Following is a discussion of Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling compared to traditional round pen work, a la Clinton Anderson, Natural Horsemanship, etc. 

The past few days I've either watched Klaus Hempfling videos or read more of the book (Dancing with Horses). There are many many videos of Klaus you can watch for free on Youtube.  Before you go there and watch any of them, I'll say this upfront:  they aren't necessarily instructional. They are more like teasers than anything else, but it gives you the idea of what is possible.  Many of the videos talk about your "inner self" and the spiritual side of things rather than the nuts and bolts of what he's doing with his body.  It's a bit frustrating and yes, Klaus's videos are heavily edited so we don't really know how long it takes him, but I don't think very long.  The horses aren't sweating or breathing really hard and when they pause, he pauses. The first video looks to be early in his career - and yes, I feel he is too close to the horse who is actively aggressive.  It looks like a dangerous position, but in the second one he is much further back.  

https://youtu.be/IBbtTGb8soM

https://youtu.be/NVdkHyocpF0


The video below I found of a trainer, Brendan Clark,  "round-penning" a horse.  I know how to do this very well.  I can do this with my eyes closed.  This particular trainer I think gives a lot of mixed messages, like flicking the whip AT the horse when she comes in.  He says that she is stopping by the gate "to get out of work".  My opinion of this attitude is that traditionally, horse trainers believed that you shouldn't be nice, "work" shouldn't be fun for the horse and they never enjoy it anyway, so you need to force them through any hesitation and make them do what you want. Please watch this video after watching Klaus.  In all honesty, I got bored watching this Brendon Clark and didn't watch the whole thing. 

https://youtu.be/bVp5k1YVV5U

Here are some questions to ask yourself while watching the above video:

-What is this trainer's attitude about the horse? Is it positive or negative?
- Does he ever expect the horse to do the right thing or is he always expecting the worst?
-Is he missing signals from the horse?  
- How is the trainer using his body and how much effort is he putting in to how he appears to the horse? 
- Do traditional training methods allow the horse to have a say?
- Compare the way the horse moves in each video - granted one is a stallion and one is a mare, but the more I watch the traditional video the more I think the mare is really confused.  So am I! 
- Whose horse appears more trusting, Hempfling's or Mr. Clark?  Which horse looks calmer, easier to handle?
- Which horse appears to have a real connection with the trainer?  
- Clark says, "I want the punishment to be work" when she whinnies and chases her away. Right here is the entire philosophy. It boils down to work=punishment.  The horse will never want to work in that case!  "Work" will end up being a negative thing all the time. There is no joy.  Your horse will be hard to catch, act sullen and repressed, become injured more easily, and yes - your horse will want to get out of work because you have made it WORK HELL.

At one point Clark says that the horse has not performed well, and although it's their first session he says she was "not good enough",  and "that's not acceptable around me".  He doesn't reward the horse much and when he does it doesn't seem to have a positive effect on her. He's not very inviting.  He misses signals and does things that scare her off.  This has happened to me, too, and from now on I'll be much more aware of myself (at one point he drops the halter and she runs away). Not all traditional trainers are this negative, but this one is fairly punishing. 

So, back to Hempfling.  His body language looked odd to me at first, but there's something else going on here. While we don't have a play-by-play like with most videos, I have gathered from the readings and from watching many of his videos that he believes one should not react to the horse's "bad behavior".  Remain calm, stay with him, stay strong.  It's what I was taught about kids - if you react to their naughtiness they have successfully "won" by unsettling you.   I was also taught that when round-penning a horse if they act up you pressure them.  You become aggressive back.  What does this prove, though?  It shows the horse that they are really more powerful than you are. 

Reacting, or losing your cool in any way, is a sign of weakness to EVERYONE: horses, dogs, children, adults. Leadership, that is, being the strongest mentally and bringing others up to your level, is magnetic.  Dominance for the sake of demanding action creates submission out of fear and is not meant to raise up the other but to put them down. Leadership is a trust-based relationship. Dominance is about physical and mental degradation and control.    

This is a TED talk on dog training by Ian Dunbar, which fits nicely into this post.  It's about using treats vs. punishment in dog training. 

https://www.ted.com/talks/ian_dunbar_on_dog_friendly_dog_training?utm_source=tedcomshare&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=tedspread


Hempfling also uses his body very carefully.  As I said earlier, I thought it was very strange at first, but what he's doing is powerful in many ways.  He's showing the horse that he should be the leader because he is mentally stronger.  He is also using his body to communicate what the horse should do with it's body.  This is called "mimicry".  Have you ever been told by any "natural horseman" that if you do something with your body the horse , of it's own will, copy it?  Wouldn't that make communication so much easier with the horse?

Hempfling isn't the only trainer to use this. It is becoming more prevalent in Europe and perhaps in the US as well, but we are very stuck here.  I think it's important to look at better ways to do things. Sometimes that means looking at a lot of different, new, innovative ways of doing things and making informed decisions about how to proceed.  It is necessary to delve in to their books and media to really understand their philosophy. There are hundreds of home-grown horse training "how-to" videos on the internet if you care to look. Most of them are FREE.  Most of them show the same things, done the same way and in most of them the person talks, and talks and talks while the horse stands bored to death behind them.  I think Hempfling doesn't talk during his videos because he is really focused on the horse. 

We don't have to accept the traditional, we don't have to follow everyone else like lemmings into the sea.  We can think for ourselves, we can do what feels right, and we can be kind, above all. I am a horse person because I craved horses.  Nothing would stop me from being around them and in a way it has always been a spiritual journey.  Although I don't understand everything Hempfling says, I get what he's saying on another level.  

Next time:  The Round Pen vs. The Picadero, or Square Pen.

I didn't even know what to call this post at first.  As I began pouring over blog posts and looked again at Intrinzen's website, and watched countless youtube videos, I felt empowered, excited, motivated, and...confused.  The problem with being exploratory is that you learn information that ultimately conflicts with other information.  Everything you know is constantly being challenged, re-hashed under new rules, looked at in new ways.  Generally this is a good thing. Applying all this knowledge is difficult.  What do I keep and what can be put aside? 

Here's the problem:  Enough time must be spent absorbing and learning about other methods and techniques so that you fully understand what the point is behind it.  Then you have to try it out. Does it work for me? For the horse?  Can I learn to do this by myself?  Does it require a lot of equipment?  
Does anything new negate everything else?  

Is there some horse trainer/method out there that embodies all of these things?  

1. Considers the horse a living being with thoughts and feelings.  May sound silly, but this has become important to me.  Must have buy-in from the horse or it won't work. 

2. Their method is teachable to others.  May seem obvious, but some people can't explain it and can't teach others.  So it would be observational only if it can't be taught.

3. Must be easy to learn from reading about it, watching videos and blogs, online classes. 

4. Must build the horse's strength, flexibility, athleticism to the end of being ridden. 

5. Can be incorporated and used with other methods. 

I'm looking for a system, a thought process, whatever you want to call it. I love clicker training, and yet it can become mechanical it seems.  So I really like the idea of the clicker being used to teach the horse that it's okay to play.  I like the mimicry where you show your horse the movement (need to understand that more), I like how easy it is to learn the clicker and how versatile.  I like the idea of training without tack. I like Straightness Training as it brings back the reason for the exercises and how to use them to build a training plan to make your horse stronger. 

I began watching Klaus Hempfling to learn more about mimicry and I'm frustrated again.  He is using his body to communicate with the horse, but the videos are cryptic, the instruction vague.  I have his book, Dancing with Horses I think it is.  I have had it for years and only got so far.  

I've read the HorseIdeology blog posts on Hempfling and she makes the point that it's very spiritually based and it's not a step-by-step thing.  I was sitting here thinking about why that frustrates me.  What do I really want with my horses?  A relationship.  The goal isn't to win medals or compete, the goal is to be closer to them and help us both be the best we can be. (That's not on my list of things I want in the training plan!!) "I want it NOW!", I think.  And, as Pema Chodron always says,  (paraphrasing) "this is where we get our speed, and speed destroys our purpose."  Slow down, Cari. Slow down and enjoy the ride. 

Update. I've moved past Neil Davies.  Although I really like the idea that he trains his horses with positive head rubs, he is stuck and doesn't have enough of an open mind to study other training methods.  Here's what I've learned in the last few months.... 

I've been following a blog called "Horse Ideology" for awhile.  It was originally posted for the owner to record her trainings, medical treatment and therapy for her new horse.  In that sense, much of it was not of particular interest most of the time. However, she is very disciplined and does all her training on her own, through research much like I do.  I admire her because of the discipline and organized approach she takes.  I tend to find a new inspiring trainer, read their book and get all enthusiastic.  I try out the basic parts of the method, and usually run up against something that really bothers me and throw most of it away or get sidetracked by life.  This woman, however, keeps the parts she likes in use.  

I mention this blog, though, because it has inspired me to become more disciplined in my training schedule.  I would really like to implement the things I like into a plan and also learn new techniques and be more organized.  I've written a lot about Empowered horses.   I really like it and have learned there are people who have applied it in training.  I've long complained about Spilker's (Empowered Horses) lack of structure.  Sure, I'd love to work this way but I don't know what to do!  This blog is the first instance where someone has found the bridge, the way to begin.  I shouldn't say that she discovered the bridge herself, she found others that have.

If you have an older horse, and no constant supply of young prospects, you have to work with what you have.  Somehow you have to change the conversation and prove to the horse that you will begin to listen to them.  How?  

There is also the question of time.  Learning something new takes time, becoming proficient takes time, getting the horse finished takes time.  One thing I never got to understand is how to build a horse's muscles.  I know what a muscular horse looks like, but in dressage the specific exercises are used to accomplish this.  How does one use the exercises and in which order?  From this blog I've learned about straightness training, which is a good start.  I'm working out how to put it all together and make training plans for each horse.  The exercises are ones I either know or know of, and the next step is to learn to teach the horse how to do them with the clicker.  I've found some videos on line but they are somewhat vague about the entire process.  

Still, all of these new things and old things coming together are exciting.  The clicker speeds things up immensely as the horse can be communicated to directly and accurately.  This is so important - other methods of training are approximations of saying "no" over and over again.   

It's like the game of "hot and cold", where someone goes looking for something and you say "hot" if they're near it and "cold" if they aren't. Most traditional horse training is like using the word "cold" exclusively, over and over - "nope, nope, nope!"  Is what the horse mainly gets.  Don't do that! What they need to know is what TO do.  

I was using this method in Rifle quite a bit and then we moved, the horses were far away and my contact came down to grooming them once a month for an hour, and maybe a short ride. It was awful!  But they had a nice pasture and lots of friends, so I didn't worry about their mental health.  Once they got moved over here I began riding them more and at least seeing them more often, but my training plan has been non-existent.  I have been afraid to use clicker training in front of other people, but my new-found connections support it whole-heartedly and I feel much more confident. 

Now we are down to brass tacks, which means it's time to get to work.  I'm writing a short training plan for each horse and as soon as I can I'm committing myself as much as I can.  Maybe I could stop on the way home each morning?  Or when I wake up until the days get short?  That said, I'm still conflicted about the empowerment of the horse issue.  Here's my take:  if your training is fun, and makes the horse feel good, they will want to participate.  If they are bored I'll know it by their behavior.  In the meantime it's necessary for them to trust me enough to participate.  The fact that they gather around me when I go into the pen says a lot, I think!  My gut also tells me that their reaction when I go out to them is one of happiness to see me.  I feel guilty for not being there enough. In that sense they seek having contact.  

In my next post I'll include links to the new websites I've learned about and detail my training plan.  To keep me honest... 

So this is, as my husband likes to jokingly say, "A new beginning".  Maybe not complete empowerment, but teaching based on positive reinforcement and joy.  That makes me feel very good! 

There are things we can't explain. I have always fully accepted the mystery of life.  Keeps things from getting boring, right?  But more so it encompasses the spiritual part of life.  We want to understand everything...to a point. If everything was fully understood the mystery would be gone and so would the magic. 

My last post was about Herd and making a connection with Luna.  Since I began working on this relationship with her I've also been seeing blog posts and things from other horse people, mainly trainers. They all like to down play the "love" part of having a horse, which is ironic when compared to dogs.  People openly love their dogs, they tell others and write stories and make movies about it.  It's so obvious that there is an emotional connection between many dogs and their owners. Have you ever seen a movie or read a story about a dog that sits by the grave of their owner if they die first?

According to popular tradition, horses apparently don't have this capacity.  Even the more open bloggers and some trainers are reluctant to say that horses do things out of love.  It is important to separate training principles from emotional connections, but once established, it's difficult to separate the two. 

Just as in relationships we have with people are often those of connection and love, this doesn't mean they will do everything we ask of them. If there is mutual trust, then it's easy to ask things of the other person.  As with animals, if there isn't trust in the relationship then there will be problems with the training.  

How do you build trust?  Consistency. Patience, calmness. As Neil Davies says, "never scare your horse".  If you take nothing else from him I think that's a huge takeaway because much of "traditional" training involves purposely scaring horses.  "Desensitization" is purposeful scaring of the animal until it accepts the thing it's afraid of, which is called "learned helplessness".  I once was trying to get a yearling to accept a horse blanket and she was terrified.  I kept holding it up to her back and she'd run in a circle, snorting and pawing at it, sweating.  We were getting nowhere after a good 20 minutes of this.  It wasn't working and both myself and the horse ended up frustrated.  This was an "Ah Ha!" moment for me, a moment when I really saw that this method was not only NOT working, it was making things worse!   

If you are the cause of fear, you are always holding the scary thing and forcing it on them you become the source of the fear. It's you demanding that they accept it, not that it happens to be in the environment and you're walking by. 

Trust builds connection, spending time builds connection, taking time to groom or scratch or do whatever your horse enjoys doing builds connection.  Even if you're a terrible rider, or you know nothing, or you think you're a bad horseperson, you can still have trust and connection. A lady I once gave lessons to really had a strong connection to her horse.  I would do training rides on the horse and set boundaries and things that she wasn't doing as a rider, but that horse did not care how well it was being ridden.  When the woman arrived at the barn I knew immediately because her horse would stop to watch her walk all the way from her car to the arena.  He loved her. 

I know that horses can and do love their people and vice versa.  Not to acknowledge that is to ignore the beauty and richness of why we ride and why we love horses.  Can I explain it? No.  Do I think my horse does things for me because he or she loves me?  Sometimes, yes. Do horses refuse to do things we ask and still love us?  I think so.  Do I do things because I love my horse?  Yes, everything I do is for love.  I can't tell you why I was born loving horses.  There are many of us that feel the same and have always felt that way.  It's immediate and so deep that it was never a question. 

There is so much out there about training, and very little about the connection.  I am just recently discovering those people who train with joy and positivism.  I'm excited for the future for once!  

http://www.herdfilm.com/

Herd is a short movie that is coming out this year.  I think it's only 30 minutes long.  If you go to the website there is a ten minute short you can watch.  Basically the film is about a place where you can go on a "spiritual horse retreat" in British Columbia.  The couple who run it call it "Equinisity".  I don't remember how I came across this, but when I first watched the movie I thought it was kinda silly.  

It starts with Liz Mitten Ryan, the owner of the place, talking about moving to this property and living in tent while the house was being built.  Her horses were there, too, so she ended up spending a lot of time hanging out with them and discovering their spirituality for herself.  She decided to create a retreat out of the situation, which is rather brilliant in my mind.  People pay a lot of money to come stay there and literally sit with the horses. There is some light ground work/liberty and leading that they do.  Otherwise you see people sitting in the barn meditating while the horses sleep or hang out.

It's a bit uncomfortable to watch at first.  If you are a traditional kind of horse person this is what we would call "wasting time".  This is what I did as a child because I wasn't allowed to actually get into the pen with the horses, so I'd sit on the fence for hours, hoping they'd come close and hang out for awhile.  Then there was sitting on the top fence rail, leaning over to grab the horses by the neck and try to pull them closer.  

I couldn't stop watching the movie, though, and I began to realize that I'd lost that excitement I felt as a child.  My husband tells me that I still show it, but I'm not mentally aware like I was as a child. I always come back happy from seeing my horses, but I have forgotten to enjoy being with them.  Smelling them, listening to them breathe or just having some kind of contact is never anything I do anymore.  It takes time to get to the barn, I have three horses to groom and work with.  I can rarely do three in one day, so I feel this pressure to accomplish something.  

I have become all about results and "what have I done today" that I've lost something else.  How many trainers, all these people making youtube videos and CD's and everything else ever talk about connection?  They do talk about it, but it's always gained through DOING: doing some kind of exercise. Yes, doing exercises is good don't get me wrong.  I have forgotten to BE, however.  To be present!  

When I got my first horse Bella, every minute with her was exciting.  Just going out there and seeing MY horse and doing whatever I wanted with her was pure joy.  I spent time just stroking her, talking to her, brushing her beautiful mane. My training time had no limits, no certain goals.  I had no real idea what to do, I just went out there and did.  It was from the heart and pure.  I made mistakes.

 Once I began to learn about horse training (and not just riding as I had before), things changed.  My thoughts changed, my attitude changed.  I had to be dominant and take charge.  I was "too nice".  Yet here I am, finding kinship with Neil Davies because what he is doing is so much like what I did with Bella.  It was just natural - when she was afraid I was tuned in and I knew her so well I could calm her quickly by letting her hug me.  He pats on the head, Bella and I hugged.  I really don't care if anyone thinks "that's not a good thing" or that you should never allow that.  Bullshit. It was our connection. That's what made her a great partner. Once I began to use traditional techniques, the trust eroded.

All of these things passed through my thoughts after watching this short film.  How the very thing I'd always craved and wanted I'd lost!  I'd lost it in the practice of training.  I felt immediately sad, and then hopeful.  Suddenly the way forward with Luna was clear.  I need to be there with her, as often as I can.  I can also say, with all honesty, that my only reason to love horses and have them in my life was the connection.  I never meant to win ribbons, or compete.  I just wanted to be the best rider possible and to have my own horse(s). Those were my true goals, and they still are to this day.  

So, continuing from my previous post, I did try out Neil Davies method early last fall. The things I look for are: 1. Is it easy? 2. Is it effective?  3. How does it affect my horse's attitude to training?

So allow me to clarify.  If the method is too difficult to do, then it's not going to work for me, and maybe not other people. If it doesn't do what it's supposed to do, then there's no point in continuing, right?  If it pisses off your horse, or creates more fear, it is also not a good method in my mind. If you go to train your horse the next day and they won't come up to you, then it isn't a positive experience for them. 

My first lessons in horse training were of the standard variety "let them know who's in charge, get an immediate response, keep increasing the pressure and use as much "pressure" as needed to get a response" type of training.  This is very old school and still very prevalent. If you are a trainer or have horses you know that this is the standard way of training.  Most horse training marketed is this method.  These trainers frown on giving treats, being overly patient or using too much kindness.  Even Natural Horsemanship really is not much different.  I watched a few videos by various trainers of this ilk showing how you could get a horse to come to you by using the "join up" method (round penning).  Yes, after you chase them for 20 minutes they will come to you.  It seems magical at first, but it really is not.  This does not create more trust, doesn't make a horse easier to catch in the pasture, and if done incorrectly it can cause them to have more fear of you! 

Then I watched a girl train her horse to come to her in the pasture (it was notoriously afraid of being caught in a pasture but no where else) and after a few sessions it comes up to her easily.  I give my horses treats and scratches whenever I go in their pen and they crowd around me when I go in.  They are eager to be around me.  It's a good place to be.  What I noticed in going back to watch the join-up videos was that the horses were not actually that happy to be around the trainer.  Food for thought. 

Earlier in my evolution in training I went to see Clinton Anderson. At the time I really liked him and thought he was wonderful!  I bought a video and the stick and all that.  I tried the ground work at home and quite frankly, it pissed off my horses and wound them up.  I'm sure there are people who would say that I'm not doing it correctly. Perhaps.  There are always differences in style and application. This is why learning horse training from a video is extremely difficult, unless it's easy to implement like my rule #1. In any case, back to the Clinton way.  I found his methods needlessly harsh and kind of difficult to implement.  My gelding Snickers became very adversarial and unwilling to do anything.  He has never really learned to lunge, so I started there.  He got violent and pulled away over and over, jerking the line out of my hand every time I got more aggressive.  He is an older horse, full grown and strong so he had no problem making a fool out of me.  Angel, my other horse, also older, gave me the look of death when I tap-tap-tapped her with my stick and then whacked her because she didn't move.  It made me feel bad and I just stopped. It wasn't that effective and made things more difficult. To me this style of training is more like boot camp in the Marines.  It's aggressive and only fosters instant obedience, not real trust or understanding. 

From Clinton I went to clicker training, which I think I've covered on here.  It's fairly easy to learn from the book or videos, although somewhat tedious in the end to fully utilize. However, the horses LOVE it!  They would be standing at the gate waiting for me every time I went to train them.  I still use it and it is a very safe and effective way to train and communicate with them.  The downside is that how you go about training something is quite different than what I've learned previously since timing and giving treats is involved.  I inadvertently taught Snickers to trot forward 7 steps and stop dead instead of just trot forward until I asked him to stop.  He is very smart...!  And I guess I am not. 

So, with that short history on to Neil Davies.  Snickers has always been a domineering and distracted guy because of his early non-training by previous owner.  He is generally a good horse with some rough edges.  Leading him around the barn can be problematic, though, because he's not focused on me.  So I started with leading - and when he started mentally wandering I jiggled the halter until he came back to me.  I paused a few times and rubbed his head and other places he likes.  It worked like a charm and instantly!  No fighting, no expectation of treats, just calm walking forward. 

Next I rode him and he was pretty rusty. Again, kept him focused on ME, asked consistently for him to maintain speed, and direction. He came around well.  Next I rode him down the road towards the dreaded turkey house (they keep turkeys in a pen by the road). NO STOPPING!  I had to keep asking, but didn't get desperate ("Do it now"), just kept asking until he responded and then stopped giving the cue. Wonderful!

Next I started working on Luna.  I haven't mentioned this yet, but one thing Davies says is that when you tie your horse or whatever you do with them, they should stay where you put them and not move around.  If they do, keep asking them to go back to the original spot.  I have done this with all three of my horses.  The first time is hellish and kinda frustrating.  I think I re-positioned Angel about 23 times!  But the next time I got her out, she got into place and stood. Which is gratifying! 

Back to Luna.  Poor Luna has gotten the shaft for too long.  If I have on regret in life it's not spending more time with her.  I've tried to get her going many times, and here she is...an older mare that has only 10 rides on her.  The thing is, she's not calm and relaxed.  Leading her is, well, a pain in the butt. She's afraid of everything and is not focused on me.  Jiggling the halter doesn't work as well with her.  She doesn't like having her head rubbed, either. She's not safe and not trained, period.  

So I began talking her for walks.  I'd get her so far, until she got scared, and tried to rub her head and she'd toss my hand off, push into me and run in circles.  I was frustrated and disappointed, but it was my own fault.  I did this a few times and finally just took her 10 yards from her pen and kept rubbing her where ever it felt good - her rump, under her neck, withers, etc. She began to calm down some.  I went further the next day, but it was still a fight. 

I didn't feel like this was working too well, so I took her to the round pen where we've previously done the most positive work.  She was excited, it was windy, so I free lunged her.  She'd come in to me and I just rubbed her until she relaxed. Then I'd send her out again.  This isn't strictly in following what Davies does and doesn't do.  He never uses a round pen or free lunges a horse. He says you can't wear them out, that they should be calm first.  However, in my experience they are like little kids in that sometimes they are wound up and the best thing is some exercise. This where I disagree with some of the things Davies says. Also, it seems as if the bulk of his training is done with young, untouched horses which allows one to use a more consistent routine since they are blank slates. 

Allow me to explain my reasoning for going off "method".  In keeping with Davies principles, the first thing to do is get them relaxed, but this is no yearling foal.  Luna has also had some previous training and just walking around was taking her out of the routine.  So I decided to return to the routine and keep to it until she can is no longer excited or afraid.  She calms down much faster this way and even started to "hug" the way Bella used to. Previously her hugs were me with my arms around her neck while she bounced her head off my shoulder. Now she wraps her head over my shoulder gently.  The next step is to then go on some more walks in between the round pen sessions. The idea is to start from a safe, comfortable place for her and build on that. 

So I'd have to say that I have a challenging horse due to my own actions and not because of any particular training method.  She likes the clicker and I used it to get her to hold her head still when I rub it.  Not sure if she likes her head rubbed, though.  Time will tell!  Using any kind of training is going to take more time and patience because of what hasn't been done. One thing that many many trainers say is that every horse is different and may need vastly different handling.  So much depends on their history, your skills and situation.  

In a perfect world you read the training book, get an untouched horse and apply the training, but that isn't always possible.  I've realized that I've lost my connection to Luna, that she is afraid because I've neglected her.  I take full responsibility for that! What got me inspired to find that connection again was a trailer for the movie Herd.  Not "the" herd (that's about something ELSE!) But I'll talk about that tomorrow... 

*(Please note:  Since it's been so long since I've posted anything Blogger has changed a bit. I could no longer post to Facebook from this app so I had to find a new app, and anyway these are getting posted to Facebook out of order)

Yes, I know. It's been a very long time since I posted anything. Why?  Things have been murky and uninspired in my horse world.  Most of last spring I was sick with the flu, then pneumonia, then bad weather.  The year before that was the spring of three deaths (Mother-in-law, Grandmother, Aunt).  The energy was gone before summer even shone it's sunny head.  And then it was too hot... ok, that's an excuse.  However, I don't do well in the heat so getting out in the spring is important.  Gives me a head start on things and gets me used to the outdoor temp. I believe that acclimatizing one's self is best done with repeated exposure. 

During the doldrums of the past two years I continued to spend my time reading about horses and training.  My friend Leigh Ann likes to send me articles and things she finds and one of them was a horsey news thing from New Zealand: horsetalk.co.nz.  I think there is a version for the US, etc. but this is the one I get.  They have several guest trainers that write articles and one of them is Australian Neil Davies. The other is Jean Luc Cornille who supposedly has much scientific knowledge to pass on to other horse people but can't write anything understandable.  Between the French interpretations and the scientific terms, trying to read his stuff defies patience.  Reallly, Mr. Cornille, it would behoove you to step off the pedestal and appeal to the common horseperson.  His apologist, whose name escapes me, defends him at every turn by saying that ALL horse folk should be able to understand these "simple" veterinary terms and he shouldn't have to lower himself so that MORE people can understand him.  Right.  Very condescending.  

Anyway, this is how Leigh Ann brought this trainer to my attention.  I looked up his website and liked what I saw there.  I read some more of his articles and decided to buy the book.  The book, I'm sorry to say, is a bit disappointing.  Mr. Davies is not a writer and clearly teaches better in person than in writing, but I will forgive him for that because there is much here to like. 

So for the past few years I've read his articles, started the book and watched some of the videos he's posted.  (If you want to check it out yourself, go to  https://www.fearfreehorsetraining.com/).  

I've read some criticism of him online, but mostly from those who haven't delved in to his material and simply looked at a photo of him riding.  He is not a great rider and he knows it.  One should not try to emulate his riding style! The other negatives are similarly obvious and reveal his down-to-earth nature. His style and teaching manner are not designed to be fed to the masses.  In other words, he's not trying to highly market himself and was encouraged to write articles and the book by a personal fan.  He is NOT Clinton Anderson, nor is he trying to be. The book has some inconsistencies that a better writer could have explained or helped to organize better. I wish he had perhaps written out his philosophy and then stepped back with a critical eye as it needs editing badly! I have since given the book to Leigh Ann to read, so I can't quote directly, but here are some examples.

He says things like: "I have no rules. There are no rules in horse training." Then he says "Always make it pleasant and safe to be with me." Which in my mind is one of his "rules" since he never goes against it (clue: using the word "always"). There are other "rules", such as not getting to the point in any training session where your horse is worked up or frightened.  The goal is not to scare your horse.  

Another thing that Davies tries to do is debunk other trainer's methods.  He likes to read up on other trainers and comment on them.  Sometimes he doesn't completely understand the whole concept.  Like Clicker training - or "treat" training.  He doesn't understand that the goal is to NOT use treats in the end.  He says that if you use treats you will always have to use treats, but that's not true.  Don't allow this to put you off the real message - which is how he trains horses.  Everything else is just his opinion.  He also repeats himself needlessly and to distraction making it difficult to continue reading. 

Those are the examples from the book I can think of right now but not the only ones by far.  

However.... There is much to learn and admire about his method. 
(He says he doesn't have a "method" but he clearly does).  It's very simple (the numbering and order is my own):

1. Always make the horse feel safe and calm with the trainer, "it's safe and calm to be with me", (and by extension, everyone else) by rubbing his head.  The horse associates "calm" and "pleasure" with the trainer. As training progresses, more and more challenging things can be introduced to the horse without causing much fear - which is actual trust and not mere obedience (a la Clinton).  For example, if I trust my husband and we go to the edge of the Grand Canyon where I'm afraid of heights, I can stand next to him calmly on the rim because I know he won't do anything to hurt me (Plus he's afraid of heights, too. LOL).

2. Work with the horse in such a way as to never cause fear - no waving of flags, flapping, "desensitizing", chasing in a round pen, etc. No shouting. 

3. Keep sessions short and positive. It's better to do several short sessions of 10-15 minutes say morning and evening than one hour long session.  Many other respected trainers have said this as well. 

4. Use the least amount of pressure possible. For example, when walking your horse if they lose their focus on you, bring it back by irritating them with the halter and lead - no jerking, pulling or screaming.  

5. The horse must go where you want at the speed you want. The horse must do as you ask. This sounds extremist, at least I thought so, but when applied more insistently rather than increasingly aggressively, it does yield the desired result. I've had better results with this philosophy than the more demanding approach. 

Basically, that is Davies' training methodology.  I liked it immediately, in spite of the negative aspects of his delivery and opinion.  The meat of what he's saying is valid but you have to be diligent and learned enough in training to know when he's right and when he's just being critical. If a beginner picked up his book they might have a hard time actually applying his teachings. It's not a complete package by any means. Watching his videos is much more helpful as he can explain and show better what he's talking about.  

For example, he says that you should rub your horse's head as a means to calm them and reward them.  Watching the video I saw that he rubbed the horse's head for quite a bit longer than I imagined, and much longer than I did it for. That's important because there is no mention in his book about how long to do this.  


So, if you're the least bit curious give this man a chance.  I probably wouldn't buy the book, but he has a subscription video service that I would seriously consider and I get his free blog posts emailed to me.  It's FREE.  No obligation!  If you don't like what he has to say, unsubscribe. He doesn't overly market himself either, which is refreshing. Just keep in mind that he is what he is: a simple horse trainer with a simple, unpolished way of going about it and a deep suspicion of anything hyped up.  We could use more of that in the horse training world!

Tomorrow: Applying Davies' method