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Important Details of Training Training
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The Important Details of Training by Monica Erman It’s the little things that can make big differences; how we keep consistency in our horsemanship, how we pay attention to the slight inclinations of our horse, and realizing that the smallest tendency has the ability to grow into something bigger - good or bad. Here are a few tips on some important details. Watch where he’s leaning. The horse’s shoulders start to lean before his feet take a step. If your horse has a tendency to lead too close or push into you, begin paying attention to his shoulders and ask him to step away before he actually takes a step. The earlier in a motion we correct or redirect an action we don’t want, the sooner those unwanted behaviors will disappear.Sally and her horse, Sunny, are practicing in an arena with several other riders. Sunny tends to get a little cranky when other horses come within ten feet of him. Sally sees this and knows what to do. She sets her concentration firmly on her objective. She knows she can’t control the world around her, but it is her job to keep her horse under control. If another horse begins to come close, Sally quickly asks Sunny to speed up or obey a request that takes more energy. By watching her horse’s tendencies and quickly giving him another job, she has not only prevented him from getting increasingly upset about the other horses, she has used the opportunity to practice control. At the end of their ride, she leads Sunny back to his pen. He’s eager to graze in his field and begins to speed up. Sally doesn’t want him to charge ahead, but waits too long before asking him to stay back. If she wants Sunny to keep his head at her shoulder, she should ask him to stop and back up a couple steps the instant his head creeps two inches in front of her shoulder. If she waits until his entire neck is ahead of her, it will take a long time for him to understand just where she expects him to walk. Pet or stroke, don’t slap. Hey ladies, here’s a question for you. Have you ever had somebody (usually a cowboy) come up behind you and give you couple sound claps on the back as a greeting? Does it feel good? No, it stings. If you want your horse to look forward to having you around, don’t slap him to let him know you liked what he did. If you can hear your hand land against his skin, you’re petting too hard. A horse’s skin is many times more sensitive than our own. He can feel a fly or gnat land on any part of his body. He doesn’t care how strong our arm is - he wants to know when we appreciate his actions.Slower is faster. Fast movements can cause reactions instead of actions. If we want our horse to stop better, respond to the rein faster and turn more quickly, our signals need to slow down. Picture a group of people playing red-light, green-light. The faster the person yells “red light” the less likely it is that the players will stop exactly when they hear “red.” The players probably stumble or trip to an unbalanced halt at the end of “light.” If the speaker were to say “yellow light - red light” not only would everyone stop much better, they would be able to balance and prepare for a stop, knowing exactly how and where they would need to halt.Reward Everything or Lose Ground. We don’t want our horses to need to figure out if we really mean to follow through with a request or not. If we want him to yield to the slightest pressure from the reins, yet we hold tension on them while we talk to a friend, we are teaching him that sometimes we want him to respond to rein pressure and sometimes we don’t.Sally is excited to go out riding with her friends and quickly saddles Sunny. They have been working all week on teaching Sunny to lower his head for bridling. Now when Sally puts on the bridle, she neglects to release the pressure on Sunny’s poll when he puts his head down. He wonders if he got the right answer or not. Even a quick release from Sally’s hand would have let him know he was doing what she wanted. Enjoy the Picture you make. The details may be tedious and sometimes an inconvenience, but those consistent touches make huge differences in the relationship we have with our horse. Horsemanship isn’t a skill to only work on when we are riding. Paying attention to the details will help make your horse a safer animal to be around and friends will enjoy watching and interacting with you and your horse.
Think about the number of times you would like your horse to change speeds. On a trail ride we need a solid cue to slow down our mount when going down hill and a signal for an increase of pace to keep up with another horse and rider. Western pleasure show horses bring in more ribbons if they can perform a soft and very slow jog. Dressage riders need a long and stretching trot. All these seemingly different disciplines need the same basic - speed control. The rider simply needs to be able to rate his or her mount’s speed. The Key is in the Difference. How can we teach our horse to slow down if he is already slow? And how can we speed him up if he is already fast? The difference between faster and slower is what we will use to show the horse what we want him to do. If we try to keep the horse at a certain speed, we wouldn’t be able to practice correcting his speed. So we actually have to work on both cues, faster and slower, even if our main goal is to teach a slow jog.To Speed Up. Work in a safe, preferably enclosed area like an arena or large round pen. Start this lesson from the standstill. If your horse is too energetic to willingly stand still, work on something you have practiced that requires a good amount of energy, like serpentines or lots of turns and stops.When the horse is quietly standing, gently start to squeeze his sides with your calves and count two seconds. If he does not move forward, shift the pressure on his sides from your calves to your heels and count two seconds. If he is still not moving forward, begin bumping his sides with your heels, gradually increasing intensity until you are kicking him. At any point, if he takes even a half a step forward, immediately release all the pressure on his sides and give him a pet. Wait a second or two then begin again. Many repetitions, combined with attentive, quick release of pressure as reward will lead to his response earlier and earlier in your progression of motivation. The need for kicking will reduce to bumping, which will reduce to a heel-squeeze, and finally to a gentle leg squeeze. The next step is to gain a consistent walk. We want him to maintain a walk. This step is very important. It should be the horse’s job to walk. We don’t want to push him forward every single step. Constant urging will dull him to our leg cues and make it harder and harder for us to make an impression with leg pressure. When he is walking forward, make sure you are not putting any pressure on his sides. If he stops quickly ask him to go forward again. Again, it’s his job to move and our job to tell him what speed we want. We’ll use the same sequence to get the horse to walk faster. When the horse is walking forward consistently, meaning he isn’t stopping every five steps but walks forward waiting for our signal, we can start practicing various speeds. Some Tips Let’s say that the slowest he can walk is speed number one and the fastest he can walk is a five. If you are riding in a 60' round pen split the pen into quarters. At each quarter, you’ll change speeds, using the numbers to keep yourself mentally focused on what you are asking him to do.Often the hardest part of working with this lesson is remembering to always start with light pressure, gradually intensifying the cue. If we don’t follow a progression, giving the horse a chance to respond to a soft signal, we will have to use a stronger cue than we would like. To Slow Down Before he slows down on his own, pick up your rein to ask him to slow down. He should not stop. If he does, quickly ask him to walk again. We only want him to travel slower. The instant he begins to slow down, release your reins. This is his reward and tells him he got the right answer. The slower you pick up the reins the better he will respond. If you pick up the reins too quickly, you could jerk his mouth which distracts him from what you are teaching him.Just as we can get in a habit of always prodding our horse forward, dulling his response to our leg cue, we can make the mistake of using our reins like a constant brake. Constant stress on the brakes of our vehicle means we have to pay for new brakes before too long. When our horse does what we want and slows down, we need to promptly reward him with lots of loose rein. Advance The trot is probably the best gait for this lesson. If the walk can range from one to five, the trot can range from one to thirty. But start with one to five and as you progress add more numbers.To test your control and training, ask a friend to ride with you. Trot side by side for a lap and then slow your horse down as your friend continues trotting. Your horse should quickly slow down to the speed you want. If you do not get this response, you need to practice more speed control. Enjoy Your Progress with Basics!
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