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FW: [RC] Teaching Rearing - Mike Sherrell

Kat,

I only queried RideCamp because it's the biggest list I'm aware of and
therefore most likely to include individuals with esoteric horselore (you
popped up, after all). Is there another group to query about teaching horse
tricks?

Regards,

Mike Sherrell
Grizzly Analytical
707 887 2919; fax 707 887 9834
www.grizzlyanalytical.com

-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of k s swigart
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 10:59 AM
To: Ridecamp
Subject: [RC] Teaching Rearing


April said:

Actually , a horse who already has a rearing
issue is one of the few good reasons to teach
rearing on cue. One of the fastest, surest, ways
to get control of a bad habit is to teach it with
a cue. If it is a "taught trick" that gets a reward
for doing it right and you are not asking for it,
it loses its appeal as an avoidance measure.

This is not consistent with my own experience with horses and "bad
habits."  In fact, in most instances, bad habits become instilled
because the horse has (usually inadvertently) been rewarded for
peforming it so they volunteer it all the time in hopes of being
rewarded for it.  And if they don't get the expected reward, they will
persist with the behaviour incessantly hoping for the reward (one of the
reasons slot machines are so addictive is that the rewards are
intermittant so individuals will continually pump money into them
getting no reward in the hopes that if they persist eventually they
will).

And one of the reasons that teaching rearing can so easily lead to
volunteering it as an avoidance is that the cue for rear up is almost
the same as the cue for go forward (in fact, some people inadvertently
teach their horses to rear up because they THINK they are asking them to
go forward).

Here is what Podhajsky (director of the Spanish Riding School for many
years) has said about teaching the "Exercises above the Ground" (he
doesn't include rearing up as an exercise above the ground, but the
first exercise above the ground is the levade, which, and many people,
in their attempts to teach the levade teach the horse simply to rear up
instead).

"Today only Lipizzaner stallions, because of their physical abilities
which combine power with suppleness, are used for exercises above the
ground. But even with this breed few have the necessary talent combined
with proficiency and intelligence. Only after completing all the states
of training, including that of the High School, will the stallions be
ready for these exercises. If taught too soon, they would make use of
them as evasions to defeat their riders."

So...here is my take on teaching a horse to rear up.

Don't do it unless the following conditions are met:

1.  The horse must be fully and completely trained in everything else
you want it to do.

2. The horse must have the physical strength to do it with balance so as
not to scare itself and its rider.

3. The person doing the teaching and everybody else who will ever ride
the horse has to know what they are doing (i.e. if you teach your horse
to rear up, you may be creating a horse that only you can ride).

And this one I learned from a wrangler for the movies....

4. It is best if the horse you are teaching it do DOESN'T like to rear
up.  So don't teach it to horses that you have seen do it during play at
liberty or those that you have seen pull back and rear up when tied.

I am personally of the opinion that if you have to ask an internet
mailing list of endurance riders (endurance riders are not reknowned for
their highly schooled horses) how to do it, then you shouldn't be doing
it; not only because you do not know enough to be teaching it to your
horse, but you also don't even know enough who to ask :).

Because if you do, you may not just be creating a horse that only you
can ride, but also a horse that nobody can ride.

None of my horses are sufficiently highly trained enough that I would
teach them to rear up (actually, I wouldn't teach rear up at all, but I
might be inclined to teach the levade...evenutaly); and I have one that
I wouldn't teach it to EVER, because rear up and spin around is what he
does at play, and what he did the first day I ever rode him.  Nope,
won't be teaching that horse, that trick.

kat
Orange County, Calif.
:)




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Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

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