Horse and Hound

Horse and Hound.

You have just acquired a new dog, so you force a lump of metal into it's mouth, grab a whip, climb on top if it and kick it in the ribs. Because it is young, you don't fit metal spikes on your boots before you kick it in the ribs.

You get a new horse, and you kneel down to let it come to you and get to know your smell. You let it come to you in its own time and scratch and stroke it when it finally lets you. You move slowly to avoid frightening it, and as its confidence grows, you put on a soft padded collar, and introduce it to the outside world, letting it explore at its own pace, but making sure you are always there to reassure it if it is worried.

Makes sense doesn't it. One is a placid herd living vegetarian, the other is a pack hunting carnivorous killer. Well you don't want to take any risks with these damn vegetarians, can't trust them an inch, dominance, only language they understand. But take precautions, for God's sake carry a weapon and make sure you wear protective clothing, its not as if they are nice and safe and harmless like wolves.

A lady asked me why she couldn't get the same relationship with her horse that she had with her dog. I asked if she climbed on the dog and kicked it in the ribs when she first got it, and much to my surprise, she said that she hadn't. It is just possible that there is a lesson here.

I trained Obama by taking him for walks. At first just him and me, then I led him pulling the saddlechariot, and bit by bit, as his confidence increased, he started taking the lead until he was walking in front of me, with the saddlechariot invitingly empty. So I stepped on. I found that if I pulled on the right rein, he turned right, and surprise surprise if I pulled on the left, rein, he went left. Pulling on both seemed to slow him down.

And that was it.

The walks went further, and as Obama got more and more confident, he went faster and tended to take the lead, so I climbed on board more and more, but if Obama got nervous or scared, or just plain awkward and stopped, I would get off and lead him. Good old reliable pressure release. I put pressure on the halter, and the instant he movced forward I released the pressure. Sometimes progress was slow, sometimes fast. I started taking him into the industrial bits of Brecon to get him used to new things, and he came to accept pretty much anything, as none of it ever attacked him.

Within six months we set out from Brecon for Birmingham. By the time we had done that journey there was little that scared him. I didn't hit him, I just led him when he was scared, and let him pull me when he wasn't. Next time you train a horse, think hound, not horse. It makes sense, not to Horse and Hound, but to horses and to hounds.