Manners
  
 Ground
manners has a direct relationship to ridden behaviour. No manners
on the ground equals no manners under saddle.
The attitude that goes with a bad mannered horse on the ground can
often translate into other vices, all the way up to bucking people
off.
Why should it matter how we lead a horse? If the horse gets from
point A to B with you, arrives safely, despite any battle en-route,
then that is good enough. Right?
 Well
that depends on what you want out of your life with
your horses - a better understanding or a fight every time
you ask for something new.
The old system of training a horse to lead was heavily influenced
by the PONY CLUB AND RACING INDUSTRY SYSTEM OF LEADING A HORSE -
It involved holding the rope right up under the chin with your right
arm outstretched and the excess rope in your left hand.
The reasons behind this teaching were:
 'If
you hold the horse right up close by the halter, you have the maximum
amount of control AND, you can stop it treading on you whilst you
move along. That is because you are stronger than a horse'.
Yeah Right.
Horses are stronger than humans, by a long way - if
you push a horse, he will push you right back. That's what they do.
If you pull the horse around, he will pull right back. Either way,
the horse becomes dominant because he really is a LOT stronger than
you are.
HOW DOES THE BROOD MARE DO IT?
Considering the fact that the brood mare doesn't have a rope and
lead, how does she control the foal as if she has it on a string?
Well, she uses a system of training that “Natural Horsemanship” was
derived from. Those who developed Natural Horsemanship over many
generations did it by observing the interaction of the control that
a mare has over its foal and the control that the Alpha mare has
over the herd. A system of body language, pressure, assertiveness,
applying pressure and giving reward and relief for capitulation to
all levels of threatening looks, body language or actions.
THE NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP SYSTEM
The Naturally trained horse is taught the following:
To above
all, to never invade the space of a handler unless requested.
To
be led on a loose rope, normally around three feet from
the horses halter.
To
be haltered with only a rope halter due to the fact that
leather and webbing halters can cause hard headed horses
and rope halters have the opposite effect.
To
give to pressure, be light in the head and to move away from
the handler at all times. (Even if the handler turns to the
right.)
To
immediately give if a handler pulls on the lead rope
To
react to the body language of the handler.
THE BENEFITS OF THE N/H SYSTEM
Lightness of the horse on the ground and therefore, under saddle. Relaxed,
happy horses that know their boundaries and do not have massive conflict going
on inside their head. Horses that do not invade  your
space lead you or attempt to choose the direction of travel and above all,
safe horses to lead!!
Rope halters get the horses attention better than others and demand
lightness. Leather and webbing ones are all too wide and comfortable
on the enormous bony head of a horse. 12 foot lead ropes also give
more leeway and available freedom to move when controlling horses,
where as the six foot one gives very little room for error and are
almost always too light, are like elastic bands and lack substance.
They do not transfer signals along them to a horse.
All Photography on this site is © Cathy Dee Photographer |
