hi it's josie and today i would like to talk to you i guess a little bit about my
philosophy of horse training and what i see a lot of people do wrong and i've always wondered
why they would do it like that and i think when i think about it now i think it's because they just
don't even understand that they're doing it so it's something i'd like to bring to your awareness
if you're aware of it absolutely fabulous if not i'd like you to start to become aware of it
and if you have a differing opinion to me on this i'm more than happy for you
to put it in the comments but please keep it respectful because if it's not i will delete it
and this is one thing already rebel is now crowding my personal space
i would like him to go back there and stay there now over the course of this he's going to step
forward i want him to go back and stay back there out of my personal space come on good
so what i want to talk about is basically to do with pressure and release that is one of
the ways we teach horses yes i know there's lots of other ways there is clicker training
there is many ways to get to rome this is the way that i see people not having the understanding of
and therefore they are doing it wrong so that's what i want to bring to people's attention
and now see rebel has walked up and i i don't care i want him back no more than that back there so
and again part of horse training guys you have to have the patience of a saint i don't care
he can go back one more step now so i want him back there so i've got a line in the dirt here
where i want him to stay while we do this video if he keeps stepping forward i'm just going to keep
popping him back there so now i've forgotten what i was saying so if i put some pressure on my horse
and he does something and i take the pressure away he's learnt how to make the pressure go away
and a classic example of this is all the young horses 99.999% of them that i've worked with
if i go up and put my finger in their side a little bit to get them to move over in a stable
in the tie up bay in in the round yard when i'm starting them the very first thing they will do is
they will lean into that pressure now if i take the pressure away when they're leaning into it
then i've just taught the horse to lean into the pressure so you have to stay
there and hold it and the split second the horse moves away from the pressure
you take the pressure away or the way that i've learned to do it is you become a fence post so
you sit there and you set your core and you put your finger into his side there gently and as he
leans on it it gets harder and harder and you set yourself and the split second he moves off
if you're not pushing and you've become a fence post the pressure's released off the horse and
he will learn to move away from pressure how does that pertain to what i'm talking about
now so anytime you're handling your horse you are training your horse i want you to please remember
that doesn't matter if you're walking from the paddock to the stable with the horse if you're
standing out chatting to your girlfriends or boyfriends with your horse you're training him
if you are with him and interacting with him just by being in the same environment as him
please note it doesn't matter what discipline you ride dressage
western jumping driving horses they all learn the same so this is not a discipline specific
thing it's called horsemanship for a reason because it involves horses
and i guess part of now he stepped forward again i want him to go back there
one of my aims of my channel here is to try to bring some horsemanship to the discipline that i
love which is dressage because i my horses have never gone so well as they did after i started
to learn some horsemanship and then i i can see how it all fits together the classical dressage
trainers use horsemanship to train the horse they use pressure and release to change the train the
horse because they put a leg on the horse gives them the response they want they take the leg aid
off and they ask the bend and flexion they put the aids on for that the horse gives what they
want then the aids become very subtle non-existent release so i'm aware that rebel has just stepped
half a foot forward the part of horsemanship is being aware of your horse and what he's doing
and he's creeping now so i'm going to ask him to go back he likes to be in my pocket
and i don't like him in my pocket because he is very good at invading your personal space
so i just will be a bit like a person with a child i will just be constantly saying no that's the
line in the dirt so as we go how does this pertain to what i was talking about well this is only my
philosophy remember every horse is different so i have a personal space that i require a horse
to stay out of my personal space for rebel is actually larger than my personal space for spider
and that is because the feeling i get from rebel is that he will just be in and on top of me if he
could be where a spider will come in but he's not pushing on me and although you may not see that
it's a feeling i get that i'm my i'm being pushed upon so when i'm standing out in public talking
to somebody and rebel continues to creep up i will continue to put him back then he creeps up
and then i'll put him back eventually he gives it up and he just stands there and he goes to sleep
what frustrates me is the person that the horse comes up and they're ignoring the horse creeping
and it creeps and it creeps and it creeps and it creeps and they're talking to their friend and
then they turn around and they look at their horse and they get cross with it and they belt it one
to me i'm going to be really honest i want to take whatever they've belted the horse
with and belt them and say for goodness sakes be aware of what your horse is doing
and have some compassion for him and give him some ground rules of where he needs to stay
so how does that pertain to the the story that just then well the rider should have picked the
horse up way before it got on top of the the handler and asked the horse to go back where it
needed to stand with using pressure and release back release the pressure when he's back behind
where you want them when they're out of your physical space and spider my rebel might actually
step into mine in a minute because i don't want him any closer than he is and yes he has
because that's too close so i'll just pop him back there i'm actually going to just pop two legs back
now nope and he's come back over a perfect timing rebel to show people what i mean
he can stay back there i don't want him up here with me because he's in my personal space
there's a line on the ground and the horse can't cross that line if he does as
uh the horse handler it's my job to pop him back behind that and then let him go
and then he if he comes forward i put him back and if he comes forward i put him back
and i can promise you that it takes time to train the horse to do that but there will come a day
when he will just stand like this while you're out chatting to your friend and he'll be a good equine
citizen that is a foundation that i put on my horse and if you do this correctly and with some
kindness and with some empathy you actually teach your horse to learn he will learn to
look for a way to get the pressure to go away so if i want rebel to drop his head i'll put a bit of
downward pressure a bit of downward pressure and he will drop his head the minute his head went the
pressure was gone he understands the foundation of me doing something him looking for an answer when
he gets the right answer i let go of the pressure it's one of many ways that we can train horses
so here he is he's creeping again i'm just going to ask that foot to go back and stay
back there if he comes for he came even then so and now he's come forward with this one
and i don't want him so i've got in my mind a line on the ground which sits there
but in reality it's not a line on the ground it's a feeling i get when he is in my personal space
and he can go back another foot and i'll actually push him back further if he's going to do that
so he can stay back i know where it is i need to feel comfortable i don't want
him squashing on my personal space you have to be very patient with him
he's a horse and that's what he's allowed to be he's creeping in you watch he will creep
a little bit further yet he i don't really feel like he's pushing on me but one millimeter further
and i'm going to feel crowded and i think he's going to come now yep there he goes
and he didn't even move but i hope you saw that his body language lent forward into me
so he can go back and stand over there but i don't think that a lot of people understand that they're
using it in their everyday handling of their horses and that's how we end up with poorly
trained horses or horses that are called naughty in all of the years of my starting young horses
under saddle i did not have any horses i don't believe that were naughty horses
i had horses sent to me that had problems but those problems were caused by humans not
usually understanding the way a horse learns with pressure and release and they're doing
they're putting pressure on the horse and not releasing it when the horse gives them
what they want or they are releasing it when the horse is doing the wrong thing and they're
inadvertently teaching their horse the wrong thing and then they get cross with their horse it really
really frustrates me horsemanship covers every single thing you do with horses
horsemanship is about horses every single person that handles a horse should have basic
horsemanship if you don't have any you're being unfair to your horse and doing him a disservice
i would like you to know that you don't even have to be perfect at hell i'm not perfect at it
but it's something that i'm aware of and it's something that i strive to do correctly
every time i'm holding my horse every time i'm handling my horse every time i'm sitting on his
back i don't expect myself to be perfect when i gave up perfection
my training actually took a leap forward because when i was expecting me to be perfect i was
expecting my poor horse to be perfect and he's not going to be so my philosophy is if you own a horse
it is your responsibility to know how to feed him groom him look after him have basic
skills to know when he's sick and when he's not and most importantly it is your job to understand
how the horse learns so that you know how you're training him and i'd like you to note that after
all of that no you go back and stand there rebel is now standing there quite nicely quite quietly
and actually having a sleep in the sunshine