Does your horse need more forward?

Have you been told your horse needs more forward?

Do you think that means it needs more speed?

There’s a good chance your horse doesn’t actually need more speed, which is what we are inclined to think and try to do, but it actually needs more power!

When we ride our horses for more speed it pushes them out of their naturally stride, rushes them on the forehand and makes the stride short and choppy. This makes the ride less pleasant to watch but more importantly makes the horse less structurally sound.

The forwardness that we are looking for is power and the horse tracking up (prints of the hindquarters stepping into the prints for the forehand).

The power and tracking up that allows the power to travel through their body, lifts the forehand and develops impulsion. This connectedness and lift of the whole body engages the horses’ core postural muscles and improves their overall long term soundness while in the frame. It does this by:

• Shifting their weight off the forehand thereby reducing the concussion on the forehand.

• Getting them to lift their tummy muscles so they hold from their core instead of bracing their back.

• Lengthening their neck thereby reducing the compression and pain through the neck and pole.

• Increasing overall freedom of movement, elasticity and tone.

So to get more forward we actually need more slow!!!

Say what?

To build the strength and power of the hindquarters and also tune the sensitivity to legs mean go, we need to ask our horses to slow, wait and sit into their haunches and then drive forward out of it kind of like squats.

So now not only are you using an exercise that BUILDS your horses ability to give you that forward but also an exercise that TUNES your horse in to the aid.

And this is how we like to work at Equestrian Movement.

It doesn’t matter how good you are at applying an aid, if your horses can’t physically do what you’re asking it won’t respond to it until it is. So we use exercises that build our horses musculoskeletal system to ride a frame, and incorporate the aids within the exercise that will be our cues or words that we will use with our horse once they are physically ready.

This way, we are NOT desensitising or deadening our horses to the aids, but we ARE developing them for longevity of their career.

Interested in how we do this?

Check out our course Green to Self Carriage, where we break down all the aids and exercises so that they build on top of each other all the way through to your horse working in a working frame for soundness & longevity.

Training an elastic topline

Movement is dynamic.

What this means is that it is ever changing, adapts to stress, becomes limited when unsupported and increases in range of action when supported.

When we try to force a certain way of moving, it actually limits the horses freedom of movement. When we focus on their core strength and balance, it increases their freedown to move.

This is why we need to exercise and condition our horses to perform the movements we ask.

When they are exercising we are creating an environmental stress that their body is adapting to. When that stress is too much, or there is an underlying injury or imbalance the body adapts to reduce movement to protect from injury. When there is just enough over a period of time the body adapts to support movement and in becomes enhanced.

In fact, with all things going perfect and no underlying physical or training, from introducing a new exercise it takes:

-        6 – 8 weeks to develop coordination of the movement (the nerves to innervate the muscles)

-        3 – 4 months for muscle condition

-        6 – 12 months for bone and ligament density and the movement to become part of their conformation.

So from the time an exercise is introduced it will take at least 6 – 12 months for your horse to be able to do it easily no matter how hard you push them. That’s just how long it will take for their body adapt to the movement.

When we are talking about an elastic topline that is basically what we are talking about. The horses self carriage muscles are developed so that the horse can relax and swing in their movement, their stride and their frame is adjustable and they have some degree of lateral flexibility for bend and leg yield.

The one place you can go wrong with working on an elastic topline is to do too much suppling work without balancing it with strengthening work. For example long and low with canter transitions, 10m loops with rein back and polls. Suppling the muscles also makes them weak. Strengthening the muscles makes them tight. Again this is what we are talking about with movement being dynamic.

The elastic topline is the end result of combining our suppling exercises with our strengthening exercises. Asking for the movement evenly in both directions and shortening and lengthening the stride, frame and lateral muscles through bend.

Addressing unwanted behaviour is pointless without acknowledging wanted behaviour

Are you constantly on your horses case?

More bend!

More forward!

More frame!

… More, more, more!

One of the biggest things I have to remind my students of is to say good when they are trying, give them a break and give them pats for their good effort.

It’s not that we are purposefully hold out (although sometimes we are taught not to pat or say good boy/girl) but that we get caught up in what we are doing and trying to get the results. On focus is so centered on results that we forget to even congratulate ourselves for our effort and this has flow on affects to the horse.

When we acknowledge wanted behaviour with positive reinforcement (at Equestrian Movement we call them emotional motivators or our horses love language), our horse actively seeks the answer and therefore the reward. An added bonus of the win for the horse is the release of happy hormones associated with task completion, and if we have associated our emotional motivator with our connection with our horses, they will look to do it for us to please us and not just satisfy their own desires.

When we constantly say no, use negative reinforcement and hassle our horses, they eventually stop being curious and stop trying.

If every time they put effort in and try they are told wrong or not good enough there is no reason for them to try and nothing for them to enjoy in the learning process.

5 Tips To Improve Your Dressage Test Scores

We all want to get that amazing score in the dressage test, right?

That score that shows not only how good we are, but how amazing we know are horse is as well.

But with so much that goes into the scoring process, what can you do to reach those lofty heights?

Of course, developing your horse correctly through the self carriage process and beyond is going to avoid furture limitations (want to learn how you can apply this to your horse? Click here to learn more about our Green To Self Carriage Course).

You can also check out these tips that Katie prepared for you below!

1. Forwardness

Riding your horse forward and bold creates straightness.

Think of it like peddling a bike. If you don’t peddle fast enough your bike gets the wobbles and you can’t straighten that with the handle bars you have to peddle harder. Once you’re peddling hard enough the bike balances out.

You can also think about it like the difference between walking somewhere and dawdling or walking with purpose. When you walk with purpose you walk straight to your destination. If you’re dawdling and not in a hurry your line tends to drift, go off course and come back again.

2. Let your horse make the mistake (in training)

When you introduce your horse to a new exercise you will give your horse lots of support and balance to get them understanding their job.

After a while they know what they are supposed to do but we still do everything for them. What we end up doing is maintaining pressure while our horse is cooperating so what incentive do they have to cooperate?

Let go, let them make the mistake and reapply the pressure to correct the mistake - but let them make it first!!

This is how we cue train. We also want our horse to remain doing the task asked until we change the ask. This allows us to compound the aid and ask more complex cues of them. If you are using all your aids to ask for just the simplest ask like maintain forwardness, you have no other aids to communicate other things you need like bend, yield, transition etc.

3. Engagement

The reason why engagement is so hard to understand is because of the way it is taught.

At best it is taught by inside leg to outside rein; at worst to hold the horses head down and tap or drive the hindquarters through. When taught at the worst, it creates a rotation of the pelvis which is false engagement and stresses the horses back.

Engagement is not the horses hind quarters coming under more (although that is the end result) but a transitioning of weight from forehand to hindquarters that creates deeper flexion through the hocks and haunches. They squat deeper into the movement.

4. Independent seat

There was a long time of my riding career where I was naïve enough to think my position didn’t really affect my horses potential.

It is however, the most limiting factor in our horses potential.

Dressage is the art of dance between horse and rider. It doesn’t matter how good a dancer your partner is if you don’t have the posture and dancing skills yourself. We know this from watching dancing with the stars.

5. Accuracy

Accuracy is THE easiest way to improve your test results. It is the first thing you are marked on and the easiest thing to mess up.

Preparation, looking ahead and knowing your test is key allow with being able to actually break down the geography of the movements.

Would you like to improve your accuracy in your test? Download our free guide here!

What Strengthening Your Bond Will Do For Your Horse

Have you ever wondered why horses are herd animals?

I wouldn’t be surprised if you really haven’t given it much thought. They just are - right?

Or perhaps you think “they are animals of prey, it makes sense to have the advantage of numbers”.

And in a sense, that is true. But a herd offers so much more.

The structure of the herd incorporates:

• An alpha that expects discipline, provides security and that they trust.

• An alpha that they can ‘test’ to ensure they are being lead by the best.

• Herd mates that they share affection with.

• Herd mates that share companionship and will play together.

When it comes to OUR interaction with our horse, we need to spend time intergrating ourselves into a similar position of the alpha horse in the herd. By doing so, we can set ourselves the easier task of training and working with a horse that respects us, trusts us and will share affection and connection.

So what are the areas we work on with our bond?

Boundaries:

By establishing boundaries, we can reinforce manners and respect with our horse. And we don’t need to beat them back or bully them into submission to do so.

Affection:

Have you ever watched to paddock mates mutually grooming? Not only is it cute, it has the benefit of reconnecting and re-establishing bond through affection. We love our horses and want them to love us back, so when we practice exercises that encourage affection, our bond strengthens infinitely.

Adventure:

Taking a break from the regular work routine or home routine to take an adventure together is not only a lot of fun, but a great way to reinforce our leadership and to create a level of trust founded on the confidence that your horse knows you will help them process stimuli and keep them from danger.

Companionship:

Spending some time with your horse without expectations is an exercise that actually has a bigger impact on ourselves but still a large impact on your horse. It is also a great assessment of your horse’s expectations from you - their reaction to your presence in the paddock will point you in the direction of what needs more work.

Security:

We (should already be, I hope) providing the basic security for our horses physical well-being, but sometimes we neglect the emotional security. By taking the opportunity to support our horse through these times of emotional crisis, we result in a higher level of trust, more affection, and an extremely strong bond.

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Get Your Horse To Trust You In 6 Easy Steps

Does your horse trust you?

Getting your horse to trust you has very little to do with the horse’s behaviour itself - it is about whether or not you are trustworthy to your horse!

So what can we do to help solidify that trust?

1. Consistency

The biggest part, and probably the hardest part of all, is consistency. It doesn’t matter what we are doing, whether it is riding on a trail, mucking out a stall, or rugging up - you need to be consistent in WHAT you are asking and consistent in HOW you ask it.

This might mean spending some time analysing how you interact with your horse at different times. When you lead your horse to the mounting block, do you treat it differently than when you lead them to their feed yard? In that exact example, you will often have horses that will willingly push against you to get to their feed faster, but walk reluctantly to the mounting block. Do you correct both of these behaviours and expect the same movement?

2. Boundaries

To expect our horses to trust us, we must set them up for success. One of the areas that most horse owners tend to muck up is boundaries.

Boundaries mean that we have a clear personal space that we expect our horse to respect, and that space should only be invaded upon invitation.

When we let our horses push into us when they are nervous, but then expect them to not walk over the top of us when we lead them, we have not set up our boundaries correctly.

It might sound counter-intuitive (surely trust means they want to be closer?), but the respect and consistency we build with our boundaries exercise leads to a much higher level of trust.

3. Enocourage a Learningn Brain

How you handle yourself around your horse when times get difficult can influence how the trust develops. For example, how can your horse trust you if you yell at them for doing something that they either are unsure of, testing you with, or unable to do? How can your horse not be expected to get excited if you do?

Breathing and keeping your emotions stable, even when things are going to literal shyte, helps establish respect and trust.

4. Emotional Support

In the same way that we must manage our own emotions, we must help our horses deal with their own. This can be rather difficult in some of the ‘hotter’ breeds but still very important. When we show our horses a way of processing and learning that the scary objects are not as scary as first seen, they breath, look at us and start to understand that we are as trustworthy as we promise to be.

5. Breaking Up The Routine

While consistency is numero uno in all we should do, it shouldn’t mean all work and no play. A chance for adventures, playtime or even a change of scenery not only breaks the monotony of work life, it helps expose the horse to new scenarios to test and explore their trust in you, and work on further extending it.

6. Communication

Finally, communication is very important. How we communicate the commands, how the horse responds to those aids, how we listen when they are processing, how we identify when they are not processing, how they tell us when they move on - all essential for a stronger level of trust.

Why Your Horse Wont Canter

The canter is considered by a number of horse riders as one of the most fun strides to ride. Yet many other riders find it very hard to get their horse into a canter. So let’s have a review on why the canter might not be working for you.

Your horse isn’t fit enough to hold you in a canter

Like any athlete, horses require training to develop and hold riders in their chosen sport. It involves them coordinating 4 legs, balancing a human on their back, engaging their core, and trying to listen to what you are telling them. Imagine trying to hold 3 plates, walk in high heels, suck in your belly and smiling at the same time – then up that walk to a run! While it doesn’t look pretty, and probably isn’t feasible, with practice it becomes easier.

Same for our horse. We can help them build it up by ensuring they have their core engaged, a working pace and balance in the lower paces before introducing it in the canter. We can also help them by working on their canter transitions on the lunge.

You are getting in the way of your horse’s canter

If you lack balance, or lack confidence, you may be clenching down on your horse with your knees, and/or gripping the mouth to tight, and essentially providing a set of mixed signals for your horse.

If your canter isn’t established, you can’t help your horse coordinate theirs under saddle. Hop off, work on some canter on the lunge, and look for a riding school horse with a balanced canter to help you learn.

The working area is too small for the horse to canter

If you are trying to canter in 15 meter circles and your horse is unable to do so, the area is too small. The horse lacks the capability of maintaining that amount of bend at the canter pace, regardless if it can while at the lower paces.

The advice here is to go big! Bigger circles, bigger arena! Allow your horse to build up their ability to bend in the canter before trying to work in smaller circles or corners.

The horse just goes into a faster trot, and doesn’t pop into a canter

This may happen for several reasons:

• Your horse can physically hold you in the canter

• Your horse doesn’t understand the aids

• You are giving your horse the wrong instructions

• Your horse is trying but isn’t quite there yet

• Your horse is purposely avoiding the canter

Firstly, make sure you are providing the correct cues to pop them into canter. You may need to hire an instructor to get you through this phase. I would also suggest reading the 4 reasons why a horse evades to establish what to do in the case of the other reasons.

Do you have a riding question? Pop it in the comments below and we will respond!

Is Your Horse a Master "Self-Carriage Evading" Artist?

Horses evade being in a working brain and working in self carriage like I avoid my computer before I have my morning coffee. "Oh look the dishes need washing, hmm maybe I should sweep that way I will concentrate better, and my working space is messy better find a home for everything. Oh the place I was going to put what was messing up my desk is messy; I should clean that as well!"

Before you know it, its 3 hrs later, I haven't opened the computer yet but at least my house is clean, right? I bet you can relate and so can your horse. I don't know what it is about getting into a working brain but some days it's so damn hard! Taking inspired action is the easiest way to get into work mode but that is a discussion for another day. Today we are talking about the art of evasion and I'm going to put it to you straight, our horses are pros at it and we rarely even notice.

What is self carriage?

Self carriage is:

• When a horse transfers its weight off the forehand onto the hindquarters and drives from its hindquarters instead of pulling with its chest and shoulders.

• When a horse engages its balances points and holds itself from its core allowing for suppleness of its extremities.

• When a horse stops bracing through its joints for balance because it has engaged its core and is able to swing over its back and through its neck and shoulders.

For self carriage horses require:

• Discipline

• Sensitivity to the connecting aids

• Purpose and drive

• Balance

When a horse comes into self carriage it can squat through the hindquarters without losing forwardness, flex over the topline without dumping its weight onto the forehand and be extremely manoeuvrable and versatile in its movement without sucking behind the bit. This is actually really hard to achieve, not only in how to communicate to our horse this is what we want but also once they understand to convince them to do it. Even if you have flexed your horses head into a "frame" it doesn't mean they are in self carriage and you are potentially doing more damage to their musculoskeletal system than good. These horses will have a tight, strong underneck from balancing on their forehand, issues with their back (behavioural issues at the extreme with bucking, rearing and bolting) or physical issues with their croup protruding, sway backed and irregular in their stride to name a few problems. They may be pretending that they are engaged but have just hyper flexed through their pelvis and as a result won't work straight and can't pick up off the forehand or they will be strung out dragging the hindquarters. 

As our horses motivator, exercise physiologist and trainer it is our responsibility to ensure they are working correctly, because it is us that then want to go and sit on the weakest part of their body and expect them to perform athletically. If I went to a PT that didn't understand correct technique I would be at a high risk of injury because I do not know how to use my body safely and correctly in exercises I haven't done before. It is the same for your horse; you have to show them good technique to avoid short term damage and long term wear and tear and early retirement due to unsoundness. 

If it’s not good for the horse to evade, why are they so good at it!?

Well this comes back to me needing a coffee to get motivated. I know I should be working and future me will appreciate the past me for the work but right now.... bleh ... except for oooh coffee!! Ok now I can work. What coffee is doing is evoking some of the feel good hormone dopamine and dopamine particularly likes goals achieved. I have a very vivid memory as a child at school doing school work and I was particularly good at "evading" work. To be honest I suck at getting myself into a working brain, once I'm there all good but getting stuck in, nope that's not for me. My grandma always used to say Katie you need to "apply yourself". At the time I would do the annoying kid "I am!!!" but secretly I was thinking I don't even understand what you mean. I get it now though, "applying yourself" to a task means committing yourself 110% to getting the task at hand done. Without procrastination and excuses. Get stuck in, get it done and get it done well. And it requires determination, dedication and practise but it also requires rest. "Applying yourself" is harnessing your will power, exerting maximum effort and normally requires your adrenals tapping into your energy reserve. Your will power and adrenals become exhausted when in constant use. We want our day to day function to be at about 50 - 60% of our capabilities. So that when we go in to dig deeper for more and during periods of stress we have energy reserves to access. Adequate nutrition, vitamins and minerals and healthy happy hormone production are all integral to this but again this is a story for another day. 

So getting back on track your horses evasion is a complex biochemical pathway protecting it from depleting its energy reserves that it needs to stay safe. After millennia of evolution the horses’ body only exerts 100% effort when needed during periods of stress and to stay safe when their life is threatened. So you can get this effort required by stressing them mentally and physically and threatening their safety (both not particularly good methods for training practices and safety when riding) ... OR ... you can inspire your horse to dance with you using happy hormone motivators and establish a training process so that they actually enjoy and like spending time with you. 

How does your horse evade self carriage?

When establishing self carriage we are trying to stack the horses’ body compartments on top of each other. So it makes sense that the way the horse evades is to create misalignment of these body compartments.

• Dumping their weight onto the inside or the outside shoulder

• Twisting their hindquarters in or out

• Running through the contact, grabbing the bit and pulling

• Sucking behind the aids, either going too slow sucking off the go aid, or rounding too deep and sucking behind the contact

• Leaning on the reins and yanking the reins

Developing self carriage

Developing self carriage is simultaneously incredibly easy and a lifetime's art form. This is because movement is dynamic and changes with environmental stress. Once a horse has conditioned and adapted to a new exercise they will then adapt to be able to do it with the least possible effort, so we need to make the exercises harder and more intricate to keep those core muscles and nerves to those muscles firing (also known as the period of plateau). 

During these periods of plateau we need to maintain consistency with our training and wait for our horses’ body to catch up. It is important not to stress the horses’ body to heavily during this period. You want to give the horse at least 6 months of the same exercises to truly consolidate it as part of their conformation before pushing for more. Stress should be applied intermittently so that you can trigger healthy adaptations to exercise and not run the horse health down.

Enrol as a student and be guided down the path of development (or correction) to true Self Carriage here!

 

Could Your Attempt At Squaring The Halt Being Destroying The Halt Altogether?

“Will my horse ever halt squarely!?! I try to tap each hind leg under at the halt to teach my horse that’s what I want, but my halts seem to be getting worse rather than better and I can feel my horse getting more and more frustrated!!”

For a long time this was also the technique that I was taught to use to get my horse to halt square. At the halt tap the hind leg through that has been left behind.

A true square halt is the result of balance and engagement, not tricks.

But this only resulted in my halts getting worse as my horse fidgeted in anticipation for getting the hind leg tapped through!

Whenever we worked on getting our halt more square, those halts would quickly go from nice, soft transitions where the horse was relaxed and standing still, to swinging the hindquarters, fidgeting off the centreline and pulling through the bit.

In essence, this method of attempting to get the halt square actually destroyed the halt altogether!

 To understand how to improve the halt, we must first understand why a square halt is important in our training.

The halt being square means that the horse has started to distribute weight onto the haunches (engagement) and evenly (straightness); which are important steps on our training scale.

The hind leg that is left behind in the halt is the hind leg that isn’t bearing weight and coming through in your other exercises. It also will more than likely be affecting the softness in that rein, the throughness of that shoulder, the evenness of the stride, quality of bend and canter transitions. It will also be what is stopping your horse from progressing in their work if you are stuck at a particular level.

So when I’m working with my horses and my students for improving the halt, I’m not looking for the halts they give in the arena. I want to know how the horse is standing in the paddock. How the horse is standing in the barn to be tacked up. How the horse is standing on the lead.

Because all these scenarios are an indication of how well the horse is working, how evenly they are training and where they are distributing their weight, which all has the flow on affect to whether or not they halt square.

Before your halt can be square, you must train and develop your horse correctly through the process of self carriage.

Do you need support working your horse into Self Carriage? Read more about the online training program that takes you step-by-step through the process.

The Physical Adaptation Process

Do you think your horse is an athlete?

Horses are less physically adept at performing tasks than one might expect. They all have the same balance and muscle conditioning problems that any athlete experiences, but at the same time they are also unable to always communicate these issues.

A horse can only do what it is physically able to do.

With my training, riding and teaching the conditioning of the horse is key.

The horse generally understands what it is supposed to be doing well before it is physically able to do it. This is where a horse can get frustrated with itself and its’ rider - the same way we can be frustrated when, for example, our instructor is telling us to do something, we know what we are supposed to do, but we can't coordinate it. 

The dressage training scale is designed to develop the horse’s ability for self carriage throughout the levels.

If you look at a dressage test, the movements in each level are the movements needed to develop the quality of self carriage required for that particular level. For example 20m circles trot and canter (done correctly) develop the quality needed for a working trot and canter in a preliminary test. 15m circles trot and canter, leg yield and lengthen are needed to develop the quality of working trot and canter needed for a novice test. Shoulder in and travers, medium trot and canter and 10m circles trot and canter are needed to develop the collection for elementary - and so on and so forth. In this way we use and focus on the quality of the execution of exercises to develop the required self carriage for the horse. 

Generally speaking, it takes 6-8 weeks for the horse to develop coordination and balance to the exercise, 3-4 months for the muscles to develop, and 6-12 months for the bone and ligament density to peak.

When we rush the horse’s development, we can end up with many issues (aside from the mental and emotional aspects) that impact its’ ability to continue to work at a higher level. We may find the horse seeking ‘cheating’ avenues, such as dropping the shoulder or twisting the pelvis, in an attempt to create the exercises that we, the rider, are demanding. In this action, we actually increase the likelihood of our horse becoming injured, disabled and no longer suited to riding.

Allowing the time for the horse to be able to truly develop physical ensures a safer and more successful journey for you both.

Enrol in the Green To Self Carriage Program today to progress your horse through the steps of healthy, balanced physical and mental development.

The Art Of Dressage

Perfecting your seat is the true art of dressage.

• Understanding your aids,

• Developing a 2 way conversation and

• Conditioning your horse to be an athlete

All of these play a vital role in dressage - but when we think about dressage as a dance of the horse and rider, it really all comes down to your seat.

In the beginning of our riding careers, our aids are big, loud and obvious so that they are clear to our horse that that is what they should be responding to and how. Resistance from our horse is their way of teaching us where there are gaps in their training or conditioning and they also are big and loud in the beginning or if we haven’t been listening.

Slowly over time, we refine these aids to be so subtle that others can’t see them. The body of the rider and the body of the horse unite in one fluid, dynamic movement.

This doesn’t mean that we don’t move. If you think about 2 dancers dancing together and one was just standing still it would be pretty silly. It means that the horse is cued in and understands the lightest touch of the leg or squeeze of the rein but also, and more importantly, the action and the movement of the seat.

The seat describes:

• direction,

• angle,

• shape,

• how long or short to make the stride,

• how quick or slow,

• what pace they should be in,

• how much lift,

• how much ground coverage,

• to rebalance,

• to get ready for something different or

• to execute a change in movement.

To achieve this subtly in our training, our foundations have to be so solid.

The horse has to know how to learn, how to tune into a cue but to really get this quality, our horse needs to enjoy moving and enjoy its job. If we take our time with our development, training and connection in the beginning they can easily move forward in the training scale and execute the more difficult exercises with grace and ease when they are enjoying the dance.

Develop your horse’s foundations and your seat by enrolling as a student in the Green to Self Carriage Online Training Course

My 2 Cents On Clicker Training...

Let me start this with we 100% love and support the use of positive reinforcement in our training.

Used with clear, consistent boundaries, it can help our horses learn by giving them a stronger motivation, help them enjoy the learning process more, help maintain our relationship throughout the training process and can just make hanging out together more fun and less work. And that is the concept that clicker training is based upon.

You can achieve the same result with the Trainability Program as you can with clicker training - without any extra equipment.

Horses seem to be the only animals where positive reinforcement (i.e. treats and pats) is routinely considered a big no-no. But when you look at all the zoo animals that use clicker training, (elephants, seals etc), the argument against it seems to really not make much sense at all.

The problem with clicker training, however, is the limitation of the actual clicker.

You need to use the clicker to mark the behaviour that you want, but aren’t most of us marking the behaviour already when we say good boy/good girl? Or when we give the horse a break for doing well?

We all know that horse that stops dead in its tracks because you said “good”. Some of us are even marking the incorrect behaviour by releasing pressure for the incorrect behaviour or if the horse is scaring us or bullying us.

The first time I tried to “charge” the clicker with the exercise as per clicker training, I realised my horse already knew these exercises and I had other cues and vocals/noises that not only reinforced the correct behaviour but also corrected the behaviour I didn’t want.

I think the application of clicker training can teach a lot of people how to better interact with their horses.

It teaches the horse to seek the answer, not get frustrated by the process and stay curious about their learning. All of which are important when it comes to creating a positive relationship with our horse that wants to please and is willing. But this can all be done without the clicker, and instead with vocal cues and body language.

So while clicker training is a great concept, it is only a new process applied to the positive reinforcement techniques we should practice and know for our horses. When you work with positive reinforcement to help your horse become more trainable, you eliminate the need for gimmicky or extra tools.

Would you like to learn the concept of true Trainability skills? Click here!

6 Reasons to Train Straightness in your Horse

Straightness is a term that is thrown around a lot in riding. But what is it, and why should we be using exercises to encourage it?

Horses can’t actually travel straight. Watch the way that a dog runs and you will notice that its haunches travel to one side. This is the same for horses, because their shoulders are narrower than their hindquarters. When a horse travels “straight” in the paddock it is normally when they are “prancing” the movement isn’t particularly controlled - they are in a state of excitement with their tail and head in the air snorting. Not exactly what we want to be riding.

What straightness means under saddle is that the parts of their body that they typically go crooked or collapse through are stacked on top of each other evenly. Like if we were to stand square with our feet under hips, our shoulders stacked on top of our hips and then our head squarely on our shoulders in a relaxed stance we would be “straight”. “Crooked” would be if we stepped on foot in or out a bit further, dropped or twisted through the hips, leant a shoulder forward, kinked through the waist or neck, twisted our head and the like.

Of course this can only happen in theory because we have our own structural strengths and weaknesses and will find effort from one side easier than the other. This is seen in doing squats where we can push stronger off one leg than the other or in yoga where we can stretch deeper into a pose on one side than the other. The ultimate goal of straightness is to strengthen our weak muscles and supple our strong or tense muscles to create tone. And this is our life long journey of developing straightness in both ourselves and our horses.

When the integrity of our straightness is lost we are more inclined to injury and pain. The joints don’t stack well on top of each other along our vertebrae and limbs, this stresses the cushions between the joints, the ligaments and tendons attached to stabilize the joints and the muscles. It also increases risk of damage to the nerve and pinching of the nerve because the vertebrae house very vulnerable nerve bundles that communicate throughout the body. Increased “crookedness” also puts more stress on the bones and increases risk of bone conditions like arthritis, splints, fractures and the like because of increased concussion.”

Horses, very much like people, develop "Crooked" - a preference to  weight bear through one hind more than the other, twist through the hips and pelvis more one way than the other, lean onto one shoulder more than the other, turn their head more one way than the other and so on. Most horses are strong and straight to the right and weak and supple to the left, which may actually have something to do with the way they curl in the womb. In addition we need to consider the contribution of their breeding and confirmation. For example a naturally supple thoroughbred may find their weak side is stronger because their suppleness is actually their strength.

So what are the reasons to train for straightness, if your horse naturally develops crooked?

1. Your riding will be more balanced

When a horse is encouraged to work straight, it will make it easy for you to be more balanced. When a horse is on the forehand they typically put you in front of the vertical, and you being in front of the vertical puts the horse more on the forehand. Same for crookedness, if your horse is dropping its hip it will make you collapse through that same hip and not distribute your weight evenly into both stirrups. You end up counter balancing each other and reinforcing, strengthening the crookedness.

2. You horse will improve his suppleness

Straightness and elasticity go hand in hand because straightness is truly the horses’ contractility power to flex complementing muscles along the length of its spine. Two factors come into consideration here. When a horse is “straight” it is because it can engage and ground its core, transfer its weight onto the haunches and take the weight of the forehand. The horses ability to engage its core and flex and squat through the haunches so that it isn’t balancing with its forehand and underneck muscles is what it needs to be able to go into long and though. So straightness training is developing the suppleness of topline the horse needs to develop a “rounded gait” and working frame.

The stronger and more grounded the core the more elastic the movement both in bend and in impulsion. Because straightness, engaged and grounded core and balance are all kind of the same thing. So the better the horse can balance and distribute weight the better and deeper they can bend without losing their balance.

When we train straightness in our horses, we are training for more suppleness as we introduce straight on curved lines, through changes of bend and transitions, into leg yield and our laterals without overdeveloping too much pelvic flexion or rotation either way, etc. The suppleness can safely be developed on both sides as the horse use both hind legs powerfully and elevates and extends through each shoulder evenly.  

3. A straight horse will have more impulsion

Impulsion is the elevation and thoroughness of the forehand where engagement is power and flexion of the hindquarters. This can happen when the horse develops his squats evenly through his hindquarters and develops enough engagement of the core that it can start lifting the forehand, rolling the shoulder blades into place so that they can extend through the shoulder with relaxation.

Impulsion, or the forward thrust of movement, happens when you have a horse using his hind quarters. A crooked horse may use one hind leg for thrust, but this is only minimally powerful as this leg is not under the hip (wide) and a little to the side, meaning it cannot be maintained (try using one leg to thrust yourself into a run - note how we push it out to the side, how quickly we tire). A balanced, straight horse is able to keep his legs direct under his hips and can use both legs to power his forward movement easily - and therefore develop strong, maintainable engagement. Once the horse starts getting into his hocks the straightness has to continue through his back with even bend left and right to lift the forehand and allow for rotation through the shoulder blades. Impulsion can then occur as the horse learns to lift and extend through each shoulder. If one shoulder develops more than the other or the horse gets deeper into one hind than the other they will lift that shoulder higher and be penalized for an irregular stride.

4. Straightness is essential for Collection

Collection can only occur once we have successfully created rhythm, relaxation, connection, impulsion and straightness. Only a horse who is familiar with and accepts the aids for straightening work can collect, due to the ability to bear more weight behind instead of swinging the hind legs to one side and elevate and extend the forehand rather than leaning into the shoulder. Straightening exercises as spoken about above (straight on a curved line, straight through changes of bend etc.) also develops the strength of conditioning the horse needs for extended periods of time in collection. The more dynamic movement we create and the more easily and fluidly a horse can transition from one exercise to the next the straighter, more evenly developed and balanced they are and the easier it is to develop and maintain collection. Collection can be developed in a crooked horse but we really start to notice the way it hinders the horses ability to move forward, fluidly without restriction, with grace and ease.  

5. You can improve the musculoskeletal health of your horse

Even if you have no desire to compete your horse in any discipline, straightness will help improve musculoskeletal soundness in your horse. A crooked horse tends to overdevelop some muscles and under-develop others. This increases muscle, tendon, and ligament strain, can change the conformation of your horse and increase the risk of joint and bone damage. Exercises in straightness can improve your horses’ happiness and comfort now and later in life - and after all, that's why we are here! A lot of the exercises we use can be applied on trails and open fields hacking out.

6. You will be less likely to get 'stuck' in parts of the training scale

The main thing holding you back where you are now from where you want to be is the condition of your horses’ musculoskeletal system, in combination with your knowledge of how to ride those movements. (You don’t know what you don’t know but that’s a story for another day). When we first introduce an exercise or movement to a horse they adapt quickly. Their constitutional strengths pick up and protect them from this movement doing damage to their body. From there they plateau while the rest of their musculoskeletal system adapts to this new stress (this can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years depending on your skill as a rider, previous injuries, how well they adapt, how well you manage protective reflexes etc). If you push them through before they are ready you compromise the integrity of their musculoskeletal condition and keep exposing them to stressors that they must keep adapting to, which results in only their strongest parts adapting to protect themselves from damage and their weaker parts are getting more and more left behind until they get an injury and need to spell.

What exercises are you using on your horse to encourage straightness? Join our membership program and access free lesson plans to help you create your strategy!

Interested in the physical development of your horse? click here for more articles

Why Does My Horse?

“Why does my horse?”

This was the very first horse book I got as a child. Mainly because my second horse was quite difficult and I always fell off him!!!

And so began a lifelong pursuit of trying to figure out why horses did a particular thing and how to fix it.

And I eventually came up with the answer…

I was asking the wrong question!

 

It is near impossible to know why our horse behaves a certain way.

We often don’t have a horse for their whole life and don’t know what has happened to them with previous owners. Even if we know their life long experiences we don’t know everything that happens to them in the paddock every fall they have, every fight they get into with another horse, every bump and bruise they take. If we send them away to a trainer, we hope they are doing the right thing by them but can never be sure exactly how they were handled. Knowing why your horse is spooking can’t ever truly, thoroughly be answered but asking “how best can I support my horse?” can.

1. Rule out any good reasons your horse has for misbehaving.

Ensure saddle and bridle is professionally fitted. Get teeth checked and kept up to date. Invest in a good farrier. Work with a body worker that has an excellent reputation but then also go with your gut whether you are happy with their work. I have had horses become worse for working with a lot of different chiropractors. If in doubt get your vet to check.

2. Make sure they understand how to process stimuli correctly.

Horses learn from the release of pressure not the application and often they don’t know what to do with pressure and can over react. Ensuring you have taught your horse how to learn from pressure cues keeps them calm throughout the learning process.

3. Be a leader, not a bully boss

Ensure that you are showing up as a good leader by setting clear boundaries and following through on your asks, ESPECIALLY in stressful and difficult situations. This is when your horse needs you the most and how you show up when they are not handling the situation well is the best way a horse will decide if you are worth being the herd leader.

4. Make your horse confident

Teach them confidence through curiosity. A horses flight instinct is self preservation and to get away from what is scary. To create a bold, confident horse we want them to be curious not scared of new things.

5. Prevent them from going sour by changing their exercises and environments.

Repeating the same task every day in the same environment will set both you and your horse up to fail by making them sour on their work. If your going to work on the same task change the environment. If you are going to work in the same environment change the task so it seems like each training session you are doing something new and fresh.

6. Prevent them from going sore by ensuring you’re conditioning them for soundness.

Riding for a certain look or skill isn’t necessarily always in the best interest of their musculoskeletal health and soundness. It is important to understand why you are doing certain exercises and how to use them so they make your horse more sound rather than to achieve a certain look or skill.

You can learn how to correctly apply training techniques (steps 2-5) by following our Training Trainability Online Course - available now! (click here to learn more)

Interested in conditioning your horse correctly? Pre-register for our Green to Self Carriage Course, due for release August 2019. Click here.

Are You Causing Your Horse To Shut Down?

Horses are natural flight animals - their first instinct is to run first, think later.

The old school mentality of breaking a horse is to break the horses spirit, so that it forfeits its’ life to you. Your horse is then more scared of you than anything else and so chooses to figure out what you want from it rather than run away.

A lot of breakers will say that your horse isn’t safe until you sack them out.

What they are talking about is desensitising. I have done desensitising and sacking out with plenty of horses and here is my problem. You are giving them no other option but to let you do scary things to them and in the process WE ARE GIVING THEM NO TOOLS TO DEAL WITH THEIR FEARS AND EMOTIONS. The ones that don’t thrive with this style of training are deemed mentally unsound and untrainable.

In this environment it is very easy to shut down your horse -especially if you are also using forceful techniques as well.

When a horse shuts down it stops reacting to stimuli all together. This doesn’t mean that your horse is calm and relaxed, understands what to do and isn’t scared. It doesn’t mean that your horse is brave and confident and trying to look after you. It DOES mean your horse has learnt that if it doesn’t move when the scary thing is there, the scary thing goes away.

The second problem with this is that you have to reteach it for EVERY SCARY OBJECT.

Just because you have taught your horse to stand still to drape the tarp over it, doesn’t mean that it knows to then stand still for the flappy bag or the umbrella or the pram and then all the new things it will experience when you take it out. You have to reteach it for every scary object that it reacts to, to stand still while you move it over there body.

For some horses, once you have touched them with the object that they are scared of this process works - they are no longer scared.

But a horse that has shut down has dissociated from the experience. It is overwhelmed by fear and knows to just stand still. So it stands tense and rigid. There is only so much this horse can cope with before it hits its breaking point and loses it, leaving the handler wondering “where the hell did that come from?”. This horse hasn’t learnt not to be scared - it has just learnt not to react.

In either case, both of these horses previously mentioned horses have not been taught how to process fear and emotion. Both of these horses haven’t learnt not to react to scary things. Both of these horses haven’t developed confidence and trust.

That is why at Equestrian Movement we teach CURIOSITY instead.

Teaching curiosity works for even the most timid and sensitive horses.

• It teaches them to trust us.

• It teaches them how to be brave and confident.

• It teaches them how to handle objects and situations that they are scared of without just trying to run away.

• It teaches them how to investigate things that are scary.

• Most importantly, eventually they learn how to look after their human.

Would you like to teach your horse to be curious? You can find this and so much more (including communication and leadership, critical to the building of trust in your horse) in our Holistic Horse Handling Program.

Click here for more information about the Program

What It Means When Your Horse Is Licking Or Chewing During Training

Is licking or chewing during training a sign of stress or relaxation?

I’m going to throw my 2 cents in on this debate #yourewelcome.

Licking can indicate your horse may have reached its’ coping limits with your training.

I believe it is a sign of both. 

If you’re horse is actively showing signs of relaxation than one would have to think that first it needs to be stressed, to release the stress and show exaggerated signs of relaxation. Right? So my thought is that it is actually a sign of learning and processing what they were working on. 

There’s no doubt about the fact that we create stress when working our horses. We create physical stress to condition their body, mental stress to grow their intellect and emotional stress to increase resilience to their environment. If we create just the right amount of stress they grow and develop. If we create too much stress they start to protect themselves. Their body tightens up to avoid injury, they stop thinking and processing what their are learning and they shy away from challenging situations. 

So while I’m not actively seeking the licking and chewing response, it is an indication to me the pressure I had on them before they started licking and chewing is probably about their limits for coping. Any more pressure and they will not be learning any more -they will be stressed. Horses can only learn and seek the right behaviour with a relaxed brain.

Begin training your horse the CORRECT way

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The Key To Training Your Horse

Your relationship with your horse is the key to the success of your training.

It may not warrant a lot of thought, but the strength of our relationship with our horse will determine the speed at which said horse will respond to your training.

Relationships are intrinsically fluid and dynamic by nature. They are influenced daily by how each of us feel, the external stressors, our personalities, our hormones, and heck, sometimes just the weather! There is little different in a human to human relationship to that we experience with any other animal, including horses - except we can generally communicate a little easier with other people.

It is inevitable that one day you will have an amazing training session with your horse, and the next one of the worst experiences in the arena possible. But it is how YOU handle this with your horse that will determine the ultimate outcome - that being the strengthening of a relationship and a better ride next time, or the deterioration of the relationship and an even worse ride to come.

There are several key things you always should remember when working on your bond or training with your horse:

• A horse is a horse - while he can sense you are stressed, he doesn't understand that it is because so-and-so said something to you at work, he just knows your stressed. Breathe and take the time to be with your horse without distractions.

• A horse is a creature with personality and therefore emotions. When working with your horse, it is important not to become emotionally reactive in the training, as this will impede your thought processes and your horse will react accordingly.

• Whenever possible, always finish on a positive note, even if it means you take it right down to the very basics of training. Not only will you feel better that your horse responded correctly, your horse will remember that the work finished not because he was naughty, but because he did something correct.

• NEVER EVER use punishment as a tool for training.

• Keep in mind that every moment you spend with your horse is a moment that could either make or break your relationship.

Training Trainability In Action

I am in a pretty lucky situation - I have the best of all best friends with a multitude of horses, so when mine is out of work (clumsy little clutz he is!), she let’s me play with some of her other horses.

Not many people get that chance - thanks Bestie!

But what it does mean is that I end up working with horses that don’t work to MY expectation.

They aren’t nasty horses - in fact, they are all very affectionate and sweet.

They aren’t naughty horses (mostly) - but they do have a few tricks or habits that, while not creating a real drama, aren’t ideal from my point of view.

In no way do I blame the owner of these horses, or the previous rider, or the horses themselves. This is just what ends up happening over time when people of different skill sets work with horses of different and ever-evolving skill sets. (In actual fact, these horses are exceptionally loved and well-treated, and the owners very intelligent).

But what it does mean for me is that I get to work through these little issues with the horse - and I love doing it!

I get to put into practice the lessons from the Holistic Horse Handling Program and see them come to life. I get to see the horse underneath that wants to look after people and be looked after. I get to see that sometimes, our horses have a lot more to say.

Today I had the joy of working with a very sweet Thoroughbred with a very subtle issue. He was tense when being tacked up - so tense, that he would have a little freak, break away from the tie rail, and take himself back to his feed yard.

To one observer, they might see a naughty horse that learnt that pulling back got him free and away from work. Another might observe that there was too much activity nearby providing over-stimulation.

To those who have trained under Katie, you would recognise that the breathing had become shallow, the body tense, and that he could no longer ‘submit’ to being tied if you brought the saddle near.

The First Do No Harm skillset identified that there was no pain with riding. The Compassionate Leadership skills saw that he became stressed when he was being saddled. So our goal - to show him that he would only be saddled WHEN HE WAS READY TO CONTINUE.

The process allowed him to think, instead of react, to the stimulus; to process what was there and have the opportunity to tell us when he was ready to continue.

• It meant giving him an avenue to communicate he was ready (we worked on that over the last few weeks).

• It meant giving him a way of expressing that he wasn’t ready (and because this is a new option for him, boy did he have fun saying no for a while!).

• It meant taking everything back to basics to understand where the problem lies and what else we needed to do to help him overcome it.

I could have chosen to ride him into submission for an hour, working out his niggles all the way, but that would only mean that the next ride would be the same - or worse.

Instead I chose to spend 45 minutes working with him and 10 minutes in the saddle, but by the end of the session he was relaxed, releasing his tension and taking in lessons and new cues in moments instead of minutes. And it means that next ride, it wont take forever to tack him up, with our ride starting off all tense and agitated. It means next ride, his acceptance of tacking up will be faster and allow him to relax, understand and process his learning.

It’s the difference between a WILLING HORSE and a SUBMISSIVE HORSE - and that is the hugest difference in the world once you experience it.

Would you like your horse to be willing to work with you, instead of just submitting?

Click here to view the Program

Attack Of The Bubble Machine - A Real Life Story Of Drama & Rodeo In The Arena

Competition puts a lot of stress on our horses that we don’t really think about.

Horses are designed to not show they are stressed. In the wild, being an animal of prey, showing signs of stress, injury or illness makes them easy pickings for predators. So quite often it’s not until our horse is really struggling that we tend to see the more obvious signs. 

Competition is stressful to the horse because we are taking them to new environments. Depending on how far you go the float travel takes a lot out of them. We normally enter them in multiple classes so they end up working anywhere from a couple hours to all day. It is a very stimulating environment with all the other horses and chaos that we expect them to be focused and well behaved in. Not to mention the athletic performance we expect on the day and the extra stress we put on our horses because of our own stress about doing well.  

A lot of my riding career I spent competing. We used to compete most weekend and work our way around the show circuit each year. Competing at shows had the extra chaos of all the people, side show alleys, rides, fireworks at night, all sorts of scary experiences. My horse King was always a bit of a sensitive soul. We had gotten a certain level of rapport that he trusted me and worked well for me even if he was nervous. Mostly we would be able to work around the scary things until he stopped looking at them. 

At this stage of my riding career I didn’t do much groundwork or horsemanship. We just worked together because of how much time we spent together and all the things we had worked through. It was my thought at this time that if you had to lunge your horse to ride you didn’t know how to ride. I had gotten pretty good at holding onto a buck.  

One of the classes we were in at the Townsville show, King was working really sweetly and we were working through our paces around the ring, waiting for the judge to pick their horses for line up - when the bubble machine in side show alley started up. Holy was King unimpressed!!! The bubbles started floating across the field. Coming across in front of him. He was only just keeping his cool. I could feel his body all tight and coiled up doing his best to stay focused and keep working. And then one bubble popped on his nose!!! 

And that was it. King was done, no longer could he control himself and he let out an almighty dummy spit broncing around the arena.

I was able to pull him up eventually. He was a mess. But once he settled we carried on with our day and had a successful show. He was pretty stoked to get on the float and go home at the end though!

King not only taught me to ride well, but understanding his nature was the beginning to understanding how our training impacts our horses, and how we can do so much better for them by using the correct tools. That is why I have created training trainability - an online course you can access to strengthen your bond, encourage curiosity, and help your horse reduce the mental stress load, plus so much more.

Want to know more?

Reached The Breaking Point? Here is why...

All horses have a point where they can no longer say “yes”.

Think about a time a work with your boss where they have given you a job and you say yes can do, and then they give you another 3 jobs to achieve in that same time frame and you say yes can do but in the back of your mind you think “oh that’s getting tight”. They walk back in with a few more tasks to add to the list and all of a sudden your at your tipping point, ready to walk out. Or on the flip side, an anxious mess trying to figure out how you are going to get through all your work.  

Here’s another scenario: Have you been given a task that you have finished and handed it in only to be told not good enough? So you’ve taken it back to review and thought “yeah I can tweak that”; handed it back in, and it’s still not good enough. How many times can you be told it’s not good enough, with no recommendations on how to make it good enough, before you stop trying?

These are breaking points. You are pushed to your limits.

How well you cope with this kind of pressure has a lot to do with your passion for the project, your personality and how successfully you have worked through challenges like this before. This is why, with our training, we teach our horses to learn, work through their emotions, and to try and cope with pressure first, before we start giving them tasks like doing well at competitions.

A lot of horses with behavioural problems have those problems because that is the only way they have left to communicate NO.

Ideally I would like the horses not to know that bucking, rearing, bolting, biting and kicking are an option. But often that has already been established by the time I start working with them. So at this point I want to know:

• How much pressure they can cope with before they react “negatively”

• What behaviour they choose when they hit that breaking point.

• What little behaviours and subtle signs they give before reaching that point

• What settles them down

Our Training Tools

When we ONLY use negative reinforcement (IE creating an uncomfortable stimuli to illicit a certain behaviour), we will always hit a breaking point in our horse. This becomes an even more frequent occurrence when as the handler we miss our timing for the release of pressure. Using positive reinforcement we can encourage our horse to seek the correct behaviour through incentivising that behaviour with a reward.

At Equestrian Movement we use gentle negative reinforcement through pressure release to establish boundaries for acceptable behaviour and discipline, and then combine this with positive reinforcement for cue training and aids.

This means that now and then we will push our horse for more, but ALWAYS aim to avoid their breaking point by knowing when and how to release the pressure. We most commonly do this when our horse is challenging our authority. So we MUST know what to look for when our horse is about to hit breaking point.

The breaking point

Basically the horse shows resistance, and that resistance grows in intensity.

If we have done our pressure release right and we know our horse knows to seek the release of pressure.

If we have ruled out all other reasons for resistance (ie, pain, not understanding what we want or not being able to do what we want) we have a spectrum of behaviour.

Initially, if our horse is comfortable they will choose to ignore us, or they could also be shut down (read about symptoms of a shut down horse here). There is a very fine line of responsivity before we are putting too much pressure on the horse and they are overreacting. We want to gently find that point of responsivity to find out how much pressure our horse needs to get a response from our ask, without the pressure overwhelming them and making them scared or aggressive.

Just because you’ve gotten your horse to respond to you doesn’t mean that the horse will pick the right response. But getting stronger and increasing the pressure won’t make them choose the right response either. You have to look at your other tools. Is your horse not responding correctly because:

• It’s in pain (IE teeth are sharp, saddle doesn’t fit, damaged muscles etc)

• It doesn’t understand what you want

• It can’t do what you want

• It is scared of what you are asking, getting the answer wrong and getting in trouble or what you are asking it to do will cause it pain or for it to do something it doesn’t want to do.

• You’ve asked too many times without reward or break

If any of these reasons are the reason for your horse to say no, you will push it to its breaking point and make it over react.

We have covered some simple training rules in our training trainability course to help you avoid reaching that breaking point while still getting the behaviour you want from your horse.

Begin training your horse the CORRECT way

Click here to view the Training Trainability course