TarrSteps
Well-Known Member
Systems of horse training, pieces of tack . . .these sorts of things are just tools. It's not so much what you use, it's how you use them and proper use is judged by desireable results.
Take the analogy of a hammer. A hammer isn't anything by itself. Swing it carefully and correctly against a nail head and you can use it to drive the nail far more effectively than you could any other way. Smash the hammer in the general direction of the nail and you might get some driving done but you'll do a crap job and probably quite a bit of damage into the bargain. Swing the hammer around in a crowded pub and all of a sudden it's a tool for destruction.
Hammers are neutral. It's the hand that wields the hammer that determines it's effect.
And I can hear you saying "Who is this crazy foreigner and why is she nattering on about hammers???"
To make the point that systems like all the various forms of NH aren't good or bad, they're tools. And like any other tool they can be everything from very useful to very destructive. And learning about them, in my opinion, is best learnt from people, not books. Don't get me wrong, I love books. I have somewhere in the neighbourhood of 500 horse books and I use many of them for reference regularly. But horses don't read books. The best way to learn about horses is from horses and the best way to do that without screwing things up or being killed is to have an actual person there who can explain the subtleties in context.
Just my opinion.
To the original post . . .
When NH came into fashion (not that it technically ever went out but that's another story) I wondered what special problems would come to pass. Just as we all know other tools - flash nosebands, running reins, the German Competative School etc. etc. etc. - often cause specific problems which need to be particularly guarded against during their use, I figured NH would come with it's own likely evasions.
And the problem outlined in the OP is, in my experience one of them. If the "sending away" is not taught properly you end up with a panicking horse, especially on the longe. This might not be so evident in the round pen (where, exactly, is the horse going to go?) but it can show up big time in a larger area. (It also shows up when one is trying to catch the horse.) As to what to do about it . . . that's a tough one. Essentially the fundamental control we have over horses - compliant beasts that they are - is that they want to stay with us. Face it, if they weren't basically compliant we'd all be dead. Leading/longeing/loading is all predicated on the horse wanting to come with us AND not knowing it has the option of leaving. But if someone teaches the horse otherwise . . . yikes.
So you have to make the horse want to stay with you and you have to convince her that, should she want to leave for some reason, she can't actually pull away. Unfortunately she already knows that last bit.
To be perfectly honest this is tough to fix. I've had quite a few horses to retrain with this particular issue and I find it has a funny way of reaserting itself when they are scared or high.
But you can give it a shot.
What are you longing the horse off of? Bridle (if so what bit?)? Halter? Cavesson? How is she to tie and lead? Does she pull back? Pull away? Try to pull past you? On the small circle does she take the contact and give to it or just stay away from it? Have you worked her in side reins and if do does that work any better?
I would be inclined to start in a small space (but not a round pen) with the horse wearing a full cheek snaffle. First I would work on the ground and make sure I could move all the various parts of her - shoulders, quarters, neck, feet - wherever I wanted. I would make ABSOLUTELY sure I could move her away with my body language without upsetting her. I would find out how large a circle I could work on without her getting tense (not to the point of pulling away, just the start of anxiety) then I would play back and forth between that size and her comfort zone. I would try to encourage a mild resistance if possible, just enough to have her hit the end of the rein with a bit of pressure and hopefully give to it even if she stops and turns to face me (which she probably will). Of course all this advice might change if I was actually standing there watching the horse . . .
Do you know a "problem horse" trainer you trust? Could you get that person to at least observe and offer an opinion?
Take the analogy of a hammer. A hammer isn't anything by itself. Swing it carefully and correctly against a nail head and you can use it to drive the nail far more effectively than you could any other way. Smash the hammer in the general direction of the nail and you might get some driving done but you'll do a crap job and probably quite a bit of damage into the bargain. Swing the hammer around in a crowded pub and all of a sudden it's a tool for destruction.
Hammers are neutral. It's the hand that wields the hammer that determines it's effect.
And I can hear you saying "Who is this crazy foreigner and why is she nattering on about hammers???"
To make the point that systems like all the various forms of NH aren't good or bad, they're tools. And like any other tool they can be everything from very useful to very destructive. And learning about them, in my opinion, is best learnt from people, not books. Don't get me wrong, I love books. I have somewhere in the neighbourhood of 500 horse books and I use many of them for reference regularly. But horses don't read books. The best way to learn about horses is from horses and the best way to do that without screwing things up or being killed is to have an actual person there who can explain the subtleties in context.
Just my opinion.
To the original post . . .
When NH came into fashion (not that it technically ever went out but that's another story) I wondered what special problems would come to pass. Just as we all know other tools - flash nosebands, running reins, the German Competative School etc. etc. etc. - often cause specific problems which need to be particularly guarded against during their use, I figured NH would come with it's own likely evasions.
And the problem outlined in the OP is, in my experience one of them. If the "sending away" is not taught properly you end up with a panicking horse, especially on the longe. This might not be so evident in the round pen (where, exactly, is the horse going to go?) but it can show up big time in a larger area. (It also shows up when one is trying to catch the horse.) As to what to do about it . . . that's a tough one. Essentially the fundamental control we have over horses - compliant beasts that they are - is that they want to stay with us. Face it, if they weren't basically compliant we'd all be dead. Leading/longeing/loading is all predicated on the horse wanting to come with us AND not knowing it has the option of leaving. But if someone teaches the horse otherwise . . . yikes.
So you have to make the horse want to stay with you and you have to convince her that, should she want to leave for some reason, she can't actually pull away. Unfortunately she already knows that last bit.
To be perfectly honest this is tough to fix. I've had quite a few horses to retrain with this particular issue and I find it has a funny way of reaserting itself when they are scared or high.
But you can give it a shot.
What are you longing the horse off of? Bridle (if so what bit?)? Halter? Cavesson? How is she to tie and lead? Does she pull back? Pull away? Try to pull past you? On the small circle does she take the contact and give to it or just stay away from it? Have you worked her in side reins and if do does that work any better?
I would be inclined to start in a small space (but not a round pen) with the horse wearing a full cheek snaffle. First I would work on the ground and make sure I could move all the various parts of her - shoulders, quarters, neck, feet - wherever I wanted. I would make ABSOLUTELY sure I could move her away with my body language without upsetting her. I would find out how large a circle I could work on without her getting tense (not to the point of pulling away, just the start of anxiety) then I would play back and forth between that size and her comfort zone. I would try to encourage a mild resistance if possible, just enough to have her hit the end of the rein with a bit of pressure and hopefully give to it even if she stops and turns to face me (which she probably will). Of course all this advice might change if I was actually standing there watching the horse . . .
Do you know a "problem horse" trainer you trust? Could you get that person to at least observe and offer an opinion?
) be very careful with your body language. Drive the horse only as much as she can stand and increase the pressure slowly and quietly. And fast moves whilst she's in the process of being re-educated might very well put you back to square one so experiment carefully.