Hi Virginia, >Musing on the subject of prey/predator. >>>Little me, the ' scary predator' with a measly orange stick, scaring a strong, young and healthy horse who has a big attitude with larger horses than himself, is the dominant horse in the field over all.
I have such a hard time with the prey/predator model and instead I ask people to consider whether they are threatening/ or non-threatening. I have watched lions walk through a herd of gazelles and if the lions weren't hungry, the gazelles paid little mind. However, there is a different kind of threatening posture, essence etc that happens when a lion is in the stalking mode. Clearly you are, for whatever reason, a threat to him when the string is flipping over his back. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that the horse should know that sometimes when you flick with the string, plastic bag or whatever the tool of choice, they should stand still and other times they should move. The other aspect I have problems with is the labeling of horses - dominant , alpha etc. What makes you feel that Orri is 'dominant'? The interesting aspect to beings in general is that context makes a big different. In one situation a horse may be in one position in the hierarchy and in another herd or situation a different position. I would definitely consider clicker training, it gives a big motivation for the horse and you don't have to do only clicker training - you can use it for some situations and not others. Someone said follow your heart and that is really important because no matter what anyone else tells you to do, IF you don't feel right about doing it, or don't like the result I don't think it will work for you. Robyn Icelandic Horse Farm Robyn Hood & Phil Pretty Vernon BC Canada www.icefarm.com
