Author Ashley PurdinPosted on Categories General, Sedona Updates
I have back-dated this post to be more accurate for the time-frame that it actually happened. This is from April 2019 when Beth Olson was working at EC. She put the first 20 rides on Sedona and did a great job, so I wanted to share with you a few of her rides on Sedona so you all can see what Sedona’s starting process looked like! This is in no way intended to be instructional on how to start a colt. Please work with a competent professional when starting your youngsters.
It seems like everyone has a little different take on starting colts.
When I start colts I prefer to do it with two people in a round pen. I will ride the horse while I have someone roundpen the horse from the ground. This method works well for me because roundpenning is a critical component of the groundwork education I put into my horses in preparing for that first ride. I also usually have access to a second person that can assist me when starting colts.
Beth worked alone for a number of years before working at EC. Her method reflects not having someone to help her with the starting process. Both methods work well, I do feel that hers works slightly faster however because the horses get used to riding in a large area from day 1, instead of needing to transition to an arena several rides in.
The starting process is built around what you have available to you and what you are comfortable with.
When I was first getting started I leased a small stall barn from a lady who would let me ride in her 80 acre hay field. There was no arena, no paddock or any small area that I could ride in. My turnout was all electric fence, so that was not an option. I scraped some money together to buy a roundpen. I set that up in the hayfield and my husband and I would start colts in there. On day three or four we would just open the gate and hope the horses didn’t run off too bad. I had some techniques for making all of this work out in my favor, but I’ll tell you those horses rode out in the open better than anything that I train today. They were just used to it, that was all they knew. In the same respect, Beth’s colt starting method in the arena gets them used to being ridden in a large area right off the bat.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this Sedona update! As always feel free to comment below.
Author Ashley PurdinPosted on Categories General, Sedona Updates
Hey all! Here is another Sedona update!
Have you ever had a session with your horse that didn’t go according to plan?
Here are some strategies you can employ when something unexpected or even dangerous happens with your horse:
Take a breath and evaluate the situation. Don’t just rush in without a plan! In this situation I would have not made things better by running up to Sedona to try and untangle her from the fence. I always wait to see if the horse can get themselves out of trouble before I enter the situation.
Check the horse for injuries. Before you continue the session do a quick check for injuries on your horse to make sure continuing the training session (the most ideal next move from a psychological prospective for the horse).
Turn a negative into a positive. Once I was sure Sedona was ok, I went right back to round penning with the focus of getting her “hooked on” to me. That is to say focused on me before anything else.
Lesson Learned. Sometimes right after a big fit, especially if the horse is unsuccessful in achieving their desired outcome, (in this case Sedona wanting to escape the training session), can be the best opportunity to make an impression on your horse! Sedona was much more receptive to my ideas after fully (and unsuccessfully) exploring hers.
Understand that training a horse from start to finish, or even teaching a horse something new, will not be without its pitfalls and low points. Horses as a general rule tend to not try very hard when they are confused and it is our job as a trainer to teach them how to search for the right answer without feeling the need to escape the situation. Unfortunately Sedona did feel the need to escape but this day, looking back, was a huge turning point in our relationship!
Author Ashley PurdinPosted on Categories General, Sedona Updates
Finally getting around to posting this! This is from back in May with Sedona before her first ride!
Not going to lie, as entertaining as this was for everyone I’m excited that those days are behind us! More updates to come I want to get this current so I can share what she is doing now!
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Sedona Bucking 2
Many times in the process of training, I find myself talking the owner down. They will come to the barn to watch me work with their horse and something like what you see in this video might happen. The owner panics. Thinking they have made a horrible mistake either with the selection of the horse or their trainer. So what are we seeing here? Is it a crazy horse? Incompetent trainer? Did something go wrong with the saddling process? Should it have been taken slower?
All of these questions come up and more. Yes, of course, in a perfect world I would love for my horses to never buck. But we have to remember, these are prey animals we are working with here. Their flight or fight instinct is wound tightly through their DNA. Sedona is having to learn to accept a saddle on her back, which if you think about it is not very much unlike having a mountain lion jump on her back and put its claws around her belly. That cinch can be extremely claustrophobic to a horse.
The interesting thing about Sedona’s reactivity to the saddle is she has no reaction whatsoever to the bareback pad. She also had a very limited reaction to flanking see previous blogpost: https://echorse.com/sedona-update-4-flanking/ This leaves only the saddle to be worked on. Generally the bucking was triggered when she would first lope, which is actually the most common time for a green horse to buck. So really nothing could be done to change the saddling process or improve on it up to this point. She was just going to have to learn that when she lopes with the saddle and gets scared that she cant out run it or buck it off. In this video you will see her attempting both.
I set myself up for success this day and immediately after saddling turned her loose in the arena. She bucks so fast that there is no hanging on to her so instead of allowing the habit of ripping the rope out of my hand (which happened a few times already!) I just turned her loose to figure this saddle out. I’m in a nice, safe environment where I’m not worried about her hurting herself. Any training technique that get’s me hurt or the horse hurt is not helpful! So I’m setting this up to keep us both as safe as possible.
Zones
I was giving a groundwork lesson yesterday, and was explaining the emotional zones of a horse to a new student. When diving into really understanding the behavior of your horse this is an extremely helpful analogy.
The first emotional zone is the green zone. This is the zone that a horse is in when it is grazing with its buddies out in the pasture. For a young horse that may be the only time it is in the green zone.
For Sedona, she was pretty happy to be haltered and led around the barn and to do my basic grooming and groundwork – all up to the saddling. At the point of putting the saddle on, I would see a change in her behavior. Her emotions or flight or fight instinct would begin to show me subtle cues. Her head would come up. Usually she would move her feet around as I cinched her. These were signs that she was moving out of the green zone into the yellow zone.
The very first part of the yellow zone is where a horse shows you concern. They are unsure. Nothing is unmanageable at this point but they aren’t comfortable like they are in the green zone. This is where you, as the horseman need to start paying attention. Will they settle and return to the green zone or will the escalate?
As the horse moves through the yellow zone you may see various degrees of reaction. From unsure, all the way up to pretty fearful. You may see bucking in this zone. You may see running. You may even see some aggression if the horse feels trapped. What you won’t see in this zone, however, is full fledged flight or fight. And by that I mean the reaction that looks literally like a mountain lion is on their back.
That reaction is saved for the red zone. That is where the horse could literally hurt or even kill itself OR YOU trying to escape or fight the situation. This is the zone we want to avoid in training.
Do we always successfully avoid it? No. I have had three horses go to the red zone during training over my career. Two of which were actually during the saddling process and one was an abuse case. I was fortunate that none of the horses or I got hurt. And I can honestly say none of these times was it intentional that the horse went there. Was it avoidable? I would also say no to that as well. Sometimes with horses things happen fast and it is our job to try to try to bring a good outcome.
Comparison
The first time Sedona bucked with the saddle, there was a short spot where she was in the red zone. If you watch the video again https://echorse.com/sedona-update-5-3rd-saddling/ you can see she is “bucking blind” and goes straight into the wall. After that she is bucking but can see where she is going again. This is an illustration of red zone. She has lost all sense of her safety and has prioritized the saddle on her back as the most dangerous thing in her life at that moment. Where do you think I was on that list? I wasn’t. I was literally not even on her radar and that would be the time it would be so easy to be ran over because she wasn’t looking at anything else besides that saddle. The good news? Her collision with the wall snapped her out of it, the saddle stayed on and she eventually calmed back down.
What would have happened if she had gotten rid of the saddle? What if I didn’t have it cinched up correctly? Honestly, the stakes were high that day. That kind of thing, if it goes wrong, can wreck a horse for its lifetime. I have seen it. Horses that learn to buck off saddles get really good at bucking off riders. They learn that when they go to the red zone it keeps them safe. So from that day forward, they are programed to go there when they start to feel unsure. This makes for an extremely dangerous situation for the horseman and the horse.
The saddling process is such a critical part of training. I don’t think most people realize how badly it can go in a split second. Sedona is a really talented, smart and athletic horse, but she is reactive and that 3rd saddling was a make or break day for her. So now I would encourage you to play those videos back to back. Really get a good comparison of the 3rd saddling to the video below. Learn the difference between bucking blind and BUCKING.
In this video: is she uncomfortable? Yes. Is she emotional. Yes. Could this be dangerous? Yes. But did she go to the red zone? No. How do I know? The biggest clue is she knows where those arena fences are. She would like to get rid of the saddle but she isn’t willing to hurt herself to do it this time. Progress. Might seem small. But it is there.
I happen to be the owner of this horse, but if I wasn’t I’m sure I would say to the owner: “It’s ok, this is just a phase. She is going to make a good horse, but she is one that needs extra hours to get the right start. Progress may be slow, but I assure you, it is there. I can see it.”
Author Ashley PurdinPosted on Categories Sedona Updates
Do you remember from the last blog I talked about the single most important principle in my training program? It is teaching the horse to manage their emotions!
Definition of an Emotional Horse: A horse that is easily triggered onto adrenaline (fight or flight side of their brain) OR once triggered onto adrenaline, is difficult to calm it down and bring it off adrenaline.
Horses, just like humans, can either think or react. It is our job to not keep the horse in a bubble of comfort its whole life and avoid all of the things they don’t like – but rather to expose our horses to new environments, situations, and things to increase their emotional fitness. When done properly, this process of exposure will expand the horse’s comfort zone and actually trigger the horse to think rather than to react.
Usually the first time a horse learns to manage its emotions is during the starting process. This is why saddling and starting is such a critical point in a horse’s life.
They will either learn how to properly think through and process scary things or they will learn that their fight or flight (emotional response) is the most effective way to survive their interactions with people.
One of the most challenging aspects of becoming a horseman is to remain on the thinking side of OUR brain and not allow our emotions to be triggered when our horses experience an emotional trigger. It is our job, as the leader, to be the counterweight to our horse’s reactions and remain grounded, calm and purposeful.
My goal here in this video and after, was not to catch Sedona and “rescue” her from the situation by removing the saddle. But instead to allow her to fully explore the option of blowing up and trying to get rid of it. The fact that my cinch was good and tight is a critical success point in this session. She wasn’t able to find comfort by reacting emotionally and getting rid of the trigger. Instead the trigger (saddle) stayed consistent through the process of her blowing up and finally coming back to the thinking side of her brain and re-connecting with me.
How do you handle it when your horse experiences an emotional trigger? Do you need more tools and knowledge to manage your emotions and create a calm result with your horse? Ashley works with the public, teaching these critical horsemanship skills to build more confident and competent horse and rider teams.
Author Ashley PurdinPosted on Categories General, Sedona Updates
Note: I am catching up on my Sedona blog. This video was taken the day after the last one (back in the spring). We are still working through filling you in on the first 30 days of training.
I cannot stress enough that this is not a how-to video. This Sedona series is a look inside at our training program so you can know what to expect when sending a horse to us. Flanking is a fabulous technique when done correctly and can be disastrous when done poorly.
Why do we flank horses? At the core of our program, the single-most-important principle, is to teach our horses to manage their emotions. By that I mean their fight-or-flight response. It is also important to us to have a full and real evaluation of a horse before swinging up into the saddle for the first time. This means knowing what the horse’s worst-case-scenario reaction (loss of emotional control) might be. This is a method we use to create a controlled situation where we trigger a flight or fight response from the horse. We teach the horse how to control their emotions and how to come off of an adrenaline spike and calm down and relax.
The video goes on to explain that at some point your horse will get triggered on to adrenaline. It might be when a deer jumps out on the trail, it might be when he leaves his buddies for the first time. Wouldn’t you want to own a horse that knows how to calm itself down in stressful situations and doesn’t continue to escalate? As a horse owner myself, that skill development in a horse is a must for me.
Please watch the video below for a more in-depth explanation.
Author Ashley PurdinPosted on Categories Sedona Updates
At some point in every young horse’s life it is critical they learn to give to halter pressure. I am a huge believer in building willingness and softness in a horse each time it is handled – not just while riding. I want my horses to be willingly guided under saddle and that process starts on the ground! Please remember this video series is not intended to be instructional. If you need help learning groundwork, please contact us for a lesson! The video below will take you through Sedona’s first lunging experience. As always remember to comment and tell us what you think! If you have any questions leave them in the comments as well and I will be sure to answer them. Enjoy!
Author Ashley PurdinPosted on Categories Sedona Updates
The first saddling is such a critical step in a young horse’s development. When correctly introduced, the horse will learn to accept something new on its back which will set him up for eventually accepting the rider. When done incorrectly the horse will learn to panic and get rid of whatever is on his back making the rest of the training difficult and dangerous. Generally when we get a young horse in to start we prefer that the owner had not previously attempted to saddle it. When starting a young horse we are laying the foundation for the rest of its life and we want to know exactly what foundation was laid. This will give our clients a better prospect for the future and give the horse a better chance at a positive life with humans.
As always, we love seeing your comments on our posts!
Join us by watching the video below to see Sedona’s first saddling.
Author Ashley PurdinPosted on Categories Sedona Updates
My career up to this point has been built on training the everyday horse for everyday things. Trail riding, trouble shooting, obstacles etc… I have competed extensively in the cowboy racing world and loved it! But last year, I finally had a team to help me run the barn, Bob and Susan Brennan Owners, Dusty LaBeth Manager/business director, Beth Olson Trainer. These individuals made it possible for me to spend more time improving myself and showing.Read More Sedona: Update 1 – New Beginnings
