It has been a few years since I have worked with other peopleâs horses as managing my own herd of twenty two takes up most of my time. When a friend of mine recently asked me to help her with her Equestrian Rider Amazon.com’;return true;” onmouseout=”self.status=””>horse I was somewhat reluctant. Working with someoneâs horse is a little like disciplining their child. It can be a delicate situation that carries a lot of responsibility if things go wrong. Although I agreed to help I was more than a little nervous about the upcoming training session. What I didnât realize at the time was that stepping outside my comfort zone would be a powerful learning experience.
Tracyâs horse, Oliver, is a big athletic ex-race horse who is very friendly and, according to Tracy, compliant in most situations. She was having trouble however with an exercise that we call âpush and draw.â Push and draw is a foundation exercise in our equine training system of natural horsemanship. We ask the horse to move his hind end away from us and turn to face us. The horse will then follow us as we draw him along. We call it the relationship exercise because this is how horses communicate with each other in the herd. It enables us to establish a leadership role with our horse quickly and effectively. Because they have a strong need for leadership our horses love this exercise and we often use it as a reward during training. The fact that Oliver was not responding was puzzling.
When Tracy brought Oliver into the arena I could immediately see anxiety and tension in his high head and stiff carriage. When I asked him to move his hind end away, instead of smoothly crossing one hind foot over the other, he crow hopped around in an awkward and jerky fashion. His front feet rotated but remained firmly planted in the dirt despite my efforts to draw him forward with me. His entire body was braced and resistant.
It turned out that a previous trainer had taught Oliver to plant his feet and not move forward. To stay rooted in one spot goes against the natural instincts of a horse. In the wild horses must be able to move their feet at all times in order to flee predators and threatening situations. While it is important to be able to influence the direction and speed of a horseâs movement, stopping all forward motion results in the anxiety and tension that I could see so clearly in Oliver.
It took twenty minutes of persistent coaching and gentle insistence to convince Oliver that he could in fact move forwards. At that moment of realization the change in Oliver was instant, obvious and quite remarkable. Every muscle in his body relaxed and his head dropped from the rafters down toward his knees. Within moments he was smoothly crossing one hind foot in front of the other and following us around the arena like a large puppy.
In natural horsemanship training this dramatic change in Oliver is called âturning looseâ. Turning loose describes the relaxation of the horseâs mind and body as he is allowed to follow his natural instincts and move freely forward of his own volition. As I drove home from the arena that night I wondered how often I had inadvertently, through words or actions, blocked the forward motion and natural instincts of my employees. Looking back I could recall situations in which they had looked as tense and resistant as Oliver.
Stepping out of my comfort zone with Oliver has caused me to look at my leadership from a new perspective. I realize now that if I want an engaged, committed and productive team of employees I have to âturn them looseâ so they may contribute in their own way to our vision and direction.
Laura Hunter
http://www.articlesbase.com/leadership-articles/turning-loose-the-key-to-engaging-employees-723389.html
If you are a new dog owner or simply need to give your dog some additional training one of the first things you need to think about as a dog training collar. Back some years ago there weren’t many options, but today there are many different kinds of training collars and, depending on the task at hand, you may need to buy one particular type or many.
All dog training collars and not created alike in some may be more appropriate for the type of training you need to do if your dog. Here’s an overview of some of the different collars available and what they are best suited for.
Martingale collars are best described as a limited to choke collar. These are similar to a choke collar, however they will not constrict smaller than the size of your dog’s neck, therefore will not roughly choke your dog. They do get tight enough so the dog cannot wiggle out of them and are great for agility training. this type of collar is great when you need to call it that you dog cannot wriggle out of but also did not want to worry about your dog accidentally getting choked.
The head collar looks kind of like a horse halter and goes around the dogs face with the leash attachment under the muzzle. Many people mistake this for muzzle but in fact it is not keep you dog from biting but so that you can lead him from the head. When you read your dog bites had his body has to follow and therefore you have good control over getting your dog to go where you want them to go. This type of collar can feel really weird to dog might take awhile to get used to it. Training with the head collar can be tricky since you don’t want to simply lead to your dog around like a pony or he will become dependent on you meeting him and won’t have a mind of its own!
The pronged collar is good for dogs that are very strong and have a muscular neck. This is a good collar to use if your dog is really wild and you have trouble controlling him. The collar has prongs which poke out into the dog’s neck – not sharp prongs, but more like fingers in the applied pressure helps to control the dog. Some people feel that these collars are cruel (they do look kind of mean, but are not as bad as they look) but they can give you an edge until you can get enough training under your belt to be able to control your dog with a regular collar.
The choke chain used to be really popular caller and leash control device but it’s not use too much today. this is basically attain a ghost or rank and when you make on the chain it tightens up on the dog’s throat. they are out of favor today as the type of training you get by using this kind of chain is usually based on punishment in today’s way of thinking is that positive reinforcement is way better way of training your dog. These can also be very dangerous if the chain gets stuck your dog can literally choked to death. If you do use the choke chain you need to make sure you are with your dog at all times and never leave him change out anywhere with a choke chain collar on. the variation to this, the limited choke collar, is made up of a nylon strap and has the ring sewn into a piece of material so that it cannot move as far and could never choke your dog.
Electronic dog collars can be an effective training device if used properly. Personally, I wouldn’t really want to shock my dog but many people do report that these work great and lessen the training time. The way the callers were is the caller has a receiver that can admit a small jolt of electricity. The trainer holds a remote and when your dog starts to exhibit undesirable behavior you press a button on the remote ( or turn a knob) and he gets a jolt. Eventually he learns when he exhibits the undesirable behavior, he’ll get an unpleasant jolt and therefore this discourages him from repeating this type of behavior. The problem is that many people use this as a punishment when in fact it is intended to simply get the dog’s attention. Don’t wait until your dog is barking excessively and then administer the punishment. In order to properly train your dog you need to be observant and see when he is about to bark and then give him the shock to distract him from the barking behavior in the first place.
No bark collars are intended to discourage a dog from barking. they do this by sensing the vibration of the bark and then providing some sort of deterrent. The chart can be one of three things either shock, a noise, or puff of citrus spray. Once you dog associates back to barking with one of these unpleasant occurrences he might think twice before he barks again. While this might work to discourage her dog from barking, you may be better served by figuring out why he’s barking and trying to eliminate the behavior that way.
Choosing a dog training collar as a matter of personal preference and the needs of your dog. When training, always remember that positive reinforcement is better than punishment and in fact punishment rarely works. Be kind to your dog, be persistent and be patient and you’ll soon have a well-trained and obedient companion for life.
Lee Dobbins
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/dog-training-collars-are-not-all-alike-77382.html
Ground and weather conditions are important factors in Equestrian Rider Amazon.com’;return true;” onmouseout=”self.status=””>horse race betting. It may be very difficult to place a bet on any horse, as the race greatly depends on these factors.
Ground Conditions:
Ground conditions depend on rain, because when it rains, the racetrack becomes wet, many potholes happen on the ground, and racetrack becomes messy. The ground becomes slippery and wet due to mud and imposes more difficulties for horses to run and race.
You may gather information on the previous horse race betting that were influenced by the ground and weather conditions. This will give you an idea about how to bet prudently in such situations. You may gain knowledge as to which bet will benefit more i.e. whether it’s wise to back or lay on a horse.Â
Watch the races being held in spite of such conditions. Find out which horses are comfortable on wet ground and which horses are comfortable on dry ground. Determine the best betting options and accordingly place your bets.Â
Weather conditions:
Not all weather conditions are suitable for horses to perform well. However, some horses get proper training to perform in such conditions, but they find it difficult to perform in all weather conditions.Â
Bettors need to be very careful before placing a bet. Have a look at all the horses and see how they perform. You need to be watchful of the conditions in which these horses were comfortable to perform.
For instance, if a horse is comfortable in rainy conditions, there is no problem in placing a bet on that particular horse. However if you find that a horse is not comfortable in rainy conditions, it is good to avoid backing on that horse.Â
There are chances that the horses may get weak and exhausted as not all weather conditions suit all horses. Therefore, it is important to see that the horse you select to place a bet is physically fit and is comfortable in all weather conditions. Also, make sure that horse is not suffering from dehydration.Â
There are various factors in placing a bet. You need to consider all these factors to place a bet on horse racing, as your money is involved in betting. As such ground and weather conditions are the most important factors in this regard.
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Eric Smith
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-gambling-articles/2-important-tips-on-winning-horse-racing-chances-ground-and-weather-conditions-940125.html
