END OF TRAIL EQUINE TRAINING
5802
Falconbridge Drive
RR3, Appin, Ontario N0L 1A0
Phone: (519) 289-2625
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END OF TRAIL EQUINE TRAINING |
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5802
Falconbridge Drive |
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INDEX of Articles and Training Questions
| Cures
for the Hard-Mouthed Horse | Catch
Me If You Can!! | Open
House |
| Does
Shanking Help? | | Help
for a Bouncy Trot? |
| Do YOU have a training question for Steve? |
Cures for the Hard-Mouthed Horse
Does your horse charge ahead through the bit when you ask him to stop?
Does he toss or twirl his head, or yank the reins out of your hands when you
ask him to turn left or right or slow down? Have you tried dozens of
different bits, or other contraptions, thinking that one of them will force
your horse to listen to your commands, but nothing seems to work? This is
when some people throw up their hands in despair, and lament that their
horse must just have a “hard mouth”!
This may come as a surprise, but there really is no such thing as a
“hard-mouthed” horse!! A horse’s mouth cannot get “hardened” to
the bit. Just think of the number of times you have been to the dentist. Can
you ever imagine your mouth getting “hardened” to what the dentist does
to it? If anything has become hard, it is the horse’s mind that has
become hardened or dull and unresponsive. Put simply, the horse is
ignoring the rider’s rein cues, and not giving (responding
appropriately) to the cue, which is pressure on the bit being applied
through the reins by the rider’s hands. Sometimes the horse learns to
ignore the rider’s rein cues, because the rider does not reward the horse
appropriately for the correct response, or because the horse has been
rewarded for the incorrect response.
A bigger, tougher, more severe bit that induces more pain on the horse’s
mouth or jaw is not the answer. It is not the pain or the amount of pressure
that you apply that makes the horse want to slow down, stop or turn to the
right or left. The bit and the pressure applied to it through the reins are
just meant to cue the horse to respond in a certain way. This pressure
should be as light as possible. In order to respond on a light cue, the
horse needs to learn through thousands of repetitions what behavior
constitutes the correct response to a given cue. This is called
conditioned-response training. In short, the “hard-mouthed” horse has
not been conditioned properly to respond softly, immediately and
appropriately to the rider’s rein cues.
So how do we condition our horse to respond softly on a light rein cue? It
takes thousands and thousands of consistently correct conditioned responses
for the horse to “learn” the appropriate response to any cue. It takes
about 3000 repetitions for the horse to learn the correct response, but only
about three repetitions for him to learn the wrong response, and about
300,000 repetitions to retrain the horse that has learned the wrong
response. To train the horse properly, the rider must be as close to 100%
consistent and 100% correct as he or she can be 100% of the time.
Changing our horse’s behavior always involves an even more difficult job
-- changing our own behavior first. So, in the case of the horse who
is unresponsive to the bit/rein pressure (i.e. “runs through” the bit),
or who is responding inappropriately (i.e. head tossing, head twirling,
pulling the reins out of the rider’s hands), we must start back at square
one, getting control of the horse’s nose, from the ground. The plain truth
is, if we can’t control the horse’s nose, then we have no control at
all. Our horse MUST learn to respond willingly, softly and immediately to
every request we make of him. So, what do we do to gain control of the
horse’s nose? The horse must learn to respond from the ground first,
because if we can’t get the horse to respond from the ground when he is
standing still, then we will never be able to get it from his back when he
is moving, because speed adds an emotional component to the learning
situation. We will need to add the pressure of speed at a later point in the
horse’s training, but not at the beginning. So let’s start gaining
control over our horse on the ground with Cue Spot #1, the nose.
You can start these exercises with very young horses as well as with older
horses. I like to use a 1/4” rope halter, because I find that the horse is
more responsive to it, and that it is easier for me to feel the horse
responding, and I tend to make my requests lighter. You will need to gain
control of the nose in all the directions the nose can go-- down, left,
right and finally the most difficult, back towards the chest. This last
movement I call “flexing at the poll”, the poll being at the top of the
head behind the ears where the head is attached to the neck vertebrae. For
the horse, flexing at the poll is like us bending our head down to look at
our belly button. It is very difficult and is a strain for the horse to do
at first until its muscles are built up. The last direction the nose can go,
of course, is up, but we generally do not teach the horse to put his nose up
in the air past a certain level, because this prompts the release of a
hormone that triggers the flight response. This command does come in handy,
however, for teaching the horse to lift his nose up off the ground when he
is distracted and eating grass.
Practice controlling all directions the nose can go every time you are with
your horse, using just your hands, or your halter or your bit and bridle.
You cannot over practice control of the nose (head). This is the key to
“giving to the bit”, which in turn is the key to control over ALL the
horse’s body. Practise this thousands and thousands of times in all
directions. Use what I call the “Graduated Cueing System”, that is,
start with a very light cue (signal) and increase the pressure in graduated
steps until the horse gives us the response we want, which is that he moves
his head (or initially, even appears to THINK about moving his head in the
direction we want). Then release the pressure on his head IMMEDIATELY, so
that the horse knows he has done the right thing.
Always ASK SLOWLY in graduated steps, to give the horse every opportunity to
respond correctly. When he does, RELEASE QUICKLY to let the horse know that
he has responded correctly. The longer it takes for the horse to give you
the correct response, the longer should be the reward, which, for the horse,
is release from the pressure you are applying to his head. Any pressure (no
matter how light), which we apply to the horse’s body, is somewhat
confining or claustrophobic in his mind, and freedom from all pressure is
the horse’s best reward for giving us what we asked for.
Practice these simple exercises over and over from the ground first and then
from the saddle. Always start by asking the horse with the lightest rein cue
possible, gradually increasing the pressure in steps. NEVER release the
pressure until the horse responds appropriately, even if the response is
only an approximation at first. Start by rewarding small responses or
attempts, and then build it up, gradually expecting more and more, and not
rewarding the horse with a release until he gives us a response that is
closer and closer to what we want. Make sure the horse NEVER gets a release
for the wrong response. Try to be 100% consistently correct yourself. This
is how we develop willingness, lightness and responsiveness in our horses.
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It's a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon. Your friends have arrived with
their horse trailer to pick you and your horse up to go on a trail ride with the
local Horse Club. You load your lunch and all your tack into the trailer and
then grab the halter and go out to the pasture to catch your horse, but he
decides he wants to play the "Catch Me If You Can" game today.
You chase him around until you're ready to drop. You try oats, hay and horse
cookies, but each time you get close and try to lunge at him to catch him, he
takes off running again. Finally, your friends decide to leave because they're
going to be late for the trail ride start time. You sit down on a stump to shed
a few tears of frustration, embarrassment and disappointment. As you sit there,
your horse comes up to you and puts his head down next to yours, and now he lets
you put the halter on!! Urgh-h-h-h!!!
The
"Catch Me If You Can" game is one of the most frustrating ones for
horse owners. More than that, it can even be dangerous for your horse if you
need to catch him in an emergency situation.
Not knowing what to do about it probably keeps many a horse locked up in a small
paddock or stall, or forces the horse to wear a halter all the time. This is an
especially dangerous practice, as the halter can get hooked on something solid,
and the horse can pull back and injure himself. Also, the halter is
uncomfortable, and a too-tight halter will eventually make a permanent
indentation in the horse's nose. However, chances are if you can't catch you
horse without a halter, you probably won't be able to catch him with a halter
either.
Sometimes horses play this game out of genuine fear or mistrust (for example,
young foals, untouched wild horses or horses that have been abused by people),
or sometimes it could be out of aggressiveness or disrespect. More often that
not, it's just a game to horses, however, and they do it simply because they
can. It doesn't matter what the reason for the behavior is, if you use the
method outlined below, you can teach your horse to be caught, each and every
time, even in dangerous, emergency situations.
So, what's
a person to do?
You need to know how to respond to your horse's game with your own game. For the
purpose of these sessions in training your horse to be caught, use a smaller
paddock or pen, or even a round pen if you have one, so that you won't have to
run so far. Start to approach your horse. Don't sneak up on him as if you are
going to pounce on him like a hungry mountain lion, but walk assertively and
with confidence. Don't "stare" at him intently as you approach, but be
very aware of his movements and intentions. If your horse looks like he is
getting ready to wheel around and take off, then quickly turn on your heel
before he gets a chance to take a step (as if you forgot something at the
house), and walk away from him back the way you came assertively and with
confidence. Act as if you were never intending to catch him at all - - your plan
all along was just to get to within 20 yards of him and then go back to the
house.
As you walk away, keep an eye on him unobtrusively, and when you see that he no
longer looks like he is thinking of running away, then turn back and start
walking confidently towards him again. Then when he looks like he wants to run
off, turn and walk off again before he gets a chance to take a step to run away.
Anticipate him leaving and make sure you leave first. You may have to do this
many times depending on how long your horse has been playing this game with you.
If you are doing it right and releasing the pressure at the correct time, you
should be able to get closer and closer to your horse each time. Your horse may
even start to follow you when you are walking away, curious as to what you are
doing, and realizing that you are not a threat. Resist the impulse to turn
around and try to grab him, however. Keep on playing this
"approach/retreat" game until you get close enough to touch the horse.
Keep on resisting your natural impulse to lunge at the horse and grab him.
Instead, just walk up towards his shoulder and confidently stroke his neck
briefly, and then walk away.
Keep
on walking up to him, stroking him and then turning and walking away until he
drops his head and you can tell by the look on his face that he is conceding the
game to you, and will allow you to catch him and put the halter on (providing he
has had a halter on before, of course). You can usually tell what the horse is
thinking by his posture and head position. Eventually you should even be able to
run up to the horse and he should stand stock still and wait for you to catch
him.
Now, what do you do if your timing is a little off or if the horse is very
frightened and he does actually take off while you are playing the
"approach/retreat" game? Switch gears quickly and immediately and
start chasing the horse, "kissing" to him to move and even twirling
the lead rope towards his hip if he tries to stop. Make him think it was your
idea after all for him to run away. Do what you have to do to keep him going,
but don't keep after him when he is moving around the pen and doing what you
want him to do. Put the rope down, stop "kissing" and release all
pressure on him as long as he keeps moving. Don't let him slow down or stop on
his own, even if he looks at you with those big brown eyes and says, "Okay,
okay, I'm ready to stop".
Depending on how fast and how wildly your horse is running around the pen,
position your body further ahead in relation to the horse. If he is running at a
medium speed, move ahead until your body is about even with his shoulder. If he
is really careening around wildly, you may have to move ahead farther towards
his nose. Don't say "Whoa!" or anything. Just stop your own body, and
turn away from the horse into the center of the circle, rotating in the same
direction in which you and the horse have been moving. Concentrate your focus
intently on the horse's shoulder or slightly ahead of the shoulder if he isn't
slowing down. Keep this position until the horse slows down and stops.
Then, as soon as his feet stop, turn and walk away. Ideally, the horse should
come to a stop parallel with the fence, not with his nose facing out of the pen
and his hind end facing in towards you. The longer it takes for the horse to
stop, the longer should be his release from pressure (this is also unnatural for
us, since we think that we should not reward him for taking so long to respond).
Then start the process over again and continue on as you were before the horse
moved off, walking towards his shoulder until you perceive that he is thinking
about moving, and then, before he moves off, walk away.
If the horse is really running wildly and uncontrollably around the pen and you
cannot get him to stop using the method described above, then you may have to
focus on the nose and drive him into an outside turn with your finger or cue
stick. The horse must stop briefly before he makes an outside turn (into the
fence), and this will give him the idea to slow down and stop. Keep on getting
him to do outside turns at shorter and shorter intervals, until he stops his
feet. He may be facing outside the pen, with his butt towards you, particularly
if he is very frightened or very disrespectful.
If this happens, work on getting him to stop parallel to the fence. Try moving
him ahead just a little, by focusing on his hip and then moving up to focus on
his shoulder. In round pen work, focusing on the nose turns the head and tells
the horse to do an outside turn. Focusing back further towards the shoulder
tells the horse to slow down or stop, and focusing on the hip tells the horse to
move ahead. Focusing means to direct your focus in graduated steps, with your
eyes, your body energy and also your body position itself.
Eventually, you will want your horse to turn his eyes, and his head in towards
you before you release the pressure and walk away. Then you can ask a little
more, step backwards a little, "kiss" to the horse until he takes a
step into the center of the circle towards you before you release your cues.
Then you
can build on that response until he will walk, trot or even canter right up to
you and stand for you to put the halter on!!
You won't have to miss any more trail rides if you work on these steps.
Build up your horse's "Come to Me" response to whatever degree you
wish, but you won't have to play the "Catch Me If You Can" game again
if you play the game as outlined here.
As with
other horse training techniques, however, you must always play the game to win,
and don't start unless you are committed to winning.
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JOHN
LYONS TRAINER HOLDS
OPEN HOUSE
On October 15, 2000, approximately 90 people attended a fall open house at Steve and Carol Werklund's "End of Trail Equine Training" in Lister, BC. Steve Werklund is a Certified John Lyons Trainer, having completed eleven weeks of rigorous training at John Lyons' Parachute, Colorado training centre in 1998.
John Lyons is world-renowned in horse circles as one of the new generation of horse trainers, who trains through trust and communication, rather than mechanics, intimidation or pain. Both English and Western riders can benefit from applying Lyons' conditioned-response training methods to develop a more willing attitude and softer responses from the ground and in the saddle.
At his open house, Steve demonstrated his training techniques using a 5-year-old mare he had been custom training for the previous two months. This mare started out with a terrible fear of people. Her owners suspected she had been handled roughly and mistreated by the previous owners. Her new owners called her "Wild Thing". They could not catch her, even in the smallest pen, and had to run her into a cattle working chute to give her shots and handle her. This is also what they had to do to load her into the trailer. She would not approach a human being, even one standing outside her pen, holding a handful of fresh alfalfa out to her.
After Steve had worked with her for a couple of weeks gaining her confidence, she would come up to Steve in any pen and allow herself to be caught and lead, but she remained extremely head-shy and fearful of pressure on her poll, and terrified of plastic. She was also very touchy with her feet, especially the right front foot, and would strike out or rear up when attempts were made to lift up this foot.
Steve had to be careful of the mare's explosive potential. Her fears were so extreme that if she felt cornered, Steve thought she could become dangerously aggressive. At the open house, Steve demonstrated the extent to which this horse had improved in her ability to overcome her fears by asking the horse to lift each foot up gently into his hand with just a "kiss" sound, and by asking the horse to calmly lower her head while he put the halter on from a kneeling position.
Steve Haltering Formerly Head-Shy Horse from his Knees
To show the mare's trust in him, Steve also walked right under the horse's belly, dragging a large piece of white plastic and then he draped the plastic completely over her. With the lead rope on the ground, the mare did not even flinch.
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Steve Demonstrating the Horse's Trust |
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Steve also demonstrated how extremely light and responsive this horse was to the bridle, and then he rode her bridleless in the round pen at a walk, trot and canter, turning, stopping and backing the horse with no pressure on the reins. Steve then showed how easily a horse can be trained to load, while he stood outside the straight-haul trailer and cued the mare to walk calmly into the trailer. The mare then waited patiently in the trailer, until Steve cued her to back out by lifting her tail up gently.
Steve then did a straight-haul trailer loading training session with one horse that had never been loaded and with one horse that had unpleasant experiences with trailer loading, and that reared up and pulled away when asked to load.
"Horses that have trouble with trailer loading are horses with a poor 'go-forward' cue", says Werklund. So first he works with the horse to improve the 'go-forward' response. "Unless you're in an emergency situation", Steve says, "ideally, it's better not to concentrate on the loading until you have your horse leading well (both forwards and back) on a loose halter shank in response to your body cues, and moving easily off the shoulder away from you, out of your space. Work on these ground skills, before you even attempt to teach the horse to load in a trailer".
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Paula R. from California wrote,
"I have a horse who pulls back on the lead rope. Not consistently, just
enough for it to be a problem, Do you think using a shank would help?"
"Hello, Paula:
Thanks for your training question. It is a little difficult for me to answer
without seeing exactly how your horse is responding. Does he appear more
frightened or more defiant in his attitude when he is pulling back? In either
case, a horse who pulls back on the lead rope is not "giving" to
pressure. He is still exhibiting his opposition reaction which is to pull back
and try to get away from the pressure on his head from the halter or bit.
The horse must learn by many, many, many consistent repetitions that if he "gives" in the direction of the pressure and overcomes his natural response, that he will ALWAYS be rewarded by a release of the pressure. It is the timing of the release that will tell him if he has done the right thing. Shanking does not work because it causes more pain to the horse and simply adds to his confusion and fear and his natural opposition response. He will become even more frightened or perhaps eventually even aggressive towards you, and try to bite, strike or trample over you to avoid the pain.
So you must start from the beginning with little baby steps and teach him by applying only a little bit of pressure and then releasing it and praising him profusely and allowing him to rest for a little while the moment he even starts to think about coming forward in the direction of the pressure. If he doesn't come forward, don't yank on him. Apply slightly more pressure in increments separated by a few seconds, until the horse looks like he is thinking about stepping forward.
Build it up from there with little steps until he maybe leans forward a little, then maybe starts to lift a foot, etc, etc. You will know you are releasing the pressure and rewarding him fast enough and at the right time if he improves each time you ask for him to come forward, and eventually "gives" with his body and walks forward as you lead him. Try to make it fun, and try not to reprimand him for not doing it perfectly. You can practise this for many hours. Always give the horse time to think it out and ask with as little pressure as possible at first. Then when he is very secure going forward when you lead him, try the same techniques with the back-up.
"Giving" to the bit or halter pressure is the foundation for all control, and cannot be overemphasized or practised enough. You should have your horse "give" at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of everything you ask him to do. This is how you teach him to be calm and respectful of you and your space, and to listen to your commands. We spend a lot of time at the clinics and the 2-week sessions I give learning and practising this very basic skill. The horse must be trained to respond positively to our requests, not to follow his own opposition reactions, be they for fight or for flight.
Thanks again for your question, Paula."
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When the slack is taken out of the right rein (as in the photo on the left), this horse should "give" to the pressure being exerted by the bit on the left side of his mouth and turn his head to the right (as in the photo on the right). His natural tendency would be to oppose the pressure and fight back against it, and he has to learn to overcome this reflex by being consistently rewarded with a release of pressure when he responds correctly.
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HOW DO YOU SMOOTH OUT A BOUNCY TROT?
A.L. wrote:
"I have an 18-year-old quarter horse mare with a very bouncy trot. I'd like
to know how to lengthen her stride to make it a bit smoother. I've heard that I
should use ankle weights, but I'd like a professional opinion. Thanks!"
"Dear A.L.:
I wish I could see exactly what your horse is doing as it is trotting. The trot
is the bounciest gait, of course, because it is only 2 beats, with the feet
hitting the ground diagonally in pairs. The canter is smoother, because it is 3
beats, and the walk is the smoothest because it is 4 beats. That's why people
like riding gaited horses, because they don't trot, they just have a very fast
4-beat walk. Also, some horses are bouncier than others because of their
conformation (something to do with the length of the pasterns, the shoulder
angle and the length of the back, etc). Here at our farm, we actually try to
breed our Quarterhorses for a smoother, more gliding trot.
First, you have to make sure that there is nothing physically wrong with your horse, like tight shoulder muscles, a sore back, or a saddle that pinches or doesn't allow the shoulders to move out freely. Ankle weights would be a mechanical cure, a device that might or might not help, but which is really not teaching the horse a better way of moving, and as soon as the equipment is removed, the horse will go back the way it was, and the problem may even be worsened because the weight will have caused the wrong muscles to get even stronger (this is similar to what may happen with frequent use of a tie-down to keep the horse's head low). It is my opinion that the horse with the bouncy trot needs to learn how to go in a more "collected" manner. The "collected trot" or Western "jog" is actually the smoothest of the trots. If the horse is not "collected", it will be strung out, his nose will be stuck way out forward, his back will be hollowed out and he will likely be unbalanced and very uncomfortable to ride.
Perhaps your horse has not learned to "give" to the bit, and to go forward in a collected manner, with impulsion from behind, but not necessarily a lot of forward motion. This is what "collection" is, and when you have it, your horse's back will feel more elevated and rounded, rather than hollowed out, and his trot will be powerful and yet smoother. Teaching the horse to go in a collected manner takes a lot of practice and is strenuous for the horse. He will need to develop different muscles in order to be able to hold himself in this frame.
You would probably have to start from the beginning again and teach him that when he gives to pressure on the bit, then he gets a release. Start from the ground, then work up to the walk, getting him to walk forward, stop and back up all in a collected, controlled manner. First get him giving to the bit and breaking at the poll really well from the ground and at a walk, before you try to go on to the trot. Then work at the trot only for short distances, giving him release when he is able to collect himself up and hold himself in the frame. Work on lots of transitions, gradually building up his strength at the trot.
Thanks for your question. Good luck!"
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5802 Falconbridge Drive, RR3, Appin, Ontario
N0L 1A0
Phone: (519) 289-2625
© End of Trail Equine Training 2002-2008
