Clear and effective communication is the foundation of good riding and training. Without it, confusion sets in, making progress difficult for both horse and rider. This article explores the importance of clarity in intention and aids, emphasizing the need for consistency, proper timing, and a well-defined training approach. By understanding how to communicate precisely and predictably, riders can create a more responsive and confident horse, leading to a more harmonious partnership.
As we are learning to ride and train, we sometimes encounter big problems that seem to appear very suddenly, and we wonder: what happened??!! Everything was going fine, and all of a sudden, the horse is acting up. Maybe he suddenly stopped and refused to go forward, from one day to the next. Maybe he started turning around for no discernible reason. Maybe he started to rear or buck. In some cases, the reason is pain-related. But in some cases, the extreme reaction is the final stage in a longer process. The rider kept making small mistakes with her seat and aids that the horse didn’t like. So he started to react in small ways at first. Maybe he pinned his ears in certain situations, or he lost some impulsion, or he became more crooked, or he inverted. But when the rider didn’t notice the subtle warning signs and didn’t change what she was doing, the horse had to send out larger and larger signals. Some riders only get the message when they get bucked off. But by that time they have missed hundreds of smaller warning signs over a period of several months. And once the horse is so annoyed that he bucks or rears, the problem has become very serious.
A little over 20 years ago I wrote an article called “Gentleness and Discipline”, which became a favorite with many of my readers. I haven’t looked at it since I first wrote it. Writing articles is my way of processing information and experiences. Some of what I write becomes a newsletter article or content in one of our online courses. And once I have published something I generally don’t look at it again, and I move on the next topic that I’m interested in.
Recently, Shana said I should revisit this old article and perhaps update it. Like all my articles it was written at a specific stage in my learning journey. It marks a transition from the old, more authoritarian paradigm that I had grown up with to a more cooperative approach.
We have probably all had days when we felt like we had completely forgotten how to ride, when it seemed as if we couldn’t do anything right. I suspect that as long as we ride, we may never be completely safe from experiences like this. Fortunately, the incidents seem to become fewer and farther in between, the more we learn. - Or maybe we just don't take bad rides as personally any more, because we know that we will have another good ride again soon. Just like we know after a good ride that there will be more difficult ones waiting for us in the future.
This week I want to touch on something that is very important in training and riding, but unfortunately, it is hardly ever addressed in lessons or in books and magazine articles. It has to do with training strategies. How do you decide how to proceed next with your horse? How do you know how to improve a movement, a transition, a turn, the rein contact, the horse’s suppleness, or any other problem you may encounter? Many good, experienced riders make these decisions purely intuitively, based on their gut feeling and their experience with many different horses, and these riders are very often correct in their decisions. But this kind of skill is unfortunately difficult to communicate and to pass on to others.
8 habits that will make you a successful rider. If you prioritize the items on this list, you and your horse will progress, slowly but surely. Whenever you feel lost or frustrated, return to this list, check if you have been implementing it or if you have become sloppy with some of these items. If you put one foot in front of the other, you will succeed step by step, even if progress sometimes seems to be painfully slow for all of us.
Not everything in riding is glamorous. Not everything is special, magical, and brilliant.
Much of the most important work we do, as riders, is work that is simple - even mundane - in its simplicity. But it is where the real treasures lie.
It is one thing to teach a horse a new concept, movement, or skill set. This is important work, too, but at first, it will come with many rough edges. When you introduce it to the horse, you get it in its crude, unpolished form. It is far from “finished” and the real work unfolds from there.
Every horse and every training situation presents us with challenges and problems that we need to solve because no horse and no rider is ever perfect. There is always something that can be improved. In a sense, these imperfections and shortcomings give us a job. Without them, we would have nothing to do.
In order to decide what topic to work on, which exercise to choose, or which aid to give, we have to analyse the horse and the training situation. We normally notice surface level symptoms first, such as a rein contact that is too heavy, or too hard, or uneven, or a stiffness in the hindquarters, shoulders, or rib cage, or an issue with a turn, transition, or movement.
When I was a teenager, I had no problem getting on any horse, any time, anywhere. Riding a horse was a little bit like riding a bike. Simply get on and go. Over the years, this changed considerably. More and more, I realised that I had to be in the right frame of mind, and the horse had to be in the right frame of mind in order to be able to do productive work. Otherwise, I would rather not ride the horse. This frame of mind is not so easy to describe. It’s something that evolved slowly over many years for me. I need to feel grounded, at peace, with a sense of inner calm, so that I can focus on the horse without being distracted by thoughts about other things. If I am upset or angry, it’s not a good time to ride.
We have probably all had days when we felt like we had completely forgotten how to ride, when it seemed as if we couldn’t do anything right. I suspect that as long as we ride, we may never be completely safe from experiences like this. Fortunately, the incidents seem to become fewer and farther in between, the more we learn. - Or maybe we just don't take bad rides as personally anymore, because we know that we will have another good ride again soon. Just like we know after a good ride that there will be more difficult ones waiting for us in the future.
When Alois Podhajsky was the director of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, he sometimes noticed that someone watched him during the morning workouts with a disapproving eye. So he sent his groom up to the gallery to relay the message: “The Colonel couldn’t help but notice that you disapprove of his training. He is inviting you to come down and ride his horse for him because he would love to learn a better way.” Not surprisingly, nobody was brave (or incautious) enough to take the bait and say: “By God, I’m going to get up on this horse and show him how it’s done!” That’s a very clever and very effective way to silence the peanut gallery who thinks they are so much better than the riders in the arena who are actually trying their best to do a good job with their horse.
In order for the horse and the rider to become the best versions of themselves and the best possible team they need to have a good relationship. The basis of this friendship between horse and rider is mutual trust, mutual respect, and effective communication. In all three areas, the burden is on the rider to prove herself to the horse, that she can be trusted, that she deserves respect, and she needs to learn to become a good communicator.
When I returned to riding as a middle-aged person, my first horse had a very loud ‘no.’ He was cheerful enough about doing the things he wanted to do, but my goal - to learn dressage - prompted a storm of tantrums and hissy fits of truly epic proportions. This, of course, felt horrible. He was treated well, I thought, and the requests I was making were not very difficult. So why did he spend his time looking for ways to make my life hard? Why did he keep saying ‘no’?
Happy New Year! It’s time to set our 2022 Riding Goals!
The New Year is upon us yet again. I think for most of you, it would be fair to say that 2020 and 2021 may not have gone according to plan for you, but if you were creative and resourceful, you may have been able to find a way to still continue your progress and learning, in spite of the less than perfect circumstances.
Not to make light of what has been a very tough two years, but I think it is also important to take stock of what HAS gone well and why. Times like this can teach us valuable lessons such as:
✵ No one else is more responsible for your learning more than you are.
✵ You are in charge of your learning.
✵ When there is a will, there is a way.
✵ Within every problem, there is a solution.
✵ You are more capable than you may have previously realized or believed.
