Everything Horse magazine December 2013 | Page 59

Do’s

•Focus on your timing of pressure and release.

•Understand what your horse views as pressure and release or positives and negatives.

•The severity of the pressure – the pressure should always be a light consistent nudging/bumping so as to not work your horse up.

•Keep yourself calm and relaxed.

•Do reward for one step, no matter how small the step may be.

•Keep everything slow and steady so you are in control of the situation.

Don’ts

•The severity of the pressure – don’t start kicking/whipping your horse harder as it will just scare your horse and help it to choose the upward direction of rearing.

•Don’t put any pressure on the reins when asking your horse to step forward.

•Don’t think about trying to get through the gate or past the scary object, concentrate on getting your horse to move their feet forward using timing, pressure and release.

•If your horse is throwing it’s head and feels like it might rear, your horse is trying to tell you you’re doing something wrong. Slow everything down and focus on your timing of pressure and release.

•Don’t scare or punish your horse.

that if he takes one step forward all the pressure will stop. I will say this again; you must release the pressure once the horse has taken one step, no matter how small. One step could be as little as 10cm forward. The release has to be timed with the action that you desire, in this case it would be stepping forward. This is giving the horse a way out….FORWARD. After about 30 seconds of standing there (this is the release) I will repeat the same procedure. It is important that I do not pull on the horse’s mouth when asking it to go forward, if the horse goes to leave to the right I will pull it back around to the left but as soon as the horse is facing the way I want I will make sure there is slack in the reins. This is because we do not want any pressure on the bit when asking the horse to go forward. The most important part is the release of pressure when the horse does what we want, this is how horses learn.

Instead of the horse getting scared, they will start to communicate with me by realising there is a way out from the pressure - stepping forward. My confidence and good timing will also give the horse confidence which will allow him to go through the gate. He may be a little scared as he goes through, but once he passes through and realises that it did not hurt him he will grow in confidence.

"The most important part is the release of pressure when the horse does what we want, this is how horses learn"

Don’t put any pressure on the reins when asking your horse to step forward.

Preventing Rearing, part II

58 December 2013, Issue 3 www.everythinghorseuk.co.uk www.everythinghorseuk.co.uk December 2013, Issue 3 59