Harry Whitney

I spent 5 weeks in Arizona this past winter. I had a life changing horse moment. I have known Harry Whitney for about 7 years now.

I spend about 3 weeks a year with him trying to learn more about horse behavior. This past winter, I saw some things that opened my eyes up to a whole new dimension of my relationship with horses.

It all started with a 4 hour trailer loading session…

The set up was me and a flag, a 2 yr old colt, and a trailer hooked up to the round pen. I led the horse into the pen, took off his halter, and watched him trot around for about 15 minutes.

Harry coached me on when to slap the flag on the ground. My job was not to drive the horse, or direct any flag motion at the horse.

All I did was slap the ground with the flag when Harry told me to. At first I was lost. I couldn’t understand why Harry had me slap the flag when he did.

It seemed very random. He also didn’t want the horse to come to me, which also concerned me because I thought it might ruin the horse wanting to approach me.

So, when the horse started to turn in to me, I had to tap the flag. About 3 hours into this, I finally understood what I was seeing.

The entire exercise was all about allowing the horse space to try something new, and for me to recognize the difference between his tries, and when he mentally left the scene.

The goal was to get the horse in the trailer. I broke this exercise down into quarters.

The first quarter, we established that coming up to me was not an option. When he couldn’t do that, he would just trot and trot and trot and trot.

About every 3-5 times around the pen, I would slap the ground with the flag. I was confused at the timing
because I thought I should slap it every time he went around the pen when he was on the opposite side from where the trailer was, but Harry said that he didn’t need that much pressure.

That he understood that I was asking him to try something different, he just didn’t know what else to try yet. So, when he would stop, I would stand there and let him stop.

It all felt very random, but now I realize it felt that way because I am used to driving the horse. I literally just stood in the middle of the pen, and wasn’t even allowed to turn as the horse turned.

My job was to stand there and wait for him to try something new, and maybe suggest every so often that he searched for something new to try.

(I wonder if they are like people who don’t even know that there is a better way. I went to a breeding farm
the other day and the trainer was starting a young mare.

All she did was put her on a long lunge line and side reins, and she cracked the whip every once in a while and the horse just trotted in circles for about 20 minutes.

When she stopped and led the mare to us, the horse never once looked at any of us standing there. She seemed like she just tolerated people and was a little checked out.

The trainer had no clue that there was a better relationship to be had. That a horse could be calm and relaxed next to her, and would be interested in being with her.

There was a complete disconnect, but the woman didn’t seem to know or care. I wonder if horses sometimes don’t even know that there can be a better way.

I guess the answer is yes after meeting Melanie).

The quarter was more confusing to me. The horse started mentally leaving.

He would stick his head out and try to graze, stop and sniff one of the auditors, or whinny out to
another horse.

When he did any of those, I would slap the flag on the ground. When he was present and going from one side of the pen to the other, I did nothing.

He sniffed the ground, scratched his side, rubbed his nose, shook his head, and I stood there and did
nothing.

The quarter was getting interesting and I finally realized what Harry was trying to show me. The horse rolled about 20 times, scratched more, pawed, sniffed the trailer, stopped and faced the trailer, stopped and faced the opposite direction, urinated about 10 times, kicked at flies, sniffed at the pipes, walked, trotted, cantered, switched directions, and the only time I slapped the flag was when he would try to approach me, which he did a lot.

It really bothered the horse that he couldn’t come to me, and I saw how I had trained him to feel safe and confident when he was next to me, but anywhere else he felt pretty darn insecure.

He even tried turning around and backing up to me, which we all got a chuckle out of. I accepted it, then would shake the flag a little to say, “now go try something else”.

This was the time that I realized how much I have pushed horses into things, and not recognized their tries.

This horse tried everything under the sun, except go in the trailer. But at his defense, he had only been trailered 6 times in his life.

The quarter was where I would have started. This is where we got more precise.

If the horse stopped and was faced towards the entrance of the trailer, I would let him stand there as long as he wanted.

If he stopped and he was faced the opposite direction, I would allow him to stop for a few seconds, then I would tap the flag to tell him to try something else.

Then we got even more precise and only let him stop when he was facing the trailer, and within a few feet to it. We did this because he could handle stopping that close.

I say that this is where I would have started in this exercise because I would think that the horse needed some direction so he would know what I wanted him to do.

But the purpose of this exercise was for me, and everyone else watching, to understand what horses go
through when we start asking them of things.

This particular horse was sensitive, and tried many options. Maybe not as many options that an Arab would try (most humans can’t keep up with an Arab’s thought process anyway!) but definitely more then a warm or cold blooded horse would try!

And I realized how goal oriented and agenda obsessed we are with our horses. And how much we impose that onto them, even when they aren’t anywhere near ready for us. We ended this session with the horse stopping directly in front of the trailer, I approached him, put on his halter, and led him in.

I must admit that he entered the trailer with no hesitation what so ever.

This was a 2 year old colt who was very immature looking. He had a little foal like face and a quick foal like trot. The next day when I pulled him out to work on saddling, his entire shape had changed.

He looked like a young horse, and he had a horse stride, and a grown up horse trot. This exercise built confidence in him that he could feel ok on the rail without the human, that his tries were recognized, and nothing was forced on him.

For me, this changed the way I work with horses entirely. At first it was very confusing for me because I couldn’t figure out where to go with this knowledge.

It is unreasonable for a person to spend this much time every time we do anything with a horse. And how
would I fit something like this into an hour session? But slowly I began to figure it out.
Over the 5 weeks with Harry, I was able to watch 2 more of these long sessions.

But during this time, I realized that all of our work that we were doing was no different then the 4 hour trailer loading sessions, even if it was only a half hour session on leading.

It was all about recognizing the try when it comes from the heart, and not pushing a horse through something when they are trying to try, and understanding when the horse is going inside, or fleeing the scene, or when they are a type of horse that has 2 tries to another horse’s 50 tries, or when they are searching, or when they are just scared, or when they are just toler ating us, or when we need a change of thought, and how they feel about us asking for them to change their thought.

I know there is still so much to tap into a learn about these animals. I feel like I am no where near where I want to be. But I wonder if I ever will be? Each time I feel like I have developed a deeper meaning to it all, I realize that I want to go even deeper.

Horse training is about recognizing the changes that can occur form one moment to the next, not about applying a step or a formula. It is about learning a feel.

For me the feel should always honor their spirit. I don’t care much about winning a ribbon, my sense of
accomplishment is when my horse looks proud, relaxed, and confident, and I feel like we can get through anything together.

Especially a horse that has come from a horrible background. Or when a student feels independent, and has a sense of connected-ness with their horse.