How The Process Works
How The Process Works
Warwick explains how his process works in this video. It is a nice overview.
The first part of the process, creating connection, part of that is being able to hang out with your horse. It’s a balance between your horse wanting to spend time with you without NEEDING to. A good starting point is when you can go out and just hang out like 2 horses, completely relaxed and happy.
Go ahead and keep doing whatever you’ve been doing with your horse today.
A reminder how to use this course, now you will click Mark Complete and tomorrow you will begin Day 2.
love the emphasis on process – no rush – this is about building the foundation and relationship that will be necessary later on when under saddle – thank you
When I’m just hanging out with my 18 month old, she just wants to play with me, like I’m a horse. When I create energy to move her away from me, she gets mad and then has no interest in hanging out.
“she gets mad and then has no interest in hanging out.”
Does she get mad?
or does she have no interest in hanging out?
They are not one in the same.
I’d rather have a foal that wont come near me, than one I cant get off of me.
She’s very eager to hang out, but wants to be right next to me. When I ask her not to come that close it seems like she get angry and then leaves and doesn’t want to come back.
How do you “ask her not to come that close”?
Looking forward to getting started with our 8 year old mare who we have had for one year. She is handled primarily by my 13yr old daughter and our coach. My relationship with her consists mostly of feeding, light grooming and hanging out (her behaviour with me is less aggressive/more trusting Issues we are dealing with are pushy behaviour on the ground, displeasure during ground work and some ridden work, she has taken to nipping/biting my daughter – currently being treated for suspected ulcers for the second time this year. Diet is excellent forage based and biologically appropriate. Lives out 24/7 in a larger herd, has friends and willingly comes to meet us at the gate everytime. Always looking at pain as the first factor in behaviour changes – but feel that she has become quite guarded with her body. Before signing up we started some of your very basic principles in regards to her grooming with success. Even though she is “grumpy” she tries so hard to understand what we are looking for and is very clear in her communication. Looking forward to starting over, improving our connection and moving forward.
Question – Is it possible to implement your practices/mindset with more than one person? For instance if myself, my daughter and our coach were to all use the same principles would it undermine our relationship with her?
No, not at all. BUT, if she is showing all of those signs, and 2 out of the 3 people are ignoring those and still riding hjer, are there 3 people doing the work or only one?
Hello! I have been training a 3 year old mare since last year, we have some issues in her foundation I feel like could be resolved using your methods. She is very sweet, very cozy and wanting to hang out with people. But out of insecurity or frustration, she can also be very pushy, nippy and she collects rabbits and she just doesn’t know yet how to let go of tension when around people :) I feel like she some days clearly shows she’s worried simple things like brushing, and ignoring those signs has actually let to her developing some aggression issues. Your approach helped me to deflate her fear a bit of not being listened to and her feeling the need to escalate her behavior. Long story short, I’m a fan and I feel so inspired to start this journey!
The horse is not mine: she is slowly being started under saddle currently by a trainer and is being handled and trained by the owner and myself (i’m there 3-4 times a week).
How effective will the 30-day program be if there are several people working with her (the others with a sport/ goal-oriented approach)?
And maybe even more detrimental, me having to train her sometimes as well with similar methods because for example ‘she has to be lunged with the saddle today’? It feels like doing 1 step forward, 2 steps back. And thinking of your referral to ‘the emotional bank account’, those deposits probably don’t even weigh in equally to the withdrawals I have to make at such times and I will end up in the red.
I am very grateful to the owner I am given the freedom to pick up the groundwork in a way I see fit. She cares for her horses very well and she builds up the training gradually, so I feel like I hit the jackpot with this already! I don’t mind if these circumstances slow my progress with your method, but only if helps the horse. I don’t want to confuse or frustrate her more at this young age being exposed to so many new things already. Groundwork is something only I do, so maybe that division of territory helps? I really hope working with your method will, in time, help this horse feel more secure and find her calm in other situations, with other people as well.
I tried to keep it short, but everything is connected. The best solution I can come up with is talk to the owner about me pausing the training, and just focus on the 30 day program to begin with, but I am not sure that is possible for a full month or even a few. I am sure I can reduce the amount of training I ‘have’ to do. I value your thoughts on how to maybe work around these circumstances.
Hi Joyce
Id sayif the horse is an anxious type, then you can only be helping. BUT, if the horse is a little shut down, helping that horse out of tat state will bring her to the anxious state, and the trainer will propably do some less than nice things to the horse to make those behaviours go away.
Thank you for your reply, I needed some time to ponder. I’ve been watching the horse, your videos and listening to the podcasts and to be honest I feel like I don’t know anything anymore.. I don’t think she is shutdown. I also didn’t think she was anxious, but I am starting to see her in a new light and I would say she gets worried sometimes (and isn’t that just another way of saying she gets anxious?). The trainer and owner at least in the training not old school ‘I will make you listen to me’, so they wouldn’t smack her or anything if she gets more reactive. However, I decided I’m going to take it a bit slower with the horse on my end and at least start the ‘evolving’ process on my end. So even if right now might not the best situation to start this, there is still so much I can learn and can apply. A little while longer and I will be rich from all the pennies that are dropping! Little update below about the mare and I’m curious to find out see what this all leads to in time!
Lately I have been doing way less with the horse and simply been giving her more time to think in between asks or when she gets distracted. I have been able to get her standing standing still completely relaxed, not pushing on me and it is getting easier to reach that point every time. I was absolutely mesmerized the first time it happened. I’ve only seen her that still when she was nearly sleeping. She just stood there for maybe 2 minutes with her head nearly touching the ground, her ears were pricked forward at me. Doing nothing, not moving at all. It felt like she was like was saying ‘I’m listening now human, what do you suggest we could do next?’ She didn’t seem shut down or anything, but she didn’t even move hear head when I picked up the leadrope and stepped closer. So I decided to reach out with my hand for a horsey handshake before stepping closer into her space. Don’t know if that has any value at all, but it seemed like a polite way to pick up the conversation again.
One important thing I still need to work on is getting her thoughts to come towards the flag. That was very difficult because she was on top of me. Or the hay.. Which she would bring a generous mouthful to eat on on top of you.. She seems to become more part of the herd now and is less focused on me. Also pasture season is on, so that is making that task a whole lot easier for me. Distraction everywhere!
I wanted to let you know you were right on the mark with your response. I think she was shutdown a bit and that she got worried easily as well. She was going internal sometimes, but I just didn’t notice the subtle signs. I feel like she is becoming more expressive and it makes me so happy to see her getting better. The trainer is handling her behavior in a very kind way. I do not really have a pushy horse anymore! I also can catch her easily in the pasture, I can pick up her feet, she is not as slow as she was, much more reactive and we can tackle scary stuff together now. We even picked up some long lining dressage! She often comes to hang out with me and I feel so honored! This is the best thing I ever did for my horse and myself! 2 months in and I have made more progress than the last year. I am convinced training methods alone wouldn’t have gotten us here. She is changing, but I am changing too.
Very excited to work with these videos. I’ve done a ton of groundwork with my horses but this work brings in deeper layers to it. I have three horses I’m training now, all at different levels in their training and also at very different levels in their personalities, i.e., they run the spectrum from calm with lots of experience to extremely fresh and distractable. They all three are high-energy, intelligent and even the most seasoned horse has anxiety issues that I’ve spent a lot of time working with. This work will be good for all three!