Benefits of Being Herdbound

Remember asking for parental permission to do something you knew was iffy, explaining in impassioned tones that all your friends were doing it -- which was the sole reason you wanted to too?

Remember the answer: "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?"

(Remember wanting to say, "Yup! Especially if a bungee cord were attached to both the bridge and me...")

Peer pressure, group-think, and following the crowd often get blamed for everything from lemming suicides to the Downfall of Civilization.

It's true -- though we pay lip service to individualism, and say that we value being able to think for ourselves, the truth is that we are often uncomfortable standing up by ourselves for much of anything, from clothing styles to ideologies. There is safety in numbers, the natural world tells us. And we take this to heart.

Last month, I wrote a little bit about social proof. Social proof is in evidence every time a sports star's face appears on TV or in a magazine in an effort to sell you something that has absolutely no bearing on his or her sport. Social proof also shows up whenever you hear, "We're the best! But don't take our word for it! Listen to what our satisfied customers have to say..." And it works. It works because -- deep down, we really don't want to be all alone.

While it's true that this need for social acceptance can be detrimental to our health (What would you do if all your friends jumped off a bridge?), it can also act in beneficial ways.

Social proof has helped dramatically cut the number of smokers in this country. It has contributed to our awareness of things like childhood obesity, the dangers of hydrogenated fats, and environmental issues.

Horses, even more than humans, are creatures of the herd. They form a tightly-knit group that moves as one, and that relies on the "wisdom of we."

I love this video. It illustrates both the dangers and the benefits of being herdbound. A herd of over 100 horses were stranded on a small island after a storm. Several drowned in the bad weather. The island barely provided enough room for them all to stand on. People were bringing hay to them in boats, but the situation was clearly out of hand.

The water receded enough for them to reach dry land but they didn't know it. So they stood on their little patch of land. Open, grassy meadows were in sight, but not one was willing to go it alone.

Then, a group of women decided to show them what was possible. They rode their horses over to the little island and the entire herd followed them to safety. All it took was seeing what was possible. Still -- when one horse decided to vacate the island, every other horse backed him up and followed along.

Social proof in action. Sometimes all it takes to break out of a self-imposed, self-limiting space is realizing that someone else has done it and can show you the way.

Rider's Wednesday -- Shoulder-In, Shoulder-Fore...

...And Other Areas of Confusion

A friend of mine is studying for her upcoming certification test for the American Riding Instructor's Association. One of the areas of the test deals with the fine line between shoulder-fore and shoulder-in.

She's been having a bit of difficulty -- due, in large part, to the fact that the information out there is extremely confusing.

Some trainers say that "shoulder-fore is identical in movement to the shoulder-in -- only a less pronounced maneuver."

Some say that "shoulder-fore is a two-track maneuver (the horse's inside legs fall on one track, and the outside legs fall on another), while shoulder-in is a three-track maneuver (meaning that the horse's inside legs fall on one track, and the outside legs fall on another)."

Still others say that the "shoulder-fore is a two- or three-track maneuver, and the shoulder-in is a three- or four-track maneuver."

No wonder she's confused!

In an effort to clear some of the confusion (as opposed to contributing to it), here are some of the common threads that most reputable trainers agree on when discussing these maneuvers:

* Shoulder-fore is a pre-cursor to shoulder-in. Shoulder-in, in turn, is a pre-cursor to more advanced movements such as travers and renvers.

* When performing either a shoulder in or a shoulder-fore, the horse's head should be tipped in the direction in which he is traveling.

* Just tipping the horse's head does not constitute the movement. A correct shoulder-fore involves the horse's front end coming away slightly (no more than 5 degrees) from the outside rail.

* To perform either movement, the horse's front end must move toward the center of the ring. Moving his hindquarters toward the outside of the ring instead is not a correct execution of the maneuver.



After much online searching, it appears that the shoulder-fore is a relatively new term in classical riding. Some of my favorite, tried-and-true resources, such as Alois Podhajsky's Complete Training of Horse and Rider don't mention it.

Some of the best resources I found that described the maneuvers, explained how to differentiate one from another, and told how to best cue for them were the Shoulder-In lesson on the Classical Dressage site and an article by Shannon Dueck on Equisearch.com.

Happy riding!

List Building Webcast

Yesterday I mentioned list building and list management as important parts of an online business. I promised to talk more about the subject today, but -- as luck would have it -- I can let a true expert do it instead.

One of the marketing mailing lists that I'm on alerted me to a webcast that's online later today. Subject: List building. It's taught by someone who has impeccable real-world experience in the subject. It's also offered free of charge as a way to stress-test their software and format before an upcoming fee-based seminar starts.

It happens at 1:00 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST). So, if you're interested in hearing all aboout building a useable list and knowing what to do with one once you've got it, tune in later today...

Looking Forward

For the first time in years, I am deadline free. I took last week to finish up every single project I had on the books that was for someone else. I'm free! The upside of that is that I can finally work on my own things without feeling that I am slighting my clients or my projects in some way. The downside of course, is that no one is writing the checks...

I have also finished my final obligation with my last "low paying" client. This frees up even more time. But also creates a "monthly money I can count on" hole.

The next two weeks will be spent on a Carol of the Horse campaign that will continue through the first week in December, and on finishing up the product development of the new educational offerings. We're also looking at a complete re-design of the Muse Ink website, coordinating affiliates who want to participate in the "Carol" campaign, and researching the best way to continue to develop and manage our list.

(If Geoff's book campaign taught me anything, it brought home the importance of targeted lists. We're still wrestling with how to best compartmentalize our list into something useful, manageable, and easy to work with...) More on this subject tomorrow.

A portion of Thanksgiving vacation is earmarked for cleaning up my computer desktop and for renovating the blog. I've got a year and a half of stuff on here right now. Over 300,000 words! Yeesh! I'm going to streamline it, change the format a bit, and switch over to Blogger's Beta version that allows Tags.

Much to be done. But first -- I've got to run into town and buy horse feed. I may have no deadlines, but the animals still gotta eat!

Three Hour Training Revisited

I received the following e-mail from Steve Smith, the very talented clinician and trainer I wrote about on Wednesday. He pointed out that though I had opened up that post for comments, I hadn't turned off the password requirement. (Oooops!) Though that has since been remedied, I thought his comments on the Colt Starting Demos, and on training and education in general, deserved their own post:

Hi Ami,

I would like to comment a little about three hour colt starting demonstrations and competitions. First, I would like to thank you for your comments about my abilities as a horse trainer. It means a lot to me, and I thank you. Secondly, I feel the three hour colt starting competitions are primarily for demonstrating trainer’s techniques and styles of training and their ability to read a horse. Colt starting demonstrations are purely for entertainment. I believe some people hope to see a wreck while others, such as me, look at it as a learning opportunity. As I watch, I learn, and therefore my training ability increases.

I do agree with you on the amount a horse can learn in a single training session. The Road to the Horse has the training broken into two day sessions, which I think is really better for each horse. It allows the horse to absorb the training a little at a time. This reduces the risk of mental and physical stress on the horse. At our training facility in Kaufman, Texas, we start many colts each year. We break the lessons down for the colts, making sure they understand what we are asking them to do before we add additional lessons.

Colt starting demonstrations can be misleading to those who don’t understand horses well. There are those who have the misconception that a colt is broke and can be ridden the next day as though it is well trained, but to say a colt is broke after three hours of training is crazy. It takes time to train a horse well.


When I start a colt at a demonstration, I always tell the owner of the horse at the end of the day to realize the horse is not broke and should not be ridden the next day as though he is. I make sure the owner understands that although the horse has done well and come a long way in the training session, he can’t be considered well-trained. I encourage the owner to go back and break the training down for the horse with plenty of repetition to get the horse really solid at each exercise as his training progresses.

The most important thing to remember is to always put the horse first ahead of the competition. I really haven’t found evidence that a three hour colt starting hinders in any way the future training of a horse as long as you go back later and break the training down incrementally with a good step by step lesson plan. I recently did a three hour colt starting demo using a two year old quarter horse stallion in Missouri. Three weeks later, I was told by the person who coordinated the demo that the horse was doing very well. The owner had received several compliments from the stallion’s handlers mentioning how much better behaved and well- mannered the horse was.

In summation, three hour colt starting demos are fun, entertaining, and educational. I have learned a lot from the demos and trainers I have studied and apprenticed under. I pray that I am blessed with the opportunity to some day be a clinician at Road to the Horse.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this topic. If you have any questions or would like further information about our training, demos, or products, please call us at (903)498-4724, or email us at: cornerstoneranch@hotmail.com. You can also learn more about our business and facility at www.cornerstonehorsetraining.com.

Thanks,
Steve Smith

Short and Sweet

Yesterday, I committed what I initially thought was a faux pas only to learn a valuable lesson...

In one of my writing and marketing newsletters, I'd read about an online live forum that wanted speakers from the publishing world to talk about various topics. I'd begun composing an e-mail in which I suggested topics I thought might be worth discussing. After each topical suggestion, I provided a few short sentences explaining my qualifications to talk about it.

I had two topics written: "Successful Ghostwriting, Co-Authoring, and Collaborating," and "How to Be Your Book's Best Friend" (easy ways for authors to promote their titles without relying on the publisher to do it for them). I figured I had the e-mail half done. I wanted to re-read it, polish up a few things, come up with a suitable close, sign it and send it.

I thought I hit "Save Draft." When I heard the tell-tale whooosshh! of my mail program, I realized I'd inadvertently hit "Send."

"Oh well," the fatalist in me thought. "So much for that."

Thoroughly disgusted with myself (It wasn't even signed, for crying out loud! How unprofessional do you think THAT looks?), I turned back to work on another project.

Not even 15 minutes later, I received an answer from my Ooops! e-mail. They like the idea of having someone talk about ghostwriting and co-authoring. To the best of their knowledge, no one else has volunteered to speak on either topic. They're currently planning the line-up for the next year. I'll be hearing from them in the next few weeks.

!!!

I couldn't help myself. I wrote back to thank them for their prompt reply. I also explained what had happened earlier and apologized for sending an e-mail that ended so abruptly and that contained no signature.

Only a few moments later, I had the epiphany when they replied:

I didn't notice!! lol I'm a busy person and appreciate short, concise, e-mails that are to the point.

I've just got to remember this for future reference. For one thing, there is no need for lengthy e-mail queries. For another -- just look at the time I saved by NOT slaving over constructing the "perfect ending."

I'm not suggesting that sloppy work is somehow to be encouraged. I'm just saying I know I can benefit from taking the "short and sweet," get-in-and-get-out advice to heart! Perhaps I'm not the only one...

Rider's Wednesday -- Three Hour Training

A friend of mine is hoping to be accepted as a participant in the Road to the Horse competition. This is a more-or-less annual event in which three contestants each have three hours to do as much training as possible on an unbroken young horse. At the end of the contest, each takes his or her horse through a pre-determined series of maneuvers (walk, trot, canter on both leads, stop, turn left and right, back up, jump a low jump, drag an object...). They also get a short amount of time for "freestyle" -- their opportunity to show off any additional things they've accomplished with the horse.

Clinton has won the event two times in a row, and will defend his title this year against Chris Cox and Stacy Westfall. In the past, his freestyles have included standing on the horse's back while cracking a stock whip, shooting a gun, running a chainsaw, and firing up a leaf blower.

My friend who hopes to compete is very good. He's studied Clinton and other colt starters. He's competed in similarly structured colt starting competitions, and can do the chainsaw / leaf blower / firearm thing. He really wants to compete, and I hope he gets the opportunity...

But I can't help but wonder about the validity of this kind of event. When it comes to training anything -- a horse, a dog, my child, or me -- I'm a "slow and steady wins the race" kind of person.

When I start to learn something new, I get the most out of the process with a measured, methodical approach. Too much information dumped on me too soon just causes Full Brain Syndrome. After a certain point, I can't absorb any more information -- even if the instruction is coming from a world-class expert. I need time to process what I've learned, to assimilate it, and to "own" it.

When I teach writers of any age, I find that they learn best in smaller instructional doses. If I do a "Brain Dump" and deluge them with information, I end up wasting my time and theirs because they can't possibly take everything in at once. Throwing more information at them just to be able to say "I covered it" would do them a huge disservice. It would probably also result in demoralizing or overwhelming my students, rather than inspiring them to move to the next level in their writing.

I always wonder what happens to the horses used in these colt starting competitions after the event is over. In three hours, they have gone from "you can't put a halter on me" to horses that have been bridled and saddled -- then they've walked, trotted, cantered, jumped, backed, and stood quietly while small bombs were detonated around them. What happens next? Surely no one in his right mind would consider these colts trained.

I wonder how these colts respond the next time someone approached them with training tack. How to they react when saddled and bridled the next time? What sorts of mounts do they make a year or two down the road? Does their experience with Three Hour Training give them a jump on other horses of their age? Or does it actually cause a training road-bump further along in the process?

I usually don't allow comments posted on my blogs because I've had terrible problems with Comment Spam in the past. But I'd like to hear what other people have to say on this topic. I'll enable the Comments here as long as the spammers stay away.

Note: You'll notice the comments have been disabled. Some people never learn. See the post from November 15 for details...

I would especially like to hear from anyone who's had any experience with young horses that were a part of a colt breaking challenge. What do you think about them? If you're a fan, please explain why. If not -- why not, and what could be done to make a better demonstration of colt starting skills?