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Frank Bell's Gentle Solution Revolution Natural horsemanship clinics, horse training techniques and unique horse training products using Horsewhisperer Frank Bell's acclaimed Gentle Solutions. Frank's Safe and Simple techniques for training horses can achieve instant results - even with problem horses! Making it Simple! Making It Safe! Get There Now! |  |
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My friend John Gasson lives in a fabulous development called High Rider. Located about forty miles east of Cape Town, South Africa, the theme is open land with magnificent views of the Atlantic along with adjacent and very abrupt mountains peculiar to the Cape. High Rider is, as well, a horse community. John has an attractive thoroughbred gelding off the track that he has turned into a wonderfully trusting, confident, quiet, and calm animal. And it was John who organized my memorable visit to his country recently. At our second clinic I became acquainted with an attractive middle aged woman who did some physiotherapy with horses and also lived at High Rider. As it turned out Ina Jenkins kept a lot of balls in the air. She was professionally a physiotherapist for humans with a busy practice of healing people. She did the same with horses using a variety of techniques including T-touch, Linda Tellington Jones gift to the world. And Ina collected and rescued animals, lots of them in all shapes and sizes- tortoises, rabbits, parrots, ducks, geese, dogs (17 to be exact), cats, and finally horses. She had recently accepted a whole slew of abused and unhandled minis and needed some help. John and I arrived at Ina’s menagerie of happy creatures mid-afternoon in early April. I’d asked John to bring along a gentling pole, ideally one of bamboo about 12’ in length. He couldn’t find one at the landscape outlet, so arrived with a 12’ length from a stout small tree. Ina gave us a brief tour that wound back through the trees amidst the slew of minis. While some begged for attention, others shunned it. And these were the ones that needed my help. Ina had constructed several small pens for the minis in which she fed them. A few shakes and flakes of hay had the subject horses just where I needed them, and yes they were definitely nervous about human interaction. I eased into the first pen with a seemingly pregnant black mare and her diminutive black and white son of six months that was about the cutest little horse I’d ever laid eyes on. They raced frantically into the farthest corner, running over each other recklessly, filled with fear. I sat down in the diagonal corner and just allowed them chill, as I assessed the situation. The gentling pole was far too big in every sense, but I needed to touch them from afar. “John, go out and grab a short pole out of the fence. One of those short bamboo poles would be idea,” I instructed. We’d passed plenty of vertical fencing en route to the pens and in a few minutes John returned with a stout branch about six feet in length and with a plethora of stubby, even mildly sharp nubs where smaller branches had protruded and been removed. Perfect! With this tool in hand I stood slowly in a non-threatening posture. The two again bolted nervously around the pen in obvious fear. “Eeeeeeeeeeeeasy now you little guys. Not here to hurtcha. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeasy now,” I cooed over and over as they finally found a corner to cower in. The pinto hid behind her mama as she buried her face into the far corner. With as much grace as I could muster I reached out and made contact with mama, laying the pole firmly onto her withers. What a circus it became all over again as they both ripped around the pen seeking relief from this terrifying creature with a tool to beat them with. I lost contact, but stayed close enough to get the pole right back onto mama as she slowed down back into her favorite corner. She took a furtive glance at me and I immediately lowered my posture even more, her reward for taking that peek. And she didn’t leave this time, so I began fiddling. John Sharp’s Legacy My good friend John Sharp had taught me this pole gentling technique about eight years earlier as we gentled wild horses, mustangs in California prior to a BLM auction. John had been using this incredibly effective, expedient, and humane approach to making initial contact with untouched horses for about sixty years. Today the technique is used throughout the USA, and I’m guessing it is now spreading worldwide since I regularly sell a DVD on this subject to horsemen throughout the world. John doesn’t do a lot of gentling anymore. He’s 92 and just doesn’t have the get up and go necessary to handle the quick ones anymore. But he’s passed on his knowledge to thousands. Thank you very much John Sharp! “Fiddling John calls it,” I explained to the small group that watched me work that pole back and forth, first on the horse’s withers, then down the back to the rump where I worked with gusto against the hair as mama leaned back into that itchy reward and sneaked another look at me, this time with a bit less fearful white in those mistrusting eyes. “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeasy now Sweetheart,” I repeated over and over as I worked that pole with relish in the saddle area. “This is big league progress. She’ll make it pretty fast now,” I predicted. And she did. Within a few more minutes I was rubbing her all over and she was licking her lips in a sign of trust, relaxation, and acceptance. Her legs were the sticky part, but with patience, before long she completely relaxed and even enjoyed the touch, especially as I located her itchy spots. I was slowly easing in, while talking in a soothing voice the whole time. When close enough, I reached waaaaaaaaaay out and replaced the touch of the pole with my fingers as I kneaded the wither area. The Magic of the Withers and Mouth Magic John Sharp had also taught me the power of the withers for gentling and as a starting place. Watch two horses groom each other and you’ll find them kneading those withers in an almost a circular motion with their lips. And this is exactly what I try to emulate with my hands. I began firmly kneading those withers at the base of the mane, all the while maintaining a soft posture, no eye contact, and a soothing calm voice. And by golly it worked . . . just like magic. As one hand worked the withers, the other scratched the saddle area, then back to the dock of the tail, down the rump and against the tail. The tail was tight. Real tight. But that was expected as this stage. The fact of the matter was that she was handling this real well. I worked back up to the withers with my rear hand then moved forward up the neck to the base of the ears and now kneading them. Of course mama resisted, but not with much gusto. Then I began to focus on the head, scratching right between her ears, a vulnerable area called the pole. I then worked the forehead, scratching vigorously with my fingernails, then down over an eye, which set her off, but just a hair. Over the eye with more pressure this time and she didn’t move. Then I started rubbing the eye and she found that pleasure and telegraphed it by leaning right into my pressure. Down the nose several times and I found the corner of the mouth and began rubbing the corner with the knuckle of my index finger and then had my finger into her mouth as she accepted my feathering of her tongue. “Got her now,” I stated, exuding absolute confidence. The mouth is magic. When a horse can tolerate your finger inserted into the corner of the mouth, then over the tongue with a wiggling motion that helps the horse begin to loosen up and lick those lips, well, that is huge. And now I had achieved trust on this little mare, that only fifteen minutes earlier had been terrified. From there the confidence predictably explodes to the good so I eased my lead rope over her back and jiggled it until she accepted it. Then brought the end of the lead back to myself and now had a loop around her neck. With slight downward pressure I waited for her to drop her head just one iota. And after about thirty seconds she did. Then she gave in fifteen. Then five and with only a few ounces of pressure. I walked out in front as a slight angle and applied pressure and she almost immediately took a step forward. My release was well-timed and within a few minutes she was leading, then driving around the little pen. “Well she’s done. Time to get the little muncher, her baby started,” I told my eager crowd of mostly children who would later continue the gentling process. The diminutive pinto hid behind his mama and I used that to my advantage and started with the pole on his back and rump, as his withers was inaccessible from my angle. The progress was as predictable as Mama’s and using exactly the same process, had that darling little creature leading and driving and accepting and enjoying touch within less than fifteen minutes. “Come on in John and play with them a little. I’m sure they’ll trust you in no time.” John did just that. But there was one very distrusting mimi left, and this one was the really sketched out. So leaving John to continue with the first two, we pushed the freaked out one into the other pen along with her trusting buddy, yet another cute mostly black mini. We used a couple flakes of alfalfa to lure them right into the pen. Now this was a differently configured pen with a big upright support pole in the middle and a V-shaped dead-end corner formed by the shelter against the fence. As I tried to make contact with the pole or my hand, the little black terrorized mare scurried dangerously around and around the pen, making contact impossible. But suddenly the mare shot into that V. How fortuitous! I had a ready-made chute, similar to the ones we actually construct for wild mustangs in the States. “This is perfect,” I announced with delight. I eased in behind the animal and made first contact gently with my extendable wand against that rump-hair, stroking into it. The little mini shot forward, but there was nowhere to go, so had to stop. Now the trick was not going too far too fast, and having done this with several hundred horses, I had a pretty good idea of how fast to proceed. The branch replaced the wand as I worked against that hair and the nubs indulged the animal, the head dropped, and the mouth worked away in a sign of acceptance and relaxation. Before long I had Ina come in and work the rump area as I moved forward toward the withers, neck, and head. It was truly magical as this very distrusting horse gradually melted into our simultaneous touch. At one point we pushed just a hair too much and she shot backwards out of the chute. I gave her some time to settle, then drove her back in and began anew. Time for the lead over the back, then around the neck, then some take and give and now #3 was accepting touch and leading. I eased out of the pen as Ina, John, and some of the kids took over. Success. Now the Rest of the Story We left all three horses in a good place and then Ina gave the grand tour of her animal farm. Walking right out through the house into seventeen over-the-top joyous dogs, half dozen cats, bunnies, tortoises, parrots, ducks, and geese, our entourage walked the paths of Ina’s estate as she scattered cracked corn and the ducks and geese quacked and followed with expected relish. I’ve always said you can judge the energy of a place by its animals. And that place, Ina’s Animal Farm and Rescue Center just exuded good feeling, trust, and love. Frank Bell and his accredited instructors have been helping horses with their people problems for several decades. Frank writes interesting stories about these horses and their challenges. He also helps people better understand how to communicate with these magnificent creatures by answering their challenging questions on his website. Frank has designed a logical sequence of exercises that immediately places both parties on higher ground . . . without the need for a round pen. Suddenly both parties are riding in confidence instead of fear. Frank Bell’s 7-Step Safety System has been featured in horse magazines and ezines throughout the world including a three-part series in Western Horseman magazine. Frank’s foundation video “Discover the Horse You Never Knew” fully outlines “the system” and is available in the audio/visual library that includes twelve works. Join Frank Bell’s Gentle Solution Revolution and breakthrough your training barriers now! WWW.HORSEWHISPERER.COM800-871-7635Frank Bell and his accredited instructors have been helping horses with their people problems for several decades. Frank writes interesting stories about these horses and their challenges. He also helps people better understand how to communicate with these magnificent creatures by answering their challenging questions on his website. Frank has designed a logical sequence of exercises that immediately places both parties on higher ground . . . without the need for a round pen. Suddenly both parties are riding in confidence instead of fear. Frank Bell’s 7-Step Safety System has been featured in horse magazines and ezines throughout the world including a three-part series in Western Horseman magazine. Frank’s foundation video “Discover the Horse You Never Knew” fully outlines “the system” and is available in the audio/video library that includes twelve works. Join Frank Bell’s Gentle Solution Revolution and breakthrough your training barriers now!
Frank Bell and his accredited instructors have been helping horses with their people problems for several decades. He writes interesting and educational stories about these horses and their challenges. He also helps people better understand how to communicate with these magnificent creatures by answering their vexing questions on his website. Frank has designed a logical set of exercises that immediately places both parties on higher ground . . . without the need for a round pen. Suddenly both parties are riding in confidence instead of fear. Frank Bell's 7-Step Safety System (7-SSS) has been featured in horse magazines and e-zines throughout the world including a three-part series in Western Horseman magazine. Frank's video " Discover the Horse You Never Knew" fully outlines " the system" and is available in the audio/video library that includes thirteen works.
Join Frank Bell's Gentle Solution Revolution and breakthrough your training barriers now!
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Copyright 2000-2005 by Dances With Horses, Inc., P.O. Box 819, Rexburg, ID 83440, Ph: (800) 871-7635, Fax: (208) 356-7817, E-Mail: frankbell@horsewhisperer.com |
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