Wednesday, November 21, 2007

An Interesting Series of Posts

Mikael's Mania is in the midst of a bunch of interesting posts on licking and chewing in regards to training horses. Is it a sign of submission, a sign of an idea learned or a sign of pressure released?

I personally have found it to be a sign of pressure released and submission.

Gunner in particular is slow to lick and chew. I have noticed this in the round pen, with ground training and with the chiropractor. The chiropractor was a bit frustrated that he didn't have any big release signs the first time we visited her, but the second time he was more relaxed and was able to give her the licking and chewing signs she was looking for. During ground work I would not wait for licking and chewing from him, but instead I looked for a cocked leg, dropped head or big sigh. He did learn and he did retain the knowledge without the licking and chewing.

Kelzon on the other hand would run around the pasture like a nut case until HE decided it was time for me to catch him. At that point there was licking and chewing. I took this as a sign of submission.

If you check out the comments made for today's post you will find comments about licking in baby foals. This led me to think about what I do with our baby calves. Naturally we want our calves to be as calm and tame as possible. The tamer they are the easier they are to handle and be around. In Spring I will wander the pastures interacting with the babies and I have found that they will lick and chew as they are discovering who I am. In fact if I lick and chew back to them they are more likely to take a step closer to inspect me. Yep, that's right I lick and chew back to them. I have never figured out what to do with my arms and leg so I try to keep a closed body (arms and hands at side, kneeling down, head slightly downward).

Remember back when The Horse Whisperer book and movie came out? About that time I picked up a book by Monty Roberts called The Man Who Listens to Horses. In the book he discusses that horses, cattle and deer are more than likely genetically tied together and some of the approach and retreat techniques used with wild horses can also be used with deer. So I thought, why not cattle? Why not indeed? I didn't have a horse to practice on so the calves seemed like the best experiment. I actually use the approach and retreat method with the steers and heifers the girls show at the fair as well.

So, I'm not sure what exactly all the licking and chewing means, but I'm sure it is a way to communicate to us and amongst themselves that they are listening to us and are want to please or at least be heard.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

You were so smart to try that!

I hope you and the family have had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Rising Rainbow said...

Thanks for the link. It has been an interesting series of posts, I think because of all the comments it has generated.

I had forgotten about the baby thing, I will probably address that too. But that one I am much more sure of. Licking and chewing is still a wide open discussion as far as I can tell. lol

Glad to hear that it worked with the calves. Don't you wish you could get in their heads. It would be so much simpler if we could. lol