I originally wrote this article about George Washington’s horsemanship in 2013 for my publication The Partnered Pony Inquirer. I decided to share it again here because of recent developments in the life of Willowtrail Rory, my 2022 bay Fell Pony gelding. Rory has now gone to his new home, and he has as his best equine friend an American Mammoth Jack that is the same age named Noah. George Washington, before he became the first president of the United States, was involved in the development of the American Mammoth Jackstock breed. His interest was in creating an American donkey breed that could be used to produce strong working mules.

Six month old friends Noah (American Mammoth Jackstock) and Willowtrail Rory (Fell Pony). Courtesy Abby Joseph

I have visited Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate in Virginia, on a couple of occasions, and I have always enjoyed my time there. I was pleasantly surprised, then, when I learned that Mount Vernon is a member of The Livestock Conservancy and keeps heritage breeds of livestock.

Mount Vernon courtesy Tom Simpson

Young mules at Mount Vernon in 2004. Courtesy Tom Simpson

According to the Mount Vernon website, “Few mules existed in the early United States. Those that were available were of poor breeding as a result of the inferior quality and scarcity of jacks as well as jennets in the country. Washington believed that robustly bred mules would revolutionize agricultural work and transportation by improving the overall labor efficiency involved with these tasks, given its superior aptitudes and smaller food consumption than other beasts of burden.” (1)

* * * *

The connection between George Washington and horsemanship crossed my desk twice in rapid succession, and I’ve learned to pay attention to those sorts of synchronicities. I am indeed referring to the first President of the United States and a Revolutionary War hero. The first time the connection crossed my desk was when I was writing an article on the Montana Draft Teamsters Hall of Fame for Rural Heritage magazine (click here if you’d like to read that article). One of the teamsters I featured in the article was Tom Triplett who comes from a long line of remarkable horsemen. Back in Tom’s line was an ancestor who was a neighbor of George Washington who trained driving horses for him. (Washington apparently trained all his own riding horses.)

The first time I visited Mount Vernon, I remember seeing a mule in the stables at that time. George Washington is credited with introducing mules to American agriculture. Here is what the Mount Vernon website has to say about Washington’s horsemanship:

Thomas Jefferson once referred to George Washington as "the best horseman of his age, and the most graceful figure that could be seen on horseback." This assertion was supported by Washington's friend, the Marquis de Chastellux, a French national who came to know Washington during the Revolution. Chastellux observed that Washington "is a very excellent and bold horseman, leaping the highest fences, and going extremely quick, without standing upon his stirrups, bearing on the bridle, or letting his horse run wild."(2)

There is a further discussion on the Mount Vernon website about Nelson, the horse Washington rode during part of the Revolutionary War. Washington apparently preferred Nelson to his other horses because Nelson wasn’t as bothered by cannon fire. Washington named Nelson for the friend who gave the horse to him. Nelson was retired to Mount Vernon after the war, and the website states:

Washington's affection for the horse was reciprocated. It was reported that George Washington would walk around the grounds of the estate, where he would stop at Nelson's paddock, "when the old war-horse would run, neighing, to the fence, proud to be caressed by the great master's hands." (3)

The second connection between George Washington and horsemanship came when I learned that Linda Kohanov, author of The Tao of Equus, is working on a new book. In the course of her research Kohanov discovered, as I’ve described above, that George Washington was an accomplished and respected horseman. Her book apparently asserts that great leaders in history were also often great horsemen and women (her list includes Alexander the Great, the Buddha, Genghis Khan, Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth I, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Winston Churchill, Teddy Roosevelt, Queen Elizabeth II, and Ronald Reagan.) She then makes a convincing case that great horsemanship requires the same skills that great leadership does.

These references to George Washington and horsemanship inspired me to go looking on the internet for images of Washington on horseback. What I found really caught my attention. I’ll tell you why after you’ve had the opportunity to view the images I found. Here are links:

Washington 1, click here

Washington 2, click here

Washington 3, click here

Washington 4, click here

Washington 5, click here

Washington 6, click here (somewhat of an exception)

Did anything strike you about those first five paintings of General Washington? I think I expected to see images more like this one (click here), where the horses were tense and perhaps even terrified. In those first five paintings, though, what I saw was that every horse looked relatively relaxed and comfortable with its rider and its situation. The sixth portrait was somewhat of an exception; the horse wasn’t relaxed but still didn’t look uncomfortable. Of course, in most cases we’re dealing with artists depicting Washington on horseback after Washington’s death when they would likely have been acquainted with his reputation as a horseman. In addition, the artists would have been well-acquainted with horses themselves, so they knew how to portray them as relaxed and comfortable with their rider if they wanted to..

When I was originally researching this article, I came across a brief review of the book Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer on ranchers.net. The link is broken now, but I kept a copy of the review because it was focused on Washington’s horsemanship. According to the reviewer, the book “…describes what a great horseman General Washington was, the fact that he'd been born quite sickly and to strengthen himself he walked 3 miles a day and rode horses incessantly. He was quite impressive on horseback and sat ‘quiet’ with his muscular legs extended on long leathers and toes pointed down. One observer said he and his horse moved fluently and he was the most graceful a man could be on horseback.”

The reviewer then included this excerpt from the book about a stormy icy night when Washington had his troops cross the Delaware River to attack the Hessians. “They then had to struggle with artillery down steep iced slopes. Washington rode up and down the column urging his men forward. Suddenly the general's horse slipped and started to fall on a steep and icy slope. ‘While passing a slanting slippery bank,’ Lieutenant Bostwick remembered, ‘his excellency's horse's hind feet both slipped from under him.’ The animal began to go down. Elisha Bostwick watched in fascination as Washington locked his fingers in the animal's mane and hauled up its heavy head by brute force. He shifted its balance backward just enough to allow the horse to regain its footing on the treacherous road. Bostwick wrote that the general ‘seized his horse’s mane and the horse recovered.’ It was an extraordinary feat of strength, skill and timing and another reason why his soldiers stood in awe of this man.”

Doing further research I discovered that the mounts of many military leaders look comfortable with their rider. Here’s a link to a site showing many of the mounted military horse statues in Washington, D.C. (click here ). Notably, the statue of Washington shows a horse much less relaxed than all the horses in the paintings. To see a statue of Washington more in line with the paintings, click here:

You might also be interested in these images of Queen Elizabeth I whom Kohanov additionally cites as an accomplish horsewoman and leader:

Queen Elizabeth I : click here and here and here.

Why might all of this be of interest to those of us partnering with ponies? I have come to believe that the ability to read a pony’s body language is key to being a good partner for them. Some of our ponies are so mellow that we think they can handle anything, and then we’re surprised when they spook or bite or rear or run off. I learned early in my natural horsemanship studies that horses usually give us several signs about how they’re feeling. We tend to notice the third or fourth or fifth sign, because those signs are increasingly obvious. Learning to perceive the earlier, more subtle signs makes us a better partner and a better horseman or woman. The flick of an ear, the swish of a tail, tenseness in jaw or neck, eyes distant or fixed on something – these are all examples of communication that we need to learn to read to be the best partner for our ponies that we can be. Looking at artists’ renderings of accomplished horsemen and women and focusing on the equine in the art is one way we can practice discerning the state of mind of an equine from its body language.

1. https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/royal-gift-donkey/

2. http://www.mountvernon.org/educational-resources/encyclopedia/nelson

3. Same as #1

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2022

There are more stories like this one in my book The Partnered Pony: What’s Possible, Practical, and Possible with Small Equines, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

I have two pairs of mares that at the moment are reminding me that ponies don’t respect clear orders of dominance or rank.  Each night and morning I swap them in and out of pasture, in what may be a vain attempt at managing their weight.  My goal is to halter one pony but bring in two, and that has required letting go of preconceived notions about who is leading who.

One of the pairs is a mother daughter one.  The mother is the undisputed though reluctant lead mare of the herd.  The daughter is in the middle of the herd.  (It’s so interesting that I wanted to use the terms pecking order or middle-of-the-pack there, but neither is about equines.)  This mother-daughter pair, though, complies with the ‘normal’ rules.  I can halter the mother and lead or ride her in and the daughter follows.  When I put them out, I let the daughter loose first, and she will usually wait for her mother before taking off for greener pastures.

The other pair is an unrelated set of three-year-olds.  One is clearly dominant; she can lay her ears back or toss her head and make the other one move.  Occasionally she will turn and offer to kick and get the same result.  For awhile I was haltering and leading this mare in, but the other mare didn’t follow.  I finally figured out that if I haltered the lower-status mare and led her in, the higher-ranking mare would follow us, sometimes immediately and occasionally within five minutes.  When I put them out, I began by putting the lower-ranking mare out first so that she could move off when the higher status mare was put out with her, but I found that the lower-ranking mare would often leave and be out of sight by the time I put the higher-ranking mare out, causing her distress.  So now I put the higher-ranking mare out first and she waits around until the lower-ranking mare is put out and they move off together, usually with the lower ranking mare in the lead!

Despite the second mare of each pair coming in on her own, sometimes she doesn’t come in when the paddock gate is open.  I then need to go out and bring her in through the gate.  I am mindful of my goal of ‘haltering one to bring in two,’ and I am very fortunate that these mares still make that goal achievable.  Both of them will come through the gate when I beckon them or if I put my hand under their jaw and lead them that way.  Still no halter and lead, so it makes me smile!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

More stories like this one can be found in my book The Partnered Pony, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

Honey subtly communicating with the cock of her head

I took a brief break from the pressure of a publishing deadline to go see a friend work with her horse.  When she had described what she was doing over the phone, it seemed almost counterintuitive, so it was clear to both of us that an in-person demo was needed.  We started by watching a short video of my friend’s instructor using the technique then we went out to see my friend use it on her horse.  My brief observation of the technique was not enough to fully grasp the power of the method, but I did take away a few things.  It’s pretty subtle stuff.

What most caught my attention was the focus on brace in the horse: how to see it and how to modify our handling of a lead rope, for instance, to keep our horse from bracing against us in the first place.  The example was a simple one.  When we have our horse on a lead rope standing still and then we move to a walk, typically we let the rope tighten between us until the horse begins to move with us.  If that rope tightens and the horse doesn’t move, it’s because they have braced their body against the tension.  Instead, this technique involves giving the horse more rope as we move away and encouraging them to follow by the use of our gaze, our posture, the energy we send down the lead rope, and if needed, the strategic movement of a whip. 

It was the bit about posture that most resonated with me.  The idea seemed to be that rather than just move from a stop to a walk, we should shift our posture in a consistent way, for instance by straightening up and squaring our shoulders, before we move off.  This gives our equines a choice to prepare to move off with us rather than brace.  I’ll be handling a lead rope differently next time I’m with a pony.  Subtle stuff!

Earlier in the day, I was working with my seven-year-old mare on ridden work.  I set the session up to be really simple so I could try to use the most subtle cues I could to tell Honey what I wanted.  It was a thrill to experience how little it took.  After the first few cues and responses, Honey did something I didn’t ask for.  However, I knew she was responding to something she’d sensed from me, so I scanned my body quickly to figure out what she’d reacted to.  Then I realized it was a thought I’d had.  I’ve had that happen before with my ponies; it’s flattering but it’s humbling, too, because I don’t control my thoughts as well as I could to fully utilize this sort of connection.  Subtle stuff!

I have said it before, and today I felt it again strongly.  One lifetime won’t be enough with my ponies.  While our relationships are already rich, days like today with the demonstrations of the really subtle communication that is possible make me wonder just how much more rich our already fulfilling relationships could grow to be.   

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

In a recent article on the Fell Pony shoulder, I suggested that a well laid back shoulder requires special consideration when it comes to harness adjustments. My colleague Doc Hammill and I have written an entire book on harness, so I will obviously be brief here compared to that full treatment of the subject. I particularly want to address, though, ideal angle of draft and point of draft. In the discussion that follows, I’m assuming collar-type harness rather than breast-strap-type harness.

Norwegian harness fixes the angle of draft at the ideal

In my opinion, the ideal angle of draft is especially important to understand when we are talking about working ponies in harness. Ponies, being smaller, need to be given every opportunity to work efficiently, transferring as much of their power as possible to moving the load to which they are hitched. The ideal angle of draft enables that sort of optimal transfer of power. The angle of draft is measured between the line of the collar/hames and the line of the traces that are connected to the load. The ideal angle of draft is 90 degrees, meaning the trace is perpendicular to the collar/hames.

It is interesting to me to consider Norwegian harness when thinking about ponies and work harness. Norwegian Fjord Horses are like Fell Ponies in that they have been bred for centuries to be versatile: ride/drive/draft/pack. The quality of the shoulder is critical to that versatility, which usually means laid back. To ensure the ideal angle of draft for their versatile small equines, the Norwegians designed their harness so that the trace is fixed to the collar at the ideal angle. A picture of a Norwegian harness on my Norwegian Fjord Horse is included here. I consider the Norwegian style of harness to be proof positive for the importance of ideal angle of draft when working ponies.

Trace location for ideal angle of draft is shown in green.

The next picture is from Wikipedia, and it shows a carriage horse with a more conventional collar-and-hames-type harness on a well laid back shoulder like a Fell Pony is supposed to have. Note how the collar is laying back on the shoulder bed of the horse. Then find where the trace leaves the collar/hames and note the angle that the trace makes with the collar/hames. I have drawn a green line on the photo to show the ideal angle of 90 degrees. Obviously it would be impossible to hitch anything to this horse at that ideal angle with that collar fit where it is. Instead the collar fit would need to be adjusted, using padding for instance, to bring the top of the collar forward to change the line of the trace so that the angle of draft is closer to ideal. I saw a photograph recently of a Fell Pony stallion with heavy muscling on his neck that would take the place of ‘artificial’ padding to keep the top of the collar forward while still being well-seated on his shoulder bed.

Another problem with the collar fit shown on the well laid back shoulder in the Wikipedia photo is that a hard pull on the trace could pull the collar up into the bottom of the neck where the windpipe is, potentially causing a comfort issue for the horse. It is likely that this particular hitch requires very little effort for this particular team of horses so hopefully that comfort issue never arises. (I also have an issue with this harness because it lacks breeching, so the horses have no ability to hold the vehicle back, so the teamster must brake the vehicle to keep it from running up on the horses.) With typical harness and collars and hames, the ideal angle of draft of 90 degrees can be difficult to achieve on a laid back shoulder unless the equine has adequate muscling or adjustments are made to the collar that might not be necessary on an equine with a steeper shoulder.

The ideal point of draft is also especially important to consider when dealing with a laid back shoulder. The ideal point of draft is actually a marriage of three different ideal points: one on the shoulder, one on the collar, and one on the hames. The marriage of these three points ensures the equine is able to work as safely and comfortably as possible. Doc’s and my book has an entire very long chapter on this subject, so the following discussion is just an overview.

Point of shoulder and spine of scapula approximately shown in red. These are places where bone doesn’t have much padding of muscle over it so harness needs to be kept away from them. When the trace leaves the hames, for instance, it needs to go between the two red markings.

The ideal point of draft on the equine is located such that the line of the trace falls midway between the bottom of the spine of the scapula and the upper limits of the point of the shoulder; these two anatomical features are roughly located on the picture here and are close to the surface of the skin so it’s important for the trace to run between them.

In our book, Doc shares, “In the herd of horses that Cathy and I have, there are Suffolks, Fjords, and a Welsh Pony. On the Suffolks, there is a three inch space where the trace coming off the hames should pass… On the Fjords, the area is two-and-a-half inches average top to bottom. On the Welsh Pony it’s just two inches.” (1) Clearly with ponies we have a special responsibility to locate that ideal point of draft carefully so the trace lays comfortably on our working partners.

The ideal point of draft on a collar is the thickest and widest part of the collar, but the trick is getting that part of the collar to sit correctly on the ideal point of draft of the shoulder. Then the ideal point of draft of the hames is where the trace needs to connect to the hames to lay in the narrow region described above and also ideally be on the thickest part of the collar that is over the ideal point of draft of the equine. Whew!

Where the trace attaches to the hames, circled in red, seems too high, potentially causing the trace to ride up onto the spine of the scapula.

I saw a picture of a Fell Pony working in harness recently that had a laid back shoulder with the collar laid back on it, similar to the horse at rest shown here in another Wikipedia photo. The point of attachment of the trace on the hames seems high, possibly causing the trace to ride up onto the spine of the scapula and potentially cause injury. That high point of attachment on the hames can also possibly pull the collar up into the bottom of the neck as described above, with that laid back shoulder making this more of a possibility due to its impact on the angle of draft as described above. Most hames have very little if any ability to adjust the attachment point, so often people make do with what they have, hopefully paying close attention so there are no adverse effects on their working partners.

Doc concluded our chapter on the elusive ideal point of draft by saying, “The ideal point of draft is an anatomical and kinetic balance point in the area of the shoulder of the equine. While the ideal point of draft can differ from equine to equine, the point of draft on a particular equine remains constant. It is the point of draft on the collar and most importantly the fit of the collar and the point of draft on the hames that must be monitored and adjusted to ensure our equines’ comfort.” (2) It has been my experience that equines bred specifically to work in harness tend to have steeper shoulders than the ideal versatile Fell Pony shoulder. Therefore, when we work ponies with their laid back shoulders suitable to a wide range of activities, we have a special responsibility to fit their harness so that they can work efficiently, comfortably, and safely.

1. Morrissey, Jenifer. Harness Lessons with Doc Hammill and Friends, 2013, p. 85.

2. Morrissey, p. 97

   (c) Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

The information here is a small subset of the crucial considerations when fitting harness on equines. Learn more in my book Harness Lessons with Doc Hammill and Friends, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

I love my bareback pad but it’s time to move to a saddle.

When winter began last year, I set myself a goal of riding to the summit of Parker Peak, the highest point in Fall River County where I now live.  It would be a ride from home of about 3 miles one way with an elevation gain of about 800 feet.  What I didn’t realize when I set that goal is that there would be interim goals to accomplish first.  One of those is buying a saddle.

During my first decade with ponies, I would more often work them in harness than ride.  For the occasional short rides that I did do, I had a bareback pad with stirrups that worked well.  In hindsight I realize that many of those rides didn’t have severe elevation changes in them.  In my new life in South Dakota, though, where my house sits in a valley and so much of interest is ‘up,’ elevation change is to be part of my riding. 

Early in my teamster career I learned to look at hair patterns after removing harness to assess whether my pony had experienced any discomfort from harness fit or wear while working.  I naturally began doing the same whenever I removed pack saddles or my bareback pad.  After riding a few hills here, it became clear from those post-ride evaluations that having a saddle would be necessary for my pony’s comfort and for mine.

It didn’t take long into my Fell Pony career to learn that fitting a saddle to a Fell Pony is a non-trivial exercise.  I’ve read lots of threads over the years on various social media, which is how I learned that saddle fit is one part pony, one part person, and one part type of riding.  After I learned this, I wasn’t surprised that there was rarely consensus about the ‘right’ saddle for a Fell because there were so many different permutations of how a saddle was fit to a person/pony partnership.  My bareback pad seemed like a good solution for a long time.

In the meantime, I learned more and more about proper harness fit.  Numerous articles with my colleague Doc Hammill resulted in a book on harness.  My take-away from that project was that to buy a saddle for my ponies required taking equal care and concern as we had documented in our harness book.  Again, my bareback pad seemed like a reasonable compromise.

Now, though, I’m ready to invest the time to find a saddle that works for us in our new situation.  The bareback pad’s compromises have become problems that must be addressed to accomplish my goals with my ponies.  Three areas in particular are problematic with my bareback pad.  First, with my Fell Pony mount’s well-laid back shoulder, the natural girth groove is forward of the withers and the construction of my bareback pad and its girth pull the pad forward onto the withers, especially going downhill.  I can sit back further to correct this on flat ground but downhill travel is still troublesome.  And then the stirrup leather rings are forward of the girth, so posting a trot, for instance, puts downward pressure on the spinous processes of the withers which is completely unacceptable.  Finally, the stirrup position is compromising my posture when riding, throwing my legs forward.  Poor posture on my part ultimately adversely impacts my mount.

Life works in mysterious ways.  When I finally became ready to move on from my bareback pad, some consensus emerged amongst like-minded equestrians regarding saddles for my situation.  I am now engaged in saddle fitting processes with three different saddlers, and I’m learning a lot.  The biggest unknown at the moment is how many saddles I will end up with when I emerge at the other end of this journey!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

My book Harness Lessons with Doc Hammill and Friends is available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

Many fell-running Fell Ponies in England experience flyovers by military jets. Many get to a point that loud, low-flying aircraft aren’t a big deal.  My ponies when we were in Colorado occasionally had military or emergency services helicopters fly over at low altitude, so they became accustomed to them.  Here my Fell Pony mare Rose and I experienced a flyover of a different sort, and it was a perfect addition to our ride.

Rose looks at turkeys on the ground under the grain bin.

I had taken Rose out to work on standing still around cattle.  We rode to the bull corrals and stopped to watch several older bulls eat.  They were pretty focused on their hay, and she did fine with that.  We then rode a little farther where a few more bulls including some younger ones were a little more active.  After a few times of me resetting Rose’s feet after she moved, she got the idea about standing still.  Then we headed towards the calf pasture where Rose’s feet tend to be the busiest. 

Almost immediately, though, we had company on the road.  First came the tractor and hay processor which Rose is quite familiar with, followed by a familiar Jeep then an unfamiliar pickup.  They all passed us by no problem.  Rose has been around equipment her entire life, so I thought this parade should be an easy test for her, and she passed with flying colors.  We continued on to the calf pasture and stopped to watch a dozen steers drinking from the waterer.  I had to reset Rose’s feet a number of times before she stood still enough that I could count a success and let her move on again.  We headed back toward the barn.

As we approached the barn, we saw that the tractor, Jeep, and pickup were all parked there, so we were to again have a good test of Rose’s ability to deal with relatively common stimuli but in a new place.  I was pretty certain it wouldn’t be an issue, and as we approached I could tell that Rose saw what was going on and didn’t have a problem with it.  Then, out of the corner of my eye, I could see we were about to experience something we hadn’t experienced before on our rides, and I had no idea what to expect.  A flock of about thirty wild turkeys had been spooked, and they were flying over the bulls at about fifteen feet elevation and approaching the road just ahead of us.  Perfect!  A flyover!

We had seen turkeys numerous times on our rides, always quite a ways ahead of us and always on the ground, but we’d never had them above us.  So I was extremely pleased and a little surprised that Rose kept on walking toward the barn.  The turkeys kept on flying just ahead and above us, and Rose acted as if it was perfectly natural that large black heavy birds with long wings and funny heads were crossing our path airborne.  I couldn’t have planned a better addition to our lesson ride.  The last of the turkeys flew over, and we continued to the barn.  We passed the vehicles at the barn, too, so it was easy to call the entire ride a success.

I was talking to a friend, and she mentioned that people sometimes poo-poo trail riding as a lowly use of an equine and the easiest to train for.  My friend and I heartily agreed on the contrary.  At least where she and I ride, the number of possible unexpected stimuli seems infinite.  How do you prepare a pony to remain calm and safe when faced with infinite unexpected stimuli?  And then how do you arrange for a flock of turkeys to fly overhead during a training ride to test that preparation?!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

You can find more stories like this one in my book The Partnered Pony, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

I was feeling out of sorts, but pony chores still needed to get done.  In the course of moving ponies from one place to another, I fed a treat to a pony that I usually don’t treat.  I gave in to the look in her eyes that said, “I know you’ve given treats to the other mares; what about me?”  I immediately knew I was going to regret the decision.  In my experience it takes as long as three months before a pony who’s been given a treat will stop looking for one.

It was right after the holidays, and my brain was a little foggy and I was a little achy.  I was pretty sure I knew what the source of my discomfort was; I had gone off my usually healthy diet and eaten more sugary foods than normal from Thanksgiving through New Year’s.  I had cleaned up my act but then relapsed on a long road-trip, eating leftover Christmas cookies to pass the time.  After that, though, I ended up having trouble walking.  It took even longer to clean up my act than it had before.  This wasn’t a new downward spiral for me; I’d been here many times before in my life.  I knew I needed to shape up, but I also knew that I would likely succumb to dietary indiscretions again; history has definitely repeated itself in my life in that department.  Then I heard a podcast that gave me new insight and new motivation.

The title of the podcast (click here) was about detoxing the brain.  What really sucked me in, though, was the link the doctors made between poor dietary choices and decision-making.  I was obviously well aware of the link between poor dietary choices and inflammation in my body.  But what was new to me was the link between poor dietary choices and brain fog and the downward spiral of poor decision making that results from that brain fog.  It turns out then when our body is inflamed, so is our brain, though we rarely recognize it because we feel so out of sorts.  And when our brain is inflamed, with brain fog being a tell-tale symptom, we tend to make decisions differently.  Instead of making decisions with long term benefits and strategic goals in mind, we make decisions that result in shorter term gratification.  And those shorter term types of decisions tend to be self-fulfilling.  Eat the leftover cookies as a treat on a long ride in the car rather than avoid them, then suffer even more and make more bad choices.  It’s not just a mental cycle; there’s biochemistry behind it, too, which is what makes it so challenging to undo.

So, getting back to treating that pony….  I wasn’t feeling well, and I made a decision to feed her a treat which made her happy in that moment and I was happy too because I made her happy.  But when I’m feeling well, I don’t succumb to that look from those big brown eyes, and instead her manners are better and our relationship can be focused on expanding her skills rather than me fending off her attempts to get in my pockets.  And I am happy because she’s a better pony than she was before.

Now that I understand the impact that poor dietary choices have on my decision-making, I see a lot of patterns in my life that perhaps I can now reshape.  I’m more motivated than ever to stay clean!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

Stories like this one populate my book The Partnered Pony, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

The other day I was talking to a master teamster, and when our conversation neared its conclusion, he asked if I was going out to put harness on my horses after I hung up.  Alas, that wasn’t my plan.  I then shared with him that when my life changed last year, I had sold all my dead-broke ponies.  My attention now is on bringing one back into work who’d had a few years off to have foals in hopes of creating my next working partner.  I clarified that I knew there’s no such thing as dead-broke, and he quickly assured me he knew what I meant.  He realized recently that all his horses who knew their job in their sleep were nineteen years old or older, so going out to work right now meant going out to train.  We agreed that it isn’t so much about the physical work for which they need training.  Instead they need mental work; they need to be reminded about the mindset of working safely and reliably.

I decided that to bring my pony back into work we would commence with ridden work before revisiting harness work.  It was the right choice since it quickly exposed that indeed it is her mind that most needs attention.  Something about motherhood convinced her that she knows best, and I suppose that is true where the safety of her foals was concerned.  In fact that was indeed the assignment I had given her.  Now, though, I have had to explain to her that in our working relationship, I will have a say. 

I received a gift of a small book from a Fell Pony friend.  Reading it, I had been entertained through the first 80 pages, but I suspected at some point I would get even more out of it.  Sure enough, the author eventually came around to talking about mental work.  The key, he says, to working with animals is to engage with them mentally not just physically.  More importantly, that mental engagement should be one of equal footing, not superior to inferior as we humans often do to the animals in our lives.  We must recognize that they are aware of our thoughts at some level, and the more honestly we recognize that and utilize our thoughts in our relationship, the more profound the relationship becomes.

I have no problem with this concept of engaging with animals on equal terms mentally.  I have spent the better part of the last two decades seeing more of my animals than of people, so it has been fairly easy to establish communication with them.  I do have a long way to go, though.  And my mare reminds me daily on our rides both where I am now and what is possible if I keep training myself.  Two or three times each day on our rides, she catches me thinking something and she alters her movement to reflect my thought, whether changing gait or line of travel away from ice or, worse, finding something more interesting to do since my mind has wandered.  When I realize what she has done, I collect my thoughts and reengage in the task at hand and endeavor to keep my mind on what we’re doing.  That she is so tuned into my thoughts is a reminder of how much potential there is in our relationship if I were to be as aware as she is.

My master teamster friend said he was headed out to feed hay to his cattle with a gelding put to the hay sled.  The gelding knew where to stop for him to fork off the hay and when to start up again, obviously fit mentally for that job.  I was headed out, in contrast, to do a chore related to my breeding program.  My master teamster friend kindly acknowledged the challenge of actively breeding while also trying to put horses to work regularly; there are rarely enough hours in the day for both.  For sure, I may not get training done as quickly as I might if putting my ponies to work were my only job, but my motto is that if I just show up each day, in time we make visible progress.  And showing up daily is the most important thing right now for the mental work we need to do.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

You can read more musings like this one in my book The Partnered Pony, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

The headline caught my attention because as a breeder I work with foals regularly.  The headline said foals need a break every once in a while from training.  I pride myself on paying close attention to how my foals react to training, noting what they understand and don’t and what they find stressful and don’t.  I looked forward to learning what the research behind the headline said.

Researchers in Australia and New Zealand worked with twenty Thoroughbred foals 8 weeks of age and younger.  They found that the foals exhibited stress responses more often when they were worked daily versus when they were given a day off every two days. (1)  This finding made me cock my head with surprise.  This pattern wasn’t one I’d ever witnessed when working with the more than two dozen foals that I’ve shared life with, so I needed to learn more.

The research was specifically about halter and leading training, and the stress response that was noted was biting the handlers.  “[Foals] under 8 weeks of age showed a remarkable increase in biting during the fourth consecutive day of training….  Study foals that were older than 8 weeks did not show an increase in biting behavior, even on the fourth consecutive day of training.”  This information still wasn’t within my range of experience working with pony foals.

Then I found something I personally found alarming.  The training sessions for these youngsters were up to 25 minutes long.  Really?  In my opinion, you would ruin a Fell Pony foal’s mind working with them for that long at that age.  I usually wait until they are two year olds before I ask for that prolonged focus on a regular basis.  No wonder, in my opinion, the handlers were getting bit.  Before my foals are a year old, if I work with them for more than five minutes at a time, it’s unusual unless I’m trimming hooves.  It just isn’t necessary nor productive, in my opinion.  And I’m not alone. I have colleagues who train ponies who use similar approaches. It’s no wonder, from my perspective, that the researchers found the foals needed a break from that training regimen. 

I agree that foals need breaks from training.  For instance, once mine have basic leading, yielding, and foot handling skills, usually by about 3 weeks of age, I quit working them daily until they are 3 months old.  I might occasionally give them a quick refresher, but I haven’t found it necessary nor productive to continue daily work.  Repetition has its place, but it can also be overdone with ponies, in my experience.  I do agree that as foals get older, they can handle longer and more frequent training sessions.

I also found the use by the researchers of biting behavior as indicative of a stress response to be potentially problematic.  I agree that biting can occur as a stress response, but I’ve also experienced it as a playful act.  It is common for foals to bite each other when they are frisky or when they’re being aggressive with a herd mate.  And foals may also respond to being scratched by people in favorite places by returning the grooming favor by nibbling as they would with another pony unless trained to do otherwise.  The article I read was a summary of the research, so I wasn’t able to review the research in depth to understand how these nuances in biting behavior were addressed.

I have never worked with a Thoroughbred, much less a foal of that breed, so I don’t know whether they can handle longer training sessions at younger ages than ponies can.  However, this research is important for all of us who train foals.  It reminds us to make sure we pay attention to stress responses in our charges, no matter how they manifest, and that we time our training sessions to keep stress to a minimum. 

1. Lesté-Lasserre, Christa.  “Researchers: Young Foals in Halter Training Need Frequent Days Off,” thehorse.com, article #181488, 11/14/19.

A friend was telling me about taking her horse to a vet hospital for evaluation.  A vet there insisted on running the horse out herself rather than letting my friend, the owner, do it.  My friend noticed that the vet had soft shoes on, so she offered again to run the horse out since it would be safer, but the vet insisted.  So my friend warned the vet that the horse had a tendency to swing wide on a turn and could crowd and step on the handler’s feet if care wasn’t taken.  The vet brushed off the warning and headed down the arena.  Sure enough, the horse swung in tight around the circle and stepped on the vet’s foot, clearly hurting her through the soft shoe.  I congratulated my friend on being an excellent horsewoman, accurately anticipating how the horse would act in those circumstances, despite being unacknowledged by the vet.

Shortly thereafter, I headed outside to bring two mares with foals in who had been out grazing.  I was about to leave for the rest of the day and wasn’t sure I’d left enough time to round up my friends.  While I had put the two mares out quite a distance from each other, I found all four together.  And as I’d feared, when I approached with a halter, the mares started walking away from me because they didn’t agree with my opinion that they’d had enough green grass for the day.  Fortunately they were just walking, and I was able to catch up with the herd leader who let me halter her and begin leading her in, with her foal following not far behind.  Before long I heard hoof beats, and here came the second foal running up to be with the first.   And then I heard more hoof beats, this time the second mare coming along behind us, too.

I was very thankful that my round-up strategy of one halter for four ponies was working so well.  When we got to the gate, though, there was a necessary pause in our momentum as I opened the gate, and I worried that I would lose the second mare’s interest.  I needn’t have worried.  I walked the first mare through, and her foal followed, then the second foal came, and then the second mare.  After I’d unhaltered the first mare, I gave the second one a big hug of appreciation for her cooperation.

Before I left home for the rest of the day, I messaged my friend with this story and said, “I love my mares!”  My friend messaged back, “I love your mares, too!  And clearly they love AND most importantly respect you.  Why?  Because you’re an excellent horsewoman!”  I smiled at the return of the compliment I’d given my friend earlier in the day.  Then I decided I would prefer a modification to the compliment – that my ponies, rather than a horsewoman, accept me as a ponywoman!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

More stories like this one can be found in my book What an Honor, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

It wasn’t until I put the second pony on a transport that I realized it, and even then it took a few days more.  A sudden change in my life had caused me to need to rehome four ponies quickly.  Two of the ponies I delivered myself into the hands of their new owners.  It was the other two that I delivered to a third party that showed me so much.

When I parted with those two ponies, I was in tears.  One had shared life with me for nineteen years, and the other for thirteen.  We had done a lot together, and I considered them friends.  It’s normal for me to cry when I say good bye to a pony.  This time, though, was different, as these two showed me.  Neither of them would look at me as I said my final good bye.

I try hard to never be angry around my ponies or to have an argument with another person around them.  Over the years, they’ve shown me they don’t like that emotion.  Research has indeed shown that equines respond differently to happy and angry faces.  “Psychologists studied how 28 horses reacted to seeing photographs of positive versus negative human facial expressions. When viewing angry faces, horses looked more with their left eye, a behaviour associated with perceiving negative stimuli. Their heart rate also increased more quickly and they showed more stress-related behaviours.” (1)  One researcher said, “It's interesting to note that the horses had a strong reaction to the negative expressions but less so to the positive.”  I certainly have perceived that difference in response with my own ponies.  They are much more reactive to negative stimuli than positive.

The tears I shed as I said good bye were not angry ones, though, so I didn’t think the ponies would be affected.  I was wrong.  My tears were full of grief, heavy with emotion.  I underestimated these two ponies and the effect my emotions had on them.  One transporter later told me that the pony in their charge perked up after 24 hours.  The other was labeled a hard traveler, and it took her even longer to come around.  These ponies did react to my grief, and if I could apologize to them, I would. Next time that I am emotionally heavy when saying good bye, I will try harder to make it easier on my departing pony friend.

1)      University of Sussex. "Horses can read human emotions." ScienceDaily, 9 February 2016. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160209221158.htm

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

More stories about the amazing relationships ponies make possible can be found in my book The Partnered Pony, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

I am bringing my Fjord gelding Torrin back into work after a long time off.  When Torrin is out of a working mindset and under saddle for the first time in awhile, he will sometimes lower his head, waggle it back and forth and then occasionally waggle his whole body before offering a small buck and then taking off at a run.  I’ve worked with him long enough to arrest this sequence before it progresses too far, and when I’m successful, it will even make me laugh!

I was thinking about my work with Torrin when I wrote the article “Don’t Drill Them,” inspired by a very simple, clear, and accurate discussion of the topic by an owner of two of my ponies (click here to read it).  A conventional approach to dealing with an equine who is out of a working mindset and has lots of energy is to lunge them to get their excess energy out of them or at least reduced.  I’ve never ascribed to this approach.  For one, I appreciate an active walk, like Torrin has, and I don’t want to work it (drill it) out of them.  And second, my goal isn’t to get their energy out of them; I want their cooperation in the activity I have in mind and for them to use their energy in that activity.  Lunging seems different from what I do; instead I want to work them on-line in a way that is about communication, where I can ask for their cooperation and then assess their willingness to give it.

I do put Torrin out on a circle, and I ask for particular gaits, transitions between gaits, and changes in direction.  If he changes gait on his own (usually up when he’s not in a working mindset!), then I know he’s not ready to be ridden safely.  In fact, he’ll often start his amusing sequence, lowering his head, waggling it back and forth, etc, including trying to take off at a run, which of course only goes as far as the end of the line in my hand (and a few steps on my part to arrest his momentum!)  I will continue to ask for compliance with my requests of specific gaits, changes in gait and direction, and when Torrin chooses to work with me rather than go his own way, then we will progress to the activity I had in mind when we came together.  I’m definitely not drilling him; I’m continually asking for something specific and assessing Torrin’s response.

One day I went out to work with Torrin, and he was lying down napping in the sun.  I put his halter on and stepped back, inviting him to go work with me.  He got up and followed me out the gate.  When I put him out on a circle, it was clear I had a cooperative pony, so I mounted and took a short ride.  On this day, I’m afraid if I had done much work on-line at a trot or canter, Torrin would have woken up more completely and reverted to his playful self!

Today after several days in a row of his antics on-line, Torrin showed me in an on-line session that he was willing to listen and respond promptly to everything I asked.  We then took a marvelous ride with not a step misplaced.  I didn’t do a prescribed number of circles at each gait or a prescribed number of gait or direction transitions; that approach feels like drilling.  I did just enough to know we had two-way communication.  Torrin’s response was feedback that not drilling works very well indeed.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

There are more stories like this one in my book The Partnered Pony, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.