Leadership Learning with the Boundary Box, Part 2: Safety and Emotional Fitness

by Mary Gallagher

I’d recommend reading Part One of this new series first. The Boundary Box® is a process I am developing, and my last post describes the basic premise and practices. -M

Horses are big scaredy cats—that’s why they have those long legs, you see, so they can get out of Dodge fast when Dodge turns into Scary Town. And as we all know, that happens incredibly fast with our equine friends. Everything is going great and then BOOM, a threat appears—a blowing tarp, shiny puddle, unfamiliar dog—just about anything sudden and unfamiliar can trigger their flight response. Our understanding of just how instinctively quick horses are with their feet when threatened can help us help them to become braver. 

Leadership Learning with The Boundary Box

by Mary Gallagher

Good leadership means good boundaries. Human psychology has taught us that healthy relationships require boundaries, or a personal sense of safe limits on the behavior of others towards us.* Horses are keenly aware of boundaries, which are crucial to the safety of the herd; they test boundaries as a matter of survival. So when our horse gets in our space—gets us even a little off balance, fishes for treats, has us stepping back, or a million other seemingly harmless intrusions—they are testing our boundaries in order to test our leadership.

The way we establish leadership in a healthy relationship with our horse, in my experience, is by acting with unaffected emotions while setting clear boundaries that we can fairly and effectively enforce.

Catching the Eye

By Mary Gallagher

From how far away can you catch your horse’s eye?

Laredo and Mary

I caught one of my horses watching me the other day while he was grazing, facing away from me. But he definitely had me in sight, peering around his front legs and under his belly.

As prey animals, horses are visually astute, noticing things well before humans do. They can see up to a mile away, detecting movement in the distance. The horse’s eyes are set well apart on the sides of their head, so with minimal effort they can monitor their surroundings, front, back and sides.

Just yesterday I was working with Grasshopper in the round pen. He became alert, noticing something toward the back of our property—a section we call the Emerald Forest—a good eighth of a mile away. Well before I could figure out what had caught his attention, Grasshopper had picked up that his brother Laredo was coming through the trees, in our direction. By the time I realized it was Laredo, Grasshopper had already relaxed, knowing it was his herd mate coming through the woods, and not a predator.

I make it a point to be aware of my horse’s attention, especially in relation to me; when we are together, I want him connected to me. Fostering our connection in this way affects every aspect of our relationship, and definitely, my horsemanship, making the difference between my being a passenger or a partner.


Stop! Don’t get on that horse! (Yet.) Part 1 of 2

by Jessica Crouch

Spring is finally here and many of you are eager to get riding again.  Maybe a friend has invited you for a trail ride and offered you a horse you don’t know well.  Maybe you are anxious to get your green horse going again and see if you can develop him a bit more this year.  YOU are anxious to get riding, but before swinging into the saddle, there are some basic things you should do to check if your HORSE is ready.

Relationship: Communicating on the Ground

by Mary Gallagher

I am always looking for a better way to be around horses—mine, my clients’, class and clinic participants’. Over many years, I have often heard people comment that they really prefer to just to get on and ride. So often the pressure we put on ourselves to achieve results and ‘get it done’ gets in the way of our relationship with our horse, which is why ground work makes so much sense.

Charlie and his owner having a conversation.

Ground communication makes going slow okay. It is all about the horse’s story, so going slowly and purposefully allows us to put our agenda aside, and begin to see and understand what the horse is telling us.

When approaching your horse from the ground, spend some time watching him. Really see him.  Don’t be hasty to judge, just give him time to let go of the show.  Let him impress you with what he knows. In his exuberance, he will most likely show you all his groovy moves.

"Are you sure you still want him?" Scooter’s Story

by Breanna York and Dekker McKeever

It has been a pleasure to welcome Breanna  (a long-ago student of mine), her husband Dekker, and their two horses, Helo and Scooter, to Freedom Farm. I asked Breanna to share Scooter's story with us. He and Dekker are regulars in our Friday morning Ground Work class.  - MG

“Are you sure you still want him…???” Barry pleaded with me, his desperate eyes frantically scanning my face. He barely held back the rearing, bucking, flaring miniature stallion. The 10-month old miniature horse looked like a tiny woolly mammoth, painted with a smattering of chestnut red and summer sky white clouds. A tiny woolly mammoth whose name would be Scooter, fighting to flee his chicken coop stable. 

Balanced Performance: making every moment with your horse count, from barn to gate, and beyond (a series)

 by Mary Gallagher

One lesson horses have consistently taught me over the years is to be present and address questions as they arise, before moving on. We don't know what future problem we are fixing in the present but most certainly, if we ignore the issue in the moment, it will show up again at the most inopportune time. Knowing this has shaped my teaching at home and on the road: make each moment you spend with your horse count!

In my last post, I shared how I had recently witnessed a horse's unwanted behavior at the in gate at a show, a perfect example of an issue showing up under pressure, at an inopportune time:

Koko and the Beginnings of Balanced Performance

by Mary Gallagher

Everyone in my family got to choose a special gift for their 13th birthday. I think that was my parents’ way of getting out of buying us cars at 16. Anyway, all 6 kids wanted their special thing, and mine was a horse. His name was Koko and we spent a lot of time together. He was 3 when I got him. I had been showing since I was 7 so I wasn’t a total beginner, but I was no trainer, either. I depended on my adult trainers for guidance on how to develop Koko.

There were lots of trails around our stable, so I rode him out after lessons whenever possible. We fox hunted and did horse trials along with dressage and jumping lessons, and horse shows. Koko was a great all around horse.

14-year old Mary Gallagher on Koko.

About 3 years into our life together, the showing part was beginning to develop a glitch. Koko did not want to leave the in gate; he developed a real aversion to it. Within a year we were regularly getting excused from the arena. I tried everything my trainer asked, and even had other trainers ride him at shows to help get him get over this behavior, but nothing seemed to work. Koko was one very arena sour guy.

The Transformation of Niko, Part 5

 By Michelle Grimmer

This article is the fifth in a series about Michelle’s thoroughbred Niko, whose journey to health is a study in holistic horse care and natural horsemanship. The earlier articles are highly recommended as background. You can find all Michelle’s articles by clicking on her name at right, or just start HERE, with the first installment of The Transformation of Niko (Part One).  - ed.

            One of the best things that ever happened to Niko was that I started nursing school just after I adopted him from his previous owner. While at times I felt frustrated that I could not do more with him on a daily basis to help him progress, the very thing he needed was for me to do things very slowly. In other words, less was more. The challenges present in his body and mind (which I came to think of as his ‘twistedness’) required strategic nudging and time for things to be sorted out. Niko is a tremendously talented horse who has always always been willing to try, and has always made progress, but I had a nagging sense that there was yet more inside Niko to work through, that there were still ‘stuck places’ in his body somewhere.

The Horsemanship Connection and Communication Equation, Part One

by Mary Gallagher

In my experience, you can teach a horse anything if you can understand that his motivation is to stay safe and that his goal is comfort. In this series of articles, I’d like to explore this idea a bit, using a sort of short hand, or equations to express various facets of the human-horse working relationship.

Herd = Safety and (but not always) Comfort

One of the first things we learn in horsemanship is that the horse is a prey animal whose herd is its key source of safety. Let us also understand that horses are super sensitive and perceptive creatures; there are no shortcuts on the journey to trust and communication. As we begin to observe herds, we see a range of behaviors, beyond peaceful grazing, that demonstrate the herd as a safe, but not always comfortable place to be.

Lesson Notes: The Benefits of Head Lowering

by Mary Gallagher

When I was working for Jimmy Williams, I noticed that he was forever getting his horses to lower their heads. He would lower a horse’s head to put the bridle on, or to smooth the forelock out under the brow band. He would teach the horse to roll a barrel with its nose. With a squeeze in front of the withers, he’d get the horse to lower its head, and then he would throw a sugar cube on the ground for it. Thinking back, Jimmy spent a lot of time in this endeavor. He must have thought it was important.