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\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\nOn May 24th I climbed into my SUV and headed south on Route 220. I wasn\u2019t quite sure where I was going; a farm on Route 6 just outside West Burlington, PA near Mount Pisgah State Park. When my children were young our family enjoyed the park, so I was familiar with the road. All I had to do was look for Gene\u2019s distinctive truck. If it was parked anywhere near the road I couldn\u2019t miss it. A few miles after Burlington, I began to worry, and then I rounded a bend in the road and spotted the truck. I pulled into the driveway where Deb Yoder and Gene Fletcher<\/a> waited for me. I was there to watch a one hour training session with Deb and her horse Willow.<\/p>\n
A little less than two years ago, Deb\u2019s daughter, Charrissa, decided to purchase a horse. After looking on-line at pictures of horses for sale, she saw a pretty 4 month old filly. She called the owner and decided to buy the horse. One evening, Deb and Galen Yoder, with they\u2019re trailer hitched to a truck met Charrissa and her husband, Ed, for a trip to Germanville, Pa, where they would pick up the filly. The owner brought out Willow and lunged her. Charissa began to understand that this young filly was high spirited and excitable. She decided Willow wasn\u2019t the horse for her; however, Deb fell in love with the dynamic foal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat should we do? Put her in the trailer?\u201d asked Galen.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, put the horse in the trailer. I\u2019ll take her,\u201d Deb said.<\/p>\n
Willow began a new life on the Yoder cattle farm. Willow had her own pasture some distance from her stall in a large barn and the Angus herd. Gene Fletcher came down to trim her hooves every 8 weeks. Everyday Deb walked the filly back and forth between the barn and the pasture. One evening in June of 2011, Willow began to act up, rearing, pulling away, running around Deb, not listening and completely out of control. Finally, she managed to get the horse back in the barn. In a panic, she immediately knew who to call. Around 7 o\u2019clock that evening, Gene pulled into the driveway in front of the barn, and Willow\u2019s training began. Gene worked with Deb and Willow until dark.<\/p>\n
\u201cWillow was a wild horse, a firecracker and I felt Deb wouldn\u2019t keep her,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always wanted a horse and love Willow. I didn\u2019t want to give her up,\u201d said Deb.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeb did all the work. I just told her what to do. I only worked with Willow in the beginning to understand what the horse was doing and why. Each horse is an individual. Before I can help the owner connect with their horse, I need to understand the horse,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the beginning, Gene came down about twice a week. There were a lot of problems to work out with the horse. Now, we have a training session twice a month or more often if I experience a problem with Willow,\u201d said Deb.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy method is to work with both the owner and the horse. An experienced trainer can quickly get a horse to do what he wants, but that doesn\u2019t mean that an inexperienced owner will get the same results. I have the owner work with the horse under my instruction. That way the owner understands his\/her horse and begins to build a bond with the animal. After each session, I give Deb homework to do with Willow. When I come back if they pass we go on to the next level of training, if not we work on correcting the problem,” said Gene.<\/p>\n
\u201cI work with Willow every day, take her out, bring her back and forth from pasture to barn, groom her, clean her feet,\u201d said Deb.<\/p>\n
\u201cWillow is the cleanest horse in Bradford County,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you work year round with Willow?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t work in the winter, but as soon as the weather warms the work with the horse begins. This is the first training session since last fall. Right now, we are working with ground handling and lunging,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
“How do you start?” I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI use a technique called Heeding developed by Ron Meredith from Meredith Manor Equine College where I learned to be a farrier. The method uses body language to control the horse and develop a friendship with the animal,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
The Heeding technique is based on a simple premise; a trainer introduces a pressure to the horse then pays close attention to how the horse reacts to it. The method uses psychological techniques that the horse perceives as a shape.The best way to understand this is to watch how horses interact socially in a herd. Horse communication is based in large part on physical body language. If a horse trainer understands equine body language and uses it with the horse, he\/she and the horse will come to understand each other. The trainer modifies pressure as the horse responses to his\/her demands. How each horse reacts depends on the horse\u2019s personality. Thus the more horses a trainer works with the greater his understanding of how to use Heeding.<\/p>\n
Deb walked Willow from the barn to an open pasture a short distance away. Gene and I followed. We stood some distance from the horse and owner. Deb began to lunge Willow. She started lunging by walking in a tiny circle, taking small steps, extending the lunge line, moving her body to indicate what response she wanted from the horse. The whip was held by the hilt, whip end down dragging behind her as she walked. Willow responded by matching her steps with Deb\u2019s. She released more rope when Willow behaved. If Willow drifted toward her or wanted to stop, Deb sent her back out into the circle. She never looked directly at the horse, but where she wanted the horse to go. The horse followed Deb\u2019s footsteps. When Deb wanted the horse to trot, Deb took small trotting steps, and then when she asked for a canter, Deb made small cantering steps at the center of the circle. To stop Willow, Deb turned her body and shoulder toward the horse, brought the whip behind her back, extended her arm and then held the whip out in front and perpendicular to the animal.<\/p>\n
\u201cEventually, the whip goes away, a halter isn\u2019t needed. Just the person alone will be able to control the horse through natural body language the horse understands,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s amazing,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Willow and Deb have mastered lunging, a surcingle will be used to simulate the girth. The horse will be lunged with the surcingle on. Gradually, other things will be added; a bridle and bit, reins, blanket, saddle and finally a rider. At each step the horse will continue to be lunged and given time to accept the new addition. Once Willow is ready to accept a rider, either Deb or I will first lean on the horse\u2019s back to make sure Willow won\u2019t buck. The idea is that the horse should never buck. When we are sure the horse is ready to accept a rider, one of us will get on. The person on the ground will lead the horse while the other person rides. Once Willow accepts a rider, she will be lunged with a rider. At the end of the entire process the horse should be able to be ridden without a bridle or halter,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long does it normally take?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process can take as little as a month or as long as 3 years. It depends on the rider and their confidence level,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
Deb asked Willow to reverse. She exchanging hands with the whip and the lunge line. Willow turned around and began walking in the other direction. At one point Willow lost attention, stopped and looked off across the pasture. When this happened Deb pulled on the lunge line, redirecting the horse\u2019s head toward her. Once the horse regained focus, Deb asked the horse to walk around the circle. Another time Willow made a little, hoppy buck then continued cantering.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany times when the horse bucks people focus on the rear end and the kicking. The important thing is to not let the horse get into position to kick, which means stay focused on the where the head is. The horse\u2019s head needs to be turned slightly into the circle when lunging,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
The training session came to an end. We followed Deb and Willow out of the pasture. It wasn\u2019t long before Deb put the horse back in her stall and joined us. Gene and Deb reviewed Willow\u2019s progress with suggestions on how to improve the horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepetition is important in working with horses. Show the horse once then repeat it. The horse helps you along the way. The horse will show you what you have to do and will bring out of you what you need to do. They are great teachers,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know when I haven\u2019t spent enough time with Willow. The training will go downhill,\u201d said Deb. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnother important thing to remember when working with horses is patience. Give the horse options, the horse eventually will make up its own mind to do what you are asking it to do. For example, if you\u2019re walking the horse to a field and the horse rears and acts up, let the horse work through that, and then still go to the field. After awhile the horse will exhaust itself and realize that acting up is a useless endeavor. The horse realizes it takes too much energy to misbehave, in the end the horse is going to have to do what you asked of it. Just don\u2019t give up, be patient. If you give up and let the horse get away with not doing what you ask, the horse will think its behavior is ok. There will be a turning point for the owner and the horse when they begin to understand each other and lines of communication will open,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
\u201cGene makes it look easy but there are subtle body motions the horse picks up on. At first none of this seemed natural. Charissa made videotapes of me lunging and working with Willow when Gene wasn\u2019t here. The videos are helpful. I can watch and play them over and over again. That way, I can see myself and the mistakes I am making,\u201d said Deb.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s a good idea. Did you ride horses when you were growing up? I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot really, when I was 10 years old, my uncle had a black horse which I rode a few times. The horse was a little wild. My uncle didn\u2019t have him long, maybe a summer, and then the horse was sold. I did some organized trail riding, but didn\u2019t like it. The horses just walked behind each other. It wasn\u2019t really riding,\u201d said Deb.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done that on vacation. You\u2019re right it\u2019s not like having your own horse,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe horses are used to the routine in those places. Recently I heard a concession near Wellsboro closed their business and sold all their horses. A lot of people went up there to buy horses thinking that the horses were dead broke. They paid huge prices, in the thousands for each horse. Once the horses were brought home they acted up. The animals had simply learned a routine; they walked on the same trail with a lot of other horses over and over again. When the horse was taken out of that everyday ritual, they were very different. Horses look for patterns and repetition. They’re creatures of habit and notice when something is different,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s true, I ride Pepper in the park over the same route. If anything is different, a new bench or a picnic table has been moved, even a new road marker, she is leery of it,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always good to remember that horses are prey animals and their fear is a survival instinct. You aren\u2019t going to completely change that. You can desensitize the fear a bit, but it will always be there. It\u2019s important to understand their fear and think about what type of things spook a horse,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything else we should remember?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlways leave the training session on a good note. At Meredith Manor we were taught that a good note equals reinforcement, a bad note equals bad behavior,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen do you think Willow and Deb will be ready to take the next step in training?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat all depends when Deb is ready,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have purchased the surcingle. I think sometime this summer,\u201d said Deb.<\/p>\n
The blazing sun shone down on us as we exchanged stories, chatted small talk and enjoyed each other\u2019s company. Before long it was time to make the long drive home. I waved farewell to Gene and Deb, pulled away from the farm and headed down Route 6, past the filling station in Burlington and on towards the junction at Route 220. <\/p>\n
Sources:
\nwww.meredithmanor.com and www.meredithmanor.edu <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On May 24th I climbed into my SUV and headed south on Route 220. I wasn\u2019t quite sure where I was going; a farm on Route 6 just outside West Burlington, PA near Mount Pisgah State Park. When my children … Continue reading
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