She writes...
He is being tied in front of the barn every couple days for a couple hours (Or untill he settles down, I untie him as soon as he stops pacing and fussing and just stands there quiet) He has gotten better but is still "All over the place!" Is there a way I can do the bonder in an open field on the end of a lounge line? He is VERY soft in the halter and has been working great on the ground with flexing and in hand work. The place he was at before bought him as a 4yr old stallion and gelded him soon after but then just put him out to pasture and the next time he was handled much was when he got here. Am I asking too much of him too fast?
I appologize I am used to working with QH types, I have had a few arabs in the barn over the years but not for long. Also it seems that on the lounge line the second you send him out he flies around and around, I have worked with smaller circles in an attempt to get him to slow down and relax which works in small circles but as soon as he gets a little more line he is off again. Prime example of someone who used a lounge line to just burn energy, not for "work." Any ideas or suggestions??
The Arab I best remember working wouldn't stand still. If you touched it anywhere its whole body would jerk and you could surf on in on the waves. It was one mass of tension. It was looking everywhere at the same time. When I commented on its behavior its owner told me that was the "Arab spirit."
Arab fanciers will tell you that attitude is highly desired and many breeders breed for it. Non-Arab fanciers, however, often refer to the attitude as "crazy Arab."
Many Arab fanciers sing the mantra.
Yet Arab owners very often report the exact opposite. Their horses instead of being cooperative are anything but. They claim the jumping around, erratic movements are simply the result of unused or un-channeled energy. They often bleed off the excess energy by longeing. However, what usually happens is the longeing, the bleeding off of energy, creates more energy and it takes more and more longeing to accomplish the same result.
Rather than "bleeding" off the energy one needs to "release" the tension. Once the tension is released, then the horse is more willing and able to focus.
If I have a horse who obviously tense I don't want to increase its tension by making him "move his feet" or do something strenuous. I want to repeatedly abruptly raise and release his tension and allow it to come back down and through its tension ceiling.
I don't want to work the tension off. I want to the tension to be released.
I use my hand, a plastic bat, a longe whip handle, or the like, to rhythmically tap on the horse just hard enough to jar it. My goal is to have a muscle or muscle group abruptly shocked into sudden contraction (tension) followed by immediate release (relaxation).
To get an idea of how this works find someone to rhythmically tap on your back. You may have already experienced the relaxing feel of someone doing that to you during a massage.
Once I bleed off, not work off, the tension then I can easily get the horse's (Arab or otherwise) attention. Once I get the horse's attention (focus) then I can begin to give it direction.
I personally just "beat" on the horse because most of the things I do when I'm working with a horse have more than one purpose. For instance in this case, both de-spooking and relaxation.
Click here to check out my very reasonably priced DVD inventory covering many of the subjects featured on my site's pages in greater depth.
For Further Information Contact Marv Walker 706 816-7190 Evenings 9 to 12 PM
Questions, comments or
suggestions
Back to Marv Walker's Index Page