Lukas Has Plenty to Smile About World’s Smartest Horse Grabs a Guinness
Walnut, California --- Lukas (http://www.playingwithlukas.com), the World’s Smartest Horse (according to the World Records Academy) and Guinness World Record Holder (“Most numbers correctly identified by a horse in one minute: 19”), has been featured in Caters! Caters news is the United Kingdom’s leading independent photo...
LUKAS on Violence Lessons from the World’s Smartest Horse
As Lukas’ trainer, much of my experience has come from many years as a psychiatric nurse on acute-care locked down units. Take-downs. Even the name conjures up the octagon fight ring. Only there are no referees here. Technically speaking, take-downs are only supposed to occur if there is eminent danger to patients or staff...
Who is That Masked Horse? Lukas Reveals His Secret Identity
“How on earth do you get Lukas to wear all those costumes, Karen?” Up until now, only Lukas’ closest friends know how this is done. Foot-long reindeer antlers, bobbing clovers that read “Kiss me, I’m Irish,” a full-size sombrero with a matching chili necklace, a hot water bottle (a big favorite the day after New Year’s Eve),...
I am totally clueless when it comes to twitter or blogs “guess I need to google it”… I CAN manage that. I so enjoy keeping up with the accomplishments Karen and Lucas make on FaceBook. Thanks so much for inspiring me with my guys “who are BOTH coming along nicely” with positive training methods I learned from your 1st book. They are both a little over 2 now and my son is already riding one for me with a bitless Bridle that I LOVE as it is painless and working great with no bucking, or rearing and a easy whoa. I thank GOD that I found Lukas and Karen and I KNOW my guys are VERY glad I did too!
Playing With Lukas is the story of the Internet sensation known as “The World’s Smartest Horse.” This book opens reader’s eyes to the potential all horses have.
Playing With Lukas by Karen Murdock. Paperback, 117 pages.
Available at www.playingwithlukas.com.
This is the most unique book on training I have yet to see, though it can be called that only in the broadest sense of the word. Author Karen Murdock heads one of her chapters with a quote by Helen Keller, who overcame blindness and deafness to become an icon of spiritual strength: “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” This is what this self-published book really is about–how two beings, who couldn’t find their place in life, finally did through each other. It’s a wonderful story of the triumph of spirit.
Lukas is a 17-year-old Thoroughbred gelding who bombed on the racetrack and ended up emaciated and forlorn in a backyard until someone took pity on him. He was ultimately found in 2002 at the age of 9 by Murdock, a rescue trainer for more than 30 years in California. Despite her experience, she found challenges she had never met before. He was sullen, resistant, aloof and spooky to the point of being dangerous. But she was up for it, and her patience and compassion transformed Lukas into an Internet sensation, dubbed by both Yahoo and Google as “The World’s Smartest Horse.”
Lukas has attracted global attention for his tricks at liberty, his movements, such as Spanish walk and passage, and his phenomenal skills, such as spelling, counting and identifying shapes and colors. His Facebook friends number more than 5,000, and he is now spokeshorse for the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, TROTT (Training Horses Off The Track) and CANTER (the Communication Alliance to Network Thoroughbred Ex-Racehorses).
In the book, Murdock shares the extraordinary journey that made Lukas the poster horse for the potential of all horses facing untimely ends as slaughter candidates. Lukas had serious behavioral problems, bucking and spinning, as well as health problems. The question comes to mind, what made her stick it out, when friends suggested it would be better for both of them if he went to the feedlots.
Murdock gives her own background as the answer. She came from a troubled family–a teen runaway, school dropout, homeless wanderer and teenage mother. “I had no idea how to be in the world, no concept of conversation or interaction skills, I was entirely lost,” she says. “But sometimes you can save yourself by saving others in need.”
Through her love for animals, the dogs of her childhood and horses, particularly Thoroughbreds, Murdock, rehabbed herself, going back to school and becoming a psychiatric technician. She worked in psychiatric facilities in lockdown units, applying the power of love and acceptance to severely damaged human beings.
Dressage had always appealed to her, and she tried formal training at the start of Lukas’ career, but it did not work out. So she created her own method, achieving impressive results. She uses a form of liberty training–no whip but with subtle physical cues–in a non-confrontational way. Her three primary tools are “shaping” (light touch), a behavior modification term; a version of clicker training, using vocal sounds instead; and positive reinforcement.
Murdock did it her way and feels Lukas gave her as much as she gave him. Their journey serves as an example of how far-reaching the healing powers of love and compassion can be.
“How a Woman and a Horse Found a Private World of Animal Intelligence and Themselves”
Who is the world’s smartest horse?
For at least a century, horse lovers have pointed to Jim Key, the clever trick horse of Civil War veteran William Key, D.V.M., as the smartest horse ever.
Today, however, a 17-year-old chestnut thoroughbred gelding named Lukas (registered as “Just Ask Mike” – click here for pedigree), may have challenged Jim Key’s longstanding status for equine intelligence.
Overview of Playing with Lukas
Playing with Lukas, by Karen Murdock, offers an inside look at a remarkable partnership between a human and a horse. Lukas, a discarded retired racehorse, was labeled unmanageable and unfit for jumping, dressage or any other equestrian discipline. With two bowed tendons and an unimpressive racing record, the horse was headed for a most uncertain future.
However, Karen Murdock, a determined horsewoman and former psychiatric nurse, saw a potential in the off-the-track thoroughbred (OTTB) and rescued him.
With plenty of time, careful observation, training and patient interaction, Karen Murdock and Lukas actually rescued one another, forming an astonishing alliance through trick training and horse play. The retired racehorse, once deemed distrusting and dangerous, surprised Karen Murdock and the equestrian world with his ability to balance such physical challenges as the passage and Spanish walk with such cognitive achievements as matching colors, shapes and numbers.
In her first published book, racehorse rescuer and trainer Karen Murdock outlines this process, sharing her personal experience with her now treasured equine companion.
What is Karen Murdock’s secret, as she works with a challenging off-the-track thoroughbred? “A genuine sense of appreciation and enthusiasm go a long way in training – and in life,” she writes (p. 41). Perhaps herein lies a lesson for us all.
Format of Playing with Lukas
Karen Murdock’s 84-page book, which began as a collection of training tips, actually offers more of a personal memoir.
The opening pages of Playing with Lukas, by Karen Murdock, include dozens of quotations and endorsements from diverse equestrian leaders and animal lovers.
Playing with Lukas is filled with personal anecdotes and memorable musings from the author, who traces her seven-year relationship with Lukas, as he learns to trust her and to perform far beyond anyone’s expectations.
“When your training is correct,” Karen Murdock says, “the tricks are only a by-product and happen in an almost effortless, uncalculated way” (p. 44). The author confesses that she does not even own a horse
whip.
Included in Playing with Lukas, by Karen Murdock, is plenty of the author’s own biography, setting the stage for her compassionate friendship with her special rescue horse. With a difficult childhood and few long-term relationships, the author’s own personal transformation of trust is as amazing as that of her beloved Lukas.
Early in her story, Karen Murdock pens this most telling statement about Lukas, her equine companion and project: “I now knew that I wouldn’t give up on him the way I had been cast off. I was determined to find a way through” (p. 35).
Potential Readership for Playing with Lukas
Playing with Lukas, by Karen Murdock, is an intriguing and heart-warming read for anyone who loves horses or simply a feel-good story.
Lukas has already become a darling of the equestrian world, thanks to owner/trainer/author Karen Murdock and her compassionate network of horse-lovers. Major media outlets (such as ABC, CBS, CNN, HLN, NBC and RFD), major media (such as the Associated Press, American Horse Publications, Blood Horse Magazine, Equestrian Examiner and The Horse) and internet sites (such as EquiSearch and Equine Connection) have featured Karen Murdock and Lukas, tagging him the world’s smartest horse.
Having finished Playing with Lukas, author Karen Murdock is now working on a training guide to help other horse lovers with challenging equines.
Evaluation of Playing with Lukas
Playing with Lukas, by Karen Murdock, is a must-read for those who love horses – or any animals. The book displays penetrating insights into the possibilities of human-to-animal friendships. Could it be that animals (such as horses) are smarter than humans may have suspected?
The author’s technical training tips may prove useful to equestrians. Many horseback riding enthusiasts may be surprised to discover how much of the horse training and equestrian
recreation may occur on the ground, rather than under saddle.
What’s more, Karen Murdock’s transparent tracing of her own personal development make Playing with Lukas a gripping read, filled with hope and potential.
Published early in 2010, Karen Murdock’s Playing with Lukas is available immediately (for $15.00) as a download from Lulu.com. The book will also be available in print on Amazon.com by the spring of 2010.
About the Author: Karen Murdock
Karen Murdock, author of Playing with Lukas, is a retired nurse who has spent more than three decades working with difficult horses. Throughout her equine experience, Karen Murdock has employed clicker training, liberty exercises and positive reinforcement to build confidence and willing compliance with her horses. Karen Murdock is based in Walnut, California.
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This is the most unique book on training I have yet to see, though it can be called that only in the broadest sense of the word. Author Karen Murdock heads one of her chapters with a quote by Helen Keller, who overcame blindness and deafness to become an icon of spiritual strength: “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” This is what this self-published book really is about – two beings, who couldn’t find their place in life, finally did through each other. It’s a wonderful story of the triumph of spirit. [Read more...]
For anybody who has a horse, anyone who ever had a horse, and all those who dream of having an equine companion, Playing With Lukas is a must read. Karen Murdock’s account of her journey through life before and after finding her horse, Lukas, is nothing short of a modern day fairytale.
It is Murdock’s own family life filled with emotional abuse and violence that would lend her the sensitivity to recognize both the hurt and the potential of the renegade Thoroughbred who had failed as race horse and was a misfit as a jumper and as a dressage horse.
Together, these two “unwanted” souls would embark upon a mystical journey, surviving the sneers ofon-lookers at a series of stables and emerging as one of today’s most sought after trainers and “The World’s Smartest Horse”.
The temptation is there to refer to what Murdock does with Lukas as “trick training”, but the truth of the matter is much deeper than that. Trick training is the thing of circus and rodeo acts. The tools used in this pursuit are whips, ropes, chains, and virtually anything which could be used to force a horse to perform. The results are wild-eyed creatures with broken spirits and, all too often, just plain old broken down horses.
Murdock’s approach, on the contrary, harkens back to the days of Karl Krall and the Elberfeld Horses, and Doctor William Key and his horse, Beautiful Jim Key. I prefer to call this approach the education of the horse as opposed to trick training. Based upon a bond of mutual trust, it is a technique in which the roles of student and teacher are fluid and ever changing between horse and human. Gone are the tools of torture and force, replaced by kindness, praise, patience, and reward. The primary tool of communication is listening on the part of both parties involved. With this approach, horses become more vibrant, more willing to participate in the training, more willing and able to communicate, and more willing to reveal just who they really are. The rewards for the human involved in this process are of mythical proportions but largely go unspoken. Why unspoken? Because those who travel this road know most would scoff in disbelief if they were told of the rewards, lest they be deemed mad for the truths discovered, and the realization that the journey is one each must take to fully understand and appreciate the treasure they discover along the way.
If you’re up for it and chose to follow Murdock down this magical path, trust me, you will never be the same again!
