Letty on Horses
Musings of a former instructor about horses and riding
Redirecting Reaction
Horses don't pause to reason out if someting is dangerous or not; they react based on instinct-driven, life-saving fear. Unidentified moving objects are a prime source of fear-based reaction in horses. We tend to want to stop and give the horse a chance to take a good look at the strange object and see that it's not really dangerous. But the horse isn't interested in doing an in-depth analysis before he puts safe distance between himself and possible danger. That's just survival instinct at work.
Horses do learn from experience, and it is certainly a good idea to introduce them to a lot of potential situations and objects, in a non-threatening way. Trainers refer to "desensitizing" horses to different common stimuli such as plastic bags, umbrellas, flapping tarps, etc. On the other hand, I think many horses have been permanently freaked out by well intentioned, but poorly executed desensitization. I had one horse that was terrified of saddle pads, and I can only conclude that he had been disastrously "sacked out" at some point. When introducing strange objects to horses, try moving the object away from the horse. This action seems to be empowering to a horse, and the horse will often follow after the object. I noticed this when working with a mare I had with a cutting training mechanical cow. She spooked off from the fake cow as it moved toward her, but when it stopped and started moving away, she followed after it completely of her own will. The natural herding instinct takes over and the horse feels that it is controlling the object, herding it, if you will.
I think it's important to remember that your horse is just trying to get through the day without being eaten. If you keep that in mind, and remember that his natural reaction is "flight or fight," you can use that to your advantage. As long as his feet are moving, he's in flight reaction and I'm frankly not interested in going to the alternative fight reaction. My preference is to let him move his feet until he feels safe enough to stop doing so. That may mean circling the scary object at a safe distance, or it may just be a matter of you, the rider, not reacting when your horse spooks. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, when a horse spooks, he only moves about ten feet before he stops and realizes everything is okay. If the rider doesn't do anything, the horse sighs (Phew!) and continues on his way. But if the rider panics, grips with legs and yanks on reins, the rider escalates the horse's own panic by adding pain to the situation, and the rider's signs of panic only serve to validate the horse's initial fear response. After the first instant of a spook, what I see many people do is to try to make a frightened horse stand still. That method denies the horse his own stress-relieving response. He has energy that needs to be released one way or another and if he can't move forward, backward, or sideways, the only other option is up and down. Rather than fighting against your horse's natural reaction, try re-directing his energy and allowing him to move his feet. You may find he is able to process the situation a little easier. Let him move quickly past the scare and circle around and take a look from another angle, for instance.
An exercise I used in lessons was to holler "SPOOK!" at an unexpected moment during lessons. Students were to respond by pressing the heel of the right palm against the back of the saddle horn, and dropping the rein hand down to the horse's neck, rounding the back to sort of "hunker down" in the saddle with legs OFF the horse's sides (much like a cutting horse rider). I explained that this was the reaction I wanted from them if their horse suddenly jumped forward or sideways six feet, or if the horse's hind end suddenly seemed to drop out from under them. I wanted this reaction as instinctive as your reaction to slam on the brake when a child runs in front of your car. This reaction keeps the rider from escalating a minor spook situation into a full blown panic. If the horse doesn't stop on his own within a few yards, then the rider can start drawing up the reins and slowing his progress and directing his path from a secure, deep seat in the saddle.
When you find yourself singing ...
A Matter of Balance
“We come into this world head first and go out feet first; in between, it is all a matter of balance.”
~Paul Boese
Someone once said that the trick to riding a horse was to keep one leg on each side of the horse at all times. That will certainly keep you from falling off, but is definitely not the "I Ching" of riding or horsemanship! I've seen plenty of people who could ride horses without falling off, who were not good riders. (Technically, you could be sitting backwards on a horse and still meet that criteria!) What I look for in a rider is an independent, balanced seat that allows a rider to move with the horse in a fashion that appears effortless. Even someone who regularly rides bareback (which you would think would necessarily prove one's good balance), isn't necessarily a balanced rider. If using "legs of steel" in a vice-like grip on the horse, there is no communication happening between rider and horse except through the hands. Unfortunately, when riders also use the reins as an added balancing tool, much of that communications is muddied as well.
A rider's communication to affect a horse's speed and direction involve independent use of the legs and the hands which require a balanced seat. This is a very basic understanding I came to when thinking about my own riding and in trying to help other people learn to ride and maneuver a horse successfully. These are some of the issues I noted and addressed.
In my own riding, early on, my saddle would invariably hitch over to the right (always to the right), even just on walking trail rides. I also noticed that in the arena, when tracking a circle to the right, my horse would tend to get too close to the rail, but when tracking a circle to the left, my horse would drift off the rail. As it turned out, this was no coincidence. The horse was responding to my right-sidedness, both in my balance, and in the strength of my legs. I was pondering this problem one day while driving out to the facility where I kept my horse, when it occurred to me that driving with one shoulder dropped as I leaned on the arm rest, was part of an habitual tendency I had to move through life off-balance. One simple thing I did to correct this imbalance in myself was to create a habit of sitting up straight when driving my vehicle. I put the arm rest up and quit using it, extended my left leg forward next to my right, and placed my hands at the old standard of "ten and two" on the steering wheel. I made it a point to think about whether I was sitting with even pressure on both "cheeks" as I drove, and I also spent at least some time tapping my left foot to music on the radio, just to keep my "off leg" at least as exercised as the leg with muscles in continual contraction while engaging the gas pedal. That is not a big change to make in your life, but it sure made a big change in the way I sat a horse. We develop some habits in life that carry through to everything we do.
A recurring problem I noted in students is that when applying leg pressure to move a horse off in a certain direction, they would tend to leverage off the other leg. So if you're attempting to apply pressure a horse's right ribs with your right leg, you may inadvertently leverage off your left leg in order to press your right leg into the horse's side. This happens when you don't balance off your seat in such a manner that you're able to use each leg independent of the other. Another common problem riders have is heavy hands on the reins, and/or hands that jump around in conjunction with use of the legs. One of my teaching tactics was to drill riding students with leg lifts to practice using legs independently of each other, and independent of the hands. Some riders struggle with keeping their hands still while doing the leg lifts. If those riders carry a plastic serving spoon filled with arena dirt during the leg lifting exercises, they'll see automatic, immediate feedback on whether or not they are successfully keeping their hands independent of their legs.
A more advanced balance exercise is to ride without reins. It's actually easier to do this without stirrups as well, because dropping stirrups usually creates a deeper seat. Having used this exercise to strengthen my own balance, I have found it pretty helpful. If you want to try this exercise, make sure your horse isn't too "fresh" to keep exuberant frolicking or excessive speed to a minimum during an exercise of this nature. Use a roundpen rather than a big arena in order to discourage your horse from building up much speed. For safety, use split reins, and secure them with a rubber band. In the event of a mishap, a rubber band will break rather than causing a hang-up-and-drag situation. With your hands on your hips, ask your horse to move forward at a jog or slow trot. It doesn't matter where he goes as long as he keeps moving. In fact, it's a good challenge when the horse changes directions frequently. The goal is to balance off your seat, so avoid gripping with your legs. Think of your legs as ballast, equally weighing you down on each side of the horse. (The kernel of truth from the first sentence of this article!) If you're in danger of falling, go ahead and "grip-n-grab" momentarily, but then start over and try again. With practice, you will be able to feel when your horse is just beginning to make a change, before he actually makes a big enough move to unbalance you. As you get better at it, try picking up your stirrups and doing the same exercise. if you push too hard on the stirrups, your legs stiffen, which raises your center of gravity, making it more difficult to stay balanced and "fluid" with your moving horse. Try to feel whether this stiffening is happening to you when you pick up your stirrups. if it is, drop them again, ride another minute or two and think about how your seat feels in the saddle and how your legs feel as they hang toward the ground without gripping and without being tense. Then pick up your stirrups again, trying not to change the depth of your seat, while maintaining a comfortable leg.
As with all exercises, don't over-do. Keep it fun for you and your horse. It should feel like play, not like work. If you have trouble, laugh at yourself. It will improve your attitude and energy, keep frustration at bay, and help remind you of why you do this "horse thing."
Intentions
I've thought a lot about intentions over the years. A major stumbling block in human-horse communications happens because humans are so highly verbal and have lost most of their ability to think anything but words. Horses, being non-verbal, are much more attuned to picking up the intentions of others through their movements, expressions, and yes, even their energy. As verbal creatures, we're very poor at reading these signs in others, but most people take notice when someone with high energy enters a room. Horses pick up on your energy the way you pick up on someone giving you a dirty look. No words necessary. As a rider, you exhibit that energy in a number of different ways, from the way you breathe to your posture as you sit in the saddle. Leaning forward, sitting back, slumping, or stiffening, all send signals to your horse, usually without the knowledge of the sender. So even though you may be consciously sending your horse a signal to move forward and to the right with your reins and your leg, your horse may be receiving conflicting signals of your intentions from your posture and your energy. It's not as crazy as it sounds. The next time your horse doesn't want to move forward, try making a mental note to yourself of how you're sitting and where you're looking when your horse balks. Are you looking down at your hands? At your horse's ears? At the object on the ground you want to avoid? Or are you looking off in the distance to where you intend to take your horse? What are you thinking? Are there a tumult of words flowing through your brain? Or are you picturing your horse moving forward, imagining the feeling of forward motion, with the feel of the breeze in your face? No, horses can't read your mind, but they can read intentions--by feel.
Here's an example. My horse Twister becomes terribly herd bound. I don't know that he's really lacking in self assuredness so much as that he doesn't think the herd can survive without him. (I don't think he knows he's gelded.) So when trying to ride Twister away from the pasture where "his" mares are in danger of consorting with other geldings, I would run into some difficulty. Generally, a lot of balking, spinning, and even a little popping up in front, but usually, just refusal to move forward in a "departing" direction. One morning as I sat there cursing him, I suddenly realized I was falling into the trap I used to warn my students about: I was looking down. I immediately corrected myself and looked off into the distance--and being an extremely verbal creature and practically incapable of thinking in anything but words--I said aloud, "Look at that tree over there Twister; let's go see that tree!" (Mind you, I was looking at the tree, and by speaking the words, I changed my own energy.) Like magic, he started moving forward. It was a wonderful moment. I know better than to look down, but it's so easy to fall into that trap.
Where do you intend for your horse to go? Picture it. LOOK at it. INTEND it. Your energy changes when you do that. Your balance (seat) changes when you look where you're going rather than where you already are (which is what you're doing when you look down). Have you ever thought your horse was stupid for walking right into that wire that you were looking at and trying to steer your horse around? You were the one who directed him right to that wire by focusing on it.
I used to say to students, "If you're looking at your horse's ears, he's leading you by the nose." Where do you intend to go? If you're staring at his ears, you're not sending him anywhere but where he's already at, and you're a follower, not a leader. Look ahead; project your intentions to go up the road, up the rail, across the arena, over to that tree, through that water--but don't look AT the water--look BEYOND it!
Slowing down time
I wasn’t always that way. I used to try to hurry and get saddled up so I’d have time to ride. Now I don’t worry about whether I have time to ride or not. If I do, I do. If not, maybe I’ll just do a good job of grooming for a change, instead of that hurry-up-and-brush-the-part-where-the-saddle-goes. Or I might just turn him out and sit and watch him for a while — or clean out my junk box — or get the rasp out and rasp his feet. There’s always plenty of chores to do around a horse that take up a bit of time, and it's important to enjoy the time you spend around your horse doing other things as much as the time you spend riding.
If I’m going to ride –I don’t want to be pressed for time. I might get into a situation where I need to work through something with my horse and we can’t work through it if I’m in a hurry. Little things can become big problems just from folks being in a hurry. Like bridling. How many times have you seen someone trying to bridle a horse who puts his head way up in the air? That’s usually because the horse has been bridled by a lot of folks who’ve been in a hurry. I always act like I’ve got all day when I’m bridling a horse. If he’s an avoider, it may take quite a while, but if he’s convinced I’m going to be there all day to get it done, he’s much more likely to acquiesce sooner than later. If he thinks I’m going to give up pretty soon, he’s more likely to hang in there ‘cause he figures he’ll win. And I don’t ever worry about whether I’ll have time to ride, ‘cause I figure we’ll just do bridling today instead. And maybe that’s all we’ll do that day, but then I don’t have that problem with that horse anymore. It’s so worth the time. Plus, I have more than a feeling of accomplishment when we’re done, but also a feeling of satisfaction, and well being — all of which more often than not are missing from the hurried part of my life.
