Advice to a reader about a biting horse
I am going to post these emails directly as a copy and paste, I don’t have time to rewrite them. So in this next e-mail my comments to Sue are in red, next to her original e-mail in the blue.
I have a horse, a thoroughbred that I have had now for almost 3 years, he came with huge issues that had been shut down with force most likely and he uses biting to communicate with me. I have learned to appreciate the subtle nuances of a bite. I bet that sounds strange, I’ve come across stranger!) whether he is mad at me or the world in general, or if he just wants my attention, there are so many ways that he actually bites. And by the way you are spot on about fast and accurate. He is a wonderful teacher, like the one you hated in school but learned to appreciate later. There is a chapter in Bobby’s Diaries about a horse that was biting in a clinic that was a very powerful insight about biting. I wonder if any of that will resonate with you?
The biting has much improved, I clicker train him so he has even more reasons to bite at times. Why does he have more reason to bite at times because you clicker train? Have I misunderstood this bit? You talk about hearing what they have to say, thanks for saying it out loud because Busy, (Business Image) has a lot to say and he comes in load and clear. Too clear sometimes. But when we work the best together is when we both have respect for each other and when it is quiet. He is a very sensitive boy, both spatially and noise wise Describe what he’s doing that has you describing him thus, please) so I do my best to speak to him clearly and softly, in return I get clearly and softly, what more can we hope for? The sky’s the limit in what you can dream for with this guy, so please don’t limit yourselves to having to go softly around him! I’m as sure as God made little green apples that he’s trying to tell you something. We’ve just got to figure out what. So…. tell me a bit more about the circumstances. Describing one occasion of him biting in great detail may help me get a handle on this.
The next email me in red:
When you get to the chapter about the biting horse, it WILL resonate with you. I think that Busy has (or had) no idea that biting was not OK. He had only been punished for it in the oh shit zone, where we learn NOTHING only how to react on auto pilot, even if that reaction is not useful to us, even if that reaction causes us damage, hurt or pain.
There IS an answer, in the not too sure zone, but it is often difficult for people not to react with rage when bitten (I think I would even though I would try to be “better” than that – then again the horse Apples in New Zealand bit me and I didn’t want to kill him! See the article in the blog on the website called “Talking to horses – what Apples said” I think)
Read the book up to the biting chapter and I think you’ll have all the ingredients for a better understanding than being bitten as his communication. I must say I think you are a champion with him!
I think I’ve got a clicker training person in the Tasmanian clinic in April so I’ll no doubt have a better understanding about it then
My other comments in red
You asked, “Why does Busy have more reason to bite at times because I clicker train?” Well, when I got Busy he was that perfect pony club horses, no opinion about much of anything, just do as you’re told and everything will be fine. There had been 3 daughters work and ride him and they didn’t “Stand for any nonsense” if you know what I mean. This guy even peed in a bottle on demand when we had the vet checks. I wonder how many people know how unhappy they often are under all that instant obedience?
When we started to clicker train he realized very quickly that he had a voice and that I was going to listen to him. Was he ever mad, about a lot of things and he wanted me to know it. He yelled at me for along time before we were able to have any kind of real conversation. What didn’t help was that I had had that one in a million horse before Busy. Mac was an old soul, a real gentleman and I was quickly finding out what a bumbling fool I had been. Things that Mac would compromise on Busy wouldn’t and what the clicker training enabled Busy to do was give me very specific moments in time that things weren’t working for him. He was able to tell me things like “Your in my space, get out”, “That is too hard for me right now, go back to something I know”, “My back hurts today I can’t back up, what are you stupid”, “I don’t get it, your lumping and I am confused”.
Also years of going on the forehand had made him somewhat structurally lame, none of his body parts worked together or at the same time. Clicker training builds these muscles, joints and the overall structure by teaching the horse how to carry himself, use his limbs efficiently and how to balance himself, all a little bit at a time. Every time I upped the criteria we found another kink in the chain. The other problem was mine. He was so smart and picked things up so fast that I didn’t spend the time on the foundation lesson that he needed to, to really build strength and as a result he was just getting more uncomfortable. Busy had been trained full stop in the oh shit zone, so that his reactions were all on auto pilot and seemed well mannered, but were nothing but a survival reaction that he had developed to keep the peace and literally save his life. It’s quite surprising when you start to think about it how much training of horses takes place in the oh shit I’m dead zone where only reactions take place and NO TRUE LEARNING IS EVEN POSSIBLE, nobody can think when they are that scared. That’s one of the biggest things that Bobby showed me and that Celtic Peace and Matt are continuing to show me even deeper. Then you’re exactly right, you’ve come along with your clicker training and allowed him to have an opinion and a voice. What a gift to him at what a cost to you! Go girl !!!
So what made me finally see the tree in the forest? I think that it was probably another horse that I work with in Groton, N.Y. 3 or 4 times a year. His name is Tucson and he was severely abused. It was actually Tucson who I heard first. We would be having a lesson with Alex Kurland during a clinic with lots of people and I would hear him over everyone, including Alex. When the footing got deep he would pin his ears, you could hear him go “Ouch, Ouch I don’t like this part”. I made a point of spending a lot of time with him because I knew he wasn’t happy and I really wanted to make sure that it wasn’t me that he was unhappy with. I would take him out for grass and for a long time he would just stand his head at my chest level and sort of mumble about how hard his life had been, his abuse and how suspicious he was about everything and everybody. It was kind of comical because in time he would get a mouthful of grass and then as he would chew he would talk kind of like how my father-in-law always talks with his mouth full. Over the last 3 years we have had a relationship, all be it long distance but it wasn’t really until last April that I started to listen. He has so much to say and talks almost non-stop. I know that all seems unlikely but I know what I hear and I would never do him the disservice of denying his words. There’s nothing unlikely about that to me. When I did the New Zealand clinic, which was the first one without his physical presence, Bobby was SOOO….. there with us. So if you’re crazy, you’ve got some company lady!
This in turn has made a huge difference for Busy and I, because now we have conversations BEFORE I make huge mistakes. Now we have smaller mistakes with fewer and more gentle corrections. He has a wicked dry sense of humour; although some would say that I am just anthropomorphizing he is very funny. I’ve noticed that lots of horses have a sense of humour when they find a comfort zone! Now for the hard part, describing a specific situation when he bites. They were all the time, fast and deadly accurate. Details are difficult because there never seemed to be any real reason for them. The behaviour I asked for could be different, the handler could be different, the environment could be different and still they came in rapid succession one after the other. Anyone that I had watched us couldn’t believe it, nor could they come up with a reason why.
I will try and give you an example but I stress, the biting could happen at any time no matter how careful I was to be clear with the request. Say we are walking around the arena, he is in a leather halter and lead shank, the lead is loose and has a loop in it, my hands are in front of me on my stomach. I am not dragging him around nor is he dragging me around for all intensive purposes it is the perfect picture of a relaxed horse and handler, then out of the blue, chomp. It didn’t matter to him were he bite me, it all tasted good to him. He didn’t seem to be really targeting one specific offensive body part. It seemed to me actually that the more sensitive the body part the harder he tried to bite it but that wouldn’t be fair to him, he doesn’t have boobs so how would he know. He may bite me right now, he may bite me before I click and treat him, he may bite after, and you could never tell or see it coming. His ears could be forward or back. His head could be up or down in the dirt. He could let out a sigh and then bite. Who knew? This certainly fits with how Monty was doing it, in that chapter that you’ll see in the book, no need to write it all out again here!
I really don’t think that he will ever stop biting completely because it is part of the way that we communicate. I promise you that you guys can develop another and better way to communicate than risking your pain! I have to admit this is very hard for me to actually describe as there is something that only Busy and I understand and it really doesn’t translate well in English. I will try and find words to describe it more clearly, it might take some time. Namaste, (I do yoga and really like this expression too) Yeah, it’s a ripper isn’t it? “The divine in me salutes the divine in you” is how it was explained to me Maybe someone you know who is a good organiser would like to organise a clinic one day and bring me over. The organiser gets a free ride and 10% of the clinic fees to cover incidental expenses and their time. I know I’m going to do an American clinic this year. Maybe we can touch base then! I’m laughing looking at that, your country is even bigger than mine, it could be a couple of thousand miles away!
Next email
Thanks heaps Jenny. It is funny about bite reactions. Only once did I really swear, that was the first time that he bit my boob. Many, many, many times has he brought tears to my eyes and only once did I almost hit him, that time I think I was mad with myself because I wasn’t able to figure it out. Alex Kurland suggests that you just have to ignore it and find something that can turn it into a positive, not the biting, but a behaviour that can sort of offset it. For Busy I ask him to do a “heads down”. For us that is a calm down cue, sort of a secure place to figure stuff out. It also requires him to trust me as his eyes. When the bites really connect, he gets a time out, and I refuse to play with him. I don’t walk away but I do turn my back to him. Funny enough just last week he came up behind me and gave me a pretty good shove. I had been out of town for 3 days and he was really mad at me. I gave him a time out. Instead of walking away he came as close as he could get into a working pose., looked at me with one eye and dropped his head to the dirt and looked up at me. I turned away and suggested that he needed more time and he did the best thing that he could have done for me. He sighed and dropped his shoulders right down totally relaxed it was funny and confirming at the same time. When were you going to the Sates? Do you know what State it is?
My reply:
Re the swearing at the bite, you’re better than I am then! It’ll be interesting to see how you see “time out” and Alex Kurland’s suggestions through Bobby’s words. All that stuff sounded gorgeous.
I don’t know when I’m going to the States, I just know that I AM. At some point this year, not so far distant from now, I suspect, someone will put up their hand who is a good organiser and then we’ll know where it’s going to be., Is ca in your email address Canada or California?
If you’re interested in the electronicf book we’re talking about in these emails, “Bobby’s Diaries – Straight From the Horse’s Mouth to You” then you could be reading it in five minutes time through one of the most secure financial sites in the world, click here to have a look at the shop
