Working with food: part 2: Hay exercise

Other uses for hay when you're not eating it...

I have a simple exercise I do with hay which is a nice way to start introducing the idea of focus around food.

For safety, I must be able to move my horse away from my space easily at a slow or fast pace without any food around. I must feel that I can reliably move my horse without food.

First, I will sit/stand with my horse while they are eating their hay and just let them relax with me for a time. I am not in a hurry to chase them off their food. It's not about depriving them. Once I've allowed them to eat for a bit comfortably, I will ask them to leave the hay pile either by just my body language and voice or using a stick with body language depending on the horses' nature. I wont hold them away from it. It is just about them letting me move them off slowly and then allowing them to come back as soon as they show willingness to leave.

This game is played with horses all the time in paddocks when you drop several hay piles down with more then one horse. I call it the Musical hay pile game. The top horse will push the others from one hay pile to the next. But at some point you see horses sharing the same hay pile together. I also see this done with grass patches as well. It is not done out of meanness or spite though it may seem that way. It is how horses establish order using food. See more examples of food work in my Vlog of Starting Django http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/#!classroom Happy horsing!

Working with food

This guy loves his food!

Working with food exercises has many applications with horses from Leadership to rewards or just plain sharing a favorite tidbit. Before I learned Carolyn Resnick's Method, I didn't work with food much.  Of course I gave the occasional treat and reward for certain things. I found her way of working with food a simple and very powerful exercise that was not taught in any other approach I'd studied.

Horses use control of food and sharing food, as a way to bond and set boundaries and rank. In training communication, a well timed food reward can motivate your horse and make it far more interesting and fun to see when and how he gets you to give him a treat. The timing of rewards is quite important to the exercises you construct. A poorly timed reward can emphasize the wrong behavior as much as it can emphasize the right one.

Before I work with food around a horse. I will have established that I can move them away from my space a few steps slowly or quickly without food. This has to be reliable for my personal safety and confidence. Food can bring out dominance and territorial behavior that you have not seen previously.

I also work with something simple like hay when I am confident to move on to food exercises. Hay tends not to bring out a horses dominant behavior as much as say their regular feed or a very delicious treat. I work gradually toward foods that a horse may get more excited about as they get used to the idea of moving away from or waiting for permission to have the food.

The idea of food work is not to torture or prevent your horse from ever eating. It is an often overlooked area of Leadership opportunity for many people.I see it more as a Leadership and rank exercise which can be creatively implemented in training. This is also how I see it used within herds. Where my horses live, we feed large round bales of hay. All the horses must share the round bale but as you can imagine there is a very specific order to who is allowed to eat when. When a new horse is added, (depending on where he fits in) is how long it will take for him to get his "place" at the round bale. Once they feel the proper protocol has been reached, All horses are allowed to eat at the same round bale peacefully (there are anywhere from 3-6).  I find it fascinating to watch different herds as well at different barns. No two are the same.

If you have the opportunity to observe your horse(s) at feeding time or a new horse coming in to a herd, see how they handle each other around food and what you can learn from it. If you want to see some examples of how I used food exercises in Starting Django you can subscribe to My Classroom to follow along with his progress and approach.
http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/#!classroom

Django's Continued fun progress

I am having so much fun with Mr. Django and his training. Here is another photo diary of his introduction to arena work and natural lunging. If you'd like to follow his vlog from Liberty-Line-Mounted and FUN!damentals go here to subscribe http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/#!classroom

Vlog: Starting Django: Making Progress!

Django's start in training is going great! He is fun and smart and working with Carolyn Resnick's Waterhole Rituals is, as usual, building a fantastic connection for our progression to the Line and Mounted phases of my training. If you'd like to follow along in my classroom you can subscribe here and see my full Vlog as Django progresses from Liberty-Line-Mounted! 

http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/#!classroom

Using the Liberty Rein and Bitless Bridle

This week I wanted to show how you can use my Liberty Rein and My Bitless Bridle together while riding or for Ground Play. You don't have to ride Bridless the try it out and play on your own.

I like to give the horse the freedom of his head by using the Liberty rein. I start by getting us both used the feel of each piece of equipment on the ground and then working gradually toward the Liberty rein by riding with less and less contact on the Bridle rein (you could also do this with a bitted bridle) and communicating more with the body and the Liberty rein.

The Liberty rein talks to the horse in a different way. It really makes you have to think about your communication. If my horse and I are well prepared, it is quite amazing how well we can do together as the video shows. If you want to practice simpler versions of these exercises, substitute walk, to halt, trot to walk, trot to halt. If you are doing, well canter to trot or walk is a good one. Work on the same pattern and see what you can do. Take your time, don't be in a rush and know your own limitations and safety.
If you'd like to purchase my Bitless Bridle go here:
http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/#!bridles
http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/#!

New FDH Vlog! Starting the young horse

Here is the first in a new Vlog series about how I start a young horse. It shows Liberty exercises inspired by Carolyn Resnick to build our Connection first before I start developing the Communication we will need for technical training. The focus from beginning to end will be on Connection, Communication and Calm leadership. I will use my Liberty, Line/In Hand, to Mounted progression. I will also be introducing my new FDH Classroom for those interested in following along on this young Friesian's journey. Details coming soon!
http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/

Liberty Rein work: What and Why

In the past years several, I have been increasingly drawn to working with less and less equipment and more and more communication and natural outlines. I am studying where a horse tells me he wants to put himself when asked to collect as opposed to where I want to put him. It has answered several questions and debunked several things for me in my personal study of horsemanship. I find it fascinating.

I started playing with corderos and learning how to apply them to my play and horsemanship and was pleasantly surprised at how much the horses took to it and showed me there was no need for control of their head for even challenging movements. I observed with trust, connection, and clear communication that they would offer me beautiful round postures and collected movements and they seemed to enjoy it more when allowed to carry there necks and heads freely. There was clearly more pride and spirit in the movements. I was having more fun and so were they. It is very hard in advanced work to introduce challenging exercises while maintaining the fun and pushing just enough to encourage, but not too much to worry or stress the connection. It is a constantly changing conversation that is lively and fun as long as it stays balanced. 

I was taken enough with this tool to have Buckaroo Leather work with me on a design. I now use it in conjunction with my Bitless bridle for ALL Line to Mounted phase communication. I often warm up with my Liberty rein around my horses neck for In Hand and line work after my Liberty phase. I ride with it on with my bridle, not necessarily because I may ride bridless but because I can work on communicating more with my body and leg and less with my bridle. I can hold the Liberty rein and keep a long rein on my bridle and take the emphasis off the bridle. I have found there are many applications for this versatile tool and who knows, I will probably discover more, I'm always experimenting! Here is a sample video of what can be done with the Liberty rein. It should not be assumed that it is just for riding bridless. It has replaced my halter and sometimes my bridle! I will be introducing more exercises for In Hand and Line work with the Liberty rein soon so keep an eye out! If you are interested in purchasing a Liberty rein, you can get one here http://fdhorsetraining.com/Bridleshop.html