Jim Swanner Media

Jim Swanner Media All About Horses radio interviews from the horse industry around the world. WKAC 1080 AM 9:30a CST each Monday wkac1080.com.
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11/22/2024

From 5/25/2020

11/20/2024

Radio show from April 18, 2020

11/07/2024

From the Ground Up; Concepts…



Why is ground training with our horses so important? From the ground first is where the foundation is built. We build a foundation that will last a lifetime. This cannot be done in a short period of time if it is to be solid. Without the solid correct foundation all will be lost in the long term. We must take the time to go slow in the early stages of teaching our horse from the ground. But, first, we must know what to do and where to begin.

Teaching from the ground is one of the most misunderstood elements of handling horses. People often ask, why do I need to do all this stuff, all I want to do is ride? I don’t have time for all that stuff. My answer oftentimes is; You have time to be in the hospital?

Teaching from the ground up is not only an effective, but necessary tool that the competent horseman applies to keep their horse tuned up and operating properly.

Teaching from the ground develops a communication system between handler and horse. This is a necessary element. We must be able to communicate with our horses. This communication helps each animal be able to read the other’s intentions, directions and emotions. It’s usually not enough for the rider or the handler to dictate to the horse unless they’re going to be satisfied with the most menial result. Communication can be developed from the ground where both the horse and the handler can most effectively see and relate to each other. It’s a bond, trust and conversation. You ever had a meaningful conversation with your horse, no, you should try it. You may be surprised.

Just about everything a horse is going to do under saddle involves yielding to pressure. Whether it's responding to leg pressure or rein contact, a responsive horse is moving in response to the rider's pressure. You want a light handling horse? Establish the proper response to pressure on the ground where you have the greatest control in the learning environment, then apply those principles in the saddle.

To learn these concepts and to begin having a conversation with your horse, contact me using the information on this page. You will be thrilled with the results and so will your horse.

09/24/2024

Getting the Correct Response

Have you ever watched a horse do some pretty awesome stuff for its handler? I’m not talking about things like circus tricks and such. I’m talking about things you think you can do.

Ever wonder how these horses are taught to do these things?

Teaching horses does take time but the primary element is conditioned response.

Conditioning is a process where the behavior response becomes increasingly consistent as a result of reinforcement. Reinforcement occurs following the response to a stimulus. Reinforcement can be comfortable or uncomfortable. The comfort or discomfort can be physical or psychological (emotional).

With horses, physical discomfort includes annoying stimuli such as prodding, tapping or poking. Physical comfort, of course, is as water, food, shelter, rest and grooming (stroking).

Psychological comfort includes, soothing sounds, pleasantness, and the absence of angered impatience.

Psychological discomfort is fear, (usually from anger and impatience from the human). It also exist where there may be impending physical discomfort.

A horse has fear (a psychological discomfort) because it is fearful of pain (a physical discomfort).

Every horse is different; we have to choose our method of teaching a horse carefully. We have to understand the horse, read the horse and determining if the horse is a right brained horse of a left brained horse. Right brained horse is a very fearful horse, a horse that wants to get away, an unconfident a horse that is unteachable until it is more left brained.

The left brained horse is the confident horse, the teachable horse, the curious horse and sometimes the dominate horse.

Learn to help your horses understand what it is you're asking and ask the same way everytime. Reward the slightest try by taking the pressure off. Stop asking..

08/14/2024

Barry Faulk, farrier..

06/18/2024

Randy Speegle on All About Horses a few years ago.

04/20/2024

Respect in Horsemanship

The use of the term respect when it comes to horse training often comes under fire. “Respect is a human term” people say and talk about it like it is something that can be bullied into a horse. If you want respect, don’t be a bully with your horse or others.

Respect is something we earn from our horse by helping it feel comfortable with the choices it is making. We might earn it from a frightened horse by helping it through a worrying situation. We might earn it from a defensive horse by showing it how changing that way of looking after itself reduces the need to be defensive and worried. We might gain it from an alpha horse by proving that we are assertive enough to earn the right to be the one who should be followed. Respect is not gained by any one method or aspect of horsemanship. The frightened horse might need exposure in increments to whatever it is that has it worried and the removal of that thing every time it starts to deal with it. The defensive horse might need to move separate parts of its body for us in order to become comfortable with the fact that these responses gain it more than the defensive behavior that has worked for it in the past. The spoiled c**t might need chasing away a little to learn that if it is to be near us it is to be in a more socially acceptable manner. Gaining a horses respect is more about showing it easy ways to be in a human created environment so that it can relax and leave the worrying to you. Horses crave this more than food in many cases. Respect is also having enough empathy for the horse to work out what it needs in order to gain its respect. Nothing takes the worry out of a horse more than taking away the confusion it might be feeling. Respect for another horseman might be putting some effort into understanding what they might be trying to achieve with a particular horse and learning enough about that given situation before assuming that, that is how every horse is handled.

Horsemanship is about reading a particular horse and using an appropriate technique/concept to help it understand. That technique’s success is largely reliant on the amount of feel one has for the horse and the situation. Respect is a 2 way street and we must lead by example. Bullying is just that and will only create fear and worry.

Learning to be assertive (not aggressive) with our horse is a difficult thing for some of us to do. We have to understand everything from the perspective of the horse. It is kind of hard to do that if we don’t understand the horse first. If we don’t understand how the horse thinks, what causes the horse to do what it does.

Understanding the horse is the first step in horsemanship. It’s the first step in learning to see things from the horses’ point of view. We have to look at the horse as the horse sees itself. It sees itself as everything it doesn’t understand is out to get it.

It is a good thing for us, as riders and handlers, the horse can desensitize pretty quickly to something new. As long as that something hasn’t created in the horses’ past it should be something that causes pain. As long as there isn’t a fear memory the horse will become confident very quickly. But, on the other hand, if it is something that has caused a real fear in the horse it will probably take some time to suppress that fear factor in the horse.

One method some use (which I don’t use because with some horses this could drive the fear deeper or cause a horse to go deeper within itself, go Introverted we call it) is flooding. You expose the object of fear to the horse until the horse relaxes. Sometimes this may work but if the horse is severely traumatized from this particular object/situation in the past you may be embedding this factor even deeper into the horses’ mind and it will never be OK with it. I feel advance and retreat is by far the best method to use.

Whatever you do or will do with your horse, one thing to remember, RESPECT is earned and not demanded. Respect and Trust are pretty close to the same, in my book.

03/17/2024

Respect in Horsemanship

The use of the term respect when it comes to horse training often comes under fire. “Respect is a human term” people say and talk about it like it is something that can be bullied into a horse. If you want respect, don’t be a bully with your horse or others.

Respect is something we earn from our horse by helping it feel comfortable with the choices it is making. We might earn it from a frightened horse by helping it through a worrying situation. We might earn it from a defensive horse by showing it how changing that way of looking after itself reduces the need to be defensive and worried. We might gain it from an alpha horse by proving that we are assertive enough to earn the right to be the one who should be followed. Respect is not gained by any one method or aspect of horsemanship. The frightened horse might need exposure in increments to whatever it is that has it worried and the removal of that thing every time it starts to deal with it. The defensive horse might need to move separate parts of its body for us in order to become comfortable with the fact that these responses gain it more than the defensive behavior that has worked for it in the past. The spoiled c**t might need chasing away a little to learn that if it is to be near us it is to be in a more socially acceptable manner. Gaining a horses respect is more about showing it easy ways to be in a human created environment so that it can relax and leave the worrying to you. Horses crave this more than food in many cases. Respect is also having enough empathy for the horse to work out what it needs in order to gain its respect. Nothing takes the worry out of a horse more than taking away the confusion it might be feeling. Respect for another horseman might be putting some effort into understanding what they might be trying to achieve with a particular horse and learning enough about that given situation before assuming that, that is how every horse is handled.

Horsemanship is about reading a particular horse and using an appropriate technique/concept to help it understand. That technique’s success is largely reliant on the amount of feel one has for the horse and the situation. Respect is a 2 way street and we must lead by example. Bullying is just that and will only create fear and worry.

Learning to be assertive (not aggressive) with our horse is a difficult thing for some of us to do. We have to understand everything from the perspective of the horse. It is kind of hard to do that if we don’t understand the horse first. If we don’t understand how the horse thinks, what causes the horse to do what it does.

Understanding the horse is the first step in horsemanship. It’s the first step in learning to see things from the horses’ point of view. We have to look at the horse as the horse sees itself. It sees itself as everything it doesn’t understand is out to get it.

It is a good thing for us, as riders and handlers, the horse can desensitize pretty quickly to something new. As long as that something hasn’t created in the horses’ past it should be something that causes pain. As long as there isn’t a fear memory the horse will become confident very quickly. But, on the other hand, if it is something that has caused a real fear in the horse it will probably take some time to suppress that fear factor in the horse.

One method some use (which I don’t use because with some horses this could drive the fear deeper or cause a horse to go deeper within itself, go Introverted we call it) is flooding. You expose the object of fear to the horse until the horse relaxes. Sometimes this may work but if the horse is severely traumatized from this particular object/situation in the past you may be embedding this factor even deeper into the horses’ mind and it will never be OK with it. I feel advance and retreat is by far the best method to use.

Whatever you do or will do with your horse, one thing to remember, RESPECT is earned and not demanded. Respect and Trust are pretty close to the same in my book.

03/10/2024

My Horse won’t Listen to me..

There are many reasons a horse won’t listen to us, at times. I’m going to give a few reasons here. This has happened to me many times. We just have to figure out why it won’t. We have to figure out why. We can only fine a way to improve and get the horses’ attention we have to study why it’s not listening. Get in the horses’ mind, so-to-speak.

One reason is, your horse may not respect you as a leader and doesn’t care about what it is you are asking or wanting. On the first hand, you may not be assertive enough (not aggressive) but assertive enough or really know what to do. On the second hand, you horse may need to be taught slowly, it may not have a clue what and why you are asking.

We have to be clear and precise on what we are asking and be clear and precise in the same way, every time. When asking and it does what we are asking we have to release the pressure, immediately.

For example, if you are asking your horse to back up when moving toward it and it doesn’t, you will need to bring up your energy a bit. (This is a process/concept we teach at K-I-N Stables, Athens, AL). When you understand what and how you are asking and do it the same every time your horse will begin to understand.

You may be asking you horse for a certain thing it isn’t capable of doing at this time. It may be something that he has to learn something else prior to learning what you are asking. We have to look at something we can teach the horse that will help it learn what we are trying to teach. In other words, teach a movement or something that the horse has to learn before it can do learn to do what we are asking. Example; if we are trying to teach the horse to move its hindquarters in a circle from pressure when setting in the saddle, we may need to help it understand by beginning from the ground first. (Again, learn these concepts at K-I-N Stables)

You could be asking your horse to do a certain exercise too often. Horses do get board doing the same things over and over. They begin to feel there is no release when they complete the exercise. If we do it too much they will begin to look for ways to avoid doing it or do something else trying to figure out what we're asking. If you work to improve at this point it may get worse instead of better. If your horse starts doing the exercise worse, think about if you are asking too much and too often..

03/05/2024

Horses and Bazooka Joe

I’m sure all of us have chewed on some bubble gum and had a contest, whether with someone or with ourselves, to see how big we could blow a bubble. You can only blow so much air into the bubble before it pops. The pressure is too great for the bubble gum to hold. Then you have bubble gum on your face. We have all laughed at people who have done that, even ourselves.

Horses are kind of like the bubble gum bubble. If we add too much pressure they will explode mentally. You can only apply so much pressure to a horse before it’s too much. We have to be able to recognize this pressure point with a horse. When we add this pressure to a horse we must have a release valve for when the horse tries.

For instance; if you are asking your horse to move sideways to the left, don’t have any pressure on him on his left. He will get confused and if you increase pressure on the right and haven’t removed the pressure on the left your horse could get agitated and very confused. He’s not trying to do the wrong thing, he just doesn’t know what it is you’re asking for.

If the pressure is not on the left side and he moves to the left away from the pressure you are putting on his right, release the pressure so your horse understands if he goes away from the pressure the pressure will come off. Pressure and release, Pressure motivates, it’s the Release teaches.

This sounds so obvious, but you would be surprised how often we mess this up.

Want your horse to back up, add pressure to the front and no pressure from the back end. When you add pressure add it as light as you want your horse to be and increase the pressure and hold until your horse responds and release immediately. I’ve seen people surge the pressure on a horse; for example-yank and release-yank and release. Don’t be this person. Add softness to your hand.



Now, when your horse tries to do something you’re asking, stop there and get away from it. Go do something else. Or, do nothing at all. We have a saying “Don’t just do something….Stand there”. If your horse is having a problem doing something or trying to figure out what it is you are asking, first thing to do; evaluate if you are asking in a way your horse understands; second thing, evaluate if your horse is ready to learn what you’re asking.

Like us, we had to learn to roll over before we could crawl, crawl before we could stand, stand before we could walk, walk before we could run—get the picture? Start where your horse needs you to start and progress from there. Don’t try to start ahead of where your horse is.

If you were a horse you wouldn’t want someone pulling on you or pushing on you and using too much pressure, yelling and yanking. So why do it to your horse? Help him to understand first. You will be amazed at how much your horse will try for you.

So if your horse tells you that you are adding too much pressure, what should you do? Back off, stop, quit.

Remember this principle; pressure motivates, it’s the release that teaches. Speaking of pressure, I cannot stress enough, start as light as possible and go as firm as necessary. Horses learn in phases of pressure so don’t go light and then go directly to firm. Give your horse some time to distinguish one phase of pressure from the other. Concentrate on holding each phase 3-4 seconds between pressure phases (4 phases) and hold the last one until the horse tries to do what you are asking the release immediately.

This is a big subject and a lot more information but too much to put in an article. It would take a while to teach it to humans. The best way is hands on. For you to begin to understand these principles and concepts of pressure and release and how to apply it to teach your horse to be more responsive to your pressure cues, contact us to schedule your sessions. 256.874.6781

03/02/2024

It’s a Matter of Trust

Or is it? It could be a matter of understanding.. Understanding your horse..

One of the most common things I run into when working with people and their horse is, oftentimes trust issues from the horse therefore trust issues from the people. When working with a horse, we must first gain their trust and respect. Neither can be forced upon the horse. It has to figure it out on its own.

Sometimes, we try too hard or push the horse too hard to accept us. Our relationship with our horse has to be a slow go. In some horses they get it pretty quick, others, not so much. It’s usually the not so much ones that teach us patience. Patience and laughter are the only two emotions we need to have around a horse. Laugh at yourself.

Taking it slow doesn’t mean we have to move so slow, that would look sneaky. What is usually sneaky, a predator on the hunt. We want our horses not to see us as a predator in that sense.

When moving around horses simply move normal. The way you would on any occasion. Any quick movement could startle the horse and any slow/sneaky looking movement could cause the horse to get a bit worried. When doing thigs around your horse or with your horse, don’t be fidgety. This could cause the horse to worry.

When we are trying to gain the trust of the horse, we have to do things that will not cause the horse to have a fear of us but look at us as the leader. Horses want leaders but we must prove to the horse we are such a leader. When the horse views us as the leader then we can begin to gain its trust.

There are a lot of things we can do and not do, it depends on the horse we are working with. The main ingredient is to take your time.

I’ve never seen a horse with wearing a watch…

02/28/2024

It’s Not Rocket Science’

Working with horses is not Rocket Science, nope; (But a rocket scientist can learn it) it’s way more. When working with horses we are working with a live, breathing, heart beating, and thinking, fast, quick, huge animal, an animal that can hurt us in a nana second, accidently or on purpose. We won’t even see it coming…

When we are working with horses we have to be vigilant, observant and perceptive to the entire goings on around us. We have to hear the sounds, see the movements that the horse is perceptive to. Become the horse, so-to-speak. It’s not just one thing. We have to be readily alert. But also remain relaxed and calm. That’s hard to do for a lot of us. It is something some are born with and others have to and can learn and develop.

Being around horses requires us to think like the horse but first we need to know how the horse thinks. When we are with horses we have to do our best to be a horse. It is kind of hard to explain what I am talking about; it’s one of those things you have to develop through learning concepts and applying those concepts. It is best to get with someone who can teach us these concepts so we can begin to apply them to our horse. Find a mentor; Instructor/teacher that can articulate why you will do what you are learning. A teacher with the patience to break it down into small pieces so you can put it together as you learn.

Being with horses, it is most important to develop the relationship first. It’s helping the horse to want to be with us. In doing so, correctly, we are beginning to cause the horse to look at us as its safe spot. No matter where we are with the horse, it looks at us as to think; as long as I’m with my handler I am safe, to put it in human terms.. Same as its stall becomes its safe spot, the herd is its safe spot, and the barn is its safe spot. We begin to develop that relational partnership.

No, it’s not Rocket Science; it is way more than that. Why, because we are working with something/animal that is already developed over millions of years. The horse is something we are continually trying to figure out, that is already a being, not something we are building from the beginning.

The workings of a horse are a continuation of learning and patience and also understanding. It takes time and it takes a lot of hands on to keep learning about these wonderful and majestic animals.

As I stated earlier, we need to get with someone that can help get us started on the right track to having success with our horse. Don’t do the wrong things and then have to fix them. Learn first. Even if you don’t have a horse, you can learn with the instructors horse, as we do and teach at K-I-N Stables in Athens, AL. Everybody learns from someone.. The information is already there.

Nope, Not Rocket Science….it’s more..

02/23/2024

From the Ground Up; Concepts…

Why is ground training with our horses so important? From the ground first is where the foundation is built. We build a foundation that will last a lifetime. This cannot be done in a short period of time if it is to be solid. Without the solid correct foundation all will be lost in the long term. We must take the time to go slow in the early stages of teaching our horse from the ground. But, first, we must know what to do and where to begin.

Teaching from the ground is one of the most misunderstood elements of handling horses. People often ask, why do I need to do all this stuff, all I want to do is ride? I don’t have time for all that stuff. My answer oftentimes is; You have time to be in the hospital?

Teaching from the ground up is not only an effective, but necessary tool that the competent horseman applies to keep their horse tuned up and operating properly.

Teaching from the ground develops a communication system between handler and horse. This is a necessary element. We must be able to communicate with our horses. This communication helps each animal be able to read the other’s intentions, directions and emotions. It’s usually not enough for the rider or the handler to dictate to the horse unless they’re going to be satisfied with the most menial result. Communication can be developed from the ground where both the horse and the handler can most effectively see and relate to each other. It’s a bond, trust and conversation. You ever had a meaningful conversation with your horse, no, you should try it. You may be surprised.

Just about everything a horse is going to do under saddle involves yielding to pressure. Whether it's responding to leg pressure or rein contact, a responsive horse is moving in response to the rider's pressure. You want a light handling horse? Establish the proper response to pressure on the ground where you have the greatest control in the learning environment, then apply those principles in the saddle.

To learn these concepts and to begin having a conversation with your horse, contact me using the information on this page. You will be thrilled with the results and so will your horse.

This will be my last year to teach. After 20+ years of teaching and experiencing 100s of great students and horses

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13124 Carter Road
Athens, AL
35611

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(256) 874-6781

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