Ariel is a 7 year old Caspian Horse Mare. She was foaled in pasture and never handled until she ended up at our ranch to find a forever home. Her journey to us is as dramatic as it is remarkable. She lived in Canada until her owner died unexpectedly. It is not clear to me how she got to the horse auction, but a kindly horse lover rescued her and several of her friends before the butcher could get his hands on them. Thanks to kind and caring Caspian breeders, who banded together to place the members of the small herd where they could live out their lives in comfort, she ended up at our ranch. That’s where her story with us begins.

A horse is a horse,
of course, of course.
And Ariel’s a Caspian Horse,
of course.
She acts like a horse.
She trains like a horse.
She’ll have a wonderful life,
of course.

All of the same principles apply when training a Caspian horse or a horse with Trust issues as any other horse of any size or breed. The most important thing is to communicate clearly and consistently so that she can decipher what we want her to do and predict the outcome. Trust is built one baby step at a time. Training is advanced one baby step at a time. In this series of videos you can see her progress from Wildling to a small horse who enjoys affection and seeks it out from her human companions (OOPS. SPOILER ALERT).

You might also note throughout our training process that we do not “tie” our horses. We like to work with as little constraint on the horse as possible so that they feel they can move around to a comfort level even as they are being asked to do something specific. Of course, safety is important. But most horses are less dangerous if given some freedom of movement than hog-tied and constrained, which triggers a “fight or flight” reaction.

In the first video, Ariel is dirty. She’s a little thin. Her mane is knotted and stringy. We could not get anywhere near her. For 6 months we were content to just let her settle in and become one of our small herd, but we soon found that we were unable to attend to her needs without some way to handle her without trauma. No teeth exams, no feet trimmed, no mane groomed, no hand-worming or blood draws. We simply had to find a way to handle her.

Conveniently, we got her to run down a 20 ft wide run into a make-shift round pen (not very comfortable to work in, but adequate). There we started our introduction.

When I walked into the middle of the pen for the first time, she was so frightened that she took off running the fence like a maniac. I made my body small. I looked away from her. Nothing helped for several minutes. Finally, she slowed down a little and eventually stopped. I backed away. Any movement whatsoever was pressure.

Ariel was a real challenge. Such exaggerated trust issues are not usual. Rose and I worked through her training routines with great care and planning.

Week 1 & 2 For the first week, we did little more than just visit, go to the center of the round pen, talk, move our body, and generally start an introduction. This movie is taken a week after we started moving her. Because she was frightened, she moved with very little pressure. She trotted around the edge. When she stopped, we stopped the pressure immediately to show her that standing still is pressure-free. She has learned to stay on the fence, move when she is told, and generally stop with her face to us. She’s no longer “freaked out” by our presence. She keeps her attention on us, but we can’t get near enough to even think about putting a halter on her. In fact, we have found out that she is very adept at biting and kicking when we reach for her – no matter how slowly or carefully. (Read Fight or Flight”)

By the start of week 2-3, she was no longer trotting around in this inconvenient space. But we could still not get the halter on her. So we eventually guided her into a small triangular pen where we could reach in and mount it on her face. She was not squeezed down, just confined enough that we could reach her face. Then we had to teach her to give to the pressure of the halter so that she would walk with us. That just required one “pulling-pressure” exercise that took about 10 minutes. She is smart.

Wearing her 4-knot rope halter, she was settled into a large outdoor stall where we could get closer to her. Other horses could come to the fence to talk to her. Human traffic around the stall was plentiful. Her handler could feed her up close and personal. We left the halter on so that we could avoid a struggle every time we wanted to work with her.

There was much asking permission, cajoling, low talking, approaching and retreating to get the lead attached to her halter each day. Biting was an issue. Biting is frequently a sign of fear, so pressuring her was not the answer. It was a slow process every day.

Once the lead was attached, she was easy to handle. We took her to the better round pen for a couple of 5-10 minute sessions of round-penning so that she could learn more formally to stand still and face us. Unless she can do that, there is no way to really communicate with her.

She caught on quickly. (The dressage whip is not actually striking her. Just the noise of its action is enough to keep her galloping).

After her round penning practice, we spent many days just leading her around the paddock/pasture/ranch like man’s best friend. No touching. No pressure at all. Time in our presence and time to reflect.

Week 5 She’s very respectful of the halter when it has a lead attached. She goes anywhere with no problems. However, she will not relax enough to graze on succulent green grass or wander a foot away. She is a statue. She has never actually joined with us, so the question is, “Is she developing a veneer over a powder keg”, or will she relax over the long term?”

We spent a lot of time sitting in the grass while she had the opportunity to graze. Our small sitting posture gave her more confidence. Eventually she lowered her head enough to be tempted to take a nibble here and there. We left her to graze by herself, dragging her lead.

We must be able to get the lead on her each day. It’s quite a game of approach and retreat in her stall with the stick and hand before she allows the lead. We have to be very careful of her nip. It hurts. And we don’t want to reprimand for it – just make it unnecessary.

Week 7. Two weeks of pressure-free time with us. Walking, talking, sitting, just communing. Rose is developing a relationship with her over these weeks. But even SHE can only give her a short forehead rub now and again. We need to be able to approach and touch Ariel, but she is still not tolerant of any touching. It’s also still a struggle to get the lead on her, even in her small stall. Rose must now begin a more structured de-sensitizing process.

We start with the stick and string because Ariel is very prone to bite or kick (or both) if she is pressured too much too fast. Hands are her enemy. (It’s actually unusual that she would tolerate the forehead rub before other touching.) In just a couple of sessions, she progresses from “jumping like she’s been shot” to total tolerance of the tools.

She’s learning to learn, and it all started with learning to stand still so that she could study the situation without panic. Her amygdala is quieter (fight or flight). Her frontal cortex is engaged (reasoning), her limbic system (emotions) is growing quieter so that her nervous system can recover after each new experience.

Week 9 She has started to graze a little in our presence. And she has free time to graze on her own. She tolerates being touched by the stick on most of her body and rubbed on the forehead by Rose. She is still apprehensive of human approach or human interaction – especially if it is outside the round pen or a person she does not know.

This video is long because it is a real-time look at her first touch by our hands. From the very beginning HANDS have been her enemy. Ten minutes! THIS Ten minutes toward a life of gentle bonding, caring and trust. Watch it all if you can. From this moment, she was ready for some grooming, and we were able to take that horrible mat out of her mane. She seems to really like the feel of the mane brush on her back and withers, buttocks and even her front legs.

Week 10 Ariel has several hours a day of community with other little horses when she is both inside and outside her enclosure in the pasture. A significant amount of her time with us is outside of the round pen – working in the grassy areas. Lots of new experiences in the grass from now on.

She seems to like grooming. She lowers her head and half-closes her eyes. She licks and chews, relaxing her face and neck. She has even let me use the mane brush all of the way down her front legs to the top of the hoof. That’s quite an accomplishment for a here-to-fore seemingly forever-wild little horse who has never had her feet touched.

And it bodes well for her next step: allowing us to pick up her feet.

Week 10 Ariel has calmed down tremendously and even seems to be enjoying attention if given lovingly and slowly. Now we’d like to de-sensitize her to having her feet handled. She’s not ready for us to bend down next to her and try it with our hands. She can kick or turn and bite in a fraction of a second.

To approach her, we looped the rope around her foot at the pastern, getting her used to touch in that area as well as pulling the foot up with the rope and then letting it drop when she has complied. She calmed and became cooperative fairly quickly. After about two weeks of practice, she’s a pro.

Her REAR feet are a different matter. She is super-sensitive to having them handled. That makes sense since she was so wild and un-handled. Taking away her ability to run and causing her to feel trapped triggers a severe “fight or flight” reaction. We used the same method to lift her rear feet as the front feet, but had to make our approach more subtle. You can see in the movie that she reacted dramatically to the rope at first. Using our handy stick, we slowly de-sensitized her hocks and pasterns to touch. That kept us out of her kick and bite zone. Then we used the rope again to lift her rear feet in the same way we did her front.

In the end, she calmed and trusted. Over the next 3 weeks Rose handled her feet at every lesson until it became commonplace.

Week 12 ? It’s time to trim her feet. They have been unkempt and in bad shape the whole time we have worked with her. But her relationship with Rose is blossoming.

You can see in the hoof-trimming video that the practice has made perfect. Ariel got her feet trimmed for the very first time without trauma or drama!! She practically slept through the whole procedure.

Her training continues at a rapid pace. See her work until she can be mounted on the next page:
No Trouble With Ariel

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