WARNING – This horse may kill you!The Horse's Advocate- Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World™

The White Horse

Melissa approached the 7-year-old gelding warmblood the same way she approached every horse she saw – with leadership.

The owner had called two days earlier and said she would not be attending the appointment because she knew she was negative energy around her horse. The husband had already admitted he had been rough with the horse and was now shy of all men. “Placing a needle in the horse was a project,” he told me.

How would I approach this horse who would fight to be heard and understood? The answer was simple. Many horses want a leader around them. They step up and lead when they don’t get it from their owner. The problem with most “problem” horses is that they are not good leaders themselves. Many don’t even want the job. He was no exception.

When the owner relinquishes their leadership obligations to the unwilling or unable horse, something close to anarchy occurs.

Anarchy is ” a disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority.” Anarchy has been, in my experience, the number one reason people have problems with horses.

In this horse’s case, he had a dominant personality and challenged any authority that entered his stall. This personality had led to aggressive encounters with the vets and men, leading to distrusting both. In addition, he has learned to have his way with weaker and non-challenging people, such as the female owner.

So I sent in Melissa! Because she is a woman, the horse was ready to listen, though the gender did not convince the horse that Melissa’s intentions were in his best interest. However, with the leadership skills Melissa presented, the horse quickly capitulated. With only a few turns of objection around the stall and a few loud kicks to the wall, she could connect and perform a thorough float of his teeth. Even after she finished and I entered the stall and did my final review, the horse just stood there. He was relinquishing his leadership role to someone with better quality leadership skills.

The owner was very happy and is a customer for life. The horse showed gratefulness and will be much easier to work with the next time we see him.

The Black Horse

I received a call from a very concerned woman to whom a veterinarian referred me. She said, “I have a very difficult warmblood, 14 years old, that has not been floated for 2 ½ years because no one has been able to float him.” The last veterinary dentist said that the horse needed to be heavily sedated by someone else before she would even enter the barn to float his teeth.

This very large horse kicks, strikes, bites, lunges, and does everything in his power to eject you from the stall. There was no doubt that he was a dangerous horse.

I walked in and attached my lead to the horse, who just stood there with no fear on his face. Then, I turned away and started conversing with the owner and trainer. This horse needed the lowest amount of energy from me, and I worked on that as I talked with them.

I kept my energy low as I communicated my intentions with the horse while talking for three minutes with the people in front of me. What helped here was that both the owner and trainer also had low energy, which the horse also tapped. He often touched me softly with his muzzle and said softly and confidently, “Let’s get started then.”

This horse was dangerous and twice explosively expressed himself while I was working with him. The keys to handling this over-reactive horse were to 1) not buy into his story, 2) not reward his bad behavior, 3) keep my energy at the lowest level, and 4) never be afraid. This last one is the biggest problem with people working with horses because if you are afraid, you have already bought their story, raised your energy, and rewarded their bad behavior.

The horse responded positively after only a few attempts to explode. When we stopped working, the horse looked like he would fall asleep. Instead, he showed signs of gratefulness that the trainer and owner were shocked to see from him. Every time I started again to work in his mouth, I had to start from the beginning, but each time, it became easier to reach the level of mutual respect we needed to work effectively.

In the end, the procedure was a non-event. Word quickly spread through the barn that I floated this horse without drugs. While all were amazed, for me, it was the simple application of my 10 Irrefutable Laws Of Horsemanship.

The Bottom Line

Horsemanship is dying but is not dead. The horses I mentioned in this story, all seen this week, prove that horsemanship works. I still medicate one horse in 10 that I work on, but most of these are for pain, such as an extraction.

What keeps Melissa and me going every day is the connection we make with every horse every day. Of the last 100 horses we have floated to date, we only gave pain medication to 2 horses who are intolerant to the process. This low percentage is because of the horsemanship skills we practice daily on thousands of different horses we see yearly. It is an art form that does need daily practice like any other art form.

However, every art form needs a framework. For example, singing requires understanding notes and timing and the instrument played. Painting needs to understand the medium used and the physics of colors and light. And horsemanship requires knowing certain things, and I call these things “The Irrefutable Laws.”

** The test below was in the original post. These books in downloadable PDF form are part of The Horse’s Advocate membership in the resources section.**

For all of my readers, I want to give you my book, The Ten Irrefutable Laws Of Horsemanship as a free download. It is my way of thanking you for this Thanksgiving. I am grateful for all of you that ask us to come to your farm and work on your horses. I am thankful for you for those who read this e-letter but are not clients.

The book is an electronic download of a PDF. For those who want to purchase it for your back pocket, go to my publisher for a copy. You can also go to Amazon. If you want an electronic version, you can also get that from my publisher, Amazon, and even iTunes for your iPhone. (This is now a part of your membership)

Please consider my other two books a great present for your horse friends. They are listed below.

Since The Days Of The Romans – My Journey Of Discovering A Life With Horses – My story of becoming a veterinarian was not high school – college – vet school. Instead, it was a long and very different route, including dropping out of college three times and learning how to read before attending Cornell for undergraduate and veterinary school.

Thanks, and have a great Thanksgiving,

“The Ten Irrefutable Laws Of Horsemanship“

“True And Incredible Stories Of A Horse Vet” – Stories from my life as an equine veterinarian that will entertain you, have you laughing and crying, and is as real as I could make it.

“Since The Days Of The Romans – My Journey Of Discovering A Life With Horses” – My story of becoming a veterinarian was not high school – college – vet school. Instead, it was a long and different route, including dropping out of college three times and learning how to read before attending Cornell for undergraduate and veterinary school.