My path with horses so far

As so many I started as a young girl in a typical riding school, where one gets taught to pull on the reins, kick with the heels and use the whip. Growing up in a big German city, I had a look at many stables. I saw many scared and hurt horses back then, but also the people seemed to often be not all too happy.

Then I got the opportunity to look after a horse and work with him. I had found books by Linda Tellington and Ferdinand Hempfling and started to apply what I had read. I did not like all things these authors suggested, either. There were things like chains over the bridge of the nose, talk about dominance and punishment.

When I started to study in a different town, I again searched for stables, but I found only "pulling and kicking". So I started Aikido and did use my holidays to go on trail-rides, while searching the bookshops for books about horses. I went a while to live and study in the US and in Japan. When the first book of Monty Roberts came out, I started to follow that approach and went to see his shows. It took me a while, but finally I realized, that by talking and making jokes, he did cover how much pressure the horses did feel. Without whipping, the horses did learn, that they can't escape and are helpless. A better way maybe, but still not what I was looking for.

Still searching I found the Nevzorov Haute Ecole. The philosophy just sounded so wonderful, so I joined the forums and school. I did learn a lot about keeping horses and also the lessons of the school. After a while I had to realize, it is not all gold what is shiny. Alexander Nevzorov's horses did look angry, they are kept separate from the herd, so they won't be pulled down into primitiveness. Some people can be intimidating in their presence not only to people, but also to horses. Sweet treats and loneliness keep the motivation up.

Still searching I started to dive into clicker training. Now I had even my own horses! All positive and no pressure it is advertised. Indeed I did have fast success, but the horses were so focused to get the food rewards, they were full of tension - which made them look somehow beautiful, if one did not notice the tension. I also noticed, that I stopped seeing the whole horse, looking only for the detail to be trained at that moment. It did amaze me, what the horses had learned at liberty in less then 10 sessions, but I stopped. This was not what I was looking for either. Especially my mare did show some of the conditioned behavior (turning the head away to get food) still for over half a year!

Next I studied Carolyn Resnick's Waterhole-rituals. She explains how to have fear is natural and healthy for a horse and that she likes them to be obsessed about watching her. Again food is used to put the "pull/pressure" on the horse. And when the horse gives a unhappy look, it is the horse which has a bad attitude. By now I had understood from watching my own horses, how important and cherished eating in peace is for them, I surely would not start to disturb their eating time.

Finally I found "True horsemanship through feel" by Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond. I started to get all the articles, pictures and videos I could from the internet. The horses did look relaxed and comfortable, but how to apply this feel and what feel really is, I found hard to get a grasp of. So I started to experiment and learn from our horses. After a while I could see more from the videos, I did understand more what I did read. My horses were happy to give constant feedback on my progress in understanding and applying "that better feel".

Once after a clinic with a student of Hempfling, I experimented would his liberty work be compatible. But both my horses made it clear, that this would have been a step back, they were not willing to go. Anyway, I gained new insights from this experimenting, how I could apply "feel" at liberty.

In the last couple of years my intuition about the horses perception on the various "training methods" got sharpened. It is the beginning of what people call "animal communication". It is, I believe, why working with clear intent does give so great results - the horses do read your mind, when it is calm and your thoughts have meaning.