“What Baseball and Horses Have In Common”
The World Series is over and the Phillies just won….
Ahh..good ol’ American Baseball.
It’s as much an American heritage
as apple pie.
There’s something that occasionally
happens in baseball that happens with horses.
It’s called balking.
In baseball, the pitcher balks when
he kind of pauses and stops in the middle of a throw.
Probably happens from being confused
about something.
Interestingly, horses balk when con-
fused too.
It also happens from mismanagement,
excitement, and not knowing how to move or pull.
Balking ‘rarely’ happens from unwillingness
to do what the horse understands.
What kind of horse is most likely to balk?
High spirited ones.
Why?
Because their riders (or drivers) don’t know
how to properly manage them.
I like to drive my horses when I train them.
I also like to hitch ’em up to a cart or
wagon and teach them to pull.
It’s great way to get them in shape and train them.
(But not totally necessary)
But when you drive a horse either from the
ground or hitched, you have to manage them carefully.
For instance, if you have a free horse in a team,
he may be so anxious to start that when he hears ‘step’
he may move with a jump. He won’t move the load he’s
pulling but give him such a jerk on his shoulders
that he’ll fly backward and stop the other horse.
Can’t you just see that happening.
If you’re driving a horse from the ground you could
accidentally achieve the same effect by holding
those reins too tight and blocking forward movement.
So be careful not to get in the horse’s way.
Ask him to do what you want and let him do it.
You’ll find nearly every horse is willing to do
what you ask. But if we get in his way,
he’ll get confused.
And if he gets confused, we sure can’t be hollering
‘GET UP!, GET UP!’. We have to manage the situation
and realize he’s just not gettin’ it.
So,…we help him get it. We talk to the horse
like we’d talk to a gentleman.
Do you know what the body language of a
balking horse looks like?
They turn their head and look back at you
as soon as they’re confused.
Why do they do that? Often it’s because they
are afraid of what is behind them.
This is either from being whipped, chastised, or
other ways of mishandling.(such as being yelled at)
So how do you fix this?
Chill out, for one.
Use kind treatment.
Caress him kindly. And if he doesn’t understand
what you want him to do, he won’t be so excited
as to do the wrong thing from fear.
As long as you keep calm and keep his
excitement down, he’ll soon forget about it and
learn to pull a wagon or cart or drive on the
ground just fine.
And here’s a horse training principle
everyone should understand.
(This comes direct from the Jesse Beery Manual):
‘Almost every wrong act the horse
makes is from mismanagement, fear,
or excitement.’
And it is those three things that we as their
owners can control and can work through.
JJ Rydberg and Diana Quintana both show in their
videos how to keep the horse’s excitement level controlled.
You can see more about JJ and Diana if you like
by clicking on the following:
See J.J. Rydberg’s DVD Info HERE
One of their common rules is: Teach them at the
walk – they learn easier at the walk.
Then you can move to the trot.
In summary, stay calm. Go slow.
There’s no hurry…right?
That’s is for today… stay safe with your horses.
Charlie
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