SLK Major Knee Socks (Pepsi)

Buckskin Paint Gelding
Foaled in June 1999

I first met Pepsi when my friend Maral purchased him as a 3 year old. He was easy-going (for a green horse), cute, and friendly. Maral rode him western and he did really well for her. Now fast forward 6 months when I buy Pepsi from her on March 2, 2002.

Pepsi arrived at L&R Ranch a week later. Since he had been pastured next to Blondie before, I went ahead and turned him out with her right away. They were like long lost friends! They definitely remembered each other and were glad to be together. Pepsi is the boss, but generally they get along very well.

I let Pepsi settle in gradually, only walking him around and grooming him for the first couple of weeks. Then I began round-penning both of the horses. Pepsi went through the motions, but was generally disrespectful of me. I had a difficult time keeping his attention - there was always something outside of the round-pen that was more important than me. Even sending him back to work and then asking him to pay attention again wasn't really cutting it. He also was displaying signs of disrespect when I groomed him by mouthing, nipping, and biting everything with in reach.

During this time, I was thinking - he just moved to another new place, he's getting a lot of feed as he was somewhat underweight, and he's had lot of owners (6 at 4 years old) in his young life - so I was trying to keep him occupied and keep him in his place gently. That worked for a little while, then things got worse. The biting escalated. When he was mad at me, say for asking him to back up, he would do his darndest to bite me. Ears pinned and temper flaring he would grudgingly back up a few steps.

As the summer went by he managed to land two good bites on me - one on my forearm and one on my side, above my hip. I started to crack down on his behavior, using more punishment when he acted out. The main punishment I used was giving a jerk on the halter and a yell when he attempted to put his mouth on me. Again, this seemed to put me back in charge, but it didn't last. At this point I cut back on the time I spent working with him as I had run out of ideas and wasn't getting the respect I wanted from him.

I don't even think a week had gone by when Marion approached me about coaching Pepsi and I (August 2002). She proposed that we start working him with John Lyons methods, beginning in the round pen.

Marion and I began by going to get Pepsi from the pasture together. He displayed his typical behavior - trying to bite the leadrope and halter while you halter him, not moving away from you if you try to turn him to the right, and generally not paying much attention to you when you're leading him.

Over the next few months, Marion taught me numerous methods to train Pepsi without force, using more behavior modification and less punishment. Most of the methods are based on John Lyons training. For example, if Pepsi is tied at the hitching post and he is biting the lead rope or the post, I will ask him to open his mouth and drop whatever is in there. While it takes quite a few repetitions for this to have any impact on him, eventually he will decide that it's not worth putting his mouth on anything because I'm just going to come up and ask him to open up again.

Another big part of training him is to keep him busy so the opportunities for bad behavior are greatly lessened. But then at some point you also have to give him the opportunity to display the bad behavior so you can correct it. In terms of keeping him busy, we began round penning him - really making him work and pay attention. Every time his attention wandered he was asked to put more energy into his work by increasing speed, turning, or going back to work if he had been standing. Basically, I needed to become the most important thing in his life - his attention needs to be on me. This is really critical for my safety. And if I'm not safe, who will care for my horses?

February 20, 2004: It's almost been two years since I first bought Pepsi from Maral. My bond with him has also increased in recent weeks. He has always been a horse that loves attention and will come running when called - when anyone calls! But lately, I can feel a great improvement in the response that he gives me when I clear my mind and thoughts to focus on him. I have to be 100% focused on him and I have to know what it is I plan to accomplish during my interaction with him during that session. Besides this making my expectations of him higher, I think he responds better because I am sending a much clearer signal of what I want and what I will accept.

June 4, 2004: Pepsi is doing so well - or maybe it's me that's doing so well. In May, I really focused on not allowing Pepsi to bite the leadrope or reins. I started asking for him to give to the bit again which meant I had to be on guard for an attempted bite as well. In addition to giving to the bit, I was asking him to flex his neck all the way around until his nose was close to the girth. I was doing all of this on the ground.

Then we had a breakthrough: I decided that it was time to start doing all the same exercises while I was in the saddle. I knew that I had to be prepared for two things. The first was to employ a one rein stop type action if he really acted up. The second was to be ready to nail him if he attempted to bite me while his head was bent around. His manner of acting up is to refuse to go forward, then when I push he threatens to rear by lifting his front legs off the ground (the beginning of a rear). By nail him I mean kick his mouth if he tries to bite. It may sound cruel, but if I can get him good the first time he tries that will almost completely put a stop to it. On the other hand, if I fail to punish him he will think it's a game and continue trying to bite me.

The result? When he decides he no longer wants to move forward and he threatens to rear, I whip his nose around to one side or the other. It completely subverts his thought process. Then I slacken up and ask for him to give to both sides. The result should be that he softens his body and his attitude. Then I ask him to go forward again. I am no longer afraid to ride him. I am carrying a whip and tapping him when he refuses to go forward, knowing that I have a safety net if I need it.

Horses