"Why Are Your Horses So Calm?"

Another rider in the arena asked me that one day.  That day, I rode Dawn after she'd had 5 days off, and Red and Pie after 4 days off.  And it was pretty darn cold in the arena - 20s - after several days of much colder weather and some extra time off for the holidays.  This person's horse was propping, and threatening to buck and rear, and head-shaking, and just a little bit crazy - after being run around loose in the arena.  While this was going on, Red and I, and then Pie and I, were motoring around doing our regular work, without any lungeing, groundwork or running around before hand.

And yesterday and this morning I rode my horses after they'd had a lot of days off over the past two weeks. All three horses were just about perfect from the moment I got on - no running them around or lungeing first, just get on and ride.  When I was riding Red and Pie yesterday afternoon, another rider commented again on how calm they were.

This got me thinking about my horses, and how completely wonderful they now are to ride, almost every time.  What makes this possible?  It isn't just temperament - both Dawn and Red could be described as high-strung and even somewhat reactive - they're very sensitive and alert, and Red came to me as a horse who was very anxious and insecure.  Pie is still young - he's 7 and is capable of some big spooks.  But under almost all circumstances, I just get on and ride and they deliver.  How come we're able to do this?  There's no real magic to it, it's all very straightforward.  I'm no expert, but here's what I've found that works, for me and my horses.

Firs, what does "calm" mean?  I think when most people say my horses are calm, they mean that they work well, without signs of nervousness, and without rushing, pulling or acting up.  I mean those things, too, but I mean something else, too - that leads the horse to look calm while allowing them to really perform for me.  There's that magical combination of relaxation with true forward - from the hindquarters - responsiveness and consistent softness.  Think fire plus ice and you've got what I want from my horses.

Here are some things that I don't think qualify as calm.  Calm isn't a horse that's exhausted from being lunged to death or ridden into the ground.  Calm isn't a horse that's dull, shut down, checked out or that's given up due to coercion.   Calm isn't a horse that's been desensitized or sacked out - that can be a horse that's shut down or that has given up or can be a horse that's comfortable with specific objects - that's not calm, that's just desensitized to those objects.  Calm isn't a horse that's "broken" or coerced into submission.  Calm isn't a young horse that has been imprinted - there may be an appearance of calm but the horse may not have the ability to deal with challenging situations.

Calm requires a horse that is secure and self-confident, together with you.  This doesn't just happen - horses are prey animals and for them to feel secure and confident in partnership with a human isn't something that comes naturally to them.  (That's why the term "natural horsemanship" is such a misnomer - there's nothing natural about humans working with horses.)  Calm has to be learned, and the horse, in order to learn it, has to feel secure with you as a leader - which has, as far as I'm concerned, nothing whatsoever to do with being your horse's "alpha" - interacting with horses in that way is just another form of dominance/submission in disguise, and that's not calm, that's just dominance/submission.

A calm horse isn't necessarily a horse that won't ever spook, although spooking is likely to be less common - but it's what happens right after the spook that will tell if the horse is calm or not.

To my mind, a calm horse arises from a combination of things, all of which need to be present for the horse to be able to be secure and confident.  They are:

• Management (handling and stabling) practices
• Training and experience
• What the human brings to the party

I'll be doing some other posts on those aspects of calmness.

A side note on the nervous or insecure rider, or beginner rider.  Riding a well-trained horse that has a basically quiet temperament can really allow a nervous or beginning rider to develop skills and confidence.  A nervous, anxious, high-strung or mistrained/undertrained horse is a very bad combination with a nervous or inexperienced rider or handler.

More to come . . .

Life Gets Back to Normal

Our temperatures finally inched up to almost 20F yesterday - it felt like a heat wave - so I finally managed some rides.  The last time I'd ridden Red and Pie was January 4, just short rides to test out the new saddle.  Red had been ridden only one other time this year, briefly, the day the saddle came, and Pie not at all, since December 29.  So Red had had 9 days off out of the past 10, and Pie 10.

One other reason I finally rode yesterday was that the horses finally had a full day of turnout - they had been stuck in their stalls on Monday and Tuesday due to the extreme cold and had only a short day of turnout Wednesday.

I rode both Red and Pie in the new saddle, using a much thinner pad for Red - the saddle still wasn't 100% level but it was much better and he seemed very happy with it.  The pad was a doubled over one, and I think with a single width thin pad things will be just fine.  Pie also seemed to approve of the new saddle.

And this morning - temperatures were in the mid-20s - I rode Dawn - the last time I'd ridden her was December 28 - that means she'd had 12 days off - this was our first ride of the new year!

With all three horses, I didn't do any lungeing or groundwork first - I just got on. All three horses were absolutely fabulous - forward, responsive and soft.  All three seemed happy that we were working together again, and all three rode just like they always do.  Pie even came to the front of his stall and waited for me to get him out to ride, which is unusual for him - usually he's more interested in eating. It sure feels wonderful that things are getting back to normal.

I'm working on a post or posts about the calm horse . . .

The Ultimate Goal - Understanding

It's still too cold to ride today, although the horses should get some outside time.

In light of all the plans we're making for 2014 with our equines, here's a wonderful post from Mare at Simply Horse Crazy.  Puts things into perspective . . .

More of the Same - But Heading in the Right Direction

Still very cold, horses still confined to quarters.  Better than yesterday, though - temperature was -5F with a wind chill in the -20s when I went to barn in the late morning - felt like a heat wave!  And it got to zero by my afternoon visit.  There is some hope that tomorrow will be a bit better - highs above zero and wind chills in the negative teens - and that the horses will get back out for at least part of the day.

Dawn continues to be resigned, Pie is fretful, and Red is agitated.  But this morning, after we did our "new" routine of stall picking and hand walking in the barn aisle, everyone settled down pretty well.  Red greeted all his herd mates and stopped to watch water buckets being washed in the wash stall.  In the afternoon, he wasn't too agitated (for him) and seemed relatively content with our routine.  I'm mighty tired of hand walking up and down and up and down our short barn aisle, and I expect the horses are too.

By the end of the week, we're supposed to be in the 30s, which will seem like summertime . . .

Too Cold

Today was the coldest day, in terms of wind chill, that I've experienced, ever.  Those of you in the upper midwest probably have been colder, but it's way too cold for me.  When I drove to the barn this morning, the air temperature was -17C with a wind chill in the -40s.  Fortunately, my truck started, although it didn't want to.

All I could do at the barn this morning was check on the horses.  They're stuck in their stalls.  Our small barn - 11 stalls - exits through the indoor arena and the indoor arena is full of pasture-boarded horses who were brought in there last night and were in there today.  So there was nowhere to hand walk except our very short barn aisle.  So Red, Dawn and Pie took short walks with me.  Dawn's not too upset about staying in - she knows it's cold and she's used to staying in or coming in early when it's very cold - she really doesn't like the cold.

Pie and Red are much more cold-hardy - they're usually good down to a -20F windchill - and they didn't really understand why they were trapped inside.  Pie was anxious to come out of his stall, but when I put him back in, he resignedly started eating his hay again.  Poor Red was frantic - he's not much of one for staying in a stall at the best of times - he'd be a good 24/7 pasture horse but the shelter at our current place isn't great, and there's no way to control how much the horses get to eat.  He and I did some fast walking, but he really didn't want to go back in his stall and tried to come out again, and kept bumping the door with his nose.  His head was high and his eyes were white-ringed - he was pretty upset.  He didn't like it when I took Pie out for his walk, either.

This afternoon, the temperature had made it all the way up to about -13F, with a wind chill in the -30sF. I made it back to the barn to check on the horses, do some grooming, pick stalls - a fair amount of work as they'd been in all day - and do some hand-walking in the barn aisle.  Dawn was fine.  Pie was very restless, pawing, biting the cross ties and doing some head-bobbing - this is extreme restlessness for Pie.  He clearly had a lot of pent-up energy.  His lower back also seemed a bit tight when I groomed - probably from standing around in a stall all day and night.  But we did our walk, with some head lowering at the end of each lap to stretch out his back, and when I put him back in his stall he went right to eating his hay.

Red started out very antsy - lots of nickering and pawing while I was walking Pie, and a lot of fidgeting on the cross ties, and pawing, while I was cleaning his stall.  But he seemed to enjoy his grooming, and we had a nice aisle walk.  He started out very energetic, and wanted to greet all the other horses - we do this when we walk - but the more we walked the more he hesitated as we passed his stall door.  Finally I asked him to go in, and he went right back in the stall without any resistance. He did think about trying to go out again - I said no and he responded - but then he took a big drink and settled down to eat his hay.  I was glad to see that he wasn't as agitated as he'd been.

More of the same tomorrow, and then things look like they might start to warm up . . . here's hoping.

Cold and Two Dynamos

Friday the horses were in - I took Pie and Red out to the paddocks to hang out for the day with lots of hay - they're pretty happy with their herd of two regardless of how cold it is.  Since no other horses were out there, I opened the gates between paddocks - they're small, the size of a couple of stalls put together - so they could roam if they wanted to, but they seemed content to stand and eat.

Dawn also went into a paddock briefly while her stall was cleaned - I like to get them out during stall cleaning since the dust is so bad.  Then I hand walked her for a bit, and we even did some trotting along together, with lots of stops and starts and changes of direction for fun.  Then she went back in her stall for the day.

Saturday it got into the 20s - heat wave! - the horses were in turnout all day, and I finally managed to squeeze in two rides, on Red and Pie.   I really wanted to ride - I've only ridden one other time in 2014 and that's way too few rides for my taste.  And I wanted to try the saddle out on Red one more time before making a decision.

Before I saddled up, I switched out the stirrups that came with the saddle - perfectly nice tooled leather stirrups - for my barrel racing stirrups, which I adore.  They hang perfectly, put my feet in an excellent position and have very nice grip pads - and they come in many cool colors and aren't terribly expensive.

Red and I had a very nice ride - he was a bit feisty, and we had a bit of "dolphin" bucking - sort of an up and down leaping/roller coaster movement - on our first canter departure.  After than he settled down, although he was very forward at the trot and very much enjoyed his cantering.  He was really strutting his stuff, and was delivering some excellent work. The saddle felt good to me, although the seat is quite a bit harder than the seat on my existing saddle.  In looking at the saddle after I rode, it was tending to tilt down a bit towards the back, and I think my Diamond Wool pad is a bit too thick - it ends up raising the saddle in front a bit even with the wider tree.  Later, I tried the saddle on Red again with a friend's much thinner wool Navaho pad, and it seemed much more level - I'll have to get one of those along with the other new things Red needs (to go with his new saddle).

Then I also rode Pie in the new saddle - it actually fit him very well with the Diamond Wool pad and sat quite level - he's a bit narrower in the shoulder than Red and is also not as uphill.  Pie was a dynamo - much more forward than usual at both the trot and canter, which was a lot of fun.  The same boarder who'd asked me before "why are your horses so calm?" was riding again and said "he's a dynamo?"  (Her horse was fussing, and balking, and pretty much as usual.) I said, yes, for Pie, since he's usually so calm and forward isn't always automatic.  He was being very, very good, and settled right down to work, doing some really lovely canter.

Today the horses were in again all day - wind chills below zero.  Dawn got a couple of hours out in a paddock and was happy to come in, and Red and Pie stayed out for almost 5 hours and came in covered in snow that had blown off the roof.  Monday and Tuesday we're supposed to have record-breaking cold and wind chills, so horses are in and we're all going to huddle up.  Hoping for a warm up later in the week . . .

One Ride in January - and New Saddle Arrives!

I finally managed a ride today.  Not entirely because I wanted to - the temperature was in the teens and it was very cold in the (unheated) indoor, and none of the horses had been ridden in days due to the cold, but the new saddle arrived . . .

And who can resist a new saddle?  So Red and I tried it out.  It arrived in very good condition, and was just as represented in the photos.  And I can lift and carry it - it's a light trail model, although all leather and no cordura  (my existing saddle is part cordura so it's a bit lighter).  Red didn't object to saddling - no shifting around - which was a good sign.  There was plenty of room in the shoulders, which has been a problem with the existing saddle.

Red was plenty feisty - it was 15 degrees and he hadn't been ridden in 4 days.  But he was very, very good - there was a bit of bracing, and one episode of head bobbing and shaking at the canter - but otherwise he was very willing and cooperative.  He didn't seem to mind the saddle - the seat is much harder than my existing saddle, which will take some getting used to, and I need to replace the stirrups with some of the barrel racing stirrups I have on my other saddle.  The back cinch is also too short and doesn't have an attachment strap to the front cinch (pretty important).  But these are all minor issues.

The only question I have is about the rear skirt of the saddle.  Red is quite short in the back, and I need to be sure that the skirt of the saddle doesn't catch him in the lower back.  I was riding him in a 1/2" wool pad that is short, and may need to go to a longer pad and perhaps one that is a bit thicker.

The weather tomorrow is supposed to be nasty - we got 17" of snow yesterday into today, which is one thing, but tomorrow morning wind chills are supposed to be in the -20sF.  Saturday is a bit warmer - upper 20sF and Red and I should get another good shot at a saddle try out, but then Sunday afternoon we're back in the deep freeze and Monday and Tuesday look positively nasty - one day the high is -7F with wind chills of -40F.  Winter . . .