What Did I Do Right?!
/In one of my earliest horsemanship lessons, at the beginning of my Fell Pony career, I asked my instructor a question. It was when my pony did something other than what I was trying to get it to do, and I asked, “What did I do wrong?” Bless Ezra Marrow for his answer! He said it’s just as important, if not more so, to ask what we’re doing right as it is to ask what we’ve done wrong. We need to take credit when things go well, especially if we’re going to beat ourselves up when they go otherwise.
So when I had rides on my Fell Pony mare Willowtrail Wild Rose two days in a row where she was nearly perfect, I asked myself “what did I do right?!“ After days and days of rides with refusals and reverses and broken gaits, how had I come to those rides on those days differently? Of course, there are numerous other factors over which I have little control, such as the weather, the state of mind of the cattle near which we ride, not to mention the state of mind of my pony! And now with breeding season approaching, it could also be changes I’ve made to her diet in advance of boy-meets-girl.
One of the first horsemanship books I was given as a gift was Centered Riding by Sally Swift. What I took away from Swift’s emphasis on soft eyes was remembering to take in the set of the ears of one’s mount, not just where we want to go and the path we want to take to get there. I am very tuned in to not only where Rose’s ears are pointing when we ride but where the tip of her nose is, too. When she starts to turn it away from our line of travel, I’ve found that returning it to our line of travel seems to help to keep Rose focused on the ride we’re taking versus letting her attention drift to the many, many things in our surroundings that she could decide to be worried about, from calves and bulls to tractors to turkeys to deer. Other ponies I’ve ridden haven’t required that sort of assistance with focus.
I once took Rose’s half-sister Lily to a horsemanship clinic to see what guidance the instructor could give me on improving our relationship doing groundwork. He said I needed to be more provocative with her, that she wasn’t sufficiently engaged with me in our current manner of work. By ‘more provocative’ he meant to do quick changes of direction and cues to get her really paying attention. I found this very challenging. I tend to be the slow-twitch rather than the fast-twitch sort of person - think long distance running rather than sprinting - and he was suggesting I needed to be different than I am. What I’ve learned with Rose is that instead of speed I can ask for more precision, and this keeps her engaged. If I ask for a step back, I want it now, not a few seconds after she thinks about it. If I ask for her feet to move in a particular direction, I return her to the starting point and try again until we get exactly what I want. If I want her to stand still, she doesn’t get to move her feet, at all. We will return to the original placement of all feet and stand still again until I ask for something different. Mind, Rose is fully mature, so I’m working with a mature brain; I wouldn’t expect this sort of precision from a less-trained or less-mature pony unless they were ready for it. I think this sort of precision work is part of what I’ve done right with Rose. Other ponies I’ve worked with have been willing to give me their cooperation without asking for this sort of precision work first.
Treats as training aids are as controversial as any topic in horsemanship. I know people who don’t ever use them, and I know more people who don’t use them as well as they could. I remember a master horseman once saying that if you are adamantly against ever using treats then you have removed a tool from your toolbox. Rose is motivated by treats, and I use them at particular times to reward particular behavior and attention. I have found they can make a positive difference with Rose. And I am always experimenting with how she responds with and without them.
Everyday Rose comes up with ways to test if I’m paying attention, so I always need to be very alert to any new behavior she’s bringing to our time together. When we have times that we are in harmony, though, it is magical, and I am more motivated than ever to figure out what I did right!
© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020
My book The Partnered Pony contains many practical stories like this one. It is available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.
