I have for some time tried as well as I could, to read the individual when training horses, instead of sticking on to some special method that is supposed to solve all problems. Some horses need dressage to get to their best level, other need round-penning, other need clicker-training, other need a kick in the arse etc. etc. Now last summer I was studying LTJ teqhnicues, and now I am training a youngster and being quilty of herecy in almost all training methods : )
The thing is, that I was starting a young icelandic palomino horse. In november I got to these conclusions: He is really rather clever but he is raised in a herd without any contact to humans exept being fed hay in a large pasture a few months every winter. So, he tries his best, but he is just sooo afraid of being touched, and hates the confinement of the barn, being used to the freedom of the hills.
So what have we been doing the week since we started training him? Well, to begin with, I started putting a body rope on him, in a very small pen, and touching him (untied) all over with a wand (like Tellington-Jones does). He tolerated it for a while, but then he suddenly felt too enclosed and began kicking nonstop, not meanly, just frustrated, and I yelled inside my head "help, those damn american methods are going to kill me one day", as it took me several minutes to get out of the pen without a broken bone : ) Well, I reached to his halter and got it after a few tries, put him in his stall and did lots of Ttouches for a while. But, since he was tied and fighting the rope, this wasn't doing much to relax him, and he didn't dare to lower his head. I couldn't lead him or have him untied, as he would have run off then and even kicked me by the way. So, this wasn't reaching his heart,and I went home and thought.
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The palomino
The next day I round-penned him in a longeing-line, as I do not have a round pen. After a while he joined up, and I could lead him, a bit hesitant, around in the pen. After that, I did lots of Ttouches, and now he accepted them and relaxed a bit. He was though very vary, didn't want to lower his head and was extremely tight-lipped when I did mouth-work.
I went home and thought. The next 4 days I longed him, so he learned commands like trot, walk, whoa and turn, and learned to have his feet picked up. He now tolerated the touches and the wand, and I did some Team-groundwork, and some "normal" groundwork after the longeing, because it relaxes his nerves to spend some of his energy. But the worry wrinkles around his eyes were deep, he was not happy, merely tolerating.
I went home and thought. I decided to start clicker-training. He got the idea very fast, but the only treat he wanted to accept was the old crummy hay I am feeding him, he hasn't realised that some exotic things like grain and grasspellets are edible, just pushes them away in his stall.
Well, now we went for a walk in the pen, and did lots of the same groundwork as in the last days. He knew the groundwork already, but I clicked for every improvement in relaxation, and got it quickly. So, the worry wrinkles lessened, and he was more relaxed in the groundwork and during the Ttouches. He is doing a rather quick adaption, but the funny thing is, that I can not thank any one training method for where I am today. He learned to be led through round-penning. He learned to tolerate touching and to be lead in other ways through Team-work. He learned voice commands and to obey the lead in turning through longeing. He softened his eyes and learned more relaxation through combination of Ttouches and clicking.
So, I am a very happy trainer, with a horse that is getting happyer every day. I am going to keep on doing those same things untill he is beginning to trust me very much, and look forward to my company, wether that takes a week or a month, before starting him under saddle. All of theese methods are helping the horse to turn from being a bundle of nerves to being a companion. So maybe no one way is the only, true, golden way to a higher level in horsemanship, exept the way of learning and experimenting and trying. While I keep an open mind to use everything that can help the horse to learn and understand, the goal is that the horse understands people in general, not just me. Natural horsemanship methods can be used in such a way that the horse's next rider will get in no conflicts with the horse, even though that rider has only learned traditional methods. That is the main goal, a satisfied rider on a satisfied horse, the ways to get to the goal can though be as different as the horses are many. Lukka.