Cheryl Kimball - Horse Wise: Thinking Outside the Stall and Other Lessons I Learned from My Horse

CHERYL KIMBALL has been a student of natural horsemanship since 1991. She is a contributor to Western Horseman and TheEquine Journal and the author of Mindful Horsemanship. Cheryl lives on a farm with her five horses.

Cover design by Kathleen Wilson Fivel
Cowboy illustration by Karmel Timmons

Introduction

A s a child I had a collection of model horses and played horse on the elementary school playground, but it wasn't until I was fifteen that I became involved with real horses. My best friend's boyfriend's sister had horses in her backyard; when Karen and I proved ourselves responsible teenagers, Pat was happy to get her horses exercised during a time when she was busy taking care of her little girl.

In my early twenties I got a horse of my own. I named her Cheka, which I had read was Swahili for smiling. She was a young buckskin-colored Quarter Horse filly that I purchased for $500. We had two years of fun and frustration before a boyfriend and job took priority and I ended up selling her.

Thirteen years passed before I got into horses again. When I did, now in my early thirties, I bought another youngster, this time a gelding named Bud, at a bargain basement price. My intention was for us to learn together. While this is a great strategy with puppies, it isn't always the best plan with horses. If you don't know how to educate a horseand I certainly had not gained that knowledge in the years of my equine hiatusit is just as likely to be a dangerous situation as a learning experience. My early years with Bud turned out to be both.

To my great fortune, a few months after my purchase, I caught on to a style of horsemanship that changed my life. It was an approach that was interested in educating horses, not training them; that believed in allowing and encouraging horses to think while still expecting respect from them. At first I thought I was lucky to have stumbled upon this approach so soon after my re-entry to the horse world. But on reflection, I didn't merely stumble upon this, I was actively looking for itI just didn't know what it was. I had vowed that my new horse life would be different from my last experience or I was done with horses. By opening myself up to the wisdom I could learn from horses, I learned many great life lessonslessons that I'd like to share with you in this book.

When my first horse, Cheka, wouldn't go in the trailer, for instance, I had absolutely no idea how to teach her to load inI would simply try to make her until we were both angry and frustrated. An hour or so and a couple of extra people later, she would be on the trailer, though neither of us was feeling very good about our relationship. If you have never tried to force a 1,000-pound animal whose instincts and decisions revolve around not being some other animal's dinner to do something they don't want to dowell, let's just say that a 125-pound human ultimately can't make a horse do anything. Oh, people appear to do it all the time, and the horse is a very accommodating creature for the most part; with a few exceptions, a horse really just wants to get along with the least amount of stress and fuss possible. Isn't that pretty much what we all want? To get through life with as little stress possible? But the minute horses decide not to be accommodating, watch out. Self-preservation is a strong thing in prey animals and to watch this instinct take over a horse's mind is a sight to behold.

Some of what I learned when I discovered this new approach to horses is that not only is it futile to try to make a horse do anythingit is gratifying to learn how to teach a horse in a way that makes sense to the horse. How, to use a phrase coined by master horseman, Ray Hunt, to make your idea the horse's idea.(Take note, parents, it works with kids, too. And husbands, wives, bosses.) My horse life, and as a result my entire life, changed in the moment that I saw that this was possible.

It took a few years for me to realize the lessons I was learning from my horse. This is not something you get overnight. Over those years, however, I began to develop the tools I needed in my toolbox to call upon when situations arise. I began to know how to expect and ask for respect (and how to give respect to a horse) as well as softness and yielding from my horses and, most importantly, how to direct their feet.

I learned that the reins are attached to the bit, which is physically in the horse's mouth but is really attached to the feet, all of which is ultimately attached to the horse's mind. If you get to the mind, you will get to the feet, and the feet are what you need to do everything you want to do with the horsego left, back up, avoid that rock in the trail, take a right turn down another trail, get out of that other rider's way, get out of the corral without letting the herd out, even stand still to be brushed. After all, to have them in the barn aisle and brush them you need them to stand still, right? If you have been around horses, you may think, not really, there are these things called cross ties. Cross ties are lead ropes attached to either side of the barn aisle which you attach to either side of the horse's halterand make the horse stand still.

And so we get back to that make thing againit is ultimately more efficient and feels better for both horse and rider if you don't try to make a horse do anything. If you teach the horse that when he has a halter and lead rope on he does not move his feet unless you request him to, well, when there is no pressure at all on the lead rope, he simply stands still. Then you don't have to try to make it happen.

Confinement to a horse is the worst thing imaginable. Horses' brains are hardwired to flee at danger. What horses perceive as danger is sometimes puzzling to humans, although that is the topic for a whole book itself. Suffice it to say that it seems apparent that if a horse feels trapped, all he seems to think about is moving. If he feels that he could move if he really needed to, he seems much more able to stand still. (I did not dream this up myself. Many of the clinicians I have studied with have pointed this out.)

Humans, even the most upper-level equestrians, spend a lot of time confining their horsesputting them in stalls and on cross ties for the convenience of the human, using bigger and harsher bits to gain more control, forcing their mouths shut with tight nosebands, and using a piece of equipment called a tiedown or martingale to keep his head at the desired height while riding (referred to in horse circles as forcing the horse into a frame or creating a head set).

Once I learned that the key to being safe and avoiding frustration around horses means learning to direct their feet, I had the fundamental tool I needed to start to relax. This is where my horse life took a sharp turn. If you know how to direct a horse's feet and how teach the horse what you are looking for, you become more interested in encouraging the horse's freedom of movement than confining the horse. There are a lot of riders who think they are encouraging freedom in the horse, but it is freedom under the rider's terms. If you know how to direct the feet, you can allow the horse freedom under the horse's termsonly you are doing the directing.

This new horse life continued gradually to transcend my life. The knowledge I gainedkeep it simple, learn to think differently, lead through respect not dominance, consider the horse's perspectiveaffected my overall way of being. This knowledge provided me with some new tools to do things like be a manager in a company and provide leadership to other employees especially in times of turmoil. I feel comfortable moving into middle age with some knowledge behind me that, if I use it wisely, will enable me to continue to expand those boundary lines. While the inclination has always been there, that knowledge has been gained through a quest for good horsemanship, by learning through my interactions with horses. And that is what the rest of this book is about.