Wild Horse Round-up News and NE Protest Info

Press Release from Equine Welfare Alliance as published on StableWoman’s Gazette

In Which Hope Grabs the Scarf, Buddy Gives his Lesson, and Canon Becomes Opinionated

Hope

Overdressed for chores the other evening when the temperature rose into the twenties from the negatives, I removed my scarf and wound it around the gate a couple of times so it wouldn’t fall to the floor.  As I left it there, I briefly wondered if Hope would be curious about it, but it wasn’t tied, and I dismissed it…certainly she’d follow me out for hay as per usual.  My son continued moving some of the chickens from the loft stairs to the roosts, something he does periodically (I don’t know), and he was standing just at the bottom of the earthen ramp when Hope came scrambling out of the barn with the scarf dangling from her mouth.  The ground was still a bit slick, but she kept her purchase as she slid to a stop, back whirled back towards me.

I had stepped out of the run-in shed, and began, “Whoa, girl…whoa…” as soon as she caught the snow.  She came cantering up towards me, and I wondered briefly if I was going to have to dive out of her way, when she dropped the scarf and came to a surprised, but pleased halt right in front of me.  I picked up the scarf, and she let me rub it on her, and I demonstrated it flowing out, and dropping it.  Buddy came up to give it a sniff in case I was passing out treats, and wandered over to the hay when none were forth coming.

The next night I brought out a rope, the one I use when chasing the horses out of the barn for antics (rule is no messing around in the barn)…sometimes, I still use it with Canon to move him our from the cribbing trap to the hay.  So, I was standing there with the rope, and it has a rope halter attached to it (came with Canon), and Hope is standing there by the hay bag with me…this is the evening after the scarf incident.  Hope gives me a cheeky glance out of the corner of her eye and takes up the part of the halter in her mouth.

Aha, I think, self – directed learning opportunity.  I tug on it gently, saying, “Let go…let go…”  She let go of it, and stood for a bit.  Next, mouthed the halter part, and Iheld it out and said, “Take it…it’s okay…take it.”  She took it in her mouth.  “Good, now let go.”  She let go.  This is a boring recounting, which is awesome!  Boring is safe.  Boring means that my assessment was correct.  She initiated an interaction with me which increased her vocabulary – which is growing all of the time.  She is self monitoring her reactions to stimuli, and listening to commands which override her fear response.

Take, for instance, the frightening feed bag fiasco – okay, it wasn’t that bad, but I had to go for the alliteration.  The other night, Jamal refilled one of the feed bins with feed, as I was calling the horses into the barn for their dinner.  Hope got half way into the barn (her feeding stall is one of the ones closest to the gate) when a loud crinkling sound happened and she startled and ran outside a few steps.  I called her back into the barn, and the sound happened again, but she just turned sideways and looked at me from the corner of her eye.  I glanced back at Jamal.

He gave the feed bag another little shove with his foot and it crinkled loudly against the concrete. “I’m just getting her used to it,” he said.  I nodded.  “C’mon, girl get your dinner.”  She followed me into the stall and I set down the bowl.  Jamal did not crinkle the bag while I was in the stall, which we were definitely not ready to face.  As soon as I stepped out though he continued shuffling it to the  tack room.  Hope came to the door of her stall, and I slid it closed so that I could get Buddy and Canon their food.

She pressed on the door, and was agitated when I came out of Canon’s stall…Jamal was still crinkling randomly…and I told her, “Go eat your food!” And I pointed at her dish.  She did.  I slid the door back open and we were finished.  The bag was put away in the trash, food and hay distributed, and the horses had eaten. 

Buddy’s Lessons in the Snow

A couple of lessons were cancelled the past few weeks due to ice.  A horse may be able to keep their footing in treacherous conditions if there’s no rider to unbalance him, but adding a rider, especially a beginner requires pretty good footing.  Buddy seems to be pleased to show us how to operate on the snow and semi-slippery conditions – as a Haflinger, the snow and cold temperatures are his element, and he seems comfortable and happy to come out and work.  Howver, the thing we have to watch is overheating him.

When I’m working Buddy in cold temperatures – in the twenties – I have to watch the intensity of the lesson so that he doesn’t overheat with his winter coat.  I won’t clip him, as they can be out more without rugs and such, so as I am not clipping (which would allow his body to dissapate heat in more intensive work), I have to be aware of how hot he is as he works.  We’re back to watching respiration, looking for fatigue, or other signs that he’s had enough aerobic work for the weather conditions.  This last lesson truncated a bit for this reason…next lesson will have more walking periods in it, and beginning rein work – yup, they’ve made it to the next level.  Check back for more on rein work!

Canon

Canon is doing pretty well, but once in a while he’s been making faces at me in the barn, and the other night bit my knuckle (lightly).  I chased him out of the barn, and from his reaction I wondered if that’s what he wanted me to do.  I decided to go back to moving him out of the barn right after his dinner to the outside hay, knowing he could go back in after we’re done with chores and eat the hay in the barn if necessary.  We’d been leaving him in the barn after dinners when the temps dropped with windchills deeper in the negatives, which he needs.  With the front barn doors closed, the inside of the barn is quite comfortable, with hay and water inside, but whenever he wants he can step out for hay or water, and to cool off a bit, wander around or exercise or hang out with Buddy and Hope.

By being able to regulate how much shelter they have, they can maximize their body temperature in relation to weather conditions.  With access to hay both out and in the barn, I can observe their preferences in different conditions.  Their actions are highly variable, and my observations are not consistant, written, or at the same times of day always, but overall, they seem to prefer being outside, by and large, for the most part.  Hope and Buddy prefer being in the run-in shed to the barn – perhaps the draft in them both makes the barn uncomfortably warm – but Canon prefers the barn druing deep cold and wind…with his long legs (heat dissapaters), and not as dense coat, this also makes sense.

When it’s windy they prefer their hay in the little copse that’s fenced, but on calm days they are generally in the far pasture for midday hay.  Canon especially has been moving out quite well, and seems a lot more confident on the footing, and pretty comfortable over all.  I have seen a bit of weight loss on him, both overall, and in muscle development, so my goal is to keep them over-hayed at all times, and bring him out on nicer days to hang out with me and go on walks, both for the exercise and companionship.  More than anything else, that seems to have the biggest effect on how much, and how intensely he cribs (a bit more of both lately).

January Carnival of the Horses

Welcome to the January 3, 2010 edition of carnival of the horses.

GP presents There are No Rainy Days « Musings from Montana posted at Manely Montana, saying, “riding in all kinds of weather … good for heart and soul”

Mary H. presents Should You Use A Mounting Block to Get On Your Horse? posted at Stale Cheerios, saying, “Helpful points to consider before you jump up into the saddle!”

Simrat presents How To – Mud Knots posted at Akal Ranch, saying, “Keep your horse’s tail clean and tidy through the muddy season, Pacific Northwest style.”

enlightenedhorsemanship presents Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There! | enlightened horsemanship through touch posted at enlightened horsemanship through touch.

Michelle DiPiazza presents Meeting the Challenge posted at From The Horse’s Back.

Dan Henderson presents A time to reflect posted at Geekwithahorse… a brief segue into an alternate universe.

Marissa Q presents Snow Covered Horse Show posted at Tucker the Wunderkind.

Lee Cullen presents Cantering: My Secret Weapon posted at Confessions of a Struggling Dressage Rider, saying, “How the right horse can help you combat cantering woes.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of the horses using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: carnival of the horses, blog carnival.

Many thanks to all who participated in this month’s Carnival!!!  And thanks to enlightened horsemanship for organizing, and helping me through the process…it’s easy, really.

Equine-Human Relations: Empowerment

Empowerment through awareness

Years ago, as I began my second year in college my roommate taught me a very important social skill that I thoroughly and completely lacked.  She didn’t sit me down and say. “You need to do this, and this, and it will make things better.”  How she taught me was through her own social skills, the art of asking questions, and caring enough to continue encouraging me to share myself.  I didn’t even realize there was something to share.

A typical conversation between us early in the year went like this:

Her:  How was your day?

Me: Fine.

Her: And….

Me: Fine.

Her: What did you have for lunch?

Me: I don’t know.

Her: Did you eat?

Me: Probably, I don’t feel hungry.

Her: (Big sigh)

Her: I had biology class today, and Professor Schmookie* went on about something to do with salamanders, and it was so boring, but Juju Bean* wrote me notes through the whole thing and said that later we might play vollyball.  Do you want to play?

Me: Uhm, okay.

Her: And I saw Fredly* and Bilby* on the way to lunch, and Fredly* made me mad, because he said that women shouldn’t bother going to college because they were just going to end up staying home when they had kids anyway.  And I told HIM, that even if he was just joking, he was being sexist.  Bilby* made a funny joke about the way the school does the scheduling, and laughed so hard.  Do you want some hot cocoa, I’m making some for me?

 These conversations astounded me.  My roommate not only remembered the details of her day, and responded to them emotionally, and shared willingly, and asked so kindly how my life was going, that I found myself looking for my own responses to the world around me as I went.  I brought them back to her like treasures from the beach, sometimes clumsey attempts to give her something other than ‘fine’. 

Later in the year our conversations went more like this:

Her: How was your day?

Me: Uhmmmmm, I had philosophy this morning, and uh, we were talking about the nature of the self, you know.  The guy in the cave who can only see the shadows. 

Her: What did you have for lunch?

Me: Sandwich.

Her: (small sigh) What kind of sandwich?  Did you like it?

Me: Uhm…I think it was turkey…and…it was okay.

By the end of the year, I could not only remember the food I ate, and whether or not is was good, bad, indifferent and how and why, but I was freely sharing, and telling stories about my days, and asking questions, and had learned important social awareness that I had previously lacked. The fact that she cared about me and my day, inquired as to my well being, brought me to a new level of self awareness, which empowered me to think and feel about my life in ways in which I was unaccustomed.  Processing my thoughts and feelings about my life, empowered me to react, respond, and make changes to things I didn’t like about myself, my interactions with others, my classes.

When we begin to carve out moments with our horses to listen to them, we provide them the opportunity for self-expression.  In the early stages, their reactions may be small, shy, ‘fine’ kind of response.  Persistance may lead them to begin to develop self awareness.  Caring about their moods, thoughts, and physical environment; making adjustments based on the best interpretation and gut feeling of their response; and observing closely when they respond differently can eventually lead to greater empowerment.  Perhaps the horses will be surprised and amazed that they not only have reactions, and opinions, but that someone cares enough about them to help them make beneficial changes. 

This pattern of interaction, which I think of as ‘processing’, is one that I brought with me into my life as parent.  Every day after school, or as soon as possible, we process their day – what happened, what they thought about it or felt about it; what may need more time and attention or assistence.  It’s similar to my daily review at the end of the day, which is private, but done in a sharing, caring environment to help moderate responses, or problem solve, or just joke around together about our lives.  With the horses, I do a similar thing – looking for prefences in training approach, hay placement, tack comfort, overall mood etc.

What I’ve found is that they experiment…they’ll communicate something just to see what will happen.  Eventually, they are training me as much as I am training them – they know that I will listen to their concerns, honor their preferences when I can, and trust that if I can’t, there may be a good reason for it.

*Names have been changed, and details fictionalized.

Envision the Future

The World in which I would like to live would have these characteristics:

• What is needed is within reach at the right time
• What is desired from the highest good is realized with hard work and dedication
• Mistakes are forgiven at the moment of choosing to improve
• Clear guidance is available upon request
• A clear delineation of the impossible against the merely improbable allows expansion in every area
• Nothing is impossible given enough time, universal understanding, and focus
• Self knowledge leads to continuous positive change
• The intangible is held in higher regard than the tangible
• One’s livelihood and success is not at the expense of another’s survival
• Justice wins