 Welcome to the 2019 The Art of the Horsemen online horse fair. I'm Jack Curtis and this is my horse Casper. Today I'd like to talk to you about little things. I always say it's in the little things. In fact, we've heard that many times, but it means something. Because to me, I don't really think about this as training, my horsemanship anymore. I tend to look at it like experiences that I have with my horse together through life. And over time, that will build up to be the big picture. One of the big areas of confusion that I see with people is grazing. When they're out in the pasture, when there's tall grass, horses aren't always sure when are they supposed to eat? So therefore, people end up having to hold the horse's head up or get short on the lead rope to keep their horses head up. Then the minute they let go of the halter, horses think it's time to go down and eat grass. Of course, that handicaps you because now you're unable to give your horse a long lead, a little slack, a little floater belly in the rope because you're having to hold their head up. So let's talk about the way that I encourage people to graze their horse. Let's get started. When I first work with horses in a pasture, I wanna make sure that I have their head up, their attention is up, and I'm always able to direct their attention a little bit. Not only away, left, right, but also to me, that I would be able to direct the horse to me. And then when I turn, they would prepare to halt. They would think about it. They would slightly sit back, shift their weight, and they would take their feet back if I stay tall and lift. And that's really important to me because I need to know that we can get their head up and that they understand to get their weight back. So I might practice that a time or two. Walking off, I'm able to see my horse out of my periphery, see where he's at. I'm able to turn. He halts if I were just standing in front. I'd like his nose to be between the width of his shoulder. So there's a little room for him to turn his head, but that way I would know that I have his attention and I'd like to set my rope to such a length to where I could support that idea of nose between the shoulder. So that's pretty important to me. The next thing is, and maybe it's perhaps the easiest part to this lesson, I might ask my horse and direct him down to the grass. And that's pretty simple for a lot of horses. I might just drop my body and point. So my attention is sort of down on the grass. I would like to slowly walk away. I don't want to startle him because at this point I'm letting him know it's okay to graze and have that head down and his life low and down. The part that a lot of people forget is right here when they lift their head up. He lifted up on his own out of curiosity. He lifted his head up. Therefore, he's done eating. He can't eat again unless I ask and direct him to eat. Now I might take advantage of that and direct his life a little, maybe work on circling, perhaps walking away, turning, stopping, lifting, backing, making sure that his head can stay up. He doesn't think about the grass. At least he's not nodding and taking that head low unless I ask for it. And then I look down at the grass point and I slowly will walk away. And then we just give the horse a chance to just sort of think and eat. And he's still looking around. He's looking pretty good. What if you want your horse to stop eating? What if you want to go back to work, do a little more work with your horse? Well, in that instance, you have some options. I'd step in and back. We already worked on that when we started the lesson, backing up, taking the feet back. Then maybe we go back to work and maybe we ask him to just make an arc, swing an arc, circle a little bit. I'll swing a wide arc, have him move his hunch over, keep his life up all the way into the backup. And I'm quite content with that. I'm pretty happy with that. So now for the best part, go ahead, have a little grass. Remember, if for some reason he lifts his head up, he doesn't get to eat again until you present the idea or direct him to eat. So once he lifts his head up, he sort of lost his chance for that moment until we redirect and say, now you can eat. The reason is he won't understand when he's supposed to eat on his own or when we're actually asking him to eat. So right there, he looked up, no more grass. You know, perfect opportunity to do a little work. Do a little lunge, circle, picks his legs up in the tall grass. He gets to look around now and check out his environments. I'll step out of the center. We like to line up straight, give him a long chance, a long opportunity to come in, to get straight, halt back. I now bring my posture down and say, hey, that was great. Have him lead up with me a little bit. And then halt back. That tells me that I'm able to get his weight back. He's thinking grass. Maybe I skip it this round because he's thinking about it so much he's nodding his head up and down. Maybe I skip that for a little bit. Maybe I really make sure that I'm good with backup and that he will get his weight back. Make sure that I'm able to direct his attention. Sometimes you have to wait a little bit. There, look to the side. That's a good, that's a great try. Stay where you're at. All right, I'm happy. Let's not get greedy. Take the opportunity to eat. So for so many people, grazing their horse is something that they like to do because they feel good. Their horse gets to eat. And it's sort of just this, we think it's this little thing. People don't really put a lot of effort on focus and attention and awareness into it. And so it becomes a point of confusion for the horse. In fact, this is a time where I see people get their phones out or they start talking to their friend and they blindly put the horse behind them and they don't really watch what's going on. I'll see horses graze and slowly graze further out, put an angle, two grade of an angle into the rope to where their shoulder could be against the rope and you could get, they could maybe pull the lead rope out of your hand. The whole time he's grazing, I need to know that he's aware of me. So I'm able to get that left ear to come back, that left eye to come back. If I were to circle around towards the hind quarters, that would be another way to get his head up and I would make sure that he could focus on me, get his mind off of the grass. So what if your horse starts eating grass and you don't ask him to eat grass? Well, most people go for the lead rope because it's right there and it's attached to the horse's head so they think let's pull up on it. I state the same thing when people are riding under saddle, they tend to pull up on the reins because it's attached to the horse's head so it makes sense to people. But let me show you an option. If he were to be grazing and I didn't ask for it, what if I were just to step to the side and just send a lead rope his way and then walk off like nothing happened? Now for some of you, you might have to get a lot more firm than that. I'll direct down to the grass, keep my posture fairly low, back off if I can gain a little space, gain a little distance and keep my posture sort of relaxed and settled. That would help indicate to my horse, everything's relaxed, everything's quiet. Go ahead, eat some grass. Now if I approach and lift, I would like him to do the same thing. Lift his head, shift his weight back and even take it down to the feet. No more grass until I ask. One of the benefits to asking your horse to graze being a planned event that is, and not as opposed to an unplanned event, is he gets something great. People love to graze their horses. They love it, that feels good to the person. Well, the horses like it too. They get to relax, they get to eat. And that's all fine as long as you're asking the horse to do it. Unlike hand feeding your horse directly where your horse would be leaning in and bearing in and looking for a treat, his weight could be back. And I could step in and say, give me a little room, give me a little space. And then I could say that looks pretty good. Would you like to go down and have a little grass there, a little graze session I'll then keep my posture down, walk away. On a horse that I trust a little bit more, perhaps I would squat down, but I of course would be watching my horse and I'd be ready to stand tall. You know, we all have to get a little exercise sometime, don't we? And so do our horses. So, unlike the human, horses do quite well with movement, eating, movement, eating. And it's really sort of a positive thing that if he gives me a good circle and he's light and it's desirable, then I say, hey, have a little grass that feels good to the horse. It's all right with me. You could see him spook a little bit there, but he kept eating this time. He kept his head down. And that's an interesting thing. Pretty soon horses will start to realize, keep my head down and eat. And when they spook, maybe they won't bring their head up so high and look behind them. Sort of an interesting byproduct that we got there. It's these little things grazing and leading, picking up their feet, mounting. It's in these little things, in these little places where horses can really understand, settle in, relax, soak in what's going on. It's also places where the human can create a great deal of confusion and uncertainty for the horse. So reviewing what we talked about, it's really important that we ask our horses to graze, that we direct them down to graze when it's time. And that that's their chance to do it. Make sure that you have your basic ground school fundamentals in place before you go out and ask your horse to graze at the end of the lead rope. That's really important. It feels good to people to graze their horse. The problem is that's a point of confusion for many horses. And it's a place where horses get heavy and on the forehand distracted and possibly learn some undesirable actions that we don't really want our horse to do. We always want those horses feeling for us. I need to know that I can get his head up. I need to know that I can direct his attention softly. Then that makes a big difference if I ask my horse to come down, find a little grass. If they lift their head up for any reason, one, because you asked or two, because they got nervous, let's say, well, then they don't eat. They don't eat again. Now they might go back to work for a little bit. And then you can get some things done. Circling, moving the hind quarters, it's up to you. So he can't go down and just eat unless we direct his attention down. Then he could go ahead and he could eat. If you stick to this, things will get really clear for you and your horse and you'll be able to go out and successfully ask your horse to graze without a lot of confusion and resistance. Remember that everything we're doing on the ground has a positive correlation to what we do in the saddle. So for me, this really isn't a little thing after all. This is really a big thing. Thanks a lot for tuning into my video and tuning into the 2019, the art of the horseman online horse fair. We sure appreciate you all and I hope we can keep this going. This has been a lot of fun. Thank you.