As a young girl, I dreamed about owning a horse, but some time during college or veterinary school, I began to realize how dangerous they were. A careless step could lead to a broken foot and a casual toss of the head could deliver a swift concussion. In an effort to overcome my unease with horses and to learn more about their behavior, I signed up for a thirty day horsemanship clinic at Reis Ranch. To my surprise, I felt comfortable handling my ranch horse Rita after only a few days and by the end of the clinic I had a good understanding of how to communicate with horses in their own language.

Horses should learn to respect your personal space (your bubble) and should only enter when invited. That means they shouldn't head butt you when they want to be petted or walk over you while you're leading them. Here Dennis Reis establishes his bubble by first making a visible barrier with his arms. Since this horse is used to being pushy around people, it doesn't back up when Dennis first approaches. When it meets Dennis' barrier, it learns to back up. Once the horse understands that Dennis expects it to stay out of his personal space, it backs up automatically as Dennis approaches. The horse now respects Dennis but does not fear him. When Dennis invites him back into his space. The horse gladly and politely enters for some petting.

Megan Doyle demonstrates bridling from the kneeling position. A horse should lower its head and hold still to be bridled.

Halter breaking: A truly halter broke horse is one that yields to the pressure of the lead rope even under adverse conditions. That means that even when it's startled, rather then panicking and leaping forward or rearing over backwards, it yields to the pressure or the rope. Here Dennis demonstrates the early steps of halter training. He pulls on the lead rope. As soon as the horse gives to the pressure, Dennis rewards it by loosening the rope.

Dennis demonstrates ranch roping. To rope safely from a horse, the horse must be calm around cattle and around ropes. This requires some work since horses are easily spooked by seemingly innocuous factors such as rustling leaves and plastic bags. Horses are prey animals that survive by running upon the first sign of danger. As a result, horses must systematically be habituated to all kinds of "predators," including ropes, bags, and baby strollers. For ranch roping, the horse must be used to the sight of the rope being thrown on all sides and it must know the feel of the rope all over him including around his rump, legs and tail. Horses enjoy working. Roping horses learn to key in on the cattle they are after. In the one month clinic we played the team penning game where two-member teams took turns guiding a single steer in a figure eight around two cones and then into a pen. Since each trial was timed, riders concentrated on herding the cow rather than on the finer points of horsemanship. Surprisingly, the horses didn't mind the sudden changes in pace and direction. They seemed to enjoy the game as much as we did.

Here I am, a beginning rider with my ranch horse on the bridle and doing a half pass. Prior to this clinic, my total riding experience had consisted of taking English riding lessons for two summers in grade school, one summer in highschool, and three summers in college and vet school. I was a perpetual beginner. In this clinic, I gained the foundation needed to become a good horseman. Dennis strove to teach us the importance of maintaining a soft feel with our horses, controlling the hindquarters, and feeling the feet as we rode. We gained a good understanding of the mechanics behind each movement we were trying to achieve with our horse so that we could better communicate our wishes to them. This understanding was achieved through round pen work as well ground school. Every move we accomplished on our horse, we first learned to perform on the ground using halter, lead rope and our body language.

For more information on horse behavior check out the following: Books on natural horsemanship Natural Horse-Man-Ship by Pat Parelli (ISBN: 0911647279) True Unity: Willing Communication Between Horse and Human by Tom Dorrance (ISBN 1884995098) Lyons on Horses: John Lyons’ Proven Conditioned-Response Training Program by John Lyons with Sinclair Browning. (ISBN 0-385-41398-X) You Can Train Your Horse to do Anything! by Donna and Vinton Karrasch with Arlene J. Newman (ISBN 1-57075-165-5) Book and videos on clicker training Clicker Training for Your Horse by Alexandra Kurland (ISBN 0-9624017-9-X) or visit www.clickertraining.com You Can Train Your Horse to do Anything! Clicker training and beyond (video) by Donna and Vinton Karrasch (www.on-target-training.com or (800) 638-2090) Videos Understanding Horses and Safe Horsemanship by Robert Miller (800) 284-3362 Clinics Pat Parelli, P.O. Box 5950, Pagosa Springs, Colorado 81147 (970) 731-9400 or (800) 642-3335 Dennis Reis: 411 Highland Ave, Penngrove, CA 904951 (800) 732-8220 or (707) 792-0629 Monty Roberts: P.O. Box 86, Solvang, CA 93464 (805) 688-4382

You can contact Sophia by e-mail at Sophia@nerdbook.com