Operating Close to The Fear Line

The first trainer that really worked with Fiona (I don't use names anymore, learned my lesson the hard way on that one) talked a few times about operating close to "the line" when training horses. "The line" defines the point at which the horse is too frightened and is no longer learning. This trainer said, and I am paraphrasing, that you should operate as close to that line as possible without making the horse go over the line. The reason he gave for doing this, was that if you let the horse try as hard as he/she needs to at their own ideas then it will preserve life in the horse for when they are ready to apply it to our ideas.

I didn't really get that idea when I heard it the first few times, but I just heard it again in an audio interview with this same trainer. The interview covered a lot of topics, some of which I had heard before and this theory about "the line" is the only one that I completely disagree with. I think I get it now but I definitely disagree with it.

The first reason I disagree with it is because, based on my experience this trainer had no idea when Fiona was over the line. Now, bare in mind, I don't know shit from shinola when it comes to horses, even now and I knew way less when this guy was around.  This whole theory is based on the assumption that we know when the horse is close too and below or is over the line. Without an accurate gauge of "the line" you have no shot at making this happen.

The second reason I disagree, is that a high energy horse will operate just under and over the line for a long time. I contend that every time you let the horse get over the line, you lose ground, maybe not a lot of ground but you definitely step backwards. This is when you should employ the idea, "If you take the time it takes you take less time." So let's say you are trying to get a horse in a trailer. If you walk a horse right up to the trailer, even if the horse is pulling away from it, showing definite fear of the trailer, then you've crossed the fear line. You have at least one enemy, in the horse's mind, the trailer. If the horse is already disrespectful and pushy, you have 2 enemies. Now, let's say you took a different approach with the same push/disrespectful horse. Instead of charging right up to the trailer like spartan going to war, you walked just close enough to see that the horse was "concerned" about the trailer, but not yet trying to run you down to get way from it. This distance will vary greatly, depending on the horse. It could be 10 feet, it could be 100 feet.
You still have an opportunity here to teach the horse and have the lesson sink in faster. If you stop at this point and didn't let the horse rest or stare long enough to make the trailer a concern, instead you started moving the horses feet. You can do this in any way you see fit. Make the horse trot circles, try sending the horse and making them yield their hindquarters, anything..just move them. Then the trailer is not the issue, YOU are the issue. The horse has to deal with you...the trailer is benign, just sitting they, but YOU, you are a pain in the butt. As you move the horse's feet, get closer to the trailer and try to give the horse and opportunity to rest. They might take the offer, they might not. If they don't then move them back away from the trailers and move their feet again. Pretty soon, they will be RUNNING for that trailer.
The difference between this approach and operating closer to the line, is that you know the horse never went over the line. They never had a chance, you put them to work as soon as they took their attention off of you.

The third reason I disagree with this approach is that you are always dealing with 2 fear lines, the horse's and the humans. I also figured out, and here's the spooky part, the lines are related to one another. Let's say a new horse owner, owns a horse that has been in a trailer 1000 times and has no issues. However, the human, for whatever reason, is scared to death to be in a horse trailer with 1000lbs animal. Guess what the horse is going to be afraid of eventually. GETTING IN THAT DAMN TRAILER, that's what!!! The upside is, if the situation is reversed and the horse is scared to death of trailers, but the human has a lot of experience trailering horses, then eventually with the right training and work..the horse will move their fear line toward the human's and become less fearful.


My situation with Fiona was truly the worst of all fear line scenarios. We both had very low trigger points for fear. Now you had a trainer to the mix that is encouraging the horse to operate at or above her line ALL THE TIME and then handing that horse to an owner who is terrified. Well that is just a recipe for disaster and that's exactly what we got...disaster. It wasn't until I started operating well underneath my fear line and the horse's fear line that things started coming together. It was frustrating for awhile because I really didn't understand why other people could do things with my horse that I just couldn't. I was physically/mentally paralyzed by fear. It still happens, but now I know. I can lift the fear line and the way to do this is operate below the line until I gain the knowledge/experience to life it.

Buck Brannaman has a great quote about fear. "If fear were represented by a beast, then the only way to slay that beast would be knowledge." Knowledge is the light that shows you, there's nothing to fear. You can always proceed with caution, but you cannot proceed with fear. Going back to the second reason above, if the horse goes over the fear line, he/she stops learning. Without the capability to learn, there can be no new knowledge and therefore the fear line never moves. You must keep the horse, always, well below the fear line and give them knowledge of what you expect from them. They will do anything and everything to please you, and they will still have plenty of life in them, but they have to learn what you want from them first.


Anyway, that's my "expert advice", it's free and probably worth it. :) Cellulitis is still going way, swelling still present but getting better. 

Cellulitis? Are you friggin' kidding me?

So, I got a text message from the barn last Friday morning saying that Fiona was off her food and they were keeping an eye on her. I thought about just going straight to work but instead I stopped to check on her. Just a few hours after I received the text, I was standing at her stall looking at a very swollen left hind leg.

We called the vet and he said she had cellulitis. Cellulitis is a bacterial infection under the skin and I do not recommend trying it at home. Fiona was in a lot of pain and not putting weight on the limb. The treatment is 8 days of anti-biotics (Nexcel), bute 2 times a day and “cold-hose therapy”. I love when vets and medical doctors use jargon. “Cold-hose therapy” means spray he leg with cold water 3 times a day until the swelling subsides. Yes, seriously.

Where do they come up with this stuff?

Anyhow, less than a week later she is nearly back to normal. The leg is still swollen but it appears that 20-30 mins of walking actually helps reduce the swelling. She is walking normally and she is pretty much back to her sassy self today. I didn’t give her bute tonight so we will see how sassy she is in the morning.

She is a trooper though. That little mare is tough as nails. She has been pinning her ears at all the horses around her for 2 days and trying to bite Koa, her stall neighbor, when the other boarders are handing her treats. The first day, after the vet was out, I had to walk her to the washrack to get her first 20 mins of “cold-hose therapy”, and I could tell she was hurting. She was limping real bad and walking so slowly, but she did it. She just followed me right over there.

She has learned to stand in the washracks/tack areas really well. I usually tack up in her stall because it is right near the tack room and then I don’t have to tie her. This turned into a good training opportunity for her. She stood in a really small wash rack for the full 20 mins one time. Of course it helps that the last thing she wants is to have to walk, but even today when was great standing there.

I have to say it is pretty frustrating to have another setback. It is like just when we make good progress we hit another one. She got her first lesson in cantor/gallop just last week. The trainer did 30 mins of canter/gallop transitions which would have tuckered out just about any horse…not Fiona. She was just getting started. God help me.

We are still working through some saddle fit issues. The endurance saddle I got is a great fit for me, but it is too wide in the withers for her. I got a memory foam pad and that helps but the saddle still tends to ride forward. The guy I got it from recommended a crupper (Google it) or to just cinch the front part of the saddle instead of doing a centerfire rigging (again. Google it). I am going to try the front cinching when we start riding again. I don’t think we will go so far as a crupper. I might have to get another saddle. L This is not a hobby for the thrifty.

Anyway, hopefully we will be back to riding next week or the following week.

Horse Buddies

We’ve had another excruciatingly hot summer in Phoenix, It’s been over 110 for the last week, so needless to say neither Fiona nor myself have been in the mood to due much. I have been getting to the barn between 6am and 8am most days. I am usually done by no later than 10am. It is just too hot for me after that.

Fiona has been hanging out with her horse buddy Cinny this week. Cinny’s mom is out of town. I am very proud that she can go out with another horse and hang out without being a complete pain or acting up. Most the time she moves Cinny around by following him and bobbing her head or pinning her ears. He is a very willing pawn in her little game of 2 piece chess. Today I was lunging them and she got too close, too fast and he threatened to kick her. He didn’t do too badly for an old man; he is ~27 years old. She started to “make better decisions” after that. J

She is pretty much healed up from her episode in January where she ran through the streets of Mesa like a meth head. Her soles are still not 100% recovered and still a bit thin. I got her some Easyboot Back Country hoofboots and they definitely help. Exercise is critical to getting her hooves to grow and the boot help her be comfortable enough to work.

Our riding lessons are going great. She is actually getting tired toward the end of them, which is totally new. I think she had too many months off and it is taking her a bit to get back in shape. Same for me, I am learning to canter all over again, which sucks because it wasn’t easy for me to learn that this first time. Hopefully it will come back quickly. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a leisure time activity. We don’t have a schedule to keep.

I REALLY want to do the games at Red Mountain Stables Open House this fall. Even if it is touch and go on the spooking, I think we need to do it. It will help my confidence and hers. I was all set to do it in the Spring, but then we wrecked in January and well..that was the end of that. Everyone cross your fingers that we make it to October unscathed.

Fiona and Cinny hanging out (Fiona is on the left in all the photos):

Fooey, stupid plastic bag......

Here's a new video but first a quick update: Fiona and I are both doing well. We started riding lessons again with the new goal of HAVING FUN!!! I am a co-dependent capricorn, so trying to get me to do things "just for fun" is right up there with asking me to change my eye color in terms of do-ability. However, we are going to give it our best shot, let go and just see how things turn out.

This video really shows how fast this horse has come...she was alittle...reactive before. :) Enjoy!

Progress and Communication with your horse

First, I did few quick follow-up videos on Fiona's recovery since our crash in January. We are both doing great. All healed up and ready to rock and roll.

After the accident, Fiona had thin soles. I am including the XRay's in this post.

What you want to look for is the thumbtacks and look how close the tip of the thumbtack is to the white part/bone. There should be WAY more space between the tip of the tack and bone.

I was thinking the other day about how my ability to communicate with Fiona has improved over time and also how this progression is similar to the progress we've made in communication in general throughout history. It used to be that writing a letter and transporting it was one of the only ways to get a message to someone. This often took months, if the letter had to be sent by ship or horseback. Then came the telegraph, this sped up the transmission but was limited to only a few locations at which a message could be sent. Then came the telephone, then email, then cell phones, etc. Now we can communicate from anywhere in the world and get our message across the globe in an instant.

The progress made in communicating with our horses takes this same type of trajectory. If you start out as a green owner with a green horse, the communication is slow and not very clear. The human can't read the horse, the horse doesn't know what on earth the human is asking them to do. It's a mess and it takes a long time to work out. Then, as the human gains more knowledge and the horse starts to feel of the human, communication takes less time and can even happen over long distances. The funny part is, you can even go "wireless" by doing at liberty work with your horse. I really like at liberty work because if the horse is scared and they decide to run, I am not attached to them, which gives me a feeling of freedom and security.

It's a powerful feeling when you can make one small movement or noise from across the arena or roundpen and your horse responds. I look forward to continuing my work with Fiona and learning how to better communicate with her. Everyday things get better for both of us and she trusts me to lead her through the scary human world.

Here are some videos of her in the arena:

John Lyons and Cardboard Fear (yes seriously)

So I got this great idea to measure Fiona for hoof boots. I decided I wanted to put her hoof on top of a piece of cardboard and draw a template so I didn't have to mess with trying to measure her hoof while holding it. Also, you can slide the cardboard cut out into the boot to see if the shape is close, etc.

I brought my piece of cardboard to the barn, thinking "Oh this won't be a big deal, she walks wooden bridges for crying out loud" Well, I was wrong. I think the introduction to the cardboard started out ok, but I screwed it up.

Fiona looked alittle concerned about the cardboard and the piece wasn't that big, like 16" X 10". So rubbed in on her shoulders and body until she kind of got used to it. Then I tossed it on the ground in her stall. BIG MISTAKE MOM!!!

She flipped out and started running around her stall to try to get away from it. UGH! So I got her to calm down that day around it but didn't try to do too much to fix the issue. That was like a week ago. Today I went back to "fix the problem". Good lord, 3 hours later I did get her to step on it, but she was making me work for it and I was returning the favor.

It was a long and uninteresting process, but I basically let her loose in a small roundpen and set it in the middle. I let her loose because I have learned that I don't like being attached to 1000 lbs of crazy and it hones my timing and direction skills. We wasted about the first hour, while she was teaching me that it's a good idea to get the horse paying attention to you first. She was blowing my off, like a fly on a semi truck. Once I really got on her and made her start working, then she came around and finally would stand near it but I didn't have the confidence or the skill to get her to stand on it without a halter on her. So I halterd her and lunged her over it and then finally made some tight circles around it until she stepped on it for a few seconds. She lurched off of it, after those few seconds, but I let her go back to her stall. She worked really hard for that step.

I got some VHS tapes (yes I know it's lame) of a John Lyons Symposium from my aunt and uncle in Vail, AZ. Aside from all the FABULOUS HAIR, the information in the videos is really great. The first couple of hours he is breaking a arabian mare (go figure right). He works this little horse pretty good, but he does this demonstration where he makes the audience stand up while he is talking and "forgets" to tell them sit down, well...eventually most of the audience sits down on their own. He uses this as an example of how eventually a horse, even one with a lot of energy, will calm down and start listening to what you are trying to teach them. That was a really good lesson for me. I sometimes think Fiona is just going to keep going and going forever. There were a few times today where that happened. She just wouldn't give in and she was convinced that leaving was the best option. But, eventually she "sat down". She decided running was looking like WAY more work than that cardboard. Even if she didn't stand on that cardboard for 15 mins or even do it in a calm way. She did do it. Eventually everyone sits down, good lesson!

Another positive note, we did ride again. It was a short ride in the roundpen, but no wrecks. Actually there were no issues at all. She was a little stiff at first, but we worked that out and she rode like she always has.

Bad first follow-up.

Here are some pictures of Fiona's damage. Her right front shoulder got the worst of it.

Her front legs got some minor cuts, nothing big

The vet is coming tomorrow to unwrap her back leg and determine if more work is needed there.

This little horse is tough though. She is acting like nothing is even wrong. I saw her today and she looked at me like "Are we going riding? Come on..let's go!"

Another really bad "first"

After what happened yesterday, whether or not I am rescuing this horse *might* be called into question. :) We took our first ride off the property even though I still felt in my heart it was a little premature, I thought we'd make it back in one piece and we did....sort of.

Fiona started out the morning in a pretty foul mood. It took a bit to get her saddled and for me to get on. Once I was up, she was a little fussy but settled down pretty quickly. We hacked out with a new acquaintance from the barn who is a calm person and GREAT with her own horses. She rides bridleless and bareback all the time. It's really cool.

The ride outside the property was mostly wonderful. We rode across the street and into the desert on state land near the farm. She was calm during the entire ride in the desert. We went over small washes..around bushes and even trotted a little on the way back. She likes to trot out of dips! It was like she was just born to be out there riding. It was CRAZY!

When we walked back across the street and headed to the park to let the horses eat. Fiona spooked going into the park and bolted. I had her circling and almost got her stopped when she spooked at a grate on the outside of our circle and she leapt the opposite direction to get away from it. I just couldn't stay with her and I came off. I hit my right back/hip really hard on the ground and sprained a finger trying to keep hold of the reins. The scariest part for me is that Fiona took off, in the wide open near a street.

I went to the ER in an ambulance. I don’t have any broken bones just LOT'S of pain and swelling. So I am fine.

Fiona decided to turn this event into Tour De Mesa and ran about 2 miles before the police fenced off an area to keep her in and the woman I was riding with and some wonderful man caught her. She is cut up really badly. She ran through a barbed wire fence and fell a couple of times it looks like. She managed not to get hit by any cars which is just a miracle because the entire run was on main streets until she went through that fence.

To say the least, I feel AWFUL!!!! We are both lucky to be alive. You might think that an event like this would cause one to give up or walk away or set lower goals but my emotions are exactly the opposite. I want to get back in the game and keep working toward our existing goals. I am sure that sounds insane to some people, but it really is that important to me. More importantly, I still think we can get there.

It will probably be a week or two before we are both back in fighting form. I am walking pretty slowly and Fiona will need time for her stitches to heal up, but we will be back at it soon.

If I can give someone advice based on this catastrophe it would be: "Never go against your instincts. If you have an inkling that you are not ready, then wait until that feeling is gone."