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Horse and Rider October 2004, The Tuned-in Horse
 
Does your horse pay attention to you?
When you're schooling him, is he alert to your cues, and eager to follow them? Does he seem almost able to read your mind?
If not, you're spinning your wheels in the practice pen. You're like a schoolteacher trying to instruct a child who's gazing out the window. Whether your goal is reining, cow horse, barrel racing, Western riding, or pleasure--or just enjoying yourself on a trail ride--you need your horse to be tuned in and listening. I call it mental suppleness, and it's a prerequisite for achieving physical suppleness and success in any event.
To achieve mental suppleness in my horses, I follow the Tom Dorrance/Ray Hunt philosophy of training, where you make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult. Ideally, you make your horse think what you're asking of him is his idea.
It sounds straightforward, but I've spent 20 years figuring out how to apply that philosophy to day-to-day schooling. In this three-part series, I'm going to share a few of the strategies I find helpful in exerting mental authority over a horse.
This month, I'll teach you my favorite warm-up exercise, which I call "getting on the same page." It's how I begin each practice session, whether I'm riding a green colt or a seasoned show horse.
In this lesson, you'll learn to use lope circles to get your horse listening and staying between the reins. In so doing, you'll become aware of his "magnets"--the things that attract his attention and cause him to drift off the circle. These might be the barn, out the gate, or a nearby pasture buddy. If you're away from home, the magnet might be the trailer. The magnet will draw you horse, causing him to drift to the outside of the circle. On the opposite side of the circle, the same magnet will draw him to the inside.
By correcting your horse decisively each time he does drift, you'll recapture his attention. He'll learn to be aware of even your subtlest cues, to avoid the discomfort of getting off balance and doing "extra work." Eventually, even just the turn of your head will guide him in the direction you want to go.
Next month, you'll learn the "whoa-back," an exercise that'll heighten your horse's responsiveness in a stop. In the final part of this series, you'll teach your horse to rate his speed in response to your breathing.
Before we begin, I'll assume your horse knows how to yield to the bit and neck-rein pressure, to move forward and laterally off your legs, and to lope on the correct lead. If the doesn't, you'll need to establish these skills before attempting these exercises.
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1. After warming up your horse at a walk and trot, pick up a lope, traveling just to the outside of the lime mark (see photo on page 49). Use the line to guide your horse in a perfect circle. Do this by picking up your inside rein a bit to keep your horse's inside shoulder up and his head tipped in the direction he's traveling; keep your outside rein "neutral." Use light inside-leg pressure at the cinch, and keep your outside leg back a bit; this will arc your horse's body to match the circle. Like your horse, you should have your head turned slightly and be looking in the direction of travel. Doing this makes subtle changes in your weight and posture that your horse will feel--once he's paying attention. Plus, by looking where you want to be going, you'll be aware of the moment your horse begins to drift off the circle. Here, my horse has begun to drift to the outside (likely drawn by some "magnet" that's attracting his attention in that direction), so my response is...
2. ...to "overcorrect" to the inside. I do this by carrying both my hands back toward my horse's inside hip, so that my outside rein is laid across his neck, and my inside rein is drawing his head into the circle. This rein position also rocks my horse's weight back, so that he's turning on his inside hind leg, rather that simply dropping his shoulder into the new direction. I aim for at least a 30-degree turn to the inside, and I purposely make my correction abrupt (but without jerking the reins), so that it's less comfortable for him and a bit unbalancing. In this way, he begins to associate drifting and not paying attention with something unpleasant.
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3. In response to my correction, my horse has made a 30-degree turn and is crossing over the line to the inside of the circle. From here, I'll ride him to the other side and resume circling the lime mark in the same direction as before, again checking to see that he's listening and staying between the reins.
4. Oops--he's not paying attention again, only this time he's drifting to the inside of the circle. Note how his movement is not consistent with the direction of my gaze. The moment I feel him drift... |
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5. ...I apply the same correction, only this time to the outside of the circle. I carry both hands back, but toward my horse's outside hip, so that my inside rein is laid across his neck, and my outside rein is drawing his head to the outside of the circle. My correction has caught him by surprise--as I intended--so he's scrambling to re balance himself as he makes the turn. This awkwardness is unpleasant for him, so, again, he's associating his drifting with something he doesn't like.
6. Still a bit awkward, my horse is about to cross
the line to the outside of the circle in response to my correction. Once he's crossed over, I'll redirect him onto the correct path in the same direction we were traveling. As an alternative, you can also continue to turn all the way around and pick up the lope in the opposite direction. This further reinforces the "not your way, my way" mandate, while also allowing for frequent changes of direction on the circle--a good thing.
7. Here's the end result of this exercise: My horse and I are completely "on the same page." He's relaxed, nicely bend on the circle, and guiding softly, taking most of his cues from my weight and posture as I look in the direction I want him to go. At this point, he's like a childhood who's sitting up straight, hands folded on the desk, eyes on the teacher. In other words, he's primed to learn whatever else I may want to teach him today. |
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