Courage For our Cowardly Lion

" The Suspicious Pony"

Meet Millennium Qui or "Qui" pronounced 'Key' - An 8 year old OTTB as of maybe a month ago now, purchased by one of my clients off of an East Coast Canter add as a horse for me to bring through the levels! This horse is going to be really, REALLY cool.... He easily has some of the most scope and best gaits of anything I have in my program right now. However, he is is what I like to call HIGHLY suspicious. Not spooky in the traditional turn and run philosophy that might have kept him alive in the wild, but more of the mentality that everything (and most everyone) is actually just out to get him. That pole? It's highly likely to spring up and grab him, so instead of simply trotting over it, he'll leap like his whole life depends on it. The X? After weaving back and forth nervously, we'll leave 2 strides out and tuck our hind end like it might try and grab him. Trail rides are a matter of a lot of puffing, a lot of stopping, some shaking, and many attempts to leap like a ballerina. Heaven help me if I needed to catch him in a rain storm, or if I tried to brush him too quickly. These resulted in terrified running around a paddock, broken cross ties, or more shaking. Now knowing he came from the track, and was a claims horse, tells you a few things. 1. There probably wasn't a lot of babying, treat giving, or cuddling. He was there to make his money, and go home. 2. Because of this, he really learned to fend for himself in any and all situations. Better safe than sorry mentality. He's brave, and he'll try, but because he knows his job. He hasn't had anyone he's truly wanted to work for, as there hasn't been much consistency in his life.

I mean, look at this trot after only 45 days under saddle!!

With this in mind, we begin the process of "retraining" and installing courage and confidence. I think this is something MANY horse and rider combinations struggle with, whether it's in the form of a stopper, a rearer, a bucker, a bolter, a biter, barn sourness, heard boundness, or extreme tension in dressage. These horses exhibit strong signs of lack of confidence in their person or "Alpha". Now I'm not hear to preach to you about how to get your horse to stand all four feet on a tree trunk, to bow down, or to ride around with a rope around it's neck and nothing else. But I am here to remind you that your horse is a heard animal. They should want to work for you, not out of fear or necessity, but because YOU ARE IN CHARGE. These are 1200+ lb animals that we work with on a daily basis, and in my world, there can't be a question of who's in charge. If they mow you down to get to the grass or to their stall, they don't have respect for you. When push comes to shove on cross country, you are disposable to them.They are going to be out for the self preservation. When we are on cross country, we ask them to do things that COMPLETELY disregard natural instinct, and I want my horses to trust me 110% when I ask them to blindly jump off a bank.

 Maybe this is a little harsh, but I've watched too many people baby their horses, and end up in a hospital when "Fluffy" just wanted a bit of grain and broke their foot. Respect starts from the ground up, from Day 1 to forever. Every day, you write in your horses book of training. In pen. Make every experience that you can a positive one in the right direction, towards the horse of your dreams. If you don't teach it them to behave, they won't learn. Does this mean beating them senseless over a mistake? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Does this mean correcting them when they're dancing in the cross ties and being firm about standing still? Yes. This means when you stop, they stop. If they walk past you, stop them and ask them to back up, and try again. There should not be a pulling game of your horse dragging you down the aisle every day. I expect my horses to stop without me even touching the lead rope. I expect them to stand in the wash rack nicely while being bathed. I expect personal space when we're walking around the grounds of a show. I expect them to get in a horse trailer with just me, no whips, no contraptions, and with little hassle every time.

I even expect my 3 yr old to stand nicely in the cross ties. Pictured is Miss The Logic, another OTTB sale horse in my program.

For Qui and his lack of trust, I spent a LOT of time in the first month working on getting him to move away from pressure on the ground, getting him to stand still for a few minutes at a time, getting him to stop when I stopped, to back up nicely on command. All of this was very hard for him to understand. He wanted to run me over, he wanted to run away, rear up, leave ext. I put him on a lunge line, grabbed a set of sturdy gloves, and pushed off everything else on my calendar. I wasn't in a hurry, and he needed to know that. I've learned that if I don't have the time to do things correctly (and completely) I don't have the time to work with that horse for the day. If you only have 20 minutes for a ride, don't ride. Groom them, work on ground manners, work on relaxation on the ground, make it simple and easy, so you don't start something you can't finish. Nothing is worse than not having the time to fix a problem that arises once you've started.

After 2 weeks, I really felt like Qui was relaxing in our day to day ground work, so I tossed a saddle on him. I wasn't exactly nice about it, maybe a bit surprising, but wouldn't you know it he stood like a brick. I took the saddle off, praised him like we just ran around Rolex, and put him back out for the day. He was like, Really? That's It? That's all I have to do is be good and you're done?? You know who showed up at the gait the next day? Without me standing in the middle watching him make laps around me at Mach 5? Qui. And guess who walked in quietly and started to work?

When we started working over poles, I started on the ground. Made it simple and easy to do the right thing. I made it hard for him to do the wrong thing. When he walked over it? He was THE best horse ever, and the issue was over and we moved on to something else. And then we went back to it again after a bit. I see some people represent over and over and over again right in a row, but to me this doesn't give your horse a chance to process that going over was the correct and easy answer. I did the same thing under saddle, walked him right up to it, let him stand in front of it for a minute, and then walk over. We did some dancing, and then a flying leap, but he went over like I asked. Try and  not let the horse walk past it or around it, as that's evasion of the question. Same thing with jumping. A run out is a rider error. A stop is a misunderstanding of the question. That we can fix. Once he quietly leaps over the pole, I make a big deal of him and go back to something that's easy for him, like a circle. Then after a few minutes, I re-approach the pole or jump. This time, it's a little less dramatic. Each time becomes less exciting, as he begins to trust I won't set him up for failure. Another big thing is make sure you are as out of the way as possible when working with a horse like this. If that means getting a belt or old stirrup leather as an "Emergency Grab Strap" do that. I jump my guys in a breast plate to make sure I have something to grab on to, and make sure that I don't fall onto their backs too soon on a big jump. Nothing hurts confidence more than grabbing their mouth to re balance your self. http://www.an-eventful-life.com.au/eventing-news/training-tips/neck-straps-are-not-just-beginners-says-william-fox-pitt If you don't trust me, trust WFP :) 

Slightly Over Dramatic

Nice and Relaxed, focus on the reward.

Much more relaxed.

With a horse like him, I also focus a lot on keeping it simple. Walk it until it's easy. Trot it until it's easy. Canter it until it's easy. Then add another element. Make sure at this stage that the exercise can always be broken down and simplified if they get nervous. 

Ok, enough from me for this week. Hope this helps for those working with horses lacking in confidence!!

UPDATE: 

Qui's first XC experience! Great to see our little Lion man out running and jumping!