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Case Study: Rainey
Last month we discussed giving or yielding to the bit. Integral to
that work is also training your horse to move its hips over, to stop
and to back up. Not only do these exercises enhance your horse’s
lightness and responsiveness, but the act of moving the hips over
for a one-rein emergency halt is also perhaps the single greatest
technique you can employ to stop a horse that is bolting or bucking.
It can and has saved many people from terrible accidents.
As always, I remind you that you must have a
solid go forward cue established with your horse before beginning
these exercises. And prior to these particular lessons, you should
have schooled your horse to laterally bend both right and left, and
to display vertical flexion (breaking at the pole at the first
vertebrae). If you have a green horse, I would recommend starting
these in a round pen or small corral. I also suggest the use of a
snaffle bit for schooling these exercises – for any horse.
What these lessons teach any horse is to be very
focused on pre-cues (lightness), and to disengage the hips (turn on
the forehand). While these exercises are critical to gaining
important control over your horse – especially when it’s in flight
mode or very emotional, they also can make a huge difference in your
horse’s level of responsiveness.
A client of mine, Joyce, brought in for training
a real sweet Paint mare named Rainey. This mare was about ten years
old, 15.2 hands, had been to several trainers, and was being shown
regularly for English and Western Pleasure. Now there was no
question about it, this horse had a very good mind. She was
extremely willing – she just was not particularly responsive, and
while she was doing adequately well in the show ring, her stops were
not there, her head was too low and she was in general, far too much
on the forehand. She simply was not performing to her potential. She
needed to learn to truly give to the bit, yield at the hip, and in
general to respond to nice, soft cues.
So for Rainey’s training program, we began (as I
always do) with the basic foundation work we have covered in the
previous issues. For Rainey though, the key training exercises began
when we worked on moving the hips over, followed by stopping and
backing.
To start with moving her hips over, I asked
Rainey to go forward at the walk. Then working with one rein (it
makes no difference which side you start with), I put my left leg on
the horse where I wanted to teach her the cue would always be, and
picked up one rein to ask for the give. Now instead of releasing
(either the leg or the rein) when she started to yield, I continued
picking up the rein, bringing the nose diagonally across her
shoulder, maintaining the pressure until her hips began to move over
– or even if she leaned her hips. I released the second she game me
the tiniest yield of her hips. Then I moved her out forward once
more, and did it all over again. I repeated this exercise perhaps a
dozen times before I started looking for a more notable movement of
the hips before I released. And as we continued with the
repetitions, I looked for greater movement of the hips before
releasing the pressure.
Your goal in this exercise is that eventually you
will not even have to make contact on the rein. When you pick up the
rein, your horse will move its hips over. And the leg on the correct
area becomes a pre-cue, so that in fact your horse will begin to
respond to just the pre-cue. The horse learns to anticipate what is
next, and responds accordingly to avoid the pressure. Conditioned
response is a wonderful thing!
As I mentioned earlier, this same basic technique
can become a lifesaver when your horse is very excited or out of
control. Picking up on two reins when a horse is out of control does
not help. All you are doing is capturing the energy and actually
fueling it. By picking up on one rein to have the horse move its
hips over, you are actually depleting the energy and giving it
someplace to go. It becomes a constructive exercise. To prepare for
situations where you may lose control of your horse, I recommend
practicing this at a walk, trot, and then finally a canter in
preparation for one day when it could give you the needed edge to be
safe.
Once you have mastered moving the hips over, it
is time to teach your horse to stop and back up. With Rainey, I
asked for a go forward at the walk. I then asked for the stop by
picking up on both reins and the instant I felt her feet stop, I
released the rein for moment, and then picked back up and ask for
the feet to move back. Now again – if the horse even leans back a
little, release the pressure immediately as the reward. And to help
establish strong pre-cues as we do these exercises, I like a forward
seat off the horse’s back – it allows them to back more freely, and
then I use a deep seat for my halt or whoa. So to establish your
pre-cues, deepen your seat prior to asking the horse for a halt
(which you can do just by dropping your heel in the stirrups) and
then give the verbal cue (halt or whoa), and then and only then do
you employ the rein. Again – this is about teaching a horse to be
light and responsive… so by using a consistent series of cues (with
the final cue using the most pressure) your horse will learn to
become lighter and lighter to avoid the pressure.
It’s very important in backing to get the feet to
move freely. So again, go forward, ask for the stop, and when her
feet stop moving, release for a quick moment as a reward, then pick
back up on the reins and ask her feet to move back. After a six to a
dozen repetitions, you should then start looking for “more” before
you release. Look for two steps back before releasing, continue with
this progression for a while and then expect three steps before
releasing, and continue to build from there. Your goal with backing
up is that your horse should be moving her feet so freely, that it
appears as if she is on roller blades.
What we NEVER want to do it to be pulling back on
the horse’s mouth or leaning back in our shoulders. This causes the
horse to raise its head and also hollows out the back.
If you are running into difficulties getting your
horse to back, here are a few tips that may help. Once the stop is
completed, put an encouraging leg on the horse and as he takes a
step forward, pick up the reins. When he takes a step back (or
again, even leans back) immediately release the pressure (both rein
and leg aid) to reward the behavior and let him know he is headed in
the right direction. Then immediately do it again. You will find
yourself doing pressure on/ pressure off, pressure on/ pressure off
– over and over. As long as you are applying and releasing the
pressure at the right times, within a very short time your horse
should understand what you are asking and quickly comply.
The exercise is complete when you barely pick up
on the reins and the horse glides backwards. It could be from two to
four weeks to get these results.
Two more quick tips to help promote the backing
action: First, if your horse is locking up rather than backing, you
can loosen one rein and pick up a bit more on the other, moving the
hips over to unlock the feet. Once the hips are moving over and the
feet are traveling, pick up on the rein again to ask for the back.
Another method, offset the rein when you back up, which will cause
the nose to be tipped in about two to three inches. This also helps
reduce the inclination of the horse wanting to rear.
Whatever it takes, once you get the horse
backing, always make sure you are releasing at the correct time and
asking for “more” slowly – ensure the horse is understanding the
lesson before you try to progress. Over time you will find your
horse developing that wonderful smooth backing glide, and that he is
far more responsive to both leg and rein cues. As an added bonus, we
discovered that these exercises were so effective in getting Rainey
to be light and responsive, that we were able to transition to
riding her bridleless as a result.
So practice these exercises to prepare for the
June issue, in which we will learn about engagement and turning off
the hindquarters (shoulder control). As always, feel free to contact
us at the ranch if you have any questions. Email us at
cwtraining@comcast.net.
Until next month,
Charles Wilhelm |
