Ask A Teamster: Go Away

by Dr. Doug Hammill D.V.M. of Montana

Doc,

I received both volume I and II (of the videos) and have really enjoyed them both. I hope to someday attend one of your workshops. If you have time I have a couple of questions for you.

Like you, I was taught the conventional, and sometimes heavy handed, methods of handling and training horses. I have been lucky enough to own horses that taught me that those methods never work in the long run. I have been trying to get my hands on all the gentle or natural horsemanship literature that I can. I am starting a young Haflinger that I hope to use in harness. He is 17 months now and really loves being around people. I really want to train him as gentle as possible but I have run into a few roadblocks. I have used the round pen but I’m really afraid that I might over use it! He has a good head but has a very short attention span. He is so desensitized to stimulation (flags, tarps, etc) that I have a hard time putting enough pressure on him to move him.

The other problem is getting him to stand still when tied. He moves in all directions, as much as the lead rope will allow.

I have sought other trainers in my area and haven’t had much luck. They want to use a stud chain and I won’t allow that. They say that the round pen is a fad and are stuck in the “we just need to show them who’s boss” way of doing things. I feel like the idea of gentle horsemanship still hasn’t caught on here in the East! I moved from Oregon (military transfer) last year where I had more than a handful of folks to talk to about gentle methods. I know you’re a busy man but any hints you may be able to offer would be greatly appreciated.

I look forward to you putting out another video; how about a round pen, colt starting, training for harness? Thanks for your time and have a safe and happy summer.

Russ Torgerson
Mays Landing, NJ

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Hello Russell,

With respect (no pun intended) to your Haflinger, it is very common for folks to have their horses so friendly, gentle and desensitized to stimuli that they cannot drive them away in the round pen. Typically this comes from concentrating on getting them gentle, without balancing it with gaining their respect and getting them to accept us as the leader or dominant partner – a prerequisite to getting them to do as we ask – whether they want to or not. And, while most people entice or teach their horses to come to them, many do not teach their horses to go away when they ask them to.

I am not talking about establishing and maintaining our dominance and getting them to respect us, and choose to do as we ask out of fear or distrust. In some respects we do need to “show them who’s boss”, but I no doubt differ from the trainers you mention with regard to just how that can best be accomplished. I prefer to become a trusted boss (leader) with a strong bond of friendship, rather than a boss (leader) that horses obey because I am forceful, mean, or hurt them if they don’t do as I ask. I highly recommend the following books by Mark Rashid: Horses Never Lie, A Good Horse Is Never A Bad Color, Considering The Horse, and Life Lessons From A Ranch Horse. Mark describes what he calls a passive leader who earns other horse’s respect and devotion in non-confrontational ways, not by being mean and hurting them. Mark has a wonderful way of sharing his horsemanship philosophy and techniques through stories and by relating his experiences. Another book I use and recommend is From My Hands To Yours, by Monty Roberts. This book focuses on the language of horses, using their language to communicate with them and get them to do as we wish – and Monty’s method of round pen work.

The techniques used to get horses to go away (in the round pen and elsewhere) are based on using their language and predator like behavior to ask/ tell them to go away. By using the following go away messages, and combining them, as necessary, into progressively stronger communications we can usually drive most horses away: starring the horse in the eye; facing straight at him; arms up and out with fingers extended and spread; moving the arms with predator-like motions; aggressive, predator-like posture and body movements; pursuing the horse and tossing a soft rope towards him (but never causing pain with it); shaking a plastic grocery bag on a stick (a very strong stimulus), etc.However, if such attempts are repeatedly unsuccessful, as sometimes occurs with ultra-gentle horses like yours, it may be necessary to actually help the horse learn to go away when asked in more subtle, step by step ways. Trying to scare them often doesn’t work because they are so trusting, and because going away has not been requested and enforced on a daily (or at least frequent) basis. Trust is essential, but it must be balanced with respect and compliance with our requests. And they won’t necessarily learn “go away” if we don’t ask for it, help them learn it, and then practice and require it on a regular basis.

All of my horses learn to go away on command at the same time that they learn to come when I call them, and to follow me voluntarily. This creates a balance. I make it a point to practice these things with them on a daily basis as I feed and care for them as well as when working with them. Then, when I tell them to go away and do laps while they reconsider the options in the round pen (as a consequence of their being uncooperative, unresponsive, or noncompliant) they understand and comply. Horses do this among themselves in their social interactions all the time. The first things a foal learns from it’s mother are to come when she calls it, to follow her, and to go away when she asks. When a dominant horse (or person) asks a submissive horse to go away it can be done in an aggressive, mean way and enforced with force and pain, or it can be asked for and enforced in non-violent ways if the horse (or person) doing the asking is so inclined – and skilled enough to be successful. Every minute we spend with our horses is training time whether we realize it or not. We might as well be doing conscious, positive training rather than unconsciously training in negative ways.

In my opinion. gentle horsemanship and appropriately used round pen techniques are not just “a fad”. They are ancient highly effective horsemanship techniques based on communicating and interacting with horses using their language, logic, reasoning, and psychology – not ours. They have been employed with amazing success throughout the centuries in all cultures with horses. The philosophies, principles, and techniques are definitely learnable. However, being successful with these so called gentle, natural, non-confrontational, etc. techniques takes a serious commitment to learning and practicing them. Many horse people and trainers are not willing to make the changes in their attitude and approach, and the investment in learning new ways, necessary to become truly effective with this amazing, timeless system of horsemanship. It’s easy to slip back into familiar patterns of impatience, harshness, and/ or force when confronted with challenges we don’t yet know how to handle the gentle/natural way.

Overuse of the Round pen:

In my opinion a person can definitely over-use round pen techniques, and misuse them in other ways as well. This commonly occurs when people have limited “horse language” communication skills, and limited understanding of how to progress and succeed using round pen techniques. I consider the roundpen to be a private conference room in which I present a horse with choices and encourage him to discuss, negotiate, and try out those different choices with me. When he makes the choice I want him to make, coming to me for example, he experiences positive, comfortable consequences. On the other hand, if he decides not to come to me or goes away, the consequence is less positive and comfortable – but never harsh, painful, nor fear inducing. The choices I want him to make are set up so as to be made easy, and the others designed to be more difficult. It’s a place where the mental/psychological/ emotional process of making a choice, evaluating the results (consequences) of that choice, and then having the opportunity to re-choose again, takes place. As the process continues the horse learns to consistently make the choices I ask him to make without being forced into it. The ultimate goal, of course, is to develop a partnership with the horse in which I am the leader and he is the follower, I ask and he does.

We risk overusing the round pen in several ways. One of the most common is when we miss, or misinterpret, communications from a horse that indicate he’s ready to consider accepting us and our terms. If we don’t recognize his offer and thereby fail to respond promptly and appropriately to it, he may decide it’s pointless to try to communicate and cooperate with us – at least for a time. We risk overusing/misusing the round pen if we keep a horse going around the pen (driving him away) in spite of his efforts to tell us that he is ready to consider cooperating, and perhaps accepting us as his leader/boss. If he asks for a different option besides going away and doing laps around the pen, we need to recognize that he’s asking, and promptly give him another choice – that being the thing we really wanted him to do all along. We all miss or misinterpret messages from horses at times, but if it happens too often it can cause the round pen experience to be a negative training experience, rather than a positive one. If we get stalled out and are not making reasonable progress with a horse in a round pen or elsewhere, it’s usually best to stop, analyze the situation, figure out why things aren’t working, and make a change before continuing.

At other times we may fail at communicating our request to the horse in a way that is clear and understandable to him. If he doesn’t understand what we are asking of him he simply cannot co-operate and comply. Continuing to push a horse around and around the pen when he does not/cannot understand what we want of him, will likely cause him to become confused, bored, less co-operative, resentful, or perhaps even to fight or freeze (sulk).

Above all, I believe the round pen is grossly misused when it is employed to physically tire a horse into submission. I don’t want the type of a partnership where my horse chooses to do as I ask because he’s too worn out to resist, or fears he will be physically stressed or hurt if he doesn’t.

Sure, gentle round pen techniques involve putting the horse to work going around the pen to encourage him to accept our leadership, cooperate with us, and do as we ask. And we send him around some more at appropriate times when he chooses not to co-operate and comply with our requests. In my opinion, we should be working primarily with the horse’s mind and creating a subtle, but clear, understanding that he has choices and will not be forced to do as we ask. But also, that there will be gentle/natural consequences every time he chooses not to cooperate with us and do as we request. Hopefully, we send him away to encourage him to compare in his mind, the relative comfort of cooperating with us and receiving our approval, kind words, and gentle treatment; with the relative discomfort of being driven away, isolated, and moving pointlessly around in circles. I’m not saying that physical exercise and work are not good for a horse.

Exercise is essential for horses. When reasonably combined with working first and foremost with the horse’s mind, physical activity and work promotes cooperative, healthy, happy horses. When we work successfully with a horse’s mind he learns to make the choices we want him to make more and more easily, comfortably, and consistently.

It’s also common for novices to repeat the same things too long, and/ or too often, at the risk of boring the horse. As we accomplish a small task or step with a horse it’s best to reinforce it a time or two, then move on to another baby step, but then frequently go back and review and reinforce the previous lessons for variety and to perfect them. This way we can gradually build a solid foundation while keeping the horse’s attention and interest. Horses learn by repetition, and consistent repetition is a key to developing safe dependable horses. However, too much repetition all at one time can sour a horse. I feel it’s also important to give the horse short time outs periodically. Taking your attention off the horse and giving him a short break at an appropriate time (after a success or breakthrough) will allow you both to return to work with a fresh attitude. During a recent round pen training workshop an attendee, assuming I had chosen to give the horse a break for some ingenious reason, asked me what that reason was. Far from being ingenious my reply was, “Because I’m out of breath.” Mental, psychological, emotional, and physical time outs are important for both us and our horses – at appropriate times. We can always pick up where we left off, or back up and work our way forward again as necessary.

I find it important to have a variety of alternative techniques (creative tricks) to employ when the methods that work so well for the professionals, and are suppose to work for the rest of us, don’t. I’m not suggesting that we not continue to practice and perfect the techniques that work so slick and quick for the pros, but we may need alternative ways of getting unstuck at times when we’re stuck.

Getting your colt to move away from you:

When driving a horse away in the round pen I start with a weak “go away” message, then add stronger and stronger messages as necessary to get him to promptly move away around the pen. Then, as he goes around I adjust my “go away” messages to his response. If he moves out willingly I weaken the message a bit, if he shows signs of slowing, stalling out or resisting, I increase the intensity of the “go away” messages. The purpose of using the weakest message (or combination) that will produce the desired response is that we can save our stronger stimuli for when we really need them, and don’t desensitize the horse to them prematurely – thereby ending up with nothing left that works. I also use the speed and jerky-ness of my movements as greater or lesser stimuli by using the fastest and most erratic body language only when I really need it. Likewise with the aids and tools I use – throwing a soft rope, kicking up dirt or shavings, waving my hat or bandana, waving a long pole and raking it along the fence, or flicking and snapping a stick with a plastic grocery bag attached. Constant variation is often necessary with horses that are so desensitized to various stimuli as to be difficult to drive away. Using any stimulus too long, or too often, can predictably cause the horse to become habituated to and accepting of it. With horses like yours who have become super desensitized and hard to chase away we must often become very creative. It’s also important to make sure we are using multiple messages as necessary – constant eye on eye contact, constant facing straight at them with our body, maintain the position relative to the horse that gives you the greatest chance of causing them to go away (4 o’clock or 8 o’clock position – with their head being at 12 o’clock, rear at 6), arms out and up with fingers extended and spread, arms moving erratically from time to time as necessary, etc.

It is not uncommon for people to have trouble making horses go away due to the fact that they are sending mixed (conflicting) messages to the horse. They may be throwing a soft rope and making half-hearted rushes at the horse, shaking a stick and plastic bag, or kicking up dirt, but in many other ways their body language, attitude, emotions and energy are telling the horse not to go away, and that they are not serious. This is a form of lying to our horses. On the other hand, it is a mistake to get impatient, mad or mean about it. We need to be assertive and clear and let the horse know in no uncertain terms that going away is one choice, and being gently but persistently harassed and irritated is the other.

A horse can be trained to go away, rather than being scared away, just as he can be trained to come to us, or stay with us, or let us put a harness on him. Remember, the first things a mare teaches her foal are to come when she calls, to follow her, and to back off and move away from her when she asks. Later other more dominant members of the herd expect the same things from subordinate horses. Why should it be any different with us? I work at training and requiring my horses to come to me, to follow me (without halter or lead), and to go away, during my various daily interactions with them. With a highly desensitized, trusting horse it may be necessary to clearly ask him to go away in horse language combined with other necessary stimulation, and then reward his taking even one step away. How do we reward it? By simply taking the pressure off (just a bit), and letting him know he has made the right choice by saying “good boy” just once or twice. If we go to the extreme of going over and rubbing him and making over him we will likely undo what we have just accomplished, and short circuit this early stage of his learning to “go away” when asked. To help him learn to go away when asked we need to find a combination of body language and other stimuli that will cause the horse to take that first step away, or two or three, and then reward it. At first accept just a step or two, reward it, and walk away. Leave the pen so the horse cannot come to you, as that would send the wrong message at this time.

Return after a few minutes and repeat the process. Do not let the horse approach you, do not say anything to him, and come into the round pen with “go away” written all over you. Gradually, build on this beginning literally training him to “go away” a step or two at a time until the horse will respond consistently and go away farther. Look for opportunities in your everyday tasks and interactions with your horse to practice go away, and don’t forget to balance it, from time to time, with come, stay, and follow me. However, emphasize “go away” since that seems to be the most needed lesson since the horse is over-programmed to come to you and stay with you, and underprogrammed with respect to going away.

Getting your horse to stand quietly:

There could be a number of factors responsible for your colt not being able to stand still when tied. Ultimately figuring it out and helping him overcome it and stand will depend on the reason why he cannot stand still. Several questions come to mind: Is he getting hot feed and too little exercise? Is he being tied in a way that he can move around on too long a rope? Are you making allowances for the impatience of youth? Does he move when you are there with him, or just when he is left alone? Will he stand if a quiet horse is tied nearby? Is he impatient because he wants to get back to other horses, a more familiar/comfortable place, feed, etc? Does he start moving as soon as he is tied, or later? How long do you leave him tied to see if he will calm down? Will he stand quietly with you when he is not haltered? Does he “pull back” on the halter rope or just move around on a loose rope?

In any case, if he won’t already do it, I recommend teaching him to stand quietly with you in the round pen, and then working on standing tied later. My goals in the round pen include getting the horse to choose to stay with me, follow me, move when I move, stop when I stop, etc. – all without a halter or rope on him. However, don’t ask him to stand and wait too long at first. Early on when the two of you stop and stand it may be challenging to keep his attention for very long before he becomes distracted. So do something with him while he stands there. Rub him all over to test his comfort with that, pick up his feet, rope him out, and frequently ask him to follow you a short distance before standing again, etc. If, at any time, he chooses to move about or leave you (without permission), he qualifies for being driven away and put to work around the pen. Work towards having him stand for longer periods between the distracting things you do so that his attention stays with you longer and longer as you progress. Timing is important (as always), the goal is to do something to keep his attention just before it wanders elsewhere, not after he has become distracted and moved around or left you. Sometimes keeping or regaining his attention can be as simple as snapping your fingers, clapping your hands, clearing your throat, then immediately asking him to do something such as follow you, let you pick up a foot, etc. Gradually you can work up to extended periods of quiet standing. Ultimately, I want a horse to stand quietly for as long as I ask. Be aware, however, that if our attention wanders from the horse, we have effectively dismissed him from class. If your mind and attention drifts from him to other thoughts don’t be surprised if he ignores you and moves or leaves you – and if this happens don’t blame him.

It’s also important to remember that things learned in the roundpen must also be practiced and reinforced in various other environments to create a solid foundation and dependability outside the round pen. Most horses are smart enough to figure out that it’s easier to beat the system in other shapes and sizes of enclosures, and especially in large areas and open spaces. When I first work a horse or mule outside the round pen (usually after one to three roundpen sessions) I like to use a pen or corral adjacent to the roundpen. That way I can quickly and easily return to the roundpen if things aren’t working well in the new location.

With respect to your suggestions for future videos – we just finished filming our first videos in a series on Gentle Horse Training. Fundamentals 3 in our driving and working horses in harness series, and our second children’s video have been filmed as well. They will be available as soon as we can get them edited and produced.

I hope you find some of this helpful. I commend you for your interest in and commitment to using gentle horsemanship, and I thank you, as I’m sure your horse does, for rejecting the stud chain.

Doc Hammill, DVM

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Doc Hammill lives on a ranch in Montana. He and his partner Cathy Greatorex help people learn about gentle/natural horsemanship and driving and working horses in harness – through writing, workshops, demonstrations, lectures, and his horsemanship video series. www.DocHammill.com