PREVENT DRIFTING OUT ON CIRCLES WITH COUNTER-FLEXION

A wise old woman once told me, “Where a horse’s head goes his body is sure to follow.” Hmm. Ever find yourself trying to circle to the right, but the harder you turn your horse’s head that direction the more his body drifts off to the left? Yeah... that woman was wise about a lot of stuff, but not so much horses’ heads.

If your horse is drifting out on circles, it is not his head you need to worry about, but rather his outside shoulder…the part of his body that is doing the drifting. Counter-flexion, or bending your horse opposite the direction of travel, will help you gain control of that outside shoulder. As with everything else, schooling counter-flexion in hand first makes it much easier to achieve in the saddle.

GET STARTED IN HAND:  As Madison demonstrates, begin by walking your horse toward a corner of the arena. Along the way, establish outside bend by turning your horse's head slightly toward you and placing your other hand in the girth area behind his shoulder… where your leg would lay if you were in the saddle. As you travel through the corner, encourage your horse to keep that bend to the outside.

On the first few attempts your horse will most likely try to take away the bend (as pictured below on the left), so be prepared to keep a firm hold on the lead rope/reins, and to apply as much pressure as needed at the girth. You’ll know you are getting somewhere when your horse begins stepping through the corner crossing the foreleg nearest you in front of the opposite one (as pictured on the right.)

As he begins making those crossing steps, your horse might feel tempted to stop or back up. Just give a little tap with a whip or lead rope to remind him to continue moving forward.

Practice until you can maintain counter-flexion through the corner with very little pressure.

Once you have mastered that, see if you can maintain it while turning your horse off the rail for four or five steps coming out of the corner. Then try turning your horse off the rail in counter-flexion well before reaching the corner.

When you get comfortable in one direction, switch to your horse's other side and school counter-flexion in the opposite direction.

As you proceed, keep in mind that your goal is to get your horse sensitive to your hand at his girth, and yielding through his shoulders when you apply light pressure. To master it, pick an object in the arena and practice maintaining counter-flexion as you circle around it.

TRANSITION TO THE SADDLE: Once you are in the saddle, your leg provides the necessary pressure at the girth rather than your hand. Take your horse through these same exercises at the walk, then pick up trot and begin asking for counter-flexion through the corners of the arena.

When you get it you will feel your horse's outside shoulder lift, providing a comfortable little space behind it for your thigh to lay. Its important you be aware of this because your thigh must remain in that comfortable spot for you to have effective use of your outside leg. 

When you begin schooling circles, anytime you sense your horse's shoulder moving your thigh out of position, apply counter-flexion and stronger outside leg. This will remind your horse to keep his outside shoulder in front of your leg... traveling on the arc of the circle rather than drifting out of it. Once you've regained control of that shoulder, work slowly toward establishing inside bend. 

Practice counter-flexion to prevent drifting and you will soon find that where a horse’s shoulders go his body is sure to follow. 

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WHAT MATTERS MOST TO HORSES? This 13 Year Old Knows!

Juliana Newton became the proud new owner of five year old Neeko just a few weeks ago, but already they are on their way to becoming an outstanding team. To ensure they develop confidence and trust in each other, Juliana took it upon herself to spend time working with him on the ground... in hand, on the lunge line, and in bomb-proofing exercises.  Not bad for a thirteen year old!  I was so impressed I had to find out more.

Me: "Juliana, your riding instructor is also your trainer. Why are you doing this stuff with your horse rather than letting her do it?"

Juliana: "Because I'm the one who's going to be riding him. I want him to trust ME. Plus, I'll be taking him to horse shows so I want to make sure he's not going to be afraid of anything."

Me: "Did your instructor tell you to start doing this groundwork with Neeko?"
Juliana: "No, but she teaches us that we need to be good leaders to our horses, and she wants us to do stuff like this."

Me: "In doing this type of work with Neeko, have you run into anything yet that you felt you couldn't handle on your own? Anything that might have scared you?"

Juliana: "Not on the ground, but when I took him trail-riding for the first time he was afraid of the bridge."

Me: "How did you handle that?"

Juliana: "I let him sniff it, and then we walked away from it. We kept going back to it, and then he just went across it. He was nervous about it though. He circled around a few times after we got across, but then he was fine."

Juliana using a bag of empty soda cans to do some bomb-proofing with Neeko.

Me: "What advice would you give to other riders your age about doing groundwork and bomb-proofing with their horses?"
Juliana: "I would tell them to do it for their horses. All the riding is for us. But this kind of stuff is for our horses. It helps them be okay with us riding them.

Well said! Juliana knows that, to horses, nothing replaces good leadership. Thanks to an instructor who knows the same goes for riding students, Juliana is well on her way to becoming what every rider should strive to be... A Leader Prepared to Handle Anything! I think Neeko is one lucky boy!

Whether you are a riding instructor who wants to teach or a student who wants to learn the basics of providing good leadership to horses, The ALPHA Equestrian Challenge is for you! Order here or through Amazon.com.  Available in Kindle version too!

A KIND TALK ABOUT BEING MEAN TO HORSE: Why Being TOO Nice is Not Nice At All

Put the words 'mean' and 'horse' in one sentence and you're bound to provoke passionate responses from horse-lovers! I created quite a stir with my last blog post by stating "riders who can't bring the mean when needed get hurt by horses." So many great comments warrant a follow-up. Mean is a harsh word, indeed. It makes us uncomfortable, especially when talking about the animals we love. As one reader put it, "The word mean shouldn't even be considered in horsemanship." I disagree. Many years ago I could have used a kind talk about being mean to horses. Other riders might benefit from such a talk as well, so here goes.

It is nice to be nice to horses, but being inappropriately nice is just plain mean. Since they are prey animals and we are predators, we must be nice to them to convince them we mean no harm. But while we are being nice we can't lose sight of the fact that we are not the only threat horses have to worry about. They can't do much for us calmly unless they have some inkling that we are tough enough to protect them from all the other predators. Riders who are nice ALL the time aren't very convincing.

When horses doubt our ability to keep them safe, they start asking us to toughen up and get with the program. They do so by presenting annoying, pushy, obstinate, spooky and aggressive behaviors. We tend to think of these as "bad" behaviors but they are not bad at all. They are just horses' way of telling us to do what we are supposed to do: be better leaders! Responding to these behaviors with inappropriate niceness, confusion or fear gives horses even more reason to feel insecure with us. Not cool, especially since horses have only one way of telling us we are letting them down in the leadership department - by escalating their "bad" behaviors. That is how nice riders turn nice horses into anxiety-ridden basket cases.

Don't go there. Recognize every "bad" horse behavior as a learning experience for you. Avoid making excuses for these behaviors (avoid that like the plague!) and just learn how to correct them effectively. Show your horse you have some toughness in you by learning how to make him mind his manners fairly and firmly. Develop good horse-handling skills by spending some time working with your horse on the ground in leading and lunging exercises. Then take your horse through some bomb-proofing exercises to prove to him you can protect him from anything. Don't just ride your horse's back - let him know you HAVE his back!

​Taking the first step toward becoming a leader prepared to handle anything might make you feel like a big meanie. That's because the energy it takes to buck up and be assertive is very similar to the energy it takes to get angry. While directing that type of energy toward horses seems mean (see illustration), it's not. It is infinitely nicer than being inappropriately nice. Take that first step to be nice to your horse...and to yourself as well. You'll get over feeling mean about it when you realize how much calmer it allows your horse to behave in your presence.

These folks are showing off their toughest faces and their meanest faces. Can you tell the difference? It's hard to feel/look tough and feel/look nice at the same time. I wouldn't leave you hanging. The mean faces are on the top row, tough faces on the bottom row.

Female Equestrians - How We Fail Ourselves

In my opinion, men have an advantage with horses because they do not struggle with the concept of being mean to the extent women do.  It starts early on.  Tell a boy to hit a horse that bites him and he'll say okay.  Tell a girl to do the same thing and she'll say, "But that's so mean." Riders who can't bring the mean when needed get hurt by horses. Spend some time on Facebook and you will see how many girls believe the exact opposite. "All I know is that if I am nice to horses, horses will be nice to me," girls write.

Then girls walk into barns and see women being nice ("He likes exploring," says the woman who's horse is dragging her through the barn)...women going out of their way to be nice ("Something about that door scares him," says the woman walking around to the other side of the barn)... and women working extra hard to be nice ("He's scared of whips," says the woman struggling to get her horse in front of her leg.)

          

They see women avoid situations where they can't be nice ("I don't feed her treats by hand because she gets too pushy")... women insisting others be nice ("Hey, quiet down before you upset the horses in here")... and women apologizing for not being nice ("It was my fault, I never should have ridden him on such a windy day.") 

        

They watch women find excuses for the niceness not working ("The saddle must be hurting him," says the woman who got bucked off her horse)... and other women supporting this practice ("Yes, it's best to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's getting too much grain. Maybe you should try a different bit. Maybe his hip joints are out. I know a good chiropractor.")

         

Girls see women remain nice no matter what ("He's always nipping at me but he doesn't do it do be mean," says the woman who's horse had bitten off her lip a year ago.)... they see women be nice even when they know they shouldn't ("I know I should get after her for being so pushy but I just love her too much.")... and they hear women condemning those who aren't nice ("Did you see the way she treated that horse? She ought to be ashamed of herself.") Is it any wonder girls struggle with the concept of being mean?

        

Girls hear women say, "You don't have to be mean but you do have to get your horse's respect."  What??? Why confuse them even more? Sometimes you HAVE to act mean to get a horse's respect! Horses teach this lesson the hard way every day! And right now there is a fresh generation of young girls primed and ready to learn this lesson from their horses too... yep, just like a bunch of sitting ducks. 

       

It is not enough that we teach girls to ride. We have to get them and ourselves over the handicap we created with all this senseless nicey-nice stuff. Until we do, this predominately female industry is failing its majority. THESE ARE OUR BODIES! We have a right to protect them, a responsibility to be mighty about it, and an obligation to act as MEAN AS NECESSARY WHEN NEEDED!

HORSE ABUSE - REAL OR IMAGINED? Things to Consider Before You Assume the Worst

Over the years, many people have told me they suspect their horses had been abused based on the behavior of the horses soon after purchase. Perhaps a horse came unglued if someone picked up a whip, had the habit of jerking its head back to avoid touch, or presented some other dramatic behavior a rider had not seen before.  

     

I cannot state emphatically enough that these behaviors are NOT proof of abuse. They are actually very common challenges horses present on a normal basis... especially when they are first getting to know someone, haven't been handled much in the past, or have been handled primarily by people who just don't have good leadership skills when it comes to horses. Seeing a behavior for the first time is less an indication that it is abnormal and more an indication that it is time for you to learn to deal with that particular challenge. 

A rider who assumes a horse has been abused will be tempted to treat the horse differently than other horses. She will be tempted to baby the horse and walk on eggshells around it... causing the horse to feel insecure, thereby forcing it to become more protective of itself around humans.  Ironically enough, treating a horse as if it had been abused is an easy way to cause a horse to act as if it had been abused.  

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A rider who suspects a horse has been abused will ask less and expect less of the horse, stunting the horse's emotional and physical growth. Even if the horse really was mistreated and you have solid evidence to prove it, it will do the horse no good if you let that knowledge change the way you go about dealing with the horse.  Get on with your training and let the horse get on with its future and live up to its potential. Horses live in the moment. Allow the horse to grow up to be a calm, confident horse by providing the same fair, firm leadership all horses need.

I wanted to weigh in on this subject because stating a horse had been abused is not a light-hearted comment. It is a serious accusation of a previous owner... serious enough to be based on proof, not false assumptions. If you truly suspect animal cruelty or neglect, report it to the authorities so they can conduct an investigation. But please understand that the horse world could do with more understanding and fewer rumors. When a horse presents challenging behavior, the only assumption you should make is that it is acting like a normal horse. 

PARENTS OF RIDING STUDENTS: Read This Message for Your Child's Safety!

       

Just recently one of my riding instructor friends had planned a day where students wouldn't be riding, but rather staying on the ground to learn a little something about leadership.  Upon hearing this, one parent got very upset and said, "I can't see paying good money if my daughter is not going to get on a horse."  And then she pulled her daughter out of what happens to be a very good lesson program.

Parents, I can't stress how important it is that your child NOT spend every lesson riding a horse! Students who only ride never learn to become good leaders to horses. Leadership skills are built on the ground and then carried into the saddle - not the other way around. When your child learns to ride a bike, she has no need to develop leadership skills. It's different when your child is learning to ride a 1200 pound animal that cannot behave calmly unless it feels safe... and the only way to make a horse feel safe is by providing it good leadership.

      
Before any rider climbs into the saddle, a horse will present all kinds of subtle challenges to determine whether or not that rider knows anything about being a leader. If your child has no idea how to correctly respond to those challenges, the horse will have to assume the leadership position. This is OK to start because school horses are comfortable being in the lead in many situations.  

     
However, the better rider your child becomes, the more she will ask of horses.  Inevitably there will come a day when she will ride into a situation where the horse is not comfortable being the leader.  If your child has not learned how to provide good leadership by then, she's going to find herself in huge trouble! This is exactly how riders, even really good ones, get injured on well-trained horses every day.  So when a riding instructor suggests you pay for some 'non-riding' lessons, do it and consider it money well spent!  You are lucky to have an instructor who knows it is important that your child learn to protect herself and the horse.

     

Some of us in the horse industry are working to make leadership education become a normal part of every riding lesson program, but we have yet to reach the majority of instructors. If you suspect you child may be missing out, step in for safety's sake. Buy a copy of The ALPHA Equestrian Challenge today!  It is designed for students to read and work through, under their instructors' guidance, to develop good leadership skills. 

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