Groundwork: Working Dixie
This is Dixie. Dixie is owned by the Cornerstone Fellowship Ministry and is a 13 year old (approximately) gray grade mare that stands at least 15.2 hands. She is very quiet and laid back which can make her very lazy, yet she has moves as she has a long stride.
When I work Dixie she is always responsive at first, but then gets lazy as we go along. I want my horses to respond when I ask them to move (or stand depending) and continue to move until I say to stop. I’ll explain to you what I am doing in these pictures and hopefully you can gain some insight in working with your own horse.
Photos 1 & 2
In photo 1 I am in position to move Dixie’s hip away from me to the right and I have began my step towards her. Photo 2 shows a good response from her and I continue to ask her to move around. Notice the placement of my left hand, it is slightly higher and it is positioned like this to help encourage her to keep her frond end in place as she steps around with her hind end.
Photos 3 & 4
Notice also that I don’t have tension on the lead between my hand and her head. This is evident in photos 3 and 4.
Photos 5, 6 & 7
In photos 5 and 6 I have changed my position and I am asking Dixie to move her front end around. She is moving around nicely and willingly as you can see in photo 7.
Photos 8 & 9
I am now ready to move to her right side and work Dixie. Rather than move from Dixie’s left side to her right I ask her to step over and put me on her right side. This continues the respect in our relationship as I am telling her to move her feet (see more about this in Groundwork: Move those Feet!). You can see me asking her to step over in photo 8 and from there she steps over and I move right into asking her to move her front end in photo 9.
Photos 10 & 11
Photo 10 shows Dixie getting a little lazy and not wanting to move as quickly as I am asking her to so I lift the end of the lead in the threat of a bite. She knows me and knows that I will bite if she doesn’t move after the threat; this is respect. She responded well so I moved onto moving her hip and you can see in photo 11 I got a good response from her.
Photo s 12 & 13
I then again moved back to the left side in photo 12 and started with the front end this time. You can change up your routine and it is actually good for the horse if you do this to check if they are listening to your cues and not responding to a routine.
As I know she does Dixie started getting lazy again as I was working her. Photo 13 she is moving away from me, but is slowing down, basically challenging me with the question “why should I keep moving?” and we do no good not answering this question. If your horse slows down in their response to you do not slow your movement to match theirs because then they are determining the pace and are becoming the one calling the shots. Rather get your horse to move back up to your pace. For Dixie this took a “bite” with the end of the rope (for more detail about the bite check out Groundwork: Discipline and Correction). She was given a warning as before in photo 10 but did not respond to it so I had to bite her to let her know that threat wasn’t hollow.
Photo s 14, 15 & 16
Photos 14-16 show what a bite looks like. Notice in photo 14 I am bringing the rope up and over handed onto her shoulder and then in photo 15 it comes down and in 16 I leave the rope down. I don’t hit her repeatedly, just once to get my point across and it is hard enough to make her think and get back on task.
When you bite your horse you are not being mean or abusive because you are speaking your horse’s language (Groundwork: Learning to Speak Horse). It does no good to just tap them repeatedly as they can block this out and it could actually get annoying to your horse and your horse may actually retaliate against you. If you ask your horse to move with your pre-signal and step toward them and they don’t oblige, you then warn them that you will bite with either the end of your lead, as I do in photo 10, or your training stick by raising it. When they still don’t respond respectfully you move in for a bite like I did with the end of the lead or with a whack from your stick, over handed just as I did with the rope.
I will say that I like working with just a halter and long lead as there is less to have to worry about and keep track of, but I will not fault anyone for using additional tools. Find what works for you and use it. As long as you do not harm the horse physically with your tool and do not over use it to where they become afraid of it rather than simply respect it, there really is no wrong way to do this.
Well done good and faithful servant!
Each of our horses at Cornerstone Farm has been given a Bible verse to describe them. Dixie’s is “Well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share in your master’s happiness!” Matthew 25:21. Dixie received this verse mostly because she was the Ministry’s first horse and she has been such a treasure to us and we use her for all our programs. Beginners can rider her yet she is fun for more advanced riders to ride as well. She is a great teacher, very patient and gentle; a perfect horse to have.
If you have any questions about the work I have been doing please don't hesitate to contact me. I want to see you and your horse succeed in all you do and have the same relationship with them as I do with mine that I treasure so much.
Blessings,
Greta