Horse Talk

Today's offering from A Word a Day (wordsmith.org) closed, as it does every day, with a quotation.  AWAD's Thought for the Day usually intrigues me as much, if not more than their vocabulary word, but this one sent me to post here, because it goes to the heart of horse training:

Our expression and our words never coincide, which is why the animals don't understand us. -Malcolm De Chazal, writer and painter (1902-1981)

I have no idea who De Chazal was, but he identified a central problem I've had to deal with when working with people. Horses observe humans quite well.  In fact, as any good trainer can tell you, horses, are adept at reading people.    Horses, like most other animals, respond to human body language and to the pitch and rhythm of the human voice.  Lowering the voice soothes, raising the voice energizes, and rising the pitch can terrify.

I've lost count of the times when students have blamed their horses for "running away" when the horse was just following orders.   They'd lean forward or inadvertently cue, and when the horse responded, they'd begin repeating the word "Whoa!" with every repetition higher-pitched and more frantic. 

Once the event ended and the rider's heartrate returned to normal, I'd yet again explain that, yes, they were saying "Whoa!", but their voices were high and tight, in some cases even squealing and shrieking.  Worse yet, they inevitably became tense throughout their bodies as well.  The horse perceived--rightly--that the human perceived danger.  Not having any way to understand that the poor human perceived the horse itself as the danger, the horse fled, increasing its speed even more as the human indicated even greater danger. 

Horses understand us just fine.  Few of us understand them at all.

Hand Holding

One of the first things I teach my students is the proper way to hold a lead or a lunge line.  Over the years I've noted that the safe and functional folding of the line back and forth across the palm has become less and less common in horse circles. In fact, one of my students came back from a large show where she had happily worked as ground crew and told me that a number of people came up to her and asked why she held her lunge line "funny."

I don't know if her explanations impressed those who asked, but, unfortunately, I now have a news story to point to that should: "UF Student's Hand Severed after Horse Gets Spooked."

Actually, a number of safety violations occurred in this incident. A more detailed version of this story added that the student who wrapped the lead around her wrist was sitting inside a vehicle and holding the horse through a rolled down window. When I read she was inside a car, I hyperventilated, but, for now, I'll just address the problem with the lead wrapped around a wrist.

The across-the-palm method of holding a lead or lunge is--or was--common knowledge.  I learned it from an old US Cavalry officer, but the importance of a safe hold shows up in a good many well known books.  For example, The Complete Riding and Driving System, Book Six: Lunging explains WHY a safe hold is important:

If the lunge is gathered incorrectly, one cannot pay out the lunge quickly or smoothly enough when the horse is moving off. A lunge which is gathered untidily is dangerous and can, if there is an emergency, cost the trainer his hand, or give the horse too hard a jerk in the mouth. The loops should lie nearly on top of one another so that they can slide freely when the hand is opened slightly. (33)

This comment in The Official Instruction Handbook of the German National Equestrian Federation repeats almost word for word what I heard from the old cavalry officer some forty years ago.  Only the cavalry officer clarified HOW to fold the loops.  Not folding the loops correctly creates the problem.

Some otherwise excellent books teach people how to lose their hands.  For example, page 21 of Sheila Inderwick's 1977 Lungeing the Horse and Rider shows how a person should position of the hand during lunging:

While the hand hold is lovely, the looping itself here is NOT safe.  First, the lunge line itself has a loop end.  It's as if the manufacturers wanted to tempt people to slip the loop up around the wrist.  Of course, this loop most likely comes from the driving handhold loop tradition.  In any event, on a lunge line, it's merely a temptation. I try to get people to buy lines without end loops.  The lunge lines with circular stoppers at the end are my favorites.  More seriously though, the looping shown goes AROUND the hand, not across the palm.  Were a horse to take off, the lunge person could most likely let go, but this line could tighten around the hand. Do you want to take this chance?

The across the palm method leaves the lunger or leader with two sets of loops sticking out from either side of the hand. There's nothing wrapped around the hand at all. Opening the fingers can release one loop at a time. Opening the whole hand allows the line to fall away cleanly.

Flipping through my book collection, from beginner manuals to advanced works, I found quite a few commentaries on this safer method of holding a lead or line.  This one appears on page 135 of Susan E. Harris's The United States Pony Club Manual of Horsemanship:  Basics for Beginners/D Level.

I'm not sure why horse safety has diminished of late, perhaps it's because most horse people today consider them pets, more like big dogs than the easily panicked prey animals they are. Unfortunately, around horses, what you don't know can cost you a hand or a life. Be safe, cross your palm.

Colts and Stallions

Right now, a little stallion is padlocked in one of my stallion pens. The padlock is because his owner hasn't paid his board, not because he's a problem. He's totally atypical, kinder than most geldings, but for typical stallions padlocks are not necessarily a bad idea.

Too many people today don't even realize most stallions are physically aggressive--open mouth, teeth showing aggressive. More than a few are downright vicious. The good ones are the best horses around, but even those require special handling so that it's clear to them that humans rank higher than they do.

Mannering stallions is an art. In all horse-training, timing is vital, but in working with stallions, it can be the difference between life and death. Timing comes only from being aware of stallion behavior, recognizing it, and correcting aggression instantly. Stallions must know that nothing unauthorized will be tolerated. Once they get away with a little, the typical stallion immediately tries to get away with a lot.

For example, here's a story from today's Bloodhorse online "Eurton Recovering After Savaging Episode." It's not every day one sees the word "savaging" anymore. In fact, I hadn't heard it for years although it's the accepted horseman's term for being attacked by a horse. Here's what prompted that usage:

"We were behind the gate at the time and the rider got off the horse because he was acting up," Eurton began. "The horse then reared up and got away from his handlers. They got him to turn back behind the gate and he came right toward me and my pony.

"I turned the pony and the horse grabbed me in the back, picked me up and threw me down to the ground. I landed on my head, but fortunately I was wearing my helmet so I wasn't injured that way. But I have a huge hematoma on my back and a big bruise on my right knee."

The article does not mention the horse's sex, but I'm willing to bet big money--and I'm not a person who bets--the offending horse was a colt. What happened is extreme, but not atypical, colt behavior. Unless this colt has blazing speed, I'm sure this incident will prompt a visit by a vet. As a gelding, this horse probably still won't have an ideal temperament, but castration should temper his aggression greatly.

While extreme, this savaging is still typical stallion behavior. Many years ago, I bred a lovely TB to my Arab stallion and got a most impressive colt. My vet suggested keeping him as a stallion. I was dubious, and, as the colt began showing aggression I had to impress upon him that I, not he, was herd leader. He was fine with me, but I saw problems coming. The colt was smart enough to know that most people weren't me. That is, he was aggressive with anyone other than me. Nevertheless, my vet continued to recommend keeping him entire. Then, one day, my vet walked into his pen and the colt charged him. My vet dove through the rails of the pen to safety and said, "OK, let's geld the [expletive deleted]." I walked in and the colt respectfully let me put on his halter and lead him out to his fate as a high quality gelding.

Trainer Lynn Baber relates similar experiences with stallions. Click here.

Like Baber, I've pretty much come to the conclusion few women--or men for that matter--should be handling stallions, pretty much for the same reasons Baber gives. Most people, alas, lack the necessary knowledge, experience, command authority, and timing.

With stallions, knowing just how much pressure to put on the horse is also a major issue. A beaten stallion is likely to become even more dangerous than he was before the beating started. A well-disciplined stallion is often more charming than a good gelding. Knowing when and how to discipline to get the latter result is the mark of a true horse(wo)man

I especially liked Baber's recollection of backing up the unruly colt in a halter class. Backing up is one of the best disciplinary tactics to use on an unruly horse, whether mare, gelding, or stallion. Most horses dislike the movement, but it's not something that causes pain. Better yet, it's quite easy for a person on the ground to teach even a youngster to back up.

Backing away from a person on the ground is one of the first moves I teach a horse. I ask for only a couple of steps at first, but asking them to relinquish space at my command tells them I'm boss hoss, and they had better yield to a subtle cue or the cues will become ever more emphatic. If, for example, a subtle jiggle on the lead or light pressure to the chest with a fingertip sends a horse backwards without resistance--or at least with serene resignation, the horse is offering a major sign of respect.

Training a stallion requires both offering the horse a higher level of respect and in return demanding from the horse a higher level respect. Depending on the trainer's skills and the horse's underlying temperament, this can be an anything from an exhilarating thrill to a chain saw massacre nightmare. Finding out which can be, shall we say, a challenging experience.

How Great the Disconnect?

Loss of terminology can tell one much about a society.  All the college instructors I know complain about not being able to make historical or literary or even religious references that most students will get.  This applies to horseman's terms too, but a number of my compatriots are unaware of their lack in this regard. 

How far have most of us come from the days when even non-horsemen at least knew common horseman's terms?  A long way.  Lately, I've noticed an increase in the use of the odd phrase "reign in" where the author was looking for another way to say "restrain."

Today I opened my email titled "Edge 319: Emanuel Derman: Breaking the Cycle; Dawkins, Church, Taleb et al on Venter" and found this in the introduction to the Derman interview:

Watching that interrogation of the bankers at the Senate hearings, I had the feeling that this is the way karma works in the universe. Everybody is going to do something not quite right as they act out their destiny mechanically, doing what they unthinkingly believe they have to do. The Wall Street people are going to reflexively overshoot and be too greedy. The Senate people are going to reflexively grandstand and be too uninformed and try to reign them in. There isn't going to be an elegant solution to any of this.

Edge aka edge.org is one of the most intellectually sophisticated sites around, so this small gaffe surprised me. Gaps appear in everyone's knowledge, but this area is one that widens by the day.

During the last week of the semester, I said something about horses to a fellow instructor, who, in response, asked if horses were solitary animals or liked company.

Gee! Knowledge does not have a free rein these days. It's curbed and checked and almost hamstrung. Haw!!

An Unfortunate Historical Remnant

Recently, I ran across a story about a British group's donations of snaffle bits to horsemen in the desert area of the subcontinent of India. 

One look at the Indian snaffle bit below, a bit of current vintage, should explain why these British folks were so eager to donate snaffles of modern design.

I took one look at this bit and said, "Echini!"  Greek for "sea urchin," this style of bit was well known to Xenophon some 2400 years ago.  In fact, he describes something quite like this Indian bit in The Art of Horsemanship.

Here's a bit from Xenophon's era:

The article said that the donated bits were well received.  I imagine so!  Riding with a thick, smooth snaffle is tough enough.  It takes a lot of careful schooling to teach a horse to give to the bit.  The horse's natural reaction to the pressure of ANY snaffle is to raise its head.

Considering the severity of the "sea urchin" bit, it's unsurprising to find this depiction of an inverted horse on this ancient Greek plate:

I need to contact these British folks and see if they need any more donations.

A Little Advice

I had most of this entry typed out in response to some comments on John Michael Greer's post "Logic of Abundance." I decided it was more appropriate to publish this entry here since his blog audience is far broader than my topic.

This began when I responded to a comment by someone planning to get into horses and was quite disappointed in Greer's take on the situation. In general, I have great respect for Greer and look forward to his essays with eagerness. Unfortunately, he gave his readers some egregiously bad advice about horses.

So, now that I'm safely back in horse territory, I'll recap what happened. For ease and continuity's sake, I'll excerpt from the comments that comprise this conversation.

First, Hawlkeye wrote this comment:

I'm going to purchase a breeding pair of Suffolk Punch draft horses after taking a hands-on "horse-farm school" course in the summer. Am I an ignorant, green-horn wanna-be horse farmer? Yes, of course, but I have to start somewhere.

I responded with this:

Suffolks are a good choice since this breed, although regaining interest, has reached critically low numbers.

I wonder however what you mean by a "breeding pair." I hope you mean two breeding quality mares. The French were famous for farming with a stallion hitched next to a mare, but most experienced American horsemen still blanch at the mere thought.

Like you, I have no illusions about horses replacing the car. However, car ownership is far more common than horse ownership ever was. First of all was expense. Second was human skill. Yes, draft breeding stock was decimated during the Great Depression, but bringing back the stock wouldn't be as difficult as training the people. A talented, fast learner might become proficient with horses in a few years. Few people are either. I hope you are both.

If you buy a solid, well trained team, they'll teach you a good part of what you need to know. Good luck!

To which JMG answered thusly:

Houyhnhnm, I trust he means a stallion and a mare, so he can start producing more of a good breed that, as you say, is in very low supply right now! He can start plowing with a team once the first couple of colts get old enough; the crucial point now is to get 'em breeding.

A bit later Danby entered the fray with this thoughtful advice:

RE: horses

It's far better for most small farmers to keep a pair of mares than an stallion and a mare, for a couple of reasons.

First, stallions are unpredictable and prone to assert their dominance at inopportune times. An experienced horseman can handle these situations, but the last thing you need when you're trying to put up your hay during a short spring dry spell is a thousand kilos of horse challenging your authority.

Second, a mare can easily be bred by someone else's stud, for a relatively small fee (or for free if the fences aren't too good). Having two mares doubles your foal production, adding a bit to the profit margin.

And on a related note, you only want to breed the best males. Since one stud can cover literally dozens of mares in a year (hundreds if AI is an option) keeping all of the male population intact is a bad breeding plan and a waste of a lot of horses that would make perfectly good geldings.

For many uses, geldings make a better choice than a mare, i.e. where the teamster has no knowledge or desire to deal with breeding the horse, where the lower cost of feeding a gelding makes a difference, and where the horse will be in an urban environment around a lot of other horses, the gelding's more even temperament and lack of sexual aggression make him a better choice.

I have long been of the opinion that one of the worst ideas for most horse owners is keeping a stud.

Danby's solid advice brought forth this from JMG:

Danby, I don't claim to know horses well, so I'll take your word for it -- but I hope there are enough farmers in every region who don't take your advice, so breeds don't go extinct because nobody thought it was a good idea to keep a stud.

Most of the time Greer's observations are spot on.  Unfortunately, he went sailing into the ozone here.   However, since he's clearly not a horse person nor are most of his readers horse people, I decided against inflicting my long response on his blog.  Here, I expect only horse people will stumble onto it. So, below is the response I wrote for, but did not submit to, the comments section of The Archdruid Report. What follows appears only here on this blog.

JMG— Since so many rely on your usually excellent advice, I’m most upset by your comments both on my post and that of Danby.

In response to my post you said, “Houyhnhnm, I trust he means a stallion and a mare, so he can start producing more of a good breed that, as you say, is in very low supply right now! He can start plowing with a team once the first couple of colts get old enough; the crucial point now is to get 'em breeding."

JMG, I admire you greatly, but this response displays exactly the sort of naive ignorance I constantly battle when I start talking to wannabe horsemen.

At best, what you suggest wastes time and money. Eleven month gestation. Five years from foaling to maturity. Another year to train—minimum--and that assumes a skilled trainer. With a pair of trained, proven broodmares, a newbie could learn the ropes, give the mares a bit of maternity leave and get them back to work with foals at their sides.

At worst, your advice on a breeding pair could get a beginner killed. It’s clear you don’t know stallions.

I do.  I have 40 plus years experience breeding and schooling horses and 30 training people to handle horses. I stood a top quality stallion, handled him myself for 18 years, and, watched happily as his get won locally, regionally, and nationally. Of course, I’d been working with horses every day for over a decade before I bought him, and I’d been studying conformation and bloodlines for over twenty years. I knew what I was getting into and what I wanted to produce.

Still, well mannered and kind as my stallion was, I held my breath when I came with his breeding halter. Most horses are bred with someone holding the mare and someone directing the stallion. In this situation, the MARES create danger. A fellow a few miles away was killed when the mare evaded her handler, swung around, and kicked at his stallion. The stallion ducked. The guy didn’t. That’s why most vet schools have students and handlers wear helmets and other protective gear.

Some will say that pasture breeding is the answer. It isn't. A few knowledgeable breeders can introduce a horse to normal herd behavior, but most stallions these days are poorly socialized and tend to act like "paddock rapists." Several of my friends have had major vet bills having their stallions sewn up after violent rejections.  In fact, my stallion had scars from pasture breeding when I got him.  So, like most responsible stallion owners, we bred him in hand.

Part of this is sheer economics. Most who own a good stallion will also say a horse worthy of his testicles is too valuable to be allowed to pasture breed except under rare circumstances. For example, the Irish National Stud keeps a pasture breeder for mares that have proven hard to settle, but their pasture breeder, while a quality horse, is never their premier stallion.

In breeding up livestock, great skill is required. It’s both art and avocation. Few have the enough of an eye or educational background to match appropriate phenotype to appropriate genotype.  Even then breeding's guesswork.  A top notch sire will get 20% top notch foals.  I consider my stallion's 18% champions from decent but hardly top 20% mares a testimony to the research I did before I bought him. Brag, brag.  Plus, of course, I was lucky.

Given that most horsemen agree with Danby and me on stallion keeping, JMG's response to Danby added to my consternation.  JMG said, "Danby, . . . I hope there are enough farmers in every region who don't take your advice so breeds don't go extinct because nobody thought it was a good idea to keep a stud."

Reading that, I thought, Do you advocate puppy mills too?!

Most neophyte horsemen wouldn’t know a potential breeding stallion from an ungelded nag even if it bit them, which it likely would. Backyard breeding is NOT the way to maintain a breed much less improve it. That the Suffolk breed is in low supply does not warrant standing just any stallion just because it has rare breed papers.

As Danby noted, a fertile stallion can easily serve a hundred mares a year, live cover or AI.  So the ratio of stallions to breeding quality mares in all breeds ought to be AT MOST something like one to forty or fifty. That’s enough to keep genetic diversity while maintaining and even upgrading the breed since only about half of all mares will meet minimum standards to qualify as breeding stock.

Stallions are—and should be--rare and expensive commodities. In pre-Industrial England and well into the Industrial Era, it was common for the “stallion man” to come around leading his horse on a circuit to service local mares. Such a system could well be returned to post-Industrial America.

Until the collapse progresses beyond its current state though, most rare breed mare owners would do well to buy shipped semen--cooled, not frozen--and have their mares artificially inseminated. That way they could remain local and still breed to the best stallion available—nationwide or worldwide. Most horse registries other than the Jockey Club allow artificial insemination and, for most people, spending money on AI is not much more expensive than sending a mare out to be bred. And, in most cases, it’ll be much easier than the worry of keeping a stallion.

A typical stallion’s housing and feeding needs are not like those for a mare or gelding. Most stallions fret and pace, so keeping weight on them sometimes isn’t easy. More importantly, the fencing and housing have to be much sturdier than normal horse fencing. When their hormones rise in the spring, a good many undergo serious temperament changes. For example, one of my students was working with a kind young Friesian stallion belonging to her friend. She told me the friend's fencing wasn't that great. A month later the stallion went through two fences to get to a mare. He broke a leg going through the second one.

That was to be expected. He was just being a stallion. So on one point, I quibble with Danby’s otherwise excellent post. He says stallions are unpredictable. I say that stallions are quite predictable. We can train most of them to behave well when working, but left to themselves they revert to their prime directive: MARE! MUST BREED MARE! That fine young horse died because his owner was ignorant.

I admit though that watching a true horseman does make a lot of wannabes think handling a horse is EASY. For example, long ago at a county fair, I watched a fine horseman dangling off the ground as his Percheron stallion coiled up and bellowed his availability to all nearby mares. This handler grinned and with experienced grace regained his stallion's attention within a short time. Most beginners and not a few experienced horsemen would have dropped the lead and run. That, of course, could have set off some serious carnage. Merely catching a loose stallion is beyond many otherwise competent horsemen. This is why most boarding stables will not accept them. This is why most neophytes shouldn’t be near them. This is also why I love them, but that’s another story.

In short, I recommend that anyone wanting to enter the horseman’s world TAKE TIME to find out what working with horses requires. Go to some county fairs, some horse pulls or competitions if they’re nearby. Take some riding and/or driving lessons. Look around. Ask questions. Then ask more questions.

          Houyhnhnm

Just because I can, I'm going to end with a photo of a couple of green horses that my students were schooling.  In the foreground is Kendell with Bastion, a 17 hand appendix Quarter Horse, working in long lines.  Unseen to Kendell's left is Erica lounging Ebey, an Arabian mare.

Legal Documents for Riding Instructors

Most people who teach riding or allow instructors to give riding lessons on their property already know the importance of legal protection in the form of lesson releases. Some have codes of conduct, but here I’m going to suggest that even these may not go far enough. I propose that those who give riding lessons should ask their students and the parents of students to read and sign that they understand a list of commonly used and/or idiosyncratic terms they are likely to hear during their lessons, their children’s lessons, or in discussions with an instructor about lessons. I’ve found from personal experience that horsemen without all three of these open themselves up to anything from bitter misunderstandings to serious lawsuits.

THE LESSON RELEASE

The bare minimum is a lesson release. Any rider, whether it’s his first time on a horse or her fourth Olympic competition, can end up injured or even dead. Ignorant survivors of the most ordinary sort of accident are likely to sue. Ignorant kin of those who've had fatal accidents are even more likely to sue.

Before I allow a human on one of my horses I require a signed release. I drew up mine based on my knowledge of riding, and I had my attorney husband review it before I presented it to anyone for signing.
Anyone teaching riding needs to be as bulletproof as possible because, even with a signed release, some people will sue. For example, here’s a unpublished--except on the Internet!--Vermont Superior court case opinion as an illustration showing what can happen. Click on the title for more. Here, I’ve edited a bit and cleaned up typos.

Gorlin V. Jacobson

Ventura County Superior Court

2005 WL 3163537

Unpublished Opinion

November 29, 2005

Plaintiff Gorlin was injured during a riding lesson when her already bucking horse was caused to stop abruptly. Plaintiff fell when owner’s daughter ran at the horse shouting “whoa.” Court held that falling from horse was within those risks contemplated by the release.

Thankfully for Sweet Spot Farms, the judge in the Superior Court ruled in their favor, citing previous cases and adding, “The prospect that Gorlin's horse might encounter an animal or a person that would influence its behavior was something any rider could reasonably anticipate.”

Hallelujah.

However, even though the defendants were awarded costs, they had to go through a lot of time and agony. Furthermore, the plaintiffs were definitely out of pocket for the whole thing, and, most likely, they still think the horse should have been an automaton, not a well-trained horse who stopped on command.

Aside: Did anyone else reading this opinion wonder what the rider’s actual position was when the horse stopped? I’m betting she was neither sitting deep nor sitting back as she should have been on a bucking horse. How many times have I called out "Sit back!" and watched a rider curl forward? Sigh.

CODE OF STUDENT CONDUCT

The second legal form I recommend is a Code of Student Conduct. For example, Serenity Farm of Texas integrates a section of Rules and Policies into their Lesson Contract.

Here are some rules of Serenity Farms:

3. Respect the instructor—no arguing.

13. No loud noises or running. These actions can spook a horse and cause serious injury/death to that horse and/or student.

22. Please be responsible and treat the horse and equipment as if it were your own

[I’m going to rewrite this one because some students really do treat the horse and equipment as if it were their own, and they’re wearing month old shoes that are already torn up. Much of my equipment is over forty years old and in exquisite condition. I want my students to treat my tack like I treat it.]

24. Failure to follow the rules and guidelines of Serenity Farms can result in removal from a lesson or permanently.

27. By signing this contract, you (student/parent) agree to adhere to the rules and policies set forth. However, instructor/owner has the right to remove student at any time if any infractions are made toward this contract including a parental conflict at any time.

Reading these points, I sighed deeply. My guess is that these folks have had some of the same experiences I have. Through my thirty years as an instructor, I’ve taught many wonderful people, children and adults. I’m still in contact with many by phone, in person, or by email, and those now living in other states often stop by if they are visiting my area. Unfortunately, it’s the few negative experiences that haunt me. My Swifthorse rant of 13 February 2009 details some of those.

Some unfortunate incidents are, of course, inevitable. It’s simply impossible to anticipate everything. However, I now suggest that there’s a new way to anticipate at least some of them: Add a glossary of terms to your list of legal documents.

THE GLOSSARY OF INSTRUCTIONAL TERMS

Good instructors always explain the principles of riding and define concepts before, during, and after lessons, but not everyone hears or understands. To help prevent this, I suggest riding instructors prepare a list of possibly confusing horsey terms that students and parents are likely to hear from them during lessons or discussions. Sadly, I’ve discovered some ordinary words often mean one thing to horsemen and another to the rest of the world. This can lead to grievous misunderstandings.

So far, I have not found anything online like the glossary of terms I suggest. Basic lists of horsey terms are available, but many are rudimentary at best, for example, saddlery terms, gaits, that sort of thing. The list I suggest will be more specific, more idiosyncratic. Although many of the terms will be ordinary horseman’s jargon, some may be unique to one instructor; others may be terms used within a specialty field.

Since every instructor’s list will likely be different, I suggest instructors jot down any term they have ever had problems with in the past lessons or discussions. No instructor should assume riding students or parents of riding students will intuitively understand horseman’s usage and be on the same page. It’s more likely they don’t yet own a copy of the same book.

Sometimes even experienced horsemen work from different books. For example, several decades ago, I foolishly allowed a local “trainer” to ride my Arabian stallion. I watched in dismay as what should have been a simple circle went horribly wrong. I said, “Half halt” and waited for results. The situation got worse. Raising my voice, I said, “Half halt!” Instead of saying something halfway reasonable like “Which rein?” this “trainer” looked up from my horse’s ears, which were by now alarmingly close to the guy’s nose, and said, “What do you mean? Just stop for second?”

This situation was my fault. I failed to ask him if he was familiar with dressage terms before I allowed him to sit on my poor horse. If I had asked him, he never would have gotten on, and my stallion would have been spared a nasty few minutes.

So anyone who teaches or talks about horses needs to sit down and think both of specialty words like half halt and of even more dangerous words where everyone understands the standard use but is likely ignorant of a variant or non-standard use typical of horsemen. Preparing such a list may take a while, and most of us will be adding to ours over the days, months, and years. No matter how short or long, the list may come in handy.

I also suggest that anyone teaching children make sure parents read and sign that they’ve read and understood this personal glossary. Trying to teach students with highly protective, non-horsey parents creates a whole new set of problems for a riding instructor. For example, here are my definitions for two words now prominent in my glossary:

Monster: noun. Any person, place, or thing that spooks a horse; any action emanating from objects animate, inanimate, or imaginary that might spook a horse.

Recently, I saw a non-horsey father nearly shaking with rage because he’d heard an instructor had called his child “a monster.”

Actually, this term is not at all uncommon among horsemen. Anyone who’s talked to a few riders has probably heard stories about the plastic bag “monster” or the running child “monster.” In fact, here’s an example of the term in use. The source is the January 2010 Equus, page 53:

Respect: verb. To respond instantly and appropriately to a clear, established cue or command. Applies equally to horse and student.

A schooled horse shows respect by moving away from the pressure of a rider’s leg. A schooled horse shows respect by stopping upon hearing “whoa.”  When a frightened, clutching student loosens the reins in response to an instructor’s command, that student respects the knowledge of the instructor—and possibly avoids injury or even death for rider, horse, or both.

For an example, I again post a link to the YouTube video “Bolt.” I love this video because I teach using Thoroughbreds and Arabs--hot and hotter. My horses are kind and responsive. They are so because I try to keep students off their mouths. Even after months on a lounge line, most students will still be heavy-handed, so it's vital they respect my commands and loosen when I say loosen--lest they DIE.

As a further example, a couple of years ago, I dismissed a student on multiple grounds after several futile attempts to explain the problems to the mother over a period of months. At the end of my rope, patience, and expertise, and fearing my kindest TB was at the end of his rope—literally--I offered the mother the fundamental reason for the dismissal. I said, the student “doesn’t respect me.” I meant the student would or could not follow my commands and was ending up in more and more dangerous situations.  

The mother, however, replied calmly, “Of course she respects you. She quotes you all the time at home.” She then added, “Couldn’t she at least come out and ride [my kindest TB]?”

I just stood there flummoxed. It took me a long time to realize what caused the level of disconnect the two of us experienced. I like to think a glossary might have helped.

In any event, it can’t hurt to compile, hand out, or post such a list somewhere around the barn. The horse and mind you save may be your own. Better yet, make it a legal document, separate or part of your total lesson contract. The time and money you save could be yours, too.