50/ MARCH/APRIL 2013 THE RIDER
20 Steps In The Round Pen - Step 5
By Russ Krachun “Kozak” Horsemanship
It is a very beautiful day with lots of snow and sunshine. The horses are playing outside. It is a perfect day to write to you about my next step in my dis- covery of “20 Steps in the Round Pen”. So I have started to write and I ask that you sit, relax and enjoy. I hope that you have understood my previous steps in the round pen as well as my explanation of each step in the previous articles.
that you have started to apply these steps in order to create a safe and trustful relationship between you and your horse. My next step is step # 5 “Ask your horse to turn outside from the left and right direction”. What this means is that you are asking the horse to turn with his hind end towards you and travel in another direction. You may say right away, Wow; he is asking the horse to turn outside away from me. It is so danger- ous for the horse to face me with the hind end and I am going to be putting myself in a dangerous situation with heels flying towards me. Or you may also hear from other trainers that when we are working in the round pen that the horse should always face you from the front end and not from the hind end. In another situation, while in a barn today I watched a horse owner and her farrier working with a horse to trim the hind feet. The owner held the horse with a lead rope while the horse is kicking and will not stand still for the farrier. They both yell at the horse, quiet, stay still, wow, and then the farrier hits the horse with the rasp in the ribcage. My answer for this sit- uation is that it is not the horse’s fault, or the farrier’s fault, it is
Also,
the owners fault, because the horse was not desensitized from the hind end as well as to teach the horse to stand still. I can give you many more examples similar to this. There are many people that have been around horses for many years and do not understand what desensitiz- ing means. So they put them- selves, others in the barn and their horses in dangerous situa- tions by not preparing their horses by desensitizing them. Let’s jump to this next step “Ask your horse to turn outside from the left and right direc- tion”, and I will explain to you why it is important for you to turn your horse outside and teach the horse to respect you from the hind end. I believe that the horse should be desensi- tized from the muzzle to the hind hoof. First of all lets think about what desensitizing means to the horse. We have decided to make the horse safe for us. The horse is born safe for them, and we now want to take their natural surviving instincts away from them and make them domesticated horses for us. So if we decide to do this, let’s do this the safe way for both the horse and ourselves.
I am going to ask you how do we start this step? You are 100% correct if you answered with step # 1. We need to start with step # 1 “Ask your horse to go forward”. So you can see that we need the previous steps in order to accomplish the next steps in the round pen. I am going to ask my horse to go for- ward in either the left or right direction, it does not matter what direction that you will start. When I am going to ask the horse to turn outside, I will use my body language by lean- ing forward and stepping for- ward crossing his shoulders; and
will extend my arm and show with my hand the direction that I want my horse to travel, turn- ing with hind end towards me creating an outside turn. Your horse may continue to go for- ward without making a turn when you ask him to turn out- side, don’t start to apply more pressure and try to fix this if he made a mistake, he just does not understand your cues yet. Let him continue to go forward and ask him again until your horse changes direction outside from you and he understands your cues. Also, your horse may make a mistake and turn inside when you ask him to turn out- side from you, if this happens drive your horse right away for- ward and again immediately ask your horse to turn outside for you. Continue over and over until the horse understands what you are asking. When you are teaching your horse to turn out- side use consistent cues with your horse and you will get results.
end and not to kick us and build trust. In the future steps we will be building the steps together and will teach our horse to stay still and let us touch his hind legs and hind end without kick- ing and being upset and trust us. You will see in the future, how these steps will help us to build our relationship by putting the steps together. So take your time, be safe and enjoy your horse by working through these steps.
Be sure to read our next month’s issue to continue to fol- low through the next steps in my discovery of my “20 Steps in the Round Pen”; and build a stronger relationship with your horse.
In this step, you are teach- ing your horse not to kick towards you when you ask your horse to turn outside from you and to face you with his hind end by changing the horse’s direction left and right immedi- ately five or six times with a lot of energy and releasing the pres- sure. You have to finish this step with all gaits, walk trot and canter until your horse becomes calm and respectful and changes direction without kicking and he respects you with his hind end. Keep yourself at a safe distance when you show your horse these steps for the first time. Remem- ber, SAFETY FIRST!
In this step # 5 we are still not allowed to touch your horse’s hind end, this step is just the first explanation to our horse that he can face us with his hind
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For the Dealer nearest you call Sanimax at 1-800-263-7430
Please visit our web site
www.greenvalleyfarm.webs.co m or follow Russ Karachun “Kozak” Horsemanship on face- book for more information. If you would like to see Russ Krachun in action or ask ques- tions in person, he will be per- forming at the All Equine Show in London March 15-17 as well as the Can-Am Equine Event in Orangeville March 28-31. Disclaimer: Russ Krachun “Kozak” Horsemanship has no control over the application, suitablility, animal behaviour or husbandry skills of the end user. The user assumes all responsi- bility and full risk to all person- al, property and injury, damage or loss direct or indirectly aris- ing from the user or misuse of this information. Animals can be dangerous, please use com- mon sense.
Photo Credit: Lisa Davison
www.canterraphotography.webs .com
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