Starting Young Horses with Robyn Hood at Bitterroot Ranch
a description by Robyn Hood
In June, 2008, I returned to the Bitterroot Ranch in Dubois, Wyoming for the first time since 1989. Bitterroot is the home office of Equitours which offers top class riding tours all over the world owned by Mel and Bayard Fox. The ranch is run with the help of their son Richard and his wife Hadley along with long time wrangler, trainer and instructor Tracy Diehl.
Linda usually teaches the Starting Young Horse clinic, but had other engagements so I went instead. My daughter, Mandy, met her husband Walt at the ranch and both of them were there in June. We worked with eight, 3-5 year old, Arabs or part Arabs, and they were a lovely group of horses. The care that Mel takes of their horses is, in my opinion, exceptional and it really shows when dealing with the horses. They have about 200 horses on the ranch in order to have suitable mounts for their guests and not to overwork the horses. The horses are friendly and interested in people and wander around the cabins where guests stay. If you are looking for a fantastic guest ranch I would highly recommend it - the food is fantastic, the cabins cozy and the views spectacular.
The horses we worked during the clinic included four rescue Arabs that Mel got from Virginia. The 4 and 5 year-old mares had been seriously underweight when they arrived and were definitely looking much better. Although their feet had been handled, not much else had been done with them before arriving at the ranch. The other four horses we worked with were three year olds born at the ranch. Although they are only handled briefly as weanlings, yearlings and two-year olds they were really lovely to deal with as we took them from their idyllic life on the range to asking them to learn a wide variety of tasks.
The aim of the TTouch approach to working with horses is to keep it low-stress. Avoiding increased adrenaline and stress hormones keeps horses able to learn as they take on board new information. We teach people to look for the subtle signals when a horse is concerned such as increased respiration or changes in the horse's eye. If something is too difficult we find ways to 'chunk down' the process and make it easier so the horse and handler can be successful. We used TTouches to develop a relationship with the horses. It allows us to find and work with areas of the horse's body that may carry tension such as the tail or mouth. When horses are more relaxed they are more accepting.
Using a variety of leading exercises and incorporating some of the Connected Groundwork helps make the horses more flexible and balanced and gives the handlers a better idea of inherent stiffness. We also used neck line-driving to help the horses have a better sense of stopping through their bodies and then added ground driving to teach turning from the ground. Walking the horses through bales with people standing on them and holding pool 'noodles' get the horses used to movement from above. We had a wild variety of weather from rain with wind, light snow with wind and finally the last few days 70-80 degrees F. On the last day my daughter, Mandy, got on one of the mares bareback and we felt the rest of the horses needed a day off.
The day after the clinic Barbara Owens, Mandy and I stayed and worked with some of the yearlings to teach them to lead. The week following Mandy continued with the training under saddle and rode all but one of the eight horses we worked with during the training. The horses will now have a break for the summer and their training will continue in the fall.
I really enjoyed the experience and I'm happy that I'll be returning to Bitterroot, June, 2009.
For more information:
- Learn more about Robyn Hood
- See a slide show from a past training
- See an online video demonstration of TTouch
- Visit Bitterroot Ranch online
