Julie Carpenter, The Best of Trainers

By: Diana Thompson, Ride! Magazine,

Last month, I told the gruesome story of a horse who died as a result of injuries suffered during a training session. The trainer used methods that caused the horse pain, and kept the horse in a panicked and fighting state for a long period of time. The horse's effort to escape became stronger and stronger as time went on. He eventually flipper over.

One of the reasons behind this death, many other injuries and what are often viewed as "accidents" is the "fight-or-flight" reflex: a chemical-based response that makes the horse struggle with all his might to escape or fight a perceived threat to his life. This reflex can be triggered by a natural predator; environmental stimulus such as a sudden, loud noise; cruel training methods or the inappropriate use of benign methods. Regardless of origin. Once it kicks into gear, a horse has little "mind" control over his actions. His body is adrenaline-fueled and activated to fight or flee for his life.

It is easy to see this panic or aggression in a horse trained with pain and force. Harder to spot are trainers using what look like reasonable methods who apply too much pressure to a particular horse and his physical or mental state. This process can also put a horse into a fearful or aggressive state and result in trauma.

As I summarized last month, finding a good trainer is not always done by watching methods and listening to lingo. The only judge of a specific trainer and the method he or she uses is the horse.

A horse that exhibits fear, nervousness, spooking, aggression, restlessness or sluggishness when around a trainer or during a training session may be telling you in very strong body language that this person is not for them. When a trainer and his methods are appropriate for this horse, the horse gains confidence, quietness, trust and obedience in whatever discipline he is trained.

Since this ability to understand where a horse is in relation to panic is truly the art of compassionate horse-handling, I decided to let a "good" trainer I recently met express her ideas on the subject.

Julie Carpenter is a 33-year-old from Ben Lomond, a small community nine miles north of Santa Cruz. Carpenter works with all breeds of horses at her Miracle Mountain Ranch facility. She is the first trainer I've met in a long time who consciously creates confidence and quietness in a horse as the foundation for all training. She watches a horse's breathing and body language for any sign of fear, and adjusts her training to how each horse reacts.

"I can read a horse through his eyes, breathing and skin," Carpenter says. "It's not so much a skill I learned from other trainers as much as one I learned through my own healing process. Before I had some body work done, I was not aware I didn't breathe deeply or that I held my shoulders up to my ears. When I am afraid I don't breathe well. I used to walk with my back totally arched from tremendous tension in my lower back."

"One of the main things I had to learn was breathing," Carpenter says. "And it turns out to be the same for the horses."

Carpenter knows that when a horse is not breathing fully he is fearful and his body is not relaxed. "A lot of times if I just stop and give him a few long strokes of my hand, talk softly and reassure the horse, then his breath will come, his body will soften and we can move on." Carpenter says.

"If I don't wait, take the pressure off and soothe that horse until he breathes normally, either the horse or myself is going to get hurt," Carpenter says. "If I am not getting the horse to breathe and relax, there is fear going through his body. Some horses freeze in this situation; others are like a time bomb, ready to explode at any moment. Some horses just leave mentally - they go blank and just about any noise or stimulus will set them off. I have learned to wait, pet them, reassure them, and wait until the tension dissolves and they take a breath. Then we are ready to move on with more training."

Carpenter agrees it is common – even for trainers who incorporate "natural" and "resistance-free" horsemanship methods – to ignore a horse’s fear and try to push them through a tough spot.

"This isn’t the answer with a frightened horse or a fighting, aggressive one," Carpenter said. "If they aren’t getting it, you need to stop the process and ask why — not pour on the work."

"I have a horse in training that will go into panic so deep you could work him in the round pen or through obstacles for two or three hours and he would never stop. He would never connect or hook up with you — he would die running." Carpenter says of a horse she trains named, Retador. "It gives me chills to think of the kind of fear this horse has been driven into. With this horse, I have to take one step at a time really slowly and let him adjust. Too much stimulus of any kind — good or bad —will trigger his fight or flight reflex."

"With Retador, there are a number of signs that tell me he is starting to lose it," Carpenter says. "One thing I watch is his eyes. When he is relaxed, his eyes are soft and round without wrinkles around them. I know he is starting to panic if the wrinkles below his eyes start to increase. When he gets three real distinct lines below his eyes, he is checking out and can be very dangerous. At this stage, you can se the whites of his eyes."

"Retador’s nostrils also indicate his stress level, "Carpenter says. "If they go into a big flare, where he usually isn’t breathing and is close to blowing up. You can watch his nostril and there won’t be any kind of motion indicating normal, full breathing. You can also tell he is holding his breath because his flank or abdomen won’t move. When a horse is truly relaxed and comfortable with what you are doing, his nostrils and belly expand and relax with each breath."

Horses in pain or those in panic will also tighten their skin and muscles. Carpenter runs her hands over her horse’s bodies with long, flat strokes in order to calm them and tune into their tension level.

"A horse can be standing still, looking obedient, yet actually be very tense and ready to lose it," Carpenter says. "A truly relaxed horse has relaxed skin and muscles that you can see and feel. The skin is soft and you can pull it away from the body — as if you were doing a check for dehydration. When a horse is in a lot of fear you can see the tension and hard structure to their muscles, especially in the neck. In these cases, you can’t get enough skin between your fingers to pull it away from the body."

Posture is another indicator of stress. Carpenter points out a relaxed horse carries weight on all four feet, his back and neck muscles soft and somewhat level. A horse in fear or about to fight will "bubble up round in the body like they are ready and able to jump out of their skin," Carpenter says. "Their legs come up underneath them, their backs round up and their neck muscles become really hard."

When Carpenter sees a horse start to show fear, she immediately backs off her training pressure. She softens her voice and uses encouraging, reassuring phrases. She uses long, soft pets of her hands on the horse's face and body. In other cases, she may leave the area and give the horse space to settle down and think. If the horse relaxes and calms down, Carpenter continues the training session. If the animal is unable to settle, she ends the session.

"Any tiny effort a horse makes to work with me, I praise him, pet him and reassure him," Carpenter says. "In many cases, because I made it safe for the horse when he got into trouble, he will trust me to try the difficult task again and work with me longer and longer until it is no longer a problem. In some situations, a horse may not be able to calm down around a certain task until he has learned to trust me on the other issues. If the horse will not relax, I do not push on through it."

Handling a frightened horse is tricky, but working with an aggressive one can be difficult as well as dangerous. While discipline is rarely discussed among trainers and handlers, it is called for in specific situations.

"It is frightening when a horse kicks at you or makes some other aggressive act, "Carpenter says. "When people are afraid, it is easy for them to become emotional and respond out of anger. I make a point of disciplining the horse by setting boundaries without being angry. If I find myself getting emotional, I need to take a break. I need to go take a walk and breath, or go have some lunch and settle down before I go back to the horse."

"In one case, I was trying to longe a mare in the round pen who had become really aggressive with her fear," Carpenter recalled. "She was coming at me, rearing and trying to bite me. It was definitely frightening, but I didn't show any emotions. I simply set boundaries: Whenever she got nasty I gave her firm jerks on the halter rope and sent her back away from me to work around the round pen. Once she kept her distance and began to soften I allowed her to come into my space and face me. Then I made it nice to be with me by talking softly, petting her all over her body, walking around her, picking up her feet. She quickly began to trust and respect me. She learned to give me space and I gave her space."

Carpenter admits that horse training, especially the cowboy tradition, has a long history of bullying the horse with spurs, whips and other devices. She feels this old system is based on making the horse afraid of you.

"I have done the cowboy thing of dominating the horse and using aggressive tactics to push horses through things I wanted to do," Carpenter said. "One of the main problems is you end up with a fearful horse. No matter how obedient the horse becomes with the dominance, they are still tense and not trusting. These horses eventually snap either mentally or physically. In the past seven years, I have really moved away from that system. I started with incorporating Natural Horsemanship ideas that I learned from Richard Winters and added in my own experience and methods."

Carpenter's clients identify goals they want to attain with their horse and their horse-handling abilities. Whatever their target, Carpenter insists each horse get the same foundation -- one of quietness and trust.

"This type of training is like the foundation you put under your house," Carpenter said. "If the base is correct, you can build any type of house or horse from there forward. The other advantage is the speed of this type of training. Once you have the horse's trust, the horse will always breath and learn through experience instead of freezing up and going into fear."

Like all humans, Carpenter admits she can get pulled slightly off track from her personal horse goals when surrounding by dominant trainers and show ring situations.

"The competitive nature of the show ring brings out my ego," Carpenter says. "Because I get nervous and want to win, it could be easy to forget my connection with my horse and just try and produce the winning look.

When the outward focus of the show success becomes the ultimate thing, I can lose my inner connection with myself and my horse. I have to watch myself. One thing that really got to meat a recent show: a trainer whipping the horse's front feed to get it to pick them up higher. Wow, if winning the blue ribbon means I have to beat my horse, forget it."

To prevent show ring burnout for the horse and herself, Carpenter keeps her horses on a well-rounded training and living program.

"Horses need a balance of love, a lot of affection, firm boundaries and training," Carpenter says. "They need to work in the ring, go out trail riding, run free in the arena and pasture and experience being loved and caressed by people. In many cases, the show ring trainers and competitors get so focused on one thing, the horse's spirit starts to break down. They just perform over and over and over with no balance of other activities in their lives."

"Some of these horses start to break down as early as seven to 10 years old," Carpenter says. "They lose their pride and you see their heads hanging down with sad eyes. Some avoid human contact -- they do not want to be petted. Others become aggressive and threaten you to keep you away from them."

When all the words are said and done, the horse will tell you with his body, mind and spirit who the truly good horse trainers and owners are. In fact, it wasn't words or demonstrations that led me to find Julie Carpenter. It was a horse.

I met Sundance, a Peruvian Paso gelding about a year ago when his owner, Pam Stephenson of Santa Cruz, asked me to help with his sore back and poor saddle fit. She was also aware her horse lacked confidence and trust due to a troubled past. During our session, Sundance was restless yet mostly obedient. His clamped mouth, worried eye and subdued manner told of an insecure animal waiting for the next ship to fall.

I encouraged Pam to continue her care and gave her various body work and ground exercises to do to further free up Sundance's movement. We talked a great deal about his withdrawn attitude and how to gently train him.

Just recently I met Sundance and Pam again. A wonderful surprise awaited me; Sundance was virtually a different horse. There was no sign of past trauma. His eyes and mouth were calm; he stood patiently, yet was curious about what we were doing; and his muscling had improved. Pam was also much more confident in her handling of the gelding. Their riding was a joy to watch!

As I touched Sundance I could feel calmness and steadfastness throughout his entire body. He was not downtrodden or "trained" into obedience. He was relaxed, confident and secure in his life, and obedience was the natural result. I commented on his state and asked Pam what she had been doing. The answer: training with Julie Carpenter in a weekly class. The horse had certainly voted for this trainer with his mind and soul.

With no licensing process or formal training required for professional horse trainers in this country, horse owners are truly on their own when it comes to looking for a professional. As I've tried to share with you in this column, the winning trainer, the slick-talking trainer, or the good old trainer down the road with 25 years experience may or may note be a safe choice. One thing is for sure, however. Horse's minds and bodies to not lie. No matter what standard practice is in a specific discipline, and no matter what the words sound like, if a method is not creating a truly relaxed (not just subdued) healthy and obedient horse -- beware.

The same goes for the human element of the equation. If you find your fears ignored or put down, your intuition scoffed at or made fun of, chances are the environment isn't healthy for you either. Horse, owner, trainer; a triangle that creates the safety and pleasure we all seek with our horses…or one that can become a frightening, damaging place for horse and human alike.

Article copyright by Diana Thompson