*My* bubble - personal space - where is it?

[Lili & Morgan]

I realised a problem I have with my horses is that I have not defined my bubble when I stand in front of them :rolleyes:

When I lead them I use a marker on my lead rope for giving me an idea of distance. It is 50 -60 cm from the clip, or the shortest (like CA) my elbow's lenght from the clip.

So NO problem leading when I am at my horses' side. Halt, back, yielding hindquarters, yielding forehand ... tutto a posto :cool:

But when I stand in front of them, because I have not delimited a bubble :
- my gelding comes very closed ... too closed for my taste
- my alpha mare WALKS over me, she does not halt or back when I am in front of her :mad: but she does when I am at her side :confused:

I am 3D challenged :D so can anybody advice me on the distance between me and my horse, when I stand in front of them? A visual marker?

Ah, another point my mare is much bigger than me, so I do not see her unless I ask her to "head down", her head stands well above my own head ...

Any help? Any ideas?

[pengapenga]

I like to ask Frits to stand in front of me and he has to stretch his neck a bit to touch me. He too is a huge horse, I am 6ft and when I stand next to his head with my arm stretched up I can just touch the top of his ear:eek: just to give you an idea of how tall he is headwise. He also has a tendency to come in tooooooo close but is learning to stand back, and if I want him closer I invite him in:)

I guess to give you a visual distance, and arm distance gives me enough room in front of him for me not to feel hemed in:) If I want him closer I ask him to 'come in' and he will step closer, 'stand' to stop him:) (I am teaching him sign language at the moment, an interesting task, but his has grasped that hand held out (like a policman asking for stop) means stop)

[Showjumper]

I like an arm's length between me and a horse I'm working with. For cuddling and playing, closer. But I establish the distance expected each time I go out to work or play with the horse so we don't end up in a situation where I want a work distance and the horse wants a play distance.

[katefarmer]

I am 3D challenged :D so can anybody advice me on the distance between me and my horse, when I stand in front of them? A visual marker?


Your space in any direction should be as big as you want it to be at any particular time. It can get bigger and smaller according to the circumstances -the important thing is that YOU say how much space you want and the horse respects that.

With a big horse, you may generally want a bit more than with a smaller horse. That's fine. There's no "correct" distance - it's how you feel at the time. Horses understand this. It's the way the herd works. Creating more space just means you are higher in the order and therefore a worthy leader - they won't be offended by it - quite the contrary - most find it reassuring!

If you use the backing up exercises on my website, then refine that to working with one foot - one step back, one step forwards - you will then be able to easily place the horse at a distance you find comfortable at any time.

Horses don't have tape-measures, they just work out the distances between them by feel. Sometimes it's more, sometimes less. We can do the same. :D

[LodgeRopes]

A very fitting thread.....

My bubble got burst big time last Sunday. At the conclusion of a great training session with our young appy gelding where the horse showed total respect for my space at various distances, when and as requested, I gave him a rub and told him how good he worked. Then proceeded to walk past the horse towards the gate, he then, as usual, hooked on and turned towards me to follow when he stood on one of the farm dogs that had snuck into the yard....and freaked. he jumped forward and caught me in the chest with a front leg, climbed over me and trampled my chest again while i was on the ground. End result... 4 broken ribs and a punctured lung.....but could have been a lot worse. The days spent on morphine in hospital gave me plenty of time to work out where i went wrong.
If it was a 'strange' horse, i would never had let my 'bubble' become so small...but this was my boy... a horse that choose me as his best mate from the moment we met.
Right now, i can hardly type, let alone make rope gear, earn a living, feed horses, help my lovely Sharon around the farm or do any of the 1001 things that i took for granted everyday.
So work on the safety aspects of 'your personal space'.
I always considered myself to be very safety conscious but after bursting more than my bubble, it has made me have a good long hard look at how i will do things in the future.
Rob

[katefarmer]

Oh Rob, you poor thing! It's awful how quickly these things can happen, isn't it!?

Glad to hear you're on the mend - but it sounds a horrible set of injuries!

Take care and get well soon!

Healing waves from the Vienna Woods!

Kate

[Est]

:eek: Nasty :(
Sorry to hear this, and a valid safety point I will definitely take on board. I'm sure my "bubble" becomes too small for safety at times.
Get well soon :)

[Lili & Morgan]

((((((((((((( BIG Cyber hugs)))))))))))) ROB!

Thanks for the warning!

I was thinking of you. I make pics today and will post them to you, my horses in your rope gear :p

Kate-Farmer - Thanks kate! I am waiting for your new book!!!
Have you advertise on your website when you will do clinic. Because I want to come :D

[pengapenga]

Ouch Rob. I hope you get well soon.

A very valid point as I know I too am guilty of lessening the bubble between Frits and I. I would be as you were, know the horse and trust him so allow the space to be smaller.

[Bronya]

I go with my 'bubble' being as large/small as I feel comfortable with. If I walk up to them, I will happily lean against them, etc - so no bubble. If they walk up to me, they know they have to give me the same space they'd give another horse unless I approach them (I've done quite a lot of NH stuff so have acquired 'high ranking horse' in their eyes!!). They will approach, then stop a couple of metres away and wait. I'll then approach them.

The issue of being jumped on when leading, you can't really avoid unless they actually do respect you as herd leader/very high ranking 'horse' and thus are more scared of making you cross than of the scary thing they're running from. Otherwise, when frightened, training about personal space isn't really going to come into their thinking. Older horses tend not to panic the same way, so it's less of a problem, but it took a while for my pony to get the point (as a youngster) that I have no problem with her jumping BEHIND me and poking her nose round to see the scary thing, but ON me is not acceptable. Mostly, she got the point because I reacted as a person, not a horse trainer when she banged into me and got mighty cross! After a few episodes of mummy yelling at her loudly and crossly, + a few taps with the lead rope to stop her crushing me at the time, she got the point! It took her a few months to gain full respect (my horse and I had to train her at the same time as she'd grown up without adult horses), but then she wouldn't dream of doing that anyway!

[cvb]

Rob EEEK ! Hope you feel better soon.

Fi took a chunk out of my mother earlier this week when being led in for the evening. It is a dilemma. One one hand you want the space to be big enough that they can't reach you like that (it was in the middle of her back).

On the other, you need to control her enough to get her to go where you need her to, without menacing the other horse you are leading - which limits how far away you can be.

Plus when you are moving together it is not just the *size* of the bubble, but where you are in relation to each other as well.

When my father leads her, he keeps her "on a tight leash". But he is 6ft and a bit and has that "don't mess with me" thing going on - he's always had it.

I led her in today, and she was being a pain - and ended up backing up at high speed as I tried to keep her *in* my controllable space. arg - horses !