2 - VT State Gymkhana Championships 2012
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Turnaround, Stop and Rollback with Tim Mcquay By Charlene Strickland Green Grass Syndicated Features
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In reining, a light touch leads to immediate reaction. Tim McQuay - the first $2 million winner in the National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) -- is a master of teaching his horses to wait for the rider. McQuay coaches riders in how to achieve the standard of performance set by the NRHA, focusing on helping riders to dictate every movement to the horse. In this article, McQuay instructs non-pro riders in the steps of the maneuvers that can earn plus marks in competition: the turnaround and the stop and rollback.
STEPPING INTO THE TURNAROUND The guide builds toward the turnaround. In this maneuver, you also rely more on the rein than your leg. McQuay coaches, “Use your rein, not your leg, to tell him to steer.” When you practice the turnaround, envision what you expect. McQuay emphasizes correct form first. The horse should crossover with his outside front foot, stepping over his inside foot. McQuay looks for the horse to step around, to “step over the top,” so he establishes the habit. “It’s just repetition. The horse will get into a rhythm. “I just lay my outside rein on the neck. I want the horse to get where his head is, get his body correct, and go around all by himself. I want to feel the front end first.” With your neck rein, you tell the horse to start the turnaround. “But after the horse gets going, he should go on his own, not with me pushing him around with the neck rein,” says McQuay. He advises to signal the horse without pressure, with your outside hand low. Some horses have been reined too hard, and they respond by whirling too fast, losing form in the turnaround. “Slow down -- step, step, step. I don’t push the horse. If he quits going, I’m going to kick him. I don’t care if I go faster, as long as I get a nice step, a nice rhythm.” McQuay uses his leg only to keep the horse going. A finished horse should need only calf pressure. He cautions against the neck overbending, or the horse raising the neck. The amount of rein depends on the softness of the horse’s response. “When he doesn’t give to me, I pick up,” says McQuay. “I want him to give his face to me.” He helps a horse stay relaxed through rein and leg corrections. If the horse pulls against his hand, he uses his boot-heel and rein pressure to ask the horse to yield. “Soften the jaw so you can put the nose where you want it. Get your horse to trust you, so you get him soft in the face, soft and low. Don’t hold his head to the inside, but with your neck rein, work on keeping the head and neck where you want them.”
VT State Gymkhana Championships 2012 - 3 What about the pivot foot? McQuay advises not to worry about it -- just think about the horse turning inside an imaginary box. Horses tend to find the pivot foot during training, and judges don’t necessarily concentrate on only a hind foot. If the horse tries to spin too fast with a tense neck, slow yourself down. Don’t get going faster than your horse. McQuay says, “Spread your hands out and tell him to slow down. He shouldn’t be afraid.” He sees riders trying to bend the neck with the inside rein, which can “bind up the shoulders. I spread my hands out quite a bit.” Keeping your hands wide helps free the shoulders when you’re schooling the turnaround. You’ll want to move your hands closer together as the horse learns to turn freely. With a confident turnaround, you’re ready for reining’s most exciting maneuver: the stop. McQuay says, “You need to have the horse guiding and steering well before you let him stop.”
WHOA FOR THE STOP McQuay aims for his horses to learn to like to stop. He emphasizes stopping at different places in the pen, such as the middle of the pen rather than at the fence. “I want horses to like the middle. They have to do a lot in the middle of the pen, so I want them to like standing in the middle.” By “a lot,” he means picking up a lead, lead changes, halts, and turnarounds. He coaches riders in stopping on the circle, first asking for whoa and allowing the horse to stop on his own. “Just say whoa. Put your hand down and see if you can stop him without picking up. Remember that the whoa has to get to his ears, to his brain, to his body. The more he starts believing in whoa, the quicker it happens.” To practice the sliding stop, he instructs riders to lope to the arena fence to stop. Stopping at the fence, called fencing, helps the horse to concentrate on the rider ’s signal. McQuay advises riders to start fencing at a lope. “I take the lead so I can push him away from the barn. When I say whoa, I expect him to try to stop.
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Whoa means stop, period.” He varies fencing by riding the horse right to the fence, stopping and turning around, or stopping a few strides before the fence. When loping straight to the fence, he tells the horse to whoa at the fence. “Your horse will stop if you say whoa,” he says. “You’ve got to make sure he understands it.” Maintain a consistent speed as you start for the fence. You want to build your speed early, and lope or gallop at the same rate. When you say whoa, sit back and let the horse stop. Riding twohanded, hold the reins slightly above the saddle horn, and avoid balancing on your hands. McQuay points out errors in the sequence. “Your hands go quicker than your whoa. You don’t give the horse a chance to stop before you pull on him. Don’t pick up on him. Let him learn what whoa is--leave your hands alone. Sit back and let him stop. Let him learn what whoa is.” He reminds riders, “Slow yourself down. If you run down and say whoa and start to pull on him, he’ll start to brace on you.” Realize that the horse may not be ready to stop instantly, and give him a stride to let him find the stop.
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Learning whoa and the stop leads to the sequence of the rollback. McQuay demonstrates loping, stopping, a slight hesitation, and then the 180 degree turn. When he stops, he lets the horse step back a step. The horse is sitting on his haunches, ready for the next signal. He explains, “Get the whoa really installed. My horses, when I say whoa to them, they stop and back off the bridle. I want the horse to stop and say, ‘What should I do next?’ Not, ‘Here’s what I’m going to do next.’ “I want him to say, ‘Okay, I’m ready. I’ll wait for you. Tell me what to do next.’ I like that feeling. I want him to stop and just step back. That’s all I’m asking for, to drop that head a little and get off the bridle.” In the rollback, the horse readily makes the 180 degree halfturn, waits for you, then instantly lopes off when you signal. McQuay waits to use his leg when the horse has completed the half turn. He stops, sits back slightly more to rein the horse back over the hocks, and then picks up to rein the horse into the turn and lope. He explains how the rollback signal contrasts with how you ask for the turnaround. “Try to make a definite difference. When you stop, you say whoa, pick up, go toward the shoulder, and then you’re out of there.” Let your horse stop, count two beats, and then turn. Wait to cue with your leg when you’re going the other direction, and don’t be too quick with your leg. Slowing your cues gives your horse time to get his feet under him, so he’s not sliding to a stop but is ready
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6 - VT State Gymkhana Championships 2012 for you. McQuay explains, “I don’t work with my hand down low on the neck. I always try to keep my hand above the saddle horn. I might be leaning into the turn, but I’m not standing up.” The horse must steer effortlessly in the rollback. As in circles and the turnaround, you move the neck rein in one motion, and the horse moves away from it. “Make him go someplace,” he coaches. “Make him run off, and then let him relax. Make it crisp.” McQuay counters any resistance he feels from the horse in the rollback: “Don’t give your horse a second chance. Reining is not a second chance event. When you lay the rein there, he’d better steer.” You may have to “help” your horse with the inside rein, so he learns to turn crisply. “Bump him so he sucks his nose back over his hocks,” says McQuay. “Then put your hand down when he’s being good, so you tell him, ‘I’ll get out of your way.’ After you fix him, then you turn him loose.” In this maneuver, you still want your horse to be soft. He shouldn’t pull on your hand. “If you keep him soft in your hand, he’ll roll back better. If he leans or pulls on you, pull on the face until you feel him give to you.” McQuay expects a quick response to the leg. “I cluck when I go the other direction. Cluck when you spur. I want him to roll over his hocks and then go.” In his coaching, McQuay communicates how you need to balance that “crisp” response in maneuvers with not rushing the horse before he understands what you want. He repeats, “Slow yourself down. Give your horse time to figure it out. “Your horse will start to relax when you stop picking and pulling on him. Slow down and make sure everything is correct. Then I think your horses will improve.”
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Last Chance Training:
Retraining the Sour, Rank and Dangerous By Marcia King, Green Grass Syndicated Features A neat wooden sign hangs from a fence, not far from the road. "Quarry Hill Stables," it proclaims. But for the owners of many horses, that sign would be more accurate if it read, "Last Chance Training," for here, among the rolling hills of eastern Pennsylvania, lies the last hope for horses too difficult or too dangerous to handle -- the biters and balkers, the rearers and runaways. If they can't be straightened out here, they can't be straightened out, period. Re-schooling rank horses is a rewarding but frustrating challenge that falls squarely on the shoulders ... or rather, into the sensitive hands ‌ of Bruce Lachiusa. Rewarding, because if not for Lachiusa's success in transforming the rank into the rideable, the majority of these misfits would end up euthanized or sent to auction. Frustrating, because most "last chance" horses are made, not born. In a voice hinting at controlled anger, Lachiusa, an eventing competitor and veteran trainer in several English and western disciplines, says, "I've had very, very few rank horses that were born that way. About 90 per cent of the problems are caused by their owners. The sweetest, kindest animals turn rank because of handling." He's seen it happen in all breeds, all disciplines.
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Most problem horses are caused by riders who don't know how to ride, like the tough guys (and gals) who grab the saddle horn with one hand, the reins with the other hand, then kick the horse, and jerk and haul its head around. "They say they know how to ride from watching tv," says Lachiusa. "They pull back on the mouth, long and hard. The mouth goes dead, the horse gets scared. Then they say it's a mean horse." Then there are the butt bangers, the stiff riders with locked legs who bang up and down on top of the horse's back. Says Lachiusa, "This gets the horse sore in the back and kidneys, so he hollows up his back to get away from the pressure, which brings his head up into the air, which shortens the stride, and then he gets sore muscles all over. It's a very unpleasant experience, so he'll do anything not to have this experience again. That might be rearing, refusing to move forward, balking, that sort of stuff." Some problems are caused by ill-fitting tack which can create an uncomfortable situation that a horse will want to escape from -- saddles, bridles, and, especially, increasingly severe bits, used by ignorant riders as quick training fixes. Lachiusa illustrates, "If the horse doesn't stop on a dime, they get a bigger bit. If he doesn't stop with that bit, they get an even bigger bit. Well, soon you run out of bigger bits. "In the grand prix showjumping and gymkhana circuits, I've seen where some horses get more and more wired every year they compete, until they finally show up wearing double twisted wire, gag, mechanical hackamores. Not only are you taking that bit and shoving it far into their mouth and cutting their lips and
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VT State Gymkhana Championships 2012 - 9 their tongues, but you're crunching down on their noses and their chins at the same time. Anybody that rides a horse in that kind of rig is looking to get killed, because once a horse runs through that, there's nothing in the world left to go to. And a horse WILL run through it; they panic and don't care." Short-cuts in training methods can also create problem horses. "I get a lot of horses that have been to high school but have never been to kindergarten," Lachiusa says. "They don't know ground manners, they run all over you, you get on their backs and they're already moving." Without proper foundation and the slow bringing along of a horse that allows it to develop both mentally and physically, horses may become fearful or resistant to advanced work. "You start slamming a horse into a frame, and they get sour on you. This happens when owners want results and they want them now."
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For most problems, rehabilitation consists of re-schooling both horse and rider. Explains Lachiusa, "Owners have to take lessons, too, because there's no sense fixing the problem unless I can tell them how the problem occurred and how they're going to have to change their riding style. If a person knows nothing about horses, if they have terrible hands or a horrible seat, we usually send them to other instructors to develop their seat and hands while I have the horse, so by the time I get back to the riders, they're pretty far along." Generally, Lachiusa schools riders for about four or five sessions. Horses require far more time; the minimum is 60 days, with the most severe cases taking up to a year or more. Re-schooling usually involves gentle handling, returning to the basics, occasionally re-establishing respect from the horse, often a change of tack, and nearly always determining the cause of a problem. For example, Lachiusa recently retrained a six-year-old Thoroughbred mare who exploded when ridden. "She had been to three different trainers trying to get broke," he says. "They could get on her back, but she would ride around all tense, stiff and totally unhappy, and then explode when she couldn't take it anymore." Lachiusa discovered that her tenseness derived from being pushed really hard in her early training. "She was just a mare that needed a very long time to break, and nobody really wanted to do that," he says. "Rushing her caused her brain to go into overload and she acted out anyway she could." To defuse her, Lachiusa took her back to beginning training, with longeing under tack to get her used to the saddle and sacking out to get her less nervous about her surroundings. "We spent a lot of time just doing quiet walks and hacking around fields," Lachiusa says. "When I finally asked her to work, to come up underneath herself and go forward on the bit, it wasn't this huge shock. Once she established that riding wasn't that terrible and everything was going to be okay, she settled down and trained really nicely." With runaways, Lachiusa also starts from "ground zero, just like they were never broke -- halter breaking, all of it."
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10 - VT State Gymkhana Championships 2012 checking aggressive horses, including biters. "With your attitude horses," Lachiusa says, "it can get really down and dirty. The runaways and the rearers and situations like that are all gentleness training and re-schooling through classical dressage. But when you get a horse that has an aggressive attitude, they have to be met head on: Their pecking order is all messed up. "I've seen a lot of that with orphans raised by humans that have never learned their pecking order in herd surroundings. They almost invariably try to establish their herd dominance upon their human owners (which they don't consider as their owners). Horses play rough: When you watch them out in the field establishing their dominance on another horse, you see kicking and biting. So when you have to teach a horse that you are higher than them in the pecking order, you have to go in there with the attitude that this is the way it has to be. Although some of the methods I have to employ are rather severe, I don't use billy clubs or baseball bats. I just get in there and explain to them what's not tolerated."
THE PROS AND YOU Although it may be tempting for riders to emulate Lachiusa's re-schooling techniques, he warns that it's best to leave this specialized training to the experts. "If a horse runs away with you, you obviously do not know how to handle it. If the horse is rearing and you can't stop it, you need help. If the problems are manifesting themselves, you've already lost the game." What a rider can do, though, is avoid creating a rank horse in the first place by not rushing a horse's training or skipping steps, and learning how to sit a horse. Build a good training foundation for both yourself and your horse. Doing so will help ensure that your horse will never have to make the journey to a "last chance" farm. Marcia King is an award winning author who writes extensively for equine, pet, and veterinary publications.
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He spends a lot of time riding runaways in circles. "The one thing you don't want to do with a horse that runs away or is bit shy is to pull back on the reins, because that's what makes their brains go into overload. You use the circle. I put a big fat, soft, full-cheek snaffle in the horse's mouth so I can't pull it through the horse's mouth, and a set of draw reins, and just go out and ride circles. The horse may be nervous, or go as fast as he wants; I don't care. He's going to get bored, so I wait until he settles down, give him a pat, and keep going." Horses that rear usually do so because they are evading or blocking, are carrying severe, painful bits, are subjected to bad hands, or had been taught to rear as a game that later got out of hand. There are several ways of rectifying this, depending upon the cause and the individual horse, but usually correction involves going back to classical work -- circling, softening, and groundwork. Horses that throw themselves to the ground when mounted are relatively easy to correct -- for those who know what they're doing. "I put a set of hobbles on them, and as soon as they throw themselves to the ground, I pull the legs out from underneath them and leave them there," Lachiusa says. "A horse's two instincts are fight or flight, and his hurling himself to the ground is a fight response: 'You're not going to ride me.' I take both these instincts away from him, and he's helpless." Lachiusa leaves the horse on the ground for several hours. He places a blanket under the head to keep dirt from the eye, and provides shade. He maintains this technique is not cruel. "If I didn't fix horses like that, what is their next option? A captivebolt stun-gun between the eyes and being shipped to France? I don't use cattle prods, or whip them into submission, or beat them over the head with a baseball bat. I don't hurt them. I use horse psychology: I assert my herd dominance by taking their flight characteristic away and showing them the fight option is not going to work. When they get up, they're ready to pay attention because they do not want to be down again." Asserting dominance over a horse is also instrumental in
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Despooking your Horse By Audrey Pavia Green Grass Syndicated Features We've all been there. You are riding on the trail, relaxed and enjoying yourself, when your horse spies something "deadly." It could be a stray plastic bag, an approaching mountain biker or a creek you are about to cross. Whatever it is, your horse is determined that this terrifying object is going to eat him, and that he had better get the heck out of there, and fast. Of course the result of this encounter usually goes one of three ways: You end up holding on for dear life while your horse hightails it back to the barn; you stand up and brush the dust off your jeans as you watch your horse gallop riderless down the trail; or you stay on, but fight your horse for half an hour as you try to get him past the object. Many riders resign themselves to this mode of equine behavior every time they go out on a trail ride or take their horse to a new show venue. They think it's all just a part of riding. But the reality is that you can teach your horse how to overcome his fears to the point that you will rarely have to deal with a spook. And when you do, you won't find yourself in a potentially life-threatening situation.
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The key to making your horse virtually spookless lies in understanding why he spooks in the first place. Marc Hedgpeth, a retired mounted police officer with the city of Anaheim, Calif., specializing in teaches horses and riders how to cope with spooking. "Consider the behavior characteristics of a horse," he says. "The horse is a flight animal and a natural sprinter. It has the fastest response time of any domestic animal. It is extremely perceptive and has highly developed senses. It is a fast learner, and has good memory." Add all this together, and you have an animal that has the propensity to spook and react in a very physical way. But Hedgpeth has good news too. "The horse is more quickly desensitized to frightening stimuli than any other animal," he says. And the best way to take advantage of this aspect of the horse's personality is to provide frequent, repetitive exposure to frightening obstacles. Through his business, Equestrian Services in Lake Forest, California, Hedgpeth offers despooking clinics where horses and riders are asked to negotiate a variety of potentially scary objects. In the sessions, horses frequently become afraid and spook, but riders learn to safely control the horse's actions. Hedgpeth begins the sessions by exposing the horses and riders to obstacles set up in an arena. Four types of stimuli are included in the session: audio, in the form of music, unusual sounds, rattling cans, gunshots and firecrackers; visual, using tarps, bright lights, reflections, flags and other obstacles; scent, with flares, fumes and smoke; and touch, with silly string, bubbles, and streamers. Next, he focuses on teaching riders to control the horse's movement while the horse is negotiating the course. "Keys to negotiat-
VT State Gymkhana Championships 2012 - 13 ing the course include proceeding at a slow pace, allowing the horse to take the time to look and smell each obstacle," says Hedgpeth. "If the horse appears to be nervous, let him stand still, pat and reassure him. Do not proceed to an obstacle until you are sure that you can control your horse." According to Hedgpeth, truly "bombproof" horses are rare. "There are, however, horses that effectively respond to their rider's cues and deal with scary things in a calm and safe manner," he says. "If we can train a horse to safely negotiate scary obstacles and respond to stimuli in a safe manner, and if we can train the rider to properly cue his mount, we will develop a much safer rider/horse team."
SLOW AND STEADY Kaleigh Arbuckle, a Canadian Equestrian Federation Level 1 Coach and trainer in Ontario, Canada, incorporates despooking sessions into her students' regular lessons. "I teach many first time horse owners and riders that have either lost their confidence due to a fall or some other riding accident," she says. "Our lessons usually consist of a warm-up, lesson body and cool down. I noticed that many of the owners enjoyed their lessons but were unable to be challenged further because their horses would spook in the corners or act up windy days and be inconsistent at the jog and lope. I decided it was time to incorporate despooking methods into all of my lessons in order to give the riders a more enjoyable lesson and give them tools to keep their horses concentrating when I wasn't there to help." According to Arbuckle, beginning work in despooking should be done in the round pen. "I always start training in a round pen in order to have control over the horse, where he will travel, and at what speed," she says. "The pen keeps both of us confined in a safe environment." Her approach to training is considerate of the horse and involves reading each animal as an individual. "Patience is key
when despooking horses," she says. "I need to know how far to push the horse and when to back off and give him rest. Each horse must be treated as an individual and care taken not to rush the training session. Basically, any horse can become more tolerant of scary obstacles." When teaching horses to cope with fear, Arbuckle starts with objects horses typically see when being worked with from both the ground and under saddle. Brushes, brooms, plastic bags, paper, and saddle pads are used for starters. "After the horse is comfortable with the first items, I despook with other objects such as beach balls, flags, kites, and noisemakers," she says. Arbuckle's process is very gradual. "I stand about 10 feet away from the horse, holding the object," she says. "I walk two to three feet towards the horse and stop. If the horse doesn't try to move away, I will turn around and walk away from him. If the horse does run away, I know that the item is very frightening to him and I must start by walking one foot toward him and then turning around. Every time I walk toward him with the item, I am raising his emotions. If the horse keeps his emotions in check and stands, I walk away. This allows the horse to relax." Arbuckle gradually gets closer and closer to the horse in this manner until she is eventually able to walk up to the horse with the object and have the horse stand. "At this time, the horse may smell the item," she says. "Some horses will keep standing while others might run away. If the horse runs away, I ask him to continue trotting or loping around the pen for a few minutes. When the horse brings his attention back to me, I ask him to stop and start the process over again by walking to him and away from him until I can stand in front of him with the object and he doesn't move." Eventually, Arbuckle is able to rub the item over the horse's neck area and then entire body. "Once I can rub the horse all over with the item, I will start fresh with a new object," she says. "I start with easy items and work my way up to brighter, scarier
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14 - VT State Gymkhana Championships 2012 things." Arbuckle's round pen despooking sessions can last from half an hour to several hours. "It all depends on how many items I want to work with and how the horse is handling the training session," she says.
TURN AND LOOK
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When it comes to despooking horses, Cumberland, Virginia, trainer Kenny Harlow subscribes to the philosophy that a horse should turn and face whatever frightens it. "I want the rider to have a tool he or she can use all the time when a horse spooks," he says. "You want the horse to turn and face a car or a snake, and then move on. The last thing you want is the horse's hindquarters in the direction of whatever is spooking it." Harlow, who studied under John Lyons and conducts clinics in despooking, also starts his desensitizing work in the round pen. "I start with an object that is small enough that the horse might accept it but will also have some fear," he says. "I get the horse to turn and look at the object, and then reward him by petting him. I keep exposing him to things that are worse and worse, from his perspective. I don't move on until the horse is okay with an obstacle. The horse eventually learns that if he turns and faces the scary object, it will go away instantly. This way, when a horse is out on the trail and a deer spooks him, he will stop and look at it. If a car spooks him, by the time he turns to look at it, the car will be gone. Most times, horses spook at things that are moving." For stationary objects, Harlow uses distraction to take the horse's focus off his fear. "If a horse spooks at a still object, I will turn the situation into an exercise," he says. "I will start turning him in a circle and make it bigger and bigger until we can ride past the object. After a while, the horse will realize that every time he lets me know he is scared, he has to work. So he will try to hide it. He will tilt his head and walk past the object. After a couple of times, the horse catches on that he may as well quit being scared."
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DESPOOKING AT HOME By using some of the methods employed by these trainers at home, you can help your horse cope with his fear and learn how to ride him through a spook. "In every day riding, we can practice sensory training techniques," says Hedgpeth. "If your horse appears to be nervous about something new, slowly expose him to it using the progressive desensitizing technique described above." "Horse owners can work at despooking their horses using the round pen or a small enclosed area," says Arbuckle. "Remember to be patient and use common sense when working the horse. When despooking from the ground, wear proper footwear, protect your horse's legs with boots, and keep your training area clear of any obstacles. When introducing each spooky item, go slowly to ensure that the horse has time to figure out what you want him to do. "Under saddle, I have my students ride all over the arena, and there is usually one spooky place," she says. "I teach riders to 'ground' their horses by deepening their seat and looking down at the ground along the path they want to travel. Spooking horses can sense this shift in weight and they start to respond by slowing their speed. The rider then has the horse's attention. When the horse passes the spooky section again, the rider deepens her seat and looks down at the path she wants to take. The horse responds by not spooking or bolting. Think about a boat's anchor. When you sit deep, you are anchoring the horse between your legs. Looking down helps avert your eyes from staring at the spooky corner, and the horse
responds by also not looking at the corner. "Reward your horse for effort, not for perfection," says Arbuckle. "When your horse becomes more responsive to your aids while you circle and practice transitions away from the scary place or have him stand quietly while being rubbed with a scary object, he will become a more trustworthy mount, your confidence level will increase, and you will be able to ride anywhere." AUDREY PAVIA is a consulting editor for Dog Fancy and Horse Illustrated magazines, and freelances for numerous animal-related publications. She lives in southern California with her horse, Snickers.
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16 - VT State Gymkhana Championships 2012
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