Have computer narrator Jennifer read this article to you
I'd like to share with you a story about a little stallion called Marlin. Well that's not actually his real name but we called him that because when he first came to us, Shane put a rope on him and he leapt around on the end of that rope like those huge fish you see on TV leaping out of the sea.
He had not had a lot of handling and we soon found out just how little he had and what his experiences had been. He was brought to us by a fellow we know... an older man who has been a very successful horseman and cutting competitor in his day, but who now does little training due to arthritis and various other old injuries playing up. This little horse was 2year old and had spent all his days so far with a herd in the bush, only finally being caught after being rounded up by motor bike and run through a crush and onto the back of a truck. He was sent to a top trainer who had not had a lot of success with him. His method of trying to quiet him down was to teach him a lesson by dropping him to the ground with ropes, completely covering him with a tarp and leaving him. Of course, this just made Marlin even more fearful and skeptical about people. His next stop was with our friend who understandably had trouble handling him on the ground, plus his hands were riddled with arthritis and he just couldn't hold onto the rope when Marlin went to town.
So, our friend dropped into our place and asked Shane if we could come and take a look at him. Now... this little horse was very well bred and still entire, although fortunately he hadnt quite figured it out yet. Thank goodness! He had so much reaction and fear we were very glad that his testosterone hadn't yet kicked in to make him aggressive as he could easily have been. Instead he was scared and timid. So ... off we went to our friends place to check this little colt out. He was a very pretty little Quarterhorse; gray and around 14 and a half hands. Other than his colour, the first thing we noticed was just how reactionary he was. He was very quick to react to the slightest stimulus by shying, scooting sideways and running off. As he had been in the bush all his life he also had a huge flight distance. This is one area where I think that many people who get themselves wild horses or brumbies, get themselves into trouble as they dont realise just how claustrophobic these little horses are going to feel. Even just being in a yard can be mentally very difficult for them. Many of them handle pressure less well as other horses, as they feel their escape routes and therefore their options have been taken away as soon as they are put into a yard ... and at first this can really raise their fear and reaction levels many fold. This was pretty soon apparent with little Marlin. Our friend had him on a 40 x 20m arena with a 5 post rail fence... so a fairly safe sort of area you'd think!
Well ... Marlin didnt feel too safe and as soon as Shane entered his space he tried to run away and as he couldn't very well flee, he thought he'd try the option of climbing the fence instead! So ... Shane had to get him caught, without putting too much pressure on him ... and by pressure I mean just looking at the little horse from 60 feet away was too much for him at this point. So, Shane set about just trying to establish some rapport with him at first, moving him around a little in the arena, from quite a long way away, as Marlin was way too claustrophobic to be approached yet; asking him for some transitions and direction changes just with his body position and using his ranch rope tapped on his leg from time to time. A few times Marlin felt just too scared if Shane had his body energy too high at any point or got out of position, and he headed straight for the fence and tried to climb out. It would have been really easy for Shane to put too much pressure on and have Marlin try to jump out of the arena ... which wouldn't have been a pretty sight!
After about 45 minutes of working through the *catching procedure, Shane was able to approach Marlin and rub him all over with the ranch rope and then to put the rope around his neck. Marlin was still very scared, however he was starting to think that perhaps Shane wasn't so bad and the trust was slowly building. Still along way to go. He then worked him a little more with the rope around his neck ... again transitions, direction changes and now with some no yield in motion ... Marlin was way too touchy to try anything at the halt much ... his instincts were telling him to move, so Shane allowed him that option ... and yielding to pressure forward, backward, sideways etc. After about an hour and a half, he had him leading around with the halter so now the next step came... getting him home!
We only lived a few kilometers away and there was no way the horse was going on a float just yet, so Shane had decided to walk him home. I remember very clearly watching from our front verandah as the two of them came up the road. Shane kept him busy, trotting most of the way to keep the flow going and to keep Marlins mind too busy to shy at things along the way. He wanted to keep his attention on him by being a leader and just getting on with it. This worked most of the time, but every so often Marlin would get a scare and up he'd go again ... flapping around in the air, twisting his head and neck, all 4 feet off the ground just like his name sake (Marlin). In fact Im sure it was that trip home that first invoked his name and it stuck! Marlin stayed with us for about 3 weeks in total. Normally Shane has horses here only for a week and in that time he has them doing incredible things with confidence and trust ... and so willing. Little Marlin took 3 times longer than any other horse Shane had worked with, as his instincts to flee were so strong that the slightest thing could set him off ... a rope touching his leg, a hand in a sensitive spot (like his ribs or head ... boy was he touchy around the ears!) and a 100 other invisible things that made sense to Marlin to run away from. He was so touchy around the hindquarter and flank that Shane developed a new rope technique just for him. Generally during training Shane will ask the horse to wear a girth rope and a flank rope, just so they get used to a bit of pressure around the middle before they have a saddle and girth on. Anything at all touching Marlin around the back end ... pretty much from the girth back ... would send him into orbit, twisting and writhing in fear.
In order for horses to be safe to ride, they need to be loose, soft and confident in the hindquarter, so they can disengage and stay laterally soft. Marlin was far from loose in the hindquarter! So ... a bit of desensitizing was called for. Shane put a rope around his back foot at first and got him to where he was comfortable with the feel of that. He then put the rope higher up his leg to what Shane called his G String position! so that Marlin could learn, just by wearing it there (in other words it just rests there with no pressure) that he was okay, it wouldn't hurt him and he would in fact live!It takes a lot of skill and timing to be able to handle a rope around a horse's sensitive areas and offer release at just the right moment. Shane has it, and it really helped this little horse out. He took a lot of convincing from Shane that he was going to be okay and that he could relax, he was safe ... Mother Nature sure had a strong hold over him. Shane worked him on the long rope for a few days until Marlin could handle things more in his personal space. His first response was to kick out and those feet were lightning fast ... you couldn't even see them coming ... but fortunately Shane had built enough rapport that Marlin gave him the benefit of the doubt and didn't follow through.
His personal space at the beginning was about 100meters around, which made it interesting in the 40meter arena! Shane really had to have excellent timing and release to help Marlin feel safe and unthreatened. Eventually Shane had him happily and confidently doing all his yields up close and with contact. At last, progress was being made. The next step was to get him started under saddle, so the whole thing began again but this time with Shane wanting to be on his back. He now needed to accept things above and over him as well, so Shane worked more on his personal space in these areas and increased the "no yield' to include rubbing himself all over Marlin's body ... over his back, neck, rump and down his quarters. Marlin was suspicious but Shane did it gradually and boldly so Marlin could eventually accept it. He worked on building Marlins confidence in going forward and in having things touching his body around the back, belly and flank and in having someone in his personal space all while going forward. When Shane hopped on bareback for the first time, Marlin was still on the touchy side and prone to shying or what we call scooting ... dropping his whole body down about 2feet and shooting sideways ... always fun and thrilling when this happens!
The day that Shane did Marlins first ride, he had a crowd of about 20 people watching (they just seem to turn up when he's colt starting!) and Shane had put a brand new bareback pad on Marlin. Shane was trotting around doing some rein positions and next thing Marlin got a fright and scooted sideways flat out for about 20 metres. As we all held our breath, Shane reached for the rein (he was riding with just the one of course!) and without missing a beat, piped up.These QS bareback pads are made of all natural materials and terrific for giving you extra stick when you need it when riding your horse. As Shane finished, Marlin relaxed and stopped, we all cheered and Shane gave us that big grin! Whew!!! And off they went again trotting merrily around the arena.
As I mentioned before, Shane ended up spending around 3 weeks with Marlin which even to this day is the longest time he's ever had to spend with a horse for halter training and starting under saddle. Marlin went from being so afraid of people and having such a huge flight distance that he tried to climb out of the arena if you just looked at him the wrong way, to being confident, calm and trusting with Shane riding him, and happily going out on trail rides, moving cows around doing beautiful lead changes and transitions. Shane said he was just magnificent to ride. Finally the day came when Shane took him home. He quietly saddled Marlin up, hopped on and down the drive they went. As I watched them gently loping along the road together, looking the picture of calm, confidence and pleasure, my mind cast back to just 3 weeks before and the scared little horse that we named Marlin. What a beautiful transformation! - By Meredith Ransley *see the QS Halter Training and Catching DVD for more details ** see QS Lesson Pack 1.