A herd of two
Leaders and followers in the equine relationship
BY CAROLYN BRONSON
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12:01 a.m. PT Apr 24, 2008
It's a cool early morning in Penn Valley, with ponies and Cob colts just starting to be turned out in their rolling pastures.
A gray pickup drives in to the farm and a tall, mustached man in Western attire emerges from his truck. He enters the barn with a halter and lunge line in hand. It is the start of another session in building a herd of two.
I heard of trainer Ezra Marrow through friends in Penn Valley and Oregon House. Other mentions of his work were dropped into casual conversations with equestrians since our arrival here in 2005. Marrow and his wife moved from Colorado to Nevada City in the same year.
A six-month-old Canadian-bred Welsh Cob colt had arrived at Coldstream Farm as a future herd sire near year's end. The breeder had indicated the colt was halter broken.
The colt's conformation and movement exceeded our expectations. His behavior, on the other hand, indicated that we had major groundwork to lay for a successful, long-term relationship. Given the colt's size and age, and the fact that every experience seemed to be a new one for him, I decided to give Ezra a call.
Most of Ezra Marrow's life has been spent around horses. Having had a Shetland pony as a young child, he started mastering his skills more than 17 years ago when working and later managing a 2,500-acre ranch in southern Colorado.
His charges consisted of more than 70 horses, and ultimately hundreds of people whom he took on guided trips through the Rocky Mountains. During this time he started to learn about natural horsemanship and its effect upon building strong bonds between equines and their owners. Although the concept of naturally communicating with horses is not new, Mr. Marrow's holistic approach is unique.
According to Ezra, in one's relationship with a horse, there must always be a leader. In the wild, the herd leader looks after the well-being of the herd and makes life-and-death choices that allow this prey animal to survive. From birth, horses instinctively look for this type of leadership.
If horse owners do not fulfill this role, then the horse will take it back from them.
Who's the boss?
Often horse owners believe they are the leaders of their equines, but Ezra tells us the horse sees the relationship differently.
Each time we interact with our horses we reinforce our relationship with them. The objective of this training is to get the horse to work with you, and not just for you out of fear.
According to Mr. Marrow many horse owners worry about getting their horses to come to them as pets, rather than having their horses yield to them out of respect and recognition of the owner's leadership in the relationship. In short, every time we interact with our horse the equine must acknowledge that we are the leader in the relationship.
Ezra believes most problems with horses come from poor training and horse management. While problem horses are often labeled "unfixable," Ezra says he has not found any horses that can't be retrained given the right commitment of time and exposure to proper handling.
Unlike typical approaches of training just the horse or the rider, Ezra's focus is on building a relationship between rider and horse. Ultimately the success of each owner and horse depends on how you, the owner, succeed with relating to your horse.
Fundamentals of the bond
In building this bond Ezra focuses on six fundamentals with his clients and their equine partners.
The first of these fundamentals is leadership. Leadership means assisting your horse in feeling safe within the human world. With good leadership, a horse looks to the rider for guidance and comfort and, most importantly, for direction.
The second fundamental is communication. In this area of training, riders learn to communicate with clarity, consistency, confidence and focus. Since horses are highly intelligent and sensitive, good communications are fundamental to successful training.
Owners are asked to define both what their and their horse's roles are within the relationship. The owner has the chance to empower the horse to take responsibility for its choices and actions, as well as to give it the opportunity to learn.
The fourth fundamentals is relaxation. A critical part of working with your horse is to allow both of you to relax. Through relaxation the horse learns to trust you to be in charge, to make decisions for his welfare and to therefore remove stress and worry from him. Real learning can occur when the horse operates out of a relaxed state, actively making choices rather then simply reacting out of fear.
The fifth fundamental is balance. This fundamental covers not only balance in the saddle but also our own emotional state. If we experience anger, fear or frustration when working with our horse these feelings are communicated to the horse.
The sixth fundamental is empathy. The rider learns to understand how our horse thinks and the basis for these thoughts. Empathy further allows us to develop the patience and understanding requisite to developing an amazing relationship with our horse.
Transformation
In the case of our colt, now ten months old, we have gone from a wild-eyed, frightened response to one of calm and focus on what we are directing him to do.
We have moved from training our colt to creating a willing partnership with him. This experience has allowed us to accept the challenge of looking honestly at ourselves as we invest ourselves in this youngster.
Through our work with Ezra and our colt, we have learned more to be present in the moment, relax, communicate clearly and become truly aware of the world around us.
We, in fact, are becoming a herd of two.
Carolyn Bronson has been involved in showing and raising Welsh ponies and Cobs since 1994. She is a director of the Welsh Pony and Cob Association of California, having served on several national committees for the breed. Her animals have appeared in the Rose Parade as well as in a variety of educational forums. She and her family reside at their farm in Penn Valley. Carolyn can be reached at cpbronson@aol.com.
