Posts Tagged ‘parelli’
Killing them with kindness is still killing them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYV01QS3j6M
Another day, another idiot untraining their horse and creating a monster. (Yeah…you guessed right…Parelli person)
We see this stuff all the time and we all shake our heads but I want to go into why it’s such a problem today. Sure, it’s highly likely that girl is going to be kicked in the head, but there’s a much bigger reason that this kind of play-slash-permissiveness is a problem.
It kills horses.
No, I’m not being melodramatic here. If we could rewind and watch the last three months of life of every young horse who goes to slaughter in this country, I’ll bet we’d see permissive handling well over 75% of the time. A lot of it stems from the family who wants to have a foal so that the kids can see the miracle of birth and because foals are so kyoot. They are shocked and stunned to learn that itsy bitsy baby foals can be darn challenging to handle. They strike, they nip, they don’t want their halter on.
Many first time foal owners are baffled about what to do. They are thinking of it like a human baby, and can’t imagine disciplining it. WRONG. If it’s a week old and it bites you, smack it and growl at it! (I will lightly pop a horse in the nose for nipping…it’s never hard and is accompanied by far more growl and intimidation than force…but I don’t think you make a horse head shy by rapping the offending body part with your knuckles, either.) Your foal isn’t going to get easier to handle when it gets bigger, and it will be highly confused if you permit all sorts of bad behavior ’til it reaches a certain size and then attempt to crack down. They learn really well those first few months – what are you teaching them?
I literally cannot tell you how many ill-mannered yearlings, two year olds and three year olds I see at auctions. They are as common as mosquitoes at a lake. They barely lead. They barge into people. I have seen them strike and bite at their handlers in the auction pen. Almost 100% of them go to kill. It is a disgusting waste of life, an atrocity, and some human somewhere was entirely to blame for it.
Then there are the older horses like the one in the video. One day they push the envelope – and their owner giggles. So they push it a little further. Yep, owner still thinks it’s funny. The behavior, whatever it is, escalates. Now the owner starts to get a little scared. Trigger’s rearing was kind of cute, but now he’s doing it all the time. She starts to avoid situations that might make Trigger rear. No more riding outside the arena. No more trying to ride away from the other horses. Trigger doesn’t want to go in the wash rack anymore? Well, okay. She backs down from Trigger and lets him move her around like a cow at a team penning, showing Trigger just who is in charge of the herd. (You can see that in the video. NEVER back off a horse like that. You barge AT them preferably with a whip and growling like something from a straight-to-video horror movie when they threaten you like that.) The end result? Same as above. Trigger gets too scary or someone gets hurt and off to the auction he goes. It happens constantly, to horses who were fabulous horses in more competent hands in their past.
A friend of mine rescued a pony last year. The pony is a lovely POA mare, a wonderful mover who is easy as pie to ride. How did she wind up in a kill pen selling for $125? Easy. She ran people over on the ground and when I say ran over, I mean ran over. Oh, and if she decided she wanted to bite another horse and you were in the way, tough. You got chomped. It took a lot to get that pony to back off and not respond to stress by mowing down the nearest human. It was not a pretty process. But six months later, she is almost totally fixed and I won a couple classes at the SAFE show with her. She will always need an owner who can say no to her and mean it, but her future is bright again thanks to people who were willing to dish out a little tough love. And the pony loves us and snuggles with us – the people who clocked her with the grain bucket on numerous occasions. Really, they won’t hate you for disciplining them as long as you’re fair and consistent and focus on sending the message the behavior is wrong, not getting revenge or causing pain.
So, can you be kind to your horse and not wind up being used as a doormat? YES. Here’s how: You catch disrespect before it ever gets to the point shown in that video. Disrespect is refusing to pick up a hoof. Disrespect is yawning and ignoring you when you poke him and ask him to move over. Disrespect is whinnying to other horses and dragging you around when you’re handling or riding him. Disrespect is raising his head and making it hard for you to halter or bridle him. Disrespect is pinning his ears at you. Don’t allow any of it. If a horse makes an ugly face at me, I growl at him and may raise my hand just to say, hey, that nose better not come over here if you know what’s good for you. Works great. If I let the ugly faces continue ’til he chomped me, well, then we’d have to have a big, dumb, avoidable fight. Nip it in the bud, and most horses will never go further.
(Of course, and it should go without saying, always look for physical pain if a horse is crabby or aggressive. However, you always discipline EVEN IF the aggression is in response to pain. It’s still not allowed.)
You’d be amazed at how many bad behaviors you will never see in your horse if you merely demand simple respect, every single day, every single ride. You’re not being kind if you never discipline. You’re being a spineless conflict-avoiding twit who is laying down a red carpet to the slaughter truck for your horse. For some horses, a growl is all you’ll ever need, but there are others who need firmer discipline. (I’m told the “carrot stick” is quite effective for providing a good hard smack to a horse who is disrespecting your personal space. See, it IS good for something!)
Final point: Your horse will still love you if you discipline him. So will your kids, so practice on both – the world will thank you!
