Happy Success with Prophet - Finally!!
By Lindsey Forkun, www.LFEquestrian.com
Yesterday was a special day for both me and Prophet - it was a day where we achieved a big milestone together. Prophet is an amazing horse - extremely smart and very talented, but he is also very claustrophobic and panicky (like most horses are, except Prophet had a habit of 'exploding').
Prophet would get very tense with anything around his belly - even a rope around his mid section, or me just hopping up and down beside him near his belly could send him exploding (leaping forward with some bucks).
My goal was to teach emotional control - to keep going to Prophet's 'threshold' and showing him that he could stand, think, and relax. I interrupted the bucking pattern and after a couple months I could saddle up Prophet, send him over jumps, sideways over a barrel, do tons of different ground work patterns and exercises, hop beside him, and sit on him. We even did some walking while riding, but he still felt very tense.
Every day Prophet comes into his stall for his daily grain feeding. Most of the time he gets saddled too - just to eat dinner. Then sometimes he gets unsaddled and turned out, sometimes he gets put in the round pen to eat grass with the saddle on, and sometimes does a training session. Prophet has learned that the saddle is nothing to be feared - he can do 'normal' things with a saddle on.
Recently I started ponying Prophet on trail rides - the goal was to help get him out of the arena and show him what riding can be about. It got him used to seeing me up high on top of a horse. It got him used to getting close to me and having his belly occasionally brush up against my leg as I was riding right beside him. He also started to really move into the saddle as we went up and down hills, through water, over logs, and let him see a purpose to what we were teaching him.
We discovered that Prophet did great on trails - he loves them. He became so relaxed and moved so nicely into the saddle. When we got back from rides I could swing my leg over, bump Prophets sides, sit on him, and he felt the most relaxed he has ever been.
Last night was an exciting night because I decided to try riding Prophet - but not the normal way I would start a horse. Instead I had the help of Cait - Prophet's owner's daughter who is an accomplished rider and has experience exercising polo horses... so she has experience ponying 5 horses at a time!
Cait rode Vinnie and practiced ponying Prophet in the arena. Once she felt ready we hit the trail - me walking on the ground to start, and Elana on Shawna taking up the rear. After about 15 min and Prophet was super relaxed, I decided to hop on him.
I got on Prophet, made sure he was relaxed, and asked Cait to continue ponying him. Prophet took a few steps at the walk, and stopped. We allowed him to stop and think - this is a great response compared to exploding. We want to encourage Prophet to stop and think if he feels nervous.
After he had a minute to look at me on his back and then relax and lower his head, Cait cued him to walk again. I just sat there like a passenger, not doing anything. We rode the rest of the trail walking and even some trotting! A couple times I tried doing simple little things like dropping my stirrups and picking them up, picking up the reins to ask for halt when Cait was too, etc and he was fantastic! I did get off and on a couple more times throughout the ride and Prophet was relaxed for all of it.
When we got back to the arena I could cue Prophet to trot and he was listening really well and stopping!
It was a really exciting night for me - we finally made some huge progress with Prophet - but it took some creativity and willingness to do things a bit differently.
Next steps for me are to try riding him on the trail again, with Cait leading me again, and then for me to start picking up the reins and initiating more of the cues until its me doing all the cues. Once I am doing all the cues (not Cait) then I can try un-clipping the lead rope and riding Prophet on my own.
Very exciting!!
Some tips when starting new horses:
- If the horse feels tense, don't bother trying to go to the next task. A horse needs to be relaxed at walk if you want trot or canter to go well too.
- It is important we teach our horses to stop & think when they are nervous or scared. If your horses gets nervous or scared, don't just try and tell them to 'go', or you could end up teaching your horse to explode or take off.
- It's okay to ask for help! Sometimes it is safest and best if you have someone else help you. Every horse is different.
- Keep it positive. It is important that Prophet felt like he could do the things I wanted - so I always keep my exercises realistic for what he is both physically and mentally able to do.
Key learning this week: There is hope for even the most difficult horses - time, patience, and natural horsemanship can help!
This is an amazing accomplishment for both Prophet and Lindsey. Prophet spent the first four years of his life without other horse buddies and very little training. He belonged to an old man who enjoyed him as a pet. He was never mistreated, but also not exposed to a normal upbringing for a horse. Eventually the man died and Prophet was sent to a horse rescue establishment.
ReplyDeleteI adopted him as a companion for another horse. Realizing that it is not good for a horse not to have a job, as he was young and had no physical restrictions that would prevent him from being trained, the search began.
Lindsey’s first experiences with Prophet began last year. However, after discovering that he presented some unusual problems, such as being claustrophobic, extremely smart, and the big problem was that he was great as long as he could look at you. This was a very interesting dilemma as that is not possible while you are sitting on his back.
Through much ground training, rethinking the approach and patience Lindsey has been able to get Prophet on his way to becoming a real horse. Sometimes what works for the majority of horses, does not work for a few. This is where a trainer that can think outside of normal can make the difference. If Prophet had been handled in an aggressive, forceful manner he would never have accomplished anything. With his trusting nature and Lindsey’s ability to figure him out he has gained the needed confidence.
This little guy still has a ways to go, but he is definitely heading in the right direction.
Well done Lindsey.
Michele