From Allen Pogue

Jesus, Allen..... Have you ever considered the Televangelism game? You should, because you could be more successful then Jim Baker and Jerry Falwell combined. The most important factor to being a successful Televangelist is you have to believe your own BS and it doesn't seem like you would have a problem with that if your tapes are any indicator. You managed to sneak in and drop a few more names in your email, as well as one or two at your clinic above. What in God's green earth is a "master trick horse trainer?" Is that an earned/degree title or one of those Kentucky Col. deals or more like children deciding who is going to be the cowboys and who is going to be the Indians? Is there a list or roster of "master trick horse trainers" like the List of Defunct Florida Road Side Attractions? What are the requirements or minimum standard for inclusion/consideration? I have never heard so many alibi's and patches in my life. Why would a whip end "need to be more visible to a horse?" Surly you don't mean more visible like a target, because you don't believe in targets. "Visible why?" You are right, I should have said point of shoulder high and not shoulder high(folks might wrongly misinterpret that as withers). But why not ring curb high like your mate Sascha Houcke?

FYI-- "bits, sidereins or surcingles that help remind the horses to stay inside a low curb." Bits, side checks and surcingles are not to remind the horses to stay inside the ring curb, Allen or to make them go "slow" as many folks suppose. Don't you know that you can crank a horse's nose down to his chest, and he will still run away with you? The purpose of the bit's, side checks and surcingles are to keep the horse collected and focused on the person in the middle of the ring. Unchecked or loose they throw their heads to the outside, drop an inside shoulder and push/ shove the horse in front of them out of the way, should they chose to panic. The horse being pushed has the option of either running faster pushing the horse in front of him, kick the horse pushing him in the mouth, or jump out of the low ring. That's how we keep them inside Allen. We don't teach them to jump out, or put them in a situation where they would have no choice but to learn that they can jump and are not contained. After a long period of schooling it is as easy as pie to remove the bits, check reins, and surcingle and do the routine. Standard practice for any liberty act after it is trained is to rehearse/practice it checked up, then un-check them and do it loose to see who is really listening and who isn't. It just doesn't look as smooth, polished, and precise as it should because again the heads are loose and looking all over.

FMI-- "include hi speed elements to a sorting routine and so it is more important that the horses remain contained than to see just how low we could make the ring and take chances." Enlighten me Allen, as to what a "hi speed element to a sorting routine" is, and how it differs from Gunther Gebel Williams pirouetting 24 stallions in groups of 4? Or Fredy Knie or Sascha Houke, or John Herriott. Your mate Don Anderson and his wife JoAnn used to do a circus date's in a foot high ring curb with two act's of 6, then go to a fair or expo and set up a rope barrier much as you describe, "which is only shoulder high to a midget" then come back and work the same two act's of 6 in a foot high ring curb. I don't ever recall them thinking they were taking "chances" by doing that. They were pretty confident that they had a handle on the horses. I should think if you are going to advocate a "method" and sell said "method" to the unsuspecting public, you should be as confident as the Anderson's in the reliability of that "method."

FYI--"At home we practice threading the needle with up to five horses, either two pairs and single very flashy chestnut Arabian going opposite. Or one pair and three in single file going opposite, though we do additionally have the pair stand still and have the other horses approaching and pass through from either directions." As a rule Allen, a thread the needle is done with no less then 6 horse and they "thread through" three abreast. If it is done with a pony act which will sometimes in rare case's consist of 4 animals they "thread through" in pairs. With 8 horses it is done in 4 pairs, two counter clock wise on the outside, two "threading through" clockwise, two "threading through" counter clock wise, and two clock wise on the inside. Three passing through a pair isn't a "thread the needle" Allen. It's a "pass through", nothing more, nothing less. Same with two pair's and one going opposite.

FYI--"but you are not seeing the whole picture." Oh, but I think I am Allen. I really am. It's as clear as clear can be.

FMI--"We only travel with three horses and so our show or demos does not include everything that we can do at home." You mention at home practicing with up to 5 horses, Allen. Do you use the same three in your show's and demo's or do you rotate them out. Home is heaven for an animal, Allen. Getting that three year old ridden and bridled so he can do well at a breed show is done with relative ease "at home." The true test of your skill's is how well he does against others as a Jr. horse a thousand miles away from the comfort of "home". That's why they go to a few small "schooling show's" before you enter them at Nationals. I wish I had a dime for every person that has approached me over the year's and asked me to come to their place to see their pet lion/tiger/leopard that they can go in the cage with and do all these "magical behavior's/trick's with. When I politely respond that I am very busy with the show and don't have the time, but if they would like they can load "Elsa" up and bring her to the building and use my arena to show me, I would be glad to look at what they have. All look at me aghast and normally responded with, "oh man, I couldn't do that. She'd probably kill me if I tried to work her any place but at home in "her" cage." You know what, they were probably right, Allen. I am reminded of a young man who bought a nice seasoned pinto liberty act a number of years ago that had been trained by Bill Bushbaum and presented by Johnny Cline for years. He decided he wanted a head to tail waltz in the act and so contacted John Herriott. John put a nice head to tail waltz on the act and the young man practiced it for two day's at Herriott's place then headed for Canada where he was contracted by a circus. A year later I was headed to Canada with a new act of 8 that John had just finished with and ran into the young man as he got back to Florida. He asked me, and I quote "Does you act have a head to tail waltz?" To which I replied, "yeah it does." To which he replied, "well if you want another one, there is one some place up around Thunder Bay, Ontario." I started laughing and said, "you lost your head to tail waltz, didn't you?" To which he replied, "it disappeared like a Sigfried and Roy magic trick. I saw it twice in the first show, but not a third time. It vanished in thin air and I never saw it again the rest of the tour, and I practiced every day for a month before I got tired of waiting for it to reappear again." Home is where the heath is for an animal, Allen. On the road is planet Jupiter, and it takes a different set of skill's to pull it off, just like it is at home.

FYI--" I have never observed anywhere and it is more than likely that these variations were ones thought up by our #1 horse, Navegador, a Lusitano x Arab who is quite adept at coming up with his own 'tricks'. He has another one where he will follow a horse around the ring walking backwards and touching tails. His idea not mine?" I have seen clips of this behavior Allen. Rest assured it is Navegador's idea, and yes he is "adept." I don't have the heart to tell you Allen, why one bully, sorry Lusitano X Arabian back's toward/into another with his tail flicking. I'll let one of the other horse folks on this blog tell you. You probably wouldn't believe me anyway."

I have been following the fire's on the new's down here in Mexico. I am glad all was well, and you "dodged a bullet."
Regards,
Wade

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Wade, No harm done with posting a "Peek Under the Tent Flap".. I should have mentioned it was for your eyes in the original message which I kept short.
I am writing using an ipad, which is not easy for me.. the screen is way too sensitive . My real computer was damaged in a manditory evacuation earlier in the week. I tossed it on the floor of the tack room of a horse trailer and the vibration ruined the hard drive. There were serious wild fires all around Austin and our ranch was in the path of the Pedernales Bend fire. We had to evacuate fifty horses sunday and monday to a local rodeo arena grounds. We were lucky and dodged the bullet when the fire was stopped just over a mile from our place. Had the 40 mph winds not died down it would be a different ending.

FYI. The 32" tall ring we perform in, is "shoulder high" only to a midget.. We use either a ribbon of pennants outdoors in windy conditions, and an 18" wide banner indoors. This is quite similar to a white cloth curtain ring used by Lucien Gruss. I saw his Liberty act at the Royal Horse and Camel show in Oman in a dvd sent to me by a friend that worked in Oman for two years preparing Arabian horses for the show.
When we perform there are no bits, sidereins or surcingles that help remind the horses to stay inside a low curb. At several times during the eleven minute routine we include hi speed elements to a sorting routine and so it is more important that the horses remain contained than to see just how low we could make the ring and take chances.

At home we practice threading the needle with up to five horses, either two pairs and single very flashy chestnut Arabian going opposite. Or one pair and three in single file going opposite, though we do additionally have the pair stand still and have the other horses approaching and pass through from either directions. We also practice having two horses go opposite directions and pass through the ones standing still from both directions simultaneously and also with two pairs passing and doing a double thread effect.

You can attempt to minimize what Imagineahorse is about, but you are not seeing the whole picture.

We only travel with three horses and so our show or demos does not include everything that we can do at home.

I have not seen it all, but do have some elements in our act I have never observed anywhere and it is more than likely that these variations were ones thought up by our #1 horse, Navegador, a Lusitano x Arab who is quite adept at coming up with his own 'tricks'. He has another one where he will follow a horse around the ring walking backwards and touching tails. His idea not mine?

My wife and a partner are working toward promoting "Equine Agility" in the USA.. This is a new equestrian competition where the horses at Liberty run through an agility course like canine agility . This is a fast growing sport in England and Australia.. I am always looking for away to "raise the bar" and so I let Navegador guide a big ball in front of him using just his nose as he negotiates the obstacles.
For the last seven years in the spring, I give a two-day seminar at Texas A&M University to the undergraduate classes in Animal Behavior Science.This is a 300 level class and is presented as a reward for the students instead of just more book learning to end the course. The instructor, Prof. Ted Friend especially like his students to see a horse that can predict where the ball will go by the way he uses his nose. He says it is this "anticipation" that shows a much higher level of intelligence at work, than a horse merely responding to a cue.

keep up the good work, I am very impressed with your archive of old circus posters. I see numerous horses sitting up in the last batch you shared and one horse sitting down on a hard ring curb. This is exactly why I innovated the use of a bean bag..it conforms to all the odd angles presented by a horse's rear end. The horse can very comfortably sit down and rise quite easily with no unnecessary awkwardness or strain.
In 2004 or '05 I sold one of our custom made ballistic nylon bean bags to Sacha. He wanted to train a black miniature shown by his daughter Karin to sit while other horses worked around it.. I do not know if that happened.
In November 2008 I sold a pair of green bags to John Lyons at an expo in Santa Barbara. He used them in his free style act at his appearance at The Road to the Horse in march of 2009.
There are several gals that regularily compete in the Mustang Makeover competitions that are using our bean bags..In 2009 Cindy Branham had the only Mustang that would hop up in the bed of a pickup and sit down after only 100 days of training..

This trick is just something we need to agree to disagree on and get over it.. OK??

respectfully,
Allen Pogue
Dripping Springs, Texas
www.imagineahorse.com