Have the Attitude, to gain the Confidence, to acquire Knowledge, to earn Respect.

Joyce Fox

 

 Your Horse

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By Joyce Fox

Your horse has emotions just like people, and do parallel many of the same traits. Their brains however do not work the same. They experience trust, fear, and caution. They are not vindictive lying in wait to get even with you for something that happened yesterday. They simply learn what they can and can not do around you/people, and process from there. Their sense of feel is great, they tolerate, and overcome many injuries. However, they do not see, or hear like humans.

The way horses correct themselves in a herd is severe, and vital to their survival. The horses main defense is running from whatever is threatening them. Kicking and biting can provide them some protection but, it is mostly used to instill respect and maintain order in the herd or when they are left no choice but to fight. In domesticated herds today we as owners are responsible to make sure the weaker horses get fed, but in the wild they would be slowly weeded out by predators. Thus making the herd as a whole stronger. I believe the dominance trait is passed on from mares to their foals.

The horses brain isn't like the logical thinking brains of humans. They are simple thinkers. Most horses are not bad in the beginning but, are taught the bad behavior, and can be fixed but it will take time, consistency, and may never completely go away. Then there are others that are just bad for whatever reason and just should not be messed with. No horse is worth your safety. There are many, good horses out there. Find one you like, and then make your relationship work by investing in educating yourself, so you can communicate with the horse you have now, and many more horses down the road.

Each horse is a little different in abilities and will make you learn new ways to teach them the things you need. It has been said you never truly understand a subject until you are required to teach it. I believe this to be especially true with horse training. I also believe you are not a true horseman until you understand how to see the world through your horses eyes. There is a difference between understanding the principals of good horsemanship and being a true horseman.

Your horse is a reactive thinker. He is not vindictive nor will he plot and evil plan to get even with you. If your horse is laying in wait to get you, it is because you have taught him to. While this is a hard pill for some to swallow it is true, most horses and people for that matter are bad or poorly mannered because they were not taught to behave in a positive manner.
Your horses mind works like this: because event B followed event A,
event A must have caused event B.
Example: Say your horse is humping or jumping around while you are cantering him.
You are so scared you pull him up and stop him for a couple of minutes to gather yourself, or worse you get off.
What do you think you just taught your horse?
The answer: If I hump and jump around I will get to rest or she will get off me.
This also does something for your mind. This horse bucks and I can’t ride him.
First of all if he did not buck you off. He was just checking to see what he can get away with,
because when your 1200 lb horse truly decides he is going to buck you off, trust me he will!
Just like when your 1200 lb horse decides he is going to pull away from you, he will.
Taking away his need to do all these things is truly our goal as horsemen and women.

We don’t want to break his spirit, or have to ride him for 5 miles to get him tired enough to respect us. We want him to trust us to be his leader, and want to be with us. Horses instinctively follow and follow willingly. So lets go back to our horse who was checking out the consequences of humping or jumping around a little while we were cantering. What we want to do is make the thing that follows the humping so uncomfortable/difficult for your horse, he doesn’t want to try that again and is happy to simply canter along. The correction can be anything from pulling your horse around in small circle and kicking him, scolding him with your voice, slapping with your reins, or spurring him, depending on your riding ability, but stopping is not an option. The feet must keep moving, putting that energy to positive use.  Much of this correction should remind him of his ground work when you were beginning his training and making corrections to his behavior then. When your ground work is done correctly everything is used as building blocks for the rest of his Education.
Always remember to start with your own willingness to adapt to each horses needs for understanding and communitcation.  The first block is for your horse is trust, the second block is respect, and the third block is willingness.  You must earn each of these blocks before your horse will start to respond to you.

 

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Getting Your Horse Supple

 

These four exercises help build a more supple horse and a stronger relationship between horse and rider. 

These four ways to yield the hindquarters will help you check your horse's suppleness. Kris Graef photo.

By AQHA Professional Horseman Brent Graef in America’s Horse

There are lots of reasons why it’s important to have control over all of your horse’s body parts – including his mind. These four ways to yield the hindquarters will help you check your horse’s suppleness; you’ll notice if he yields his hind end more easily to one direction. They’ll help you improve his softness and suppleness both directions, and they’ll also improve the communication between you and your horse.

1. One Rein, One Leg

This is the easiest way to move the horse’s hindquarters, and it’s a good place to start.

Let’s say I’m moving the hindquarters to the right. I’d pick up softly on my left rein and bend the horse’s neck slightly to the left. I’d want the head to remain vertical (not cocked sideways), with a soft bend at the poll. If the nose is tipped sideways, so that the ear would fill up with water if it were raining, that means the horse is locked up in his poll, which is not what we want. The poll needs to be flexible. Once the horse’s head is flexed correctly to the left, I’ll use my left leg to step the hindquarters over.

I’m looking for the inside hind (the left leg in this example) to step in front of and across the outside hind leg. That’s what creates suppleness through the loin.

At first, though, I release my cues for any movement from behind. That tells the horse, “Yeah, you’re on the right track.” I can build on that from there. Next, I might not release until he gets one really good crossing-over step, then we can do step-release-quickly ask again, step-release-quickly ask again until the horse can do a full turn on the forehand.

As the horse advances in his training, I want his front feet to stay pretty still, but never drill into the ground. He needs to move his front feet a little as he steps around so he can stay balanced. Regardless of what your discipline of riding is, balance and suppleness are the keys.

Do the exercise the other direction as well, using your right rein and right leg.

2. Soft Feel, One Leg

I start by picking up a soft feel – gently taking the slack out of both reins and asking the horse to flex vertically and get soft in the poll. Holding that soft feel, I use my hips and left leg to ask him to step over behind. (I also do this exercise using my right leg.)

As with the first method, I’ll want the inside hind leg to step across and in front of the outside hind.

3. No Rein, One Leg

When I ask my horse to step his hindquarters over with this method, I make sure my reins are loose, then I put my hands on the saddle horn or pommel so that I’m not tempted to use my reins. I’ll use my leg only – the left leg to step the hindquarters to the right, for example – and see if my horse will respond.

If the horse walks off I’ll stop him, back him up to where we started, wait until he’s soft, then release my reins to give him all the slack and start over.

4. One Rein, No Leg

I reach down the left rein, asking for a lateral flexion. But instead of releasing my rein after the horse flexes, I hold that light pressure and do nothing with my legs or hips. I hold the rein and wait, letting my horse search for the answer. He might bend his head around and put more slack in the rein or look at me, or he might try to pull his head away. I’ll just stay the same. Before long, he’ll start to shift, and as soon as his hind feet move, I’ll release. Then I’ll ask again and wait for the inside hind foot to step over and across, then release.

With each of these last two methods, it’s more about asking the horse to think, to get both of us in tune with each other. I want my horse thinking, trying to feel my intent. I have a mental picture of my horse stepping his hindquarters across, so I’m very clear in my mind what I’m looking for. And I’ll release when he’s getting there.

When using just the one rein, people are so tempted to use their leg just a little bit, but it’s not about how quickly or precisely a rider is able to get his horse to move his hindquarters. It’s about how well the rider can communicate his intentions and how he helps the horse search for the right answer.

When, Where and Why

A lot of times in clinics or working in the arena, folks will say “I’ll focus on this,” and then when they get out on the trail, they just watch the scenery and ignore their horse. I like to relax and enjoy the scenery, too, but as riders, we’ve got to pay attention to the horse underneath us. We can get a whole lot done on the trail without picking at our horse.

For example, if I was going on a trail ride with friends, I might try to be one of the first ones in the saddle. While everyone else is tacking up, I might just reach down one rein and ask my horse to bend his neck. Is he supple, or is he stiff? Then I’d reach down the other rein and compare the two sides.

Next, I might pick up one rein, then use my leg to step his hindquarters over. We’ll see how that feels on each side. I keep that in mind if I need to stop him from bolting. Paying attention to little details can keep me out of big trouble.

It just takes a few minutes; you don’t have to sit and drill these things. It’s more fun for both of you if you mix it up.

Let’s say the trail is curving to the left, I’ll see if I can bring my horse’s hindquarters to the left and keep his front feet straight. That’s a haunches-in, but the shape of the trail and the fact that my horse is moving out freely help make it happen. I won’t make a big deal out of any of these exercises. It’s just saying, “Where are we today, horse?”

It all starts with “Move this foot here; move that foot there.” When you’ve got a foundation, then you can start building on it.

 

RIDING CIRCLES

Increase control over size and speed while riding your horse in circles.

By Patti Carter-Pratt for The American Quarter Horse Journal

Riding circles correctly teaches both horse and rider balance. It’s a good training exercise because it teaches the horse straightness in his self-carriage while on a curve.

There are four main parts to a horse: the head and neck, the shoulders, the rib cage and the hips. To ride a circle correctly, you have to control all four parts. The horse has to give through the poll; he must be straight between the reins and guide through the shoulders; the rib cage connects the front and the back end of the horse, so he has to be correct and straight in the rib cage; and he must be engaged from behind.

The arc of the horse’s body will accommodate the size of the circle. If your circle is large, your horse’s body will have less bend; the smaller the circle gets, the more the bend in his body increases.

Circles require you, as a rider, to have consistently correct aids. The horse must understand and respond to your seat, rein and leg.

You need to keep your shoulders behind the horse’s shoulders and your eyes following the horse’s path. You should have weight on the inside seat bone, but not leaning in.

Your inside leg should be at the rib cage to create the bend of the circle. The outside leg will be farther behind with enough pressure to keep the hindquarters on the track of the circle.

The inside rein produces a slight bend in the horse’s neck, and your outside rein balances and limits the degree of that bend. The reins should work in unison.

Common Problems

Circles need to be round, not oval or egg-shaped. In a reining pattern and some horsemanship patterns, you start and finish your circles, and change the circles’ sizes at the same spot in the arena. Some mistakes include:

• Overlooking. A common mistake is to overlook the circle, which throws the rider’s position off and the horse’s position off.
• Collapsing to the inside. When you put weight on your inside seat bone, sit tall and make sure you keep your ribcage up or you will collapse to the inside of the circle. This will throw your horse off balance.
• Ahead of the horse. A rider who gets ahead of his horse’s shoulders can’t sit down and engage the seat to encourage forward motion.
• Pointing into the circle. When you go to make a circle smaller, don’t point your horse into the smaller circle; instead, create a tighter bend in his body. If you point him into the circle, he’ll drop his shoulder. If you create the bend in his rib cage, his shoulders will stay up.

What to Do

When you’re working on circles, be sure to master your circle sizes first, big then small, before you do anything with speed. Keep a steady, medium rhythm while you are learning to control the size of your circles.

Your horse should have three rhythms at the jog and the lope: slow, medium and extended. A medium rhythm at the jog would take you through the correct strides over trot poles – two strides in a 6-foot space. Slow would be the pleasure jog; the extended jog would be a lengthening of the medium jog.

I have a great exercise I set up with cones to help riders work on maintaining circle size and rhythm, and then gradually increasing and decreasing speed.

Build a “cross” with cones, as in the diagram. Set the cones 8 to 10 feet apart. You can ride a circle within a circle, following a track between the cones; both circles start and finish in between the two cones at the top of the cross. The center cone is the center of your smaller circle.

When you are riding this exercise, you need to see your cones in your peripheral vision. Do not stare at them or you will throw off your position. Use them as a guideline so you can feel the difference in your circle sizes.

In this exercise, you’ve got to start and finish in the same spot. You need to practice flattening the circles slightly at that starting/finishing spot, so the circles will be like a capital “D.” Doing that will help make your outside aids more effective and will prepare you to eventually change direction correctly.

Start riding the large circle at your horse’s medium speed and maintain that rhythm and cadence. Once you are consistent in rhythm and shape in the large circle, create the smaller circle, maintaining the same rhythm. You need to prepare your horse before you get to the starting/finishing spot. Increase the bend in your horse’s rib cage through your inside leg and rein and contain it through your outside leg and rein, making that circle come down into a smaller size. Then go back out to the larger circle.

Think about your aids as you change your circle size. Keep the outside leg on and your seat engaged to create and keep the same rhythm. If you lose the forward motion, you’ve lost engagement.

When you increase your speed, you lengthen the horse’s stride; you lighten your seat bones and bring your hand forward. When you decrease the stride, you close all your angles: sitting down, bringing your hand back as your weight comes into your seat without collapsing your upper body. Closing your leg closes the stride.

Practice changing the rhythm first on the large circle, and then add the bend down to the smaller circle along with the decrease in speed. As your horse understands the increase in speed, take away a little more speed in your medium circle to come back to a slower small circle.

Make sure you don’t over-drill your horse with circles or he will anticipate what you’re doing. Balance your circles with practicing straight lines. And work both directions.

Another excellent exercise is to ride your circle with your inside arm straight in the air.

If you’re circling left, put your reins in your right hand. Bring your inside, left arm forward and up until it’s straight up alongside your ear.

Riding that way will stabilize your upper body and will help you control your upper body in the circle. It will help you feel the weight on your inside seat bone without leaning to the inside

 

Learn how to extend your horse’s lope and slow back down.

By AQHA Professional Horsewoman Lynn Palm

This article is a continuation of last week’s training update. This week, we show you how to get an extended lope from your horse.

What to Do

1. Use correct aids. Remember, changing speed in any gait is a transition, just like changing gaits. As a rider, you must: 1. maintain a perfectly balanced position; and 2. prepare and clearly cue the horse with coordinated aids for the changes in speed. To properly execute an extended lope and slow it back down, here’s what you do:

Are you finding these tips helpful? Learn more from top trainers in the Quarter Horse industry with our Borrow a Trainer report.

At the lope, your hips swing forward and back, following the horse’s rhythm. To extend the lope, emphasize your hips’ forward movement a little more strongly in the forward swing and use your leg aid lightly on the horse’s sides.

To slow down, bring your shoulders back so you can stay in the center of your horse and keep your balance. Stop the movement in your pelvis by tightening your lower stomach and buttock muscles, which puts weight in the seat. That will help the horse engage underneath and get more uphill.

Keep your legs close on the horse’s sides so the hind legs keep moving.

Let your reins come slightly upward (remember, your outside rein is your brake rein – use it upward if you need more response) to encourage an uphill balance as he slows down.

2. Work on it gradually. If you’re going to develop your horse’s ability to correctly extend the lope and transition back down, you must work on it in three stages.

Beginner: A young horse under saddle needs to develop his natural self-carriage first. This is a training stage many people skip. It means allowing a horse to travel on a loose rein and learn to carry himself while you guide him to go straight and on a curve.

Don’t worry where he carries his head unless it is below his topline; in that case, use your legs and forward motion to bring it back up. If the horse’s head is too high, forward motion and a curving line will help it drop. As your horse gets balanced and coordinated in his three gaits, he will relax his head and neck down naturally.

Any time you start a horse under saddle, the horse will travel in a quick, faster stride, especially at the trot or lope, because he’s learning how to carry your weight and maintain his balance. All horses go fast when they are not in balance, are weak or lack coordination. Slowness comes with relaxation as the horse develops correct balance and strength.

When you first ask him to extend, it’ll take him more strides to respond to your cues, and he’ll travel flatter in his frame. As he gets stronger and more confident at the new speed, his self-carriage will improve.

In teaching a horse to lengthen his stride, I start with the walk and the trot before moving to the lope. The walk is a good mind-settling gait, good for teaching the horse how to respond to your cues to lengthen. The trot is a good fitness-building gait.

At the lope, circles are the best exercise, especially with a young horse. A curving line will always naturally control speed.

I also work on transitions. Doing many short segments of transitions on a curving line will encourage the horse to keep more weight behind, engagement from behind and an uphill balance. This begins with a young horse at the walk and trot before moving to the lope or canter.

Intermediate: At the medium stage of training, a horse will begin to show more roundness in his frame. In this stage, you work on narrowing down the horse’s response time to your cues – using a shorter number of strides to extend or transition back down. The horse is more responsive to your aids in transitions and can execute different sized circles.

Again, circles and transitions will condition your horse for more roundness and collection. But don’t drill them – I recommend not going more than three circles in one direction at a time. Lateral work, such as leg yields, also improves roundness at this stage.

When the horse really starts to get, 1. really confident in and responsive to your cues; 2. on a correct balance in self-carriage and off the forehand; and 3. where his head and neck is correct on a curve (flexed so you can see his eye) or on a straight line, then he is ready to advance.

Advanced: A finished, advanced horse will respond immediately to your cue and will extend with roundness, carrying himself in an uphill frame. When you ask him to extend or slow down, he does either with the same rhythm. It’s like one complete picture – nothing changes.

That’s what you want to achieve, but you can’t do it in a month or a few weeks even if your horse has got a good lope. It just takes time – developing your horse’s athleticism – to perfect this transition.

3. Circles. Riding circles is great for a number of things, especially helping a horse with body alignment problems such as falling in or falling out.

Circles naturally strengthen a horse’s ability to maintain an uphill balance with his weight behind. They naturally encourage the horse to engage his hind legs on a curving line. And they help a rider to be able to clearly recognize and feel when a horse loses his balance.

Your ultimate goal is to lengthen or shorten the lope stride in five strides. If you can do that, you can do what you need to in any kind of horsemanship or equitation pattern.

Try this circle of cones exercise to help you work on doing that (work at the trot first, then the lope):

Build a track of cones on a circle, 70 feet in diameter, using 16 cones. Riding inside the track of cones helps you to stay straight and maintain your horse’s alignment and balance.

Start by riding one circle at the horse’s natural lope then do one circle extended and one circle slower.

After you master that, drop it down to three-quarters of the circle lengthened and three-quarters slower. Then down to a half circle extended and a half circle slower. When you get to where you can extend or slow down at the quarters of that 70-foot circle, you’re probably at your five strides, or six or seven strides at a slow lope.

Remember, you can’t just go right off and transition up or down in speed every five strides. If you’re starting with a younger horse under saddle, it may take you two or three years of riding to get to that point, depending on the horse.

My American Quarter Horse dressage horse, Indian Harvest, is 16.2 hands and long-legged. He’s 6 years old this year and just really beginning to be able to do it, where I can really feel and see a difference in his length of stride and speed.

If you want to do it right, you must train the horse over time, not to teach him the cues, but to develop the balance, strength and confidence to do it. Don’t get discouraged if it takes a long time, just stay positive and realize that it’s a very advanced transition

 

Body, Seat and Hands

In Part 1 of this series, NFR competitor Kristin Weaver-Brown explains the importance of better horsemanship.

Balance is key to getting in a good rhythm with your horse. Journal photo.    Notice how the riders upper body is straight not leaning and she is using one hand to brace on the saddle  and  one hand to turn the horse.

Balancing on the reins can also throw your horse off balance and cause him to overbend or throw his head around. There is no way to get the best from yourself as a rider or from your horse if you aren’t aware of what your hands are doing.

Kristin suggests an exercise that she has her students do during clinics or private lessons: First, she suggests riding every day and getting in time with the horse. Then, she’ll put the person and horse combo on a longe line (clearly a two-person exercise at home in a round pen). This is also great for people who tend to brace against a horse. The rider should hold her hands out in front of her as if she’s holding the reins at the walk, trot and lope. The exercise will help riders find their balance.

“You’d be amazed at how many people don’t understand where their center of gravity is,” Kristin says. “This is a great exercise because the rider gets a feel for the natural movements of the horse without relying on reins.”

 

Thinking Like Animals

“Animals and autistic people don’t see their ideas of things; they see the actual things themselves,” writes Dr. Temple Grandin in her book, “Animals in Translation.” Temple is an associate professor in livestock behavior and handling at Colorado State University.

“The brain of the horse is very specific,” she says. “If a horse gets a fear memory, it’s stored as a picture, a sound or a feel. It could be smell, but usually not. A real common thing is feeling: like bucking when you change gaits. A saddle feels different at each gait and creates a different feeling picture in the brain.

“Use a computer metaphor,” she continues. “The way the brain works is that fear memories can never be erased. You can train the horse to close the file on the fear memory, but you cannot delete it off the horse’s hard drive.

“You have some of the same problems with autistic children, especially if they’re nonverbal,” Temple says. “Let’s say a fire alarm went off and hurt the child’s ears. Now you can’t get him into a room where he sees a fire alarm; he sees the little red box and starts screaming.

“A high-functioning autistic can learn to deal with it, but a low-functioning autistic sees the red box and just panics.” Like a horse responding to its own fear memory.

Training in Pictures
“One thing I’ve found with a lot of good (horse) trainers is they have a hard time explaining what they do,” Temple says. She likens it to an inability to express the details of the idea they have in their heads.

“We see details that make up the world, while normal people blur all those details together into a general concept of the world.”

According to Temple, behavior problems with horses typically begin with the development of a fear memory.

“They get an emotional feeling that a horse might overreact or blow up, but they don’t tell you the specifics of what that looks like,” she says. “They might not tell you to watch for tail switching or sweating.

“As an autistic person, I had to learn how to pick social cues up by consciously thinking things like, ‘Well, this person has his arms crossed (over his chest). OK, he’s not very happy with something I’m doing.’ And then I had to picture what was causing that reaction.

“Everybody I think about has to be compared to pictures. If somebody said, ‘Wait to halter break a foal until it is ready,’ I get a picture in my head of Ever-Ready batteries or something like that.

“But if you say, ‘Wait until you can go out in the corral and he comes up to you and you scratch his withers.’ Now I can see a picture of a colt doing that.”

Behavior Problems in Horses
“I think the biggest thing we’ve got to do with horses is to prevent behavior problems,” Temple says. Preventing behavior problems is an easy way to prevent some horses from becoming unwanted.

In Temple’s experience with horse processing plants, it’s not unusual to find horses with severe behavioral problems there; often, they’re the prettiest animals in a load.

Here are some key areas to focus on:

Training
Temple advocates gentler, slower training methods. Take, for example, a horse who’s afraid of black hats, because he remembers being beaten once by someone wearing a black hat.

“Some people would say, tie the horse up and throw it at him,” Temple says. “It’s called ‘flooding.’

“If you do that with a high-strung, slender kind of horse, you’re going to ruin the horse. It stays panicked and never habituates,” she continues.

“But you have to look at all the data. Unfortunately, rough training methods can work on calm genetics. I don’t like it, but you might get away with it on a calm, heavier-boned horse.

“But I don’t think it’s a smart thing to do with horses. As a species, they’re too high-strung.”

“The first 30-60 days of a colt’s life working with him creates so much of the horse in the future… Whether or not it be a world champion could be in the first ride,” Curt says. The “Low Stress Colt Starting With Curt Pate” DVD will put you on the right track with your young horse.

Management
“One of the problems with horses today is that they’re leading such sheltered lives,” Temple says. It leads to lack of socialization.

“When I bought a piece of land, it came complete with a horse on it,” she continues. “But it tried to kill any horse you put on that pasture; it tried to kick them to death and wouldn’t stop. That horse had lived alone its entire life. It hadn’t learned social rules.”

She also pointed out similar problems with stallion aggression.

“If you take a young stud colt and lock him up in a ‘super max’ (prison), you’re going to make him crazy. He’s going to fight every other horse because he doesn’t know any social rules.

“I’ve seen 50 stallions from the Bureau of Land Management in a pen together, and they were not fighting.”

Breeding
Temple also pointed out the link between genetics and behavior. She encourages horse people to continually work on an eye for what is good and bad in an animal, both in conformation and attitude, and to prevent “bad from becoming normal.”

“If you think about animal breeding, the old-timers didn’t know anything about genetics. But they looked at an animal and said, ‘That’s a good animal.’ They were using them, and animals had to be functional, physically and mentally.”

To develop an eye, Temple suggests getting out in the field, away from your own place and discipline, and see horses from different bloodlines, looking at how they act and perform along with their conformation.

Temple Grandin’s books, “Animals in Translation” and “Thinking in Pictures,” offer more insights into how horses and other animals think. Understanding the horse’s psyche can improve the way you train and ride.

 

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Ground Work: Less is More

We can take a good thing with our horse and run it into the ground.

By AQHA Professional Horseman Curt Pate

Keep groundwork to a minimum.

By this, I mean, do what it takes to be safe, but don’t overdo it.

In colt starting, for example, the young horse needs to be comfortable with his handler on the ground before the handler steps into the stirrups.

But too much can dull a horse. And why are we breeding horses with all this athletic ability and all this try, if we take it out of them with our training?  ( Don't keep doing the same thing over and over because you don't know the next step, or are afraid to get on.  )

Longeing is a great example. I’ve studied the classical methods used by the Spanish Riding School, and two people were used to longe a horse. One used the whip to maintain momentum, and the other concentrated only on handling the longe line.

The horse wore side reins or whatever was required to keep it straight – not leaning in on the inside shoulder or going crooked. Everyone involved was focused, and it was quite an undertaking.

Compare that to some of the scenes you’ll see at today’s shows. The handlers are talking on cell phones and passing the longe lines behind their backs as the horses go in mindless circles, dropping shoulders and fighting to stay in balance on a small circle.

A horse often learns to escape through his shoulders in groundwork. In cases where he’s bent around, say to the right, he’ll escape through his left shoulder. And when we’re ground driving a horse, we often find ourselves pulling on him because he’s going too fast.

That pulling encourages him to lean into the bridle and be heavy on his forehand.

Don’t encourage your horse to lean into the bridle or allow him to take up other incorrect habits. I’m not saying we need to do away with groundwork, and I’m not saying we should start using two people to longe a horse, but we do need to get serious about how our horse goes on the longe line.

If he’s going to do it, make sure he is going correctly – don’t undo things that you want him to do while you’re on his back.

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Becoming a Horseman

Before your horse makes any changes, you’ll have to make some first

 

Whatever our equestrian activities and whatever our aims and motives, we are all searching for the same thing: that elusive harmony between man and horse that comes from a deeper understanding.

Communication is subtle; mutual respect and trust find the perfect balance. The connection between man and horse is not only physical, but mental and emotional. The path to this harmony is not easy, and it requires considerable personal investment, with moments of deep satisfaction (thank goodness) but also others of profound frustration. Rest assured that determination, perseverance and a willingness to listen and learn will always bring success. This is the road to becoming a horseman.

As we progress in our journey, the way we perceive horsemanship changes. It no longer appears to us as a discipline, but rather a way of living and being with horses in harmony with how they learn, act and react.

 

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Power Steering, Part 1

Gaining guide in your horse.

Move your hand an inch, get a “mile” of movement — trainer Nancy Cahill shows you how.

 

One of the best articles I have seen in a while! 

 

 

To have “guide” in your horse means that you move your hand an inch, and you get a “mile” of movement. When you neck rein an inch left or right, your horse’s nose bends, then his poll, neck, shoulders, ribs and hips all follow in the same path, immediately.

Why do we want guide? No. 1 is the safety of being in complete control of your horse.

No. 2 is because it’s prettier. A horse and rider should look like one motion, not seven motions of hands, legs, body and feet going every which way. A horse and rider should move as one, just as good dancers or ice skaters do. You want people watching to think, “That’s easy; I could do that,” knowing full well that’s not easy at all.

It takes an enormous amount of time to get there. Look at your great trail horses – the older they get, the better they guide, and the better and easier it looks.

But it takes a lot of time to get there.

Common Problems
The biggest problem is that everyone wants too much too fast. You can’t go straight from kindergarten to an internship in brain surgery, yet people think horses can make that kind of leap in a year. Though some horses are more trainable than others, they still need time to learn.

They also need time to process your cue. If a horse doesn’t respond immediately, I often see riders get instantly frustrated and angry. They start moving their hands too quickly and often in the opposite direction – if they were going to turn left, suddenly they’ll move their hands to the right.

There’s no place for anger when you’re riding a horse. You need to slow down and try to sort out what’s happening.

What to Do
You have to figure out what you have to work with in your horse – in skill level and intelligence and trainability – and you have to be honest with yourself about your own skills. Developing your own feel on a horse takes more than riding once a week.

You have to have patience and be fair to your horse. If you come home from a bad day at work and you want to ride, but your horse doesn’t, I suggest you don’t ride that day. All it takes is one “get-mad” session, and you will back yourself up a month in your training.

Roll It!

Remember, if he gets stuck, go back to the basics. It might be time to slow down and go back to something you were doing well together. Short, good rides are better than one long ride any day.

An Island of Cones
This is my favorite exercise to teach guide. Scatter a bunch of cones, 15 or so, in just one area of your arena. It doesn’t matter if they’re standing or how far apart they are – 6, 10 feet, whatever. Literally throw them out there.

Treat them like a little island and make your horse stay within the island. Walk your horse back and forth through them, left, right, circle a cone here, weaving in and out. Do it at a walk first, then move up to the trot as your horse gets better at it; don’t lope it.

When you’re starting out, use two hands: Just lay the outside neck rein and use the inside direct rein to steer him. Wrap his front end around your inside leg. Your outside leg might finish the turn, but it doesn’t initiate the turn. You’re basically walking the horse around your inside leg every time you make a turn.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Use a ring snaffle or a bit that’s hinged on the side or broken in the middle, something that will let you use that direct rein to pull him into the turn. If the bit is stiff, it will turn sideways in his mouth, and he’ll fight the bit.

• Keep your hands low and don’t have your reins too long. Drop your hands so you get down toward the level of the horse’s mouth, as close as you can, where you can actually do some good.

• Think of the horse’s head as being 12 o’clock. As you use that inside rein, don’t pull back to 6 o’clock. To turn right, your right hand with that right direct rein should go to 3 o’clock. Left is to 9 o’clock. Pulling back is a huge mistake; that’s not telling him where you really want him to go. It often happens because the rein is too long on that side.

• Know when to quit, how far you can go and how much you can ask. When did he do well enough to stop? When he did better than he did yesterday.

  Part 2

 

To have “guide” in your horse means that you move your hand an inch, and you get a “mile” of movement. When you neck rein an inch left or right, your horse’s nose bends, then his poll, neck, shoulders, ribs and hips all follow in the same path, immediately.

You can ride an island of cones for a young horse learning to neck rein or to reinforce an older horse’s guide. Eventually, what you want to have is your reins in one hand, and when you lay the rein to turn, he wraps his head around a cone in the direction you want to go. But you have to take the time to help him get there.

In the beginning, you have to put the horse where you want him and make it clear in your cue. In a turn to the left, lay the right rein on his neck and a quarter second later, use a direct left rein to turn him. You know that when you lay the right neck rein, the left turn won’t happen, but you put the cue there because that’s what you want him to learn.

Do that a thousand times, every day, over and over, walking or trotting.

This exercise helps with a lot of things. For one, it’s a basic suppling exercise that teaches good forward motion and lateral motion. You’re constantly putting that horse in the correct position for things that are round, left or right, and getting him to move off your leg, hand and seat.

It also works to bring the neck down flat, making it more level. As you pull, your horse will tend to lift up his nose, but as you use it in your riding, it will work the base of his neck and strengthen it. The neck will level out, and he’ll be less resistant to your rein.

Roll It!

It also takes the edge off a fresh horse. If your horse wants to be prancy, hit this at the trot for 15-20 minutes. It’s very hard work, like aerobics – you’re not going very far, but it’ll knock his socks off.

The World’s Simplest, Hardest Exercise
Drag your arena and put a cone in the middle. Walk a perfect circle with that cone in the center, any size circle, and then do it again in the other direction.

I do this at every clinic I give, and I can see experienced riders roll their eyes when I tell them what we’re going to do. What’s beautiful about doing this in slick dirt is that the dirt will explain to you that you cannot do it. You’ll see it in your hoof-prints: It’s going to be an egg.

It will make you use your hands, legs, eyes, everything. For one thing, it is a human thing to want to stare at a horse’s head when you are moving. I always tell kids, if you stare at the hood of a car like you do the back of that horse’s head, then you’re not getting a drivers license because you’re too dangerous. You have to watch where you’re going.

Then, shut your eyes and ride it by going off the feel of the tautness of that rope. When you’ve got the kind of control over your horse to make that circle perfect, you’re moving as one.

 

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Riding Back to Front

Be the rider your horse deserves

 

 

Using correct form is extremely important to communication with your horse.

 

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Taking Advantage

 

Since horses communicate mostly with body language, they are far more adept at reading and understanding body language than we are. They know your emotions and intentions better than you know them yourself. Your young horse can read and feel your lack of commitment very well, and he knows that as long as you are not committed to following through on what you ask him, he doesn’t have to do it.

It is more important that you change your attitude than whether or not you use a crop. As soon as you change your attitude and show a commitment and a determination to reinforce your cues, your horse will happily obey. When you get wishy-washy with him, he senses a lack of leadership and tries to step into the leader role rather than the follower role. Every time this happens, you are eroding your authority with him and pushing him toward the dominant role, even though it sounds like he isn’t really that interested in being dominant. But whenever there is a void of leadership, the horse will always move into the dominant role.

There are two concepts for you to think about. First, don’t ever ask a horse to do something that you are not capable of, or committed to, following through on. If you can‘t make him do it, don’t ask. If you ask and fail, you have successfully trained your horse to be disobedient. Once you ask something of a horse, it is imperative that you follow through with whatever means you have at your disposal, otherwise you are “anti-training” him.

An example of anti-training is when you ask a horse to turn in a direction he does not want to go (like away from the barn), and he resists and tries to go the other way, and you cave in and allow him to turn that way. Even though you may plan to take him all the way around to the point you were headed to begin with, he has been rewarded for resisting your request by being allowed to turn the way he wanted, not the way you wanted. He has no conception of the fact that you circled him all the way around to the direction you wanted to go to begin with. All he knows is that by resisting you, he got to go the way he wanted to go.

Secondly, there is a theory in cueing horses called “Ask. Tell. Command.” It means that the first time you ask a horse to do something, you ask lightly and politely. The second time you tell the horse with greater authority, and the third time, you bring out the big guns and really let the horse know you mean business. If you are asking beyond three times, you are training your horse to ignore your directives. This concept only applies to trained horses that know what the cue means.      Julie Goodnight

The Pressure's On   How to be more effective in your communication with your horse. From America's Horse AQHA Professional Horseman Curt Pate is a well-known and trusted clinician and trainer. Here, he shares tips for improving your communication with your horse. Never think “predator-prey relationship” “Predator-prey” has become a buzzword among many clinicians, and it’s true that horses are prey animals. But we as humans have a choice to act like predators or not. Have you ever seen someone in a round pen chasing a horse around with a flag or throwing ropes? That person is showing the horse he’s a predator, and really, he’s just teaching the horse distrust, because there is pressure there the horse wants to get away from. A horse like that, when the going gets tough, he’s going to think about leaving — escaping the pressure — rather than getting through the situation with you. So instead of putting on an excessive amount of pressure, I think we can give the horse a lot more confidence if he sees humans as a safe place. He doesn’t have to think of us as predators who are going to frighten him. Teach your horse to accept pressure Groundwork and, especially, round pen work can come in here. We can teach the horse to move forward off pressure, but there always has to be somewhere to go to get relief, or else we become predators and he gets suspicious of us. The idea is to teach the horse to accept a certain amount of pressure — and respond to it appropriately — without feeling threatened. What you want to do is apply pressure in small-enough amounts where the horse can think his way out of it. For example, if you want a horse to move off in the round pen, step toward him behind his withers and then adjust your positioning, speed, etc., to get the response you want. The opposite of that would be to throw a rope at a horse to get him to move off. The horse would move off, but it would be just a reaction, and he wouldn’t have thought about what he was doing. He wouldn’t have learned anything. But by stepping toward him and allowing him to think about what you want, the horse will quickly start reacting to smaller and smaller amounts of pressure. In short: Try to avoid thinking of you and your horse in terms of “predator-prey.” Your horses can learn to accept pressure — if you teach them properly.

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Riding the Bucking Horse

 

Question: One of our horses seems to have an art to throwing you from the saddle. We bought her a few months ago and lately this seems to be her awful habit. She bucks in small jumps until we are unseated. What can we do?

If the horse did not buck before you owned it you need to ask what has changed since the horse has been ridden by you. Ask what has changed about its environment, health, feed, the equipment you are using and how your riding may differ from the pervious owner's.

Environment

A change in the amount of time your horse spends in its pasture and stall can cause behavioral problems. Has the amount of time your horse spends outdoors changed? If it is accustomed to being outside most of the time and it is now being stabled more than it is used to it may be expending pent up energy while being ridden. Increasing turn out time will give your horse the opportunity to exercise itself.  Is there something that could be upsetting the horse?  Such as a train track near by, dogs, or traffic close by these may require some time for your horse to adjust and settle in.

Feed

Most of us like to feed our horses ‘extras’ and some horses get more concentrates than they really need. Your horse may be ‘feeling his oats’ with more fuel than necessary. Most horses, ridden once or twice a week will only need good pasture or high quality hay to stay healthy.

Health

Have your horse’s teeth checked and consider having it adjusted by a chiropractor.  Check for injuries that might have been acquired since your purchase.  Some horses will misbehave under saddle because of body pain.

Equipment

Poor saddle fit can cause your horse to misbehave and is often overlooked. If your saddle is pinching or concentrating pressure in one area, your horse’s back can become very sensitive and cause it to buck.  Remember your horse can feel a fly land on it back, he can certainly feel a bump or pinch from a saddle.  Be as careful about fitting your horse’s saddle as you would buying yourself new shoes. Saddles aren’t ‘one size fits all’.

Your horse could be objecting to having the girth over tightened. You should be able to slide your fingers between the cinch or girth and the horse’s body. Over tightening can cause pinching and chaffing both in the saddle and cinch areas.  The horses we are breeding today seem to be losing the trait of good prominent withers so be very careful in choosing a pad or blanket.  Make sure it compliments your saddles fit.  Thicker is not always better.   If you suspect saddle fit is the problem, riding your horse bareback can help to eliminate the possibility.  If he doesn’t misbehave when you ride bareback, the cause is either the saddle or the way you are riding in the saddle.

Bits occasionally can cause problems, especially if the horse has a dental problem. Be sure your horse has a bit that fits, is comfortable for him to hold, and is the mildest possible to control him.  Having a knowledgeable trainer loung your horse while you are riding can help to determine if the bit is the problem.  If he is fine on the loung line then the cause maybe the bit or the way you are using the bit.

Your Riding

It may surprise many people to know that horses don’t actually like being ridden or driven. His instincts tell him allowing something on his back can be life threatening.   Much of horsemanship is convincing your horse to do things willingly that it sees no earthly reason to do. Some horses figure out very quickly just how skilled and determined the rider on its back is. And just like people they can become very adept at avoiding work. If your cues are muddled, you aren’t able to read the horse’s thoughts and don’t know how to curb unwanted behavior many horses will pick up on this.  Being able to see oncoming problems and taking action to avoid them is an area many riders can improve.  Many horses learn to associate the ability to of its rider by the riders’ seat.  If the rider is bouncing and banging around it won’t take long for the horse to do something about it, and many times the choice is to buck or hump.

When your horse bucks, it probably gives some signals beforehand, but sometimes there is no warning.  It is up to you to learn how to recognize these signals and take countermeasures before the bucking actually begins.  The equipment you chose can also help, if you suspect bucking will be a problem.  Using a night latch can help you to maintain your seat if your mount chooses to try to unseat you.  (See below on how to install a night latch on your saddle.)  This is where a good instructor can help you hone your skills. Many people spend many hours and dollars on finding quick fixes—buying more severe bits, tie downs, etc…But the answer to most behavioral problems under saddle is to INCREASE the skill and knowledge of the rider.

Preventing bucking begins when the horse is a colt.  One must go to every extent in his training so he won't be inclined to buck - and that includes preventing bucking and if he tries to buck aggressively discouraging the behavior.  People who can ride a bucking horse feel they're a good rider.  That may be.  But it doesn't mean they're good at training.  So choose the trainer you take advice from carefully.   Naturally, that doesn't help you if your horse bucks already.  Thus, if your horse bucks then the question is whether or not it is solvable.  The answer is:  Usually.  The first thing to do is try and figure out why he bucks.  Many times it is because he's absolutely frustrated.    As a for instance, one of the most common causes of bucking is that the rider punishes the horse's mouth without knowing it.  Also, he may be giving the horse conflicting cues.  For instance, the rider may kick his horse forward and then jerk on the reins to slow him down. 

A lot of people will say to yank the horse's head around to your knee because they "can't" buck when they are in that position. Maybe they can't buck but they can certainly do a crow-hop, rear, spin in a circle then buck and you get dumped.  Remember horses are a heck of a lot stronger than we are. They will always win in a battle of strength.  If you are bullying them and ripping their head around to get them to stop bucking, you're just going to make the problem worse because the horse is absolutely going to dread being ridden.

Keeping your horse going forward, forward, forward, and not letting him get his head too far down. With help you stay in control.  When he can get his head down it helps him gain leverage that he needs to buck, but that being said, don't yank his head up either because it will just frustrate him.

 

     Now let's say you don't know why your horse is bucking.  Let's assume your riding habits are good and your horse bucks anyway.

     Here are some helpful suggestions.

     First, if your horse bucks you then it is crucial you don't stop him.  If you do, he learns that if he wants to stop all he has to do is buck.  Very quickly, you'll have a smart horse who knows that to stop, he only has to buck.

     So, instead of stopping, do this. 

     First, brace your elbows against your body yet keep them relaxed and keep contact with your horse.  While doing this, lean back a little and drive your horse to go forward.  (Making a horse go forward is a big horse training secret to help you get your horse's cooperation and obedience.)   Example:  young colt out in the pasture who’s presence for what ever reason has annoyed the queen mare.  When she is schooling him he is not thinking about bucking kicking or anything but getting away 

     Because you brace your arms, it makes your horse's head go up and driving him forward makes his attempts at bucking hard enough he'll quit trying to buck.  The point is the horse cannot buck when he is moving forward with energy. 

     The next step is you must continue moving your horse forward with energy using your seat and legs until he quits trying to buck - be sure to control his speed. 

     Sometimes it's necessary to hold your horse's head up to stop the bucking while moving him forward.  If you need to do that then be sure not to pull his head back.  Instead pull it up.  You do that by extending your arms and pull up. 

     If you have a horse that bucks whenever he feels like it then he should be doubled,  (bend him around to your leg but don’t let him stop and stand send him forward.)  The trick is to do it on the first buck if you can.  Double him then boot him out of it with energy.  Then double him the other way and boot him out of it and put him in a trot and make him keep moving.

     Remember the horse must slow down to buck.  If you can tell your horse is slowing down and getting ready to buck then boot him forward and pick up the pace. 

How to Rig a Night latch:  A night latch is a safety strap attached to a saddle to help the rider hold on and stay on a contrary horse.  This contraption was used as part of old-time traditional cowboy bronc gear and can still come in handy.
Here is one method used to rig a traditional night latch:

1. Use a four foot length of catch rope.  Some type of rope is easier to hold than leather, which can be slippery.

2. Double the rope.

3. Run the looped end of the rope through the gullet of the saddle from the front. 

4. Run both free ends through the loop.  
   Leave enough room to slip your hand between the saddle and the rope.

5. Twist the ends around the loop and back through themselves, as shown.

Contrary to what you might think, the free ends are not the handhold to grab in case of emergency.  Your hand could slip off.  
You are using the rope to form a loop to grab like a suitcase handle (or bareback rigging.)
Maybe you are wondering why use a night latch, when the saddle horn is so handy.  With a night latch, you can pull yourself down into the saddle, which gives you greater security than holding the horn.  You can try an experiment, next time you are sitting in your saddle.  First hold the horn, then grab the rope strap or front saddle strings and pull yourself down, imagining the feeling if your horse were acting up.  You should feel more secure.  But remember:  the rope strap or saddle strings are too light to serve the real purpose.

 

Night latch can be installed on a western or English saddle.
If a horse starts bucking, you have something to hold on to help keep you in the saddle. I would even take it a step further.

What I really like about the Night Latch Strap, is that when a rider is learning to ride, there is something to hold onto instead of the saddle horn.

When a rider holds on to the saddle horn they round their shoulders forward, tip forward, and lift their bottom off of the saddle. All of these things are undesirable. A rider can place two night latch straps on a western saddle if they would like to hold on with two hands for longe line training. They will then keep their position with shoulders back, bottom seated deeply in the saddle, shoulders stacked on top of hips, and still have something to hold onto.

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Clinician Chris Cox explains the importance of leads to achieving speed and balance in barrel racing turns.

 

by Bridget Cook

Like all sportsman barrel racers love to talk about their performances; they love to dissect each run down to the smallest detail and compare notes with their friends. In a sport consisting of straights and turns, it’s usually the mechanics of the turn that is discussed the most. Entire conversations often focus on the size of the pocket and the amount of rate but it’s not very often that you hear discussion on the basic fundamental of turning a tight barrel; a well-balanced, rhythmical motion executed entirely on the correct lead. It’s often left to chance that the horse will pick up the correct lead.

Understanding the Gaits

A correct lope is the precursor to a correct and fast gallop and the smooth run barrel racers need to win the horse race. The canter is characterized as a three-beat gait meaning that there are three footfalls to each stride whereas in the gallop each hoof lands independently of the others.

The horse’s hind end is responsible for powering both the canter and gallop. The back leg that hits the ground before all the other legs in each stride is called the non-leading leg while the other hind leg is called the leading leg. Horsestravel in either the left or right lead. A horse that runs to the right barrel first should be on the right lead for the first barrel and be on the left lead for barrels two and three.

To lope a right-handed circle the horse’s footfalls will land in sequence of: left hind, right hind and left front will land on the ground together, front right followed by a moment of suspension when all of the horse’s feet are off the ground.

At a gallop to the right the horse’s outside hind will again be the first hoof to hit the ground, followed by the inside hind, the outside front and the inside front followed by suspension.

“It’s important to understand and be able to feel the difference between your gaits,” said leading clinician Chris Cox, “and to be a better horseman you have to be able to feel those feet. You have to know when they’re going up and down. You have to work on feeling their stride when you’re riding; you can’t tell where their feet are by trying to look at them when you’re riding. When people look down at a horse’s shoulder to see if they’re on the correct lead they’re looking in the wrong place. The hind-quarters tell the truth and the front-end will lie to you so you have to be able to feel the horse’s hindquarters through your seat.”

Cox recommends that riders first concentrate on learning the feel of the horse’s stride at the walk. “Put your hand back underneath the saddle to find out where their feet are.”

Why pick up a correct lead?

Cox explained that horses perform better when traveling on the correct lead because they are balanced and are able to shape their body correctly in anticipation of an upcoming maneuver.

“Being on the incorrect lead pulls on different muscles in the horse and gets the horse out of balance with the footfalls,” said Cox.“The horse’s weight distribution should be towards the inside, so that if you’re going to the left his weight should be on the left. If you are on the incorrect lead his weight will not be distributed correctly.”

When a horse approaches the barrel on the incorrect lead the horse will lose power because it won’t be able to adequately get its hind-end up underneath itself as Cox explains. “The horse’s body will be going in the wrong direction; its hindquarters will be thrown away from the barrel and its shoulders will be going in towards the barrel.”

The run will also be slower because the horse will have to scramble around the barrel to counteract its incorrect weight distribution and the off-center weight of the rider.

Working a horse on the correct lead should feel rhythmical and it will be easier for the rider to stay centered in the saddle.

Caught in the Cross Fire

Cross firing, also referred to as a cross-canter or traveling“disunited,” describes a horse’s canter that has the incorrect sequence of footfalls. Usually the horse’s inside front leg will appear to be on the right lead but its hindquarters are out of sequence.

A cross firing horse will feel rough and cause the rider’s lowerback to rotate from the inside to the outside of the circle.

“If you’re going to the right your back would be going in a circular motion from right to left,” said Cox, “so your body gets thrown away from the direction that you are traveling in.”

Balance and Weight Distribution

Cox said that there is no excuse for being on the incorrect lead and asks his horses to pick up the correct lead from the first day that he rides them.

“Being on the correct lead is a very natural instinct for a horse. When a foal is born and they get up and canter for the first time, they are on the correct lead. When I get on a colt and lope them for the first time, 99 percent of the time I’m on the correct lead and that’s because I have correctly distributed my weight,” said Cox.

He explained that rider error or imbalance is usually the cause of a horse picking up the incorrect lead or cross firing.

“If you ride correctly, stay centered correctly and stay out of your horse’s way, 98 percent of the time the horse is going to pick up the correct lead. If you interfere with them, the horse will get the incorrect lead or cross fire from unbalanced or incorrect riding,” Cox added.

Unbalance on the rider’s part can be caused by twisting your hips or dropping a shoulder. Cox said that these rider quirks have a greater effect on unbalancing the horse when you are further off the horse’s back.

“The higher you get up from your horse the worse it is, so the higher your saddle sits up from the horse’s back or the more you are standing up in the stirrups, the easier it is for you to pull that horse off balance,” said Cox.

For barrel racing Cox recommends a saddle that sits close to the horse’s back for a couple of reasons.

“If you have a saddle that sits high off their back or has a really high seat it’s going to be harder for that saddle to stay in contact with the horse’s back meaning that you’re going to have to do up the girth a lot tighter than normal. If you rip a girth up into a horse you’re not going to make as fast a run because you’re going to take away the expansion of the horse’s ribcage and lungs so they can’t get their air.”

Lead Departures

Before asking for a lead departure Cox stresses that the rider must have control of the horse’s hindquarters. This is because the horse picks up the correct lead from the hind-end.

Leg Yield

The first step to gaining control of the hind-end is leg yielding.

At a walk ask the horse to move its outside hind leg towards the center of the circle by applying pressure to the horse’s ribcage with your outside leg. Leg position three, which requires that the rider’s leg is behind the back cinch should be used when asking for the leg yield. Shorten the inside rein so that the horse’s head and neck are slightly to the inside of the circle.

As the horse progresses, work on keeping its body straight during the leg yield by decreasing reined cues so that only the horse’s head is tipped towards the center. Eventually the horse’s head, neck, shoulders and ribcage should be straight throughout the leg yield.

Once the horse can leg yield from a walk, Cox asks for the same movements at the trot followed by leg yielding from a standstill.

Turn on the Forehand

Using the same aids as the leg yield ask the horse to move its hindquarters around its front end. Concentrate on keeping the horse’s front-end straight and feeling the change in the horse’s weight distribution as it crosses its hind feet and it pivots around the front end.

For a turn to the left put your right leg in leg position three to move the left hind leg over. Release the leg pressure on the horse

Apply pressure with your right leg again to ask the horse to step its right hind leg over. The right hind should cross over in front of the left hind foot. Release the pressure and ask again.

Lead Departure

Trot a circle to the right keeping the horse’s shoulders square and head straight. Move your left leg into leg position three and drive the horse’s hindquarters to move the right hind leg and its weight towards the center of the circle. This will encourage the horse to pick up the left lead because the horse’s weight has been pushed onto the inside leg freeing up the non-leading leg to take the first step of a canter stride.

When asking for the lead departure the rider should sit square in the saddle but should redistribute their weight so that they are sitting more on their outside seat bone which will push the horse’s hindquarters towards the center of the circle.

“You’ve got to have your outside leg back behind the girth because you’re pushing the outside hindquarters to the inside so you’re going to be sitting a little bit to the outside. You need to have a relaxed back and not be stiff and upright but you don’t need to be slouching,” Cox said.

Cox said that riders should not fall in the trap of looking down the inside leg when asking for a lead departure as this will redistribute the rider’s weight making it difficult for the non-leading leg to start the stride.

Once cantering, Cox asks his horses to leg yield at the canter to help set them up for a flying lead change. “I get to where I’ve got an extra part of that horse’s body because I can move that weight distribution around. Then I go to the canter or a lead change and have all the tools to do a lead change with.”

Rushing the Lead Departure

Many people find it easy to pick up the correct lead by rushing the horse into the lead departure from a long, fast-paced trot. Cox explained why this occurs, “They are pulling the horse’s weight off balance with the horse’s head.

“If you rush a horse and pull it’s head towards the center of the circle then that’s going to move the horse’s weight to the inside. If you keep doing this you’ll get the horse scared so they’ll start charging into it.

“The same thing will happen with a lead change; you’ll get a horse charging into a lead change because you’re forcing it to happen; you’re not setting the horse up for it to happen. To do a correct lead departure or lead change you have to set it up to happen, you can’t manually make it happen.”

Flying Change

When you change directions, as when loping a figure of eight, your horse must change leads. Usually the lead change is executed where the two circles that make the figure eight meet in the center. Cox is not an advocate of the simple change that requires the horse to break back to a trot or walk to change its lead. Instead he teaches his horses to do an on-demand flying-lead change. He explained that after you repeatedly ask the horse to change leads via the trot that the horse will start to skip in the trot. Asking for a flying change is an extension of asking for a lead departure.

“I’ll come through the middle, keep my weight to the outside (of the new circle) and side pass my horse very slightly in a straight line keeping its head and shoulders straight but moving it’s hindquarters towards the inside of the new circle. I’ll keep pressure with my new outside leg behind the back cinch and encourage the horse to change,” explained Cox.

“It’s not about making it happen, I just have to encourage it and it will happen. If you get the horse fighting and pushing against you it won’t happen. It may take you three or four strides when you first ask for it to happen but eventually the horse will ease its way into it and do it off one stride.”

Controlling the Horse with Your Legs

“One of the biggest problems with barrel horses is that the horse controls the run not the rider. If you look at Charmayne James and Scamper she had the horse under control; she could put him where she wanted to put him, he was uniform and didn’t make a mistake,” observed Cox.

“If your horse runs forward when you ask him to move laterally off your leg then that just tells you that there’s a lot more dry work to be done. It’s about having control and teaching your horse to yield off your leg instead of just running. It’s not hard to teach a horse to run, they either want to run or they don’t want to run.

“If you can’t get your horse on the correct lead you don’t need to be teaching the horse the pattern, you need get the horse picking up a lead on a straight line.”

A horse can learn a bad habit just as quickly as they can learn to do something correctly. Cox said that you will actually train a horse to crossfire and work on the wrong lead if you allow the horse do it repeatedly. Because of this it’s important to learn to feel the horse’s footfalls and be aware of how your weight is distributed on the horse.

 

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My Horse Won’t Cross

By Joyce Fox

 

There is nothing more frustrating than a horse that won’t cross a ditch or wants to jump everything he comes to, while other horses quietly step across.   To get past this, or any problem your horse has, you must remain calm, and in control for your horse to trust you to lead him to safety.   

It can be very scary for you the rider, when you feel your horse trembling.   As he starts to dance back and forth, and coils up like a spring ready to launch you across the ditch.   When you find yourself in this situation, there always seem to be the well meaning “cowboy” who wants to drag your horse across the ditch.  Then others will come up with the well placed rein across the rump.  While following other horses to build confidence, will sometimes work it is not a permanent fix for the problem.  If you are on the trail and get surprised by a refusal, and think you might have a problem it’s sometimes safer to get off before the fight starts.  Depending on the horse and his training experience, some form of the above may be the only choice you have, and the course you take will be dictated by circumstances that maybe beyond your control.   If you do have to choose one of these, by all means do not follow the next advice, “Take him across again.”   This is not the time, place, or the way to train your horse.  Just get through with your ride and DO NOT be surprised again!  Go home and work on his problem when you can take the time to build a trusting relationship with your horse.  

 

Now, let’s talk about possible causes for the refusal.

·         Your horse may not have the confidence to think he can carry you across the ditch.

·         If the ground is muddy and soft, the ground coming up around his ankles as he sinks in the mud may cause him to refuse to cross.

·         If you start with a horse that is willing to cross a ditch, and he has developed a problem, it may be rider related.  If you ride your horse across a ditch and just flop the reins down and give him his head, to do as he pleases he may start to jump across the ditches. 

·         If you are not paying attention and you do not sit your horse well, you may bang back in the saddle or jerk on his mouth and get him sore, he may start to relate the ditch to pain and dread the process and become a problem. 

·         The horses’ vision (See previous article on How Horses See) may also be part of the problem.   Their depth perception is not that great and small ditches can look like a black cavernous pit. If you don’t allow your horse the time he needs to inspect the ditch, by lowering his head a bit, he may not be willing to cross.

·         If you get upset, your horse will get that way too.  Don’t think for a minute that he can not tell that you are becoming impatient with him. 

·         If you are scared, the instant your heart rate changes your horse knows something is up. 

·         General disrespect of the rider, by the horse can cause refusal just because he knows he can get out of any uncomfortable situation by refusing or rearing.

·          If you have trouble controlling your horse, head tossing, or stopping, you may have problems. 

These are just a few common causes I see.  Each horse is different, and should be treated that way, but a horse is a horse, and all think pretty much the same way.  The people that are in their environment are what changes their way of thinking.  So what can you do to avoid this situation?  Start at home with ground work.   When I teach my horses to cross ditches, I do not cross the ditch for the first time when I am on a trail ride with 30 people watching.  I always build off previous training starting with an obstacle the horse is comfortable with, then progressing to the actual ditch.  Make sure you can send your horse over and through obstacles, in driving lines and on the longe line before you go on a trail ride that will require you to cross a ditch.

 

Here are some obstacles you might want to get your horse comfortable with before you go to the ditch. 

·         Get him to stand quietly with a soft cotton rope around him ankles and allow you to pick up his foot with out resistance.

·         Go over tarps, and cross logs. 

·         Pass between two barrels standing side by side. 

·         Ask your horse to step into a tire and stand there comfortably.

·         Step over and jump over a bale of straw.  NOTE:  It is helpful down the road to use different cues for stepping and jumping.

·         Dig a small trench in your arena to step over, or cross a mud puddle.

·         Get him comfortable with placing all his legs in a bucket of water, and stand quietly.

 

These are not the only things your can use, and any obstacles you can think of will help.  The object is to will build a relationship of trust, and respect that will establish you as the leader.   This is the way to get the type of willing responses you are hoping for.   If you do not have the skills and knowledge to do ground work, read everything you can find on the subject, and invest in yourself and get some help from a qualified instructor.   Once you have your horse completely comfortable with at least some of the things on the list of obstacles I have above.  It’s time to head to the ditch.  Working from the ground, let the horse look the situation over give him several minutes, with a simple small ditch with solid sides that is basically flat, five minutes should be more than enough, much more and you start to create other issues with disrespect.   As he is looking at the ditch talk to him, reassuring him he is alright.  Be sure to use the same tone of voice you used in your ground work.   As you are talking, step over the ditch, showing him that it is something that can be done.  Don’t ask him to cross at that point.   When you do ask your horse to come across the ditch, there is something you should know.  He will probably jump, trying to land right where you are.  So do not turn your back on him and jump the ditch or you may have a horse in your pocket.   Step over the ditch don’t directly face him off because that can cause resistance, but turn sideways and ask him to come over.  DO NOT get in a tug of war.  You do not want to activate his natural instinct to try to escape the pressure on his head.  With NO pressure (contact on the halter or bridle) on his head.  Gently ask him to move across by positioning your arms just as you did to send over the obstacles during your ground work.   You want him to think about crossing the ditch, not that he is being trapped or tricked into something that he needs to escape from.  If it was a horrible cross but I know it was all he could muster, I praise him and may go on, not asking for anything more that session.  If this is a horse that is running on pasture and is crossing ditches everyday, or drinking out of a pond.   I will probably make him cross again several times.  But even then I will not stand there and do it endlessly.  Know when to quit for the day.  Repetition is how horses learn, but they don’t have to learn it all in one day.  Seven times is the most I will ask for something in one training session, if the horse is responding.  Getting the correct response seven times three or four days in a row is much more effective than twenty times once.   As you see your horse gaining confidence then get on him and work from his back.  It may be helpful to have someone to help you in the beginning from the ground, but you should be able to work right into a nice ditch crossing if your ground work is solid.  Remember to use the same tone of voice and principles you used from the ground when you get on his back.  If you are still having trouble you will need to go back and recheck your ground work, or you may need to get a more experienced trainer to help.

Trying to expose your horse to every possible situation you might encounter is impossible.  The thing you gain each time you work through something like this is trust between you and your horse.  Trust is the one thing what will allow you to guide your horse through any scary situation the two of you may encounter.

 

 

What you can do to stay in shape when you can’t ride.

 

In some places, the weather becomes so inclement that horse owners are unable to ride for weeks, maybe months, so how do you stay in shape when you’re unable to ride?

 

Two-time amateur hunter hack world champion and certified professional trainer Emily Harrington of Aubrey, Texas, explains what riders should focus on when staying in shape during the off-season.

• Build your stamina by training your heart. Those long rides can get you pretty winded, and doing aerobic workouts will keep you in control of your breath.

• Maintain your body strength. Specifically, you’ll want to work the muscle groups needed for riding, such as the core, shoulders and legs.

• Stretch your muscles. Lengthening them out with specific stretching exercises will keep muscles flexible and healthy.

Use books or visit a personal trainer at least once so you can learn how to properly work these muscles at home or in the gym for the greatest benefit. If you haven’t had a good workout in a while, check with your doctor to make sure your body can handle the stress of the exercises.

Get Your Heart Pumping

Aerobic exercises should be performed three to five days a week at a moderate level of intensity for 30 to 45 minutes (Make sure a gradual warmup and cool-down are part of your workout session). Walking or jogging outside or on a treadmill is a perfect example of cardio workout, but consider mixing up your workouts and adding swimming, water aerobics or cycling to give your joints a break.

Focus on the Core, Legs and Shoulders

The Pelvis Rock

• Begin by lying on the floor with legs shoulder-width apart. Align your ankles through the knees, hip and the shoulders. Maintain this alignment throughout the exercise. Imagine a bowl sitting on top of your hips.

• The bowl should be completely steady before beginning the movement. Inhale before you begin, then exhale using your abdominals to make the bowl tip toward you, or push the small of your back into the floor.

• Make sure you only use your abs to create movement, and that you are not pushing off from your feet or grabbing with your seat.

• As you inhale, tip the bowl away from you as you move into an extended position. Your low back will feel arched. Make sure you listen to your body and don’t extend too far.

• As you exhale, return to pressing the small of your back into the floor. Inhale and return to an arched back. Keep your neck and shoulders relaxed while the lower part of your torso is at work. Repeat five times.

Side Leg Lift

• Lay on your side with your lower arm extended beneath your head for support. Your arm will assist in balancing your body in this position as your legs perform these side lifts.

• Remember to maintain your neutral posture by engaging the abdominals and not allowing your waist to collapse toward the floor.

1. Begin with legs shoulder-width apart. Lift the upper leg without letting the upper body position change
2. Lower the leg back to starting position. The only movement should be at the hip joint.
3. After six repetitions, keep the upper leg raised and bring the lower leg up to meet it. Concentrate on using the inner thigh muscles. Lower both legs and begin again by raising just the upper leg, then proceed as before.
4. After six repetitions, keep both legs together and raise them together without compensating with your upper body.

Shoulder Stabilization

• This exercise works best with an exercise ball, but you can also use a chair

1. Sit in your best posture with your arms in front of your shoulders. Your shoulders should be in neutral.
2. Inhale and reach your shoulders forward without changing anything else in your posture.
3. As you exhale, bring the shoulders back past neutral and squeeze your shoulder blades together. Repeat this five times.

Stretch

Side-lying Stretch

• Make sure to keep your breath flowing during these stretches and hold them 15 to 30 seconds to really send the message. Do these every day, and you will see marked improvement in your range of motion.

1. Start on your back with one leg and bend the other leg.
2. With the opposite arm, take the bent knee across your body and open your chest the other way. Hold this position as long as you feel a stretch. Make sure you breathe through this maneuver.
3. Switch to the other side

Quadriceps/Hip Flexor Stretch

1. Lay on your side and bring the heel of your top leg to your seat.
2. Hold just above your ankle if you can, being mindful not to let your lower back arch.
3. If you cannot reach your ankle, use a strap or belt around your ankle to get extension.
4. Hold 10 seconds on each side.

 

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Equine Pregnancy Terminology

By Dr. Neil Williams, Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky.

There are different terms to describe the developing foal in utero. Furthermore, certain terms are used to describe the foal when it is delivered in an abnormal condition or at the wrong time of gestation. These terms can be confusing and are often improperly applied. It is important to use the correct terms because their use allows for better communication and helps categorize the process causing the problem, allowing certain conditions to be considered as possible etiologies and others discarded.

Following fertilization of the ovum, the early developing foal is referred to as a conceptus (the tissues destined to become the embryo and placental membranes) or an embryo. The term embryo can refer to the entire conceptus, or to the portion that forms the foal. The end of the embryo stage is somewhat arbitrary. Some authors use the end of organogenesis to signal the transition from the embryo to the fetus. Others prefer to classify based on when external taxonomic features become identifiable (the single digit in horses). Even using these criteria, the time point is not clear-cut. Completion of organogenesis has been proposed to be by day 23 of gestation by some and day 30 by others. External feature development allowing classification is anywhere from day 38 to 60. In general, a conceptus prior to day 40 is referred to as an embryo, and after day 40 as a fetus. The offspring remains a fetus until delivery, becoming a foal upon birth at the end of gestation. An equine fetus near the completion of gestation is sometimes referred to as a term fetus.

Premature interruption of gestation with loss of the offspring is a relatively common occurrence. In women it is referred to as miscarriage or preterm birth, and in animals it is called abortion. Abortion in horses is subdivided by time of occurrence. At the beginning of gestation it is referred to as early embryonic loss, and during the fetal stage it is called an abortion. Most pregnancy losses in mares occur as early embryonic losses. Abortions are also called stillbirths. Technically, delivery of a dead offspring at any time of gestation is a stillbirth; however, the term is usually reserved for delivery of a non-viable offspring after the time when viability outside the reproductive tract is possible. In humans this is usually after 24 weeks of gestation (prior to 20 weeks is termed a miscarriage). Using these criteria, loss in a mare after about 310 to 320 days would be a stillbirth. Although there is obvious overlap, it is useful to think of loss of a term fetus as a stillbirth, reserving abortion for earlier losses. This allows a different set of causes to be considered in a stillbirth, many related to the delivery or birthing process. By contrast, abortions are often caused by conditions affecting the membranes, such as placentitis or torsion of the umbilical cord.

In contrast to other species, mares have a highly variable gestation length. The average length of gestation is between 320 and 370 days. Therefore, the concept of a mare being overdue when gestation goes beyond the “average” 340-day interval is erroneous. Mares have to be considered on an individual basis. A mare will typically have her own normal gestation length. Therefore, a mare that normally delivers at 360 days may have a premature foal at 335 days, while a mare that normally delivers at 330 days may have a normal-term foal at 325 days. In general, births before 320 days are considered premature, and foals rarely survive if born before 300 days.

While premature describes foals born early, there are several terms used to describe live, but abnormal, foals born beyond their expected delivery date. Some of these foals are small and appear premature. These are dysmature foals. Dysmaturity is commonly associated with placental insufficiency. Foals with extended gestation that are normal to large in skeletal size but thin are called postmature. The classical cause of postmaturity is consumption of endophyte-infected fescue grass by the mare. Each of these conditions has distinct clinical characteristics and requires special medical treatment.

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Answers About Equine Acupuncture

 

What is acupuncture, why is it done and what does it do?

 

Here are several opinions on the subject.  I did not find any adverse effects from using Acupuncture.  It seems to be most effective when used in combination with modern medicine.

 

 

Acupuncture is the science of inserting small needles into the skin and underlying muscles to cause an energy change in the body. Most acupuncture points are at nerve-muscle intersections or where there is a change in the electrical conduction of the skin. Most often, acupuncture is used for treatments of musculoskeletal problems, chronic pain and decreased performance or to treat conditions that are not responding to conventional medicine. Anything from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to eye problems to lameness issues, can be greatly helped by acupuncture. Acupuncture causes the body to release energy and respond to the needles to reset its self. We use the body’s natural energy to route it to where it needs to be or unblock it from where is it stuck.

Heather Heiderick, D.V.M., Clermont, Florida

Other opinions on Acupuncture...

MODERN ACUPUNCTURE FOR OUR EQUINE FRIENDS

Many of you have heard about acupuncture in the news or on TV. Many of you perhaps have wondered about it, considered acupuncture for yourself, and/or have tried it. Perhaps after you finish this article, you will consider it even more, and for more conditions than you thought it would affect. This ancient science and art has become more familiar to us in the western world in the last 20 years; but what I'll bet you don't know is how extraordinarily effective acupuncture is in animals. I always laugh hysterically when people talk about the "placebo" effect. I say, "Right! Tell that to the horse!"

Since I am an equine veterinarian, most of my experience is with acupuncture in horses. Let me give you an example: I got a call from a veterinary colleague of mine a year or so ago saying that he had just been presented with a month old colt who had been kicked in the head by a mare other than its mom. The baby had a fractured orbit. is the bone that houses the eye, right up by the jaw joint. I have found, over the years, that the faster I can get to an accident victim, the better. I was able to see the baby the next day. By that time, the baby was in great pain, was having trouble nursing, as he had a lot of swelling and was showing signs of facial paralysis. While the handler held the youngster, I started treating him. After about 5 minutes, the baby was much relieved and literally fell asleep in the handler's arms. The referring vet called me two days later to say that you couldn't tell that anything had happened, and the colt was back to normal. Have I sparked your interest? Do you begin to understand why the Oriental people at the Olympic Trials had their acupuncturists and therapists right there waiting for them after their events?

Acupuncture has been around for at least 5000 years. We, in the Western World, with our "modern" medicine have a hard time understanding how such a simple thing as inserting a needle in the right place on the body could have any effect, let alone, such a profound effect. In fact, until recently, our arrogant scientists have considered a 5000-year-old medical system "experimental." I won't bore you with the scientific data that is accumulating about how acupuncture actually works. We don't really know exactly. But what has been proven scientifically is that acupuncture works through mediating the endorphin system. Endorphins are the body's regulating chemicals. It used to be thought that endorphins were mostly for internal pain relief. Now it is known that these chemical reactions create all sorts of different effects throughout the body and regulate how it works. The latest, and very exciting, and repeatable research, shows that treating a superficial acupuncture point on the surface of the body has an immediate effect directly on the brain.

When we try to understand how acupuncture regulates the body through these mechanisms, we see the body as a web of electrical circuits. The Chinese call the energy that goes through these circuits "Chi", the Japanese call it "Ki". In fact, every culture in the world has a word for this "life force." Westerners probably are more comfortable with a phrase like "electrical energy." These circuits are called Meridians, and they travel on the surface of the body from the fingers, in a human, to the toes, and vice versa. These Meridians cannot be dissected out as a nerve can be, but they can be traced electronically to a degree; and they are consistent. However, do not think of these circuits as an AC/DC current. I believe that they are much more like our TV cable wires, and can carry unlimited frequencies. I think of placing an acupuncture needle like pressing a “reset” button.

These circuits have internal organ connections, and thus are named for the solid and hollow organs, such as Lung, Large Intestine, Heart, Kidney, Liver, and others that they serve. They are Energetic Systems. The Meridians run on the surface of the body, coming from extremity points and ending at the other end. There is a Meridian that runs directly up the front of the body, and another that runs up the back. There are also other deep and esoteric meridians, which complicate the picture. It is an intricate web system, and makes no sense to the Westerner at first. However, after extensive study and working with these meridians, it is in many ways a very simple system, and truly powerful.

How does acupuncture relate to illness, pain, or injury? Acupuncture helps the body attain homeostasis so that it can better heal itself. We have built in mechanisms for healing injuries in our bodies. If you have a broken bone, it isn't the doctor who does the healing. But he or she might have to set the bone straight, so that the healing process will work. Sometimes the electrical energies must be "set straight," so that all the cells involved in the healing process can work at full capacity. If there is a blockage of electrical energy, and decreased circulation, to any part of the system, it creates a sort of dam effect. This can, not only cause pain, it can prevent healing. Acupuncture helps to remove this dam and normalize the flow of oxygen and nutrients to the damaged area.

There are many conditions other than injury that acupuncture is absolutely indicated for. There are many acupuncture points that directly affect the strength of the immune functions, for instance, normalize the intestines, and help with liver metabolism. While horses do not have the incidence of kidney malfunction as commonly as dogs and cats, they do get imbalances that can be devastating. In the horse, these kidney channel imbalances can directly affect performance as they are related to back pain. In the dog and cat, kidney malfunction is a major threat in older animals. Acupuncture can work wonders here. Degenerative diseases, arthritis, many allergic reactions are other disease processes for which acupuncture is absolutely the treatment of choice, rather than drugs which ultimately weaken the system. To me, it makes more sense to try something like acupuncture first, for many conditions, rather than to wait until all else has failed before seeking another modality. If that baby colt had gone through the usual, conventional therapy, it might never have gotten completely well. Nerve damage could have been permanent.

So, if you haven't thought about acupuncture for yourself or your horse yet, here are some common problems that I have had much success treating over the years:

Injuries of all sorts
Performance Glitches
Vague Lameness
Sore Backs
Cold backed or "Girthyness"
Chronic Lameness
Toxic Scars
Laminitis, Founder
Navicular Syndrome
Ringbone
Arthritis
Neurological Problems
Immune System Problems
Reproductive Problems
"Moon Blindness"
Geriatric balancing
Bad attitudes

You have to, of course, remember that Acupuncture does not stand by itself. This is why I come to each case first as a veterinarian. You need to have a proper diagnosis of the problem. It is very important to evaluate the work of the farrier. You need to consider the balance of the feet, the balance of the posture, the balance of the rider. Do not forget the balance of the mouth. Dental problems can be a HUGE factor in the overall performance and movement of the horse.

I always start with a fresh eye, so to speak, because, many times, the regular vet has been treating the effects of the problem, the symptoms, not the cause. Not that this isn't important, but it may not be enough to resolve the problems. Saddle fit, training and riding techniques are all important considerations. Sometimes the horse needs intelligent adjustment of misaligned joints for the treatment to be complete.

I recommend highly that you find a competent human Acupuncturist in your area and try acupuncture for yourself. You will be truly amazed at how, not only old pains can resolve and actual healing can take place, but how it improves your general health.

 

Lauren DeRock DVM 

 

Equine Acupuncture

 

 

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Swell Fork Saddle

 

 The swell fork saddle is named for the shape of it's fork. The "fork" is the saddle part at the front of the saddle tree that joins the bars together and provides a base for the horn. There are many styles of forks, but they fall into two main categories - "swell fork" and "slick Fork" also known as "A Fork".

The swell fork saddle has a "swell" that is generally 11 to 14 inches wide. The purpose of the swell is to help secure the rider in the saddle.

There are several different swell fork variations. The fork can be of varying width and thickness.

It can attach to the tree at different angles - straight up, medium slope, full slope. It can even be "undercut" where the width of the swell is wider at the top than at the bottom where it attaches to the bars. In the early 1900's, some "undercut" saddles were so extreme they were nicknamed "widow-makers." They were popular for riding bucking horses and they kept you in so well, sometimes you couldn't get out.

Swells are usually found on competition saddles (barrel racing, cutting, reining, and roping) and also on trail and pleasure saddles. The swell fork saddle has been the most popular saddle type for the last 100 years and is what most people think of as a "western saddle."

Are Your Horse Expenses Tax Deductible?

by
Robert O. Dawson
Professor of Law
University of Texas School of Law
Secretary/Treasurer AAHS

There is an old saying in Texas: "In the horse business, you can make a small fortune--out of a large one."

Many people who engage in various horse activities--racing, showing, boarding, breeding, training and rider instruction--regard themselves as being in the horse business. Accordingly, on income tax returns they report receipts from those activities as business income, deduct expenses as business expenses, and deduct depreciation of business assets. If they show a net loss from the horse activities for a tax year, they deduct that loss from other income, such as salary or investment income.

Why Hobby Loses are Important

If the horse activities are a business, there is no problem with deducting losses from unrelated income. However, when a taxpayer incurs losses from horse activities year after year, and those losses are deducted from unrelated income, the Internal Revenue Service begins to question whether the horse activities are more a hobby than a business. The government takes the reasonable position that it should not subsidize the hobbies of taxpayers by permitting those expenses to be deducted from unrelated income. Hobby expenses are personal, not business. If the horse activities are a hobby, then receipts must be reported as income, and expenses can be deducted from that income, but only to the extent of the hobby income. The taxpayer cannot deduct any of the hobby activity expenses from unrelated income.

If the IRS is successful in declaring a horse activity to be a hobby, it can re-compute your tax liability for at least the past three years. You can be required to pay the additional taxes for those years, plus interest, plus possible penalties for the underpayment. The result can be financially quite devastating.

If your horse activities incur loses year after year and if you have substantial unrelated income that those losses offset in part, then the IRS begins to become curious. Professionals who engage part-time in horse activities--or whose spouses do so--are a prime target, but the risk of being declared a hobby is not restricted to doctors, lawyers, and accountants.

What Determines Whether an Activity Is a Hobby?

The ultimate question is not whether you turned a profit or incurred a loss, but whether your horse activities were engaged in for the purpose of turning a profit. So long as you in good faith intend a profit, your losses are business loses, not hobby loses. However, even the most stoutly asserted good faith will not overcome year after year of substantial loses: If you really intended to make a profit, then why did you persist in engaging in losing activities for all those years?

Here is what the IRS regulations say about this ultimate question:

The determination whether an activity is engaged in for profit is to be made by reference to objective standards, taking into account all of the facts and circumstances of each case. Although a reasonable expectation of profit is not required, the facts and circumstances must indicate that the taxpayer entered into the activity, or continued the activity, with the objective of making a profit. In determining whether such an objective exists, it may be sufficient that there is a small chance of making a large profit. Thus it may be found that an investor in a wildcat oil well who incurs very substantial expenditures is in the venture for profit even though the expectation of a profit might be considered unreasonable. In determining whether an activity is engaged in for profit, greater weight is given to objective facts than to the taxpayer's mere statement of his intent.

26 CFR § 1.183-2(a).

If your horse activities show a profit for at least two of seven consecutive years, then the law presumes that you intended to make a profit. However, that presumption can be overcome by evidence that shows lack of a profit motive. All the presumption does is to place the burden upon the IRS to show the activity was merely a hobby.

The Nine Hobby Loss Factors

So, how does the law decide whether your horse activities are a hobby or a business? Tax regulations set out nine factors to be taken into account. No one of those factors is decisive. You are not required to pass muster on a majority of the factors. Different weights are assigned to different factors in different situations. The nine factors are also not exclusive--the government can look at other factors that are not on the list of nine.

The nine factors are (1) the manner in which the taxpayer carries on the activity; (2) the expertise of the taxpayer or his advisers; (3) the time and effort expended by the taxpayer in carrying on the activity; (4) the expectation that the assets used in the activity may appreciate in value; (5) the success of the taxpayer in carrying on other similar or dissimilar activities; (6) the taxpayer's history of income or losses with respect to the activity; (7) the amount of occasional profits, if any, that are earned; (8) the financial status of the taxpayer; and (9) the elements of personal pleasure or recreation involved in the activity. 26 CFR § 1.183-1(b).

Some Examples

1. Operation of activity in business-like manner. Does the taxpayer keep complete and accurate books? Simple matters as having a checking account for the business that is separate from the personal account can be important. Has the taxpayer abandoned demonstrated unprofitable business pursuits? In one case, it counted for the taxpayer that he abandoned an Arabian horse breeding activity for a more profitable enterprise of breeding paint horses. If the taxpayer knew of more profitable uses to which the activity's assets could be put but fails to do so, that may suggest a lack of profit motive.

2. Expertise. Did the taxpayer take the time and effort to become an expert in the field of activity in which he is engaging or to employ experts to advise him? In one case, it was important that the taxpayer engaged in a new business of breeding Percheron horses without expertise in that activity and without consulting experts.

3. Time and effort devoted to the activity. The fact that the taxpayer devotes substantial personal time and effort to the activity may indicate an intention to derive a profit. Devoting only a limited time does not mean the taxpayer did not intend to turn a profit if he employs other competent and qualified persons to carry on the activity.

4. Expectation that assets may appreciate. The expectation of appreciation of assets, such as a breeding stallion or a horse facility, is considered in determining whether the taxpayer intended a profit. The expectation must be that the operating income and capital gains from selling the asset would more than cover the expenses involved in the activity.

5. Past successes in similar or dissimilar activities. The taxpayer's past success in similar or dissimilar activities can be indicative of a profit objective. The fact that he has not engaged in past successful business activities counts against the taxpayer, but can be outweighed by other factors.

6. History of income and losses. A taxpayer's history of income, losses, and occasional profits with respect to an activity may indicate the presence or absence of a profit objective. Losses are the norm during the startup phase of a business and are therefore not weighed heavily against the taxpayer.

7. Amounts of occasional profits. The amount of profits earned in the activity, when compared to the amount of losses incurred, the amount of the investment, and the value of the assets in use, may indicate a profit objective. The opportunity to earn substantial profits in a highly speculative venture is ordinarily sufficient to indicate that the activity is engaged in for profit even through only losses are produced.

8. Taxpayer's financial status. The fact that the taxpayer does not have substantial income unrelated to the horse activities may indicate that the activity is engaged in for a profit. The cases in which the IRS challenges deductions under the hobby rule are cases in which the taxpayer has a very substantial income from sources unrelated to the horse activity.

9. Personal pleasure or recreation. The presence of personal pleasure or recreation may indicate the lack of a profit objective. No one would claim that a person engaged in the hog business for pleasure rather than profit, but horses are different. They do bring pleasure as well as requiring a great deal of work. However, the mere fact that the taxpayer enjoyed engaging in the activity does not mean it wasn't engaged in for profit. It's okay to love your work!

More Information

You can find out more about this subject from other locations on this AAHS web site. Go to Law Cases for Horsemen; Horse Business/Taxes. There, you will find cases from the Tax Court and United States Courts of Appeal in which the IRS has challenged horse activities under the hobby rule. You may find a case that is close to the facts of your horse activity and which might enable you better to predict what would happen should your horse deductions be challenged.

 

 

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CONTAGIOUS EQUINE METRITIS

Definition Contagious equine metritis (CEM) is a highly contagious venereal disease of horses that causes an acute purulent metritis and a copious mucopurulent vaginal discharge 10 to 14 days postbreeding to an infected stallion. The first exposure to the disease usually results in temporary infertility in the mare. Mares may become chroni cally infected and remain carriers of the causal organism for several months or longer. Stallions carry the contagious equine metritis organism (CEMO) on their external genitalia, and the primary site of localization is the urethral fossa. The stallions may carry the CEMO on their external genitalia for years. Newborn foals may become infected at birth and remain infected until they are mature. Etiology The CEMO is a microaerophilic gram-negative coccobacillus (17). There are two important strains of the CEMO, one being streptomycin sensitive and the other streptomycin resistant (14). A suggested name, Taylorella equigenitalis, has recently been accepted by the International Committee on Systemic Bacteriology. The organism is susceptible to most commonly used disinfectants such as sodium hypochlorite (30 ml of household bleach in 1 gal of water), chlorhexidine, and ionic and nonionic detergents. Host Range Only the equine species appear to be natural hosts for the disease. Thoroughbred horses appear to be more severely affected by the disease than other breeds (14). Geographic Distribution Although the disease was first described as an entity in England in 1978 (4), the causal organism was likely present in horse populations in different countries for several years before that time. The CEMO has since been detected in several countries, including Australia, Czechoslovakia, Ireland, France, Germany, Japan, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. The disease has been eradicated from the United States. Transmission The disease is naturally transmitted by coitus. Also, the CEMO can be transmitted indirectly to mares and stallions with contaminated instruments and equipment (3). Undetected carrier mares and stallions are the source of infection for acute outbreaks of the disease. During the breeding season, an infected stallion may infect several mares before the disease is suspected and diagnosed. Also, the CEMO may be transmitted through the use of artificial insemination. Incubation Period In field cases, the disease does not become evident until 10 to 14 days postbreeding when the mare short-cycles and shows signs of estrus. The inflammatory reaction starts 24 hours after exposure to CEMO and reaches maximum intensity 10 days to 2 weeks postbreeding. Clinical Signs In the mare, a copious mucopurulent vaginal discharge occurs 10 to 14 days postbreeding to an infected stallion (Fig. 44). The first indication of infection is short-cycling of infected mares and a return to estrus. At this time, a mucopurulent vaginal discharge or a dried vaginal discharge can be found on the tail and inside the thighs (Fig. 45). The discharge subsides after a few days, but the mare may remain chronically infected for several months. In experimental infections in ponies (9,18,19) and horses (1), there was evidence of a mucopurulent vaginal discharge 24 to 48 hours postinfection, which lasted for 2 to 3 weeks. Most mares will not conceive when infected at the time of breeding. If infected mares do conceive, they may abort the fetus or carry an infected foal to term. The newborn foal may then become a carrier of the causal organism. Gross Lesions The lesions of contagious equine metritis are not pathognomonic for the disease. The most severe lesions are present in the uterus, but salpingitis, cervicitis, and vaginitis also occur (1,9). The most severe lesions occur at about day 14 postinfection. The changes gradually decrease in severity over the next several weeks as the disease becomes chronic. On the uterine mucosal surface, the endometrial folds may be edematous and swollen with a mucopurulent exudate evident between the folds at the height of the infection (Fig. 46). The cervix is edematous and hyperemic, and the surface is covered with a mucopurulent exudate (Fig. 47) (1). Morbidity and Mortality Morbidity is high in animals exposed venereally to the organism. Death to CEM has not been observed. Diagnosis Field Diagnosis Mares that have a copious mucopurulent vaginal discharge 10 to 14 days postbreeding are suspect cases of CEM. Chronically infected mares and stallions do not have any clinical evidence of the disease.

 

Rein Length and Barrel Horses

 By Joyce Fox

 

If you do a search on rein length and barrel horses you will come up with pages and pages of reins for sale some thick cotton some leather some braided and some with knots.   So you canf 

Rein Length and Your Barrel Horse

by Joyce Fox

 

If you do a search on the internet for "rein length of barrel horse" you can find just about anything you want in the way of a rein for your barrel horse.   But the advice on how to adjust your rein and what to do with them gets a little sketchy.   There are various blogs, but in reading them I’m not to sure I would want to put much of that to use.   The pros all want you to buy their book or CD.  So how are you going to learn?     

Simply put you must break your horse to be soft and responsive BEFORE you start teaching the pattern, and then spend time teaching the pattern the correct way.  You must not train your horse at a walk with cues that you can not apply when you are running.   Pushing and pulling and putting this heel there and holding your mouth here.  Will not get the result you are after.   But that’s another article.  Back to rein length. 

Here are just a few examples of what happens when your reins are to long.

1.       You don’t have the control you need. 

2.       More movements are required to gather up your horse and you lose concentration.

3.       Your horse will start choosing his own path on the pattern and develop problems with wide turns, turning to quick, dropping shoulders, wondering between barrels, and probably more things that don’t come to mind.

4.       Reins that are to long almost always require you to ride 2 handed, which takes your horn hand away from you.  A critical part of a winning run.  Because without your hand on the horn you will not be able to stay in the Center of your horse, which is good news for everyone you are competing against, because every time you hit the back of the saddle you slow your horse by a one hundredth of a second, and I don’t have to tell you how many times that splits 1^st and 2^nd place.  

5.       It can lead to souring your horse, causing you think you have to go to a heavier bit to control him, or you grab up your slack and hit his mouth every time you come to a barrel.

6.       The big thing is you will not win, and you will get frustrated and blame your horse and it’s not his fault.

 

Most all the problems we have with our horses, we make by just not understanding the mechanics of how a horse works and thinks, or we just don’t realize the consequences of what we are doing.   Sometimes we don’t even know we are doing it.   Riding horses requires you to be a problem solver.  You must be able to recognize you have a problem, figure out what has caused the problem, and then take steps to fix it.   Rein length and stirrup length are the 2 easiest fixes you have and will have a great impact on your ability to apply cues and stay with your horse.

 

So how long should your reins be?  When your horse runs his head and neck are not in the same position as when he is walking, trotting, or even loping.   You are not in the same position either.  You should be up off the back of the saddle and over the center of your horse.  You will need to try several lengths to get the right length for you and your horse, but somewhere around 6 to 10 inches in front of your saddle the reins should hit the horses’ crest, when the horse is relaxed and walking with just a little slack to the bit.   Next, Martha, forgive me, and I know you did it with good intentions but the knots are a problem.   You can’t slide your hands evenly along the reins.   For all of you who use the knots and are successful great!  Keep on don’t fix it if it isn’t broken.  But, for all of you who are having struggling, go get a simple braided roping rein and shorten it up.  It should not be to slick because slick reins and horse sweat don’t always make for the best combination.   You will find you get to the bit quicker and with less effort on your part which allows you to focus on getting to the right spot to set up your pocket and stay with your horse though the turn.    You will find that you don’t have to worry about your horse drifting out of his turn because the rein is there to help hold him in place.   I read questions like should I neck rein my horse around a barrel?   Direct rein pressure has always yielded the best result for me because it keeps your horses’ nose in toward the barrel which will help keep his shoulders up where they need to be and lets you come out of the barrel correctly to smoothly head to the next one. 

 

So if you are having trouble with your barrel horse, try changing your rein length.  It might help to get your problem solving process started.

 

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This is AMAZING...

http://canecorso.com/lorenzo.htm

THe Flying Frenchman and His Horses

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The Ponies Of Chincoteague

Two herds of wild horses make their home on Assateague Island, separated by a fence at the Maryland-Virginia line, and they are often seen wandering the beaches, roadways, trails and campgrounds on the island. These small but sturdy, shaggy horses have adapted to their environment over the years by eating dune and marsh grasses and drinking fresh water from ponds.

While they appear tame, they are wild, and Park Rangers urge visitors not to feed or pet them. The Maryland herd is managed by the National Park Service. The Virginia herd is owned by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company and allowed by permit to graze on the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Each year the Virginia herd is rounded up for the internationally recognized Pony Penning and Auction

According to romantic legend, the horses arrived on Assateague when a Spanish galleon with a cargo of wild mustangs sunk off the coast. The surviving animals swam to shore and are the ancestors of today's herds. Unfortunately, the horses (affectionately called ponies because of their slightly stunted size) have a more practical origin. Most likely they are descendants of herds turned loose by early settlers. The island provided a perfect grazing land with naturally "fenced" boundaries. By the late 1600's the island supported horses, cattle, sheep and hogs.

Related Links
chincoteague.com

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Here is another opinion on pressure and release training.

 

Horsemanship is Simple, Not Easy
By Ken Jones, MyEquineNetwork.com Contributing Writer

I really mean it, horsemanship is simple. However, it is not always easy! One has to really separate the two words. In this case the concept is simple, but to carry it out is not always as easy as it sounds. It is important not to confuse the two. Because it is simple, most folks new to horsemanship automatically think it should be easy, but become frustrated when they find out it isn't.

Many of the well-know clinicians like to teach the concept as pressure and release. What does that mean? I think it is hard for most people to grasp, especially when the words are never defined. I will try to break it down simply, in a few articles over the next few weeks, giving you a little bit at a time to build a foundation for proper understanding. 

For today, the first thing I want you to think about is intention.

What are your intentions for the horse you are interacting with? We start with intention because the energy to act starts with an idea in your brain. That intention is transferred by sending your energy to the horse. At the point you relay the message (the second the horse accepts the energy, and if his acceptance or resistance to that energy) it becomes a partnership built on you being the leader and your horse the follower.

1. YOU ARE THE LEADER, at all times. This must be accepted first by you and then by the horse. Remember, a leader can choose to let someone else lead, but it is the leader’s choice. When you decide to interact with horses, you MUST take the leadership responsibility. It is your INTENTION that is communicated to the horse. This comes from the physical and mental energy you send to the horse.

Remember this by the little saying: YOU ARE THE CAPTAIN OF YOUR HORSEMANSHIP!

 

2nd article in his series

 

The Concept of Pressure and Release
By Ken Jones, MyEquineNetwork.com Contributing Writer

When you show leadership through intention, to your horse, you apply pressure (ie. send energy to your horse). If you were applying the same type of pressure to your child you might do it verbally - in other words you would try to persuade your intention upon your child. An example would be saying, "Johnny, please clean your room," and you would reward him by saying, "then you can go to the movies."

It's the same for a horse, except when you apply pressure you do it with body language. This is done first by physically showing the horse what to do, then rewarding him when he does the right thing. You can actually push him in the position you want him to move. Remember, it is your responsibility as captain to effectively deliver the message. Horses have an amazing ability to learn when they are communicated with in a way they can understand.

The next logical question is, "how does he know when he does the right thing?" The answer is all in the release.

When we release, we drop the mental and physical pressure we are sending to the horse. In other words, we release the energy we send to the horse to allow him to follow through (the release should come only when he accepts our actions and does not resist them). The partial second we perceive he receives the energy or intention we are sending, we release the pressure. This is his reward.

The release is the most critical time in communication with the horse. We have to practice our timing until we are razor sharp at being able to see when he "gets it" and be able to release our energy at that very moment.

The way I like to explain this ideology is that we send our energy to the horse and we release it to him. He then carries our intention or energy to complete the movement we are asking for. Remember, everything we do with our horse (except grooming) is about movement. Movement happens with energy. Intentions generate energy, energy generates movement.

Because of the way our horse’s mind works, our intentions can be presented like a laser that we can direct to any part of his body. We learn that we can direct it very sharply and that he can understand. We all know how sensitive a horse is, and this is how we can use that to our advantage. Your horse is a hyper sensitive being. His sense of "feel" is far superior to ours. Similar to the sharpness with which an eagle can see or a dog can hear, a horse can feel.

I will leave it at that today. As an exercise, pick a single part of your horse’s body and try to move it using pressure and release.  Think about your timing, noticing when to release as the energy passes through to him. For appropriate learning to take place you must not release until he does the right thing. As you might imagine, if you release before he does what you are asking, then he will learn to do the wrong thing.  Always work with your horse with a perspicacious attitude, and remember that although you may not see the entire movement as you envisioned, a flex at the poll or shift of weight towards the direction you are asking for is an accomplishment towards your goal – and deserves a release. You cannot expect a perfect reining spin or side pass with your first cue. Those types of maneuvers are complicated, and require the building of pressure and release techniques over time. The best horsemanship is always simple, but not necessarily easy.

 

Training Conflicts 

 By Lyle Jackson

All training programs eventually come to an end. Maybe the horse gets old and is not ridden any more, is sold, achieves all of the goals that the owner wants, or gets soured out and becomes impossible to train.

Unfortunately this last possibility occurs much too often. It can be seen at most horse shows, horses with pinned ears, switching tails, and a bad performance. They are mad and the training program has come to an end. Curiously many trainers do not recognize that the program is over. The riders continue to pound and spur but nothing really gets better. The horse does not learn anything more. The program is finished.

One common reason for training failure is that there are "Training Conflicts" that make it impossible for the horse to achieve the tasks that are asked of them. It is like coming to an street intersection and there is both a red light and a green light. Conflicting signals, a conflicting situation, you cannot be correct no matter what you do. And if you were punished for making mistakes you would pretty soon become frustrated and quit the program too.

There are two types of conflicts in horse training programs.

1. Conflict of Action
The riders’ goals involve a conflict of movement or action. This is were the rider asks for two incompatible motions. An example is in training reining horses to spin. First the horse is trained to move his ribs away from the riders leg. Then inside rein and outside leg are used to teach a slow spin. This works fine, there is no conflict when the movement is done slowly, at a walking pace. But a conflict arises when the program tries to move on to a faster spin. The rider gives the command for more speed with the outside leg and is hold the horse in the spin position with the Reins. If it is a left spin, the riders’ right spur drives the horse, so the horse moves his right side, rib cage and Shoulder away from the leg. This elevates the right side of the horse putting most of his weight on the left side, the left front leg is supporting him. He cannot spin faster because his left front leg is supporting him. The harder he is spurred on the right, the more weight gets transferred to the left foot and harder it is for him to turn. The only way to free his left front leg is to hop in the air, but when he does this the trainer pulls him down, trying to keep him flat. The horse cannot achieve the action because of the conflict. It is physically impossible to turn fast in this position.

Solution is for the trainer to use both legs to turn the horse. The front legs then bear a balanced weight load, and the horse can increase his speed easily by transferring his weight from one front foot and then to the other, rhythmic and balanced.

The conflict continues when the riders pulls with the inside rein to start the spin. The horse has learned to steer by following his nose. The rider pulls the left rein , this bends the body in an arc with his nose to the left and his ribs sticking out to the right. The rider kicks with his right leg to spin, against the ribs that he has just forced to the right when he pulled his nose left. Conflict. To resolve the conflict the rider should have first taught the horse to move away from the outside rein, so he could start the spin with a straight body. Turning the horse with two reins, so that the ribs were not forced out into the outside leg.

2. Conflict of Command
The other type of conflict is when the rider gives conflicting commands. To use the spin example, this happens when the rider starts the spin by using pressure from one leg to start the motion. The horse has learned to move forward when he I s kicked. But now the rider wants a spin so he restricts the forward motion with his hands, not letting him go forward. Kicked forward and pulled Back, the beginning of a conflict, a no win situation for the horse.

Think of the other conflicts that arise in training for the western disciplines. The rollback and the spin for example. Without a clear distinction between these two maneuvers in your program one or the other will not work well. We often see the horse that starts the spin in the show by turning a little and then jumping forward, out of the spin. The horse was actually starting a rollback. There was a conflict in the riders commands. Spin or rollback, which one should the horse do? The rider thinks spin but the horse thinks rollback, not the horses fault. Horses cannot read minds. The trainers’ program did not teach the difference between the two maneuvers clearly enough.

Horses are taught from a young age to stop when the reins are pulled. Stop, not to move forward. But there comes a time when the trainer wants the horse to slide, not stop like a calf roping horse. To slide he must keep his shoulders free and active, the front feet have to move forward. That is not stopping. It is a conflict in action, stop but move forward at the same time. Programs that emphasize pulling the horse into the ground to stop him get into trouble. The program generally tries to use more speed and hard fencing to get a slide. It does not work, the horse will still be stiff in the shoulders and not slide well. The conflict must be resolved. Stop teaching the horse to stop. Teach him to keep his shoulders active instead. Lope, and instead of stopping, teach to immediately Trot on command, keeping those shoulders up and active, so that it becomes a habit. The horse must be self confident. He must be comfortable with the command. Fence him straight and with cadence, so that he stops comfortably and not too hard. Self confident that if he keeps his shoulders up and active it will be easy for him. Stopping is not important, body position is.

Or consider the cutting horse. The conflict is between facing the cow and matching its movement versus staying back and parallel in an defensive position. Trainers that make it too important not to loose a cow while training get there horses too intent on facing the cow. The horse crowds the cow, and moves forward toward the cow. He "leaks" forward, out of position. The program needs to focus more on defensive position, staying back, staying parallel and not worrying when the horse looses a tough cow.

Training conflicts can start very early. The frustrated owner of a Foal that will not learn to stand still is an example. They first halter break the baby by teaching him to come to them and to stay with the handler. Move when they do. But then the program changes when they start teaching whoa. Now the horse has to forget that he should stay with the person, now the program is to stand there, even when the person moves. This is a conflict. The trainer needs to teach slowly and gradually with as little conflict as possible. The first rule is to keep the persons feet still when he is teaching whoa. It is interesting to note how difficult it is for most people to keep their feet still when they are standing with a weanling. The person is always shuffling their feet. No wonder the horse does the same thing, he has been already taught to stay with the person.

There are also conflicts with the nature of the animal. Western Pleasure horses are taught to lope slow when the are legged forward. To not go forward when they are legged forward. Then they must stay in position even when other horses are passing them. It is in a horses’ nature to run with the Herd. There is not much greater conflict than being taught to stay slow when the herd is going fast. This makes Pleasure one of the most difficult events to train for. Yet beginners often pick it as their first horse show event, that is another conflict.

If the your training program is not working pay attention to what your horse tells you. He will make it clear when there are conflicts of action or command. If his ears are back, he refuses to go forward, switches his tail, or runs off, he is telling you that he is in a "no win" situation and is frustrated. Resolve the conflicts in the training program, build a program without conflict and it will work. The horse will learn.

Keep in mind that a horse does not learn when pressure is applied. He learns when it is removed. If we set up the situation correctly he can associate a movement or a position with the removal of pressure. He will then try to duplicate the situation himself in order to get the pressure release. The reason we apply pressure is so that we can remove it. Removing pressure at the right time is the art.

Realize that pressure takes many forms. What might produce mental pressure on one horse may cause a panic, fight or flight, response in another. The rider must learn the difference.

 

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Horse Show People Make the Same Mistakes All Around The World

 

Horse show people make the same mistakes all around the world.
I was flying back home from having judged a horse show in Italy and was thinking that people do poorly at horse shows all over the world for many the same reasons. Riders make the same mistakes in every country. Whether it’s an AQHA show in Italy a 4-H show Canada or a NRHA show in Australia, competent riders make the mistake of simply practicing the wrong things. They don’t show the judge what he needs to see to let them win the class. It ironic because as a judge, when we step out into that ring, we really want to find the winner, that’s our job. We are not looking for people to make mistakes; we need to find the winner in the class - that is what is important. The bottom end of the class is easy and not nearly as important as the finding the top end.
It is no secret what the judge is looking for, it is clearly written in the rulebook. So I wonder why competitors never seem to read the rulebook. Judges that are tested and carded by associations like the AQHA, NRCHA, NRCHA, etc. are all trained and tested on very specific guidelines for every class. Today it is much better than the old days when every judge placed the class according to his or her own personal vision. When we showed our horses in the past we never knew exactly how to present them to advantage unless we knew the judge personally. Some liked it fast, some like it slow, some with a high profile some with a low profile. Today it’s different, with the rule books and testing procedures so specific and standard in every class the judges are obligated to adhere to precise standards. It’s these standards, as explained in the rulebooks, that every competitor should learn.

Reining
Take for example the reining class. The first judging rule in the book states that a reining horse must be “willingly guided”. This is the first rule and the most important. With regard to the stops the judge must, according to the rules, judge the entire maneuver, not just the stop itself. The maneuver starts from the first stride of the last rollback all the way around the arena, through the approach to the stop, the stop itself and then the rollback. So often the exhibitor thinks that the stop is everything, when in fact is only 1/3 of the maneuver. They run fast and slide a mile and expect a good score, but this is not so if the horse did not “guide willingly” and under control through the entire maneuver. Often, including this last weekend in Italy and probably next weekend in B.C., I see horses that are not being guided around the end of the arena by the rider, they are just staying on pattern because the arena walls are holding them in. When they line out to go to the stop the horse charges off and the rider just goes along with him, there is no control. Only run and stop with no middle gear. A very poor approach + good stop + poor roll back = a very poor score! On the score sheet this looks like (-1) + (+1/2) + (-1/2) = -1. Good stop but poor score.

Showmanship
In Showmanship the competitor needs simply to read the AQHA or APHA rule book, then read the pattern and do exactly what the pattern says and how the rulebook tells you to do it. “Exactly” is the key word. Do it more correctly than the others and you beat them, very simple. The common mistake is rushing through the pattern and not finishing one part before going on to the next. It is not a race. Correct first, then if it perfectly correct, then speed increases the degree of difficulty (just like it says in the rulebook) and if the run is still correct, the score will be higher. Correct is first, always. If the pattern calls for 180 degree turn the winner of that part of the pattern is the horse that plants his pivot foot and turns 180 degrees without moving that foot an inch forward or back. The turn needs to be exactly 180, not 190 or 175. That means a straight line departure with all four feet, exactly lined up with the horses’ previous position. It is so easy to see the competitor who has spent hours practicing, training and working with their horse at home and who has not. It makes it easy to find the winner.

Trail
Trail is also judged mathematically. This weekend we had a Lope over poles on an arc. An exhibitor whose horse did not guide very well loped over the end of the poles and the horses hind foot missed crossing over the final pole altogether. One foot outside the pole, automatic 3 point penalty. The judge has no choice, it is what the rulebook demands. The rider was astonished as it was enough to take him from winning the class to not being placed at all. If he had read the rulebook he might have tried harder to ride over the center of the pole rather than its’ end.
Every rulebook has some reference to the attitude of the horse. I am always surprised by the pinny eared, tail switching, sour horses that people bring to horse shows. How can they expect to win anything if the horse obviously hates every minute of it. They are obviously practicing the wrong things at home. Every program needs to be based on keeping the show horse happy and self confident. The judges are simply following the rulebook and finding a winner out of that group of horses that day. If you follow the rulebook and look like you are having fun you will certainly have success.

Author Lyle Jackson has 30 years in the Quarter Horse industry as a trainer and 15 years as a judge. He holds judges cards for the NRCHA, AQHA, NRHA (FEI) and APHA. Lyle has judged international shows in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Australia, United States, Canada and France. He has shown in almost every western discipline, specializing now in Reining and Working Cow Horse. At the International level winning International Championships, National championships. Multiple NRHA Bronze Trophies, and has had Reining Futurity, Derby and Maturity winners. Lyle currently sits on the Professional Horseman’s committee for the American Quarter Horse Association and the Executive Board of Reining Canada. www.lylejackson.com

 

 

 

The All American Quarter Horse Congress is the World's Largest Single-Breed Horse Show. The show receives:     • more than 17,000 horse show entries     • houses than 8,500 registered American Quarter Horses over 3 weeks     • attracts more than 650,000 people to the Columbus area     • brings more than $110 million to the central Ohio economy The Congress includes:     • an AQHA-approved Quarter Horse show     • AQHA-approved racing events     • more than seven acres of equine-related commercial exhibits     • a youth tournament     • horse bowl, hippology, demonstration, public speaking contests     • collegiate and 4-H/FFA horse judging contest     • educational demonstrations and lectures     • a queen contest     • the Super Sale horse auction     • Million Dollar Stallion Avenue.     • the Professional Bull Rider tour at Nationwide Arena in downtown Columbus. Most attendees say that no matter how you describe it, the Congress is a show you have to experience to truely understand. Demographics about attendees Most attendees of the Congress are members of the American Quarter Horse Association. According to a recent AQHA membership study:         Average member age - 46         38% male         62% female         83% reside in a rural, farm or ranch area         41% hold an undergraduate degree         69% attended college         53% farm, ranch or are a management/professional         Income:         69% $50,000+         28% $100,000+         Riding style:         68% ride Western         36% ride English         Average horse ownership         7.6 American Quarter Horses per household         88% spend at least one hour per day with their horses         Average yearly expenditures         $774 average spent on tack and saddles         $592 average spent on Western clothing, apparel         $451 average spent on English clothing, apparel         $557 average spent on horse care products (excluding medications)         $510 average spent on horse care medications         Source: 2002 AQHA Membership Survey Show Location The Congress is held annually at the 360-acre Ohio state fairgrounds, which is officially called the Ohio Expo Center. The Expo Center is located at 717 E. 17th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio, 43211, along interstate 71, just north of downtown Columbus. Show Dates: October 3-25, 2009 October 2-24, 2010 The Congress: founded and sponsored by the Ohio Quarter Horse Association The Ohio Quarter Horse Association founded the All American Quarter Horse Congress in 1967 as an event to showcase and promote the American Quarter Horse, and to educate horse owners about the care, training and showing of horses. The show has continued under OQHA's sponsorship for more than 40 years, and is managed by the Ohio Quarter Horse Association's elected officers and directors as well as three elected Congress Tri-Chairman. The OQHA board meets on the third Monday of each month to conduct association business as well as manage the ongoing needs of the Congress

 

 

 

What Can You Get From A Clinic

 

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By Joyce Fox

 

There are hundreds of "How to Clinics" located all across the country, ranging from the well known stars, to local 4-H leaders.  So what do you hope to get when you attend a clinic.  The obvious answer is knowledge.   

You have realized there is something about your horse you don’t understand or want to know more about, and you look to these folks to help you.   After all, you paid your money, you should come out with all the information you need to train your horse, right?  

Clinicians and clinics are great sources for information, but sometimes I think people go in expecting more than they actually get because they miss that the process of training a horse is on going and always evolving.   Many times you only get one of the many tools needed to get a response, and that tool might not be intended to be used for ever, you need to continue to study and learn to get the most benefit.   

No doubt the clinician has worked for years perfecting and practicing his presentation to the point that the general public can get good use of the information it took him a lifetime to learn, and hopes to teach you in a couple of hours.   

When you go to a colt starting clinic that’s what you are going to see is starting a colt, not completing the horses training.   Many times they push the horse for a result in an hour or two, which is a good demonstration of their skill, but when you go home, you are not able to get the same result.  You need more tools.  At this point don't be discouraged, continue to seek out help. 

When you attend your next clinic, concentrate on learning a tool or two.  Being careful to watch the body language the clinician is using as well as the words he speaks.  So when Clinton Anderson tells you to back your horse up with the lead rope by wiggling it at him creating energy, and stepping toward him don’t miss the part about decreasing the amount of energy required and working towards just stepping to him to get the back up.  It’s a progression of training. 

I encourage everyone to sit down periodically and write down what you believe to be true and the steps you think it takes to teach your horse the maneuvers you require.  Then go back and read them occasionally and see how many new tools you have added with each new experience you have with your horse.  It's a great way to see how much knowledge you have gained.

 

 

 

What Am I Doing Wrong?

 

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By Joyce Fox

 

When I judge shows I always get asked “What did I do wrong?”  First there can only be one winner, and when you ride into the arena it's for one persons’ opinion that day.  While that statement is true, don’t let it lull you into accepting that all the judges are wrong and you are ok with the level you are riding at, if you consistently don’t place well.  It may be time to ask for help.  Always, no matter how good you are you must keep watching and learning. 

 

There will always be differences between judge’s opinions of what is desirable and what is un-natural.   While there is no doubt it requires a great deal of training to get a horse to drop their heads a foot below the level of the withers, and maintain it there.  It is not something that I want to see in a horse, Pleasure or otherwise, unless he is crossing a log or ditch.  The other big thing is pace, and foot falls of the canter.  A fake manmade canter that is difficult to determine which lead the horse is on, is not something I consider pretty or correct.  While there are a few trainers whose skill can get the very slow correct foot falls, that work, there are hundreds, if not thousands who fail to reach that standard, and get nothing more than a jerky, head bobbing, half trot/canter.  Once you get past those two issues, the standards of judging are fairly similar.  Many times first and second place can be chosen on something small.  Possibly a nicer lead departure.  A softer, smoother trot.  More collection, or a quicker backup and stop.  Placing the rest is usually obvious. With missed leads, gapping mouths, bobbing heads, poorer seat of the rider, poor arena manners, lesser horsemanship skills, breaking gait, and in general neater cleaner more prepared horse and rider.

 

So what can you do to get closer to the blue?  Obviously make sure your horse is trained, guidable, knows his leads, lopes, trots, and walks on a loose rein, with out looking like you might be off to the races.   Back your horse at home.  Often, and at least 10 to 15 steps every time you ask for a back up, and get it light and responsive, instead of barely getting two steps that drag the front end back, looking like it’s a real chore.  Or the backup that is so crooked you almost run into the horse next to you.  Check your clothes make sure buttons are correctly aligned.  Get out the old starch can and iron, make yourself look as good as your horse. Even if you can’t afford a $200.00 show shirt it can be pressed, starched, and clean.  Pin that number on straight.  Anything less gives the appearance you don’t care if the judge knows your number or not.    Check your blankets and equipment make sure they are clean and adjusted correctly.  Make sure your reins are even and not twisted at the shank.  While these sound like something everyone should know and would be obvious, time and time again I see it at state circuits, local 4-H, and fun shows.  Go to larger shows or watch on TV, see what the winners are doing.  Instead of getting mad at the riders that beat you, observe them, or even ask for help, and use what you see and hear to honestly judge yourself. Then make the effort to correct your shortcomings.  If all else fails, you may need to get some lessons, or possibly up grade your horse, but above everything else remember the reason you are there is because you love riding and friendly competition.

 

 

Learning Something New

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 by Joyce Fox

 

Few can deny the appeal and excitement of Reined Cow Horse, Cutting, Barrel Racing, Reining or any other event where man and horse must combine as a team.  The Precision of reining and the adrenaline of the fence work, lighting turns.  Once you've seen it you just have to try it.  As with any sport you have to start somewhere, and you can’t be successful showing in any discipline if you don’t know what is expected of you and your horse.  

 

The first thing you must understand that riding working horses is physically, as well mentally demanding.  Balance and coordination are required to stay with your horse through quick turns and exciting stops.  A solid foundation in good horsemanship will allow for a save fun experience.  It takes time and dedication to make horses and riders great, but the satisfaction and rewards are well worth the effort. 

 

A new discipline is best learned with a good teacher.  While you can learn it on your own, the research, time, money, and number of horses you will have to go through with the trial and error method will be minimized with a good professional trainer.  Not to mention the fact that you won’t pick up bad habits, that can be harder to fix than the horse.

 

Finding the right trainer for you and your goals is very important and is the first step.  They will be able to offer invaluable words of wisdom with the next step.  Which is to find the right horse.  Preferably already trained for your chosen discipline and patient enough to let you learn the sport.  The combination of recycling a horse trained for some other discipline and a novice rider, or a young un-trained horse rarely produces winning results.  Next learn the rules forwards and backwards.  Watch and study runs.  If you can get a video watch it over and over and break it down by concentrating on specific parts of the riders and the horse’s body all the way though the run.   There are four major components to learning any sport or discipline, technique, strategy, physical condition, and strong mental skills.   After that lots of time in the saddle practicing and conditioning your self and your horse.  Learning to trust each other to do the job at hand.  

 

When you think that you know horses, learn a new discipline, and it becomes clear you are far from done with the abilities this amazing animal.

 

 

Going At your Horses’ Pace

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Joyce Fox

 

Every person learns at a different pace.  Horses are the same way except they can’t tell you "I don’t understand you're going to fast, I’m confused", or can they???

Picture a young child who has never been away from his mother or home, going to pre-school the first day.  A sight many of us as parents have experienced first hand.  It can be traumatic for them, and certainly does  not put them in a mental state to learn grand lessons. 

When we get a new horse or start a young colt, it is traumatic for them just like the preschooler.  The separation from his buddies, new environment, and then a human making all kinds of strange movements.  It is easy to get in to big a hurry and rush your horse, because we want to ride.  While your horse can not speak to you in English, if you pay attention he can certainly tell you how he is feeling, and what he understands.  His head is the most prominent communication tool he has.  If it is up and tense he is not comfortable even if he is standing for you.  Keep working until his head is relaxed.  Be sure that you don’t move on to the next lesson until the first one is learned and the horse is comfortable with the new skill.  Like our preschooler it wouldn’t make much since to teach multiplication to a child that doesn't know his numbers or how to count.  We as horse trainers must learn to communicate through a language that you and your horse build over time with practice, patience, and a promise from you to go at a pace that is your horses.     

 

 

     Horses do not see like humans. The equine eye is the largest of all land mammals. Whales, Seals, and the Ostrich are the only other animals with larger eyes. On the Snellen scale, used for human vision we consider perfect sight at twenty feet to be 20/20. Using this scale a horse would have 20/30 vision, a dog has 20/50, a cat 20/75, and rats have 20/300. This allows your horse to pick up on the slightest movements at father distances than we humans. Making windy days more interesting on young horses, with less training and confidence in their human leaders.
     Horses also have two types of vision Monocular which means that they can see independently all the way around them with either eye with very few blind spots. Thus the reason for the term “Make sure you train both eyes.” The second type of vision is used when horses graze or needs to look down his nose, and is called Binocular and allows both eyes to focus on the same area. While this field of vision is narrow, it is believed to allow for better depth perception. One reason you should flex your horses nose when asking him to cross a ditch, if his depth perception is used, he might not feel the need to rare back and jump six feet to cross a six inch ditch. A fun test for you to try is walk toward a wall with one eye closed and then open both eyes and you can see the difference two eyes can make. It is assumed that the horse can only use one type of vision at a time, and that is why you will sometimes see horses bobbing their heads up and down. They are checking to see which vision will give them the best view of whatever may be threatening them. Other indications that horses only use one type of vision at a time is, dressage horses practicing a freestyle routine have been witnessed cantering around the arena, on the bit, and collided head on because they simply could not see.
     The placement of horses eyes on either side of its head is also very important of your horses utilization of these types of vision. A horse with a big wide eye set will have better vision than one that is narrow and pig eyed. I believe the horses with the better vision are much calmer and easier to train because they are not startled as easily as the horse with poorer vision. Your horse does have some blind spots you should be aware of.

• One is right in front of the forehead. One way you can tell if your horse is beginning to trust you during early training, is if he will stand relaxed for you to touch him in the blind spot on the forehead.
• Another blind spot is directly behind your horse. The reason you should always speak to you horse as you approach from the rear.
• The other place your horse can not see is the center of his back, if you the rider can not see either eye he can not see you.

     When you are training a horse to collect on the bit and you are having trouble getting him to willing do this, realize that when a horses head is flexed at the poll his head will be at right angles with the ground, which means that he can only see straight in front of him down his nose towards the ground. Recent research found that this blind spot is about the width of his body. This means that he must have enough trust in you to allow you to guide him around because he is basically working blind.
     How much detail and color can horses see? Since the horse can not tell us, just what they can and can not see, and their vision is bound to very from horse to horse, the only way we can tell is by research, trial, and error. Researchers using a method of placing rewards behind a trap door, tested how much detail a horse could see by placing stripes on the door. The horse was trained to choose the striped door over the plain one for a food reward. They varied the thickness of the stripes until they were so fine, the horse could not distinguish the striped door from the grey door. From the results, they discovered that horses can see detail as well as humans, perhaps better! The researchers were challenged when coming up with a way to test for color. To do this test they asked the horse to select a color on a grey background that they could vary from light to dark. They discovered that the horse could always pick out red or blue regardless of what the background was like. However, the horses would only pick yellow and green reliably when they were brighter than the background. If the brightness of the colors was equal to the grey background, some horses couldn’t pick these colors as easily. A few could tell the difference between the yellow and green while others could not, so the results were mixed. It is believed that most horses can see some degree of some colors. In my own experience, I had a horse that did not mind anything you wanted to do with a brown colored slicker, but if you did the same thing with a yellow slicker, he didn’t like it and would shy away from it. So I do believe there is some degree of either color or brightness that effects them.
     Night vision. Horses are most active in the day and don’t tend to roam a lot in the dark under normal conditions. Whether it is because of poorer vision or something else I do not know. I am sure that they can see better than humans in the dark, but horses eyes do not adjust very quickly between light and darkness. If you are asking your horse to load in a dark trailer or enter into a thick wooded path it may look like you are asking him to cross into a dark pit. It may require you getting off and going in first to show him he will live. Same thing in crossing ditches, if you don’t let him take a look, it may look like a bottomless cavern to him.
     Bare your horses vision in mind as you are riding and training your horse and maybe you will be able to see a better way to ride.
 

Your Rhythm is The Only Routine Your Horse Needs

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By Joyce Fox

You are standing in line to board a flight. The lady in line in front of you is telling her child that everything is “ok” holding her hand as if she were going to break it off. Repeating herself over and over. The little girl is obviously getting more frighten the closer they get to the door, as she watches the person she has been trained to trust and respect as her leader and role model is scared to tears.

The point is you are the woman and your horse is the child. When ever something scary happens or something is making you nervous, you can transmit the same feelings to your horse, as well as other people. You have worked to build a relationship of trust with your horse. If every time something  in your normal routine changes, you freak out, so will your horse. Which teaches your horse to relate to the situation with fear each time it occurs.

Because people anticipate problems, I see people who don’t go on a trail ride because they might have to go up a steep bank or cross a ditch. People who don’t want to show because their horse might act up and embarrass them, causing them to miss out on so much.  Learn to control your own emotions and adrenaline, and your horse will be less inclined to react with his adrenaline. As I talked about in (“How Horses See” below) your horse can see movement much quicker than you and is very sensitive to your movements, even seem to sense your thoughts before you move. Whether it’s a twitch of your eyes, slightly leaning forward or whatever you do to prepare to ask for a change, a horse that is tuned into you will react so fast you can’t change your mind, even in a split second.

Then there are those who think they can keep there horse feeling safe by trying to bombproof them to every change or situation. While this is a good thing, you can’t possibly plan for every surprise. So as you are bomb proofing realize that you are also bomb proofing yourself. By gaining the confidence that you can work through issues with your horse, if you just look at things from his perspective, remain calm, and rhythmic.

It is very hard for most people to remain calm when their horse thinks there is a scary thing or feels he is threatened, but if you can manage to remain calm, your horse will soon learn to trust you and remain calm. Learn things to do to get your horses mind back between your legs. Learn not to anticipate what might happen and, in that anticipating, make it happen. Say you are going to catch your horse a cold windy morning. You know he is going to be fresh and might buck. You can bet that the horse will live up to your expectations if you are nervous and jumpy. If you act like it is just an ordinary morning no different than any other, you will communicate a feeling of rhythm and relaxation just like any other morning, and likely will have a much calmer ride.

That feeling of relaxation and rhythm is basic to everything else you want to do with him. The horse is going to relate his feelings about everything that happens to him to your feelings and attitudes. So pay attention to your attitude and keep it the same all the time. Keep your attitude and your body language in tune with the feelings you want to communicate to the horse. No matter what changes in your horses environment make sure you have the same routine with your horse, that allows him to respect your judgment, and you will see your horse trust and count on you to be the leader.

So the next time you're trying to figure out how to keep your horse’s adrenaline from surging when something startling happens, figure out what you need to do to keep your own adrenaline level down. You want to convey that feeling of “everything is routine and predictable” to the horse no matter what else is going on.

 

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Energy
By Ken Jones, MyEquineNetwork.com Contributing Writer

Our level of horsemanship is measured by the relationship we have with horses. The results of our interactions and intentions with our horses are accomplished by the amount of energy received, and understood, by the horse. Our abilities to communicate intentions to the horse are key to the experience we enjoy. Leadership, knowledge and understanding allow for the flow of energy to our horses. The better the understanding, the better it is received, and the less energy required to get across our intentions.

I like for my students to think of themselves as in charge of the relationship, and that it is their job to transfer their intentions to the horse. In other words, the human is sending energy to the horse. Our relationship with our horses is about movement. Whether we are leading, riding or just moving our hand back and forth rubbing our horse, it is still about movement. Movement requires energy, and that energy has to come from the human to the horse. We want horses to be receptors of the energy and carry out our intentions with willing minds. I see this as the big lesson in learning to communicate with horses.

I think the mistake that most people make in the beginning is that they (the rider) try to control the horse’s own energy. If the rider takes on that roll, then they are already behind. In their mind, the horse is in charge and they are trying to catch up by taking charge of the horse’s energy and controlling it. Ask yourself the question, in that case, who is driving this interaction and who is re-acting? The rider is in the mental situation of having to get out in front of the energy and slow the horse down or change its direction. It’s like having a runaway car and controlling it by using the brakes instead of the gas pedal.

When we take the position of leadership, on the ground or in the saddle, and we have the confidence in ourselves and in our horses, we are sending energy to the horse - driving the movement. Through knowledge, respect and trust, the horse is responding to our intentions at just the right speed and direction. It is a more free and positive relationship than the other way around. There is no limit to how wonderful it can be. How all of this happens? That is what I call the pursuit of Horsemanship.

A Whispering Rope

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By Ken Jones, MyEquineNetwork.com Contributing Writer

Ropes have long been a part of the Cowboy’s image and war bag. Ropes are essential to those who make a living around horses and cattle, but most people today who own horses are mystified, and sometimes intimidated, by a rope. I’d like to take away some of the mystery and encourage you to learn a little “ropesmanship” for the benefit of you and your horse.

Most of the time, your use of a rope doesn’t involve “roping” anything. I like to think of a rope and an energy conduit. The energy we create can be channeled and directed through the rope. The great thing about this is that ropes send the message, or energy, to our horses much better than we can alone.

I’d like to offer some simple exercises to help you begin to master the rope. Start with a lead rope. We all need a lead rope on our halter and we use it for leading, tying and desensitizing. It’s good to have a 12’ lead rope. That seems to be the perfect length to be an all around tool. Longer and the rope is very hard to manage, and any shorter severely limits our ability to create energy and funnel it to the horse. When I talk about “spinning” I’m talking about one length of rope, not a loop or hondo on the end, just a single piece of rope.

It’s also important to have a rope of the correct weight as we spin the rope in circles around us. We want enough weight in our rope to actually give itself energy. In other words, it helps itself around. When our rope is too light, it only spins as much as our arm puts out. If the rope is heavier, centrifugal force gives it power, and it amplifies in the direction we send it. Sometimes this weight is referred to as “body” where it has a little spring and creates its own energy when you move it.

When picking a lead rope make sure it is heavy enough to hang straight and true. When you spin it you can feel the power and energy in the end of it. There are several styles of Nylon Yacht braid that are wonderful for this purpose. In general, cotton and poly do not work as well.

Beginning the exercises, take the 12 foot rope and hold the middle of the rope in your right hand. Take that middle part and with your thumb and forefinger pointing to the end of the rope that is away from you, spin it in a clock wise direction over your head. Make sure the rope extends straight and true and that your hand doesn’t get ahead of the end of the rope. This will create a very even, rhythmical spin. When this is feeling comfortable aim the end of your rope, at the full extension of your arm’s spin, at the object you want to send the energy to. Start by using a fence post, rock or other inanimate object, until you master this. Repeat this in a counter clockwise spin.

After this becomes easy then change your grip and run the rope through your hands with your pinky finger closest to the end of the rope, and the end that runs closest to you coming out of your palm, through the forefinger and thumb. Repeat the spins in each direction, until you are comfortable and in control of the speed and direction of the spin.

It is important to repeat this with your “off hand” as well, until you feel coordinated and comfortable handling the rope. Once you can do this with finesse and control, it is time to take it to your horse and practice groundwork exercises. When you are directing your horse to the right, spin the rope in your left hand, and when you are directing your horse to the left, use your right hand. This sends the energy to the end of the horse and propels him in the direction you want him to go. A little effort from you can turn into big energy for your horse. It is important to control this because your horse will be reacting to it. Learn how much it takes for a walk, trot or canter in the round pen. It will be different for every horse, but it is up to you to learn how your horse processes the information and to act accordingly. Your core body position is also important in the round pen, but more on that later. Just learn to use the rope.

If this skill is new to you, it will improve your horsemanship by 1,000 percent.

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Teaching kids is like training horses
MARY-ELLEN LANG:
CBC News Viewpoint

Mary-Ellen Lang delights in being a mom, grandma, writer, teacher, gardener, and equestrian, usually in about that order. She has been teaching since 1972, and writing since 1980. Two of her three (award winning, Young Adult) novels are published in many languages in Europe, the USA and Canada.

Years ago, I was newly single, raising three children on my own, unemployed, poor as a mole, and up in Campbell River, B.C., where I was trying to land a teaching job. "What is your teaching philosophy?" the interviewer asked.

Well, finally an easy question. How would I approach the task of educating teenagers? I had given this some thought; I followed the advice my first editor had once given me about writing stories: "Go with what you know."

"Teaching kids," I said, "is a lot like training horses."

Almost 20 years and several thousand students later, I still think this. The principles you apply to the training of horses are the very same ones you could apply to humans. What works for one works as well for the other.

First of all, anyone with a brain would want a horse to have an open, eager and honest attitude to the work. Otherwise, a miserable-minded, bad-spirited animal could easily kill you. In order to create a good attitude to begin with, your horse has to trust you, has to know you aren't going to do anything mean, incomprehensible or inappropriate. You encourage trust and good faith in a horse by treating it fairly, calmly and with purpose. Furthermore, you communicate clearly, so the horse understands what you want.

Same thing with kids. They can't or won't learn what you want them to if they don't trust you. If they're frightened, angry, confused, humiliated or bored, they won't invest themselves honestly in what you're trying to teach them. Trust is the bottom line in both horses and kids.

Out of trust comes courage. A horse will try to do just about anything you ask if it trusts you. Assuming you know your horse well enough to know what is and what is not within its talent and ability range, and will not ask something crazy of it (you wouldn't ask Muffy the pony to keep up with Big Ben), you can expect an honest horse to be brave enough to attempt the work. The horse knows its attempt will be respected. The trainer knows that after some attempts, the horse will acquire and then master the desired skills.

Similarly, students will develop and exercise courage, and attempt all sorts of tasks in direct proportion to the trust they place in an instructor.

Horses must learn enough self-discipline to stand while tied, without fussing or fighting. Soon enough, if handled right, the horse discovers that it is to its advantage to co-operate with its handlers. Horses get everything from new shoes to baths to backrubs while tied. Once they learn to be patient and stand quietly, all sorts of good things can then begin.

This point does not have quite the same easy transfer to human behaviour, especially small boy behavior. Sitting still can be hell. However, within reason, when a child is able to tolerate periodic stretches of quiet stillness, good things will follow. Good things such as story times, naps, cookies, listening skills and, later, concentrated and uninterrupted thinking.

Riding horses are typically "schooled" in enclosures, so they can safely learn necessary cues and skills from riders. Horses are taught to walk straight, back up, side-pass, trot, canter, circle, bend, collect and extend as asked. This sort of training is intensive, and eventually also incredibly boring to a horse. If overdone, horses become "ring sour." They're miserable, sore and cranky-minded. It's always the fault of the rider or trainer.

A ring-sour horse needs to go on some trail rides, needs to blow off steam, see the world, enjoy being a horse, and apply its training to some real-life situations. Why learn to side-pass, back up and bend? Because if you do, you get through the gate without hitting your hipbones on the rails. Oh, well now the training makes some sense. The horse's attitude is restored.

Same thing with students. Hit them all day long with worksheets, verb conjugation, comma faults and long division drills, and they get weary of it. Then they get cranky. Or bored. I don't know which is worse. They need experience applying their skills to situations that matter to them, and that are "real." This is not that hard to do, but may require some adventure outside the walls of the school.

Horses must learn to do as they're told. Accepting this is not some horrible assault on their self-esteem or self-determination. Rather, it's a necessary component of learning. The novice horse accepts that it doesn't know all there is to know and is willing to be instructed, is willing to be shown or "told" what to do. Most horses will accept this if they're handled with respect and care. So, if I want to stop at the stop sign and wait for the logging truck to go by, my horse had better do what it's told. Otherwise, we're dead.

Still, there are times when a rider out on a mountain trail will want the horse to use its own mind to decide the best thing to do. A good rider will know that sometimes the horse knows things he/she doesn't, will pay attention and allow the horse to call the shots. I remember times when my horse knew about a bear I couldn't see or hear, or knew about a collapsed trail or hidden pot-hole that I had no clue about. Since I trusted my horse as much as my horse trusted me, we both ended up safe. We were, ultimately, partners.

Much the same idea applies in many ways to the student-teacher relationship. Most students learn to follow instruction up to the point where the purpose of instruction is to foster independent and competent thinking. Then they're on their own, which after all, is the main goal of education.

I could go on. But you get the point. In any case, so many years ago, after chattering away about how to train horses and kids, I got the job.

I could not agree more with this veiw point.  I see it all the time, attiudes change very quickly when a smart mouthed child is brave enough to climb on a horse.  In 10 mins or less they are asking for help if they aren't alreay on the ground.  Horses are funny that way.  There was a comment on the page about the article that her veiws wouldn't work in England, because only rich people learn to ride horses.  To that I say the person making the statement probably wouldn't be a very good horse trainer either.  Joyce Fox

 

 

How Horses See

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By Joyce Fox

Horses do not see like humans. The equine eye is the largest of all land mammals. Whales, Seals, and the Ostrich are the only other animals with larger eyes. On the Snellen scale, used for human vision we consider perfect sight at twenty feet to be 20/20. Using this scale a horse would have 20/30 vision, a dog has 20/50, a cat 20/75, and rats have 20/300. This allows your horse to pick up on the slightest movements at father distances than we humans. Often making windy days more interesting on young horses, with less training and confidence in their human leaders.  Horses can sense movement much quicker than humans and can really get tuned to your movements. So pay attention to how you move around your horse.  Because your horses is watching you. 

Horses have two types of vision Monocular which means that they can see independently all the way around them with either eye with very few blind spots. Thus the reason for the term “Make sure you train both eyes.” The second type of vision is used when horses graze or needs to look down his nose, and is called Binocular and allows both eyes to focus on the same area. While this field of vision is narrow, it is believed to allow for better depth perception. One reason you should flex your horses nose when asking him to cross a ditch, if his depth perception is used, he might not feel the need to rare back and jump six feet to cross a six inch ditch. A fun test for you to try is walk toward a wall with one eye closed and then open both eyes and you can see the difference two eyes can make. It is assumed that the horse can only use one type of vision at a time, and that is why you will sometimes see horses bobbing their heads up and down. They are checking to see which vision will give them the best view of whatever may be threatening them. Other indications that horses only use one type of vision at a time is, dressage horses practicing a freestyle routine have been witnessed cantering around the arena, on the bit, and they collided head on because they simply could not see.  A their riders were not paying attention.
The placement of horses eyes on either side of its head is also very important of your horses utilization of these types of vision. A horse with a big wide eye set will have better vision than one that is narrow and pig eyed. I believe the horses with the better vision are much calmer and easier to train because they are not startled as easily as the horse with poorer vision.

Your horse does have some blind spots you should be aware of.

• One is right in front of the forehead. One way you can tell if your horse is beginning to trust you during early training, is if he will stand relaxed for you to touch him in the blind spot on the forehead.
• Another blind spot is directly behind your horse. The reason you should always speak to you horse as you approach from the rear.
• The other place your horse can not see is the center of his back, if you the rider can not see either eye he can not see you.
  

When you are training a horse to collect on the bit and you are having trouble getting him to willing do this, realize that when a horses head is flexed at the poll his head will be at right angles with the ground, which means that he can only see straight in front of him down his nose towards the ground. Recent research found that this blind spot is about the width of his body. This means that he must have enough trust in you to allow you to guide him around because he is basically working blind.  Another thing to think about as you are riding and training that is related to vision is when you are asking your horse to back through something as in a trail class, allowing your horse to lower his head will allow him to see the obstacle better than you can from your vantage point in the saddle.  If you twist around to see where you are going, it will usually cause the horse to veer off course. 

How much detail and color can horses see? Since the horse can not tell us, just what they can and can not see, and their vision is bound to very from horse to horse, the only way we can tell is by research, trial, and error. Researchers using a method of placing rewards behind a trap door, tested how much detail a horse could see by placing stripes on the door. The horse was trained to choose the striped door over the plain one for a food reward. They varied the thickness of the stripes until they were so fine, the horse could not distinguish the striped door from the grey door. From the results, they discovered that horses can see detail as well as humans, perhaps better! The researchers were challenged when coming up with a way to test for color. To do this test they asked the horse to select a color on a grey background that they could vary from light to dark. They discovered that the horse could always pick out red or blue regardless of what the background was like. However, the horses would only pick yellow and green reliably when they were brighter than the background. If the brightness of the colors was equal to the grey background, some horses couldn’t pick these colors as easily. A few could tell the difference between the yellow and green while others could not, so the results were mixed. It is believed that most horses can see some degree of some colors. In my own experience, I had a horse that did not mind anything you wanted to do with a brown colored slicker, but if you did the same thing with a yellow slicker, he didn’t like it and would shy away from it. So I do believe there is some degree of either color or brightness that effects them.

Night vision. Horses are most active in the day and don’t tend to roam a lot in the dark under normal conditions. Whether it is because of poorer vision or something else I do not know. I am sure that they can see better than humans in the dark, but horses eyes do not adjust very quickly between light and darkness. If you are asking your horse to load in a dark trailer, enter an indoor arena, or ride into a thick wooded path it may look like you are asking him to cross into a dark pit. It may require you getting off and going in first to show him he will live. Same thing in crossing ditches, if you don’t let him take a look, it may look like a bottomless cavern to him.
Bare your horses vision in mind as you are riding and training your horse, and maybe you will be able to see a better way to ride.

 

Conquering Our Fears

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By Ken Jones, MyEquineNetwork.com Contributing Writer

Everyone has experienced fear interacting with horses. The sheer size and power of the horse is both inspirational and intimidating at the same time. The key is in learning to understand our fear, and overcoming it to improve our horsemanship. Wanting that special relationship with such a beautiful animal is a powerful incentive to overcome our fears and make a commitment to learning and creating a relationship.
Overcoming fear is a subject that has been discussed at length in the last few years. A person can make great strides by using a mentor and/or taking classes and clinics with people who have knowledge and experience with horses. In my mind the most important part of this human / equine equation is to use a horse that is mentally balanced and has a lifetimes’ worth of experience with people. Work with a horse that uses his thinking side of the brain. It can be yours or it can be a school horse. Learning to trust our horse is essential, thus the importance of starting with a horse we can trust!

Our reasons for being with the horse revolve around movement. Whether we are leading or riding or working our horse at liberty, it is about movement. We must take the responsibility for leadership. Presenting ourselves to the horse as a benevolent dictator, showing a calm and assertive demeanor is usually well received. Through our body language we present ourselves as non- threatening, respectable leaders who understand and respect our horse partners.
It is important to learn how horses think. We control their actions by connecting with their minds. We can’t win a physical contest with such a strong and powerful animal. We can rule somewhat by intimidation, but just like human relationships, we’ll never get the best out of them, nor can we completely trust them. Through intimidation there is always more of a chance they will react fearfully themselves, being a prey animal by nature.
Some people look at the horse / human relationship as us controlling their movement. I prefer to look at it another way: It is our goal as leaders to send our intention and energy through the horse to obtain the movement we want. We control the amount and direction of the energy we send to our horses. Every horse is different and we have to adjust accordingly. We want them to be a willing recipient of our intentions. Horses that can understand what we want in a non- intimidating, respectful manner will respond positively - if they respect us.
To deal with our fears and have it work to our advantage, we have to learn about horses; both how they think and how they react. We will become confident through interaction, while accounting for a certain amount of trial and error. We will make mistakes, but that’s okay. All the while we’ll be gaining experience and understanding and challenging ourselves to stay positive and be calm and assertive. We will learn from others and we will learn from our horses.

How to do this? We must have a plan. That’s next.
Keep your chin up and your heels down. 
 

 

The Competitive Edge

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Written by Anna Mitchell
Kids in Competition

“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.” —Stacia Tauscherf

I had a great question this month from one of our readers regarding his child’s involvement in competitive cutting. This reader wants to know whether encouraging his young daughter’s participation in a competitive sport at an early age will have a positive developmental impact or whether it may have negative consequences. The short answer to this question is – potentially both, depending on the child’s level of development and the competitive environment.
As the youth divisions in our equine sports continue to expand and flourish, this particular question becomes increasingly important. Are we helping or hurting our children by exposing them to the pressures of competition at such an early age? While working with coaches, trainers, athletes and their families, I have heard strong arguments for both sides, so this month, I want to explore each angle to enable you, as the parent or trainer, to make an informed decision regarding kids in competition.

Kids in sports
A couple of key points that we want to keep in mind are: first, kids are kids. They are not just little adults and are different from us physically, cognitively and emotionally on a developmental level. Consequently, we need to be aware of and consider what is developmentally appropriate for each individual. Second, it is important to remember that positive and negative attitudes and experiences are not taught by the sport itself but rather through the deliverance of the sport by influential adults and peers. How are we portraying competition to our children?
Due to the complexity of this topic, I will cover these issues in two parts. This month, I will discuss how our attitudes and behaviors can mean the difference between our children experiencing competition as either a negative or positive addition to their lives. Further, I will offer suggestions on how to create a positive competitive environment for your child to promote enthusiastic participation and optimal development.
Later on, I will discuss in detail two developmental stages for children. With this information, I hope you will be able to make informed decisions with realistic expectations for your children depending on their stage of development and age-appropriate abilities.
Between the 1930s and the 1950s, there was a strong movement influenced by the “experts” to reduce or eliminate competitive sports in elementary and junior high schools (Wiggins, 1987, cited in S. Murphy, Sport Psychology Interventions, 1995, Page 39). School administrators and physical educators felt that competition during these age groups could be potentially harmful for the child’s psychological development. Instead, they recommended participation in noncompetitive physical activity for positive benefits. The community, however, did not agree, and consequently, numerous community-based sporting organizations were formed and flourished such as the YMCA, Little League Baseball, Biddy Basketball and 4H groups. The debate continues today on the potential harm or benefits of children in competition. (Murphy, 1995).

Potential
So let’s talk about some of these positive and negative impacts. There is no doubt that a child has the opportunity to gain a number of positive benefits from participating in any physical activity such as: health and fitness, hand-eye coordination, self-expression, increased stamina, flexibility, speed, strength and agility. However, participation in competitive sports offers the unique potential to develop a number of other vital life skills such as: problem-solving skills, cooperation skills, team cohesion, increased confidence and self-esteem, perseverance, accountability, anger management and stress management skills.
The key word here is “potential.” Each competitive situation has the potential for learning these skills, but as I mentioned earlier, the deliverance of the competitive environment can either help or hinder a child’s development. By deliverance, I am referring to the planning and organization, the level of encouragement, the delegation of tasks and positions, the stimulation of personal growth and opportunity, and the response to failures and achievements. Those of you who have had any contact with kids will probably be acutely aware of how susceptible children are to influence by those around them. So it is our job as the adults to promote a well-planned and age-appropriate competitive environment for optimal positive development.
I will talk more about what is considered age appropriate, but for now, suffice to say that any negative experience during this particularly vulnerable developmental stage can have long-lasting effects, particularly on a child’s confidence and self-esteem. Consider the potential harm from an overbearing, overly aggressive parent or coach who constantly and harshly criticizes a child’s performance with little acknowledgement of his or her achievements. Or consider the impact on a child who is often ignored or overlooked in favor of more skilled teammates.
Competition is healthy for all of us; it helps us push ourselves further than we might on our own. However, with competition comes failures, and it is how we deal with these failures that we develop an inherent positive or negative attitude towards the competition itself. Our ability to deal with stress and disappointments tends to develop over time, and young children often do not yet have the experience to handle failures as well as we might. It is our job to teach our kids how to find the positive in a negative situation and to view disappointments as a learning experience rather than a personal failure. We need to help children develop their coping skills by offering them opportunities through realistic challenges to experience the triumphs of achievements and the disappointments of poor performance. We need to hand over the responsibility to the children so that they can learn to be accountable for their own efforts and actions. We need to provide unconditional support and encouragement without pushing them beyond their abilities and causing fear or resentment.

Create a positive environment
How do we know how much challenge a child can handle? How do we know what he or she is ready for? First, listen to your child. Do not presume to always know what he can or cannot do or would or would not enjoy. If the child does not want to participate, support that choice and offer alternatives for physical activity. Do not try to force him into a sport because the rest of your family is involved. Second, be aware of age-appropriate developmental stages.
In her book The Mental Athlete (2003), Kay Porter offers some great guidelines to keep in mind when working with kids in competition and helping to create a positive environment:
• Allow your children to be interested in and want to participate in whatever sport they choose.
• Teach your child, through example, to respect authority figures such as judges, trainers, coaches and referees.
• Allow kids to learn from their own mistakes without judgment or criticism.
• Be light and supportive; promote the fun aspects of sport. Celebrate your child’s achievements (even the little ones). Accept your child’s abilities and limitations.
• Do not try to relive your youth through your children.
• Do not teach your kids nonaccountability by blaming others, the equipment, the horse, the weather or the judges.
• Do not push kids beyond their capabilities or interest. A child’s self-confidence is often extremely fragile and difficult to regain.
• Do not expect perfection or lay guilt on your child. He is not responsible for your ego or your reputation in the community.
The second important question on this topic is: What is developmentally appropriate for your child? I will answer this question next month as I address two stages of development, which can be loosely called: The School Years (approximately ages 7 to 11) and Adolescence (approximately ages 12 to 20). It is important for us as the role models to understand the developmental growth of our children from a biosocial, cognitive and psychosocial perspective during these stages in order to determine what could be considered age-appropriate exposure to competition.
Our kids represent the future of our sports. Through education and understanding, we can lay the foundation for a positive competitive experience that will help them develop valuable physical, emotional and social skills through enjoyment.

Kids in Competition – Part 2

“Fifty percent of sports participants drop out by the time they reach early adolescence.” —Institute for the Study of Youth Sports

In part 1 of Kids in Competition, we talked about the pros and cons of introducing children to competitive sports at an early age. Just to recap, common consensus regarding this issue seems to be that although physical activity is extremely beneficial for a child’s health and development, involvement in competitive sports can do more harm than good if not delivered carefully and appropriately.
We talked about age-appropriate expectations, and this month, I want to expand on this concept by exploring in further detail two developmental stages of childhood and adolescence. When considering what may be age appropriate for our child, it is important to consider what he or she is developmentally capable of handling – physically, emotionally and cognitively.
We, as the adults, have the ability to make a competitive situation either a positive or negative experience for the child depending on our attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. Consequently, it is our responsibility to foster a positive experience through awareness. We need to be aware of our own behaviors and expectations. We need to be aware of what kind of message we are delivering to the child regarding competitive sports, and we need to be aware of the child’s beliefs, expectations, aspirations and developmental capabilities.
So how do we know if our child is developmentally ready to tackle the intensity of competition? Children are individuals who develop at different speeds; however, most children follow a certain developmental order. For example, most crawl before they walk and learn individual words before sentences. There are always exceptions to these rules, but by understanding this order, we can predict what to expect next, although not always when to expect it. Extensive research has identified age-appropriate guidelines to help us with our predictions. Awareness of these guidelines will enable us to make an informed decision regarding our child’s competitive capabilities.
I want to divide our “youth” into two developmental groups; middle childhood (approximately ages 7-11) and adolescence (approximately ages 12 – 20). Each age group experiences very different developmental stages, which can have an enormous impact on their abilities to handle competition. When introducing a child to competition, we need to understand what else is going on in that child’s life in order to determine the best approach for that specific child. Some children respond well to pressure and an aggressive approach. Others react negatively and, unless taught adequate stress management skills, may experience an emotional aversion to competition in general.

Middle childhood
Middle childhood can be considered the learning period. This is the stage when children start to reduce their dependency on their parents as they explore themselves and their world outside the home. As children venture out to school or other activities, the expansion of their social worlds offers opportunities for growth and development. Although many have attended day care, preschool or community-based organizations, middle childhood is often the time when formal education surfaces any developmental or learning disabilities that may have gone undetected until now. Children start to compare themselves to others and discover that they are different in certain ways. This discovery helps them to begin to establish their own identities but may also create insecurities and confusion. These insecurities need to be considered when introducing the child to a competitive environment.
The human brain at birth is already 25 percent of its adult weight, by 2 years old, it has attained 75 percent of its adult weight (The Developing Person, K.S Berger, 2005). Although the human brain grows very quickly, it actually continues to develop throughout childhood and into late adolescence. As it develops, it enables the person to master increasingly complex cognitive and motor skills. Trying to pressure a child into performing physical tasks that their immature brain is not yet able to grasp can put the child at risk of serious injury and emotional trauma.
During middle childhood, the brain is just starting to be able to think logically. Well-known psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) refers to this cognitive skill as “Operational Thought” and is a crucial development that enables a child to think more systematically, objectively and scientifically (Berger, 2005). This level of thought is a necessary cognitive skill for strategic competitiveness.
It is at this level of cognitive development that the child develops moral reasoning. As children move from early to middle childhood, they must learn how to express themselves within their social context. Egocentrism and boasting is acceptable and even cute in preschoolers, but as children enter middle childhood, they learn social skills such as humility and moral reasoning that make them socially acceptable. These skills will be necessary for team cohesion in competitive sports.
Other cognitive developments that make a child at this stage better able to handle competition than a preschooler include an increase in speed of thought processing. Development of the brain enables the child to think and therefore react faster, which is often a critical component of any sport. Middle childhood introduces selective attention, enabling the child to stay focused on a specific task longer without being distracted, a crucial skill for successful performances.
During this particularly impressionable stage, peers become increasingly important; however, adults remain the main source of influence as they look to them for guidance and direction. Consequently, when introducing children in this developmental stage to a new sport or competition, it is important to remember that they are watching and often modeling everything you do and say. If you compete yourself, your child will be watching how you handle successes and disappointments, how you treat others and how you respond to stress. This is the time to teach your child to accept responsibility for his or her actions. Do you really want to hear your child blame his horse, the judges or his help when things go bad?

Adolescence
Sometime between the ages of 12 and 15, a child enters adolescence, signified by the onset of puberty. This can be considered the transition period from childhood to adulthood and is often a period of turmoil, challenge and extreme change. Unlike your sweet school child who looks to you for support and direction as they tentatively venture out to explore the world for the first time, your new teenager is likely to shove you away as he attempts to deal with an onslaught of hormones and a desire for independence.
Don’t be surprised if your once-dedicated little sporting hero suddenly loses all interest in practice and would rather hang out with his friends or hide in his room. The onset of puberty initiates enormous change for the adolescent – physically, emotionally and socially. Let’s look at each of these to see how they can potentially affect competition.
Physically, an adolescent goes through significant change as puberty prepares the body for sexual maturation. The timing of these physical changes vary depending on genetic, environmental and sometimes cultural factors and can have an impact on the adolescent’s emotional well-being. If a girl physically matures earlier than her other peers, she can become a target for teasing and ridicule. If a boy matures late, he may become a target for teasing and bullying. This social isolation, in addition to rapid hormonal changes, can be a deadly combination and is considered one of the main causes of teenage suicide.
During this period, the body goes through a huge, often uneven, growth spurt, which can have a significant impact on a child’s athletic abilities. Unlike prenatal and infant development, where the body develops from the inside out, the adolescent body develops from the outside in. The hands, feet, legs and arms grow before the torso, resulting in the characteristically gangly adolescent who looks all arms and legs (Berger, 2005). This systematic growth period can result in temporary loss of coordination and athletic ability as the adolescent grows into his new body and everything catches up. This is a crucial consideration for parents and coaches of young athletes to avoid injury through inappropriate expectations.
In relation to competitive capability, emotional and social changes should also be considered. One of the main priorities for adolescents is to establish their self-identity. They do this by trying out various identities to find the best fit. Consequently, your teenager may be an aspiring rock star one day and a Tibetan monk the next. This social confusion, coupled with an onslaught of hormones and physical changes, all act as a significant distraction from competitive dedication. Adolescents often experience an identity crisis, resulting in loss of confidence and insecurities as they try to work out where they belong in their social world. We all know confidence is a major predictor of competitive success, and their performance may be affected until they resolve this crises. We can help by making a special effort during this time to boost our adolescent’s self-esteem and being sensitive to the enormous changes that he may be experiencing.
There are many, many developmental changes that our children go through as they move out of childhood dependency into adulthood. I hope that by outlining some here you may have a better understanding and therefore better tolerance if during this time your children seems less committed to their competitive prowess.


Training the Young Horse – When Enough is Enough

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By Ken Jones, MyEquineNetwork.com Contributing Writer

Horses in many ways are like people. They have a natural curiosity and an interest in communication and learning. Like people they get bored and lose their focus as well.
When we work with our young horses we should think of ourselves as teachers. What makes a good teacher? Think back to a good teacher in your life that has inspired you and created that energy that made you want to learn and please. Now think, what are those individual attributes that your great teacher exhibited?
First we need to have the communication down; it’s hard to teach if you can’t communicate. Second, we have to have our horse’s respect and we need to give it in return. Always ask yourself, ‘am I doing the right things to gain and deserve my horse’s respect?’ With those fundamentals, we gain trust and we are off to teach our horses what we want.
Getting back to the question, how much is enough? There has got to be recess. Horses can only take so much. There has to be fun, reward, variety, focus and, last but not least, there has to be a challenge. Teaching demands great lesson planning. Every horse is different; it is up to us to read our horses mind. We do this through body language. Our horses will tell us when enough is enough. If we put together a good lesson plan we will get a lot out of our horse, if we put together a great lesson plan, we will get more. If we don’t, we’ll get less.
When frustration sets in, teacher or student, it’s time to stop! It’s time for homework! Unfortunately, in horsemanship the homework is for the teacher, not the student. Now it’s time to think it out. Verbalize what is going on and what is wrong and make a plan to deal with it. Go back to the horse with a new and great attitude. Try again. If it doesn’t work, break the lesson down into smaller increments, and teach it in stages. Make yourself a good teacher and you’ll be a better horseman. In fact, if you are good enough, your horse may like going to school!

I can’t tell you how many minutes it will take, or how many days to train. My “horse watch” is broken. Like my old, great coach, I don’t want to physically wear them out or break their spirit. I don’t want to push them athletically or mentally, before their bodies are ready to be pushed. Respect the Equine mind and the body and your horse will be better for you. It all depends on what you are doing. Seek information from professionals in the discipline you are working in. Consult with the Equine Science department of a local University or ask your vet.

Learn to read your horse’s body language and stay aware of your own frame of mind.