Intelligent Horsemanship

Started today by learning that since a horses eyes are positioned on the side of its head it has a blind spot directly in front of its head. Although they are able to see you when you stand near them, they cannot focus on you unless you are more than 6 feet away. It also has another blind spot directly behind it. I was told by Geoff that horses are not particularly good at anticipating where a handler will appear. For example if you disappear from one of its eye sight lines it will think you have gone as it cannot see you in the other eye. Therefore many horses get frightened if a handler appears on the opposite side as this was for them unexpected. Therefore with a horse that Geoff knows (i.e one that he feels safe with) he will gently stroke its rear as he walks past so that the horse knows that he is still there, so as not to startle the horse. However it is important to remember that with a horse that you are not confident with, you should, if you have to walk behind it, stay out of range of a well placed kick.
I started with some more leading work, and then Geoff suggested using a invisible leader. Here I held the leader in the outside hand and held my arm that was nearest the horse across my stomach. This was to prevent my arm from swinging and knocking the horses nose, with the possibility of the horse taking this as a punishment and moving off. I behaved in the same way as with a leader, ensuring that when I stopped, and the horse stopped at my shoulder he was praised.
Horses learn very quickly and it only takes three times for something to happen before this becomes learned behaviour and so it is important to avoid bad habits forming as it will take so much longer for these habits to be undone than they were initially learnt.
When attempting to lead with a leader it is important that it remains in the outer hand, the hand furthest from the horse as you approach so that it is not the first thing that the horse sees as you approach. This is particularly important with mistreated horses who could have been hit with leaders, and so it is much more calming for the horse to have a comforting hand approaching first rather than something that the horse could see as a weapon. However once more we must remember to do this in stages. It is important to ensure that you put pressure onto the horse by walking up non threateningly, but then release this pressure again by walking away. This can be done many times, depending on the horse, to ensure that they know that you are not going to harm them with the leader. The more you do this the more confident the horse should become with the leader and will therefore more likely tolerate being lead.
When speaking to Geoff he told me that he will always ask the vet or farrier who may be working with a particular foot on a horse where they would like him to stand.
He usually likes to stand on the opposite side to that which the vet or farrier is working on. For example if the vet is working on a abscess on a horses front right foot, he would stand on the opposite side at the front left foot, allowing him to pull the horses head towards him if there is a problem and thereby taking the front foot that could kick out at the vet away from the vet so that he is now out of harms way.
Another important point that Geoff told me was that if you are having to do work on the foot of a horse, to always ensure that your legs are positioned so that if the horse kicks out, your knees will bend in the direction that they are supposed to and legs will not break.
Once more it all comes down to the Intelligent Horsemanship rule that everything is done with safety in mind.