Do you have a spooky reactive horse?

Are you trying to find a way to get them less sensitive but recognise that you don't want them to be flooded by stimuli and shut down in the desensitisation process?

It is very rare for us at Equestrian Movement to use desensitisation with our horses - and when we do it is after we have opened the pathway for communication and established consent.

We will typically do this for a tool we want to use for our horses like a halter. We teach the cue of stand with relaxation first and then stand with relaxation while we touch you with the tool after we have asked for consent. We also then stay well tuned to the horse to allow them to tell us if they need us to back off or take a break.

Aside from tools that we need our horses to accept with relaxation our horses still need to know how to manage their flight response from scary things like bags.... water bottles.... balloons..... bubble machines..... all the scary things that can make our horses drop their lolly. And it is inevitable that we can't desensitise them to every experience. We also will hit that point where they can no longer cope when we're teaching them to just stand still. This is why we teach relaxation and consent first and combine it with the scary object.

Second to that, we teach them confidence through curiousity.

We teach them what to do with that fear. Ie. be confident in themselves and investigate the scary object.

It takes a little bit of time, especially depending on the horses unique character, but once we support them through this process a really magical thing happens. When our horses see something that's scary they literally drag us over to it to investigate it!!! We have had so much feedback from our students who have implemented confidence through curiousity telling us there once highly strung, spooky, kite on a string horse now takes them around new environments or changes in their environment to investigate and boop the scary things.

Far cry from what I got taught when I started out which was to be bigger, badder, stronger and scarier than the thing they are scared of so the are more scared of you than the thing they are scared of! It also is another great way to build relationships and establish yourself as a leader worth following.

Want to see it in action? Check out phoenix getting to know he's new paddock mate, Ella the pig.

Are you interested in working with your horse to create curiosity, confidence, connection and trust?

Is forced consent still a yes?

Is forced consent still consent?

We were having a discussion in our stronger bond community about how I ask Fitty if he wants his rug on and I let him tell me yes or no.

This flies in the face of everything we are taught in the horse industry. The horse must do as its told otherwise it will be the boss!!

I admit it was initially an uncomfortable conversation for me. It went against everything I have been taught to let my horse say no to me!!

This is where we have started to tier our yeses to find out truly if they are a yes or if they are a yes because they have no other option. In certain scenarios we can give the horse a choice. One scenario is whether or not they want a rug. If he were old, underweight or clipped I would tell him he had no choice but as it is, I'm happy for him to tell me what he wants.

So here's a little break down as I see it:

• Submission, your horse is saying yes because it has no other option

• Disobedience, your horse is saying no because they are challenging you

• Willingness, your horse is saying yes because they are actively engaged in the exercise and you're building their yes muscle

• Consent, your horse has the option to say no and sometimes does but you are asking for permission to do something with them and they are consenting the ask.

• Choice, you are giving the horse a choice of 2 options and they are allowed to pick.

There are certain times and places for all these forms of yeses. The deeper the connection and the better you open the lines of communication the clearer you and your horse will work through these conversations without their behaviour escalating.

Need help understanding how you can work consent into your training? Join the Training Trainability Membership Program to learn this and so much more!

Breaking News: Nipping isn't necessarily naughty...

Did you know that nipping is a way your horse can be seeking to connect with you?

While we are looking for more subtle cues, your horse nipping at you can be their efforts to get your attention and focus on them because they want you to be with them and present. Our nippers commonly are the larrikin type, confident and mischievous and they are enticing us to play back. (Ie does it sometimes feel like a game to your horse when they nip and you smack?)

Another time our horses nip at us is when they are trying to communicate something. An example of this is when we rug them and they are having problems with the rug fit, girthing them if they have ulcers or the saddle/girth is uncomfortable, nipping at us when we try to pick their hooves up because they have a sore back etc.

Big problem is, we are taught that nipping is naughty and we should stop it. But it is how our horses fill their emotional cup and how they communicate.

Rather than reprimanding the action, why not teach them to lick instead?

Learn how to turn nippers into lickers by joining our Training Trainability membership - just $45AUD/month until June 19th.

When we give our horse a voice, we might not always like what they say

One of the flow on affects that comes up as a result of working with me is that it becomes very difficult for us to work with a horse if it gives us anything other than an enthusiastic yes.

What I mean by difficult is that we become uncomfortable forcing or pushing them to do anything unless we know they are definitely challenging us and don’t have any underlying reason for that no.

Along with our leadership exercises, one of our first training tools is a cue that our horse can use to consent our asking something of them. We do this so that our horse can tell us no if they want to. '

Giving our horse the opportunity to say no:

• Lets us address any legitimate reason they have for saying no. ie pain, discomfort, tack not fitting, not understanding or not being able to do what we ask.

• Lets them have a say in what happens to them. Gives them some control over what we do to them and therefore can deescalate naughty or dangerous behaviour.

• Help us decide if they are directly challenging us and need to be “worked through” or if there is something we are missing that they are trying to communicate to us.

For most of the horses we’ve worked with they have had a very “because I say so” approach to their training, which can work to a point but isn’t helpful if the horse is having a problem or if the rider can’t actually follow through on their “because I say so” and gets nervous or scared.

What we do is give them the opportunity to say no and use our other training tools to encourage a yes.

When we first give these horses the option to say no, they say no - A LOT!!!! To everything!!!

And this is why they haven’t been given the option to say no before. Because most riders don’t know what to do with a no and are told their horse is just taking the piss or being naughty, even when the horse legitimately isn’t coping with its' training.

It doesn’t mean that we let our horse walk all over us and get away with everything.

We have a couple of very simple exercises that we use with our horse as a way of establishing manners and discipline. We then work with our horses on establishing consent for each ask. And then we try to making learning and the training environment positive and enjoyable to the horse.

And then - TA DA - we have true willingness and not just submission and forced yeses.

Would you like to communicate for effectively and create more willingness with your horse? Have a look at our Training Trainability membership, which takes you through how to develop respect and consent from your horse, and can get you on your way to having wins in as little as a single session!

Giving Consent

Does your horse agree with the way you work together?

Giving our horses the ability to say yes or no - to give consent - is an important training tool in the Equestrian Movement tool box.

It is next in line in our philosophies after first do no harm.

One of our big over arching goals is for our training sessions to happen FOR the horse.

WITH the horse.

Not to the horse.

We want them to not only participate but enjoy the learning process, and for movement to feel good for them.

Part of making this work is having the horse able to give consent to the next ask.

Sometimes there is a long gap between the previous ask and when they are ready for the next ask. As trainers and riders we tend to rush the process, and this is when our horses can hit breaking point. When the tension of the ask, ask, ask builds up, their frustration, confusion or overwhelm can burst out of them and be deemed as them being naughty at best and dangerous at worst.

When we give them permission to process and move their emotion (or even better show them how to process and move their emotion), where they can say

• “I’m not ready”,

• “I don’t understand”,

• “my body isn’t ready”,

• “I need a break”,

• “I’m hurting”,

Or anyother form of no that they might have, we are allowing them to express what they need from us to succeed in their training session.

It may well mean we need to adjust the goal posts for what we hoped to achieve.

When our horse feels listened to and isn’t reacting off their emotions, when that horse feels heard, they don’t have to act out with large and potentially dangerous behaviours to get their message across.

Who Should Move Their Feet?

One of the things we talk about at Equestrian Movement is showing up for your horse as a good leader.

Being a good leader means your horse can be a good follower and look to you when feeling challenged, uncomfortable or scared for direction rather than just reacting.

However, one of the big ways a horse will test you and challenge your leadership qualities is by trying to move you and push you around.

If your horse can move your feet, they are controlling where you are going so that makes them the leader. You are following their cues. However when you recognise that your horse is moving your feet and can firstly stand your ground and secondly step into them to move their feet, then you become the leader. They are following your cues.

This can feel like it’s easier said than down with some of our bold, pushy horses, but with consistency and follow through, over time it really does work.

Our favourite exercise for this is walk when I walk, stop when I stop, go when I go. This has been a huge game changer for many of my students and what we always go back to when we start to lose our horses engagement in their work. We go into a lot further detail about this in our Facebook group if you are having trouble implementing - feel free to join and ask questions (click here).

For some of our nervous horses, or horses that have experienced trauma, you may find that initially they aren’t trying to move your feet but are trying to get away from you.

If you start working on your relationship and establishing that connection, they WILL start to relax and bring their walls down around you. This is when they will start to challenge you as a leader, because they are becoming comfortable and confident with you.

This is also something that can happen when you just buy a horse. It will take them time to get used to the change and settle into the routine. I call this the honey moon period and they can be on their best behaviour. Normally by about 3 months they will start to relax and as they relax challenge you to see if you are effective enough to be a good leader or if they need to take over.

Breaking The Wheel - Why You Should Choose To Train Trainability

Do we follow tradition because that’s how it’s always been done?

Or do we challenge tradition and incorporate new training techniques that have been proven to not only work for horses but dogs, elephants, birds, dolphins, seals… And those are just the animals I am aware of.

If you are “doing all the things” and your horse can do all the tricks but you feel like there is still something missing, then Training Trainability is for you. 

Our tradition-breaking perspective that we have incorporated into our training values, philosophies and principles is that horses are emotionally intelligent, sentient beings that should be valued as equals and not devalued to the status of a belonging. 

We value our horses needs physically, mentally and emotionally over our riding goals, and encourage them to learn and willingly participate in their education so that our training and ridden sessions are not only a joy for us but our horses as well. 

This does not mean we let our horses push us around and get away with being bold. In fact, we are the complete opposite.

One of our core values is that to have a strong, trusting relationship between horse and rider we need to show up as a strong leader, setting clear, consistent boundaries and following through on our asks. The thing that is different is how we set those boundaries and being clear and consistent so our horse understands what we want, what to expect from us and why.

Our goal in training is to give our horse a voice. Some say in their own training experience. Their education is happening for them, not to them. They are allowed to tell us if they are overwhelmed, frustrated, sore, confused, unsure, anxious and any other spectrum of emotion they may feel without being “pushed through”.

We offer other supportive strategies that first teach our horses how to process and move through these emotions and then tackle the challenges we set for them with confidence and trust in us to guide them through the unknown (which is obviously always full of scary monsters like flapping plastic bags and rustling trees).

What we are really truly looking for in our work with horses is not the 50c ribbon, the nod of approval from our peers or the accolades from the judges but the connection, emotional relationship and the peace that comes from creating a deep and powerful bond with our horses.

Because if all we wanted was the adrenaline rush of the ride without the emotions and intellect, we would ride motor bikes.

Are you ready to join the equestrian movement?

#jointheequestrianmovement

What you horse needs from you to learn

A horse needs a lot from its trainer to be able to learn – and we want our horses to learn, not just submit.

They need to respect you!

• If they don’t think you are competent,

• if they think they are more capable of keeping themselves safe without you,

• if they think you are going to put them in situations that they aren’t ready for or will get hurt in,

• if they think you aren’t putting the effort in with them ...

...then why should they do what you ask?

Think of a situation at work where someone of authority that wasn’t particularly good at their job kept asking you to do something. Do you do it with enthusiasm eager to prove yourself? Or do you dig your heels in becoming more and more begrudging of them? What if you were doing work for someone you respected but they didn’t reward you for your efforts and just asked more from you? Do you keep giving them a 100% or do you start to become resentful of them?

To prove yourself as a leader they need you to create clear, consistent discipline, where you follow through on your ask. You need to provide a safe learning environment and not put them in situations that they can be hurt.

How can you provide your horse a better working and learning environment?

1. Don’t become emotionally engaged in their arguments.

When our horses do test us and push our boundaries, getting angry or frustrated and arguing with them rarely helps. We suggest that you avoid getting into a battle of the wills and work instead on staying centered, relaxed and balanced. Focusing on consistent expectations rather than winning the argument.

2. Consider lowering your expectations

If we want our horses to be enthusiastic and engage in their training, we need to focus on rewarding their effort and for trying rather than pushing for a certain thing we want to achieve. This keeps them interested in learning and keeps their mind open to being curious. We reward for effort, finish on a good note, feeling like we could’ve done more.

3. Know what we are trying to achieve and break it down for them

How many times have you done something because someone has told you you should be doing it with your horse but you don’t know why or how? Well if you don’t know, how can your horse know? Be very clear in your mind in what you are trying to achieve. Often there are multiple steps involved to get to this goal so it is important that we know how to break it down to the smaller steps that build up to that point as well. That also helps us to reward for effort, finishing on a good note, feeling like we could have done more. We know that the steps are just as important if not more important than the end result and can see the path.

4. Make sure you use clear communication

Our horse needs us to understand how they learn and how best to communicate with them, so they understand what is being asked of them. They also need a way to communicate if they need a break because they are overwhelmed, confused or tired. They need us to know when they are trying, to be compassionate if they can’t do it and not let the communication break down.

5. Be patient

They need us to remember that, at the end of the day, they are still a horse and they are letting us ride them and handle them. If they are having an off day, they are sore, fatigued physically or mentally, or having some other problems, we need to be patient and forgiving. It needs to be a 2 way street where we are not always demanding of them, but making the learning and riding process as comfortable and interesting as possible.

Sneak Peak! Behind the scenes of our Holistic Horse Handling Program!

Welcome to a quick view from behind the scenes of the development of Equestrian Movement’s Holistic Horse Handling Program!

Many amazing horses shared their time with us during the creation of the tutorials. Raf loves his time with Katie (and her quickly growing baby bump!)

Want to know more?

Click here to view the course

Blaze, learning to open up and communicate

Using video from our workshops helps to demonstrate the application of training trainability in REAL horses with REAL riders

Learning another computer program to provide the course online was not only a game of trial and error but also eventually an obsession!

Sarah even got involved by taking Custard through the program - making sure Katie's brain-dump translated to practical understanding and exercises.

What Is A Safe Horse?

Have you ever heard the term “bomb-proof horse”?

It sounds like the ideal beginner horse.

And I’m about to tell you why you don’t want one of these horses.

Looking at the horse sale adverts, you will often see these horses that are advertised as the ideal beginner’s horse, the “bomb-proof” pony. I can’t tell you the number of times I see these ads with pictures of the horse in various phases – a tarp thrown over them, flags near their head, or a pre-teen child standing on their back (I won’t go into my thoughts on that, either, but let’s just say it’s not pretty).

These horses seem to be the perfect horse because they are not reacting to the stimulus, the “scary” objects, and you can do just about anything with them.

But most of them aren’t perfect. Most of them have shut down.

Yep, that’s right. Most of these horses have been terrified with flapping tarps, plastic bags, waving sticks and flags, and have reached a point where they no longer cope. As a result, they will react in one of two ways:

·        They explode, become marked as dangerous, and often end up slaughtered

·        They shut down, completely disengage, and are therefore marked as “safe”

Unfortunately, these horses are just like the wild cat backed into the corner. Eventually, they ARE going to explode. And if we are lucky enough, we will get to sit up from the dirt, stare at the cloud of dust left behind as our horse becomes a small dot on the horizon, and ask “What the (insert expletive of choice) just happened?”

The big issue with these horses is they are forced to not react - until they can no longer NOT react, resulting in a massive overreaction to a seemingly small stimulus. They have no capability of processing, they have no capability of thinking, and they have never been shown how to look for support and direction from their rider.

I’m not big on the terminology of a safe horse, as every horse has the capability of reacting to every single person differently (personalities, training, confidence, attitude all come in to effect here for both horse and rider), but there is a way to make your horse safer.

To make your horse safer, you need to establish a working relationship, set yourself up as a leader, be consistent in your training and handling, make your horse curious, and always be mindful to condition your horse mentally AND physically.

Be prepared to put some time into your horse. This isn’t going to happen overnight. But the effort will be more than worth it.

Added bonus – you won’t look like an idiot chasing your horse around the arena with a plastic bag on a stick.

Looking to make your horse safer?

Our Training Trainability course takes you step-by-step through the process. Click here to access

How The Herd Changes Your Relationship With Your Horse

Have you ever experienced a change with your horse simply because something has changed in the paddock social circle?

And did it affect your horses behaviour?

Some may say that what happens in the paddock should have no impact on your working relationship with your horse. Some may say that when a horse is in tack, his mind should be in the game.

And to some extent, it’s true.

However, when we don’t take the time to ensure our relationship has ourselves set up as your horses alpha, any changes that happen to the herd will impact your working relationship and your horses confidence levels - sometimes with seriously damaging results.

Understanding how your horse works within your herd structure, the importance of the herd structure, and how you can fit in, will go a long way to improving your relationship with your horse, and result in a stronger, unflappable bond where your horse can look to you for guidance.

The Herd

Have you ever taken time to watch what is happening in a herd? You may have noticed there is a bit of a pecking order, with the lead being taken by the Alpha. Generally, the Alpha is a dominant mare, although in our paddocks filled with geldings, some more of the ‘stallion-minded’ geldings may take the head spot.

It is the role of the Alpha to determine where they will graze, where they will water, and when they need to bolt. The Alpha will be on guard and watchful as the rest of the herd graze or relax.

It is no wonder then, when there are changes to this structure, that the confidence of our horses can change. Some may be thrust into a role that they are not ready for (either because of age, genetics or lack of social skills), and others may come into a herd with limited understanding of how one works (again, due to isolation or lack of teaching from other horses).

The end result could be a horse, previously exceptionally well-behaved (or at least mostly), becoming ‘grumpy’, ‘spooky’, ‘testing boundaries’, or even outright ‘rebelling’. It is the simple attempt of your horse to understand the new behaviours now expected.

This is why it is important for us to step up and become the Human Alpha within the herd.

Start showing up as a leader by taking steps to strengthen your bond with your horse - click to access the free guide

The Human Alpha

I promise you, I don’t mean for you to spend months camped outside, pretending to eat grass and boss around your horse.

Again, when we look at the herd, it is the Alpha that sets the pace. The Alpha is confident, relaxed, and rarely triggered by their environment. When the Alpha is calm, the rest of the horses are safe. When the Alpha runs, the herd knows it’s time to put some speed on (sure, some horses lower in the pecking order may mess around or bolt when the Alpha is relaxed, but you will notice that the herd itself does not react).

The Human Alpha is simply a process of setting yourself up to be the calm, confident and relaxed leader that your horse knows to look to when he is with you.

By setting yourself up as the leader, you can begin to establish (or re-establish) your horses confidence, and regain the working brain.