Horse treatment and training

[Cassie]

Ok, I really hop this makes sence. What is your opinion on horse treatment and training. In otherwords, what do you feel is the best way to train a horse (a way like parelli, or using spurs and stuff, etc). How should horses be treated? Is it ok to hit them, is there circumstances in which hitting is or isn't ok?

[FreeStyle08]

yes there is a time when it is ok to smack them with a lead rope or something like when reno (dads horse) pulls away just because she doesnt want to do something or just becuase she can she will get introuble for that, but if she pulls away because a gun fire went off and you can see in here eyes that she is scared then I will go up and reasure her enstead of get after her.

sorry I will finish this later got to go eat.

[Cassie]

I think its 100% ok to hit them if they deserve it. For instince, if your horse bites you, I believe you should smack its nose. It drives me insane when people think their horse will hate them if they hit it. I hit my horse every single time she deserves it. Now of coarse, I dont condone a 30 second beating as punishment, but 1 hard smack is alright in my books.

[FreeStyle08]

and then for training I always give them a chance to do it before I start tickling them with a whip, as soon as they do the movement or near the movement I want I will praze them.

but not every horse deals well with the same treatment, like with baby its easer for him to understand what I want if I ask and he doesnt do it I give him a tickle with the whip and as soon as he takes a step in the right derection I praze him.

but with all horses I am fair and because im consistant in what I want they already know that if they try for me and put in there best effort then they will be done sooner and that means a longer grooming a massage and they get to go out to pasture for a wile.

but at the same time they know that I will listen to them if they dont want to do something or if they are telling me that they are having a hard time keeping there mind on me then I will deffinatly take that into consideration to what we do for the day so at the end of every ride it always turns out a win, win situation.

[Cassie]

I cant really say about training from scratch but when I'm teaching Shadow to do something in a different way it pretty much happens within a week. We don't do baby steps. When she was learning to keep her frame she was expected to keep it the entier time with no break and if she didn't I'd have to put her back every time. She was not aloud to go more than a stride with her nose out of place. I'm also very agressive with my legs. This is more about riding than real training but when I ride, I ask then demand/force. She doesn't move off my leg she gets a nick as hard as I can. I'm framing her up and she wont get her head to the inside I bump. If I frame her then release and she puts her head to the outside, its gets jerked to the inside. I just will not tolerate her not being close to perfect. I'm expected to ride near perfect so I expect the same out of her. I will not hesitate to spur jerk or whip (with the reins or crop). She does not get much praise. Basically if its not perfect it doesn't get praised. I'm kind of talking just for the heck of it now, this isn't much about training.

[-Irwin Girl-]

I personally follow Chris Irwin methods and believe that is the way to train horses.If a horse bites you donot smack it one the nose for horses are very sensitive about there facebut if they do bite you you better scream and hit them on the shouklder on lunge them till they can hardly move because thats unexceptable(not worded the best..)

[FreeStyle08]

there is nothing wrong with your way cassie what works with one horse may not work with another thats why I said im flexble on how I train with baby he works best with the way I explaind already but others like the aproch and retreat better (cliton anderson)

I have found with baby that he is more apt to give me 100% if I only ask for 50-75% but if i try to demand 100% and perfection he gets angree and quits on me.

but I learned to adapt to how the horse likes to be worked rather its with the demand or another way.

[Cassie]

The point of hitting on the nose is that it is sensitive. Unless you hit the horse in the shoulder with a stick its not much of a punishment. I disagree with lunging until they can hardly more a LOT. Thats not a punishment. Punishment must happen within 3 seconds of the act that deserves punishment. Lunging until they can hardly move will only make them dislike lunging, fell like they got away with biting and cause them to be sore the next day so you wont be able to work them.
Just my opinion.

[FreeStyle08]

thats a good point cass, I have rode one horse that every time he got introuble they would lunge him well I didnt no this for the first few weeks so I did a lot of round pin work and lunging (since he was a really high strong horse with NO mannors) and well every time I would get done lunging him and stuff he would stand there like he had just gotten in trouble so finly I asked the owners and they told me that they only lunge him when he is in trouble.

and baby wasnt bad with lunging but he also thought he was introuble every time I would lunge him but i finly got him to relize that he wasnt introuble and I made it fun for him so now he LOVES to do round pin work and lunging.

[Cassie]

My horse is phyco on the lunge line.

[-Irwin Girl-]

liek i said bad woridng.'Linging until they can hardly move' was a very abd way to word it, but if a horse attempts,threatens or tires to bite you then they OBVIOUSLY don't respect you.Lunging proves that you are the alpha mare, that yor da boss basically.In the wild if a horse bites or threatens to btie another horse the horse will either bite it back,kick it,buck rear etc.But one thing they rearely do is btie back at the face.The horse will also chase the other one away, and make it move.Proving dominince over the other horse.With chris we work with the nature the horse has always had and train them using thigns they understand.We re consistent.
Oh and ditch the screaming part, I have no clue why I thought or wrote that.
Any horse can lunge, if taught properly.Sometimes this takes years, sometimes this takes minutes.If a horse knows how to lunge then they arebeing disrespectful, or are simply reacting to your body language.Some hroses get to the point where they jsut ignroe all your faults and show you disrespect through their body(as they always use their bodys to 'talk') but sicne you don't understand that they are disrespecting you they get away bein extremly rude.
for more on how I work with horses visit: www.chrisirwin.com or if you want to ehar it from my 'family' www.symphonystables.com