A couple, who are dear friends of ours, are coming to the farm for brunch tomorrow.  They’re both horse people.  The wife is a fantastic cook (and a fantastic rider). They both eat eggs, so I asked how they feel about omelets on the menu.  The wife said she had never learned to make a great omelet, so I’m going to teach her.

Which got me thinking about what it takes to make a great omelet…how it’s an art as much as a skill, and requires feel and timing and the right tools.  It occurred to me that horse training is a lot like making an omelet.

The right ingredients.  In order to make a good omelet and a good horse, you have to have the right ingredients.  Let’s start with your eggs.  Or in this case, your horse.  Horses vary just like eggs (large, small, fresh, stale, etc).  Evaluating your horse, like knowing your eggs, will help you move forward in your horse training (and omelet making).

There’s even more variation in horses, being sentient beings, than there are in eggs, so getting a sense of what it’s like working with different kinds of horses, with different temperaments, is well worth the time, even if you’d rather spend every waking moment with the horse that belongs to you.

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We know the eternal riddle as “which came first – the chicken or the egg?”  But when you’re giving a lesson to horse and rider, there’s a question that’s more important, which is “who comes first – the horse or the rider?”

Most instructors address themselves exclusively to the rider, every lesson.  Some tell their riders to make the horse do something, but don’t explain how. Some make improvements in the rider’s position that in turn improve the horse’s way of going.  Some focus on exercises or gymnastics, as part of a set program of instruction.

Rare is the instructor who focuses attention on the horse first, not simply as an athlete but also as an individual.  I’m sure you’ve heard instructors say, “the horse comes first,” but the phrase usually refers to the horse’s welfare (and it’s too often said but not meant, just like those electoral promises).  I agree that the horse’s welfare should come first, but I also think that focusing attention on the horse first, as an individual, can improve the horse’s performance.

After all, what is the essence of a great performance under saddle?  It’s the partnership between horse and rider.  And a great partnership isn’t based on selfishness. It’s not based on using; it’s based on giving.  I’ll admit, it’s hard to give the horse something that he or she rarely gets, which is to come first. But the payoff can be huge.

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The belly button may be the most neglected part of the rider’s anatomy.  Too bad it has that silly name, or riders would probably talk about it more.

Luckily, Shannon Peters does (and I owe all my knowledge of riding with your belly button to her).  One day, I watched her teach a student who was having trouble bending her horse, both getting tighter and tighter as they struggled together.  Shannon suggested that the rider point her belly button where she wanted her horse to go and voila! — what was once hard was now easy.  The rider became softer and the horse bent easily.

It’s an aid. Really.

Could it be that simple?  Yes.  If we’re not afraid to talk about belly buttons.

As instructors, our primary tool is language.  Of course, we’re happy to demonstrate what we’re talking about on a horse, or stand in front of a jump to prove to a rider that they can stop straight and quickly once they’re over it, or hold the reins from the ground to help a rider develop feel, but it’s most often what we say and how we say it that helps our riders ride better.

Denny Emerson said it perfectly today on his Facebook page — “The litmus test is in the individual ability to know what is valid, and the ability to transmit that validity in a way that others can discern it.”

That’s why talking about belly buttons is magic.  Telling riders to point their belly buttons where they want to go is actually no different than instructing students on “the spiral seat.”  Unfortunately, like the half halt, “the spiral seat” is a dungeon of confusion.  As a phrase, it makes no sense.  It sounds convoluted and no one understands it.  You can try explaining the twist in the torso that defines the spiral seat but why bother when you have a belly button?

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It’s one of those oxymorons of horse training that in order to make our horses straight, we make our horses bend.

Let’s leave for a later post the question of what straight actually means, since straightness varies depending on the level of education of horse (and rider). For today, let’s stay with the basic working definition of a “straight horse” — a horse that moves without favoring one side (or one direction) or another.

Depending on the bend in our horse’s body, most of us can easily identify which direction is our horse’s “good direction.”

We start working on making the “bad direction” as good as the “good direction” by riding our horses along curved lines — in circles, serpentines, bending lines, shallow loops, etc.

Most of us are also taught that the best way to bend our horses is with diagonal aids — the oft-repeated “inside leg to outside rein.”  While this orchestration of aids is extremely effective, it requires knowledge on the part of the horse, and independent aids on the part of the rider.  This is part of the reason it so often fails.

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If I say “no horse is perfect,” I won’t be surprised to hear that I’m wrong, and that one of my readers has a horse who is perfect.

That’s because one of the things I believe is that once you believe you know everything there is to know about horses, you will make the mistake of making a blanket statement that applies to all horses, and then one horse will come along and prove you wrong.

So let me say instead, “no horse is perfect but there may be the exception that proves the rule.”  In fact, I’d love to meet that exception.

Until that time comes, I don’t expect perfection.  In fact, I expect problems. Especially trailer loading problems. They’re as common as high-fructose corn syrup in processed food and just as troublesome.

Many horses’ worst nightmare

I’ve worked with horses who were in trailers that blew apart while traveling…who thought it was more fun to play than to load…who would rather lie down and die than put a hoof on a ramp…and who were allowed to decide if they wanted to get on or would rather not.

I learned the Monty Roberts way, and use the dually halter with a lunge line or long-line for horses who need to re-learn how to load.  The pressure-release method usually works, and once you get a feel for how much pressure you need and when to release the pressure, you can turn most problem loaders around.  It’s not that difficult, and it’s easy to pass along the skills needed, so once you’ve fixed the horse, you can help the owner to keep the horse fixed.

Unfortunately, the pressure-release method didn’t work with the most recent horse I had to retrain to load, who spent nearly two weeks with a well-known Monty Roberts protege, working on loading.  When it was time for him to go home, he still needed three people and two longlines to get him on the trailer.

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Brevity may be the soul of wit, as Polonius said in Hamlet, but I have yet to manage it.  Still, I’m going to try, since it’s frustratingly difficult to find time to blog these days.

So let’s cut to the chase.

Francis Calcraft Turner’s Bachelor’s Hall: Capping on Hounds, oil on canvas, c. 1835.

How do you correct your horse’s mistakes?

First, it’s important to ask yourself why your horse is making a mistake.  Is he just learning?  Does a physical problem (lack of fitness, pain, etc.) keep him from being able to do what you’re asking?  Do you expect too much too soon? Is your horse a loser?  A jerk?  Satan?  Or…is it all your fault?

I hate to say it (well, actually that’s not true and as you can see, I’m really having trouble with this brevity thing) but chances are it is all your fault. Don’t despair.  I’m here to help.

My first advice is to stop thinking about your horse making mistakes, don’t blame him or her, and start thinking about how you can help.

When your horse makes a mistake, you’ve ruled out a physical problem and your horse is not a rogue (a term I don’t apply lightly), then your horse’s mistake is one of two things:

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My loyal readers know that I don’t believe in “making” horses do anything.  I don’t even believe it’s possible to “make” horses do anything (and neither do others, as evidenced by the famous saying, “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”).

So why am I talking about making your horse pay attention?  Simply because it would sound a little strange if I talked about how to persuade your horse to pay attention…or encourage your horse to pay attention.  Those phrases sound too half-hearted for such a serious endeavor.  And they miss the point — that paying attention is non-negotiable.

Still, it doesn’t have to be as deadly or as dreary as this spelling lesson in Chelsea, England in 1912

If you have horses that are unfocused or easily distracted…or more concerned with their own welfare than yours…or convinced that their agenda is more important than anything you might come up with…or who tune you out when they decide they feel like listening to a different kind of music than whatever it is you’re playing, read on.  I have some ideas that might help you.

Unfortunately, as usual, the onus is on you.  Here are some questions to ask yourself:

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