Book Review: ‘It’s Not About the Horse’ by Wyatt Webb
This book is really compelling, I read it from start to finish in one day. Wyatt described his journey that led him to opening ‘The Equine Experience’, an equine therapy program in Tucson Arizona. Wyatt’s life had so many twists and turns that it would make an intriguing screenplay. From professional athlete and College graduate, to being a Father, an alcoholic and drug addict, to becoming an entertainer.
Eventually, Wyatt woke from what he calls his “sleep”, he came clean and turned his life around. He began helping others and started on a gratifying path that eventually led him to Tucson and his horse stable and therapy clinic.
The book, however is more than just a biography, Webb shares his learnings from his life, his experiences with horses and his clients’ emotional stories. As you read the book it becomes clear how any lessons learned by working with horses also apply to human relationships.
This above quote is so important as a universal lesson. Connecting with another human or with an animal is essential for emotional intimacy and trust.
The quote below was Webb’s response to a client who came to the equine experience and was over zealous with affection for his assigned steed. Webb urges the young man to look deeper into his behavior with the horses to learn more about himself.
In the passage below, Webb talks about his personal experience in recovery and therapy. He notes later in the book how many people, even those who appear successful in life, are merely surviving. When you are in a crisis or feeling deeply insecure, what age do you revert to?
Webb’s point below about how human’s use verbal communication to basically mask their true feeling rings so true. I guess this is where the saying comes from that an animal can always tell if you’re afraid.
Webb’s book is filled with so many interesting stories and lessons to live by. Here are a few more examples that I’d like to share with you.
No quick fixes in dressage
Just picked up a great book, which I will be reviewing soon, called ‘The Elements of Dressage – a guide for training the young horse’ by Von Zeigner. Quite an amazing trainer, I am already learning a lot – a very interesting read. One quote early in the book that struck me as in alignment with a recent blog post I wrote called ‘How to succeed at a show’. The quote is, as follows:
When a horse gets lost, look for the cause. It often lies in an insufficiency of well-being or expecting too much to soon. Whenever one sees a horse perform unwillingly, with tension and resistance, one can be quite sure it is because of a lack of proper basic training. Such horses cannot move freely, lightly, or balanced like they could before they entered training because of stiffness, crookedness and pain. They have been forced to work on levels for which they actually weren’t ready. Unfortunately, we see quite a few riders presenting themselves this way at shows, especially at the higher levels, perhaps hoping for a kind judge. Their horses have been drilled in higher-level movements but in doing so have also lost their natural freedom, lightness and brilliance. Such presentations are ridiculous and most certainly have nothing in common with classical dressage! – Kurd Albrecht Von Ziegner
How true this is, hope is not a good strategy. As Von Ziegner says later in the book, the long route is actually the short route – enough said.
Product Recommendation: UGG winter riding boots
Okay, okay, these are not real riding boots, but they are sheep skin lined, tall, leather, flexible but also firm enough for riding and the materials is durable and thick enough without being bulky. You can also roll the top part up to lengthen the height of the boots which is what I do, the laces allow you to fit multiple layers of pants underneath the boots if you want or you can tighten them so they fit perfectly over just breeches. They are awesome boots for riding if you are in the north like me and facing a winter of riding in temperatures below zero. There is nothing worse than jumping off your horse with cold feet and feeling like your feet will shatter upon landing on the ground.
I personally don’t like the fit nor the quality of mountain horse winter boots and other official horse winter boots I’ve had never lasted more than one season.
You can buy these UGGs all over the web and in Canada from places like the Bay and Gravity Pope. They range in price from $200-$400 depending on where you get them, but there are a lot of online retailers who are trying to sell you low quality knock offs so beware!
How to succeed at a show
People spend literally thousands of dollars to prepare themselves to enter their first horse show and that is only the beginning. What continues to astonish me however is how unprepared people are in ways that don’t cost them anything. It is fine if you want to make sure you have a show tack box and new britches, shiny boots and a hair net with no holes….great, I endorse all of those things. What most people don’t realize though is that all of that stuff doesn’t matter if you don’t perform in the ring.
Performing well can be influenced by several important factors:
- Be realistic about your skill level vs. the level you enter the competition (this is hard for some riders and some trainers to grasp)
- If you are nervous, enter in a lower level, a good measure for this is to ask yourself for example: “if I only going training level how will I feel”, if you immediately feel a sense of relief – GO TRAINING LEVEL – showing is about fun and you should aim to build confidence – you have nothing to prove
- Don’t pile on 10 lessons the week of your show – be cool – continue your program and trust in the process
- Don’t ride hard the week before the show instead give your horse the day off before you leave for the show, he is going to need his energy – if you don’t think you as a team will be ready without that ride, please see point number 1
- Make sure that you have the weekend free and haven’t packed your evenings with other obligations, you should be focused on the show only
- If possible bring a helper with you, even a non-horse person – so often something is forgotten like a number, or who the next rider in the ring is – a helper is invaluable, especially when you are inexperienced at showing
- Know the rules at the show
- Know which ring you are in and when, write it down and pin it in the tack room
- Know your tests and map them out on graph paper before the show
- Make sure you know 100% that the show provides a reader, if not make sure you have an experienced reader lined up, let them know how loud they need to speak
- Get someone to video your test so you can watch it immediately afterward – you are your own harshest critic so take advantage of this – it will definitely improve your score in the next test
- Know where all of your things are that you need for your test so you are not scrambling around to get ready for your warm-up
- For your first class, aim to be on your horse 1 hour in advance. If your horse isn’t the type to need that much warm-up you should still get on and wander down to watch other riders go. The more time you have, the more relaxed you will become – this extra time also allows for the unexpected.
Riding Tip: Feel and timing are the key
The hardest thing to learn in dressage is not piaffe, it is more fundamental. How do you know what you are doing is right, what does it feel like – no one can explain that to you, it is something you have to experience for yourself. Additionally, you have to recognize that what you are feeling is right. In order to do so you must have the proper timing in order to duplicate the move that provided you with the “golden feeling”. Learning timing and feel are the two most difficult and most fundamental elements in dressage.
Your trainer can help you but the best and quickest way to attain good timing and experience feel – is to practice, practice, practice. It is also a good idea to keep a journal of what worked and what didn’t; what inspirations you gained after a ride whether in a lesson or schooling on your own. If you get a chance to ride a really experienced horse they will almost correct your bad timing, it can be quite humbling (I once had this experience on a GP stallion I was riding for a client…oops). Another good suggestion is to read about how your position affects the horse such as in the book ‘Balance in Movement’ by Suzanne von Dietze. When you are in the right position, the feel comes more easily and you are in the right place at the right time which means your timing will also improve.
Riding Tip: How much supporting leg to use
It can be very confusing when learning dressage, how much of a supporting leg you need on at all times when riding. Some riders grip constantly and their horse either freaks out or learns to ignore them. Other riders have very little contact and there are probably millions of riders in between. I liken the contact you have with the outside rein to the contact you have with your legs. It should be present and active, not holding or gripping and it shouldn’t drop the horse.
I call your leg contact an “active leg”. Imagine how your legs would feel if you were a boxer, dancing around the ring waiting for your opponent to make a move. Your legs wouldn’t be filled with tension, nor would they be slack. They would be energised and light ready to take action in an instant. This is the same feeling you should have while riding dressage, you should have contact with your horse through your legs and your legs should have an energy about them, or a quiet excitement, ready to provide an aid to the horse at any moment. This does not imply you nag your horse with a constantly moving leg, rather your leg is quiet but activated. Not only does this type of leg contact encourage the horse by transfering energy, but it also more accurately allows you to judge if your horse has enough activity behind. When your horse is on the move, you expect him to flex his hocks and lift his back, you expect him to be able to turn in an instant while still staying in a frame, this means his whole body needs to be poised and ready, in other words “active”. You should expect no less of yourself.
Give this some thought next time you ride and you might find that your horse has more GO than you thought! If you don’t feel like you get any response be sure to always be ready with a follow up aid like a whip or spur to reinforce the leg if your horse is still learning to take you seriously. Once you are consistent with your approach and keep an “active leg” you shouldn’t have to ride with artificial aids on a regular basis.
Riding Tip: Tenacity is key
I’ve been really into personality typing of horses in the last year. I think it can really teach you a lot about your horse and yourself. It can give you great insight into the best way to train and relate to your horse as well as what kind of horse is best for you. I wrote a blog post about this topic earlier this year with a book review called ‘Ride the Right Horse‘ by Yvonne Barteau.
My horse started out as a yearling to be very easy going and confident, as his naughty twos set in he began to show signs of being a challenging horse, constantly trying to take on the leadership role. This change in personality was quite disturbing to me as I consider myself fairly experienced and wasn’t inviting this kind of spoiled behaviour. The only time I had experienced this swing to the dark-side in youngsters was when it was ‘gelding time’…the problem was my horse was already gelded, so I had no more cards up my sleeve.
There were moments I really started to doubt myself. I just didn’t seem to be getting through to my horse no matter how strict and consistent I was. I even said to a few friends, “man…my horse is a real pain, I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to handle him if this continues”.
The reason I am writing this post is to share with everyone that over time, my patience and consistency paid off. After months of putting the boundaries up and praising in the few moments when he wasn’t being a dufus, he abruptly transformed back into the sweet horse he was last fall as if I imagined the devil inside the whole time.
I actually had a similar experience with my young Parson Russell Terrier so I don’t think this problem is species specific. I’m sure I will have my ups and downs with my 2 year old as he matures and that this roller coaster is not over yet, but it was comforting to know that if I stick to my game with rules and kindness I will prevail.
Book Review: ‘The Horse Doctor Is In’ by Brent Kelley
This book is really a must read and must own for anyone who has horses, no matter your discipline. After 20 odd years around horses, I was amazed by how little I actually knew about horse health. Before reading this book, I thought I knew a fair amount. I guess ignorance is really bliss…but I digress.
This book is written by a horse vet in Kentucky who is kind of like the Dr. Phil of horse vets, he is funny, straight forward and calls his clients on their ridiculous behaviour. I found myself relating to a lot of his crazy client stories as I’ve seen enough in the horse industry myself to make me shake my head.
The book is almost written like a series of short stories, with the heart of each containing important advice on horse health and management. Unlike most vet books that are like an encyclopedia which is so dry that you need to drink a glass of water (or wine) just to get through it, this book is entertaining, informative and still makes you laugh out loud.
What makes this book so engaging is that you really see Dr. Kelley as an ordinary guy, graduating from vet school and having insecure moments when he realized that university was just prep school for his career not the whole education. Here is an excerpt of his writing style that is so easy to digest and leaves you wanting to read more:
I had been out of school only a few days, maybe a week, and I was still riding around with my employer, learing the area and the clients. We were called to see a backyard pony that was acting “weird.” Weird is a description I’ve heard over the years, and usually it’s correct.
Dr. Kelley writes in detail about the importance of vaccinating, especially young horses. He also talks about disease, skin conditions, lameness, hoof problems, breeding, foaling as well as the importance of a barn cat. I picked up many good tips such as what a hygroma is (see my last post), where a horse’s stomach resides, the importance of treating your horse’s feet during try periods to prevent serious hoof problems and more.
I am giving ‘The Horse Doctor Is In’ by Brent Kelley a five out of five star rating if for the only reason that it communicates EXTREMELY important information to horse owners in such a way that anyone can read and understand what he is trying to get across. It could save your horse’s life.
Hematoma or hygroma
Some time ago, I posted an article entitled ‘Lessons I’ve learned about hematomas in horses’, in it I described my experience with dealing with this tricky problem. Since then it has been four months and the hematoma is not gone, although it is now extremely small. Some time ago, I began doing more online research about hematomas and related problems in horses as this crazy lump would just not go away and kept filling up with serum, bursting through the healing wound made by the vet when she drained it, flattening and then starting the cycle again.
I came across another problem horses get (and dogs do too) called hygromas,capped elbows or shoe boil. Here is a description from wikipedia about dog hygromas which basically describes it:
“A hygroma is a false bursa that occurs over bony prominences and pressure points, especially in large breeds of dogs. Repeated trauma from lying on hard surfaces produces an inflammatory response, which results in a dense-walled, fluid-filled cavity. A soft, fluctuant, painless swelling develops over pressure points, especially the olecranon. If long-standing, severe inflammation may develop, and ulceration, infection, and fistulas may be present. The bursa contains a clear, yellow to red fluid.”
Here is another description from a great vet book called ‘The Horse Doctor is in’ by Brent Kelley:
“A capped elbow is a fluid-filled subcutaneous swelling at the point of the elbow seem almost exclusively in stabled horses. It’s a result of trauma, usually believed to be caused by a shoe hitting it when the horse is lying down…it’s usually in young (yearling to 3-yr old) horses, though I’ve seen it at all ages”
This got me thinking about my horse’s hematoma….perhaps it was actually a hygroma that was constantly re-injured night after night as my 2 year old horse lay in his stall with his hoof pressing into the space between his front legs. Hygromas traditionally form on the elbow, but my horse has unusually long legs so it was conceivable that his hygroma was in a different location. As a good scientist, I decided to see if I could disrupt the way my horse was lying down by putting thick, professional choice bell boots on him at night.
Amazingly, I instantly saw results. From the day I put the boots on the cycle of inflammation and oozing stopped and the hematoma/hygroma site has gradually gone down. It will almost be a year (September) since my horse first came on inside board and it is also when I first noticed the problem. It just goes to show that if you keep using your head and open your mind to alternative ideas problems can be solved, even if it takes a bit of time.
Big picture thinking for a happier dressage horse
This post relates to a recent article of mine ‘Who’s riding your horse, you or your ego‘. So many riders push themselves and their horses so hard for something they ‘want’, be it results at a show, praise from their trainer, adherence to an unrealistic time schedule or acceptance from their barn friends. This is the ego at play, which seldom works in the best interest of you or your horse.
Unless you have a seriously “challenging” horse (read Barteau’s book ‘Ride the Right Horse‘ for information on challenging horses) there should be no excuse for your horse to ever be in a high state of agitation. If you should encounter this, it means your horse’s anxiety level is too high and instead of ‘dealing’ with extreme spooking or extreme herd boundedness it is better to not add so much pressure, it is unsafe for you and unhealthy for your horse. What to do next? If I am an expert in anything horse related this is where I have a lot of knowledge and experience.
In my younger days, I always just thought “that was horses”, the spooking, bolting, rearing, neighing etc – I just dealt with it and got on with it. Over the years, I began to develop a deeper understanding of a horses state of mind and a compassion for their experience. I always try to rate a horse’s anxiety level when I meet them. In my opinion, for a horse to truly be in the mind state to learn something, they should have no more than an anxiety rating of 3 out of 10 at all times. What this means is if a horse isn’t always on edge, when a difficult and unpredictable situation arises (such as someone abruptly coming into the arena without knocking) the horse may startle but they won’t have a major spook or bolt because their adrenaline levels are not high(as they are in the case with a horse rating higher on the anxiety scale).
If you find your horse unmanageable when leading, riding, grooming, clipping, in the wash rack etc? The first thing to determine is if your horse is anxious or if they are behaving in a challenging way. If they are simply trying to dominate you and are not fearful than you need to go back to the basics of leadership before addressing major challenges – Monty Roberts’ methods are genius in this area. With challenging horses, people often put themselves in a situation where their horse has leverage and then they try to battle the horse when they don’t have the upper hand – stick to simple scenarios like basic leading, walking in front of your horse through gates, keeping your horse at arms length and not allowing them in your personal space etc. If you are not capable of standing up to a challenging horse under saddle don’t put off for one minute getting a rider on that horse who can calmly and peacefully reinstate dominance. To take it a step further, don’t hesitate to sell your horse if they are too challenging for you – I don’t often say that – but when it comes to challenging horses, you need a particular type of rider.
Back to our anxious horse. These horses need to be taught life is not a dangerous place. You can liken anxious horses to an adult who was abused as a child. These horses don’t look to their rider/handler for security, they have very little trust and have a rogue sort of “lonewolf” approach – if it’s them or you, they definitely choose themselves. What to do? The first thing that needs to be said is that to lower a horse’s anxiety rating when they are at rest is a time consuming process – don’t expect quick fixes. You need to set up pre-orchestrated scenarios on the ground and under saddle. Start introducing items that might raise a horse’s anxiety level slightly encourage them to approach an object through their own curiosity (Michael Peace has some good techniques around this approach). Let the rope go long, if they give a slight start remain serene and let them figure it out – always reassuring them. Sometimes it is helpful to lead them away from the object and back to it again. If you find your horses reaction is quite strong you’ve just chosen the wrong “prop” for your work, find something less dangerous-looking to your horse.
In regards to riding, if going outside is a rodeo – for now – don’t go outside, work with your horse on targeted, confidence building exercises inside. After you’ve done your ground work training (usually horses begin to build trust first on the ground), you can lead the horse outside after you’ve ridden inside, a bridge to your eventual trail riding under saddle. The important things are as follows: 1. make a confidence building plan under saddle and stick to it 2. don’t settle for getting stuck doing one kind of exercise and for example never taking the next step of riding outside 3. if you horse begins to get quite anxious, take the pressure off and make a mental note of your horse’s current boundaries – whatever you did was too much – remember horses can’t learn and can’t think when highly anxious. If you push them to far you actually take two steps backwards in your training, be consistent, persistent and compassionate.
If you have a fundamental problem with your horse as described in one of the scenarios above, drop your time schedule, let your training flow organically without pressure. Believe, me you will reach your dressage goals quicker by healing past wounds step by step (yours and his). If that means, canceling this years show season – swallow that pill – you will get a closer connection to your horse and you will become a happy more confident rider yourself. Take your ego out of it and give your horse what they need even if you didn’t create the problem in the first place.
