Classic Eventing Nation

In this excerpt from the new book Know Better to Do Better, eventer Denny Emerson admits he misused pressure in horse training in the past and explains how his methods have improved with the horse in mind.

Photo by May Emerson.

One mistake that I used to make was to increase the pressure too soon if the horse didn’t respond quickly enough. Let’s say I applied my right leg to his flank to ask him to move his haunches to the left. And let’s say I used fairly light pressure to get this to happen. Well, if I didn’t get a quick response, I would use my leg again, but this time I would probably give him a little kick. If he still didn’t move, I would give him a harder kick. Then a harder kick. Sooner or later, he would move away from the discomfort of my kicking leg.

The problem with this tactic of “escalating” the force of the request is that while I did get my horse to move away from my leg, there was too much fear and discomfort involved. By banging on his side with my heel or spur, I was getting him to give to the pressure, but at the same time I was making him anxious and nervous. Sure, I was winning the battle, but I was losing the war.

What I mean by “losing the war” is that a tense horse has other issues that are worse than the piece I was trying to fix. A tense horse gets too strong, say. So now I have to use more hand to restrain him. So now my horse gets even more nervous because I am hanging on his mouth. The harder I try, the more tight he gets, so the harder I try, and now the whole thing is like that old saying, “Going to hell in a handbasket.” And I was the one who started the downhill slide by using an aid that was too strong.

So, how should I have obtained the response? He didn’t listen to my light leg pressure. Why shouldn’t I use more if he fails to respond? Well, because of what I just said. Harder and harder pressure makes him more nervous. The way to get him to move is not to bang on his sides, but to “pester” him until he moves.

I have never read any book about riding that talks about “pestering” a horse. They always use the terms like “apply the aids,” as if the horse will magically understand what the heck that means. But think. Why does a horse switch his tail at a fly? Because the horse knows that the fly will bite him if he doesn’t get rid of the damn thing. The horse is not terrified by the fly. The fly isn’t an attacking mountain lion. It isn’t even a stinging wasp. It’s a fly. Even an annoying fly will get a horse to respond, but it is not a panicked response. In a way, we riders need to be mildly annoying flies. We need to gently pester the horse. We need to mildly annoy the horse. Sure, the horse books don’t say “pester” or “annoy,” but what else are we doing? Does the horse want to move his haunches away from our legs? Does he want to pick up a right lead canter? No. He wants to be left alone in his pasture to eat grass with his friends.

So back to teaching the horse to move left from my right leg. I apply a little pressure on his right side, behind the girth. Nothing happens. He just stands there like a stone statue. So I gently poke him again. Still no response. Everything in my being is saying, “Kick the damn horse. Make him obey!” But I know where that will lead, right? He’ll move away, but I will have created tension. So I poke him again. And again. His ears maybe go back. I am annoying him—not scaring him, but annoying him—to the point that he notices me. I repeat my little aid. He steps away from my leg. I stop.

In a few seconds, here comes my leg again, pester, pester. When he moves away, the pestering ceases. In a week of doing this, right leg to move left, left leg to move right, my horse is starting to get the picture. Two plus two is starting to become four for him. I am building in a conditioned response.

A man who was giving elephant rides at the King Brothers’ Circus had trained not only elephants but also big cats, bears, dogs, seals—you name it. Someone asked, “Do you train them all the same way?” And he said, “All but the dogs and seals. When the dog does the right thing I flip him a biscuit, and when the seal does the right thing, I flip him a fish. All the others, when they do what I want, I take off the pressure.”

I’ve heard this described as “programming a computer.” An untrained horse is an “unprogrammed computer.” We are “installing buttons.” The key is that we are installing those buttons calmly and consistently rather than roughly and forcefully.

There was a Greek king and general, in ancient times, whose name was Pyrrhus. In some battle against the Romans, the king’s troops won, but half the army was lost. In the next battle, they were conquered by the Romans. So there came to be a term, “Pyrrhic victory,” to describe what happens when someone wins a battle, but loses the war. That’s what I used to have, lots of Pyrrhic victories. By using aids that were too forceful, I would get my horse to move away from my leg, or give to my hand, but from fear, pain, duress, rather than from conditioned response. The nervous anxiety that my horse would have because of my rough aids made him almost impossible to train unless I just kept adding force to force to force.

Once you go the tough route, it starts that terrible downward spiral. Rider force creates horse fear. Horse fear creates horse resistance. Horse resistance creates rider anger. Rider anger creates more force. You can see too well where this is going. The next thing will be stronger, harsher bits, or draw reins, or other leverage devices, and it all started with my not understanding how to create conditioned responses through “gentle pester” rather than sharp demand.

In order for us, as riders who are also trainers, to be able to teach all these conditioned responses, to install these various buttons, to program these living computers, we have to be able to use the same sets of stimulus and release each time.

This excerpt from Know Better to Do Better by Denny Emerson is reprinted with permission from Trafalgar Square Books (www.horseandriderbooks.com).

Justine Dutton and MGH Heartbeat, an imported Irish Sport Horse mare, in the Ocala Jockey Club CCI2*. Photo by Jenni Autry.

I am often met with surprise when people inquire about my imported sale horses and find out the price.

As a seller/producer it can become frustrating when potential buyers are shocked and sometimes even offended at the price tag on these horses, often even informing me they can go to England/Ireland/Europe themselves and find the same quality of horse but for much less money.

I thought it might be enlightening to outline the process of sourcing, importing and producing sport horses to sell.

Firstly, sourcing horses abroad isn’t something that just anyone can do. There is a lot more to it than meets the eye — both skill and expense wise. I am fortunate enough to have a very trusted source, partner and friend in the UK who is always looking for the types of horses she knows I like. She spends hours on the road, trying horses up and down the country in all weather making sure the absolute right one is chosen.

It is very hard to shop for horses without a trusted source — there is often an “American” price put on horses for sale abroad, as those slightly unscrupulous sellers see big dollar signs and naivety when potential buyers show up alone or aren’t with someone experienced. For me, this is avoided with my English partner/Unicorn Hunter.

Sometimes I will go over to see horses with my partner (expensive round trip flight) but mostly she will look without me. And guess what … I have to pay her for that service she is doing for me! We handpick our horses for their brains as well as ability, talent and records and are very picky about what makes the cut.

My English Unicorn Hunter is also responsible for arranging vettings and knows which vets will do a good job and understand how to put potential horses through an “American Vetting.” I vet all my potential horses as they would be vetted by a buyer in the USA; this means a full set of X-rays including back and in some cases scopes and ultrasounds. Many horses with minor issues which I am confident won’t be a problem, I have to pass on, as I know they will not be acceptable in an American vetting even for a low level job. We have gone through periods where I’ve vetted six horses in a row that have not had good enough vettings or X-rays. That gets very expensive very fast!

When the chosen unicorn has finally passed the stringent vetting, we arrange for transportation. Depending on where the horse is located will depend on shipping fees to get to Liege/Amsterdam. Also depending on if there are other horses that are shipping will affect the cost greatly because if you’re riding solo … again, big expense! Sometimes you will have to wait for a flight as they are all booked/no share available/no quarantine room and then you will at times need to pay board on your new horse until it can ship.

Side note — as soon as the horse is paid for, we purchase insurance on him to cover against loss or major medical from the time we own him as well as additional flight insurance.

Bloods have to be run and this is also where there is some risk. Many common acceptable diseases in Europe are not allowed into the USA so imagine buying your dream horse, paying for him, vetting him, arranging shipping to then find out he has tested positive for piroplasmosis and your horse is stuck in Europe for an unknown period of time. And yes this has happened to me and also to others. Some people might risk it and say it’s a false positive or it’s low enough it will retest negative … but then when this horse arrives in U.S. quarantine and tests positive he is not leaving!

So if your unicorn has now jumped through all these hoops and made it onto his flight and landed in the USA you have quarantine. This is a minimum of 72 hours for geldings and can be at least three weeks for mares. Note, it is about $2-3k more to import a mare depending on the quarantine facility. And even though your horse is healthy and ready to rock, if there is a horse displaying anything dodgy in its blood/clinically/has a fever, then the entire flight of horses is held in quarantine until it’s resolved and you have to pay for the extra time there even though your horse is fine! Yep, that’s happened to me too.

If you’re lucky and have avoided all these hurdles, the horse will be released from quarantine and will arrive at his new home hopefully in good health. As you can imagine, the long trip can be a lot on the horses and often they can become sick. We always treat ours with GastroGard when they arrive and monitor their temperatures and have only had a couple arrive not feeling well.

I don’t think I need to put a dollar amount on all of the above as I think it’s explanatory that importing a horse does not just involve a lot of expense but also risk. We as sellers take on all the risk of the bloods being positive, the vettings failing and also the horse arriving and not being what he was supposed to be! I don’t scrape the bottom of the bargain barrel for any of my horses; the saying you get what you pay for rings very true in this industry so I pay the price for good quality horses.

Oh and this is all before I have even spent a dime on shoes, vet, tack, feed, bedding, memberships, shows, etc. or any time on training and care. But that’s another story ….

I hope his article has been informative and thrown some light on what it takes to source and import horses and why most good ones are not cheap. I love producing and selling these horses and I can stand behind each and every one of mine knowing I have jumped through all the hoops and not cut corners and costs and can honestly say that they all “do what it says on the tin.”

Joe Meyer and Sanskrit. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Our thoughts are with Joe Meyer and his team as they share the loss of Sanskrit, Joe’s 19-year-old New Zealand Thoroughbred with whom he competed at the three- and four-star levels.

Joe’s remembrance via Facebook:

It’s with great sadness that we are posting that we very suddenly and unexpectedly lost our Sanskrit (‘Camel’) this past weekend. He was a Mamaku homebred that competed on three continents with many great accomplishments at top level including clear rounds at Blenheim, Bramham, Aachen and a second place finish at Gatcombe in the British Open Championships in 2010. Cam was 5th after cross country at his first four-star attempt at Pau but sadly an injury there kept him from being able to compete at four-star again. He went on to win and place in many Advanced classes in the U.S. before being retired from upper level competition several years ago.

It has given us great comfort that during Cam’s last year of life he was truly and completely loved and spoiled by Lindsey Carrigan as he deserved. They had a great partnership in his semi retirement and a true bond with each other.

We will truly miss this kind, talented and gentle soul that gave so many great times to so many people.

Thank you for all the great memories and adventures Cam.

Truly, Camel enjoyed a full and happy life. Rest in peace, Cam.