Natural Horsemanship: Answering the What, Why, and How for ALL Disciplines

by Lindsey Forkun

Overview

Discover natural horsemanship through this comprehensive guide. Learn what natural horsemanship means, why it works, and how to start all within one book. Dive into easy to read detail about natural horsemanship and see concrete examples through colour images. Furthermore, Lindsey's background draws from many disciplines including western, jumping, trail, dressage, and gaited breeds giving many concrete examples that everyone can benefit from. Images throughout the book represent these diverse disciplines, letting you see how natural horsemanship can apply to all horses, handlers, riders, and disciplines. What makes Lindsey's approach to natural horsemanship a well rounded approach is the variety of experience and background that Lindsey draws from. She started as a typical horse handler for many years and had to make the decision to go natural. She can relate to 'old school' techniques, but can also draw from the variety of facilities she has worked with- ranging from an all natural horsemanship western trail riding facility, to an all hunter/jumper riding school. This guide will provide you with easy to follow and logical steps to learning natural horsemanship. You will be able to decide for yourself if natural horsemanship is right for you. You will be able to understand why and what natural horsemanship is. You will be equipped with ideas, steps, and real actions you can take with your horse to start natural horsemanship. Find a comfy chair and enjoy your journey through natural horsemanship.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449020934
Publisher:	AuthorHouse
Publication date:	09/24/2009
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.47(d)

Read an Excerpt

Natural Horsemanship

Answering the What, Why, and How for ALL Disciplines

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By Lindsey Forkun

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2009 Lindsey Forkun
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4490-2093-4

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Chapter One

THE WHAT

Love it or hate it, you have to admit that natural horsemanship is gaining popularity all over the World-and furthermore, the professionals who use it are very impressive with their horses!

What is Natural Horsemanship and the Fine Art of Horse Whispering?

Natural horsemanship simply means communicating with horses. This is done by listening to the horse's body language and responding in a way that mimics how horses communicate with each other in their natural environment. Natural horsemanship is using communication to work with horses rather than intimidation and fear. Being a horse whisperer means knowing how to communicate effectively with your horse and how to become a leader for your horse.

Natural horsemanship is an art learned through dedication, patience and education. Learning to read a horse's communication signals, understanding how to communicate with horses, learning the basic principles and developing a partnership require skill, perseverance, and most especially, an open mind.

When you work with a horse naturally, it means you are communicating through body language using basic cues that allow you to have a conversation with your horse. This has many added benefits. Unlike some horse handlers, you won't need a clicker or a bag of treats to get your horse's cooperation. You'll also be able to ask your horse for more complex tasks or to work with you in more difficult scenarios. Once the foundation is laid, you will progress more quickly with your horse and be able to advance in completing tasks that the intimidator style of handler can only dream of.

The leadership role of the handler is one that preserves the horse's dignity by allowing the horse to make decisions, mistakes, corrections, and most importantly, to have responsibilities. Allowing your horse to be a partner in the relationship means you respect what your horse has to offer in the partnership and you value your horse's input.

Natural horsemanship is fair, focused, and universal. It works with all equine partners. When you practice natural horsemanship you have to go against human predator instincts to trap, control, and force a horse into behaving the way we want. Instead, the focus is on partnership; you are the leader that causes and permits the horse to perform and react in a desired way.

A traditional intimidator style leader would focus on forcing a horse do something, but equally harmful are people who let their horses take the lead because they're afraid of offending or hurting the horse. Letting a horse do whatever he wants will instill superiority and eventually fear in the horse and can potentially be dangerous for the person. Horses need and want to be safe and to feel secure.

One objective of natural horsemanship is to move away from letting or forcing our horses to do things, and instead put the focus on causing and permitting. Luckily for us, horses are prey animals that naturally look for a leader to keep them safe. If you can be that leader, then horses will willingly follow you and take your direction.

All horses have different temperaments which will determine how confident, focused, and competent a leader they require. Some horses may continually test your competence in order to ensure their safety/rank in the herd. Herds naturally have a pecking order. Take a moment to observe horses in their paddocks with their herd mates and you'll discover the personalities and the rank of the horses within the herd.

Working with horses naturally will allow you to problem solve on your own because you'll have a foundation of knowledge to draw from. This means when something goes wrong, you will understand what your horse is saying, what the root cause is, and how to address it as a fair leader. Natural horsemanship puts a focus on understanding horse psychology so you can anticipate, recognize, and solve problems before they happen. A major focus of natural horsemanship is safety. Working with a horse naturally helps make an environment with horses much safer because the horse is more likely to stay in a thinking frame of mind rather than reverting to a more primitive frame of mind, fight-or-flight.

As well, the handler learns to read horse behavior and recognizes tension before it becomes a problem and can address it in a safe and effective way. When working with horses, it's important to remember that the horse is independent, with his own thoughts, feelings, fears, desires, and goals. That's why putting an emphasis on understanding horses, communicating with the horse, and being a leader for the horse are so important and essential when working with horses in any discipline in order to achieve the best results.

1. The goal is communication, not intimidation. When working with horses you should always be thinking about what your body language and cues are saying to the horse and what the horse is saying to you.

2. The leader's space takes priority. This translates into meaning that the leader can move whomever he wants in the herd; the leader can touch whomever he wants in the herd; the leader will protect the space of his followers and himself; and the leader will not move out of the way for anyone, any horse, or any other animal.

3. Start with your ideal cue. Always start with your ideal cue and then ask fairly, ask gently, ask firmly, and reward greatly when you get the correct answer. Follow this progression when asking your horse something so that he understands that you are consistent and fair in your approach. As a result your horse will start to be more aware of your ideal cues and react to them appropriately. This also follows the premises that it is comfortable to do the right thing and uncomfortable to do the wrong thing. By starting with your ideal cue and then increasing the intensity of the cue, you help your horse realize what you want by making the correct response comfortable and the wrong response progressively more uncomfortable.

4. The reward is in the release. Remember that when you stop asking something of your horse, it must be because the horse was correct, not because you gave up. This is so important and often the one principle that many people have problems with. Have confidence in yourself that you are asking correctly. Be patient enough to wait for the correct response.

5. Encounter, Wait, Revisit. Putting this into practice means that if a horse stops/avoids something scary, ALLOW the horse to stay at a distance comfortable to him, keep him still and facing the scary area. Then when the horse is ready (he will show some sign of being calmer or will ask you a question) you can back up or do a small circle and then revisit the scary area/object. When the horse is ready he will cross the boundary and proceed safely past whatever is scary. If you just kick him forward he may turn to his fight-or-flight instincts and go running and/or bucking past whatever he thinks is scary. This applies to anything scary or something that the horse feels he lacks the confidence to do. For example, he may stop at a jump because he thinks it is too high to jump, or because it is a scary shape. Respond to this type of situation in the same way: wait and then revisit.

6. Geared toward a goal. Your horse should always be able to find comfort or release of pressure because there should always be a purpose or goal that you're working towards. That's why smacking a horse repeatedly for doing something wrong is very unnatural and unjust. If there isn't a movement or task the horse can do to get the handler to stop the action, then there isn't a goal in mind and the handler is being unfair. This principle also refers to the handler always having a focus in mind. This means that the handler is the leader and has a plan for the moment and the future. The plan could be 'we will stand here and eat grass' or more complex like 'let's perform a canter figure eight pattern with three flying lead changes through the middle'. The point is that the handler is to be the leader, so they must always have in mind what the focus in on. Horses often test leaders by trying to change their focus such as turning in to the middle of an arena when not asked, cutting corners in the arena, breaking out of gait, etc. Your horse should always be able to understand the current focus or goal at hand.

7. Act like your horse's partner. Most importantly in natural horsemanship is the recognition that the horse is primarily a prey animal, and the human is primarily a predator. It's important to turn this prey and predator relationship into a partner relationship. Try to understand your horse and learn to recognize the difference between a horse asking for clarification versus a horse misbehaving, being scared, or confused. Learning common communication signals will help you develop this skill.

Basic Horse Psychology

We've established that everything about horses comes down to one simple fact: the horse is a prey animal. Horses are most concerned about being eaten by something else. That's why they want a competent leader, to keep them safe. Stallions are a little bit different. They may be prey animals, but they're also biologically programmed to be leaders to protect the herd. Proving your leadership to a stallion will likely be more difficult than recruiting a mare or gelding.

If a horse feels safe with a leader, he'll want to follow the leader; that's basic horse psychology. There's a huge difference between wanting to work for a handler and being forced to follow a handler. When a horse wants to work for you, he'll learn intently without much resistance. When the horse is reluctantly following you, he'll do as little as possible to get the job done so he can get back to his paddock or stall. This can mean the difference between a clear round with a fast time in a jump off, or just a clear round with a mediocre time because the horse is too busy swishing his tail at you in protest. If your horse is your willing partner, he'll offer perfect lead changes, more height during piaffe, a faster spin or better ground manners, all because he wants to please you!

Horses have two different mindsets. A horse can either be in:

1) a thinking frame of mind, or

2) in a fight-or-flight frame of mind.

When a horse is in a thinking frame of mind, the horse is calm, relaxed, and able to follow cues, learn, and listen. When a horse gets nervous, anxious, and/or scared, the horse can turn to the fight -or-flight frame of mind where he is on high alert and feels his safety is threatened. A horse in fight-or-flight mode will primarily be looking for a way to run from what is scary and secondarily for a way to fight what is scary. Generally a horse's first response when scared is to run. Only if the horse is trapped, confined, or can't see a way out will he fight by biting, kicking or striking out when scared. However, horses may use biting, kicking or striking out when in a thinking mode in order to protect their personal space. Learning the communication signals of horses will make it easy for you to tell the difference between a scared horse, and one in a thinking frame of mind.

When observing a herd of horses, you can tell which horse is dominant based on who moves who, but also from who protects their personal space. Protecting your personal space means more than what humans consider personal space. The average human in North America will determine their personal space as an arm length. Horses however, on average, determine their personal space to be about a ten-foot circle of space around them. This means you need to be aware of the ten feet around you and be able to maintain control over that space.

Horses determine a leader based on both the protection of personal space and the ability to move another horse/human. When a herd boss moves another horse, it could be by pinning his ears, threatening to bite, or actually kicking or biting another horse. The dominant horse may move a horse because he wants to play, take their food, or just confirm his rank in the herd.

A submissive horse that comes up to you in the field should stop about ten feet away and allow you to approach him, or the horse should only approach you if you are signaling it is okay to do so. You can signal to a horse it is okay to enter your space by relaxing your stance and turning a foot out to the side, leaning back slightly, and/or by doing your cue for 'come'.

Reading horse behaviour starts with observing horses and studying their body language. You want to look at the body as a sum of individual parts. Look at the manner a horse approaches another: the tension in the body; how high or low the head is; if the tail is swishing; the movement of the ears and the lips. Combine all of these signals to learn how horses communicate. Also learn the progression of signals. What is the first signal a horse gives before carrying through with an action? For example, when a horse goes to move another horse away from a pile of hay, note the pinned ears, the quickened footsteps, and tensed body that are all warning signs before the horse actually tries to bite. In many cases, a horse will have a tense body for several minutes before actually kicking or biting-can you spot this?

Natural horsemanship mimics this progression of cues. For example, when asking a horse to go forward when riding, you would first ask with a light squeeze from your legs, then a firm squeeze, then a little kick, then a swing of a crop/rope, and finally to a tap behind the rider's leg with the crop/rope. The progression is fair, sequential and consistent. Just like the horse will give the same warning signals every time before they kick or bite, the natural horseman will do this too.

Every herd has a definite rank. The dominant horse can move all other horses. The second-in-command can move all horses except the leader and so forth until you get to the horse lowest in the pecking order. Sometimes horses may share a rank with another horse and may continually fluctuate in their standing within the herd. This generally happens with horses lower in the pecking order that are struggling not to be the bottom horse.

Geldings can be more dominant in a herd if they have a mare they become attached to, or if they were gelded late and retain stallion-like traits. Generally mixing mares and geldings is not a problem, but some facilities choose to keep mares and geldings separate to prevent horse couples getting too attached or geldings from becoming too protective of their mares.

To learn more about herd dominance and herd dynamics, take a moment to observe horses in the paddock. Introduce a new horse to a paddock of horses to more easily observe the ritual of determining rank (be sure the paddock is large enough for all of the horses, and be sure not to out match the new horse i.e. introducing an old horse into a group of 6-7 young horses may not be a good idea without some intermediary steps first). The dominant horse will usually do one of two things:

1) protect his herd by keeping himself in between his herd and the new horse, or

2) he will refuse to move in any great depth and will wait for the new horse to come closer because no horse should be able to move the dominant horse.

Note that usually the horse low in the pecking order is the first to meet the new horse in a paddock. This is because they are anxious to determine if:

1) this leader can be better than his current leader, or

2) he is trying to determine if this is his chance to dominate over another horse within the herd.

The new horse to the herd will usually take a day or two to establish the current pecking order and the characters of the horses in the field. After a couple of days the new horse will make a move for a more dominant position in the herd if he desires.

You will also note that there is strength in numbers. A large herd of more than eight horses will usually be more wary of newcomers to the group, and new members of the group will take longer to rise to the top of the order. Also, the longer the group has been together, the closer friends they will generally be.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Natural Horsemanship by Lindsey Forkun Copyright © 2009 by Lindsey Forkun. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction....................6
About Lindsey....................6
THE WHAT....................12
What is Natural Horsemanship and the fine art of Horse Whispering?....................12
The Basic Principles of Natural Horsemanship....................15
Basic Horse Psychology....................16
Choosing a Horse to Suit You....................22
Confident....................22
Dominant....................23
Sensitivity....................25
Summary....................26
Criteria to Assess a Horse When Purchasing....................28
THE WHY....................30
Communication and Leadership versus Intimidation and Fear....................30
The Environment....................32
Outdoor versus Indoor Board....................33
Going Barefoot....................36
The Tools....................38
The Halter....................38
The Lead Rope....................38
The Bridle or Hackamore....................39
Crops, Whips, Spurs, and Sticks....................42
Saddler and Pads....................42
Common Saddle Fitting Faults....................44
Important Things to Check When Fitting the Saddle....................46
THE HOW....................47
The Seven Principles....................47
Getting Started....................52
Reading Horse Behaviour....................52
Common Communication Signals (CCS) from Horses....................52
Learn About Your Horse....................62
Getting Organized....................63
Practice with Your Tools Before You Start with Your Horse....................65
Fitting and Tying the Rope Halter....................66
Time toMeet Up With Your Horse....................66
Teaching the Basics....................68
Step 1: Teach That Your Tools are Friendly....................68
Step 2: Develop Basic Cues....................70
Understanding Pressure....................72
Teaching the Basic Cues through Direct Pressure....................73
Moving Forward....................77
Moving Backward....................77
Forehand Turn (move the haunches)....................79
Haunch Turn (move the front end)....................81
Move Sideaways....................82
Teaching the Basic Cues through Air Pressure....................82
Move Forward....................83
Move Backward....................85
Come....................87
Haunch Turn (move your front end)....................88
Forehand Turn (move your hundches)....................90
Facing Up....................91
Sideways....................93
Round Abouts....................95
Step 3: Putting the Basic Cues to Work....................98
Follow Me....................99
Transitions on the Round About (teaching walk/trot/canter/halt/back up)....................100
Go Through Something (the basic step before trailering)....................102
Trailer Loading....................103
Jumping (without a rider)....................103
Backing through Something....................114
Bump Your Bum....................114
Pole Bending (from the ground)....................117
Change Direction on the Round About....................118
Sideways Over a Pole....................119
Sideways Over a Pole....................119
Summary....................120
Step 4: Let's Start Riding....................126
Saddling....................126
Mounting....................130
Your First Few Rides Together....................134
Starting to Ride....................136
Completing the Emergency Stop....................138
Direct Rein....................140
Indirect Rein....................140
Open Rein....................141
Getting the Pokey Horse Going....................141
Bridling and Bits....................143
Back Up....................145
The Sit Trot....................145
Caiting....................145
Bending and Collecting....................148
Canter Leads and Flying Lead Changes....................152
Transitions....................156
Forehand Turns....................158
Haunch Turns....................160
Side Pass/Leg yielding (going.sideways)....................162
Jumping....................164
Common Ways Riders Interfere with Their Horses When Jumping....................166
Befusing and Rushing Fences....................170
Dealing with the Scary Stuff....................172
Lunging....................175
In Summary....................177