Swiss cheese and horse training

[Caol Ila]

This isn't as surrealistic as it sounds. Swiss cheese is also not my favourite cheese. However, people who give talks or who write about mountaineering/climbing safety like Swiss cheese. As a metaphor. The point is that most mountaineering accidents are not the result of just one thing going wrong (sometimes they are), but often, things go wrong as a result of a series of small f*ck ups and a bit of bad luck. Each minor f*ck up is a hole in the cheese. One hole in one slice of cheese might not matter very much. But if you have too many holes and they all line up, you end up having an epic, a Mountain Rescue Callout, or worse. You need to be cognizant of potential holes, then make decisions that don't create too many more.

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/the-swiss-cheese/, for Heather Morning's cheese analogy.

I was thinking about cheese today. Last night, I had a conversation with a couple people who know about the round-up of the Dallas ponies in Aberdeenshire and their subsequent history. They have been keeping tabs on the remaining horses ever since, and they filled in some gaps between Foinavon's life on the estate and him showing up Aberfoyle. One sounded like an excellent horse trainer, experienced with ferals (she's taken on some of these herself) and she had some good insights on how to work with some of his issues.

That's how I got to Swiss cheese. Foinavon has gone through all the holes. The first was being feral. No experience of humans as a youngster. The second was being rounded up by them. Not an ideal first experience of humans. The third was being broken in without an arena. Just hacking. So he did not learn how to work with the rider in the absence of a horse or human on foot. The trainer had a plan for this, but that brings us to our next hole -- she got hurt falling off something else and had to take lots of time off work. Then the owner let him chill out for over a year, at a time when it would have been super beneficial to continue his education. Another hole. When she did decide to continue it, almost a year and a half later, she sent him away to a trainer who did not seem to understand how ferals work, or how green he was, and he was pretty freaked out and uncooperative. Yup, a hole! I showed up about two weeks after he'd come back from the pro, then moved him to yet another yard. Obviously just one of those things, but that was probably a hole as well.

It's always a thing to be mindful of when working with youngsters. I'm going to pin a photo of Swiss cheese to Hermosa's headcollar. Not many of us are perfect, and we will probably have minor screw ups when bringing on a green horse, but I suppose a good trainer is mindful and self-reflective, and tries not to have too many. You can have a few slices of cheese and probably get away with it, but you don't want to pile up your cheese.

Just some musings after my chat last night, really.

 

[Cragrat]

That is a really good way of thinking about all the potential problems a horse may have faced. You may not be aware of all the holes, until you fall in one! And your job as an owner/ trainer/ rider waht ever, as you say, is to try not to create more holes .

Also similar to the awareness now that a tendon injury is rarely the result of a one-off incident, but instead is an accumulation of stresses and tears which fimaly accumulate and cause failure.

 

[Caol Ila]

Yeah, that's a good way of thinking about some injuries as well. They can obviously hurt themselves with a one-off bad decision, but many will accumulate. However, if you know there is a hole, i.e. a conformation weakness, previous injury, something like that, you can at least try to not fall through any more holes. For example, Gypsum had a weak hind end and SI joint. That's a hole -- not one anybody could have prevented, as it was just the way she was put together, but a hole nonetheless. However, I managed to keep her sound until age 27 with careful and conscientious work and a lot of luck.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

When I saw the title I thought that's a unusual treat for training ?

I like Swiss cheese but not sure my horses would.

 

[maya2008]

That’s exactly why I like to buy unbacked youngsters - although that said, current 3yo was bought at 2 and she had some serious hang-ups about people even by that tender age!

You have the influence of personality too. Two of mine came from the same breeding herd so had the same early handling etc. One arrived eager to join the grown-up world of being ridden and basically begged to come with us when we went hacking the day after she arrived. She was backed by a 7yo child and was beyond perfect until she hit 5yo and hormones took over (back to perfect by the following year as expected!!). Her half brother took months and months to get going because he has a more anxious temperament. He has turned into the loveliest adult ever, so sensitive and kind, but took far longer to get there and was definitely not straightforward like his sister.

In my experiences when I was younger, of helping others with projects and having my own to play with, sometimes you can never completely fix the ‘holes’ in their Swiss cheese that arise from poor/unfortunate early experiences.

 

[Bernster]

I’ve never really thought about it but I suppose I do fill in the ‘holes’ in training and lessons, working on what the horse needs or is missing. Sounds like an interesting time for you and your boy.