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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: Karen Nesbitt <spanishequines@yahoo.com>
  • To: MSAR <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [MSAR] Leaving its post...
  • Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:19:26 -0700 (PDT)

In response to:
Message: 12
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:02:58 -0400
From: "Laurie Hanahan" <lhanahan@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: [MSAR] walking home?
To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <001701ca0a1c$b7af6e10$270e4a30$@com>
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Whether your horse stays or goes depends on the variables of the incident
that causes you to leave the saddle.  A simple lean over too far and slip
off (a/k/a blonde moment), my horse stays in place.  Black bear encounter,
she left.  Fear and natural instincts overcame the usual thinking of this
horse.



In general, I agree w/let the horse do the thinking and that they are in
many instances smarter and more capable, especially in negotiating the best
route or finding the lost route on a trail.  I have a sign in my trailer
that says when in doubt, let your horse do the thinking.  However in the
end, no matter how much trust building, natural training, etc. you have done
(my SAR horse and I have trained w/Parelli and other similar methods
extensively for over 6 years), the bottom line is a horse will in the end
always be a horse.   You need to be prepared for the unanticipated.
Personally I hate carrying a lot of items on my body - if you do end up on
the ground, you can be seriously injured by what you carry - punctures,
broken ribs, etc.  That is a risk, but the risk of being left w/o basic
essentials takes priority.   



I'm finding so many great ideas/information on this list and the variety of
opinions keeps it interesting! 



Laurie Hanahan

TROTSAR

------->>>>>
 
Laurie, I love your post!  Yes, horses with the so called "blonde" moment.  A horse is a horse, of course...    Seen quite a few blonde moments, most caused by bad training or mishandling, and many more also caused by the element of surprize, but you do know what they say too, its always the rider, never the horse!
 
Ironically, the day I busted my knee, the day before I spent an hour retraining the stallion I was mounting up on.  His owners told me they had to tie him to a hitching post to get on him, then lean forward to release him so they could ride him.  I was like WAAAAT??? You have got to be kidding me.  So  long story short, I worked with this cantankerous horse for an hour, did some suppling exersizes and then did the mounting and dismounting and mounting and dismounting until he stood in one place for several times without the squirming and cantankerousness. Praised the boy his due. People ask me why did I work in suppling him, he was able to move and squirm about plenty enough.  Well the next day I was going to continue his lesson.  More suppling exersize, mounting and dismounting... well I went to mount up on him the next day and he stood like an angel.  When my leg popped and I hit the ground the stallion did not budge and in fact stood there looking at me with that dumb look on his face like what the heck are you down there for.  You know the look they can get like WHAAAT the....!!?  My conclusion on that stallion was he was simply not supple and was irritated at being mounted hence his cantankerousness which they never worked to supple him to get his "bugs" out.  He was trained in spanish, but he also knew verbal the words whoah.
 
Guess the old boy learned my teaching pretty good!  He stood without hesitation for me and long enough for me to make that split second decision on myself where I was headed with the bum knee.  I could have completed my mount, after all I was with my leg over his fanny and had enough momentum to completely get aboard, but having only worked with the horse for one session, I was also hedging on whether to trust him not also realizing the how bad part of how much I was hurt. I knew I was really bad, but I was trying to prevent myself from being worse. The ground and a shoulder roll was the best and only sane option and to this day not sorry..  My biggest upset of that day was dammit, I could not finish my ride!  LOL!  I prefer getting back on after a tumble.
 
IN answer to why supple that cantankerous stud, well first off, he was supple only to the route he was wanting to take and not the route he was going to be asked to take.  Once we achieved the full mobility, he then became a more willing partner to stand.  His unpleasant unsupple body finally yeilded him a position he could stand patiently where as before it was painful for him to do so, so hence his figgityness..  So his case was a matter of being just down right irritable because he had an achey body that hurt more when asked to mount in a better rider mode.  And this was a well seasoned and well trained show horse in every other respect but with standing issues that needed some  better help.
 
On teaching a horse to stop when running at large, we teach rollbacks and the resounding ever so loud WHOAAAAAAH calling the animals name first.  I had a quarter horse bless his unselfish soul who was trail perfected.  I gamed him, did it all. He was one of those animals I would always ride drag because he and I could always help the riders ahead if needed and was very trusting. His famous blond (or in his case buckskin) moment was one day while out on the trail we encountered a horse and buggy while rounding the bend and it was his first ever in seeing one.  I happened to be walking the horse on the ground and when we parted company he took off at a dead gallop down the pathway on a very busy highway catching me off gaurd in holding a rein.  I hollered out "Sonny WHOOOOOAAAAAAAAH! and that horse came to the most perfected 18 foot sliding stop cut in the dirt you ever wanted to see at just the right time when needed.  The driver of the buggy nearly fainted in awe!  He later told me his buggy horse was not so well verbally trained to do that and IT was under harness....I can just imagine a nightmare with his horse in progress. 
 
 So  I suggest rollbacks, slide stops and verbally, the NAME of horse and whoah. BUT I dont like to do this type of work on babies.  The quick hard rollbacks and slides can reack havoc on immature legs and other parts.  That work is best left for later maturity. Besure your horse is supple before starting to teach the rolls and dont be a JERK when it comes to the halt or a doubling back.. We want peace with his mouth, not a peice of it.  And dont forget the WHAOH and stand.  AND LOTS OF PRAISE.
 
Before we do the rolls, doubles and stops, we teach breaking at the poll and the neck on the ground before getting into the rollbacks.  If you dont you could have a lopsided horse and beleive me, you just might part company.   A good reason why riders go airborne and part company with their horses is because either or both the horse and rider are not supple.  Your just fighting the inevitable there if you are not prepared for it.  Your body is not giving and you get of with literally a jerk. 
 
Breaking at the neck requires the horse to reach around and hug your leg with its head on both sides when you are aboard and hold for a few moments nose reaching up to your hip.  But you can teach this exersize from the ground and works just as good just by positioning where the riders leg should be.  Breaking at the poll is another lesson requiring the horse to be supple in the nodding fashion of his head.  You need both to be supple.  Once you acheive those, you can work further to supple the horses spine and what we go on as to call breaking at the back to achieve that nice curve from nose to tail and collection and not just a head bent off in one direction or another.   You will not achieve this by longing.  Longing alone does not make the horse supple in both directions and you will not achieve this by tying heads to knees or nose to tail.  It is an asked response with a yeild answer.  Best as I can describe it without showing you all. 
 
Basically what I am describing are chiropractic manuvers for your horse.  Like I said, longing, ties or whipping the crap of the horse to make him run in tight circles will not get the job done proper. Too many times I see trainers and owners doing just these things trying to get the horse to yeild and it never does.  Just causes the horse to go in circles without achieving much of the purpose. The animal then works out of resentment and fear, but it does not cause the horse to become supple. Thats because you are not doing what is required in asking the horse for his head and to yeild.  You are just bullying the horse when there is no yeild and release.  And it is not done proper when you JERK.  It is not done proper when you confine tie back either. If you are not going to be a yeilding rider or trainer, I suggest you get off the horse and out of the barn.
 
Once you get the animal supple and beleive me you will notice a great difference if this is achieved properply, then you can work on other things too from the ground such as figure eights, backing etc which are all great exersizes when perfected from the ground can work better when in the saddle.  It is to your advantage to be supple as well. 
 
If a horse is supple he has mobility and is not prevented in movement in either direction to bend.  If he is not supple, he will show signs of irritability, tail ringing, nipping  and other behavior unbecoming.  A lot of nieve trainers overlook the fact that the horse may not be supple and will chaulk their ignorance to oh, its an ill fitting saddle and do nothing to remedy the attitude. Too many times they tell the owner they need a new saddle or better fitting peice of equipment. I have seen some unscrupulous trainers train a bad habit into their clients horses only to tell their clients too that they need to leave the horse with them a little longer as a ploy to get them to pay more money.  Goes on in a lot of barns all the time.  And I have seen some unscrupulous trainers only put little effort in training bilking their clients trying to keep them coming back for more.  Guess the bad economy does stupid blonde things to quite a few folks.  If you are considering having your horse trained away from home, these are a few things you might want to be aware.  A good trainer will work with you to QUICKLY solve the issues, not perpetuate them.  I will also admit that not all problems can be solved overnite.
 
Happy signs to look for in happy attitude of a horse is lip licking, perked ears, ears that listen and are not nasty pinned, no tail ringing and no pulling to one side or the other to evade a command that is asked  and watch the kindness in the eyes.  Happy eyes are attentive, not fearful.  Heavy hands and jerks cause unhappy horses and blond moments!  Happy clients dont leave the trainers barn with their wallets broke.
 
One last thing, if a horse is going to take care of you when you are in the saddle, other than time and experience, it is his suppleness that will allow him to do it.  He has to be able to move fluidly to compensate for when the passenger cant.  So with that point, think about it when you have someone else in your saddle who does not ride as you do, no less a rider who is injured and totally off in balance.
 
Well, just more of my 2c!
 
Karen
 



  • [MSAR] Leaving its post..., Karen Nesbitt, 07/21/2009

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