Category Archives: Training

Lovely manners

02 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by in Training

≈ 1 Comment

Manners used to matter.  And they still do in certain circles (halter classes and cotillions).

I like the horses I own and work with to have good manners, but I don’t expect perfect manners.  There are some horses who need to express themselves and sometimes that translates into less than perfect manners.  The same is true of people.  To be perfectly polite you must be inauthentic, and that’s not a good trade in my book, with people or horses.

Those who have been following my blog for some time know that I have a horse who is happy to express himself rather rudely and with whom pressure-release techniques or reprimands are largely ineffective. I’ve been clicker training him despite the fact that my least favorite new obligation is making sure that I have treats in my pockets.

This is especially challenging when what I’m wearing doesn’t have pockets. They don’t tell you that you’ll need a new wardrobe when you start clicker-training or that you’ll have to wear an apron all day as if you were a Cold War housewife or one of those dreadful fanny packs (I don’t know what was worse, the design or the name) that were once so popular with foreign tourists in big American cities.

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Soak

15 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in Language, Training

≈ 4 Comments

The problem with living in the present is that it’s easy to forget what we promised to do in the past.  On October 16, 2011, for example.  That’s the date on which I told you in this post that I thought it was important for people and horses to let things soak, and that I’d expand on the topic later.

Seven months certainly qualifies as later…and I want to apologize for having taken so long.  If you’re one of my faithful readers, you know that I’ve had other things on my mind…

This week, the new horse and a hose reminded me to revisit the concept of “soaking.” Lest you misunderstand, the water involved has nothing at all to do with the concept of soaking.  That’s just a coincidence.

I first came across the word “soak” in Roger and Joanna Day’s book The Fearless Horse, and when I did, I stopped saying things like, “Let it sink in” or “Give her a minute or two.”  It was interesting to hear Buck Brannaman use the same word and employ the same concept.

Rather than speak of it in the abstract, let me share with you how soaking helped me bathe the new horse.  As I’ve mentioned before, he’s one of the bravest horses I’ve ever met, but he’s afraid of being sprayed with water. My guess is that at some point in the past, the water was too cold, he was scolded or punished in the process, or he didn’t have time to figure out what was happening and became overwhelmed.

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Why I love to teach

08 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in Training

≈ 2 Comments

I’ve spent more time in the last week with my hands on the wheel than with my hands on the reins.  I traveled to give an an intensive, multi-day private clinic in a neighboring state…then drove east for a client who’s moved to a new barn just a little further away than I normally travel…and then drove south for a new client, who was willing to cover my extra mileage in order to have a new set of eyes on the ground.

The rewards of my travels are great, and far outweigh the monotony of sitting in a car rather than on a horse.  That’s because I love to teach.  I live for the smile on a rider’s face, the look of enlightenment on a horse’s face, the happiness that comes from a partnership that’s deepened in interest and understanding.

My rewards this week included finding the right bit for a horse that was bracing, in large part because he didn’t really love his bit.  I followed the advice in this post, and instinct, and the first bit we tried was one the horse embraced.  With flexions in hand, mobilization of the jaw came quickly and continued under saddle.

The horse clearly demonstrated that mobilization of the jaw leads to flexion of the poll leads to release of the back.  Now that the horse isn’t bracing, the suppling work will be far more effective.  With a bit that he loves, the horse can also accept more subtle actions from the rider’s hand.

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How to decrease your horse’s energy without pulling

27 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in Equitation, Training

≈ 4 Comments

My prior post on how to increase your horse’s energy without nagging led to this post, which is the flip side — how to decrease your horse’s energy without pulling.

If the problem is that you’re riding a hot horse, I’d like to direct you to another prior post, which has lots of great advice for riding hot horses.  If that’s not your problem and your horse is simply too strong or not listening, I invite you to read on.

Here’s my advice, for those times when you want to pull but you really don’t want to pull:

1.  Stay centered in the saddle with a vertical torso and a straight line from shoulder to hip to heel.  Are you tipping forward because you don’t want to get left behind…or you’re trying to avoid having a driving seat by making yourself light in the saddle…or you just got dislodged?   If so, you’re telling your horse to go forward.  Most horses instinctively try to align themselves underneath their riders.  If you’ve shifted your center of gravity forward, that’s exactly where your horse will go.

Staying centered is the best way to help your horse stay centered.  It also gives you the maximum stability to be able to use your rein and leg and weight aids independently.  The exception to the rule?  If you can do so without a driving seat or increasing leg pressure, simply shifting the balance of your torso slightly behind the vertical can make your horse slow down (if you’ve trained the Buck Brannaman way, it’s sure to happen).

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How to increase your horse’s energy without nagging

24 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Equitation, Training

≈ 7 Comments

A comment on yesterday’s post from one of my regular readers inspired me to inquire whether she had read this post on tempo, which led her to pose a question, which I promised to answer in today’s post.

Her question was: “Any quick suggestions on motivation to “up the tempo” that doesn’t degenerate into nagging?“

Great question, don’t you think?  It’s so easy to fall into the nagging trap…sometimes without knowing it.  Luckily, the cure isn’t complicated.  It isn’t easy, but then, riding is one of those things that we never master, we just keep practicing and practicing, ever trying to improve ourselves while we uphold our own standards of excellence.

In all the suggestions that follow, please note that we’re not talking about collected work, we’re talking about moving freely forward with energy in the horse’s proper tempo for the working trot, the working canter and the free walk.

1.  Insist that your horse respects your leg.  How’s your turn on the forehand?  Your leg yield?  If the answer is “not too good,” chances are that either your horse doesn’t respect your leg aid or your leg aid is less than clear.

First, make sure your aids are clear and consistent.  If that checks out but your horse isn’t listening, I suggest you follow Jane Savoie’s solution (as I do) which you can find in her book Cross-Train Your Horse.  She outlines it briefly here but without mentioning that the whip should be applied in conjunction with the leg aid, to reinforce the leg, which is what she suggests in the book. (Just make sure you don’t catch your horse in the mouth when he responds to the whip!  If he canters on or even gallops, let him!  Forward is the right answer, even if it might be delivered in a way that’s a bit too enthusiastic for your taste.  Don’t worry, the overreaction won’t last.)

2. Ask yourself if your own instability may be blocking the forward movement when you ask for more.  You need a stable torso and excellent balance in order to follow the horse, especially when the tempo changes.  This is also true when you transition from one gait to another (or when you lengthen or extend or gather or collect).

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Let’s put the “working” back into working trot

23 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by in Training

≈ 16 Comments

“Working trot.”  The phrase still exists, although often times, I’m not sure why.  It’s rare these days to see a horse working at the working trot.

Horses are trotting all over the place, certainly, but it’s hard to see them exerting the least bit of effort to do so.  It might be more accurate to call the gait we see the “holiday trot.”

Most horses trotting along (that seems to better capture what’s going on) are definitely on holiday.  That means no work.  What do you and your horse do on holiday?  You (or your horse) probably get out of bed (the stall or paddock), maybe do a little sightseeing (that looks like good grass to eat…wait, was that chair there yesterday?)…but basically relax (forward?…not sure what you mean by that…).

The biggest defense of the holiday trot — which includes trotting under tempo — is that it is the way to create balance, which is necessary before the horse can do anything well.  To my mind, there’s way too much emphasis — or should I say, misplaced emphasis — on balance and what you need to do to help your horse learn how to balance or balance better.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for balance.  I’m just not impressed by a horse that is balanced while basically doing nothing.  And I’m not sure how that prepares the horse to do anything more challenging and do it well.

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How to ride a circle

19 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by in Equitation, Training

≈ 4 Comments

There’s a lot to be said for riding in a circle, but like most wonderful things, it’s easy to overdo it.  It’s best to think of your circles like chocolate.  You can enjoy chocolate every day without making yourself sick (or fat).  But only if you don’t gorge yourself on it.

Maybe just a few

It’s tempting to gorge, because it’s chocolate — oh, wait it’s circles were talking about.  Yes, circles.  There are so many wonderful things you can accomplish — or think you’re accomplishing — when you ride a circle.  Your horse is bending.  Your horse is on the outside rein.  Your horse’s inside hind leg is engaging.  Your horse’s rhythm is perfectly regular.

Of course, if that’s so, you don’t need to spend a lot of time on a circle.  If it’s not so and you want to make it so, you need to get off the circle or you’ll end up drilling your horse on that circle.  And we all know how successful that is in training horses.

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A Clicker Training Tale

17 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Training

≈ 13 Comments

Once upon a time, not so long, long ago, in a land of sweeping hills and secret valleys, there lived a silver-haired lady and a herd of horses, often tame and sometimes wild.

One special horse was the color of milk caramel, and glimmering flecks appeared on his coat when the sun shone upon him, as if he had been sprinkled with gold dust.  His muzzle was as soft as the softest velvet.  When he stood alert, listening to the sounds only he could hear, he was as still as a statue.  When he ran, it was as if the air itself ran with him.

The golden horse was strong and brave, a willing partner to the silver-haired lady.  But though he trusted her more than anyone else in the world, she was unable to ease his fear or tame his spirit when he caught sight of a syringe.

Twice a year, the horse required a syringe of medicine to keep him healthy. He tried so hard to flee when he caught sight of it, that the lady feared danger would come to both of them.  It pained her to see her brave horse so fearful, and she vowed to help the golden horse be as brave with a syringe as he was with the woods.

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How to improve your canter departs

14 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by in Equitation, Training

≈ 9 Comments

As Leo Tolstoy said in Anna Karenina:

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.“

And so it is with canter departs.  All good canter departs are alike.  Each poor canter depart is poor in its own way…or is it?

Of course it’s not, anymore than every unhappy family is unhappy in a new and never-before-encountered way.  There are not an infinite number of problems that result in an unhappy family, nor are unhappy families more complex than happy families.  The lauded line that begins Anna Karenina, despite its popularity, speaks more of Tolstoy’s outsized ego than it does of a universal truth.  The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy (Leo’s wife) draw the curtains aside.

Similarly, there are not an untold number of reasons why canter departs are poor.  Setting aside the disunited depart, the fundamental struggles for horse and rider are to eliminate the problems that stand in the way of the happy canter depart — strong, springy, upward and balanced.  Which means getting rid of those unhappy problems — the horse is on the forehand, the horse is rushing, the horse is crooked.

If you’re struggling with unhappy canter departs, take heart.  Because, unlike Tolstoy’s marriage, all is not lost.  We’re dealing with a question of balance (the secret to all happy relationships).  A good transition requires good balance.  Physical and mental.   From horse and from rider.

Riders are usually the problem (we all wish that were not the case, but unfortunately, it is).  So if you’re less than enthusiastic about your horse’s canter departs, let’s take a look at what you might be doing that’s preventing you from getting the canter transitions you want.  Here are some common problems:

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Keep calm and carry on

30 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by in Inspiration, Training

≈ 11 Comments

Regular readers of the comments on my blog probably feel like they know the woman who goes by the name “Elaine” the way they know their other barn friends.  They’re also familiar with her current horse Dini, whom she often mentions, and who you can see below.  (If you’ve been missing Elaine’s comments, you should check them out, since she’s shared some great stories here on the blog.)

Prince Houdini, otherwise known as Dini...or the Prince

Elaine is a friend and a student, and Dini is a horse I had in training before I broke my back.  Dini’s had the winter off, and Elaine has big plans for him this spring.   We just talked about bringing him back into shape again with March-ing! and long-lining.  Bravo to Elaine, she’s going to be doing the work herself. I’m there to support her.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the latest copy of Dressage Today, and read a letter from Elaine about her and her beloved Dini.  She hadn’t told me she’d written it, but she knew I’d see the letter if it went to press.  That’s Elaine.  She’s forthright and speaks her mind (as I do) but she’s a strategist. She’s had to be, with her current horse, whose thrown her a series of curve balls that would make most horsewomen retire their boots.

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