Softness (in your horse

SOFTNESS - Before, During, and After

By Glenn Stewart

Often in clinics I will say to the participants to look for and try to create softness before, during and after the maneuver. Whatever they are asking of their horse, try to find the softness throughout.

If our horses are soft to the rein, leg and lead line it will show up in many areas but the most noticeable is the head and neck. When a horse understands the request and the request is within the realm of what it has been taught, then the head and neck is soft and relaxed looking and feeling on the lead line or rein.

This is only true if the rider has been handling the horse and looking/ trying to create softness before, during and after. If we didn’t realize that we needed to ride and handle our horses looking for softness then the horse may completely understand the task or exercise but has been taught to be heavy, stiff and braced. If we release for anything other than softness that is what we get: anything but softness.

Softness is not something you can make a horse be. You can make them light but you can’t make them soft. A light horse can have tension, it may move quickly and easily but with tightness. A soft horse cannot be soft and tight or tense. The goal is to try to do enough to create a light horse without sacrificing the softness. The horse is in a different mind space when there is tightness than when they are soft. If we do everything slow it is very easy to keep a horse soft. If you need speed and quick responses then it becomes much more challenging to keep the softness, but that would be the goal.

Tightness can come from the horse getting emotional about what is happening and it very often originates from the rider not looking for softness. An example of this would be when riding and you pick up a rein to stop or turn, the moment you touch the rein you should be looking for a soft feel on the other end. The horse should give to the rein by bringing its nose in and down or to the side wherever the pressure is taking it. The opposite of softness is when the rein is touched the horse’s nose goes up and away from the direction asked or doesn’t move at all. This might seem to some very obvious but to many they have never had a horse actually give to the rein.

The feet turning and going the direction you want to go and a horse that is giving to the rein are two different things. You can have a horse turn to the right while they turn their head to the left. If you asked for that kind of head position, great; if you didn’t, then not so great, and the horse would not be considered soft. Many times horses are turned to the right or left with their heads pulled the opposite way but the rider doesn’t realize they are the ones doing it. Anything we purposely or accidentally do 3 times starts to create a habit. Creating good habits is much easier than repairing bad ones.

An example of what to look for on the ground is when leading or circling a horse the goal would be to never feel the horse on the line. When you walk off, while you’re walking and when you stop the line stays loose, never pulls on the handler. When circling the goal is the same, when you send the horse out onto the circle, while he is circling and when you ask for the circling to end the line never gets pulled on by us or the horse and the horse should be looking in towards us not away from us.

These are some signs that softness is on the way and we have been correct in looking for and creating softness. Next time you are out with your horse take notice of what happens when you touch the rein or lead line.

Enjoy your time with horses and what they have to offer, Glenn Stewart

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