The Ten Irrefutable Laws of Horsemanship by Geoff Tucker, DVM

A monthly discussion of The Ten Irrefutable Laws of Horsemanship

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"Tree Tunnel" - Scenes from the road - BarnPics by Geoff Tucker, DVM

I want to make horsemanship simple, like water flowing in a stream. The book is only 28 pages long yet it is everything I do every day with horses. How I connect within seconds with almost every horse and proceed to insert a steel file inside the mouth is distilled in this small book.

Order yourself a copy of The Ten Irrefutable Laws of Horsemanship then join me via this message as I discuss each law to make what you read more practical.

Introduction

Today I worked with 16 horses and every one of them had a different personality. Two of them are worth mentioning.

Horse 1 is a 10 year old large pony whom I had never seen. He was friendly but the first thing I picked up on was that he had been raised in a very structured environment. It reminded me of someone raised in the military. He was all business and he knew he was to cooperate or there would be consequences. In fact, I got the feeling that he had never been allowed to express himself to a human.

As I started to work on him he was afraid because I was a stranger, I was floating inside his mouth where no one had ever been, and there was pain in those areas. He froze still with bug eyes piercing my eyes. While everything looked like an explosion waiting for the detonation, I knew all would be OK. Why? Because I used several of the irrefutable laws to interact with him. Through this communication I was able to reduce the barriers of fear and assure him of the benefit of my work. The result was a relaxing and accepting horse as I filed away on the last cheek teeth next to the painful ulcers.

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Horse 2 is a 12 year old gelding. I had seen him 3 months earlier to float his teeth and had administered potent pain killers to remove a broken tooth near the back of the mouth. When he saw me, there was some worry but there was also recognition.

I examined the mouth and then started to float. There were some very sharp edges near the socket of the broken tooth and as I manipulated my blade in that area, he started to erupt. He became dramatic and like a pot of water boiling with pasta, he started to bubble up and over. Just like what you do in the kitchen, I reduced the heat and allowed the water to cool. It took two minutes of just relaxing without a word spoken. He received no acknowledgment or reward of his dramatic behavior. Just silence and a lowering of my energy which he promptly followed. After the short break I entered the mouth and went right back to where I was working before and with gentle words of encouragement, he just stood there allowing full access.

As we discuss the Irrefutable Laws of my book, you will learn why they reacted so differently to the same process and how I used the laws to open up a dialog they could understand. Through this simple process, I connected and achieved my goals without any stress on me or the horse. In the end both horses gave me a total body shake which I consider a full release and an ultimate goal of connection.

Communication is both a technology and an art form that is used with all creatures including human to human. Please join me every month as I work our way through the Ten Irrefutable Laws of Horsemanship. They will make your life with horses easier. They may even save your life.

©2011 The Equine Practice, Inc | Palm City, FL

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