Welcome to the horsemanship Breakthroughs podcast, a source for riding and training insights with the goal of helping your horse be a light, happy and willing partner. I'm your host, Amalia Dempsey, a mainstream equestrian rider who discovered natural horsemanship and equine learning theory and now I help riders like you achieve connection and communication with your horse. So you, you can have more fun and fulfillment while prioritizing the partnership.
Get more learning resources, including my free connection and communication mini course at Amalia Dempsey dot com, click the follow button so you don't miss an episode and if you're enjoying the podcast, please leave me a rating and review or screenshot this episode and share on social media. I hope you enjoy the show.
Welcome to episode 43 of the Horsemanship Breakthroughs podcast and in today's episode I'm going to do something a little bit different and actually answer some of your questions, particularly those questions that people have submitted in a survey that I have people fill out in my free connection and communication mini course.
So basically when you sign up to that course, obviously you get a bunch of videos that give you an insight into my training philosophy and help help you get started in your own horsemanship journey. But I also have a survey in there so I can get to understand you what issues you're struggling with, so I can better serve you and better help you.
Um and recently I had a little look at all the different questions and I was like, oh my gosh, there's so many things in here that I thought I would do a podcast episode on it. And I asked people on instagram whether they'd be interested in that. And it was a it was a definite yes from most people.
So here I am and I'm going to go over the questions I have actually, I did have a little look and I started reading through them and then I stopped myself because I really want my answers to be really organic and authentic and non scripted. But this also means that I'm sure that after one or two hours after recording this episode I'll go, damn, I should have mentioned this, I should have said that.
Um so yes, I just wanted to let you know that this is not an in depth kind of answer to each of these questions, but you'll hear my first thoughts and my first recommendations in response to these questions. If you haven't already signed up for the free Connection and Communication mini course, make sure you do. So it's completely free.
It gives you an overview of my training philosophy and introduces you to the Cpr method, which has been a game changer in my own horsemanship and it's perfect for anyone who might be listening to this podcast and agreeing with the philosophies and what you're hearing, but you're not really sure how to start or where to start or how to implement these things into practice, but I recognize there's also a bunch of you who are kind of past the basics, you're already into horsemanship,
you're already past those fundamental things um including some of my in person students and I love teaching more advanced students as well um and I just wanted to let you know that for you guys, I don't have a more advanced program yet, but if you think of something that you would love to learn from me, please let me know.
But otherwise I do have online coaching options as well and sometimes the more we know the more we over analyze and we can't see the forest through the trees, so to speak and there is just so much value in just talking through your horse problems large or small with someone else who like myself who can be very objective and come from a really non judgmental, non biased place um and I think because I have got a broad experience in different areas and you know, using positive reinforcement,
negative reinforcement coming from the mainstream equestrian role, but also diving deep into horsemanship, sometimes I can just give you a little perspective shift or a different way of looking at things that can make all the difference and I've had a few people take me up on this offer of doing some coaching and sometimes, you know, we just need to get that we're on the right track.
So anyway, no matter where you are in your horsemanship journey, if you're interested in having a coaching session with me, you can just jump on over to my website Amalia Dempsey dot com click on coaching and once you purchase your coaching session it'll take you straight to a page where you can book in a time where we meet over zoom for 45 minutes. Alrighty, let's get started with these questions.
So basically in the connection and Communication mini course survey, there is a question that says, if you could sit down and have coffee with Amalia, what three questions would you ask? And I like this question because it's, it's straight up, you know, I'm going to hear from you exactly what you want to know from me.
So let's start scrolling through these questions and I'm gonna pick out the ones that stand out to me and well actually I might just go through them in order um and I'll just start rambling on so if you can sit down and have coffee with Amalia, what three questions would you ask and if you, you're listening to this and you have your own questions in your head and you're not in the free connection and communication mini course,
just send me an email or message me on instagram and let me know those three questions I would seriously love to know. Okay, first one training for a four year old, what is the best groundwork for dressage and loading, Okay, so four year old young horse may or may not be started under saddle um My preference is, my girls have started pretty young, but it was done very slowly, um but my preference is probably now just to wait until four or five,
but there's plenty you can do on the ground with a young horse or with the horses not started under saddle to prepare them for riding and to prepare them for life in whatever discipline you're choosing to do with them, and before, before you even think about the discipline really, you need to be thinking about the fundamentals because a dressage horse is still a horse at the end of the day, and I think pretty much any horse,
no matter what discipline they go into needs a similar foundation in terms of the fundamentals and of course I have my horsemanship fundamentals Academy which basically outlines all the fundamental groundwork, and there's also one module on riding that every, that I believe every horse needs, but the overarching fundamentals are connection, confidence and communication, and when you think about it, if your horse has got those three things,
there's pretty much nothing that you can't achieve right. Obviously it's more than you once there are lots of little steps and shaping and lots of things you need to do, but the overarching pillars are those three things and I teach you how to get those three things with your horse in horsemanship fundamentals Academy, um but in terms of the best groundwork for dressage.
Once you've established those fundamentals, there are things you can do to help prepare your horse physically for riding and for the sport of dressage. And I actually did a post on this recently on instagram, Let me just get it out actually and read um some of the things to you on there, because I was speaking about the different things that I do to help my horses on the ground to improve their body awareness, symmetry, mobility and strength. Um and of course this complements the written work.
So I wouldn't do these things with a horse that doesn't have the fundamentals simply because it could be confusing. They need to be in a problem solving mindset, they need to understand pressure and release and reward um conf consistently before I can try these things, otherwise it's just gonna be a bit confusing for them.
Anyway, so I do target stretches, so that's in my opinion, way easier and better than carrot stretches and more clear for the horse and that just helps to move the horse in different positions so we can start to work on their left right symmetry. I do in hand, lateral work.
So leg yield shoulder in Trevor, half past says um and walk pirouettes, and this helps to set the foundation for the lateral work that they might be doing later on in dressage, I do this at the walk, I do a little bit intro in hand um with all of these lateral work maneuvers and I think it just really helps the horse become really solid in those movements. So later when you do do them under saddle, they're like, oh this is easy, I do foam mat weight shifts and standing.
So I have this really large gym mat that I purchased off Ebay, It's like a heavy duty mat that I get them to stand on. It's kind of like a wobble board for humans so it really works on their body awareness and their balance. I do things like spanish walk and school halt, which helps too, particularly the spanish walk helps to free up their shoulder mobility um as well as work on their balance appropriate. Exception as they have to balance on three legs as they lift the front leg higher.
If you don't know what these things are, jump on over to my instagram and you'll see examples of them and the school halt really helps them to think about transferring their weight behind and lifting up um one of their front legs. So again prepares them for later on when they've got to shift their weight to the hind legs as we're all looking for in the higher levels of dressage, I teach them stepping under and over on the circle.
Again, I wouldn't teach this until a basic circle has been established. I also teach them how to stretch on the circle, so stretching their over their back, stretching their nose down and forwards and I do this without the use of any kind of side rains. Um Not because I'm anti side rains, but um just because I like to teach the movement without them feeling like they're restricted in any way. Um And I also like to do work on various terrain and services, truck polls, cavalese jumps, etcetera.
There is so much you can do with a young horse in terms of ground work and if you're running out of ideas, I'd really encourage you to either get into a course like my Hk or others. It doesn't have to be mine, but obviously I'm biased. I I like mine, but I think you, you if you're struggling for ideas because there are so many ideas, you really need some guidance.
So whether that is joining a course or having an instructor out will make all the difference in terms of what you can do to prepare your horse for riding or complement the dressage work that you're going to do with your horse later on. Um And as for loading recently, this is kind of good because recently I um put together, well actually a little while ago I put together a trailer loading roadmap for success for my H. F. A. Members. It's actually a bonus.
And when you join H. F. A. You get access to this float loading video just as a part of joining, the course doesn't specifically cover all the ins and outs of float loading, but this video will give you a amazing overview of all the individual steps And it's only 30 minutes long And I've actually decided to release this to the, to everyone else who's not in HFA for just $9.
So if you're interested in that, head on over to my website and click on shop and I think there's an option there for you to get access to that. So basically the way I help a horse with loading and it's great that you're considering this for a young horse because it's certainly something that they need to be prepared for down the track. Um there is the prerequisites for the preparation stage. So there's certain things that I need a horse to be able to do before I even get to the float, right.
Things like they need to be comfortable with me and my tools and learn how to respond to different body control maneuvers so that I actually have some kind of communication when I get to the float. Otherwise you're combining too many things when you get to the float, because if you realize that your cues to ask your horse to go for words are not working at the float because you haven't really tried it before.
Well, not only are in that moment are you training your horse to get on the float, but you're training them to respond to afford Q. And it's just gonna be too much overload for the horse. So I teach you the prerequisites and preparation steps to do before you even get to the float, Then I teach you about, this is in this little 30 minute video. I teach you about the different steps to getting your horse actually into the float.
Then I teach you the different steps to actually closing your horse in the float because that's a separate thing. And then I teach you the steps about actually traveling with a horse. So each of those components need to be broken down into small steps. I think often when it comes to trail learning, it's such a common problem. I see in the horse world and it's often an issue that I am called out for in person for in person lessons.
Usually we're combining way too many things at once and we're not rewarding that small, those small steps of progress. And if your horse has already had a bad experience on the float, it becomes a little bit harder to go over those steps. But there is light at the end of the tunnel.
If you do go step by step, Work on 1% progress each time and make sure that you're taking off all of those individual steps and not skipping steps, then you should be able to get your horse on the float successfully, have them travel happily, have them load happily anywhere anytime by yourself. You don't need other people with you, you should be able to do it in less than 10 seconds and your horse loads every single time.
So again, if you want some guidance around that, just head to my website, it's only a $9 video and it will save you so much time and frustration at the tailgate, which we've probably, or I can only speak for myself, but I've been there the last person on the show when my horse wouldn't get on the float and it's just embarrassing and frustrating and yeah, it's just not a fun time, but once you know the steps on how to load a horse onto the float,
it won't be so daunting and it won't be so stressful and frustrating. Okay, so that's the first question, how long have I already been speaking for? Almost 15 minutes. Okay, so um we'll see how many questions we get through. There's literally um 60/60 questions, so we're probably not gonna get through them all, but I might have to do a few different episodes for this. Okay, so um now this next one is a bit of a long one that says I'm definitely a conversationalist.
So usually when I chat with people it flows super organically. However, I would probably ask about background story, Life changing horse stories would love to know methodologies used for some of those cool tricks I've seen on instagram, ha ha and people who inspire you, etcetera. Okay, that is like a whole podcast episode in itself.
I think I have spoken about my background story in one of my earlier episodes um with I think one of my students Emma interviewed me early on in the podcast, I can't remember exactly which episode, but if you scroll back, you'll hear more about my story there.
Um Life changing horse stories, I would say that without going on a huge tangent, The life changing horse story for me was when I got my two Phillies who were one year olds at the time and I it dawned on me this huge responsibility of having young horses and wanting to give them the absolute best start in life and not knowing where to start seeing other horsemanship trainers work with my horses and have have them respond and connect so beautifully and me in that moment going, oh wow,
there is a huge hole in my knowledge bank when it comes to horses and feeling like a total beginner all over again, that was life changing for me because that was the moment I committed myself to learning actually how to train horses, actually how to understand horses and horse training. So that was probably the biggest life changing horse story, there's probably a lot more, but again, 60 questions here that I've got to get through.
So the next day I would love to know methodologies used for some of those cool tricks I've seen on instagram, I can tell you straight away, it's cpr the acronym that I speak about in my free connection communication mini course and that I take to the next level and show you how to use that in various ways in HF. A. All the acronyms today. So but just you know I'll give you a spoiler so C. B. R. Q. Pressure response release um Sorry Q. Pressure release reward don't even know my own acronym.
So yes so I think most people know about pressure and release right? So the Q. Um is something that I put more emphasis on as well as the reward. And I've actually recently thought about adding an extra R. Two that acronym which is relaxation because um I've noticed that we're teaching people just want to move on to the next thing and we we really need to prioritize relaxation before and after anything we ask our horses to do anyway.
So the Q. Means that ultimately you won't have to use pressure when you train your horse so that you can eventually have a really crisp, clear and almost invisible communication with your horse because you've changed these individual cues and the rewards for me I do use positive reinforcement not purely I still use pressure release. There are some pure positive reinforcement trainers out there who are fantastic.
There are some things that I have trained with purely positive reinforcement like the smile. I don't know how you would use pressure to teach a smile really apart from like maybe irritating the lip or something, I'm not sure. But um so there's some things that I definitely have used with pure positive reinforcement. Um and if you're not familiar with these terms positive and negative reinforcement, so negative reinforcement is, you know, in general pressure release.
So if the removal of something aversive to increase the behavior um like putting your leg on the horse goes forward, you take the leg off right? Um in a very basic basic example, and then positive reinforcement is when you add something desirable to increase the behavior, so that is when you might offer a food reward um or scratch on the weather or something that your horse likes in response to a behavior that you want to train. So I actually use combined reinforcement.
I use pressure release and reward, but I try and train cues as much as possible, so I don't have to use pressure um but I'm comfortable using pressure also, so they're my that's my methodology, I guess you could say there's a whole lot more to it in terms of um you know, the bond with my horses, the connection with my horses, who I am, my energy around them.
Um There's yeah, it's not just techniques, techniques are definitely important and I teach techniques and H. F. A. But it really is a self development process when you get into horsemanship. So anyway, um cool tricks yet. So I've covered that and people who inspire me, people who inspire me, I'm always looking for people that inspire me and most of the guests I've had on the podcast so far are people that inspire me in some way.
I haven't found one person that I am like, oh my gosh, you are the holy grail of horsemanship. I agree with 100% everything you do, because to be honest, I just don't think anyone can find that person. I think we're all too individual, we all have our own biases, our own experience, our own desires, our own goals, and I don't think anyone, I mean maybe never say never, you never know.
There might be someone out there who I haven't found yet who I think, yeah, you're amazing and I want to be 100% like you, but I think that's also kind of healthy because it means that I can own who I am and who I want to be with horses and not necessarily make myself a carbon copy of someone else, but it will tell you about some people that I am really inspired by um in general. So I, Karen Ralph is probably one of the biggest influences for me.
I feel like I was easily able to relate to her because she came from a mainstream background initially in dressage, so, and so did I, and then she went into Pirelli and so did I. Um and then she sort of started combining what she already knew with mainstream dressage and natural horsemanship to create dressage naturally and I have pretty much consumed all of her content. I think she's an amazing teacher trainer um, and person and I have a lot of respect for her.
I did interview her on the podcast, so definitely listened to that episode. I also am inspired by a writer called Anya Baron. She's a classical dressage rider. She's, her seat is exceptional. She's written a whole book about the seat, the dressage seat it's called. Um, I could watch her ride forever. I wish she had more content because I would literally just watch her all day because she's just so soft with the horses and yeah, I just really admire her technical riding abilities.
I'm also a huge fan of Ingrid clunky. I know she's more mainstream obviously, but hey, I've actually seen a ride in a net grope and do a little bit of stuff at Liberty. So just because people don't promote that, that's what they do doesn't mean it's not happening. I think she's an incredible rider. Obviously she's at the top of her field in both eventing and dressage, which is phenomenal.
She comes from, um, dressage background, sorry, a horsey background with her dad, obviously being Doctor Ryan, a clinker. Um, Clunky, I'm not sure if it's clinker or clunky, but anyway, I'll alternate between the two. I just think she's just such a phenomenal rider. She's just an exceptional rider. Um, I'm trying to think who else inspires me off the top of my head. Um all of my, like I said or everyone that I have had on the podcast definitely inspires me for sure.
I've got a lot of friends who are exceptional with horses to um Nikki Nikki's horsemanship and there's, there's, you know, so many people on instagram who are doing amazing things but aren't necessarily famous, so they all inspire me as well. Um but yes, I would say my main ones are, and I think I have mentioned them on the podcast, Karen, ralph and your Baron and in group Lemke.
Okay, next question, my horse is not very forward thinking in the arena and I would like to improve that, but not with too much pressure as he is sensitive and shuts down. Okay, so you actually have a whole podcast episode on this, I can't remember again what number it is, but scroll back.
There's a whole episode on how to help your quote unquote lazy horse, Unmotivated horse be more forward and positive thinking when you ride, because I think there's like 18 or 19 ideas in there in terms of how to help you get your horse more forward thinking, but interesting that your question that you had in the arena there, so that tells me that perhaps outside the arena, your horses more forward.
Um and that says me that perhaps they're not enjoying so much what you do in the arena, so try and make the arena a more enjoyable place. There is a point to point exercise, that's really good for this, again that I talked about in that episode um and but with not too much pressure as he sent him and shuts down, I totally get that point as well.
Um I would try and reframe pressure as a positive thing to your horse and when I say a positive thing, I mean obviously it's still aversive, but you need to show them that there is an answer to the way that you're using pressure, that they can control the amount of pressure that is used if the correct response is given.
I'm assuming that you've already considered things like pain or discomfort when it comes to going forwards, because they can be things that can inhibit your horse from wanting to be more forward in the arena as well. It could be that you just need more enjoyment, that you need to find something that your horse actually enjoys, maybe do ob schools or jumping or something to make it more enjoyable for your horse.
But yeah, I would just say to that question, go listen to that episode, it's earlier on and it gives you a lot of thoughts in terms of how to help your horse be more forward thinking in the arena.
Next question how to deepen my relationship with my horse, how to stop my horse from putting his ears back when girth thing and making my horse go off the leg, okay, making my horse go off the leg, go back and listen to that episode about helping your horse be more forward, how to deepen my relationship with my horse.
Um So, in a nutshell for for that, and this is something I mentioned in the connection and communication mini course and I know a lot of other trainers talk about this concept as well and it's the relationship bank account. So, I always think about, I would like my bank account to be in the pluses, right? So anything that I do with my horse, that is something that my horse likes, I am adding deposits into that bank account or even if it's just a neutral thing.
So the horse doesn't necessarily like it, but they don't, not like it, you know, it's just like undemanding time, we're just hanging out with them. They're also deposits into the relationship bank account withdraws from the relationship. Bank account could be any time that you're asking the horse to do things that they don't like. Any time you're having to use a lot of pressure. Um I think traveling on the float or going to a big stressful show can be withdrawals.
So, I mean, it's really anything that you think, oh yeah, I feel like that was a lot to ask my horse that that is um or anything that consumes a lot of energy is also a withdrawal from the bank account because most horses are energy conservative. Um But yeah, so I would think about adding more pluses to that bank account, so spending lots of undemanding time, maybe some grazing time.
But I also want to um add that just doing these things all the time uh isn't Isn't necessarily going to deepen your relationship with your horse with when it comes to communication. I believe you can deepen your relationship with your horse when you have a more clear communication.
So when you know how to communicate to your horse's body and mind both on the ground and in the saddle with 100% clarity from both of you that is going to deepen your relationship because what is a relationship without communication? Right? So I would make sure that you're doing those things to put deposits in the bank account, but also make sure that you're working on getting clear communication.
And again, if you don't know how to do that, start with the free connection and communication mini course. And if you want to take the next step, jump into H. F. A. I feel like a bit of a broken record with these things. But so many of these questions, I literally answer the nitty gritty how to with demonstrations with horses etcetera within that academy, How to stop my horse from putting his ears back when birthing immediately.
I think okay we'll check the saddle fit, make sure guess the correct one, make sure the horse is in pain in their back. And then I would just take the process really slow. Like let's let's kind of shape that out. So if we think about like, can you rub your hand all over the horse's belly and you don't get a reaction? Like look for when you're, when you're not getting a reaction and the first the first sign of a reaction.
So it might be that you can rub your horses back, but as soon as you start to slide your hand down a little bit more towards the gift, That's when they give you a reaction. Now. You would know if you've cleared out pain et cetera. That that's something that the horse can learn to find neutral again. Um So they don't have a negative reaction to it. So I would just approach and retreat until I get no reaction to that.
And then I would see if I can go a little bit further down working the under the belly and all of these things, They might be shaped out over a number of sessions, not within one session, then I might see if I can get the girth and rub it all over their body. Can I rub the girth under where the girth goes and further back and up on their bum and see if there are any reactions there and again approach and retreat until I don't get an ears back reaction.
I might also use what's called counter conditioning, which is when you give the horse a treat um for for behavior that were not necessarily behavior, but um for a experience, so I would like them to associate the experience of being girth with something pleasant, so I might always give them a small treat when I do up the girth.
Anyway, so in general I would approach and retreat, break it down into smaller steps to help your horse not put their ears back when good thing, and of course check out pain and saddle fear, etcetera. Okay, so I'm just going to go to a short break and when we come back, we will answer the question of how did you get started on your journey? Um and what is your favorite way to spend your under manning time with your horse?
And what miscommunication do you see between people and their horses most frequently? Okay, let's go to a short break. It's a f a student Sam, I'm from South Australia before I started H. F. A. I was struggling to structure sessions with my horse and I was lacking confidence.
There were holes in my training, but I was almost too scared to explore them as I felt, I didn't have the right support to offer my horse, I really like the former of the online platform as it's easy to follow and um ali has added so many bonuses since joining H. F. A. I now have a deeper connection and understanding of my horse. I feel confident, clear and motivated, Amalia gives you the tools and knowledge to be able to have that really special relationship with your horse.
So if you're thinking about joining H. F. A. You should absolutely take the plunge and join the community. There is something to take away from it regardless of where you are in your horse world. Hi my name is Beck and I'm from Sunny Queensland. I originally joined H. F. A. Because I was having troubles understanding my horse and he's a three year old off the track and we were having some serious personality um issues.
We we clashed and it was almost to the point where I thought I would have to sell him because I just had no idea what to do. The difference a year later that is made to Xander and I's relationship is huge. I I can understand him on a level that I never could understand. I never thought I could understand a horse before. I had horses in the past and I wish I knew earlier, He can read my body language, I can read his body language.
The behavioral issues are gone because I'm now taking a step back and really considering what I'm seeing and not just assuming and really listening to what he's saying. I can now take him out. I can now float him. I our riding has improved everything about our relationship has improved. And I am so glad I joined this program. I'm so glad I kept Zander and I would really highly recommend giving it a go if you're having troubles or if you've thought about natural horsemanship before.
Um it is the best thing you could do. Okay, So next question, how did you get started on your journey? That's all right now. And I was just generally curious. So again, I think I mentioned this earlier in a podcast episode where Emma interviewed me. Um, but, and I've sort of spoken about it already for when I got with, when I got the two mayors at a young age.
But my horse journey in general started when I was probably about five or six with weekly riding lessons, half an hour riding lessons once a week, which I lived for. Uh and I did little school, not school camps but horse camps and things. Um, so yeah, we didn't, I didn't, wasn't in a horsey family, but my mom was loved horses and really wanted to get her own horse so she knew I was interested in horses also.
So she supported that interest and enrolled me in lessons and then eventually we moved to a property. I got my own pony.
I went to a pony club and riding club and yeah, just sort of worked my way up, had various horses, competed, started competing in different disciplines and um, yeah, although all the way through um, with eventing and dressage and then, yeah, fast forward to the horsemanship turning point, which is when I got the two young mayors, which I spoke about earlier and my whole life changed because I realized that even though I had been around horses for a long time,
I didn't really know the first thing about training them or about horse psychology or really understanding them. Um or anything horsemanship in general don't get me wrong, I was, I still knew a lot of things and I was still a great rider. I just, there was a huge hole in my knowledge in that area. Okay, so next up, what is your favorite way to spend your under manning time with your horses? Hmm. I guess that varies.
So sometimes I just like to hang out with them in the paddock and this is especially on days, which is really rare for me, but on days where I'm like, I don't really, I kind of don't want to ride today, like I can't really be bothered tucking up and leading them all the way to the arena because my paddocks are a bit far from my arena.
Um and I just go, okay, it's one of those days, I'm literally just going to go and hang out with them and I just spend some time with them finding their itchy spots, maybe doing nothing at all, just taking in the environment, which is, I don't, I don't probably do enough of that.
It's I, I'm the sort of person who loves to be on the guy who loves to do things, so it's nice that I can do that, but again, probably need to do a little bit more, so that is one of my favorite ways of spending on manning time with my horses, but I also pepper in a lot of undemanding time within a session, so I will have grazing breaks during a ride, I will Spending five or 10 minutes just letting them graze before I bring them up to the top and and start getting them ready for the session.
So I try and be mindful of not rushing through things and showing the horse that hey, there's little breaks here and there, I call them brain breaks or grazing breaks, but really it's just undemanding time that separates the session and I think accelerates their learning. What miscommunication do you see between people and their horses most frequently? This is a really good question, I like this, I would say. It is, well, it's not miscommunication, it's a lack of communication.
People often haven't even established clear communication on the ground um and they're really just kind of just trying to get the job done, they're just trying to get through and survive and I don't want people just to survive. I want people to thrive with horses, I want it to be really clear between horse and rider how they're communicating with each other, so it's not necessarily a miscommunication, it's a complete lack of communication.
Um, and once you experience clear communication with a horse where you can ask them to move off of a very light cue, both on the ground and in the saddle, you can't go back and you realize, wow, like how was I doing things before? It's just, yeah, it's just incredible. But anyway, okay, next one, do you feel that people are particularly demanding of horses because we view them as working livestock instead of as pets?
Um Yes, I think that people in general can be demanding with horses because traditionally that's how we've always treated them because there have been livestock that have been working horses, warhorses, etcetera, but I do think the shift is changing, you know, like, I think society in general is changing. I think the horse world is changing.
I think deep down we all like to treat our horses as pets, but I still think it's important to have boundaries, so, and I don't think there's anything wrong with quote unquote, like working your horse or asking them to do things.
Um, and you know, sometimes I think, I see horses who have a specific job and they look perfectly content with what they're doing, so it's not necessarily that we're demanding lots of horses if we're asking them to work, it doesn't have to be work, doesn't have to be a bad thing, But I do think traditionally we, there is a culture of expecting the horse to work for us, you know like, oh well you know, for 24 hours, 23 hours of the day,
they get to relax so for one hour they can do what I say kind of thing, it's like, yeah, I get it, but I think it can also be a lot better deal for the horse. Um Okay, so I think this person misinterpreted the question because she's he or she said what happened to you before you were rescued from the field? I'm like rescued from the field, was I rescued from a field, but I think she's talking to her horse.
Um So what happened to you before you were rescued from the field, why don't you like your head is being touched? What is your favorite thing to do in the arena? So cool. I love that you're thinking about your horse in those questions in response to that question, I can't answer the 1st and 3rd, but perhaps with their head and ears not liking the head or ears being touched.
Perhaps they've had a negative experience with the ears or in the head or they just naturally don't like their head or ears touched and I would use approach and retreat and counter conditioning to help the horse be more comfortable and confident with the head and ears being touched?
Fun fact Harriet, one of my horses Harriet, she had a injury to her ear as a foal and as a result needed some veterinary care and because of that, she, she was quite head shy when I got her but honestly didn't take long for me with approach and retreat just actually even before I even doubled in horsemanship before she was actually totally fine with her head in years and I don't really have any issues with it since.
So I do think that you can override a negative experience with enough positive experiences. Okay, Next one. How to best work with a horse that thinks he's part shark, Okay, how to communicate with your horse, that everything is okay. How to help your horse find calm. Okay. So I'm thinking if your horse, if you feel like your horse thinks he's part shark, I'm guessing maybe like they're a little bit aggressive perhaps. So I would try and think um let me know if there is a different explanation.
I'm I'm guessing that shark would mean that they're an aggressive horse. But anyway, I think about the reasons why this horse might be aggressive for a start again. Pain, discomfort. Um perhaps they've, it's worked for them. It's a learned behavior, but I would first and foremost keep yourself safe, make sure that you've got boundaries.
I'd like I want to be able to listen to my horses, but I also want to let them know that hey, like even if you're in discomfort or pain or something, it's still not ok to bite me or you know, charge me or run me over, I will listen to your more subtle communication around that, but it's still not ok to bowl me over or whatever, like you've got to keep yourself safe.
Um So I would say that perhaps you need some communication around boundaries, so teaching your horse how to back up, teaching your horse how to lead from a distance, making sure that you are able to keep what I call concrete feet, so keep your, your feet still um make sure that you're not moving your feet in response to your horse because if they know that you're movable in the small moments,
in the large moments they'll think you're going to get out the way when really they're just bowl you over. Um so yeah, probably boundaries with that one, how to communicate with your horse, everything is okay.
This is something that is built up over time, through building trust, confidence, connection, communication, all those fundamentals, particularly through ground work tasks three or boundaries as well, but particularly through that communication, I think a lot of horse and I tell my students this all the time. Clear communication brings about relaxation.
So if you can effectively communicate to your horse clearly in the moments where they're not okay, you'll be able to redirect their thoughts approach and retreat safely so that you can show them that they're okay. Horses are flight animals, I don't think that will ever 100% bombproof a horse without shutting them down.
Um there will be times where they're worried about things, so it's really good for people to have a toolkit of things that they can use in those moments where their horses showing them that they're worried or scared or afraid or tense or nervous, etc all the words that people, use and I talk about a confidence and relaxation, toolkit.
This is where I go over all of the different techniques um that help a horse be more comfortable and relaxed with a perhaps a scary object or the environment etcetera. So whenever your horses scared, I want people to immediately think about that toolbox so they can work through each of those things. It might be that a particular technique works with a horse um better than other techniques, but you're not going to know that until you trial and error.
So I'd encourage you to try all of those different techniques with your particular horse in different situations to see what works, and then you'll come up with your own customized kind of plan for your horse to show them that everything is okay and to help them find their calm in situations where they are a little bit worried and that's confidence and relaxation toolkit is everything that I teach in module three inside of horsemanship fundamentals Academy.
Um there are things like systematic desensitization, which is basically approach and retreat. There things like approach conditioning, counter conditioning over shadowing. Um asking for permission waiting, stimulus, blending so many different techniques you can use to help your horse be calm, confident, relaxed in those scary situations.
And if you don't know what those things are, of course you can look them up, but I'll show you how to actually implement them in a so again, that's in module three of H. F. A. Um and it's not as simple as just telling your horse like, hey, you're okay, Like there's literally steps that you need to go to to show your horse that they can be calm and confident with whatever that they're worried about. Um and it takes repetition.
You might need to go through those techniques multiple times before your horse starts to kind of generalize and go, oh, okay, this is sort of, I mean who knows exactly if they think like this, but this is sort of like that last situation where everything turned out to be okay, so I can trust this owner in this situation as well.
I feel like the more experiences, the more difficult circumstances you go through with your horse, where your horse comes out the other side going, oh, I survived the more confident that they're going to be.
But if you don't have a strategy, you have no idea how to help your horse be calm or you have no idea how to communicate to your horse that everything is ok, then you need to learn how and you need to learn those techniques and understand your relaxation um and confidence talk it using the next question is using rewards treat base training, how do I stop asking? Looking for food every time she sees me, how can I manage, reduce her anxiety, What owner techniques can I use to help me cope better?
Okay so this question I recently added like a 10 minute video on this inside of HF A. Because it is something that people struggle with a lot, especially when they start to use treats. I would say that if you are new to horsemanship, perhaps lay off using treats to begin with and really learn how to master the use of pressure and release.
So Q pressure release followed by relaxation um learn how to do that really well before you start to add treats in, especially if you have a really foodie horse or they get really anxious around treats and food because it's going to be a lot more complex, whereas if you just stick to pressure and release it's a lot more clear, maybe you just use a treat when you catch them or something, you know?
So it's still they're still getting a positive association with you but with your training you learn how to use pressure and release first. Now this is different to what many of my colleagues might suggest, um particularly the pure positive reinforcement trainers, but my preference is that you have an understanding of how to use pressure and release first, the majority of the equestrian world uses pressure and release.
Um and I think it's really important for safety to have strong boundaries um to be able to use pressure to motivate a response. But if you are using rewards or treat based training, make sure that you're using a really low value treat because if they're really excited about the treat and really want to treat so bad, that's going to increase your horses anxiety and emotions around the treats and then they're gonna be asking and looking for the food more and more.
So make sure it's something they want, but they're kind of okay if they don't get it. So something really basic like a hey palette or chaff. The other thing is before you start using treats in training, you wanna teach your horse um to keep their heads in kind of neutral position when they're accepting a food reward and you will see a little snippet of this on my instagram.
There is a, I think it's a beautiful video of beauty doing a spanish walk, there's a beautiful sunset in the background and I've used positive reinforcement to train this particular movement and at the end she's like looking and pestering for the tree because she knows she's done a great job and you'll see me wait until she puts her head in the treat receiving position before I give her the treat.
So even when you've moved past showing your horse how to keep their heads still in stationary to receive a treat, even when you've moved past that and you've moved on to different behaviors and movements every time you give a treat, make sure that your horse is not at your pocket, not at your pestering your side, the head has to be in that middle position for you to give them the reward. Um So that that should help with the whole pestering situation.
I have a video in H. F. A. On how to teach your horse to keep their heads still. So I call it treat manners when you're using treats as well. So that's something to look out for if you're in the academy. Okay, well I feel like that's a lot of questions, I don't know exactly how many I've got through already, but hopefully that has helped you. If I'm guessing some of you might have similar questions to those that I've gone through today, There's still a whole lot more.
So I might do another episode answering um more of these questions, There might be some overlap though, so I might have to go through them and actually select the ones because I'm seeing already that there's some double up of questions that are being asked. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed today's episode, let me know if you did enjoy it.
I don't often post solo episodes, so let me know if you do like when I'm just rambling on about horsemanship things or answering your questions and do let me know if you have your own questions that I can add to the list by messaging me on instagram at Amalia underscore horses or just emailing me which you can find out my email on my website and as always, if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends.
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Thanks for being here, Remember to train with kindness and ride with excellence and I'll see you in the next episode