One of my favorite commercials is Fred the Baker, the face of Dunkin ‘Donuts for many years, trudging around saying:
“It’s time to make the donuts, it’s time to make the donuts …”
I know a horse that is like the donut man because he needs to do the same thing every day. In fact, he was lame and had to be withdrawn from training. During her extended rest period, she became so agitated that she couldn’t “make the donuts” or do her daily routine, that she developed an ulcer and became seriously ill.
Once he was healed of his illness, ulcer and lameness, all humans had to do to prevent him from getting sick again was to let him “make the donuts” every day. As long as this horse did some kind of routine every day, he would be healthy and happy.
Sounds familiar? If you have a horse like this, who craves routine like a drug, then you have a metal horse personality type. (Read more about horse personality types on the Horse Harmony website.)
Horse training and the metal horse personality type
The Metal Horse is the dependable ranch horse that gets the job done as consistently as the man from Dunkin ‘Donuts makes donuts. In fact, the metal horse craves consistency and routine so much that he can get sick if he doesn’t. The mental and emotional stress of “something different every day” can literally cause physical illness in Metal horses, especially when they start training.
Now this may sound arduous and a bit crazy, as many people do not have time to train their horses every day of the week. However, horse training with a metal horse is not as difficult as you might think.
The key to training horses with a metal type is to choose one thing and do it consistently. The metal horse only needs one reliability factor in its life. It can be as simple as a feeding schedule that works like clockwork. If your horse lives at home with you, perhaps all you need to do is go outside and brush it once a day. You can keep the routine simple. You just have to follow it very carefully.
An example of horse training
When I started training my mustang mare Reyacita, she developed COPD or jerk-like symptoms every time we did something different or new. She would resist too. These were all signals he was trying to send me that the varied training program, which worked so well on my playful Wood mare Valentine, was too stressful for her Metal horse personality type.
I called a friend who had dealt with several metal horses and asked him what to do. His answer was simple. She told me that I had to do a consistent “thing” with Reyacita every day, and that would make up the majority of my horse training with her, at least until she came to fully trust me. Mustangs are notoriously wary of humans, and metal horses in particular have a hard time giving their confidence.
She suggested that he take Reyacita out of the grass every day and just tie her to the trailer for an hour. That seemed pretty simple, so I did it for 14 days straight. This simple training exercise satisfied Reyacita’s craving for routine, and after 14 days, she learned that she could trust that it would not hurt her and that it would provide a safe and consistent environment for her.
At the time, she was also feeding the mare 2 capsules of a herbal supplement per day, which helped her stay clear of her “fight or flight” sympathetic nervous system and stay in her parasympathetic nervous system, which is the normal and relaxed of a horse. mood.
Today when I want to introduce something new to Reyacita’s horse training program, I try to follow the same routine principle. I do the same exercise over and over for several days in a row and give a herbal supplement during those days. This principle has worked well with our new string training.
However, if he ever starts to panic, as evidenced by his COPD symptoms, I just go back to the tow tie exercise and give him 2 herbal capsules. By doing this for several days in a row, Reyacita relaxes and “realizes” that everything is fine again.
If you have a young metal horse (and you can test your horse here for free online), you may want to employ some deliberately routine exercises to help you stay calm and focused during your horse training regimen. It’s a case where going slow helps you go fast later.
Older Metal horses who know their work do not need as much consistency as younger Metal horses who are just learning their work. Older metal horses are the ones you can leave in the pasture for months at a time, then haul them out for a weekend locked up or tied up. As long as they know their job, they don’t need extra help with routine or consistency.
Metal horses are wonderful, tough, hardworking horses, and as long as you treat young metal horses with careful consistency, they will reward your efforts with a long career of hard work and consistent performance.
