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And I mean for communication of course. It is obvious that we need some tools to work with horses. Without them we would lose the game for sure. Horses are bigger, faster and a lot stronger than humans. A ‘roundpen’ or other fenced area works just like a halter and rope. The fence limits the horse’s ability to move around. And if we stand in the middle of the circle we can keep up with the horse. This is one of the psychological approaches used with Natural Horsemanship. Even though not many people realize this, but this way you can stay next to him, drive him out in front of you, or get in front of him and this makes a big impression on the horse. This way you are just as fast, or even faster.
The same applies to the halter and leadrope. You can stay in the middle of the circle, so you are just as fast. The rope serves as an ‘extension of your legs’. With the rope you can stop him, turn him and back him up. So it is a communication tool.
Anything you do with your body, is communication. A horse has a long body, the human has a tall body. As an extension of your arms, you can hold something in your hands, which will help you to clarify your communication. That’s what this article is about.
So why use an extension of your arms? To clarify your communication and have it be more subtle and effective. And that is all. The word ‘punishment’ should not even exist in a Horseman’s vocabulary. By the way, no animals or humans should be punished. For centuries we have punished in strange and extreme ways and it has done nobody any good. A consequence is not the same as punishment. A horse that touches the electric fence with his nose, feels the shock and learns the consequence very quickly…. so he has a choice. There is only one disadvantage, there is no warning in advance, so the first shock comes very unexpectedly, which can frighten some horses. This is because the connection between touching the fence and the shock was not clear and there was no warning in phases. We want them to learn consciously: “aha, only when I touch the fence, I experience the consequence”.
What does this have to do with whips and sticks? A lot!! As said earlier, these tools enable us to be more clear and effective. If you want your horse to do something, but your communication is unclear, they can become very insecure. And a prey animal that is insecure … is afraid. And when you are afraid, you are not able to learn consciously. So to get a horse to go on a trailer (or anything else), make sure they are not afraid of the tools … and you. Do approach and retreat and rub, rub, rub until they can relax.
So when to use a whip and when to use a stick, as used by Natural Horsemanship practitioners. A whip is a refinement tool for attention, action and energy. The horse understands the exercise, but his attention is somewhere else. Or to do the exercise correct, he needs a little more energy. Or to ask for more ‘bend’ in a certain part of the horse’s body, like in classical dressage.
If your horse does not yield from your legs or is not motivated enough, this is a fundamental issue and needs to be solved at the foundation level. This should not be solved with a whip. I would use a stick to ‘move the weight’. To clarify your body language and to sensitize your horse to subtle signals. Use of clearly increasing phases and the consequence is physical contact. Do not worry about the physical contact. Physically the horse can handle this, when he understands what is expected and when there is no intimidation/emotion/fear involved. When horses make physical contact, after clear phases that they want the other horse to move, very often it is not soft, but firm. They can handle this, because they know what the other one wants. Namely yielding.
The stick is thick and heavy for a reason. Thick so it doesn’t cause pain. You can test this on your leg for instance. Feel the difference between a whip and a stick. Very quickly the whip will have a stinging feeling and this can cause the horse to be afraid if he doesn’t understand the question. The stick is heavy, because this will help you to be slow. With a whip, we can be so quick, he won’t have time to move/yield. A quick little touch can be effective to wake them up and have more attention and energy, but this is at a refinement level. The thickness and heaviness of the stick makes it a very effective tool. The length keeps you safe.
Use the stick to make your body language more clear. Your horse will be happy, because they want to understand us and please us. But they can only do that when we are clear, fair, friendly and firm when we need to. Would love to answer any questions on this.
Happy Trails!!!
Related posts:
- Work on snappy departures
- Trailer Loading Video Coaching
- The last thing your horse did, is what he remembers
- (Re)connecting with the Power of Now
- Closing the butt bar – How and When.
