Natural Horsemanship, Tricks or Manners?

S

S_F_S

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Have been prompted to post this thread after someone watched me handling my mare this afternoon and commented in relation to NH.

So here's a brief description of what they saw - NH, Tricks or just helpful manners?


Go to field, call horse over - she comes instantly usually at a trot or canter, (thankfully) skidding to a stop before me. From there on she will walk quietly by my side to the stable - with a headcollar on but rope over her neck. I don't lead her, unless there is an obvious danger ie moving farm machinery in which case I wouldn't take the risk.

At the yard, I drop rope to the floor and she will 'park' herself by the tap on the wall. She will pick up her feet and allow me to pull them towards the running tap, and will stand still whilst I am scrubbing mud off with my hands. I can move her legs whereever I need to to get them under the stream of water.

Rope back over her neck, and she will follow me up to her stable, where drop rope to the floor and she will stand still whilst I groom, tack up whatever. I tie up if other horses are moving on the yard but she acutally fidgets more if tied to the wall!

When she's in her stable and I need to get in/out/in - for example filling up water buckets - I can leave her door wide open, and she won't leave her stable.

Loose, she will move back, forward and over side to side off my body language without touching her - for example back I point a finger to her breastbone and say back. I dont have to be physically close to her or touch her to move her around.


In my eye, my horse just has good manners. I have never tried to teach her anything, she has just picked up that that is how I expect her to behave. I haven't thought of it as clever tricks or NH until someone pointed it out to me.
Funnily enough the mare will pull horrendous faces at the weekend staff and they are quite wary of handling her. I would not say she is an easy horse to handle - having seen how she treats other people, and she can have her moments and some days becomes "fine then, I won't groom you if you're going to eat me!"



Whats your opinion - and can your horse do any tricks/has good manners/do NH, whatever you look at it as?
 
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One of mine, not backed at the time, got cut off on a beach with me and let me climb on board and swim for it. A friend who saw the whole thing remarked that it was a good job I did NH with her, or she would never have let me on board. I didn't do NH with her. At least, not knowingly.

I don't know the answer to that question. The most NH type lessons I ever had were from a BHS instructor in her sixties; she didn't call it NH. She called it common sense.
 
I view that as how horses should behave. All of mine have.
This is why I get annoyed with all the NH labels. No it's not some wonderfull new idea called natural horsemanship.......its just horsemanship which has been around for more years than I have ;)
 
My horse does these things too, because that's what I've trained him to do. He didn't come knowing these things, and he wasn't born knowing them. I trained him because, reading NH stuff, I could see why it was desirable to have a horse trained that way.

I don't think horses have a concept of "good manners", they do what they've been trained to do - it's nothing to do with respect, it's plain and simple training.

Although I could see the advantage of training the things recommended by NH people, I don't use NH training methods, I use clicker training. There's more than one way to train to achieve the same end.

Mostly (and it does annoy me a little), I get comments like "how lucky you are to have such an easy horse" :rolleyes: It's nothing to do with luck, and he's no easier than any other horse, just had more training than some.
 
It's just good horsemanship and a polite well trained horse. What NH does, and where other more mainstream training systems often fall down, is give people a clear route to those kind of results.

Both mine do similar stuff. It's a case of being clear about what you expect and having an idea about how to ask for it in a kind but effective way.
 
sounds like good manners to me.. i also wouldn't call it NH. i often fling the leadrope over dawn's neck when leading and once inside the shed she has head collar off and i work with her without a headcollar and leadrope. i can grab the base of her neck/mane if she starts to walk off and she will stop from that. and i can do the rest with her loose. if tacking up i tend to tie her up but not always.
harry hasn't got quite the same manners but its getting there with me - but as you say, with other people its a different story.
 
Its just good manners to me. When I moved yards it suprised me how many people would not muck out, groom etc in the stable with their horse, as it is something I have always done, and my horse has learnt to accept it. When I'm mucking out around him, if i walk infront of him (between him and his hay) and say "shift back" He will move back as far as I want him to, then wait till i've swept the area and moved away then he can go back. I work behind him and step to either side of him and just say either "shift" lol or "over" and he will step across, no touching required.

I was greeted one day by another livery who raved about how good his manners were, because, even when he has his hay :)eek: exclamation here) if she needed to open his door to get to the shared light switch, he would move right back, let her in to switch on the light and wait for his door to be shut again before he advanced towards his hay. I thought "yes of course he does" but apparently its not the norm! :D
 
tonight i was discussing a potential new horse advertised as would benifit from experiance/nh home, when asked if i practiced nh i said no i practice my ways which seem to work


what you described is manners, snappers the same i say back she takes a step back,. leading i have the rope but shes by my shoulder i stop she stops i quicken ect so does she, i also taught her that dropping the rope means stand,

i expect any horse to have manners, half a tone of horse is a danger, be it the quietest or most evil.

i guess if we want to think about the nh ways, then actually what is happening is that in fact the horses do see us as the leader, but also like us. if that makes sence?
 
this reminded me of a very good breeder i know of round here (who's a friend) to watch him you would say he uses NH and that he is very good at it.

He DOESN'T (well not knowingly) but he is a very good horseperson who uses intuition and common sense as well as being knowledgeable.

tbh i think that is all 'good' NH is.

I don't practise NH i like to think i practise common sense and have a idea of horses behaviour and 'what makes them tick'

S_F_S .........i always try to remember there was always 'NH techniques/ideas/intuition' BEFORE there was NH lol:D:p
 
it's what I'd expect from any horse I was working with. Whether you wish to spend the money on PP or just common sense I suppose it's what most methods are aiming for.
 
Trouble is common sense is all relative and based on the experience and belief structures of the individual. It won't always be enough. I'm not into all the hard sell but I do think that NH does have a part to play for anyone who lacks knowledge or is having problems and wants to get from where they currently are (rude or problem horse) to where they want to be (happy cooperative polite horse above).

I agree there's only one good horsemanship though.
 
I've always done that with Mayo, never use a rope when getting him up into the yard from the field, he stands in his spot, waits for his feed. Lets me brush him etc. pick out his hooves with out a halter on and so on. Thats come as a result of him putting his trust in me, although I do NH, him coming when called etc. is just because we trust and respect each other, not because I've trained him to do it as a trick or through NH. So I'd say it comes as a result of a good relationship:)
 
PrincessCrowhop said:
Maybe a little of everything! It sounds like your horse really respects you!
Click to expand...

I was going to say - you both must have the upmost of respect for each other. I know some have said its not NH but bonding/respecting each other like this could be seen as a NH method - there are so many out there - you just have your own method without even realising it! whats not natural about that heh:D
 
My horse appears to have good manners and what annoys me more than anything is people commenting on the fact as though it is natural to him. It isn't, it has been bl**dy hard work, yes he ties up, leads, moves out of my way generally respects my space., but I started off with a horse that wouldn't lead, wouldn't tie, barged with his head, tried to trap you between him and the wall, wouldn't stand to get on, didn't listen when on etc etc.
He isn't perfect though, a few weeks ago let a friend ride him whilst I was away, never happened, cow kicked, bit her arm and couldn't get the saddle on or him to pick up his feet. Wish I'd been there, have either made him into a one person horse, or he wasn't handled well, so maybe he's not got good manners, has just got used to the way I handle him.
 
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