Touch of Love

Why use a round pen to start a relationship with a horse?

In my opinion any time that two horses are put together in a domestic situation they will decide who is going to lead and who is going to follow. So anytime a human and a horse are together for the first time a much better relationship can be developed if we will do the same. I have been using a round pen for over 20 years and have had the opportunity to work or play with in excess of 1500 different horses. These have been horses of many different breeds and ages and levels of training or lack of training. Many have been wild horses from the BLM adoption program or horses that I had personally gathered from various Indian reservations. Others were domestic raised horses that had very little human contact and others had been badly handled. Also I have experienced starting relationships with horses that had been handled very well by knowledgeable horse people and find the same need in all horses. It is important to know who is going to be the leader.

A round pen of 40 to 50 feet in diameter creates the right environment to establish with the horse that the handler understands the horses language and understands how to become the leader.

What is the Touch of Love training?

It is a training method that develops a relationship with the horse in the horse's language, which is primarily gestures and positioning of the bodies. It was named Touch of Love by the camera operator who filmed 8 hours of my playing with a wild horse and seeing the love and patience it took to gentle her to the point of accepting halter, driving lines and a saddle for the first time and responding with respect to each one. Also my purpose for helping people with difficult horses is to demonstrate the love of God by first demonstrating love to the horse and then to the human.

A proper relationship can be started By positioning yourself in the proper position, in relationship to the horses balance point. From behind it the horse can be sent forward at the speed selected by the handler and Changes of direction can be accomplished by changing your position to the front of the balance point and applying pressure with what ever tool you choose to use. I personally choose to use a flag stick because you can more accurately apply pressure in the correct position.

After a number of changes in direction and speed the horse will indicate by his body gestures that he is willing to allow the human to be the leader. It then becomes the responsibility of the human to make the decisions of how fast to go and in which direction.

The actual touch in the training involves starting at the whorl in the forehead of the horse and massaging the entire horse in a continuous rubbing motion, always in the direction the hair lays, clear to the ground on each leg. Have in mind that you are painting the horse a different color. This is intended to convince the horse that you will not hurt him and that he can trust you.

I then pick up each foot as a test to see if he really trusts me enough to follow me where ever I go

All of the above work is done at liberty so now it is time to put on the halter and ask the horse to go right, left, backward and forward on the halter rope following the handlers’ lead.

Touch of love clinics and courses are designed to teach people first how to have and demonstrate the proper attitude and how to understand the gestures of the horse. Detailed demonstrations and hands on instruction is then given on how to position hands, feet and the entire body in relationship to the horse and the tools that are used.

Click HERE to learn the 7 steps of the Touch of Love.