The closer we get to horses, the deeper our experience can become. Horses can guide us in remarkable ways. My mare Jazzie came to me in dreams for two years before I brought her home. I am in the process of learning why she wanted to be with me so much. Sometimes (probably more often than not) horses know things that we don’t know yet or that we can’t sense.
This past weekend I conducted a workshop in Corrales, New Mexico at the home of Nancy Freshour, an avid horsewoman. The three who participated were all accomplished horsewomen and really knew their horses well. 
Continue reading The art of knowing horses
Much like people have mantras and chanting for their meditations, horses move and flow rhythmically. If we can watch, feel and be a part of their rhythms rather than imposing our own modern-day rushed rhythms on them, we will find they are much more likely to want to be with us, and will be curious about us.
You fill in the blanks. Several things could have happened here. In a perfect world, the horse is doing great. You have great energy and your horse and you are a real team. Best case, your trainer has also worked with you and your new horse to know what the trainer is doing so that you can all work on “the same page.”
Continue reading Just got my horse back from the trainer and…
When should I stop riding my older horse? This question comes up periodically, because at some point in every horse’s life, they get too old to be ridden. That’s the truth of the matter. They simply don’t enjoy it any more, and even if they do, they are physically unable to continue to carry a rider safely.
Recently a trainer came to me and asked to observe a class because she wanted to see what was different about it than the liberty work she practices. It made me think about the way I do things and how effective it is, and I get used to the results because they are there and tangible. But someone coming in may think, well, so what is so different about what she does?
Continue reading From your horse to you: special gifts of connection
If horses could actually speak words, I am sure they would ask, “got carrots?” Or whatever their favorite snack is. Have you ever noticed how if you have a carrot or cooky, they can barely contain themselves, their focus is entirely on that treat until they find it or get to eat it?
Horse trainers know that repetition is what gets a horse to learn something, and it is true with people too. We can’t learn to play the piano without doing scales, lots of them.
Continue reading Bring joy to repetition in liberty horse training
When people say they have a good “bond” with their horse, it can mean a lot of different things. I have talked in the past about the difference between an emotional bond and a working bond. What we work on developing in liberty training is the working bond. But the degrees of bond or connection people have with their horses when they come to liberty work can be varied. Here are some possibilities, including some not-so-good bonds:
Continue reading Degrees of working connection in equine liberty training
Will they like each other? Will someone get his lights punched out? What’s going to happen?
Integrating new members into your herd of horses can be an interesting time. Recently I moved our gelding Patches in with our 24-year-old gelding Khami and 21-year-old mare, Zuzka. These two have been friends forever and I had been hesitant to bring Patches into the fold for a couple of reasons. One, he is big and the day time space is big enough for all three, but the night time space is a little cramped. We don’t have acres of pasture, just your basic New Mexico dirt lots and arenas.
Patches had been getting aggressive with an older horse who had suffered a head injury. I’ve read that in a herd, horses may ostracize a horse that is “not right in the head.” It is a survival of the fittest activity, to keep the herd healthy and intact and to weed out any instability that might endanger the herd.
I’d always thought Patches wasn’t completely at home with the two older horses he lived with, but I liked the fact that he had physical space in their corral. I didn’t like what I was seeing when he began harassing the sick horse. It impacted my training with Patches to have him turn aggressive like this. He has always been a very quiet horse and low man on the totem pole. I need him to be quiet because he is a wonderful horse for the grandchildren to ride. In that herd, he stood apart from the others most of the time.
Immediately after I moved him in with Khami and Zuzka, he shifted back to his polite self. He did get pushed around a bit by them in the beginning, a few bites and scratches, mostly from the mare. He stood apart from them, quietly sharing territory. Khami enjoys having Patches to play with because he loves having another boy around who likes to play games like “Bite my Face.” Of course, both of them have some fur missing because of this but I don’t care because it makes them happy and fun to watch, and it’s relatively harmless.
Making these changes in my herd makes my training easier. The herd takes care of behaviors that are unacceptable without my having to do it. I remember a trainer telling me years ago that moving my mare in with Khami made her life easier because my mare was managed by him. That way the trainer didn’t have to work so hard to train the mare because Khami was doing a large part of the work.
These situations don’t always work out so amicably. You have to assess the quality of the relationships between the horses, because like us, they like some horses better than others. Some combinations just don’t work. Space also has a lot to do with it. If you don’t have a lot of space, then it’s more important that they get along well. They can work out a lot of disagreements more easily in a larger space with more to interest them.
What Khami does so beautifully is lead everybody from behind. He needs to be led from behind himself sometimes as he can get overly bossy, but he makes sure there is order in the group. Putting Patches in with Khami and Zuzka has also given Zuzka something else to do – she leads him from behind too and goes after him if he stands in the wrong place. It gives Khami a break because he doesn’t have to do all the work.
Things are still shifting in this small herd of three. I noticed the other day that Patches had a new bit of hair missing from his hindquarters. And then I noticed he was standing sleeping in Zuzka’s favorite spot. She was off gazing at the cows in the adjacent pasture. She has always pushed Patches off that spot with vehemence. When I went to greet Patches, Zuzka came over to say hello to me. She greeted him too very politely. She still did not make any faces at him or push him away.
Patches is looking increasingly comfortable with the two old friends and he doesn’t look so “apart” from them now. Of course he stands out because he’s a big bright Paint and they are little brown Arabs. But I catch him and Khami sharing a hay bag, or sleeping companionably side by side.
This also gives me more opportunities to observe herd behavior. Even if horses don’t live in a big herd, the same rules apply. It is these rules that we use in the Horses at Liberty Foundation work. These small interactions may seem funny to us but they mean the world to horses. They are how they live and survive.
This is what I teach in the Liberty Foundation Training Clinics. See the following blog to find out what we may do in the upcoming May 26th clinic.
Santa Fe Spring Clinic Builds the Working Bond with Horses
(copyright Susan Smith)
Bodywork: private sessions, tutorials, phone consultations, distance healing and gift certificates
Liberty Training: clinics, workshops, private sessions, tutorials, consultations: by appointment: 505.501.2478 or emailing susansmith@orthohorse.info
My upcoming Horses at Liberty Foundation Clinic will be held May 26 in Santa Fe. Cost is $150. Contact me if interested! susansmith@orthohorse.info
