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Re: [RC] pin pricks/punishment/rewards,etc - Chris Paus

I've never said not to admonish a horse. I did say
that horses accept admonishment if it is fair in
'THEIR' eyes...

And I've found this to be true! My horse Star could
probably put Chico to shame. I was Star's last hope
before becoming an Alpo horse. He's beautiful and he's
17 going on 3.  I got him as a 10 YO. He came to me
with a whole bag of issues and his gift to me has been
teaching me to be a much better horsewoman.

I can tell you that I ran the gamut of punishment,
stronger bits, round pen work, etc. But when I took 6
months off from competing and worked with a classical
trainer, Star and I started coming to gether as a
team.

We'll never do levades or canter pirouettes, but he
now has a much nicer trot, he's more rounded, and I
know how to ride better and communicate with him
better. I've also gone from harsh bits to a really
mild one and have a better whoa than I ever had
before....

Yes, I "punish" or admonish him from time to time. He
has felt the smack of a crop on his shoulder, but it's
not something I do very often. Usually the tone of my
voice is all he needs.

Many many times when he has misbehaved, I've learned
later that he was telling me that something hurt or
something wasn't right. I don't want to punish a horse
for speaking to me in horse! One day he was really a
butthead spooking at everything in our neighbhood,
things he's seen a hundred times. When we finally got
home and I untacked him, he had a nasty welt on his
right side where the saddle blanket had a pucker in
it. Poor guy, he was trying to tell me that he was
being pinched and I didn't get it.

Another time in jumping lessons, he kept avoiding the
jump and running out. I took him to the equine chiro
and found out that he was very stiff on his right side
and very sore... well, he knew it was going to hurt to
jump!

Unless it's an emergency, I now try to figure out what
the horse is telling me rather than resorting to
punishment first thing. nine times out of ten, he's
got a good reason in his mind for his behavior... 

Unless a horse is trying to kill me, I just can't
think of many good reasons to use a nail to get a
point across, not even with my stallion. I've found
that overusing punishment usually escaletes the
problem.

chris
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  "EGAD"? Egad indeed. Can you think of any person
you admire who has gotten that way without ever
experiencing ANY negative reinforcements or learned
ANY painful lessons? Re "Influencing the horse in a
way it can understand us is, IMO,  true
horsemanship".Well,they understand punishment just
as well or better than reward. Does anyone think
horses only communicate to each other in a
physically friendly way? Chico is the most
friendly,and willful,and stubborn horse God ever
created. He sent him to me because there was no
other place Chico could go except into an Alp can.
Chico understands what I want and need him to do
perfectly well.I win every argument except the ones
that leave me eating leaves and dirt.But the debate
NEVER ends. Quiet moments in the shade of the trees?
All the time. ZERO correlation to under saddle
debates.They are not dogs.


===========================================================You
don't have to be a 100-mile rider or a multi-day
rider to be an
endurance rider, but if you want to experience the
finest challenges our
sport has to offer, you need to do both of those.
~ Joe Long

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=====
"A good horse makes short miles," George Eliot

Chris and Star

BayRab Acres
http://pages.prodigy.net/paus
============================================================
Black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough 
~  Theodore Roosevelt

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