2 TWO EYES
The first challenge was to catch Jetta so that I could take her into the roundpen and work on gaining control of her feet. I took a halter, lead rope and the stick and string into the paddock with me and laid the halter and lead rope on the ground. My first goal was to just get Jetta to face me with two eyes while I approached her. I have a saying: ‘Two eyes for attention. Two heels for a lack of respect.’ Anytime a horse is giving you his attention and respect, he has his eyes on you. On the other hand, if he’s paying no attention to you, and doesn’t respect you as his leader, he shows you his heels. As soon as I took a step toward her, Jetta immediately spun around and kicked out at me. As soon as she
did, I created pressure with the stick and string by spanking her butt until she turned around and looked at me with two eyes. As soon as she looked at me, I stopped spanking and walked away from her. The release of pressure was her reward for giving me two eyes. Then I approached her again, and again, she spun around and showed me two heels, so I repeated the same steps. We went through this cycle four or five times until she eventually remained looking at me with two eyes and let me approach. When I got up to her, I held out my hand and let her sniff me. As soon as she stuck her nose out, I
retreated and walked away. I continued to approach in this fashion, building on letting her sniff my hand to actually rubbing her face, but anytime she turned and stopped giving me two eyes, I immediately put pressure on her until she looked at me again. Then I practised the same steps with the halter and lead rope in my hand until I could eventually halter her.
3
SWITCH THE ROLES
Now that I had Jetta safely caught, my next goal was to earn her respect. How do you earn a horse’s respect? By moving his feet forwards, backwards, left and right and always rewarding the slightest try. The more you can move your horse’s feet, the more control you have. The less you can move your horse’s feet, the less control you have and the more disrespectful they will be. I worked Jetta through the five stages of roundpenning: 1) Establishing direction; 2) Change of direction to the inside; 3) Consistent change of direction to the inside; 4) Drawing the horse into you; and 5) Teaching the horse to follow.
When I first asked Jetta to move around the roundpen at the lope, her attitude came out. She shook her head, switched her tail and kicked out. That was her way of telling me she didn’t like that I was asking her to move her feet. Anytime she got a resentful attitude, I increased the pressure. When she went around the roundpen relaxed with a good attitude, I left her alone.
In Stage 2, I ask the horse to change direction by turning to the inside. Jetta wanted to keep turning to the outside, showing me her heels. It took us a while to work through that, but eventually she caught on. Every time I’d ask her to change directions and she turned to the outside, I’d run in and cut her off and send her in the original direction and try again. She eventually caught on, and started consistently changing direction to the inside.
4 INTRODUCING THE OWNER
Even though it was important that I worked with Jetta first for safety purposes, it was even more important for Mackenzie to be able to work with the mare. Unfortunately with horses, respect isn’t transferable. Just because I had earned Jetta’s respect, it didn’t mean that she’d willingly listen to Mackenzie. When Mackenzie first stepped into the roundpen with Jetta, I could tell she was nervous, and she had every right to be! However, I could also tell that she saw hope in the situation and that what I had done with Jetta was working. When Mackenzie initially started working, the mare reverted back to having a bad attitude, but I coached Mackenzie on how to be an effective leader using the same cues I had just used. I reminded her that the most important rule in horsemanship is, ‘Whoever moves first loses.’ In no time at all, she was not only getting Jetta to move her feet at just a suggestion, but the mare was willingly giving her two eyes and following her around.
Now that I had control of her feet, I started working on drawing her into me. I wanted Jetta to realise that being in the centre of the roundpen with me was the best option, because when she was with me she got to rest. But again, anytime she got a bad attitude, I immediately put her feet to work and made her hustle around the roundpen. I made the right thing (standing in the centre with me) easy and the wrong thing (being dominant and aggressive) difficult.
The final roundpenning stage (teaching the horse to follow) was really important for Jetta because if you’re able to get a horse to face you with two eyes any time you look at his hindquarters, then you can catch him anywhere. If he’s out in the pasture, all you have to do is look at his hindquarters and he’ll face you respectively with two eyes. That’s the complete opposite of the horse running off, or worse, charging at you.
CHANGE IS
NECESSARY The main thing to understand when dealing with a problem horse is that if you want your horse’s behaviour to change, you have to be willing to change the way you interact with them. And, you also have to be willing to put in the time necessary. People ask me all the time if I’ve ever met a horse I couldn’t train. The answer is no. Every horse is trainable, but not every person is trainable because they don’t want to learn new ideas. Horsemanship can be easy if you’re willing to put in the effort. But you have to be willing to work at it and have a burning desire to be the best horseman you can be.
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