Whitesell Wisdom

When you ride out, do you feel you are riding your horse forward to the speed you desire, or do you feel you use the reins to control speed? If you use the reins to contain your horse’s speed, you actually don’t have speed control. If you must use equipment to contain speed, then the horse is not mentally following you and allowing you to determine the speed. Then riders feel they have to keep contact on the horse to have control of them physically.

There is nothing wrong with a shank bit on an EDUCATED horse, but if you feel you must have a shank, then you are using mechanical equipment instead of knowledge to control the horse physically.

If you were driving your car down the interstate, do you ride the brake to prevent the car from speeding up, or do you use the gas to send the car to the speed you want and maintain the exact speed? Too many riders control speed by holding the horse’s face instead of using their seat to tell the horse exactly how fast to

By Larry Whitesell Jennifer Bauer

go. Have you taught your horse how to follow your energy so the horse doesn’t feel confined? This confinement is a primary cause of spooking, pacing and anxiety. The more you confine a horse, the more he wants to go when his energy comes up.

Reins shouldn’t mean go. Legs mean go. My seat and my energy tells my horse the speed. If your reins contain the horse all the time, then, as the horse’s energy comes up, it takes more pressure and bigger bits to control him.

Almost all the gaiting and behavior problems I see every weekend are a result of the horse feeling restrained even though riders don’t feel they are doing that. If the horse feels restrained in any way, by reins or by the rider’s seat, the rhythm is compromised, which causes anxiety. These horses cannot find their balance when they lose rhythm.

Retraining these horses is a process. I cannot just loosen the reins and hope the horse finds balance. I also cannot hold the horse in a posture to get balance because now he feels restrained. There is a process to teaching SELF balance and forwardness. www.gaitedhorsemanship.com

Many riders tell me that their horse is too forward. They are confusing forwardness with running through the bridle. When they use the reins to control speed, the horse feels trapped and loses respect for the rider’s hands. Respect for your hands means the horse never pushes on the reins while you never hold his face with the reins. I will never lose control of my horse if he knows not to push on the reins. I don’t want to use stronger equipment that will make him afraid to connect to me. I want him to understand how my aids help him balance.

A lot of groundwork today uses the hands to teach the horse to let us control him physically. When the rider gets on the horse to go out on the trail, they get in trouble.

They don’t connect their leg aids or how the reins talk to the horse’s feet to organize balance. The horse only knows how the reins contain. When you do ground work, do your hands direct energy or try to contain energy? Do you direct the horse’s feet or drive the horse? Much of the groundwork has the rider driving the horse forward to the rope and the halter containing the horse. Those are conflicting aids.

If there is any pressure in the rein, then the feet and the mind aren’t going in the same direction. You will have to use stronger bits, legs and reins to make the feet go where you want. You need to train the mind how to follow soft aids so you have access to the feet. If the horse gives you access to the feet through the mind, you will have a relaxed and responsive horse.

Relaxation is no good without responsiveness. Responsiveness is no good without relaxation.

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We have to teach horses to follow the rider because some of our riders aren’t strong enough to hold the horse and they like to go fast.