Horse whispering etc?..... for eventing

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HeyBigSpender

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Right, I'm going to start off, I'm not into this whole, horse whispering thing, and to be honest a skeptic. But I don't want to get rid of my horse, overly attached to him, but in all fairness he's not doing what I want him to do, we can easily do 1m20 show jumping and Novice xc schooling. He has a lot of nappy issues when we're out competing, normally in the lead/at the top after show jumping.... this is at unaffiliated 80 level. I'm not a nervous rider, and we've carries on trying and trying, and I've competed other horses before.

I'll try anything once!

Any either skeptics-turned-believers tried horse whisperers/similar people/other ideas? Or people who have always used them - success stories?

NB, I don't really want schooling suggestions etc for what to do at competitions, done many clinics, had advice etc, and it mostly comes down to "if your horse doesn't do what you want to do in life, sell him" That's my last resort!!
 
not a believer in it myself, however it is entirely up to you. At least if you try one and get nowhere you will feel that you have given your horse every chance and if you decide to sell him it will possibly eliminate the "what if" and "if only I had tried" thoughts. Who knows maybe the whisperer will be able to identify something to help you. Good luck and keep us posted.
 
don't believe in horse whispering, but found Warwick Schillers work interesting, is no rocket science,, basic common sense, but I had a lot of 'light bulb' moments with regards to why horses may behave the way they do and what may be effective to get rid of the behaviour. Is not fluffy bunny stuff. He has alot of videos on youtube and a subscription site .. you need to pay to access.. but you can pay for one month and then stop .. currently I think there are almost 200 training videos to view and they are all 'real time' videos with him working with real horses with problems (most are between 15 mins -40 mins long) .. is not too expensive either .. think around 25$
 
I have used a couple of animal communicators who worked from photos. I had great results with accuracy they could not have guessed at and infact my WB described the exact site of his jury before he went to the Sue Dyson lameness clinic. I did publish that in here much to the sceptics amusement. Strangely none of them posted again after I published Sue's findings!!! He also said he found ridden work too difficult. He was diagnosed at Newmarket with chronic sacro iliac dysfunction and I got LOU for him. SI problems are nori oily hard to diagnose especially a chronic injury and my vet was both scratching her head and understandably not keen to nerve block an aggressive 17hh athletic horse at the time.
In my opinion you have little but circa £45 to lose.
People are scared of using ACs - it's not spooky nor rocket science it's just an ability using ESP we all had but most have lost or have no inclination to regain it.
 
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Exactly, I'm glad even the skeptics here are open-minded, I said myself, i don't believe, but I again, what is that sort of money at the end of the day either a way of keeping my perfectly capable horse who I'm attached too, or a way to give me good reason to sell up? any suggestions of people to look up thank you? :)
 
HeyBigSpender said:
Right, I'm going to start off, I'm not into this whole, horse whispering thing, and to be honest a skeptic. But I don't want to get rid of my horse, overly attached to him, but in all fairness he's not doing what I want him to do, we can easily do 1m20 show jumping and Novice xc schooling. He has a lot of nappy issues when we're out competing, normally in the lead/at the top after show jumping.... this is at unaffiliated 80 level. I'm not a nervous rider, and we've carries on trying and trying, and I've competed other horses before.

I'll try anything once!

Any either skeptics-turned-believers tried horse whisperers/similar people/other ideas? Or people who have always used them - success stories?

NB, I don't really want schooling suggestions etc for what to do at competitions, done many clinics, had advice etc, and it mostly comes down to "if your horse doesn't do what you want to do in life, sell him" That's my last resort!!
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Horse Whispering has links to the Natural Horsemanship followers - some of it is just long winded stuff but some is just using common sense. The best way to deal with your horses problem (napping) is to understand by process of elimination why he's doing it and you don't need a horse whisperer or any psychic ability to do that.
Most horses nap for a reason - quite often because they simply aren't really enjoying what they're doing. That could be pain related, because they aren't fit enough for the job - horses are very stoic animals for the main part or because they lack confidence in themselves or their rider/handler
 
I appreciate your comment JDee, and I understand, its the whole issue about just being at competitions, he's more than fit for the classes I'm doing, I doubt its confidence as I've said schooling wise he's ace ;) I don't think its because he lacks confidence in me purely because when I got him he didn't jump, he was a nervous wreck, taken him so long to get where he is now and he jumps fabulously, and confidently out schooling! Again I doubt it's a pain thing, because although I do think he'd be the type to tell me, I think he'd tell me schooling, since I use the same tack etc. It might be that he doesn't enjoy it in a competition environment, unfortunately, as i said he excels in dressage, his show jumping is okay, and a lot of the time he's leading before xc, so it might be that he doesn't like xc'ing at competition, which is disappointing, and not 100% sure why its different from schooling really :(
 
HeyBigSpender said:
I appreciate your comment JDee, and I understand, its the whole issue about just being at competitions, he's more than fit for the classes I'm doing, I doubt its confidence as I've said schooling wise he's ace ;) I don't think its because he lacks confidence in me purely because when I got him he didn't jump, he was a nervous wreck, taken him so long to get where he is now and he jumps fabulously, and confidently out schooling! Again I doubt it's a pain thing, because although I do think he'd be the type to tell me, I think he'd tell me schooling, since I use the same tack etc. It might be that he doesn't enjoy it in a competition environment, unfortunately, as i said he excels in dressage, his show jumping is okay, and a lot of the time he's leading before xc, so it might be that he doesn't like xc'ing at competition, which is disappointing, and not 100% sure why its different from schooling really :(
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XC at a competition is so different to schooling, their confidence does get tested, they are all milling about in a group, warming up with others around then into the start box and away into the unknown, all alone, some horses really do lack confidence to go out xc where they cannot really see others, yet have no issues in the sj or dressage, schooling is set up totally differently so they are gaining confidence building up as you go, plenty of stopping and repeating of various jumps , if you as a rider cannot see the issue then you need to look at it more from the horses point of view, not sure you require a horse whisperer just a trainer with horse sense.

I would get out to a few more schooling sessions but set it up more as a competition so you warm up then leave the others, there need to be others ideally, and jump several fences going away from them out of sight, if he lacks confidence you need to build it little by little, do some alone and some as a pair, possibly go to a hunter trial and do the pairs then go round alone for a second round, as he has gained so much in the other phases you should be able to overcome this with time, patience and consideration of how he is coping, be prepared to bring him back to his comfort zone after pushing him out of it a little, this will help build him up without pushing him too far.
 
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Had Bill Levett, my own riding instructor, couple of sessions with a BE accredited trainer at college, on camp had a few sessions with a different instructor. Yep I've had trainers with horse sense. We've also tried making it more like a competition environment, including jumping away and into the distance, not problem. I think pairs would be a death wish to be honest, he locks on and goes with other horses lol! Patience and consideration, trust me, I do not want to get rid of this horse, so patience has been infinite so far.
 
Outside of the horse whispering ( not sceptical, genuinely interested and hope you publish your findings), have you considered the possibility that you might have now got into a loop with your horse? Deep down you expect him to behave badly and he reacts to perhaps you being more tense? I am 100% not criticising you, it's just a thought. What is he like if you just went to a CR? Same environment as competing but no pressure. If he remains chilled, then it could be you. If he doesn't, then I would even consider reviewing feed (reduce the sugar in his diet ,made a massive difference to mine) or try a calmer.
 
No such thing as horse whisperer, only horse listeners. You'll get some very good stories from their past but unlikely to actually help you compete. My 14.2 is a horror to handle on the ground and we got an explanation for why but no ways to improve.
 
For the sake of £50 and half an hour on the telephone what have you got to loose? I've used them before and have found on the whole what they report tends to be true.
 
Another "out the box" thinking is a bioenergetic hair test. I've had one done a couple of times. The results are interesting and you get a "remedy" to use on your horse. Unfortunately I've not had chance to use a remedy properly on my horse, but the test results have generally accurately described my horse to.

Cross gates bioenergetics does one, as does the natural medicine man on facebook
 
HeyBigSpender said:
I appreciate your comment JDee, and I understand, its the whole issue about just being at competitions, he's more than fit for the classes I'm doing, I doubt its confidence as I've said schooling wise he's ace ;) I don't think its because he lacks confidence in me purely because when I got him he didn't jump, he was a nervous wreck, taken him so long to get where he is now and he jumps fabulously, and confidently out schooling! Again I doubt it's a pain thing, because although I do think he'd be the type to tell me, I think he'd tell me schooling, since I use the same tack etc. It might be that he doesn't enjoy it in a competition environment, unfortunately, as i said he excels in dressage, his show jumping is okay, and a lot of the time he's leading before xc, so it might be that he doesn't like xc'ing at competition, which is disappointing, and not 100% sure why its different from schooling really :(
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So how is your confidence/attitude when you get to a competition? You have to be 100% honest with yourself when you answer that
Its very different from schooling at home over familiar fences with no pressure
Interesting that you mention the horse was a nervous wreck when you got him - that means he's likely to be the type that picks up on any tiny bit of anxiety in you - you're his leader and the one he's totally reliant on for his new found confidence
We once bought a very solid reliable horse that had been used by an experienced rider to escort her young children on their ponies and never put a foot wrong. We got her for a nervous novice rider who asked us to find her a suitable horse. The mare went great for me but the moment that girl got on her she was Jekyll and Hyde - really scary. We soon found that with anyone calm and confident she was amazing and almost too quiet but if she sensed even a tiny bit of nerves in a rider she was a complete wreck and quite dangerous.
My husband competed on her a few times and he's the first to admit that he gets very 'buzzed' at shows - she even reacted badly to that
 
I can honestly say JDee I treat every competition as a schooling round, I don't feel any sort of nerves or pressure when I'm about to go xc or during the round
 
I had to post. We imported two Shagya mares from Hungary, one took a long time to settle. I did not feel confident riding her, compared to my pussy cat Clevelands.

Enter, Eric Flaichare one of only two John Lyons trainers in France. He has an awsome reputation and a fan club of English and French ladies. Your horse will get his undivided attention and they ALL love him.

This mare gets the medal for being the only horse to put me in hospital with concussion but not her fault.

Here are the photos. Just 20 mins in the arena with a horse he had never met before. He said at the end "let us see if she is relaxed enough to lie down".

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I'm very opened minded about these things and following a post on here a few years ago I sent a picture of T-bag and £15 to a lady (can't remember her name off hand)

I just put that this is a picture of my horse and what did she think. Scared the life out me with the reply, it was like we'd sat and had a conversation. She commented about an injury, about putting her in foal, her personality and traits etc etc. she didn't even know she was a mare and the angle of the photo made sure it wasn't visible and I didn't put her name - just this is my horse. I wasn't on fb at the time either so she had no way of knowing / finding anything out about me.

Funnily enough a friend contacted me the other day and said about the hair sample test but it's £50 so not sure I can justify that for a horse that seems healthy and happy (Just a little creaky :biggrin3:)
 
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