Phil Nye from Tasmania.

PHILIP'S PHILOSPHIES - ATTITUDE - SOME PERSPECTIVES:
Horse and humans have evolved as natural enemies. We are designed to push their flight/fright/worry buttons and they are designed to push our confusion/frustration/anger buttons (opposition reflexes).
A big part of the fun of natural hosemanship is learning how not to push the horse's opposition reflex buttons, and not letting the horse push ours (and they will but that's OK).
SMILE AND WHISTLE.
Breaking old habits in ourselves and our horse is not easy. It requires a lot of conscious effort (someone once said that thinking is the hardest work).
Establishing a new habit requires a program, perfect practice and repitition.
If we are not using something regularly our memory is designed to delete it. Our subconcious is specifically designed to maintain the status quo i.e. old habits.
Therefore developing new good horse handling habits requires a lot of conscious effort, support and repitition.
Remember how we learned to read, write or change gears in a car.
Natural horsemanship is as involved as learning a musical instrument, or flying an aeroplane only our instrument (the horse) is conscious and has feelings and opinions.
Natural Horsemanship is something we LEARN FOR the horse NOT DO TO the horse. A natural horseman is someone that gives the horse security. The horse perceives them as a Lead or Alpha horse (Albeit with 2 legs), someone the horse can trust, follow, look to and respect.
We don't learn how to do this in a few hours or days, it is a longer term commitment.
CELEBRATE the small successes!!

IMAGINATION AND INSPIRATION by Cynthia Cooper
There are three L's that can help when you get stuck for ideas when tasking your horse;
LOOK around you, think LATERALLY, be LOGICAL if your lateral thinking gets stuck.
LOOK: What do you see around you? Flat pasture, trees, banks, ditches, hills, dams, fences, creeks, roads or tracks, gates, sheds/stable, horse trailer (if you're lucky) - all available obstacles to play with. Then there's some additional items generally found around horsey places; drums, poles, logs, cavaletti, tyres, tarps to name a few. Add witches hats, electric fence posts, wooden reels and pallets, hoops, balls, bags, umbrellas, rain coats, balloons or wine cask bladders, streamers, stands built for horses, chairs etc. and you have a huge variety of tasks you can develop with a little....
LATERAL THINKING: Let your mind become child-like again, be creative, let it wander off track and ask yourself "now I wonder what if..". Lateral thinking is a learned skill which gets better with practice. Brainstorming with others, watching what others do and learning to think like a horse all help and if all else fails, be....
LOGICAL: There are; 7 Games, 6 directions, 5 zones, 4 gaits, 6', 12', 22' and 45' ropes, carrot stick(s), string, flag, 1 or 2 reins - how many more combinations of things do you want?
Like one of those 'wonderword' puzzles, try writing down all the different ways you can combine any number of the above ingredients to make a task. You'll be suprised at how laterally you learn to think in the process of being logical.
Go to it and if you have some ideas that worked for you, let me know so we can share them in this newsletter.

GEAR SAVVY - 12' lead rope and snap.
"The best rope in the world is not a lead rope…. It's a line of communication between you and your horse."
Its more than a 12' lead rope. The 12' line is designed by Pat Parelli to help you have more effective communication with your horse on the ground, playing the Seven Games. And it's no ordinary rope:
· It's made of high quality yachting braid that resists water and salt, therefore sweat.
· The outer braid is very smooth so it can flow through your hands when you need to allow your horse more drift.
· It's not too thick (which would make it dull and heavy), nor too thin (which would make it hard to hold and too flimsy) …. It's just right.
· The rope has an inner core that gives life and feel to the rope when you move or wiggle it. Therefore it conveys your message more clearly to your horse.
· The ends are braided back and thus weighted for more balance and control.
· The leather popper on the end acts as an extension as well as an extra stimuls because of the sound it makes when you twirl the end or touch the horse with it.
· It's longer than the horse, long enough to allow drift or motion, but short enough not to get tangled up in.

Four Good reasons…. To have a snap.
There is one weak part in the 12' line - it's the snap.
If anything is going to break under extreme pressure it would be the snap, because the rope has a breaking strain of 60,000lb.
Some people ask us why we even have a snap, or why we don't use one that is stronger. It would actually be easier and cheaper for us to do that, but the snap is a very important part of Pat Parelli's design.
Here are four reasons why:
1. The snap creates a 'hinge' which provides an andvance signal to the horse when you are sneding a feel or communication down the line. It helps you deliver more sensitive accurate and subtle signals when using the four phases.
2. The snap acts as a 'counter weight' to speed your release when you stop activating the rope. It gives comfort back to the horse quickly.
3. Being a swivel snap, if you were to tie your horse on a picket line, it prevents the halter from getting tight and twisted if your horse were to turn around lot.
4. If the snap breaks under pressure like if a horse pulls back, this can save your horse's life. It will break before he does.

EAR SHY? By Pat Parelli
Can you touch your husband's ears? What about your best friend's, your child's or your mother's?
If you couldn't then there's probably something wrong with the relationship! This is how I want you to think of your horse's so-called 'problem'. If he doesn't like his ears to be touched its because deep down inside, he does not trust you. There is a flaw in your relationship.
When I talk about the solution here I am going to give you the natural approach, the one that consider's the horse's point of view. To effect a 'cure' you have to gain his trust and permission. The normal way is often to force the horse to accept it, twitch him, tie him, throw him…. In my mind (and in the horse's I'm sure) this is akin to rape and I won't use it.
So to do it with the horse's permission may seem to take a little time, technique and knowledge, but if you do it right you won't have to do it over!
The horse's point of view:
As I said in my last column, horses are prey animals and humans are predators. This is a biological fact. No matter how much your horse seems to like you, deep inside him is this wariness which creates defensive behaviour. In your horse it is around his ears where this surfaces.
Every horse knows that predators know where his vital spots are. When you read this list, you'll also realise that these are the known 'touchy spots' on horses: below the knees, the back of the hind legs, under the belly, the flanks, under the tail, behind the ears and on the poll. One swipe of a lion's claws in any of these areas is enough to mortally wound a horse, so his instincts are protective ones.
You have acknowledged that in some way you are still viewed as a predator by your horse and you are going to have to prove to him that you aren't going to kill him before he will relax around the ears.
Improving your relationship.
Some horses can appear to be friendly enough, or gentle enough as long as you are quiet and don't ask for much. This kind of conditional relationship is typical between horse and human, but as soon as you start scratching the surface you quickly find these 'can't, won't, don't spots' that could be anything from an ear shyness to fairly serious resistances or even aggressive behaviour. So what I do is start digging! I want to expose these relationship problems so that I can solve them.
I use a system of seven 'games' that I play with a horse that will expose every problem but will also help solve them. The first game is to prove I am friendly and the other six are yielding games to establish in the horse's language that I am dominant.
People often ask me how I get such extraordinary results with horses. Its because I do the opposite of what everyone else does! I think laterally, and I try to think like a horse.
Then I have the knowledge of prey animal behaviour, some creative techniques and a lot of imagination. I also have a sense of play rather than work, and you'll find that this really works with horses. The more serious you are, the more horses hate it! Horses are playful creatures so always keep this in mind.
The last thing is that there is nothing more persistent than a Pat Parelli. Most people try something for 3 - 5 minutes and think they've done what it takes! Take the attitude of "it shouldn't take longer than two days", and anything less than that will seem quick! This is a perspective on patience that is a valuable key in getting results with horses.

Feeding Frenzy
With winter approaching and the drought conditions we’ve recently experienced in some areas, hand feeding our horses becomes necessary.
Here’s a few tips and tricks that can make it safe for you and fun for your horse during this daily interaction.
In fact playing games at feeding time is vital to maintaining or gaining ‘alpha’ status with your horses/s.
Firstly, remember that the alpha horse always gets to the food first and guards it with purpose – all the time!
So, if you are to be the alpha horse, don’t allow your horse to come into your personal space (about the length of a carrot stick or swinging string) while you are carrying the feed into the paddock or placing it in the feed bin. It doesn’t take them long to get greedy and dive for the feed bucket as you try to get through the gate. Even if you feed over the fence (the easy or safe way out with a very dominant horse or a whole herd) use your stick to keep them back until the food is in position.
If you’re feeding more than one horse, try to place the feed in the same place and feed bin so the horses know who goes where in the pecking order – this is particularly important when there’s more than a couple in the herd.
Keeping the order teaches the horses to wait near their bin rather than feeling like they have to fight for their food every time. Its amazing how soon they catch onto where the need to be which reduces the anxiety around feed time.
If you have a large group of 5 or more horses, you may even need to put out an extra bucket as the alpha horse will probably finish first and the extra means the others don’t miss out. Same with the hay, make sure there are a few more piles than horses and that they are well spread out – some horses learn they can ‘guard’ 2 or 3 piles within ‘charging’ distance.
Sometimes people ask me if its OK to do things with their horse while they’re eating? My answer is ‘yes’ but you may need to start by just being friendly first until your horse sees you as no threat to his dinner. If he does, use a carrot stick to keep a safe distance and don’t back off if he/she threatens you – remember you are the alpha horse!
I use feeding time to clean and check hooves and even trim them or to treat wounds, groom or just be friendly.
I think its an important part of the relationship – that they can trust you to be close while they are feeding – watch close friends feeding in the paddock, they often eat side by side or out of the same bucket.
Here’s how I feed my herds;
For the first time in my years of horse keeping, I’ve had to feed from round bales of hay and discovered that it doesn’t take them long to demolish it-5 horses consumed 1 big bale in 6 days when given free access – they also drank a lot more to go with it! When I checked out the round bale feeders commercially available, I decided they are not ideal for horses – being designed for cattle to eat through or in between the bars doesn’t mean they are safe for horses who panic a whole lot quicker – I could just see them getting their heads stuck and panicking – sure to result in some nasty injury.
So I improvised and have found a simple and cost saving way to keep the hay in one place that seems to be reasonably safe. By wrapping a 6 metre piece of 900mm tall sheep yard mesh around the bale and tying it securely to 2 capped steel posts, I’ve made an easily moved feeder which the horses can’t put their feet or heads through but can reach over (providing they are at least 14hh) to get the last bit of hay. They can still toss some out as they root around for the seeds as mine do, but its not too much work to pick up around the area each day and set it aside for the lowest in the pecking order.

Aside from making hay available constantly when there’s little grass, I also feed a small amount of grain once daily to those on maintenance rations which includes their added minerals. I follow Pat Coleby’s suggestions and supplement with dolomite, sulphur, copper, seaweed meal and cider vinegar. This goes into a small mix of lucerne chaff and rolled barley. They also have free access to a Lactovite salt lick which is the only one I’ve found to contain much copper and less molasses. Its also cost effective as it comes in a 20kg block which you can saw and split into smaller blocks if needed.
The horses that need extra feed to maintain weight get the same minerals etc but more lucerne and barley plus oaten chaff and crushed oats. I get mine from a local supplier who crushes weekly so they are reasonably fresh.
Well I hope this helps you all with feeding ideas and remember, have fun and "Keep it Natural".

Natural Feeding Update
Since my ‘Feeding Frenzy’ story in the May/June newsletter, I have dug out all my books on herbal horse care and added more to my collection. In particular I have found Victoria Ferguson’s Practical Horse Herbal book extremely helpful in fine tuning my horse’s diets so I will share with you the modifications and why.
I found I had to restrict access to the oaten hay in the round bale feeders to night time only as the 10 horses were polishing off 2 round bales in 3 or 4 days! I also added a stretchy luggage net over the top of the hay to stop them tossing it out in search of the yummy bits. Now they get a grass hay bale at lunch time to keep them happy without gorging. In the mornings, their bucket feed now includes a small amount of oaten chaff, lucerne chaff, boiled barley, millet and linseed porridge and rolled oats. I added the millet/linseed and oats for extra silica which is probably why my foal was eating her father’s tail - a common indication of lack of silica. The supplements they get are dolomite, copper, yellow sulphur, seaweed meal, garlic and cider vinegar along with free access to a salt block. Overall, they are maintaining their weight quite well and their regular worm count was good. The only problem I’ve had is with itching and hair loss caused by a mite which I’m treating with iodine and that seems to be resolving. If you want more information on feeding naturally, visit Victoria Ferguson’s web site www.herbalhorse.com .

Equine Tension Release Therapy ( ETRT ) by Nola Cooke


ETRT is a treatment which aims to secure long-lasting relief from mobilisation difficulties in horses. Such difficulties can present in many different ways from purely musculo-skeletal to the purely behavioural. However the problem presents, it is usually pain based, and, in most if not all cases, it is human induced; albeit, often unknowingly so, or unintentionally. The holding patterns in horses that result from traumas, physical or otherwise, can be established at any age, and for a great variety of reasons. Sometimes the pain is real "here and now" pain, or pain that is remembered or expected by the horse, either in a general sense or in a locational, rider/trainer, equipment/tack, or circumstance-specific sense.
Part of an ETRT treatment looks for the cause of the horses’ tension. Common problem areas are; feet being out of balance, teeth in need of attention, poorly fitting saddles and stiffness in riders.
Equine Tension Release Therapy was developed in Victoria by Alistair Brooks, who has treated over 3000 horses in Australia and overseas. He treats Olympic horses down to "paddock potatoes"! The therapy is his translation of Bowen and other treatments such as Shiatsu and acupuncture, which have been used on humans and animals in Asia over the last 5000 years. I feel privileged to have trained under Alistair and qualified in March this year.
The treatment involves making moves with my hands across the muscles at specific points, which ‘triggers’ the release of muscle spasm. The whole horse is treated (in most cases), from his poll to the tip of his tail and down to the hooves. This form of gentle, holistic health care can and does relax and restore the natural energy balance of the horse. Releasing the muscle tension initiates the healing process by the horse, allowing the pent up energy to once again circulate through the body, thereby revitalising the entire horse, including the internal organs.
For more information or to book your horse in for a treatment ( which can include a complimentary human treatment) please call: Nola Cooke 63 27 33 77 mob 0407 27 33 77.

Winter Play Ideas
Some people see winter as a time to put the horses aside, some even complain about the weather, short days and no time to ride. Then there are those who see winter as a time to focus on other horsemanship challenges and these are only limited by your imagination.
Probably one of the most beneficial things we can do with our horses when the surfaces and weather are not good is to float load. All my horses load well (to at least level 1 standard) but this can always be improved to level 2 or 3. Also, its improtant to remind your horses that floats are a comfort zone so its up to us to make it one more often than every time we want to go somewhere. Many horses find travelling uncomfortable even if they do load well so winter is a great time to put your horse in the float and go nowhere - feed them there, groom them there if its raining and you want to get the rug off or just send them in to rest there when doing some groundwork.
You could also challenge your horse to load when its dark, windy or raining as you never know when you’ll be pleased you did.
Here are some more ideas for winter time activities;
Play with worming - make it fun by finding what your horse likes in the way of liquid type food ie: apple sauce, molasses, pureed carrot or other types of pureed food (baby foods have a good selection) then practice being friendly with the worm tube until he/she looks forward to it.
Then there are things like holding your horse’s tongue or simulating teeth rasping with the handle of your carrot stick (the rubber wont hurt them if you accidently touch the roof of their mouth).
Getting your horse friendly with the bit and bridling is also another game to play in zone 1.
For those who have horses not particularly good with their feet or impatient with the farrier, you can never do too much leg handling and simulating the length of time the leg needs to be held up. Remember to build it up in small increments, use a rope to teach your horse to yield all 4 legs, leading foreward and holding up - its easier on your back too.
For those into barefoot trimming their own horses then this is a great time to practice and keep up with trims on a weekly basis.
If the sun shines and you feel like some exercise but your paddocks are bogged, then taking your horse for a walk along the road or lanes close by can be just as beneficial as riding (great for our figure too), especially if they need more exposure to traffic. If your horse hasn’t been in traffic, then pick a quiet country road or drive way and get someonet o drive past slowly until your horse becomes desesitised to a moving vehicle. Some horses need help with accepting other vehicles like trucks, motor bikes and cars with trailers. It also helps to have a horse used to traffic lead the way and be a good example.
Find a place where there’s plenty of room for you to keep a good distance from the vehicle - remember you are playing a squeeze game here so start slowly with larger spaces.
Leading your horse out on the trail can also be a good way of teaching them about trail riding either on their own or with others. It keeps you safe and alllows you to train over obstacles like water, ditches and through gates to give your horse confidence and skills for when you want to ride and tackle the trail.
Then if you live within driving distance of an indoor arena, you can usually hire it by the hour for a reasonable rate or get together with a group of friends and make a day or half day of it to practice together.
So, make the most of your winter days to get out of that nice warm house and get more savvy!

Back to Articles List