Newsletter 62

Nov/December 2006

In This Newsletter:

What's happening at Natural Horse World
Book Review - Horses and Healing
Barefoot Bits & Pieces - Make your own hoof stand
Paddock Paradise Update
A little more on Liberty
Subscriber's News & Photos
Calendar & Classifieds

Hello Horselovers!
A lot has happened at Natural Horse World in the past month since writing the last newsletter update.
We have our track set up and working well with the seven horses (mostly 'fatties') on it full time.
Read more about this in the Paddock Paradise Update below.
The thoroughbred mare I had here to imprint train her foal, went to stud again with her colt who led and loaded beautifully onto the truck to leave.
Another mare has arrived so her foal will be a playmate for Amy who was just starting to have fun with the colt before he left.
Actually as I was writing this newsletter, another equine drama unfolds with Tess, the above mentioned mare giving birth to a colt unexpectedly on Tuesday morning. The most amazing thing was that I found the colt over 300m (a driveway and a paddock away) in with Armero and Amy who were in the centre of the track.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I got up early to let the horses in to graze, and there was a little newborn with Armero and her own foal, Amy, is now 3 months old. She was looking after him and even offered to suckle him. I quickly realised what had happened and went to check Tess who I thought may be in trouble. She wasn't thankfully so all hands were summoned to help return her foal. Unfortunately, and probably because she was a maiden mare with an attitude, she rejected her beautiful palomino colt with savage bites. As her owner had handled her teats, I was able to milk her to get some vital colostrum into the foal, and through the milking she was able to accept him drinking while she was restrained.
So for the past week we have had out endurance tested with 2 hourly feeds day and night as we continue to teach Tess to accept her foal. We are making progress as I write and the full story will appear in the next newsletter.
For those with foals who are not sure about how much or what education they should have and when, I have a Young Horse Training DVD with all the details available here. As one happy customer says "The DVD is great and will be of great use......thank you for putting together such an informative DVD".

We also said goodbye to Karola from Germany who's stay was shorter due to family health problems. Karola not only learned more about natural horsemanship and care, but she learned how high Quamby Bluff is (1100m) as she climbed up through some stunning forest to enjoy the panoramic views with us on a day without horses!

The Whole Horse Workshop was a real success with several young girls attending who will have a head start on us all as they grow up knowing more natural ways to be with horses.
Manny was looking and feeling so good he did his first demo for a short session on horsemanship alongside of Lucky with Kendra (photo above) to show what can be achieved with more compassion, communication and cooperation.
Jeremy Ford and Ken Green both gave informative talks about Hoof Trimming and Equine Therapy, answering questions and doing demos. It was great to have a group of people enthusiastic about finding better ways to care for their horses so thank you to all particpants, especially those who travelled so far for your contribution to information packed weekend.

As the year comes to and end and the drought threatens to make life hard for us horse owners, I hope eveyone can take that little extra time to ensure their horse's health comes first, for without a healthy horse, riding or just being with them is no fun. In order to help you find the people and places I use to source services and products for my horses, I have put together a Services Listing page for Tasmania. If you come from another area and can highly reccommend more people that provide excellent service, please email me so I can add to the listings.
Keep well and be natural,
Cynthia.

BOOK REVIEW

HORSES AND HEALING – by Pam Brownlie
This spiral bound glossy full colour book is a wonderful field guide and reference for anyone wanting to treat horse health problems naturally.
It presents easy to use procedures for treating horses by using herbal remedies, L.E.D. Therapy or Acupressure and includes clear charts for the relevant acupuncture points to treat five main areas.
These being First aid, the Immune System, the Respiratory System, Arthritis and Soreness.
This handy guide also details several case histories and has a good reference section for further more detailed reading.
Definitely a book to keep in your first aid kit that is easy to work from in the field.
It is available through online ordering from www.naturalequipment.com.au .

QUANTUM SAVVY have put the full version of their lesson pack videos (foundation program) online for everyone to view for free! Also many inspirational videos and the actual assignments that go with each lesson.
Their goal in this bold move is to encourage people to get out there and actively learn about natural horsemanship. They also offer general support or QS memberships on their forum.
To check these videos out click here.

Barefoot Bits & Pieces - Make Your Own Safe Hoof Stand

This safe and easy to make hoof stand was put together from items you can find at most recycling shops or even from around your own place. To start with you need a removeable agitator from the centre of an older style washing machine - the larger ones are better as they have a larger, more stable base.
Next, find some PVC pipe that fits into the top of the agitator - mine had a joiner on it so I was able to get it to lock into the top snugly. I made two pieces about 100mm long that can be swapped for whatever hoof job I was doing.
On one piece I fitted a dog toy ball that made a comfortable surface and provided a grip to sit the hoof on. With the second piece of pipe I drilled 2 holes in the top and with a cable tie, I attatched a curved piece of radiator hose to make the hoof cradle which also had two holes drilled through and 2 slots cut where it met with the pipe. This keeps it from rolling over when pressure is applied.
To ensure the easy removal of each piece of pipe from the agitator, apply a little oil to the edge of the pvc pipe and voila! you have a very safe (for you and the horse) and light hoof stand.

Paddock Paradise Update

All new ideas and practices have learning curves so I'm inviting other readers who are experimenting with this way of keeping horses to send me feedback for my book. If you're not sure what Paddock Paradise is all about, see the July/August newsletter where I detail my initial set up.

The mares and foals live in the centre of my track as they need more feed while the 'fatties' are confined to the 8m wide track which has been grazed for only 1 week when this photo was taken, and is a lot more eaten down now.

Leigh Martin from Mountain River in Tasmania writes about his track...

We have set up track about 4months ago I guess, been working well, in fact I think its could be the best thing we have ever done for our horses.
We are lucky in that the perimiter of our property (about 1.5klm) is where most of our trees are and our dam and bush areas. Unfortuntely for the horses (well they think so) the dam is at the opposite end of the property to all the nice grass.
They have defintely developed regular beats and places they like to go at certain times of the day and they never gallop just huge extended canters if they want to have a run/play. Which they seem to do a hell of a lot!!
We have some big paddocks off our track and open them up occasionally for them, we try to get the right mix of grass and track, when we open a paddock they often stay in there all day so we shoo them out and close if of a night. Once the paddock has been opened for a while they treat is as part of the track, in fact we set the gates up so they have to go the long way around to get grass and then come all the way back out and along the track to get a drink....and then back again...its a hard life.... It is much easier to manage their feeding, we yard them of night for an hour or so as some get separate feeds and off they go again.

Fitness levels and toplines have improved out of sight. Fat ponies have to keep up with the fickle TB's now. Drink once a day it seems, don't always go for the trees when its hot, often seen resting in the blazing sun. When its really windy they hate the trees they go for the flat plains where there are no trees whatsoever....cold rain and wind though they often go for the trees. They play a hell of a lot and its interesting that there is no real agression in it, no real biting just nipping and grabbing each other with their teeth. They have also dug a couple of big holes, one in particular is huge and they have turned it into a big
dust roll, they have one they use a lot in a damp area and one they use a lot in a very dry area?
And interestingly one of our ponies who suffers terribly from separation anxiety is almost cured. All ours are in together and could not be happier so when we take her riding she is already feeling calm and content before she leaves the paddock and taking her away this calmness seems to follow her....rather than the opposite effect. Mentally she is more resilient and stronger. Horses are defintely much happier and have much more choice about what they do.

The electric tape gate across the driveway opens to the opposite side of the gate opening to close off the track while driving through.

A LITTLE MORE ON LIBERTY

I’ve been asked “When should you use join-up in relation to playing with your horse at liberty”?
The short answer is “whenever your horse chooses to leave you while playing at liberty”.
But many people see join-up as an involved process of sending your horse around a round yard until he/she shows signs of submission such as lowering the head and licking the lips. This could take many laps and be quite tiring for both parties.
I think horses will offer to join-up in many different ways and we should encourage this, rather than just have a blanket answer or one solution.
When a horse is pressured too much, he needs to move and sometimes this can be just moving the feet a little to running away from you completely.
It’s a natural instinct to flee and our relationship with the horse will not develop out of trust if we restrict movement. The horse will continue to feel under pressure and stay emotionally upset, then perhaps explode if the pressure is not reduced or released.
Running is a way of releasing the pressure and join-up is a way of adding pressure to get the horse to want to come back to you.

Other signs of horses wanting to come back to you can be more subtle but should be noticed and acted upon in order to reward the slightest try.
Holding one ear in your direction then giving you two eyes (even for an instant) is the horse asking “Can I come in?” More obvious signs are the horse making smaller circles around you, turning towards you and relaxing the head and neck down.
If we don’t pick up on these signals then we’ve missed an opportunity to gain our horse’s trust and confidence.

In my mind, the whole purpose of liberty is to keep your horse with you and give them comfort with you as often as possible.
This means being aware of when you are pushing the boundaries of your horse’s comfort zone and being friendly and un-demanding for long periods between tasks.
If you prefer to use positive reinforcement, then giving treats (can be paired with a clicker) whenever your horse stays with you, especially after learning something new, will enhance the bond between you.
Liberty tells you the truth about your relationship and how much pressure your horse is ready to handle. If we had to do all our communication and training at liberty, I can guarantee we would all learn to be a lot more polite and subtle with our demands and communication.

Liberty is not a place to start learning with horses though. If a person is learning about timing, focus, position and phases and makes mistakes (as we all do), the horse may then learn to get comfort from running away which then becomes a habit that takes time to change (once you have learned more).
But we can learn about liberty while on-line by pretending to be at liberty with a loose rope and playing a game of seeing what you can do without taking the slack out of the rope, or adding a rubber band between the clip and the halter so it will break under too much pressure.
Then when you are at liberty (starting in an enclosed area like a 20m round yard), pretend you are on line so your signals and positioning are consistent with what the horse already knows.
Once you are experienced and competent at liberty, it will become your first choice for getting to know a horse and starting your communication, trust and respect.

Contact Details:
Cynthia Cooper - Natural Horse World
46 Wattle Lea Lane, Golden Valley, Tasmania,
Australia. 7304. Ph. 0363 695177.
Email Me