When I watch a horse and rider for the first time, or the first time in a while, I look for what is working well – and try to acknowledge and encourage that. Then I look for what is missing: the relaxation, balance, fluidity and synchronicity in the connections and the ‘feel’ between them. How can I help them find more harmony? Where is the horse or rider holding tension, and where does it stem from? Not always easy questions to answer.

Observing the relationship

More specifically, I have questions like these in my mind:

• Is the horse expressing its best natural movement?
• How is the horse’s movement and posture influenced by the rider’s actions and vice versa?
• Where is the horse’s attention? Where is the rider’s focus?
• What type of emotions are being expressed?
• Is there a dialogue of negotiation and conversation, or does it look more like an argument?
• What habits or actions in the rider, might be restricting their ability to feel and connect with the horse’s responses?
• How well do they read each other? Basically, are their thoughts aligned to the same outcome?

Defining the question – for us or for the horse?

Humans tend to be task oriented. We can focus our mind on a particular outcome or task, like the accurate pattern of a dressage test, a course of obstacles, or jumps etc., we focus on getting results, and getting the job done. But, too much ‘task orientation’ comes at a cost to the relationship between a horse and rider. We should take care not to slip into a habit of using the like a tool for our whims or fancies for sport or entertainment. Horses don’t choose to enter competitions – they might learn the test well, but I think they have no interest in winning, helping us win, or even pleasing us. I think what they do have is a desire to succeed in their own right – that is to get the answers right to all the questions we ask – and thats no easy task between two different species. if we are also learning the same thing we’re trying to teach the horse.

Lets say you’re doing a dressage test, and need trot to halt, on the marker at X, but your horse’s stop is not too good. He leans on your hands, rushes and pulls when you want to slow. You focus your determined mind on the question: ‘Can I make my horse stop at X’? But its difficult, and forceful, you lean back with all your strength, pulling on the horse’s mouth, the horse seems to ignore it and nearly pulls you out of the saddle, over-shooting the marker. You keep trying, in hope that if you keep at it – your horse will get it sooner or later and become more light and obedient. So you drill the trot to halt, over and over, but you get tired and frustrated, it doesn’t improve, the horse is also now tired and confused and becomes even heavier.

The problem is not the horse, its the question. Repeating something thats not working is not the answer. We need to change something – perhaps we can change the question. Imagine what question the horse would be trying to answer. Maybe something like: “How can I predict when this sudden pain will come in my mouth, so I can avoid it, or get rid of it?”

Position before Action – being predictable

Thinking about it from the horse’s perspective helps define the question then for us: Lets assume in this case, that the horse doesn’t understand what we want. Our new question might now be: “How can I help the horse understand what I want, and help prepare his mind and body so he can better predict when to stop light, in time, at X?” So now its less about making him stop, or forcing a stop, but more about helping him prepare his balance earlier, so it can be light and pain free to stop. This is one of our jobs as trainers – to show horses the quickest way to make pressure go away, to find a release, to find praise.

Lets assume he doesn’t know or understand how to read my early cues as I’m preparing to stop (e.g. changing my posture: sitting tall, breathing out, lifting the reins to raise the base of the neck, changing the balance, lightening the forehand) . Or, maybe I’m not sending clear signals early enough, to help him prepare his own balance in time. How can I make it easier for him to read my cues? This is “Position before Action”.

Trouble shooting

In this case of a poor stop response, here are some typical problems that can lead to confusion and resistance:

• the rider uses the legs and reins at the same time – confusing and diluting the stop response
• the horse’s balance is downhill, too low to the forehand in order to stop light or in time
• the rider’s balance tips forward disturbing the horse’s balance
• the rider’s contact is already tight going forward so the horse then needs much more contact to stop
• the horse’s head is behind the vertical before the stop, so the weight falls more to the forehand and heavier to stop
• the horse doesn’t get enough warning to prepare its own balance to stop light or in time

So in summary, its about having the right preconditions of communication and balance. We don’t want to rush down the centre line and slam on the brakes. We don’t want to push the accelerator and brakes at the same time – wearing out both, making smoke. We don’t desensitise the horse to rein and leg aids and then expect sensitivity to the same aids. It makes more sense to coordinate ourselves and our cues to help horses discriminate between our aids, to anticipate how and when to change balance, in order to stop light and in time.

Aligning our minds – to the same question

To align with your horse’s mind – perhaps it is to empathise with how they might see the questions we ask and the problems we give them. One aid at a time, one question at a time is hard enough – especially for a young or green horse. Think about how many points of contact you have with your horse – weight, seat, legs, feet, hands, voice, balance etc.. let alone the contact of the bit, the bridle, the saddle, the padding, the girth. Each element or thing touching the horse is a point of contact – a question that they learn to answer or ignore, depending on the level of discomfort or pressure.

We can make use our strengths in task orientation to focus on the job of clear communication – keeping it simple for the horse, slowing it down, correcting the balance. One question, one answer, release, acknowledge, praise, break, repeat, move on, progress. Work to help the horse find and predict the answer. Refine the aids to encourage reactive responses from early light subtle cues. With clear communication and fine balance you will create trust and self-carriage.

Its natural in training, to be moving in and out of attention. I’ve not yet met anyone able to concentrate on the horse 100% of the time for a length of time. Certainly not I. But yet I find when I focus intently on each question for the horse, waiting for it to predict each answer – its like going into a Zen zone – feeling and sensing for harmonious moments, sweet spots of mutual understanding – where our minds are aligned and bodies in sync. Its a pretty cool conversational place to get lost in.

This photo is my beautiful PRE Mare Alita – the matriarch of our little herd and always the one to keep me in line.

Happy riding, Susie