jigging, pawing, refusing to stop, refusing to go, won’t stand still for mounting, can’t be caught, won’t pick up their feet, refuse to load in trailers or wash racks, will not “accept the bit”, will not “respect the leg”, the list goes on and on.

The performance and behaviour of your horse is a direct reflection of how it feels about your performance and behaviour. Fact: If you keep repeating the same techniques over and over again, believing that practice makes perfect, but the methods are not working and getting for you what you want from your horse, then you’re missing something and you need new information. Practice does not make perfect, only perfect practice makes perfect. Perhaps Einstein put it best when he said: “Problems can not be solved at the same level they are created.”

While it is indeed true that “there is not a horse that can’t be rode or a cowboy that can’t be throwed” it is also true that nobody is perfect and none of us know everything there is to know about what the horses truly need from us in order to be the best that they can possibly be. My point here is not to give you a practical tip to fix anything about your horse but simply to remind you that we are supposed to be the one who leads the dance between human and horse and a horse can only follow as good as it is lead. If your horse has even the slightest issue such as his or her tail swishes even when there are no flies around, or it carries itself just slightly inverted, or not quite engaging and tracking up enough, or any number of little things that all add up to a less then ideal experience with your horse and for your horse, then please remember that “the buck stops here” and it is up to the human, not the horse, to acknowledge “there must be something I don’t know that I need to figure out in order to resolve this issue with my horse.” Knowledge is power and the more we know the softer, kinder, gentler and more satisfying our relationship with horses can be.

In closing, I could sum up this column with “ask not what your horse can do for you – ask what you can do for your horse”.

To understand the importance of dental maintenance you have to first realize how the horse’s jaw moves while under saddle or masticating his food. Understanding the structural requirement for full and free movement of the jaw (forward/backward and side to side) is imperative if you are seeking to have a . . . → Read More: The Importance of a Dental Maintence Program]]> Grant D. MacKinnon C.Eq.D.

To understand the importance of dental maintenance you have to first realize how the horse’s jaw moves while under saddle or masticating his food. Understanding the structural requirement for full and free movement of the jaw (forward/backward and side to side) is imperative if you are seeking to have a comfortable, willing riding companion.

A horse is designed to tuck and draw his chin to his chest as he collects or backs up, when he turns, his jaw moves forward and to the side he is being asked to turn. Therefore, any protuberance or irregularities in either the incisor table or molar table will impede full and free movement of the jaw. By preventing the jaw from moving, it makes it difficult to move freely without pain.

Hooks, ramps and protuberant teeth, sheered molar tables and wedged incisors are all causes of pain in a horse’s mouth when he attempts to collect, back up or turn. I believe there are varying degrees of pain tolerance that is unique to each horse which provide every rider with a collection of subtle clues as to how he handles the pain in his mouth when asked to perform. Unfortunately, the answers are disclosed when the horse is in a pressure situation. A couple such examples are (1) the need for the horse to compensate for the level of his head prior to performing the task requested by the rider can be very costly especially in timed events; and (2) judged form events, grade on consistency and cadence, both sacrificed when comfort is compromised.

Generally, horses that are not afforded free and full movement are compensatory to the restriction. As the horse’s head goes up, and/or the nose tips out, the jaw slides back. Conversely, as his head comes down, the head collects and the jaw slides forward. Therefore, tie downs and cavesons increase the resistance of the horse by forcing marginal compliance. The more resistant your horse is, the less capable of immediate compliance he is able to provide. Restoring full function through regular dental maintenance, will provide your horse with an opportunity to answer with a soft, subtle and immediate response.

A horse lets us know when his mouth is uncomfortable by forcing his head up, stiffening his neck, tipping his nose, rooting-out on the reins, or moving heavy on his front end. If a horse does not have balance in his mouth he can not get balance in his feet. I am a firm believer that the potential can be realized in each individual horse, when they are afforded full function and complete comfort, and that only comes with a regular dental maintenance program.

Remember, all undesirable actions are compensatory to some point of pain and attributes to a horse’s balance and ability to perform. If you are experiencing undesirable behaviors while riding your horse, have a certified equine dentist take a look, to get the answer straight from your horse’s mouth.

If you have a question about your horse’s teeth and how they might relate to his health or performance call 1-306-747-2724, 1-403-936-5394, 1-208-420-2701 or e-mail mackequine@sasktel.net.

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