Time for Fears-- behind the scenes

Good Day!

I feel like I’ve been running like a mad-woman lately and it will be good to kick back tomorrow and enjoy time in the barn and in the kitchen and a splendid meal with friends. Although I am probably one of the few people my age that would relish the opportunity to cook a whole Thanksgiving dinner (I’ve only done it once), I look forward to going to our neighbors and I’ll have fun with the few things I am making—fresh cranberry sauce, sweet potato soufflé and fresh baked rolls. And I am also making a tasty red pepper and goat cheese appetizer even though it was not requested. Is cooking on your agenda?

This week on Horse Master is an episode filmed in LA last January, about a driving pony who was deathly afraid of anything plastic—bags, tarps and the like. Her owner, a very competent horsewoman who I have known from clinics, had been working for some time to desensitize the mare, but to no avail. Like many people, she had been using a technique known as “flooding” or “bombardment,” wherein you over-expose the horse to the aversive stimulus until she basically gets tired of spooking. Well, that would work for her eventually in each session, but she’d start over again from scratch the next day. Essentially, she was teaching the mare a pattern of behavior which is to spook first then eventually relax. Not really what we want, is it?

I much prefer to use a desensitizing technique known as “advance and retreat.” There are articles on my website about this but basically it means that you advance with the aversive stimulus only so far as causes the horse discomfort, then hold your ground until the horse relaxes, then take the stimulus away (retreat) and repeat. This technique teaches the horse to relax when there is something scary and when she relaxes, the scary thing goes away. Eventually the horse loses all fear because she feels a sense of control.

Even though this little mare had the spooky response well-engrained into her, she responded very well when we switched techniques. She’s a smart little horse and was only acting spooky because she thought that was the expected response. Once she realized the expected response was to relax and be still, that is what she did.

This makes me think about something I say all the time in clinics—if things are not getting better, what you are doing isn’t working and you need to break the cycle somehow. If you are using a training technique again and again and it is not effecting a positive change in your horse—it ain’t working. Time to try something different. Now I am not saying you need to switch techniques every day, but there comes a point when you are not getting through to your horse and you need to make a change. Otherwise, you end up training the wrong thing to your horse.

Have you ever had a situation like this with your horse? Maybe you are trying to correct a bad behavior, like, let’s say, biting. And you correct your horse again and again for his bad behavior but he keeps nipping at you. Clearly what you are doing is not working and in this case, it is because you are not applying enough pressure to the horse to motivate him to change. If the pressure or penalty is not harsh enough, he’s happy to keep doing what he’s been doing. Depending on how motivated your horse is to act that way to begin with and depending on how sensitive he is to pressure, these things will dictate how much pressure you have to use. But don’t keep doing the same thing with no response.

I hope you have a restful and delectable Thanksgiving. Will you get any riding in over the holiday? I hope to get on my horse tomorrow!

All the best,

Julie

 

Chicago at the Equestrian Lifestyle Expo

Greetings!

I’m on my way home again from another great weekend. This time I was in Chicago at the Equestrian Lifestyle Expo at Arlington Race Course. It was a great weekend with lots of vendors in the trade show (I managed to do a little shopping), a good crowd and many interesting seminars. The only thing missing were the horses—this was a no-live-horse expo, hence the name “lifestyle” expo. Nonetheless, it was a great event and it was different for me not to ride and work with horses through the weekend. The upside was that I didn’t have to wear boots and riding clothes all weekend.

It’s hard to believe that it’s Thanksgiving week already—next thing you know, Christmas will be here. I am pretty much a procrastinator when it comes to Christmas shopping, preferring to wait until the last possible moment. If it were not for the fact that I have to mail most of my gifts, I’d gladly wait until Christmas eve—that’s when you can really get in the spirit! But oddly enough, for the first time ever this year, I actually bought some Christmas presents ahead of time and have stashed them away. I’ve always admired those people that shop throughout the year. If I did that, I’d forget about the gifts I bought and where I stashed them and find them a couple years later when I clean out the closet.

Thankfully, not everyone waits until the last minute—as I saw this weekend—lots of gift buying going on during the expo. Most of the vendors that I’ve visited with the past few expos have reported that their sales are about 10% off from last year and everyone is pretty happy about that. It’s a sure sign of the times when you are happy with a decrease in business! What about you? What are your gift-giving plans for this year? Cutting back? Forging ahead? Being conservative?

I hope to get some good rides in on my horse this week before taking off again on Friday for Las Vegas. My siblings and I are meeting my dad there to celebrate his birthday. It will be a quick trip—only there for two nights; but we’ll see two shows and are sure to have lots of fun. I am not a gambler—don’t even spend as much as a quarter on the slots—but I’ll enjoy hanging with my dad and watching him play blackjack—a game at which he excels and usually beats the bank. Should be a fun weekend.

We’ll be spending Thanksgiving with dear friends and this year, it looks like Rich will be home for the holiday, instead of having to work. Although I am happy that we will be able to spend the holiday together, it is a bummer that the ski area will not be open as scheduled, because there is not quite enough snow. This happened last year too and although it is highly unusual for Monarch to not have snow for Thanksgiving, last year we went from no snow on T-Day to over 6 feet by Monday the next week—and it never quit. It snowed every single day for about two months and turned out to be a record-breaking year for snow fall. So we know it will come—it’s just a matter of when. But in the meantime, it looks like there will be more riding in my schedule than skiing.

I hope your holiday is a pleasant one. I love to cook so even though I am not the one putting the turkey in the oven, I’ll look forward to making the sweet potatoes, rolls and cranberry sauce (the real kind). The downside of going somewhere else for Thanksgiving is that you don’t come home with leftovers. To me, the best part is the leftover turkey sandwiches. What’s your favorite, must-have part of the meal? For Rich, it’s canned cranberry sauce, for me it has to be the real thing. So we always have both.

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

An Incredible Weekend

Hello!

Here I sit, 32,000 feet above sea level on a jumbo jet, on my way home from a really fantastic weekend. As I may have mentioned, I was in Springfield MA for Equine Affaire—one of the premier horse expos in the country. Although I did not know it until this weekend, this was the 19^th Equine Affaire I have attended as a clinician. I am not sure what year was my first, probably 98-99, or somewhere in that vicinity, but I was surprised to find out that I had been a presenter at that many shows—spread out between their Massachusetts, Ohio and California events.

When I first started, I was thrilled to just have seminar time and be able to give a lecture of some sort to the humongous crowds that attended. I vowed to do the absolute best job that I could in the hopes that one day I’d actually get some arena time and be able to work with live horses. One thing led to another and eventually I was in the demo ring, then the smaller arenas with mounted riders and ultimately giving full 90 minute clinics in the big venues. You really have to be able to pull your weight at Equine Affaire—they set the standard for horse expos and that standard is VERY high. They rely heavily on the input from their attendees—which they go to great lengths to collect, and it shows in the quality of the shows they produce, year after year.

I have done the MA show for many years and it has become one of my favorites—which may explain why the Northeast is one of my strongest regions in the country. I cannot tell you how much fun it is to be there again because of the many people that I have come to know. I actually recognize many many people and remember them and their horse stories from year to year. And I have developed some meaningful and lasting friendships from some of the people that I have met there.

This year’s event started out in a predictable and familiar pattern—arrive early evening the day before the show, go to the hotel and pick up all the boxes, drive to the expo center and set up the booth, and after a late dinner, crawl in bed way too late. Then it’s up early to get to the expo before the crowds, make last minute adjustments to the booth and then buckle down for the first  of four 12 hour days. It’s a long day but it goes fast because you hardly have time to pause for thought between presentations, meetings, talking with attendees and friends; then at the end of the day it’s time for dinner with friends and colleagues and you’re lucky to be in bed by 11:30.

Besides the excellent educational program and the fabulous trade show (with everything equine you could possibly want to buy), there is also an outstanding evening entertainment program called Pfizer Fantasia—made up of some of the best equine entertainment acts out there. Although I know the show is always good—hence the sold out crowd every night—rarely do I have enough energy at the end of the day to attend.

So I found it a little weird that Brenda and Heidi—my right and left hands, with whom I would not be able to carry on—were very insistent that we go to the show Friday night. Normally, they are very protective of me—making sure I am not overloaded, “rescuing” me from people that want too much from me, making sure I have some down time to get ready for my next presentation, picking up the load wherever they can—but this night they were all about themselves. Insisting that they really wanted to see the show and couldn’t I just put my agenda on hold long enough to sit for an hour and watch?

On top of that, one of my premier sponsors, Nutramax— had invited us out to dinner that night and Tara and Jeannie had tickets to the evening performance and insisted that we go to dinner AFTER the show. Clearly the deck was not staked in my favor and not being one to put up much of a fight, I decided the show might not be so bad after all. At least I would be able to sit down and chill a little before dinner. Little did I know that it would turn out to be one of the best nights of my life.

The show opened with the expo producers standing in the spotlights in the middle of the arena around a beautiful sculpture. As the show began, the announcer talked about the Equine Affaire Exceptional Equestrian Educator Award and they were obviously going to present this award to some deserving soul. As he went on and on about the depth of meaning of this award, it never occurred to me that I would be the recipient until the spotlight suddenly hit my face—way up in the stands-- and they called my name.

Clearly there had been a conspiracy here—to keep this secret—and I had very mixed emotions as I walked down the grandstands, trying to hide my tears in front of a crowd of thousands, not sure which emotion was dominant between pride, humility, embarrassment, excitement, honor and humor. But without question, a sense of pride and humility prevailed. It was such an honor to receive this award in front of my peers, colleagues and friends and the thousands of people who have been eager students that have helped shape my career.

The rest of the weekend was just a blur to me. I got to ride a really cool horse in my presentations, Reeboks Kid, and I had fun as emcee of the Versatile Horse & Rider competition (which Reeboks Kid ended up winning) and I talked and met with a lot of great people, but the award was surely the highlight of the weekend. Although they offered to ship the beautiful sculpture to me, I was reluctant to part with it so it is stuffed in my suitcase in the baggage hold below me, so that I can show it to Rich as soon as I get home. I am humbled and appreciative of this award and I will do my best to live up to it’s meaning. I have great pride but also great appreciation to Equine Affaire for giving me the platform to share what I know.

With all sincerity,

Julie

Behind the Scenes of Horse Master-- Speed Demon

Greetings!

This week on Horse Master, the first episode of our LA shoot is airing, featuring my friend Tedi Tate and her off-the-track-Thoroughbred (OTTB) gelding, Hunter. I thought it was a really good episode and Tedi was so dynamic on TV—as was Hunter, who seemed to act on cue. Maybe it’s because they are both from LA and the TV business is just in their blood.

I first met Tedi at Equine Affaire in Pomona a number of years ago and we instantly became friends. After one of my presentations there, where I had made a comment about horses being ridden behind the bit and often with a heavy hand, Tedi wanted to share information with me about a movement in France, called Alleged Ideal-- all about bringing dressage horses back to lightness and a natural frame. I have maintained an interest in this movement ever since and Tedi and I became fast friends, sharing a common interest in lightness.

This episode is all about a horse that is hollowed out, throws his head and speeds up—all in his effort to get a release from the pressure on his mouth caused by the bit and the rider’s hands. He’s been ridden by a lot of different people, not all of whom have soft hands or knew what to do. I love horses like this because it is relatively easy to make a big impact on them and have a dramatic turnaround in only a few moments. It helps that I exercised race horses all through college, so I know what they know and what they don’t know. By the way, riding on the race track is a great college job because you’ve done a whole day’s work by 8:30 in the morning and your legs are so tired at that point that sitting in class all day sounds really good!

Horses that are acting the way Hunter was are simply trying to find a release of pressure on their mouths and if the release does not come, they try other means—like throwing their head up (which causes a momentary release), rooting the reins or running off. When horses are uncomfortable, they try to run away from it. Typically horses that are going too fast simply need  a release of rein pressure—something that is counter-intuitive to the rider. OTTBs in particular need to be ridden with a looser rein because believe it or not, on the race track, the faster you want your horse to go the tighter you hold the reins and the slower you want him, the looser the reins.

It didn’t take long at all for me to teach Hunter where the release was—when he rounded his frame and relaxed he would always find a release. Like most horses, he didn’t want to be ‘bad,’ he just didn’t know what else to do. Happily, Tedi and Hunter figured each other out and by the end of the show (which is 24 hours later in real time) they were working well together.

This was one of my favorite episodes for many reasons, not the least of which is that I love Thoroughbreds—I grew up riding them and they have always been one of my favorite breeds. Have you had any experience with OTTBs? What’s your favorite breed?

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

 

 

Horse Economics

Good Day!

It was wonderful to spend a weekend at home with my husband, my dog and my horses. It was a rare event for me to lay on the couch and read and nap and then do some cooking (one of my favorite past-times) on Sunday—not even stepping into my office for a moment. I was long overdue to catch up on some rest and it was the ideal time, before my hectic travel schedule of the next three weeks begins.

As I head to the largest horse expo this weekend—Equine Affaire in Massachusetts—I’ve been wondering how the economic news will affect how many people attend and the amount of goodies equine owners will shop for. Of course with the recent election, everyone has been thinking about the economy. How, though, is it really affecting the horse world? At a dinner the other night--with a bunch of ski-area executive my husband knows--someone asked me how the recession was influencing the horse business. So far, I feel like all is promising for the coming year. The horse industry is notoriously recession-resistant since you cannot just stop feeding your horse when times are bad. But are horse owners doing more than the feed-and-water basics right now?

How has this economy affected your horse life? Have you cut back on activities? Are you downsizing the herd? Putting off major purchases? Or are you cutting back on other things in your life so that your horse pursuits do not suffer? And how do you feel the economy will change within the next few months? Especially around Christmas? Will you be buying your horse his usual Christmas presents—new blankets and tack?

Have faith in the good times that will follow!

Julie

Good Day!

It was wonderful to spend a weekend at home with my husband, my dog and my horses. It was a rare event for me to lay on the couch and read and nap and then do some cooking (one of my favorite past-times) on Sunday—not even stepping into my office for a moment. I was long overdue to catch up on some rest and it was the ideal time, before my hectic travel schedule of the next three weeks begins.

As I head to the largest horse expo this weekend—Equine Affaire in Massachusetts—I’ve been wondering how the economic news will affect how many people attend and the amount of goodies equine owners will shop for. Of course with the recent election, everyone has been thinking about the economy. How, though, is it really affecting the horse world? At a dinner the other night--with a bunch of ski-area executive my husband knows--someone asked me how the recession was influencing the horse business. So far, I feel like all is promising for the coming year. The horse industry is notoriously recession-resistant since you cannot just stop feeding your horse when times are bad. But are horse owners doing more than the feed-and-water basics right now?

How has this economy affected your horse life? Have you cut back on activities? Are you downsizing the herd? Putting off major purchases? Or are you cutting back on other things in your life so that your horse pursuits do not suffer? And how do you feel the economy will change within the next few months? Especially around Christmas? Will you be buying your horse his usual Christmas presents—new blankets and tack?

Have faith in the good times that will follow!

Julie

A Helmet on Your Head

I had a strange and thought-provoking moment as I was getting ready for one of my demos at a horse expo last weekend. Kindly, someone brought me a horse to ride because I was doing a demo on collection and lateral work. The horse I had ridden in other presentations throughout the weekend did not have enough training for the high-level skills.

I went out to the warm-up arena early to meet the horse and horse owner and to outfit the horse with my own saddle and bridle—I like to have the comfort of my own stuff when I am riding new horses. While I was there, I thought I'd get on the horse for just a moment and give him a test ride. Without thinking, I hopped on the horse sans helmet and went about getting acquainted with the horse.

As I rode in the warm-up pen, a woman and her 10 year old daughter came up to the arena rail to watch. I had spoken with them the day before and knew that they were loyal watchers of my TV show. They had therefore had seen that all riders, including me, wear helmets on the show. The young girl was watching me with obvious admiration and when it dawned on me that I did not have a helmet on, I felt terrible. What a horrible role model I was! I felt like such a hypocrite, after all the time I have spent espousing the use of a helmet when riding, here I was breaking my own rule.

It didn’t take long for me to fix the problem. In fact, I rode up right next to the girl and said, “Oh my gosh, I forgot my helmet! Would you hand it to me?” She gladly reached down and delivered my helmet to me, happy to be of assistance and pleased that I had singled her out to help me.

A long time ago, with the gentle persuasion of my good friend Polly, I made the decision to always wear a helmet when riding in public such as expos and clinics. It wasn’t an easy decision to make when I was just starting out as a clinician. Certainly none of my peers rode in a helmet and I was concerned about being accepted. But then I realized that no one was going to dislike me just because I wore a helmet—even the macho cowboy guys I am up against-- after all who really cares? And more importantly, I realized that wearing a helmet was a small but significant thing I could do to set a good example and be a good role model to youth and adults alike.

I am not adamant that everyone else wears a helmet, unless they are riding in one of my demos. I think adults (but not children) should be free to make their own decisions on that score. But I feel that setting a good example is likely to encourage the use of helmets and may even possibly save a life one day. At every expo I do, people come up to me and thank me for that and I’ve yet to have someone comment negatively on it or tell me I was uncool because I wore a helmet.

What about you? Do you wear a helmet when you ride? Have you ever had a head injury that either was milder because you had a helmet on or worse because you didn’t? If you don’t wear a helmet, do you make your kids? Most of us wouldn’t think about getting in a car without fastening the seat belt. For that matter, most everyone wears a helmet bike riding or skiing/snowboarding these days. So why not riding? Why the big resistance in this sport? Is it because of a lack of role models or is it something else? Just wondering what you think. . . .

Ride hard but ride safe!

Julie

Behind the scenes, "Missed Manners"

Good day!

It’s hard to believe it’s finally election day! After two years of campaigning, imagine what the candidates must feel like today--it surely will be a long day and night for them. I know the TV news will stretch the election coverage out for a few more days but honestly, I cannot imagine what CNN is going to fill its air-time with once it’s over. I guess we’ll be back to hearing inane stories—although I am not sure that’s much different than what we’ve seen lately.

This week on Horse Master, we are replaying episode 5, “Missed Manners.” It’s about a two year old Andalusian filly who is pushy, rude and disrespectful to her handlers. The barn workers at her boarding stable were totally fed up with the horse, since each time they turned her out or brought her back in, they felt they were taking their lives in their hands. Actually, everyone but the owner saw the horse as a problem and it was actually the owner’s friends and the barn manager that suggested she apply for the show.

There were a few things particularly interesting to me about this horse/owner team. First off, the filly’s dam was the alpha horse, so this filly had copped her attitude from living vicariously through her mother. Sadly, the dam had died a couple weeks before the episode was taped, so the filly  had lost her standing in the herd. I think that helped to make her more trainable.

Another thing that was puzzling to me was that Pamela, the owner, was a very skilled and accomplished horse woman. So I couldn’t help but wonder why she hadn’t taught this filly some ground manners—she just somehow let that slip by without noticing. Understandably, Pamela was very distraught over losing the mare, but on the other hand, it presented her with a good opportunity to start focusing on the training of this nice young filly. Just like with children, it’s never the fault of the child if they are ill-mannered and misbehaving—you always have to look to the parents. This filly had no ground manners only because no one had taken the time to teach them to her.

Using the techniques I detail on my Lead Line Leadership video, I showed Pamela some important exercises she could do with her filly to straighten her up and make her fly right. It took almost no time at all before the filly was attentive and learning. She just needed to know the expected rules of her behavior and have some consequences if she broke a rule. This is what happens naturally in the herd (if your momma is not the boss and spoiling you) so it is easy for a horse to adjust to.

All this filly needed was a little structure in her life, to turn her into a sweet and willing young horse. All her owner needed was a little push to start training her. I hate to see young horses learn bad habits and disrespect of humans. When foals are brought up right from the beginning and never allowed to misbehave, they have a much happier existence and they tend to remain obedient and respectful horses all their lives.

So many people today are getting young horses that do not have adequate experience with horses to manage a youngster and they inadvertently spoil the horse, which affects its success later on in life. Have you seen this happen? Or maybe you’ve had firsthand experience? In this case, Pamela was certainly experienced and skilled enough, she just hadn’t made it a priority. Happily, that has changed and Pamela and Millie are well on their way to success.

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

 

 

Mustangs on the Move

Greetings!

Seems like I struck a chord with my post on Mustangs, the slaughter issue and unwanted horses, which is exactly what I was hoping to do—stimulate discussion and provoke thought. I appreciate all of your comments and the provocative thoughts you’ve been willing to share. I think it is really cool how many people are devoted to the Mustang cause and all the stories about the many challenges, accomplishments and personal victories. There are a huge component of people dedicated to this iconic breed of horse and to preserving its integrity and longevity. But I wish there were more concern and romanticism about the tens of thousands of regular old back-yard “unwanted” horses that are also struggling to survive.

In a perfect world, things would probably be a lot different for the Mustangs. They would have an infinite range on which to roam free, plenty of rich and lush forage and little or no encounter with humans. But as most adults have come to learn, this is not a perfect world that we live in. People are homeless in this land of plenty, children go to bed hungry at night and the American Mustang is not always left to roam free.

Many years ago, perhaps a decade or more, I was privileged to be invited “behind the scenes” to one of the largest (at the time) BLM holding facilities at one of the original BLM training facilities at a prison in Canon City Colorado. This was a time when the Mustang was not nearly as popular as it is now and the pressure on the Bureau of Land Management was intense to keep the forage available for cattle. Many of the people involved with Mustangs today may not remember these dark days and the controversy and corruption that resulted from the real pressure to get the horses off the public lands, without any viable options of what to do with them. But the controversy and corruption inspired a few dedicated individuals to create the training programs in the prisons to help gentle the wild horses and prepare them for a life in captivity.

I was pleased to meet some of the leaders in this effort and to be invited to tour their facility, observe the work they were doing—jointly between the BLM and Department of Corrections, to meet some of the prisoners lucky enough to be accepted into the horse training program and to meet many of the horses that were “graduating” from the program and being adopted by loving and devoted families. I saw some really cool horses there. I remember a beautiful curly-coated dun stallion and some other incredible horses. Even during this time when the BLM was being investigated for corruption for (allegedly) letting some Mustangs go to slaughter, the men that I met were doing their best to find a workable solution to an overwhelming problem of what to do with all the Mustangs.

This is why I am so impressed with what the Extreme Mustang Makeover has brought to the breed—the attention and popularity it has brought to the breed and the increase in people interested in adopting them. But sadly, not all Mustangs survive the horribly traumatic process of being rounded up, separated from their herds, run through shoots, gelded and medicated and transported to a holding facility. Some are injured, sometimes fatally and others are so traumatized that they never adjust to life on the “inside.” Only the horses that adjust, even if only in a small way, are put into the adoption program. Because many of the people wishing to adopt Mustangs are newcomers to horses and because it is important to protect the safety of the humans involved, the highly traumatized horses never make it to the adoption program.

These horses remain in holding facilities while the more adoptable horses are put forth to the public. And yes, while Mustangs are incredibly hardy and healthy animals, anytime there is over-crowding and limited resources, there will be sickness and disease. Many of the more difficult horses are that way because their spirits cannot accept captivity and they fight to escape captivity with every ounce of life they have. And when their fight is fruitless and they are resigned to their fate, they become depressed animals—all the more likely to succumb to illness. It’s great to celebrate the success of thousands of Mustangs and their proud owners, but we cannot pretend that every story has a happy ending.

I think the Mustang programs of today have come a long way to solve some of these ugly issues of the past but I will never forget the sight of hundreds of Mustangs standing in crowded pens with distemper raging unchecked through the herd. Today we have many Mustang sanctuaries that have formed to rescue these “unwanted” Mustangs and give them a comfortable life--the work they do is remarkable. But sadly they are running out of space and struggling to find funding and while we happily celebrate the success of the many horses that have wonderful homes and dedicated owners, let’s not forget about the other side of the coin.

And we also cannot forget about the 90-150,000 domestic horses that were going to slaughter every year, who are now “unwanted” horses and in limbo and fighting for their lives. These horses may not be as romantic and iconic as the Mustang, but they deserve our attention—at least as much as the Mustang—since we are responsible for creating them in the first place, through indiscriminate breeding. And because we allowed the bill to be passed that put them in the miserable situation they are in today.

I applaud all of you that have had such tremendous accomplishments with your Mustang and for the enrichment it has brought to you and your horse. I wish that I had an answer for all the horses, Mustang and domestic, that have not been so lucky in their lives. I certainly don’t have the answers, but I also don’t want to pretend that they don’t exist either. What can we do to protect all the unwanted horses? Check out he Unwanted Horse Coalition for more information on this subject. These people are working hard to protect the horses that no one else cares about and they are doing great work.

All the best,

Julie