As I reach between my shoulder blades, I can still feel the results of a missed warning— “a shot across the bow”— from a few weeks ago in the Netherlands. I’ve replayed the video a few times for friends to show that the missed signal will always develop into something bigger!
In my daily activities of working with horses both from the ground and under-saddle, I don’t know of a time the horse didn’t give me a clue of what might happen next if I didn’t take their concerns with some level of importance. Horses are no different than people in the sense that if you push the bubble to far, they will push back!
Let’s take this Dutch Sport Horse you see in the video as an example. A little background might be helpful in understanding the world from his perspective. He is nine-years-old, and spent most of his life in a pasture as a stallion. Just recently, he was gelded after many years of controlling his world with large amounts of testosterone as a booster! As a stallion, his responses are not flight but rather fight. So, when he was put in a challenging position his response was aggression. Does that make him bad? Of course not, it makes him a horse. Remember, the stallion does not back down, he must protect himself and his herd.
My bit of knowledge prior to meeting him was he was very aggressive with males and bit anyone who tried to handle his feet! Those that know me know I saw the opportunity to work with him as a chance to learn a bit about working with aggressive stallions. My goal was to work with him to allow others to handle his feet.
I spent quite a bit of time just touching, rubbing, moving him around, and lots of standing trying to get this guy to lower his guns! After about 90 minutes, I was able to run my hands down both front legs without much aggression on his part. I had picked up his fronts with a rope a few times, which allowed me to remain upright and watch his expressions.
You’ll see in the video that he gave me a very stern warning the first time I bent over to pick up a foot. I wasn’t able to see his head, ears and eyes, and I just felt a little nuzzle along my backside. All good, right? Hindsight is 20/20. As I watch the video now, he said that if I tried to pick up his foot again that I’d better be prepared! A missed signal resulted into one of the worst bites I’ve ever had from a horse. Pay attention again to the video. Several times as I was bent over, he gave me a few stern warnings before the shot! That’s the time a grazing muzzle sure would have come in handy!
After a bit of a scolding for biting me, we continued until I could get the right front with a minimum amount of difficulty. I came back the second day after he had a chance to reflect on things and finished up on the other three feet in less than an hour! His owner was able to handle all four feet as well without a hint of fear or aggression.
Lets think about things also as we ride. I’m told over and over, “I never saw it coming, just out of the blue he broke in two!” The horse, in most cases, will give you several subtle warnings of concern before major incident. Shaking the head, pinning the ears, lifting his back, lowering his head, stiffing up in the shoulders. All these signs are “shots across the bow” to get us to change what we are doing. That’s our cue to back things down to something more comfortable and understanding to the horse. Reset and revisit!
I will finish with one caveat, a reaction caused by a sudden startle has no warning. One more time— a reaction caused by a sudden startle has no warning.
Have a good ride!