Yesterday I worked with a younger horse — a gorgeous boy!  Typical ‘guy attitude’ who thought he could push his little gal all over the place. When I first greeted him he gave me a quick snort then turned his head away and down to eat grass. How rude! But he didn’t think it was rude — to him I was just another human. So what !!?

Big deal.

Not.

Well, guess what, Sweetie, beautiful, horsey Guy?  It *IS* a big deal!

It’s hard enough to try to lead a pony who is intent on going his own way never mind a horse that probably weighed in close to 1400#. Not too tall but s.t.o.c.k.y. and s.t.r.o.n.g.  And this guy went where HE wanted to go without a minion’s thought as to the human on the end of his lead rope. The lead rope meant nothing to him and neither did I — for that moment.  *grin*

Now I’m gettin’ up there in age and don’t have the physical ‘prowess’ that I did when I was younger. I can’t afford, mentally or physically, to be hurt by a horse who doesn’t care who or what or where about me. And I’m at the age where I feel I should get respect — from horses as well as humans simply because I’ve survived in this world this long. But — that’s my ego talkin’, isn’t it? With horses — they don’t care how old you are. They have no clue about ‘age’. That’s a human thing. The horse just doesn’t CARE about my ego or if *I* feel that *I* should get respect. I must E.A.R.N. it.

They only care about what they want at that moment.

Each moment for that young guy was focused on stuffing his face with grass. Well, guess what?  That didn’t last for long.

So what did I do to gain his rapt attention?

I claimed MY space. MY VERY OWN SPACE — and let him know that he was to step OUT OF MY SPACE instantly when I asked. I wanted his hind end out of my way.

But, before that — how did I even get his attention on my space?

Horses have this quirky social hierarchy that says on the horse that is higher ranking can move an underling feet. He who moves feet first first loses a rank.  Ah ha!  But — yeah, but! How does one make a horse move when he’s not paying attention, could care less about you and doesn’t WANT to move his feet cause the grass is so scrumptious?

1 word – INTENT

3 more words – HIND END DISENGAGMENT

When HED is combined with the’ intent’ of claiming your space, the horse HAS to listen. And the mechanics of the HED means the horse HAS to step over when his head is around to his side. His butt’s gotta respond to his head.

However, yanking a horse’s head around to his withers is force — its intimidation, its coercive. ONLY to be used when time is of the acute esssence or someone’s very life is in danger. Then the mechanics of the HED is combined with all human aspects of BIGNESS — bigger than the horse. Big pressure! Big human! Big, big, big.

But, giving him the IDEA of moving his hind end is not force or intimidation or coerciveness. It’s giving the IDEA to the horse and then horse CHOOSES to listen. Or not.

By focusing on the space which I was claiming, my INTENT was on that space  (Thanks, Brian!) and NOT on the horse. This means that we were simply keeping things impersonal. I was not ‘attacking’ the horse with my intent: I was focused on my s.p.a.c.e and I WANTED that space! No questions and no doubts about it. Therefore horse does not feel defensive at all – – he’s gonna focus on MY space, too!  (What? Oh! That’s *your* space? Oh! Ok!)

My INTENT was to establish my space.

My ‘mechanics’ gave him a cue — I did ask him to step over out of my space by snapping the end of my lead on the very edge of my space — until he stepped over slightly. I STOPPED the lead snapping right then as, AS he moved over.

He had chosen to listen. That’s the first step.

Repeat – claim more space. Repeat – claim more space.

Repeat and — “WHOA! What is this crazy human doing anyway!?!?!?  I just want to eat grass but she’s making herself  BIGGER than the grass! I guess I need to pay attention and see what this nut is all about!”

Now — now that I had his attention I was able to then ask him for a HED. Easy. Still focusing on “my space”, I was a bit more intent on my goal and instead of merely stepping his hind end over a wee bit he crossed his inside hind leg over his outside and pivoted out of my space on his front hooves so as to face me with rapt attention.

Voila. Perfect! Just what I was looking for.

Attention. I had his attention.

Less than a minute had passed.

That’s it.

It’s not about force. It’s not about mechanics. It’s not about ego —

It’s about INTENT.

My intent was to have my own space. My intent was to claim ‘that space’. My goal was to gain the horse’s ‘attention’. My goal was to ‘help’ the horse understand it would be far easier to give me his attention while out of my space than to fight the irritation of my INTENT on that space.

Cause when he gave me his attention? Full attention? He got a rest from my intent. Pressure was off. Instantly.We both were in a better place.

At the end of the hour or so he was softly and willingly following his owner up and down the drive and back into the barn without a 2nd look at that grass.

Not even a glance.

It was a good day.