Where Do We Draw the Line??

This is a post I have been thinking about for a while. I haven't written it because I haven't had the hours I would need to gather all my thoughts and put them into writing. Lucky for you, I have a few extra hours this morning :)

My title question is referring to training. Where do we draw the line at how much pain is acceptable when we train our horses?? Everyone has a different answer to this. For example when looking at this picture. What comes to mind?

Or this picture?

Soring in the Walker horse world is now illegal (Thank goodness!) so why is it we can't cause pain in their feet to get them to perform behaviors, but we can with bits? I cringe when I look at some of the bits that we put in our horses mouth. Sometimes we even put two bits or a bit and a Hackamore, what makes it okay to cause so much pain to the horse. Is it the lack of control? Our fear? The need to win? Our dominant nature as humans? People will say the bit is only as cruel as the hands that use it, but I think we have to ability to make any bit cruel. But that brings me to my next question how much pain is considered cruel and in what circumstances does it become cruel. Is using a bit cruel in itself or is it once we use it incorrectly that it becomes inhumane. Is it when the horse starts to protest and evade the pain to the point where he/she becomes dangerous? Is it when the horse bleeds from injury caused by the equipment? I switched to the word equipment because it is not just bits that cause pain. We have to potential to cause pain with any piece of equipment we use with horses. We can take a lead rope and turn it into a scary object by hitting the horse. We can use our own bodies to cause pain through hitting and kicking.

I will tell you what made it okay to me in the past to cause pain to my horses. My fear and my lack of control!

 I will say pressure and pain to me are two different things, but there is a very fine line that can be crossed easily if one is not careful. Looking towards the future I am setting aside all excuses and will not use my fear as a reason to use painful methods while training. When it comes time to ride Navi and Char if I can't ride in just the halter than we are not ready to go out on the trails. I am super excited to start Navi on the trails. It will be a long time before we hit the trails though because I am standing my ground and refuse to use a bit with her just so we can advance faster in our training. It was my backslide a few months ago with Navi that made this post what it is. I am not judging others for what they do with their horses, I am judging myself. I am not perfect and have made many many mistakes with all my animals in training, but all we can do is learn from them and make ourselves better.

For a long while I only used my positive training methods with Pixie. We used traditional methods with Jess. What was our reasoning that made it okay to cause Jess pain when riding. He was trained that way his whole life. He was trained by the use of pain through the bit, he knew his release to stop the pain from the bit was to listen to us. The downfall of his training is now that he is older and his mouth is dull from years of wearing the bit he is not responding to pain as well. For example he rushes home on the trail to the point where I consider it dangerous to someone not experienced. I will ride him out, but I would never put a beginner on him to ride out of the arena! As I see it there are 3 answers to this problem: 1. Never ride him out of the arena. 2. Put a bigger bit with more stopping power. 3. Offer a reward when he is offering the correct behavior.

This situation is a perfect one for my title question of Where do we draw the line? I could easily say this behavior is lack of respect, but I don't see it that way. I see it as a lack of partnership. Why should he care about what we want when all we do is cause him more pain and the faster he gets home the sooner the painful ride is over! By the way yesterday I rode with treats to modify Jess's behavior. We had the best ride I have ever had on him.Why because all of a sudden he got something for not rushing home!

So how much pain is considered okay, and where do we draw the line at what is acceptable and what is not? I cannot answer that question for others, but I do know where I stand on that question.

Success with Char

Today I was able to successfully pick out both of Char's front feet :) We finally buckled down a few weeks ago and started really working on her feet and today it paid off. Next week we will start with the backs. I was also able to get some really nice liberty work in with her. We worked at liberty on following, and yielding her front end away from me. She was great! She never got nervous or left. Just a few months ago if you let her off the lead rope she would run around like a crazy horse calling for her herd. She didn't look to us for comfort or leadership. She just wanted to go back to her comfort zone. She has been improving, but today was by the best so far with me. She was connected and relaxed. A few months ago, I was beginning to think she would never be able to handle any amount of pressure, but she is proving me wrong. She is my next Pixie. And trust me I had more than my fair share of reservations when working with Pixie. But as I did before with Pixie we took a step back and started over. As you know last time I rode Char was in Dec 2013. It was my fall or more her spook that caused me to look at my path of training her. So back to square one to fill in the holes. We learn from our mistakes and our successes. So I took a page out of my past with Pixie. Step back and find the holes. Now here we are...Char is a much more relaxed horse. We can ask things of her and she doesn't panic. Her first response isn't always to run. We still have a long road a head of us, but I see a bright future with her. I think it is time we set some new 2014 goals with Char.

Everyday I work with any of my horses I learn something new. They are all such great teachers and make me a better horse person/trainer with each session.

Finding the "We"

Update on Navi. Yesterday we had a really good training session. We applied our clicker training to the basics such as yielding the back end and lining up to the mounting block. She did great!! She walked away a few times to go play with the goose, but came back after a few minutes.

Once she figured out I wasn't going to force her, she had the choice to work with me or not she got soft. I like the change I am seeing in her. While I want to beat my self up over using punitive methods with her I can't. Living in the past isn't going to help. I live and learn and will be forever grateful that she is forgiving.
Looking back at the last few months I realize I fell into the trap that so many of us do. If something isn't working get bigger or harder. I did that and failed when I decided if she was bracing in the halter I needed to introduce her to the bit. I justified it to myself my saying she needs to at least know what it's like to have a bit in her mouth, but in reality that was a lie I told myself to make it okay. Putting her in a bit to resolve the bracing was a band-aid approach instead of trying to find the root cause. It wasn't okay, and I won't go down that road again.
 *On a side note my idea of punitive methods is anything that includes punishment. Meaning if you don't do what I want I will continue to up the pressure. Or if you choose wrong you will have to work twice as hard. Also I do not believe bits are bad as a whole. I just choose to try and not use them, but take note that both Willow and Jess are ridden in bits on almost every ride. I just don't believe using them as a band-aid tool is correct and that was the road I was headed down with Navi.

We Have Found Heaven

I can not say enough good things about my new barn. Everything is great! The horses are watched and feed well and we can ride for miles!!

 I am absolutely loving all the great riding adventures we are having. Just last week we saw a Black Bear! It was exciting to see him or her, but we kept our safe distance of course. Yesterday we ventured out to explore the hills some more. We asked a lot of Willow and Pixie. The terrain was pretty tough in some spots with lots of rocks, trees, mud, and hills all combined into one :) They did amazing. They watched their footing and didn't rush. All of our hill training paid off yesterday! I did find myself searching for my easy boot once again so sooner than later I am investing in the trail easy boot so hopefully I won't be hoping on and off the whole ride. I already lost one easy boot about 4 weeks ago :(

Yes, my horse is way down there...I was walking our path to find my boot which ended up being at the bottom, lol.

All in all it was an awesome ride! The weather was perfect as were the girls! Ok maybe Pixie tried to turn and go home once right before a really big hill, but we worked out our difference of opinion and continued up the hill :)

We use an app called Track My Hack to keep record of our rides. It tracked us for most of our ride yesterday, but we ended up losing signal as we we started back home because we got into some pretty thick trees. Oh well, it got most of it!

We didn't take the same path home, it just lost us as we came back.

And here are some more pics of the ride

Best view in the world!

Headed up

Looking back towards the barn

Going up!

Big Sky country

I Finally Listen

As my training with Navi progresses I found that every session she was getting harder and harder for me to connect with. Then last week we had a training session that made me finally re-think my ways. She didn't want to yield her hindquarters, instead she was just trying to push her way into me. So finally I got "big enough" and upped my pressure and she did it properly. Win right? Not exactly in my mind. I spent the rest of the night reliving that training session and in my gut I knew if I continued on with my same methods our relationship would slowly cease to exist. She would do what she had to do to avoid pressure, but would never like working with me. So I made up my mind that next day. No more pressure and release training, again I was going back to what I knew best. So I made it my plan to re-introduce the clicker to her. We haven't used it in a year or more. I still used positive reinforcement training, but as of recently not nearly as much as the negative reinforcement.

Yesterday I headed out to the barn after work to have our first session. I went and caught her and as always she was super easy to catch. However, she decided after I caught her that she didn't want to leave the pasture. (Telling me she doesn't like our training sessions) So I insisted she leave with me which in turn resulting in her biting me! Ok, no biting allowed! I made her back up a long ways and then yielded hindquarters. Then we left the pasture. She proceeded to have her ears pinned the whole way down to the tack room.  I was glad I had made my mind up to change my methods. This was the second time she has made it very clear she hates coming out of the pasture. I was at a cross road and I had two choices: get bigger and match her resistance or find a way around this fight with her. I decided to find a way around so we loaded the clicker while tied to keep me at a safe distance until she figured out to look away for the treats. Not long after starting she caught on and we made our way to the round pen to practice looking away for the treat. She figured it out in no time! She was trying to learn what worked and was being respectful about it! No nipping, no pushing into me. I didn't have to reprimand her once for getting into my space because she quickly figured out that didn't get her the food. (Now this isn't her first go around with positive reward training so that helped.)  For the first time in a very long time I was proud of my training session with her. She was connected and wanting to learn.

The session almost brought tears to my eyes. Why? Because I realized just because you have a horse that can tolerate the pressure and release training doesn't mean you have to use it. Navi doesn't have to be handled with little pressure like Pixie and Char, but it doesn't mean I should treat her different. I know how to correct bad behaviors with clicker training, but instead I choose the other way and I suffered the consequences. I am just glad Navi is forgiving and it's not to late to start over! Thank you Navi for making me listen even if you had to scream at me before I noticed.

Still Alive...

I am still alive, just been a little crazy at work. Okay, more like a lot crazy at work. If I work less than 46 hrs a week I am doing good. We have made it to the barn, we just haven't done a ton of riding. In fact I haven't ridden for a week and a half! I have managed to get a few days in of ground work with the horses though :) So I guess my point is no exciting updates just pictures. :)

Navi made it across the stream to the good grass!

 Char, Navi and Willow all made it to the other side of the stream where the grass is lush and tall.

Jess never did make it over, but its okay he doesn't need that much grass!

 Jess hanging out with their neighbor

Willow

My favorite of Jess

Jess

My favorite of Char

Navi got tired of standing and grazing

Pixie's pictures wouldn't load for some reason, however they weren't that exciting anyways. She didn't make it over the stream either and that's good since she is still really chubby, lol.