C
harging along the Pennsylvania highway, enroute to a dinner show where my three stallions, Orion, Valiant, and Patriot, get to wow the crowd with their “Morgan cool,” I rehearse in my mind each horse’s performance, and props, and music, and each ride’s special details. It’s a long day, and no event is ever just smooth sailing on the Sea of Worreefree. Patriot completely reinvented his final, big canter move that was to be the crescendo of his act this weekend. He revealed his devious plot just days before the event. How is the timing of that even possible for a horse? Do horses stash a secret calendar and decide these last minute changes as some sort of cruel playback for making them do things they don't want to do like walking through mud puddles or “pooping on the go” when riding? You do do that, right? You don’t let your horse stop and poop after all my articles on “forward?” Yes, I’m talkin’ to you, and I judged that.
I’m over yonder at the edge of nothing, laying in the dirt with the social media stampede. Please take some time and “like” www.facebook.com/Jeff-Wilson-Cowboy-Dressage so I can stand back up, dust myself off, and smile like that goat in yer rose garden. I have been training horses for over 35 years and value the western horse lifestyle in my approach to training. Giving clinics and seminars on how to reach your full potential with your horse through the training foundation of Cowboy Dressage keeps me young.
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Charge the Hill
aids is the answer from you when you get the smallest try in the right direction from your horse.
Horses love to blend. They’ll take your ideas and give ‘em back wholeheartedly redone. If you teach tricks, you’ll notice that. My Morgan Orion will always perform with a head nod, “Yes” whenever he steps up on a pedestal. He put that maneuver together from two separate moves. He knows he’s cool.
Horses’ll also favor a single behavior that can be hard to control. Anybody that has a jiggy trail horse knows what I mean. If you don’t know that level of blood pressure yet, here’s an experiment for you (not really) to try: Just lope up the same hill for a week. Make sure you start at the same place each time. After the week, ask for a walk instead up the same hill… You’ll discover, now, all your cues mean the same thing to your horse. You now have a “one trick pony.” To bring up another cue cleanly (like walk) becomes the difficulty because one cue is so strong it comes up first in the horse’s mind. Horse training is about making all the cues strong, and clean, and clear, and…easy.
You’ll be blessed with your horse’s creativity, especially when you need it most. What’s that line: “The show must go on”?
special details. It’s a long day, and no event is ever just smooth
sailing on the Sea of Worreefree. Patriot completely reinvented
his final, big canter move that was to be the crescendo of his act
this weekend. He revealed his devious plot just days before the
event. How is the timing of that even possible for a horse? Do
horses stash a secret calendar and decide these last minute
changes as some sort of cruel playback for making them do
things they don't want to do like walking through mud puddles
or “pooping on the go” when riding? You do do that, right? You
don’t let your horse stop and poop after all my articles on
“forward?” Yes, I’m talkin’ to you, and I judged that.
Patriot took all his nice canter moves—pirouettes, half passes,
and lead changes, and blended them altogether into one
sideways lead-hoppin’ move that in no resembled his big, front-
nded canter leaps that I hoped to cue for. Nope, its gone. Long
gone. File must have been deleted. I’d like to say, no pressure
from me, but oh yes there is…
It’s all fun and games when you only have to pull up one big
“trick” with your horse—like a sidepass. You can do that easily,
but when you have ten different moves to perform, pulling each
one up cleanly becomes the trick. Horse training always requires
not only teaching a particular maneuver, like a lope cue, but also
the ability to signal to the horse, and for them to recognize, you
want that particular move next.
How fussy does your horse get when you ask for a particular
move like a turn on the haunches, or a turn on the forehand? By
their fifth turn, things probably settle down and get fairly
smooth. But can you pull up that level of smooth on the first try,
or does your horsey fuss? Can you pull up a lope depart on a
particular lead and get it cleanly? What do you have to do to get
that smooth? You have to gently signal that the lead change is
coming first, right, by sliding your leg back? Not just flail the
ribs…
That’s a smooth rhythm coming from the rider to get an equally
smooth-rhythmed ride from the horse. How about a lope-to-jog
transition without breaking all the way down to a walk? Can you
perform it cleanly? (If your horse stops to poop while you ride,
you probably can’t do this one *Judgement.) The point is to help
your horse understand when a new cue is coming. Sometimes
they hear you and sometimes they ignore. Lots of times they
give you something different from what you wanted. Release of
pressure (or blood pressure if you’re frustrated) from all your
aids is the answer from you when you get the smallest try in the right direction from your horse.
Horses love to blend. They’ll take your ideas and give ‘em back wholeheartedly redone. If you teach tricks, you’ll notice that. My Morgan Orion will always perform with a head nod, “Yes” whenever he steps up on a pedestal. He put that maneuver together from two separate moves. He knows he’s cool.
Horses’ll also favor a single behavior that can be hard to control. Anybody that has a jiggy trail horse knows what I mean. If you don’t know that level of blood pressure yet, here’s an experiment for you (not really) to try: Just lope up the same hill for a week. Make sure you start at the same place each time. After the week, ask for a walk instead up the same hill… You’ll discover, now, all your cues mean the same thing to your horse. You now have a “one trick pony.” To bring up another cue cleanly (like walk) becomes the difficulty because one cue is so strong it comes up first in the horse’s mind. Horse training is about making all the cues strong, and clean, and clear, and…easy.
You’ll be blessed with your horse’s creativity, especially when you need it most. What’s that line: “The show must go on”?