Right from the Start - Create a Sane, Soft, Well-Balanced Horse

Table of Contents

Note to the Reader

1. Partners

2. Training

3. Learning

4. Five Rules

Rule 1—No One Gets Hurt

Rule 2—Reward In Proportion

Rule 3—Every Step Counts

Rule 4—Correction, Not Punishment

Rule 5—Take Your Time

5. Terms

Softness, Lightness, Stretch, and Elasticity

Direction

Angle

Bend

Collection, Engagement, and Elevation

Gait, Rhythm, Tempo, and Speed

Still, Stiff, and Soft Hands

6. The Aids of Reason

Force of the Aids

Request, Encourage, and Allow

No Mechanical Effects

Meaning and Silence

Aids That Release

7. Correctly Speaking…

Correction Techniques

Force and Corrections

8. The Fine Art of Doing Nothing!

A Seat You Can Buy!

9. Contact

The Importance of a Correct Position

Contact Exercises

Higher Hands For a While

Adjusting the Reins

10. Rein Effects

11. Reiny Daze

Aids That Release

Consistent Contact, Pulling, and Stretching

A Few Rein Rules

12. Developing Working Gaits

Preparation for Developing Working Gaits

Balanced Movement and Half-Halts

13. True Balance

Tempo, Stride, and Speed

Natural Tempo and Energy

14. Direction, Angle, and Bend

Advantages of Lateral Movement

Advantages of Bend

The Natural Circle

15. Your Natural Circle

16. Your Horse’s Natural Circle

17. First Touch

Herding

Latching On

Tack

Blowing Off Steam

Leading

Turning the Horse Toward You

Turn Away From You

Ground Tying

Desensitization to Extraneous External Stimuli

18. Soften, Bend, and Move Into the Hand

Tack

General Instructions for Work in Hand

Allowed Stop From the Ground

Staying Soft

Over Bending

Releasing Muscle Knots

Softening the Horse’s Body

Move Shoulders and Quarters

The Natural Circle in Hand

Work on the Longe Line

Beginning to Longe

19. Under Saddle, and on to the Aids

Soften From the Saddle

More Bend

Moving the Quarters

Moving the Shoulder

Finding the Natural Circle While Mounted

20. Falling In and Out

Falling Out

Falling In

21. Changing Bend and Direction

The Aids

22. Half-Halts

The Soft Stop

Stepping Up

Half-Halt in the Walk

Half-Halt in the Trot

Half-Halt in the Canter

The Halt

23. Transitions

Upward Transitions

Downward Transitions

24. Conclusion

Glossary

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Note to the Reader

In this book, I make some assumptions about you. I assume you are not a rank beginner, and may well have been riding for years. The rider exercises and riding techniques included in this book are intended to help you get the most out of the training program this book proposes-not to teach you to ride.

I also assume you have had exposure to many descriptions and words commonly used in the riding community that are confusing because of the actual and apparent conflicts within and between them. For this reason, I occasionally begin a discussion of what a word or phrase means, by first stating what it does not mean, and why other explanations of it are faulty. If, in fact, you have not heard the other descriptions, you may wonder why I am off on a particular tirade, but if you can persevere for just a few paragraphs, I do get on to the business of explaining the word or phrase in question very early on.

Finally, I would like to make it very clear that I do not assume you are a rider of any particular discipline or style. This is not a book about jumping, eventing, reining, dressage, endurance, or just plain riding on the trails. Rather, this book is intended to help you help your horse to do any or all of the above more comfortably and happily. However, I am who I am, and I have occasionally referred to the movements performed in classical riding. For those not familiar with these, I've included a very brief description of them at the back of the book.

1. Partners

It always comes down to basics. If things are going well, it’s because your horse’s basics are good. If things aren’t going so well, invariably there’s a problem with them. It makes no difference if you’re starting a brand new baby or trying to improve your mount of many years, it always comes down to the quality of this, your horse’s most important training.

But everybody says that. And everybody says exactly what good basics look like. But very few tell you how to get them. Most just tell you good basics are important, assume your horse has them, and proceed to the next step. It’s true that some gifted horses seem to come by good basics naturally. It’s also true that some gifted children learn to read before entering school. But can you imagine a school system that assumes all students could teach themselves to read?

A fact is that many books on dressage assume horses can begin—already balanced and moving freely forward on a 20-meter circle. They can’t. Books on jumping assume that if ridden over enough cavaletti and grids, horses learn to engage before a fence and jump with rounded backs. They don’t. Trail riders assume horses are rider wise as soon as they stop bucking, and need only experience to become trail wise. They’re not.

These assumptions have left gaping holes in our horse’s training. We have taught horses they should be ridden—that they should let us sit on their backs and point them where we want to go. But we haven’t shown them how to be ridden— how to carry us in a balanced gait, and do a correct transition.

The difference between teaching a horse he should be ridden, and showing him how to be ridden is not just an esoteric fine point. It’s HUGE! It affects everything—from how well you do at your next show, to the very core of the relationship with your horse.

Today we only ride for the relationship—for the sheer joy of it. We don’t need to ride for any reason—we just need to ride. We need the little time we get to spend with our horses to be time well spent with our best friends. We need a partnership with them.

But, a horse that doesn’t know how to be ridden, can’t be a partner. He can only muddle through to the best of his limited ability. When he fails we are left with the original assumption—that he can do it, and from that we create the second assumption, that he must be resistant or evasiveif he doesn’t.

Poor basics will always lead to these words. Resistance and evasion have so permeated the world of riding they are now a culture unto themselves. They turn our best friend and partner into our adversary. They give us permission to blame the horse instead of looking for the flaw in the method. They allow us to believe we can solve problems with tighter nose - bands, stronger bits, or the latest device on the market, instead of forcing us to think we may not be training correctly. These words are so enticing—so effortless—they’re addictive. They’re used a million times a day with no more thought or reason than the chain smoker uses when lighting up another cigarette.

When the words finally fail, as they must, and the frustration turns to anger and then fear, as it so often does, they are replaced with, Maybe you need another horse. The cycle is complete—the relationship is totally destroyed, and your best friend and partner is now a commodity on the market.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Your horse is not resistant and evasive—if he was, you couldn’t ride him. I say this from the experience of having seen what happens when horses have had enough of our assumptions and see us as that damned human race. They refuse to be ridden at all. If you think your horse is resistant and evasive, he’s probably as confused and frustrated as you. He’s certainly out of balance, which makes him a little clumsy, stiff and uncomfortable. But, he’s not resistant and he’s not evasive. He needs to learn how to be ridden. He needs you to explain it to him.

Trying to ride a horse without good basics is terribly difficult, but teaching proper basics is easy. Trying to train a horse without basics takes forever, but schooling (or re-schooling) basics, can take as little as a few months. Most people see fairly dramatic results in just a few days, and some, in just a few hours. The age and experience of your horse is no barrier. The training techniques and methods I present in this book work on green babies that have never been ridden, and, by giving them a fresh beginning, on horses that have been carrying riders the wrong way for years.

2. Training

The entire process of training can be reduced to one sentence, First ask correctly, then make correct, then reward. This sentence describes the exercise-reward cycle. The exercise-reward cycle is the means by which training is accomplished.

Although this is a book about training horses, my favorite example of the exercise-reward cycle is teaching a dog to sit. First the request is made, then the dog is encouraged to sit, and finally, the dog is rewarded when he does. In this example, the trainer first asks correctly by telling the dog to sit. The trainer then makes correct by lifting the dog’s head to encourage him to give the correct response and sit. When the dog does sit, he is then rewarded. The next time through the exercise-reward cycle, the steps are followed more or less in the same fashion. Usually, after several repetitions, the dog will anticipate the lift of its head, and sit on his own accord. When the dog does sit in response to just the verbal request and is rewarded even more generously, he will begin to understand the action associated with the spoken word sit.

We have, by this means, defined the word sit to the dog. We have connected his action of sitting to an audible sound. He now comprehends an English word. With the same method used to define an individual word to the puppy, we can define individual aids to the horse. Then, using these individual aids, we can build phrases and sentences that allow our horses to understand even the most complex requests. Yes, training a horse is more intricate than teaching a puppy to sit, but the basic principles remain the same. So, to further examine the exercise-reward cycle, let’s return to the above example for a few moments.

The spoken word sit can be equated to our giving an aid. Aids, which request, encourage and allow, are discussed in detail in Chapter 6, The Aids of Reason. Lifting the dog’s head is a correction, which is clear effective and over with. Corrections are discussed in Chapter 7, Correctly Speaking. Reward may differ, depending upon the circumstances, but it is always extremely important.

The request itself, the word sit when training a dog, should be clear and isolated. To make the verbal request clear and isolated, there should be at least a moment before and after it is spoken when there is silence. A direct correlation exists between this example and our riding. For instance, when teaching a specific response to a particular rein aid, the hand must be soft and quiet before the aid is applied and then again afterward. In this way the horse can associate the particular action with the specific request. The same is true for teaching the correct responses to the seat and leg.

The aid or request is defined with a correction (lifting the dog’s head in the above example). The correction must come soon enough to be related to the request. It is difficult to say precisely how much time, but it should be long enough for the subject to have had a chance to hear, feel, and react to the request, while not so long that he loses the association with it. Corrections must have the desired effect. If the trainer is going to lift the puppy’s head, it must be done so the dog does sit down—anything less just leads to confusion and resentment. Yet, while being effective it must not be frightening or painful. The object is to teach the dog to sit, not to fear us. The same concept applies to training a horse.

The purpose of reward is to convey that a specific requested action has been accomplished. It should also be used to make sure that total relaxation is restored. In the case of teaching a physically stressful exercise to a horse, the reward should be long enough so that he is completely rested and ready to continue before anything else is requested of him.

Throughout all training, the exercise-reward cycle is the only positive teaching method available. The tasks requested and the techniques for defining the aids vary tremendously, but the underlying process remains the same. For that reason, at the onset of training, whether teaching a puppy to sit or a young horse to go, stop, or bend, the exercise-reward cycle itself will be part of the lesson. In other words, the youngster will not only be learning a specific task, but learning to learn as well.

3. Learning

The exercise-reward cycle describes how we present information but does not explain how a horse accepts it. Years of observation have led me to believe the learning process is more complex and interesting than the teaching process.

At first it may not be clear to the horse why he is being rewarded at the end of the exercise-reward cycle. To illustrate, let’s use the example of teaching a horse to stand quietly while nothing at all is happening. The teaching task is to have the horse stand quietly while the handler walks to, from, and around him (specific techniques for this exercise are discussed in the Chapter 17, First Touch ).

Standing next to the horse, a handler says the word stand as he steps back. Since he stood quietly, the horse is approached and patted, Good boy. Again the word stand is repeated as a step back is taken. Once again the horse stands quietly, is approached and rewarded. On the third repetition of the exercise-reward cycle, the command is repeated as another step back is taken, only this time, the horse takes a step toward the handler. What is the problem here? The horse was just shown that if he stood still he would be rewarded. How could he find that confusing?

In truth, it may never be known exactly what the horse was thinking with regard to the exercise or if he was thinking of it at all. However, to proceed in a rational way, it is necessary to have some theory about his thought process. Empirical evidence makes it appear that during early repetitions of the exercise-reward cycle, the horse is guessing. In other words, whenever a horse is presented with a new request from the rider, he’s simply going to take a guess at what it is the rider wants and then act upon it. If the action fails to earn a reward, he will