10/14/2024
Do less better
The majority of the time there’s no big magic fix, perfect one exercise, or big, exciting change that you need to do in order to achieve whatever it is that you’re working on. Many times folks will come into lessons thinking they need to work on one thing and we end up going back to doing lesser things better. This of course can look different for everybody depending on where you were at, but we can almost always find this saying to be true with almost anyone. Including ourselves.
It’s easy to get caught up in wanting to do advance maneuvers and trying to put our focus into those without first mastering how to do the basics well. Isn't that so much more exciting.
So, how do we modify behavior to help a horse understand the question and give the right answer?
If your horse doesn’t understand what you’re asking, you have to change something. If somebody asks you a question in a language you don’t speak, having it repeated to you louder or more slowly won’t make you understand it all of a sudden.
The same is true of horses.
Timing is crucial in the training of the horse.
Usually there is a two second window for us to respond to any behavior of the horse in order to be able to modify it successfully.
If there is a longer gap between the behavior and our reaction to it, the chances are high that the horse will not make the connection in his mind between his behavior and our reaction.
Another consideration, if we let the horse get along with an unwanted behavior more than twice, it is generally acknowledged that it can be considered already as a habit, which is much more difficult and takes longer time and a bigger effort to change than teaching the correct response in the first place.
This, incidentally, is why young or difficult horses and inexperienced riders can make a risky combination. Two or three bucks or stops at a fence that go without correction can quickly turn into a habit which is difficult to fix.
So, the first rules are to respond quickly, and not to let your horse make a habit of a behavior that you don’t want.
Aim for invisible communication with the horse but during the teaching phase, the intensity of an aid can vary according to the need of the horse.
Don't misunderstand that comment. It doesn’t mean that it is considered ok to - for example - use whip aids all the time because the horse is neglecting to respond to the leg aid.
On the contrary, we should always train and condition our horse to respond even to our subtle thought of wanting to, from the slightest of aid given by the leg.
When you’re first teaching your horse a lateral movement, for example, you might need to use a seat aid, then a stronger leg aid, possibly backed up by a whip or voice command. When the horse understands, you can refine it so that you use only a slight whisper of an aid. In order to help the horse to understand us better, and have a desired behavior happening more frequently, first we need to improve our communication with the horse.
We need to aim to give clear and consistent aids. Alongside being clear and specific with our aids, we need to know with what intensity we should give the aids and timing is also crucial.
This is not an unfamiliar concept and anyone who has taken riding lessons will have been told this at some point!
Aids are not just the primary aids given by our body, legs and hands. Or even secondary aids such as voice and whip. We also give signals with our mind, subconscious emotions, feelings and so on.
Sometimes our mixed signals arise from subtle, deep rooted subconscious thoughts or worries which may contradict what we are actually trying to ask with our body and other aids from our horse.
This doesn’t sound so far-fetched when you consider that if you’re particularly nervous of a specific jump, for instance, your horse is much more likely to stop, overjump, or spook at it.
Of course, this might be because you change your primary aids and tighten your hand or take your leg off. But it might also be due to the non-physical aids.
Unfortunately, there’s no magic solution to make you a better horseman/horsewoman or rider. As with everything, it takes time and experience.
The best thing you can do is to work alongside someone experienced and knowledgeable.
They will have a good idea of when and where to apply the aids, and at what intensity. What you can do is ensure that you work on creating or eliminating a behavior one step at a time, not by drilling or asking too much at once, of either horse or rider.
It’s also extremely important to go at the horse’s pace. They don’t all have the same ability, and your horse may genuinely not understand something because he or she isn’t at the correct stage of their education and development as yet.
Your Horsemanship and your ride starts the moment you get your horse from the pasture or the stall. The way in which you lead them, the way in which you halter them, the way in which you handle them, the way in which you saddle them.
It all truly matters.
Good horsemen and women are created in their mundane, simple, and consistent tasks in which they do every day. Don’t get me wrong, we all want to advance to the higher-level stuff, but many times when we focus on doing less better, the higher level things get so much simpler.
In most cases, behavior problems in horses arise due to our incorrect dealings and communication with them. Simple changes in our daily interaction with them can result in significant improvement with regards to how well our horse is listening to our requests, how well they behave around us, or how promptly they react to our aids in the saddle or out of it.
