LEE SMITH REPORT
by Roxanne Hill
Day 1
Lee was asked to do venues for 8 days at the Scottsdale Arab show. They took place in a round pen outside of the main arena. Lee's plan was to start a filly and continue each day with it. She was hoping to show people that natural is not slower but much faster than conventional ways of starting horses off. Lee started off riding her seasoned mare, Alibi, bridleless. I feel it was good so the group could do what she talks.
She began talking to the crowd and explained about her concepts: First to use communication and psychology instead of force and fear. What Lee wants is to get the horse to see it from the horse's point of view. What Lee wants is to get the horse to love his job. The techniques that Lee teaches, allows the horse to love his job. One thing she pointed out is that sometimes our goals are sometimes not the same as our horse.
Lee will never use a mechanical gimmick or abusive measure to accomplish a task.
Lee explained the difference between progressive firmness verse developing a learning frame of mind. Progressive firmness is forcing the horse to do what we want, when we want. For example she told a story that a friend told her. When he was a boy his mother would ask him to take the garbage out. He would be sitting watching tv and say to her, ok mom, but never get up. She would ask again but still no results. She would then say this is the last time I am going to ask you. Still no results. The next thing he knows, he is wearing the garbage. This is the thing we say to our kids, you had better do this before the count of 3. What do the kids do, they wait till 3. This same applies to horses. What you are doing is teaching resentment.
Lee talked about how horses and humans are not that much different. We are all motivated by comfort. For example if you are sitting in the sun and geting hot, you will try to find shade. Comfort is what horses are always looking for. Lee is wanting to help build heart and desire in her horses. the way to do this is to give them confort at the right time consistantly. She believes in Ray Hunts philosophy that you cause the right thing to be easy and the wrong thing to be difficult. Her story to braing his home is about her asking he 2 teenage boys to take the trash out. She would only ask once. The one kid that got upand took the trash out did not have to do anymore chores for that day. The other kid had to do all the chores. The next time she asked for the trash to be taken out the boys were fighting over who would get to do it. This leads up to a learning frame of mind.
Learning Frame of Mine
Lee wants the horses to realize the sooner they do what she has asked, that they will get comfort. To teach this you must set it up and wait. Most of us set it up and whack.
Lee now had the 3 year old filly brought into the round pen. This was a very nice arab that belongs to Karen Chauncy of Tom Chauncy's Arabians in Scottsdale. Starlina is her name and she had never been trailer loaded except with her mother when she was a foal. When Lee went to pick her up she had another fellow lead her in. She wanted to not have to do too much on teaching her to trailer load so she could save it for the demo. Her plans for the day was to teach Starlina some foundation things that Lee could keep building on through the week. Most people think that natural horsemanship takes longer, so Lee wanted to prove that it is faster and also is a lasting way to go.
Lee has a group of professionals that teaches performance naturally. Roy Cooper, Ellie Stine-Masek and David Stackley were 3 of the ones present and helping at the venues. Roy Cooper teaches clinics on team penning and roping (no he is not the world champion, just has the same name and in the same game). Ellie Stine-Masek teaches dressage clinics. David Stackley teaches clinics on general horsemanship and cow working clinics.
the concepts are easy to apply. Horses are motivated by comfort and they learn like we do from release. If you asked a child what 2=2 is and you never told him when he got the right answer he would keep guessing and then end up getting frustrated. So many times we ask out horses to do things that they are not prepared to do. We have to work at building confidence in our horses. By building the confidence, then they will have exceptance, which will give them understanding, that will produce results. Lee says you want to get it were you ask your horse to go up a pole or down a hole.
Lee was still on horse back and started moving the filly around. This is how horses control each other. The horse that moves the horse around is the leader. This is how to get respect. Some aggressive horses are insecure. They will usually look to a dependable gelding in the herd when something comes up. All horses are looking for leaders. Lee likes to ride with a bull whip and she uses it to help desensitize. When the horse would face up to her, Lee would ride away to give the release. Then she would start moving the filly around to prove to the filly that she can control her motion. Even when the filly would tip her ear to her Lee would back up. If the filly would not stay she would encourage her to move. Finally when the filly would stay stopped Lee would try and edge up to her to pet her. The good thing about a round corral is that you have infinity working for you but horses can not learn when they are tired. At this time Lee decided to put the bridle on her mare and she demonstrated it froma the saddle. Lee would ask her head to come around and she lined up the bit to the mare's mouth. The mare opened her own mouth and picked up the bit. I was impressed being that when I have done it, I had to reach down and cause the mouth to open for the bit to slide in.
Lee stressed that what your doing is trying to build a relationship that will last a life time.
Ground Skills
Lee got off her horse and began doing ground skills with the filly. Lee uses the lariet. She fed the loop of the lariet under the nose band of the halter and then over the ears. the concept of the lariet is that it adds more pounds of pressure per inch. This helps teach the horse to give to pressure and follow the feel. Lee began to apply physical pressure but allows the horse to move it's feet. Lee would keep the horse in a tight circle. She allowed the feet to move until the horse found comfort by stopping. Lee would release what ever pressure she was putting on. She then put the coils on the horses back, the horse started moving her feet again and Lee just let her till she stopped at that time Lee removed the coils thus the filly found comfort. Approach and retreat is the concept. We are not much different. When we work we take breaks. This is how you cause the horse to want to stay. The ground skills help teach the horse to get prepared.
Vertical Flexion
Lee runs the rope over the horses nose. Lee is standing to the horse's side of it's head. She will hold a slight amount of pressure. The horse will search but Lee does not release until the horse drops her nose down. Most people have a lard time waiting. Rude behavior will get results so you need to be sure you release at the right time.
Lateral Flexion
Lee runs the rope over the horses nose. She is standing on the side of the horse but at it's shoulder. Hold the rope about the withers. Applys slight pressure and holds till the horse bends and puts slack in the line, then release. Be sure you watch for the slightest try and reward it with the release. This helps build confidence. If you held the rope longer, you will get the hindquarters to move away. Lee talked about how this is like dancing. You dance by feel and maintain the same contact as your partner. We do not allow our horses to go looking. Lee wants us to teach our horses so they are saying when we ask them to do something "why wouldn't I?" Most of our horses say "why should I?" If the horse gets use to you allowing and keeping the horse in mind. You will eventually get the horse looking at what you are asking with the attitude "why wouldn't I?' When you offer to the horse and hold instead of whacking, you are allowing the horse to find his own. Lee had a joke she told that brings this message home.
There were 3 guys working on a bridge. They stop for lunch and all had cheese sandwiches. They each vowed if they got cheese sandwiches the next day they would jump off the bridge. The next day they opened their lunch boxes and they all had cheese sandwiches. Off they jumped to their deaths. At the funeral Ted's wife said "if I knew he didnt't like cheese sandwiches, I would made him something different". Marty's wife said "oh if I had only known too". The third wife said "I don't know about Charlie, he made his own sandwiches". Lee's point is let the horse make is own cheese sandwich. If a horse can not find comfort it will come out in his feet instead of what you are asking.
Circle around
Lee wants the horse to go by the feel in the rope instead of driving the horse. She would send them out by feel on the rope and when they would go she would take off the feel.
Side Ways
We need to teach the horse to move away from us. So if they get scared they will move away instead of on top of
us. Lee led the horse over to the wall and encouraged her to move out like in the circling and when the horse got to the wall she gave her line in the rope so she could go. You can use the coils to ask the front to go away or you can throw a coil up the line. If the rear end lags you can send a wave down the line that push down the side of the horse. When the horse doesn't want to go the way you want let them go over there but do not let them find comfort till they go the way you asked. When the horse is going good, you want the horse to stop but not leave. Some horses do not need to be petted, so don't.
These are the basics for communicating to the horse. Remember horses are so dedicated to finding comfort that they will kill themselves trying to get there.
Trailer Loading
Lee lets the filly walk up to the trailer and look in. Lee does nothing at the trailer but when she goes away, do something. Allow approach and retreat. this build confidence. Lee used the coil rope to keep her from running over her. Lee did not allow the filly to find comfort away from the trailer. She just keeps encouraging her but Lee allows her to go see that there is nothing out there away form the trailer. Lee would let the filly relax by the trailer. Lee encourages her to try. Everytime she goes up to the trailer it builds her confidence. Lee then will back her away from the trailer because they do need to be able to back out once they get in. When the horse put it's front feet in, Lee pets her and then backed her out. She then walked away from the trailer. One problem that people have is they leave the front feet in too long and then they get stuck. Back them out and encourage forward. the filly went all the way in. Lee let her come out and then back in as many times as she wanted This helps build the confidence. Finally the filly figured out that it was easier to stand in the trailer than going in and out. Lee then took off the rope and put on the lead rope. She walk the filly away from th trailer and worked on tossing the rope over her back. She then walked her up to the trailer, the filly went right in and as she was going in Lee tossed the lead rope onto her back. This trailer loading took about 15 minutes at the most. Lee never had to cause the horse to break a sweat or get upset. She never had to whack on the horse at all. My husband is not a horse person but he came in and cought this part of the tape. When it was over he said that it was pretty neat watching someone that knew what they are doing. He was very impressed.
Day 2
Colt Starting
Lee begins the demo off by talking to the crowd about a few things. First she states that we want to cause the right thing to be easy and the wrong thing difficult (not impossible). Most of us do not know what the right thing is. Most of us are kicking and pulling to get something done. When we should be like dacing with out horses. One of the biggest mistakes is we release at the wrong time.
Approach and retreat is the key to teaching. We criticize them for what they do but most of the time we do not present it to them so they can understand. Patience is so important in training. When you are working with the horse you need to observe, remember and compare. Lee likes to use Ray Hunt's saying about "Preparing to position for a transition". We build resentment into our horses because we do not get them prepared before asking them to do something.
Lee is riding her horse around with a flag on a stick. they are in a 60 foot round pen and the filly is at liberty. She is pushing the filly around trying to get her interested in Lee. When the horse faces up to Lee, she turns away and walks off. Horses earn respect in the herd by pushing each other around. There are 6 directions that a horse can move. Left, right, up, down, forwards, backwards. A lead horse shows that they can control the other horses motion.
We as humans have a hard time allowing the horse to try and make mistakes . We all learn through our failures and mistakes. We cause the horses idea to be uncomfortable and the right way to be comfortable. Licking the lips is showing the horse is understqnding. If you have taken sales classes you learn signs to look for in people. It they are buying or not buying. For instance, if a person has their hands over their mouth they are not buying. If you see a horse with tight lips they are not buying. If you see a horse licking their lips they are buying.
Lee starts to work with the filly to get her comfortable with transitions. By using the flag she causes the filly to go from a walk to a trot and then lets her come right back down to the walk. She does this till the horse is comfortable. Then has her go from the trot to the canter and back down. Lee then switches to the lariat. Lee tries to ride up to the filly and pet her. When the filly allows her she then rides away and has got the filly hooked on. The reasoning behind trying to pet from horseback is to get the filly used to seeing someone above her. Within this same day someone is going to get on and ride her. This is just one more preparatory thing. She had to use approach and retreat for the filly to be able to be comfortable with Lee coming up to her Also retreating works on keeping the filly hooked on. Lee stressed you do not want to tire the horse out because if a horse is tired it can not learn. Lee offers to the horse to check out the lariat. Again she uses approach and retreat. Soon she is able to put the lariat around the horese neck. Lee wants the rope to touch the filly all over her body. The filly is moving around the round pen1st a little troubled but then ok. Lee then flips the rope over so it goes behind her hindquarters. She teaches the horse to give to pressure. You have to put enough pressure to get her interested and then wait. It is like you asking 2+2 and rewarding the correct answer. She then puts enough pressure to get the filly to face up. Mind comes first and then the feet.
Lee moves up close to the filly and allows her to drift till she finds the end of the rope. The filly was troubled with Lee moving up. Lee uses her foot to put pressure on her ribs to move the filly's hindquarters. As soon as she moves, she gets the release. Lee rides away asking the filly to follow the feel in coming along.
Colt Starting-Bareback First
David Stackley is a horseman in Eldorado, Kansas that is a friend of Lee's and he came out to help her with the demo. David gives clinics on foundation horsemanship and cattle working. David also start colts.
David came out to the round pen and put a halter and lead rope on the filly. Lee likes to start horses off 1st bareback and then put on the saddle. Lee would narrate as David demonstrated the process. So Lee had David move to the filly's side and start jumping up and down like he was going to get on. When she got comfortable with that, Lee had him put his arm up on the back of the horse. David offered to the horse to bend it's neck laterally so the hindquarters would move around. If the horse could not stand still David continued jumping up and down till the horse would stop moving. Then David would stop. David then jumped up and laid across on the filly's back. When the horse started moving, David just hung in there till she stopped. He got down and took the horse for a walk to give her a break. David jumped up again and began wallowing on her. He got down and walked her again. Taking frequent walks helps relax the horse out. The next step David jumped up and laid across her, he started putting his leg up. Be sure and do both sides. The horse should be comfortable on both sides. Lee then had David get to where he was on his knees. Do this until the horse stops moving it's feet and is comfortable with it all. David then got up and then got off.
Saddling the Filly
Roy Cooper is another horseman that helped Lee in her demo. Roy gives clinics on team penning and roping. Roy also does colt starting. Roy is located in Oklahoma.
Lee is narrating what Roy is doing. Lee is the one telling Roy what to do next, just as she did with David in the bareback. Lee has Roy start swinging the pad off and on. As Roy was doing this, Lee was saying that it is good to let different people ride your horse if they do things the same way you do. Then when the horse was ok with the pad Roy swung the saddle up. Do not put the stirrup up on the horn. Just swing it up there with both stirrups down. Lee began to tell the story that took place at a Ray Hunt clinic. This gal was in the colt starting and Ray was having everybody saddle their colts. This gal put the stirrup up and was very careful about setting the saddle up there softly. After she had the saddle up there, she tossed the stirrup down and the horse jumped and the saddle came off. The gal said to Ray, did you see that and he said yes. Try it again. The gal did the very same thing, but the colt this time started moving his feet but she got it up there. Tossed the stirrup down and the horse jumped again and dumped the saddle.. she again said to ray did you see that and he said yes. Try again. This time the gal could not get near her horse with the saddle. She was upset and Ray said if you can not saddle your horse you can not ride. Needless to say the gal went away mad because she could not get her horse saddled. Ray probably saved that gal's life. Back to the filly. Roy cinched her up and the filly did not seemed bothered. He then turned her loose in the round pen with the saddle on. She was worried about moving her heet. Lee then walked around her on horseback to get her hooked on.
Colt Starting-Saddled and Going
Lee was able to come up to her and pet her and encouraged her to move her front end. Lee then began flagging the filly to get her moving. She is helping her on her transitions. She encourages her to walk, trot and canter. As she is working her she allows the filly to hook on. When she caused her to get up into the canter the filly started bucking. Lee let her come back down and to get hooked on. Getting hooked on was comfort for the filly. Lee then did the same going the other direction. Once you introduce something to the horse then fall back onto things they know. This helps build their confidence. Lee shows her the flag and worked to be able to touch her with it. Use counter balance in things you do with the horse. If one side is better than the other then do the not so good side more.
Lee asked for Roy to come back out and start to work at getting on. He used the approach and retreat to get on. When he got on he kept her head bent around and petted her. Doing both sides. Lee then had Roy do nothing but get a good grip on the front and back of the saddle. Lee walked around and got the filly gooked on. She did not want Roy to do anything but be a passenger. Lee is looking for changes. These changes are looking for her to relax her neck, body, eyes blinking, lips relax. These are signs that it is time to ask for someting different. Lee is going to work on the transitions. She started with the walk to the trot and come back down to the walk. She asked Roy to ride with his body and the squeeze when asking to go up and relax when coming down. Lee then started flagging her to go up into the canter and back down. Building her confidence.
