Whitesell Wisdom

TEACH WITH BETTER COMMUNICATION

By Larry Whitesell

Most of us would like to get our horse to gait on a loose or very light rein. If horses learn from release of pressure, why would we hold pressure on the mouth to make him or her gait? When we teach a horse to maintain gait, we might have just a feel on the reins, and when the horse gaits we release. Of course in early training, the horse will fall out of gait when we release. We add feel again and when gait comes, we release and so on. In the beginning, we only work for short periods. It doesn’t take the horse long to figure out when he gaits, he gets release and comfort.

Everything we teach, we must release when the horse gives the right answer. As I travel the country doing clinics, I see most riders don’t have the connection they want with their horses. Most riders spend their time with their horses trying to teach them how to be safe for them. They work on teaching the horse not to spook, not to go too fast, not to do things that make us feel unsafe when we ride. Very few riders spend time teaching the horse what he needs in order to feel comfortable or safe. Riders don’t see how the horse perceives what is happening, or interprets the rider’s wishes.

Riders teach horses movements like turn on the forehand or haunches, leg yield, back, stop, etc. When you teach a movement instead of how to perform the movement, then the movement becomes a trick. When you trail ride and the horse becomes energized, tricks don’t work. Does his brain comprehend what you want his feet to do? The horse performs a movement to get a release with no real understanding of what his feet are doing and how to do the movement in balance with relaxation.

Lightness comes from the feet, not the mouth. If his brain understands how the aids connect to his feet, he will always perform in balance. There is resistance when we pull on a rein, and the feet are sticky or go in the wrong direction. If the horse understands the aid, and his feet go where we ask, then the horse feels light.

Left: Jen asks her mare to cross her left hind leg in front of the right hind leg.

Above: Here is an example of teaching the horse how the reins talk to the feet. Jen can touch the leg with the whip to make the horse focus on a particular leg as she uses a rein.

Don’t get stronger bits or pull harder. Teach the horse how to answer the rein or leg with his feet. Pulling harder only makes more resistance and tension. A major problem is that riders teach the whole movement at once instead of breaking it down in to small pieces.

An example of this is teaching a horse to turn. If you hold the rein until the horse turns 90 degrees, you are teaching the movement. When you hold the rein for the entire movement, there is no release until the movement is completed. No real reward for the feet carrying the horse in the correct direction. If you touch the right rein and as soon as he steps one step right, you release, you are teaching him how to answer the rein with his feet. You build on this until he understands turning right by answering the reins with his feet. His feet bring his shoulders right, he doesn’t just fall to the right.

If you hold pressure through the entire movement, the horse learns to move away from discomfort or pain. When you present pressure and release as soon as the horse takes a step, then the horse learns to seek comfort. There is a difference between a horse that moves away from pressure and a horse that learns to seek comfort. If I close my fingers on a rein, my horse turns to prevent me from applying pressure. I never have to take the slack out of my reins to turn, stop, back or any movement. If I had to hold pressure to get him to preform a movement, it would cause anxiety and worry in my horse. I don’t want my horse to escape pressure, but instead under-

stand how to look for comfort. He Too often, riders use reins to prevent knows there is always a place where the horse from going out the gate, there is no pressure. or get to close to another horse, or will be light and soft and allow you to mouth, the horse may run away beand then release the rein. So running away can get relief from the constant nagging. The horse knows that if he follows the other horses or stays with them, the rider leaves his mouth alone. But as soon as he separates from the other horses, the rider uses his mouth a lot more. If the rider can learn to guide her horse’s feet without offending him, he will mentally be with her. come off the rail. When you use a I want the horse to give in his mind rein to prevent a horse from doing and not just the body. It is easy to something, you are saying the rein make a horse do something with his has no meaning. If a rein says don’t body, but can you get him to do it do something, the horse has no idea mentally? A horse that is mentally what it is he is not supposed to do. with you will not spook, run away, or Then you use your rein to turn after be buddy sour. He sees his rider as saying it means don’t turn. Confusecurity. sion leads to what we consider bad It is important to break everything doing what he was taught. We need down in the beginning. When a horse to understand how the horse perlearns how you control his feet and ceives what we do. We only see it that you won’t take him out of bal- from our point of view, which leads ance, he will relax and do his job. He to misunderstanding. control him. If you work on your horsemanship, If, for example, you pull on his ter communicator for your horse. mouth to back-up, and hold his Once the horse is good, you should mouth until you want to stop back- be working for the next level, which ing, why would the horse want to is more softness, more roundness, back-up? He will back to get away more forward in lightness. If we just from pain instead of backing to find settle for what we have, the horse comfort. You have to release every becomes complacent. Keep it interstep. If a rider is constantly in the esting for the horse. cause he has learned that if he runs www.whitesellgaitedhorsemanship. away the rider will pull him to a stop com behavior. In reality, the horse is just you are working on becoming a bet-