Evaluating a Horse’s Vocabulary

When we work with very young children, we keep our vocabulary simple because their understanding of spoken language is limited. A two-year-old child’s vocabulary is much smaller than that of a four-year-old or a seven-year old. But by the time that child becomes a teenager, his or her vocabulary will number in the thousands of words.

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Veterinary Trend: Cat-only Clinics

Dr. Kelly Wright, a veterinarian and the co-owner of The Cat Clinic of Orange County in Costa Mesa, Calif., doesn’t experience daily barking, panting or dog smells in her cat-only clinic. As a result, the stress levels of the cats that come in and out on a regular basis are "two or three notches down", according to Wright.

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The Importance of Timing

We communicate with a horse by using a corridor of pressures that suggest the shape, the pace, and the direction we want the horse to take. Removing a pressure is the horse’s "reward." It is the way we communicate to the horse, "Yes! That’s right." If your timing is off when you either apply a pressure or remove it, your communication becomes garbled. The horse will not make a clear connection between a particular pressure or corridor of pressures and the response you expect from him.

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