What is Natural Horsemanship and Does It Work?

Before I bought Valerie, my current horse, I wanted to find a trainer who would help me with the training process. The horses that I was looking to buy were green, meaning they were not seasoned horses that had been exposed to a lot of experiences like trail riding, horse shows, or riding in a trailer, etc. I wanted my horse to have a good basic foundation. Because of a friend’s recommendation, I chose a local trainer, Charles Wilhelm. Charles was what is called a “natural horse trainer”.

Now I knew nothing about natural horsemanship. What I did know is that the training methods Charles used made sense to me. Growing up around horses, I saw how some trainers trained horses. They taught through intimidation using fear. I never felt right about that but I wasn’t exposed to other training methods so accepted them as the norm. The methods that Charles uses are based on the mind and instincts of the horse. The horse is a herd animal that must constantly be alert to danger around it. Horses are domesticated but still have these innate instincts. This means when something scares them, they react in either two ways; they stand and protect themselves or run. Neither of which is good for you. When a horse is green, everything is new so they may react to everyday things or activities, like picking up their feet, putting on a  halter, or tying them to a post. In addition every horse is different emotionally. This means some horses are easy-going and nothing much upsets them and others are nervous and high-strung so every little noise or touch causes them to react.

So when I bought Valerie I brought her over to Charles for training. Her early training with Charles entailed  the basics since she was like a green horse even though she was a 6-year-old brood mare. He taught her leading, line work, tying, and de-spooking. I was involved in the process so I learned a lot from watching his techniques. It was amazing to watch Valerie learn and progress through each exercise.

Leading

Teaching a horse to properly lead, has different benefits. It makes them safer to handle so they aren’t dragging you around or stepping on top of you. It also allows you to control their movement or as Charles says “their feet”. He believes when you control their feet, it gets their attention on you and sets you up to become the leader. Think of horses in the wild. The alpha horse is the leader and she commands respect. This means you give her space. Come too close and she will warn with pinned ears or a bite or a kick. If she wants you to move out of her way, she will come at you with the same aggressive signals.

Line Work

Line work is also about controlling space and establishing respect and leadership between you and your horse. In addition, once well established you can use line work as a tool to calm your horse down and get her attention anytime and place you need it. I use it almost on a daily basis to get rid of any freshness before I ride and to check Valerie’s movement and state of mind that day.

De-Spooking

So what is de-spooking or emotional control work? De-spooking to me is desensitization. I have a minor in psychology so it reminded of the techniques a psychologist might use to desensitize a patient to something they are afraid of. For example, at one time I was afraid of flying on an airplane. I went to woman who used a technique where I visualized every step of the process of flying on a plane. Every time I felt my fear building, she had me pause in the process, do deep breathing, until I relaxed and then we proceeded. After several times of doing this, I lost my fear of flying.

Of course when a horse is afraid you can’t explain their fear away. What Charles does is to condition the horse to give to pressure (the “scary thing”) and listen to your cues. This is done through a series of exercises that desensitizes a horse to fear. The tools he uses are a plastic tarp and a plastic bag. All of the de-spooking exercises are done slowly and work with the horse’s emotional level. This means some horses take a lot longer with an exercise then others. Like Valerie. Unfortunately Valerie was a Nervous Nelly (she still is nervous about certain things but not nearly like she used to be). Everything around her caused fear, which caused her to react in some way. These exercises were very good for her because they taught her to face her fears and trust me the  handler when I asked her to do something.

Caveat: Don’t do these exercises yourself without getting advice from a competent trainer!

The tarp exercise is done with a basic 10-by-12 foot plastic tarp. The goal of the exercise is to get the horse to stand on a fully opened tarp. Most horses are fearful of the noise and movement they make. So getting them to stand on a tarp quietly is a big deal. Five steps are involved with this exercise which I won’t go through but will summarize.

You start with standard change of direction line work. Next, you put the tarp folded up on the ground at the farthest point from you so that the horse will either go between you and the tarp or over it when you ask her to go in a circle. You add pressure by cuing the horse to go between you and the tarp or over it. You don’t allow her to go around the tarp or back the way she came, since this is bolting. You stop your horse at the farthest point from the tarp, pause for a reward and change direction. You continue this by getting the horse closer and closer to the tarp. The next phase of the exercise is to unfold the tarp to make it bigger.

The exercise requires the trainer to recognize and reward progress and to be patient. In the beginning Valerie reacted like most horses trying to avoid the tarp, crossing it by jumping or bolting over it, then slowing to a more controlled gait and finally walking over and standing on the tarp. Now Valerie loves tarps. She equates them with getting to stand in one spot (she’s lazy!) and then getting a “good girl” and a pat from me.

There are variations of the tarp exercise Charles does with a horse. There is the tarp on the lunge line exercise which teaches them to relax when there is something flapping near them and there is sacking out with the tarp which teaches a horse to get used to the touch of something foreign on them.

So why would you need to put your horse through this? Well think of it this way. The tarp on the ground could represent a stream or something scary on the ground. The flapping tarp could be like a tarp that covers hay bales and flaps in the wind. The tarp touching your horse could be a plastic bag flying around on a windy day landing by your horse’s feet. These are all things Valerie and I have experienced! I look at  de-spooking as an insurance policy for the day when something unexpected happens but Valerie was calm about it and kept me safe.

Conclusion

For me the natural horsemanship training was well worth it. Valerie’s emotional attitude dimensioned to a safer level and I think she is happier for it. People, who don’t know her history, cannot believe Valerie is an Arab since she is now very calm at the barn, on trail rides, and at horse shows. I feel very comfortable and safe on her which makes owning her more fun.

For more information, go to Charles’s website www.charleswilhelm.com. There he offers several DVDs, books, and training programs.

So what is your experience with natural horsemanship? Please let me know!

Photo by visualpanic

Tagged as: charles wilhelm, de-spooking, natural horsemanship, respect