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What Horses Can DoListen to this story about what horses can do:. In 1852, a British steamship called the H.M.S. Birkenhead, sank three miles off the African coast. Captain Wright was the last one to finally abandon the ship. He finally made it to shore. And remember, he was 3 miles out when the ship sank. When he made it to shore, he was greeted by one of the survivors. It was..."His Horse!" Yep. Horses can swim. In fact, there is a family owned horse facility in my town that raises and trains race horses. They have a swimming pool to exercise the horses. A horse being able to swim is an instinc- tive thing. In fact, much of what you get a horse to do he can already do but he's just not done it with someone on his back asking him to do something. Think about it. Want your horse to trot? He already knew how. He just needed to understand when to trot because you're asking him to. Same for flexing. Same for loping. Etc.
What Horses Can Do?But getting the horse doing these things when you ask is the trick. There are lots of things that lead up to getting a horse to do what you ask. Respect, of course, is one of the biggees. Without it, your horse won't listen to you and will do his own thing. And even when you have respect, you don't have all the ingredients you need. Another you need is communication. Your horse needs to understand what you're asking. Have you ever tried to get your horse to do something and...he didn't? More 'n likely it was cuz he didn't know what you wanted. There was a communication gap there. So to help you get both respect and communication going, you can use lungeing. Sue Robertson has a groundwork DVD showing how to lunge and shows you what horses can do. (It also shows several other groundword lessons) Sue says lungeing is the basis for respect. Lungeing is done for different reasons. One, to get 'em in shape - especially if they've been injured. Another is to get the frosty off them. Getting the frosty off them means taking some of the energy out of them in case they're a bit too fired up. Sue says lungeing can also take some of the buck out of the horse. Now here's a little secret I want you to know. If you're going to ride and if lungeing is what you need to do for 15 minutes before you ride to guard your safety... "Then DO IT!" That's right. Do it. There's no shame in that. You may think to yourself, "yeah....but I don't see others doing it." So what? Maybe their horse doesn't need it. And if yours does, then do it. Lungeing teaches your horse many valuable things besides the respect. Teaching "Whoa" during lungeing is a great thing to do. As you know, getting your horse to whoa can save your life in a wreck. After all, if your horse gets loose and runs through a parking lot or whatever, a whoa is critical. If the horse "understands" whoa, he'll know what you're asking. Notice I put the word "understands" in quotes. That means you have to communicate it to your horse. That's what I was talking about earlier when I mentioned respect and communication. Anyway, knowing how to lunge your horse is a valuable thing to know if you're a horse owner. I urge you to get Sue's DVD to see how she does it and the other ground work techniques about what horses can do. In her DVD, Sue says things like, "You never vary your voice commands." Another is "You don't want them anticipating." That's HUGE! Why? Because if the horse is anticipating instead of not listening to you, then that's dangerous when you ride him. When you ride him, you want him listening to you - not anticipating. Granted, anticipation can be a help now and then while training - but it can also work against you. Lastly, if the horse tries to stop be-cause he's anticipating...then push him through it. That'll get him payin' attention more. Just knowing little thing like that can make your horse a hundred times safer.
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