This journey has been rich and fulfilling, but it has not been without its hard times. There have been several incidents with Amigo in which he seemed to be testing his boundaries, pushing to see what he could get away with -- not unlike a teenager might do to his parents.
* Amigo has bucked me off twice, both times within the first few weeks of riding him. In both instances, he began to buck after being asked to move into a lope. At first, this behavior really surprised me: during all our ground exercises, he had not acted out or rebelled against what I was asking him to do. Amigo generally behaves respectfully toward humans, not aggressively. So when we were out in the meadows riding, I was not prepared for him to throw me. After the second time it happened, I put him back in the round pen and asked my hired man to ride him while I watched. The purpose of this was twofold: I wanted to see what actions might be triggering the bucking, and I also knew that Logan, my hired man, would be able to ride Amigo through any tantrums, particularly in the round pen.
One of my main tenants of training horses is to make the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy. Therefore, if Amigo started to buck with Logan, the plan was to make him work harder through the bucking, and then calm down and reward him when he stopped. However, he didn't buck with Logan, even though Logan was doing all in his power to trigger a fit: kicking, slapping with his reins, waving his arms, making noise -- anything to over-stimulate the horse and bring on a temper tantrum. That meant I had to reflect more on my own riding, and what cues I might have given Amigo. I finally came to the conclusion that my saddle was pinching him as we moved into a lope, particularly because I was tensing my own muscles, anticipating a blow-up. It was a mistake born of a couple causes -- Amigo's tendency to "bunch up" underneath me when he loped, feeling like a colts who is about to buck; and my own reluctance to end up on the ground. Even though I've trained hundreds of horses, I was still reminded of how I need to be supremely aware of my own actions, cues and messages.
* Because of our busy schedules and some physical setbacks that have affected Amigo, there have been times when I haven't ridden him for several days. I try not to let this happen often, and even on days when I don't ride, I try to put Amigo through the ground exercises that I referred to in the July 16 entry, just to keep his feet moving and his mind engaged. Still, even with this steady work, there have been times when he has balked at being ridden after having a few days off. Usually, rather than bucking or violent behavior, Amigo's disobedience shows itself as plodding along with little energy, or as acting skittish with a lot of nervous energy.
While it is always important to show patience with a horse that is coming along, it is also important to maintain the relationship of authority over the horse. Therefore, when Amigo misbehaves on our rides, I usually give him a little while to figure out the right thing to do. In the cases when he doesn't, I make his life a little more difficult. Usually this amounts to making him sweat more. One night, while Amigo and I were riding with my wife and her mare, Amigo balked at breaking into a lope. Loping is a problem for him, and yet it is a gait he has to master. It's no different than teaching a child how to wash the dishes or sweep the floor: sometimes we all have to learn things we don't like to do. When he refused to break into a lope on flat ground, I made him lope all the way up a long hill. That might seem mean, but he got to rest and got petted at the top of the hill -- his reward for loping all the way up. Again, it's like giving a child a bowl of ice cream or a chance to watch television once his chores are all done -- the way we make the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy. Gradually, Amigo will learn to do what is asked of him the first time, without having to balk.
* Again, just the other night, Amigo was being lazy, not doing what he was asked and not moving out with energy. This time, we were riding near the house, so I decided to put him back into the large round pen. There are several feet of deep sand in that pen; anyone who has walked along a beach knows that sand creates resistance, making movement harder. I put Amigo through the paces: loping circles left and right, spinning, coming to slide stops. By the time we were done, we were both drenched with sweat. Amigo was perfectly capable of completing all of these manuevers; he was simply being lazy about doing them. Having to work even harder in the deep sand of the round pen led to a huge attitude shift for Amigo: by the next night's ride, he was performing all those maneuvers with only the slightest cue, immediately upon being asked for them.
This blog post might make me sound contradictory, because I've talked a lot about establishing trust with this mustang. However, the way he has been testing his limits and my authority are actually very positive developments. Not to over-extend the comparison, but my wife - who works with teenagers - and I often talk about the similarities between training horses and raising kids. If you think about it, the first few years of a child's life should be about establishing both a relationship of trust and of authority. When they begin to test you, it is because they trust you enough to do that. Over and over in a child's or teen's life, there are cycles of building trust with authority figures, and then testing that trust by pushing the limits.
With a horse, particularly a horse that has not had human contact like Amigo, trust does not come easily. If Amigo still feared me, he would never test me the way he has. Therefore, his testing is a sign of positive development. Be clear, he is not acting out aggressively, kicking or striking: those would be signs of extreme fear and distrust. He is simply being naughty, and is relying on me to help him make the right choices. As he matures as a horse, he will begin to make those choices on his own.
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