NEWSLETTER

Issue 49, Sept/Oct.2004.
Published by Cynthia Cooper.

Cynthia’s Say…

This was my second trip to a country that is just starting to embrace Natural Horsemanship and natural solutions for all aspects of horse keeping so it was nice to see the progress of past students and meet many new and enthusiastic students. Once again I visited three main areas in the 4 weeks of August– Johannesburg, White River near Kruger National Park and Dargle near Peitermaritzburg.
I was very lucky to have great weather, warm (25-30C), however like Tasmania, it can change quickly as shortly after I left, there was a huge snowfall in the Peitermaritzburg area which is inland from Durban.
Fellow Taswegian and student of natural horsemanship, Viv Lawson, joined me after a week for her first trip to visit the continent of her birth. It was great to have another pair of eyes and experienced hands to assist students during my courses too.
Although I had a very busy time giving workshops, a 4 day course and private lessons, we did manage to fit in some sightseeing which included a visit to a Cheetah and rescued wildlife reserve, the Kruger National Park, the Blyde River Canyon area and the Valley of 1,000 hills in Natal where we saw the traditional Zulu way of living.
But my most memorable times came from playing with Gilbert the zebra and Zander the Friesian stallion along with riding in the Tala Valley Game Reserve where we got up close to herds of giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, impala, waterbuck, warthogs, hippos and a family of rhino. Our horses lived amongst the game and so both were used to each other and this enabled us to see the rhino family of male, female and 5 mth old calf from 20 metres away. Its when you get this close that you realize how huge their horns are!
Our guide was to act as a decoy should any of the animals charge (usually to protect their young) but we didn’t encounter any aggression as we kept a polite distance and read the body language carefully. We were also treated to a fascinating run down on many of the native plants and their uses – there are a lot of poisonous plants in Africa, some of which are used by animals in small doses to self medicate.
In all, we were shown the best of hospitality, fed more food than we possibly needed and supported the local economy buying local craft as gifts to bring home. Although the flights are long and tedious (made more so when they lose your baggage!) it did give me the opportunity to think about my teaching and to formulate some new teaching systems which I was able to put into practice for a month. From that experience, it has helped me to consolidate my own method and philosophies on natural horsemanship which are constantly developing and refining as I learn more about how to keep it simple and fun for people and horses.
Unfortunately, 10 days before I came home, Pete and the students, Roland from Switzerland and Jenny from Sweden had to cope with a major horse disaster. My purebred arab colt, Finn, (who is my deceased stallion’s last foal) severed his superficial flexor tendon somehow in the leased paddock he was in.
He was attended to promptly by the vet who stitched the tendon back together then moved home with his dam, Sara, to be confined and treated several times daily.
It has been a stressful couple of weeks for me, taking over all his treatment and care and researching the best ways to help him heal. I’ve found many positive and negative pieces of info about the success of healing this major tendon (it’s the one that puts performance horses out of action when they bow a tendon). In addition to the initial veterinary treatment which stopped the tendon sheath becoming infected (which results in a completely useless leg), I have started several alternative treatments to help the healing along.
I’ve discovered there are many complementary therapies which are easily applied and accessible from internal supplements including homeopathy to external poultices and wound healers.
On the nutritional side, I have had to keep his energy levels down so he isn’t too active on the leg while maintaining all the good things he needs for healing. I’ve added garlic, yarrow, linseed (boiled) and millet to the lucerne, barley, Breeda and Copra he was already on. He is also getting an MSM supplement with Glucosamine, extra Vitamin C, and a mineral lick along with ad lib grass hay and fresh grass, milk thistle, willow and blackberry which he seeks out, picked for him daily.
When his bandages are changed every 5 days, he has Manuka honey on the wound plus a poultice of linseed and comfrey leaves and he will also be receiving photonic therapy to stimulate healing.
After 2 weeks, he had a tendon scan which showed the healing was progressing well with no sign of infection so now he’s in for a long confinement to a small area (6x6m) which will gradually increased after 8 weeks with some hand walking exercise also introduced.
I’ve been told to expect the tendon to take 6 months before he is paddock sound then up to 12 months before it has regained full strength which it hopefully will. The hardest part for young Finn is at 7 months, he is just reaching an age where play and movement were a big part of his day so keeping him entertained without stressing his leg is a real challenge. So far, he has responded well to various ‘toys’ that he can chew, pick up, roll around and carry but I can see he will need more to occupy his play times so I’m trying to think of low energy activities I can teach him to exercise his mind. I’ll let you know how I go with that one!
So, due to the huge financial and time investment I’m making to ensure Finn’s sound future, I have to very reluctantly part with a few horses.
If you are thinking of taking on a new horse and can offer a home that will be natural, caring and respectful of the horse’s needs, please contact me to see if I have a horse suitable for you.
Keep it natural.
Cynthia.

Zebra’s insist people ‘earn their stripes’
I had never expected to be able to play with a zebra so it was an opportunity of a lifetime when I was offered the chance to educate Gilbert – a 3 year old wayward but tame zebra.
He had been raised from 7 weeks of age by a vet who had been part of a relocation operation where Gilbert was accidentally separated from his dam. He was friendly but wouldn’t tolerate any pressure from humans, especially after being loaned for use in a film called ‘Racing Stripes’.
I was wondering what I’d let myself in for when I was told Gilbert was difficult to halter, wouldn’t lead and could bite and kick at the same time! He had recently been moved to a larger property where he ran with 3 horses, a giraffe, an ostrich, a pot bellied pig and several dogs for company.
His favorite trick was to race cars down the 500m driveway and try to push his way through the gate and he was seen by his people as an un-cooperative character who would only do something for food or if it suited him.
I decided to keep an open mind and to use my horse psychology principles to see what we could achieve in the short space of time available.
Upon meeting Gilbert (who was smaller than the average zebra), I was impressed by his sureness of personality and his curiosity which was mainly from his love of treats often found in people’s pockets. As I had a large round yard to play in, I decided to see what we could do at liberty with the aim of having him see me as an alpha herd member (he had lived with donkeys so at least knew about her behavior and disciple. By taking the time to introduce myself and to then find the spots he liked to be itched (which were mainly where ticks gathered along his back, under his tail and belly and in the mane) we got off to a good start.
Once he got bored with the grooming, he tried to push me aside so then it was time to move him around which I did by positioning myself behind his drive line to keep him moving forward against the round yard fence. He very quickly ,learned to follow my suggestion and focus for moving at walk and trot, stopping, turning and standing for a rub.
I did this at a distance of about 5 metres away, then moved closer until I could move with him and keep my training stick resting on his back to see if he could accept the pressure of a person moving closely with him. Once we’d achieved that, I drove him to the halter and he stood calmly while I simulated the halter going on firstly with a string, then there was no fuss when the halter was put on and off.
I was then able to repeat what I’d done at liberty with a loose rope and started to play with pressure on his head which he reacted to by straightening his short little neck and turning himself around to present me with those heels. He very quickly taught me steady pressure wasn’t going to work but by using rhythmic pressure, he had nothing to lean on and responded quite nicely.
From there, I used some apple and carrot treats to teach him to face up to me and yield his hindquarters instead of try to run off which is what he’d learned in the past. As he reacted very instinctively with squeals, opposition reflex, and use of teeth and heels to steady pressure I once again used rhythmic pressure with the training stick towards his hind end and on the halter to achieve a yield towards me for which he received a food reward. I used food because he was highly motivated by it and I was able to speed up the process by giving him more incentive to yield. Zebras seem to be able to tolerate a high level of discomfort before they seek comfort as they are more of a fight than a flight animal.
So we finished our first session by being able to lead him from both sides, yield his hindquarters to a stop from the walk and be able to touch most parts of his body and his legs a little with the stick. He was very sensitive to touch on the legs and would instantly drop to his knees then try to bite and kick you if you ran your hand down his front legs – a very instinctive reaction!
His owner, Benny the vet, was so impressed with what we’d achieved, he decided to bring his family along to see the next session 2 days later.
This time, I checked out all the things we’d done in the first session then started to introduce some moving with him at the trot and yielding from a trot to a stop which he achieved well enough to give me confidence venture out of the round yard and be able to control him. At first, I went with him, sort of like a passenger game on line to see what his ideas were, then gently introduced some direction and yields to remind him he could listen to people and not be defensive. We soon attracted the attention of the giraffe and one horse who played with both and had become part of this strange herd. We finished our session with lots of photos and then turned him loose to do his own thing while we enjoyed a cuppa. I was then surprised to see the Benny the vet sitting his son on Gilbert’s back for a photo – something he hadn’t been able to do for quite some time and Gilbert was very obliging. Benny then leaned over Gilbert’s back who took him for a short ride with no sign of worry or opposition to this added pressure.
A week later, I heard Gilbert had loaded himself in the horse trailer beside his horse friend while he was waiting to be unloaded at the end of our 4 day course. This was a zebra who went from being bribed into a float with food then needed sedating so he wouldn’t jump out to confidently standing beside his friend in the float at liberty and calmly unloading himself when the horse was backed out.
In all, it was a fascinating experience and taught me that Zebras are really very similar to horses but their instincts are amplified by ten by being un-domesticated. They respond to most of the same communication but find steady pressure hard to cope with as it is very natural for them to fight such pressure to save their lives. No wonder horses have such opposition reflex to the constraint we impose on them.
Gilbert showed me and those watching that being tame, gave everyone a false impression that he should accept pressure as readily as horses, and when he showed his fight instinct, that he was not being nasty, just scared and ‘fighting for his survival’.
Once you had ‘earned your stripes’ by acting like another zebra and understanding where he was coming from, he was able to listen to our communication and comply with requests.
It was interesting to note that each person who wanted to handle him had to get his trust and respect – he was (pardon the pun) very black and white about who he would allow near him let alone push him around. I guess that’s how zebras survive in a herd and there’s really not a lot of difference between the various equine species.

In this issue:

Zebras Insist You Earn Your Stripes
Stallions Need Clear Boundaries
Putting Practice to Purpose

Gilbert the Zebra and Cynthia

Photos by Viv Lawson :

The giraffe thought he might get in on the action too!

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Where else but in Africa would you experience this?

Gilbert trusts Benny, the vet who raised him.

A New Website for Natural Horse People
www.naturalhorsepeople.com is fully up and running for members to join and make the most of the volumes of info available from the many resident experts. It is well worth putting aside and hour or two to explore this site as it has so much to offer from the serious to the silly and its all about keeping, treating and training horses naturally.