Sakima – What a Journey

Time cannot matter when you work with your horse.

I know that because my wild brumby has taken 10 long days to achieve what others would achieve in 2 days.

There is one big difference I have done it without violence and my brumby has had a choice. Most of my work has been done at liberty where no halter or rope constrained his responses.

I want my wild boy to enjoy his introduction to domestication, not endure it if he has no choice. My decision to take this non violent path is a lonely journey and there are only a few who believe and practice this path. So much tradition dictates the way we “break” a horse and this is what it is. The horses’ spirits are broken. They will comply but the rider or handler will never have a true bond.

For the doubters all I say is: “let your horse go and see whether it will come to you and work with you at liberty”. Then you truly know whether you have the trust and bond with the horse so many of us desire. No halter, no bridle and you will see the true nature of your relationship.

When I do ask Sakima to work with the halter and rope, the rope is usually hanging on the ground or loosely slung over my arm. He still has a choice even when I have a rope and halter on him. For me the rope and halter don’t represent a control mechanism but a communication method. I take up the slack in the rope and ask him to move forward or forequarter yield. It is not a control to stop a flight response. My hand is always open; I never use the death grip on him that I see other trainers use.

When I put too much pressure on or did not communicate effectively he rapidly left me fleeing as his natural instinct took over.

I knew I had made a poor communication call and simply went to him and restarted. This time taking care to communicate more softly. Horses are so forgiving and give us second, third and fourth chances. He understood I was learning as well as him and each time I made a move that set his flight response in motion I just had to rethink what I was doing.

Most importantly I would usually go and sit down and wait for him to come back to me as then I knew the communication was open again and we could start afresh. Horses don’t carry grudges but they never forget cruelty done to them. When he chose to come back he was ready to start over. I learnt to give him this recovery time and not to rush my desire to move onto the next training step.

My patience was well rewarded each time. The incredible thing was that the next time I tried the move that I had failed at he was responsive and we both celebrated the achievement of success. I had learnt to better communicate.

To have a wild horse come to you and nudge you and drop his head to accept the halter and then allow you to tie it gently around his head and then to clip a rope onto the halter is a moment that takes my breath away and I sit there in awe.

My brumby has a choice to not allow this as he is at liberty and at any point can leave and not allow me to halter him. If he makes this choice I accept that and don’t try to hold him. If I have taken the time and approached him politely each time he will accept my request to put the halter around his head. If I have not paid enough respect through the investment of time just sharing space, doing nothing then he will correct me and tell me, by leaving that I have been rude and that is not how horses behave.

My brumby is an equal participant in this journey with his own opinions and needs.

He needs to respect mine and I need to respect his. I have to respect that he will have a flight instinct that kicks in when he is fearful. I cannot correct him for this and I simply have to help him work it through. Traditional trainers would correct the flight instinct and usually with pressure or violence towards the horse. All that does in the horses mind is reinforce that he had the right response in the first place, be afraid very afraid.

Traditionally, compliance is only achieved through force and that is not true communication. The human will dominant by sheer force but that person will never have the heart of the horse. That person will never be a respected partner/ leader in the eye of the horse.

Today my manager, Clarrie came down to the yards to discuss an issue. Rather than rob Sakima of my time I said come into the yards and be with us both. He did and Sakima was accepting of another person in the training session.

When we finished on a high with Sakima doing everything that I asked Clarrie left the yard and I started to lead Sakima out. Clarrie moved too quickly in his blind spot and Sakima’s flight response took over. He was out of there as it could be a lion attacking from the back. My hands were open on the lead rope and I let him go. He went 15 feet stopped and swung around to see the danger.

I gave Sakima time to realise that is was only Clarrie and not real danger. I then went to him and I did not correct him. I simply asked that he return to the yard where he burst out of and we repeat the exit.

He calmly responded to my request leading back in and doing a hind quarter yield to turn around.

We both walked, halted, walked, halted and continued this until we were back in the holding paddock and all was calm and wonderful.

Clarrie was amazed. As a bushy he has seen many horses “broken”. Never has he seen such time and patience and choice given to a horse. He was incredulous as to what Sakima and I had achieved with no violence, no kicking, no bucking.

When he saw me pick up his feet and hold them and then tie Sakima and there was no reaction but agreement by what we both wanted Clarrie paid me the greatest compliment.

Remember this is a bushy talking: “I am not pissing in your pocket because you are the boss, you have done an outstanding job with that horse and I take my hat off to you for what you have achieved. You really are a country girl at heart. You can take the girl out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the girl”. Until now I had been a city slicker playing being a farmer.

Little did he know that one of the reasons that he and his wife got the farm manager position was that he was a gentle soul in the way he treated his dogs, cows and horses. He used no violence in working with the farm animals. I knew that they would fit into the way I wanted the animals on our farm respected and treated. I was right in my choice.

He only got one thing a-wire. It was Sakima and I that achieved it together. The old bushy habits die hard.