The Introverted Horse - Part 1

I first became aware that I own an introverted horse late last summer (2006) when I was riding my mare, Fiona, and after having put a couple of months of regular under-saddle training into her, we were hitting a bit of a road block. I took her to a clinic with a trainer I’d never seen before under the recommendation of my Mom and another horse friend of ours. I have always known Fiona is a bit “odd” and there has always been something about her that I couldn’t quite describe. The clinic I took with Josh Nichol was like turning on a light and suddenly seeing her, and understanding her for who she is; an introverted horse.

First some background. Fiona is a 2002 appendix style, red dun, quarter horse mare. I bought her when she was 2 years old, and have done all her training myself to this point. I started her under saddle in the summer of her 4 year old year. As a yearling, Fiona was destined for the slaughterhouse. She was bought out of a meat pen by The Mitchell Centre in 2003. In her young life, she’d already been starved, impregnated, and run through an auction. Paul Mitchell bought her, and decided to abort her foal so that she could grow and develop properly. She spent a winter at the centre before I bought her the following spring. She wasn’t halter broke, and didn’t really want much to do with people. She wasn’t scared exactly, but wasn’t confident that people were ok, and who could blame her!?! I’d have felt the same way after all she’d been through.

I spent 2 years letting her grow, feeding her up to a healthy weight, and of course, teaching her the things that would make her successful in her life with humans. The one thing I noticed about her more than anything else, is that she really didn’t react to much. She always seemed to take things in stride, and didn’t seem to get excited about much. I spent hours upon hours, trying to coax her into communicating more with me but with no success. I tried to expose her to a lot of different situations just to get some sort of reaction (without frightening her), but it was pretty rare that she made any sort of complaint. She has done everything I ever asked her to do without challenging my leadership, and without concern for her safety. Most horses when exposed to the things I’ve exposed Fiona to, would complain loudly about it. They’d get upset at the sight of unusual objects like tarps, plastic bags, plastic bottles, things on the ground –mattresses, ropes, hoses, water-, and would let you know that they had some concerns about they’re being asked for. Fiona only very rarely protested anything. This to me seemed odd. I kept trying to see if she would communicate with me more over what she was thinking/feeling and couldn’t find a way to draw her out. It truly became boring to play with her because she wasn’t playing, she was just going through the motions to appease me. She was happy when she got it right, and didn’t like to make a mistake. She just wanted to get along with me, and get back to her friends later.

When I started to prepare her for riding by teaching her walk, trot, and canter on the lunge line with and without tack on, I started to see a bit of anxiety that she would keep hidden until her feet got moving. Whenever I’d ask her to canter she would squeal and take off in a panic. I’d bring her back to a trot and let her settle, all the while thinking to myself “how interesting… where is that coming from???”
Eventually she got comfortable cantering online and was going at a nice rhythm reliably. I then did a bunch of ground driving so she could learn about rein cues. She was fine with that. Even when I purposely used more force than necessary, the worst she’d do is get a bit wide-eyed. So after I felt fairly certain my life was in no danger getting on her back, I did, and we rode all summer.

What I started to notice as we were riding along is that she would dawdle in the walk and trot, and most often in a canter I could feel her getting tense. The faster she had to move her feet, the more concerned she got about it, so I never pushed her past her threshold and would let her settle back to a trot just as I did on the lunge. I just made a note of it.

I spent many more consistent hours with her that summer than I had before, and had my full attention focused on her training, so I learned a lot about her in a short period of time. I just couldn’t figure out why she was so dull in so many ways, and yet would get extremely anxious in other situations. I didn’t know what the reason was for the anxiety, and where it was coming from, or how to help her with it.

Which brings me to the Josh Nichol clinic. I’d never been to a clinic before, all self-taught, with some lessons and help from friends along the way, so wasn’t sure how this would turn out. Furthermore, I’d never so much as seen Josh, let alone what his approach was so was going into it blind. I explained to him where I was at with Fiona, what my concerns with her were, and he agreed with me as to her personality, and then he made the observation that changed my view of her completely; he told me that she was an introverted horse. That floored me. It made so much sense, was so simple, but I just hadn’t figured it out. He explained that she wasn’t dull, or non-responsive, but that her way of dealing with fear was to bury her head in the sand (so to speak) and to hope that the source of her fears would go away if she ignored it long enough, but that there would always be situations in which ignoring the anxiety wouldn’t be enough, that eventually she’d have to react and because she doesn’t understand what to do when she’s afraid, she might just explode. He said that this type of horse is deceptive, most people would call her dull, and put their kids on her to ride, but that there will come a time when something gets her attention and her anxiety comes to the surface and she will react strongly to it. This was incredible to me. It was exactly what I felt from her but couldn’t label so well.

Fiona is an introvert.

I suspect, but may never know for sure, that she learnt to shut down instead of react early on. Possibly from her dam, but most likely it was reinforced by the trauma she went through as a young colt. She learned that to deal with bad situations, it was better to mentally withdraw herself from it as a matter of survival and now, even though she is safe, it has become part of who she is.

Josh helped me learn some techniques to draw her out of her shell a bit and ask her to make new decisions instead of mindlessly moving her body. The object of it all was to get her to start asking questions, to start to interact with me and to feel a level of anxiety and not to withdraw but to let me guide her through it and to trust that I’ll take care of her even if she’s bothered by something.

The one moment at that clinic with Fiona that I remembered best was when I was riding her in the round pen on day 3, the last day. It was lunch time so I was just practicing what I’d learned in the morning, and using no reins to direct her, just my energy level to bring her life up, I had her cantering around, and I’d keep asking her to go faster, or slower, and to follow a feel from my energy. I had her in a canter and asked for more, I kept bugging her until she would try something, and then it seemed to click in her a bit to try something else, and she bucked. It wasn’t a rodeo bronc buck by any stretch, but I was extremely pleased. Sounds odd to say, but I was thrilled that she had bucked. Why? Because she had asked me a question: “Is this what you want?” and I got to tell her, “no, but thanks for trying.” I had owned that mare 2 years, spent thousands of hours with her, and she had never asked me a question before. It was fantastic! I finally felt like she was my partner, and we had finally chipped a piece out of the wall we were running into. We had a place to start to tear the whole wall down, and I truly felt, and still do, that once we can overcome that obstacle, that she and I will be able to do so many things. That there is a world of opportunities on the other side.

Since that clinic, I have been experimenting with her and trying to elicit feedback from her. It’s coming bit by bit but it’s slow. I suspect that Fiona is not a particularly smart horse, that she doesn’t think as much as some (I’m used to an extremely intelligent horse, my gelding, Max, who among other things has taught himself to open door handles), but she is full of try.

I didn’t get to ride much this past winter (2006-2007) as life has gotten in the way, but since starting this spring again, Fiona and I are coming to another turning point. I’ve ridden her out on short trail rides and took her down the road the other week. The first day we were out for over an hour, and she did great. The very next day we went out again, and she seemed fine. I was confidant on her, and we trotted a bit in the hay field on the way out. We had gotten only a half mile from home, when I ended up in the ditch and my horse was running towards home. I still don’t know what happened. She didn’t get tense, and I didn’t feel it coming, but all the sudden, faster than I could blink she went from “eeyore” mode to terrified. She turned quick, lost me on the turn cuz I was sitting up there nice and relaxed, and headed for home. She got about 100 ft from me, and stopped, I called her, and she came back to me. I got back on and we finished our ride on a good note. I still don’t know what bothered her, and didn’t see it coming at all. My first thought upon hitting the dirt was that Josh is right. She’s deceptive, and in the wrong hands an introverted horse could be labelled as unpredictable, and unsafe. She’s not out to hurt me in any way, but it is unnerving to have no warning and suddenly see the ground coming up to meet you. Obviously I’m missing something yet, and my horse savvy is being tested in a way I didn’t see coming either. I never would’ve thought my most “dull” horse would leave me limping out of a ditch.

Just goes to show, you never can get enough knowledge, that horses are wonderfully complex and there’s always more to learn. I had never thought that a horse could be introverted until I met/owned Fiona. I’ve never known another introverted horse, and it’s a special kind of task to figure out what to do now.

This is part one of my ongoing adventure with the introverted horse…. Check back often as there’ll be more to come (I’m sure!)

www.joshnichol.com – Josh Nichol’s website.

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