One of the problems I've seen over the years is that people don’t have a plan for their training or horsemanship; they simply ride or train their horses without any plan of action.  They just sort of poke around, find a problem here or there, work on that problem for a little bit and then get bored. They go on to something else and never see any real improvement in their horse because they don’t focus long enough to make any real change or improvement. Essentially, they don’t set any goals.

The Importance of Stop and Go

In my Connective Horsemanship program, I categorize the program’s methods into Observe, Evaluate, Plan and Act (OEPA).  “Observe” means watching your horse in a natural state and how he interacts with other horses, as well as how he interacts with you. “Evaluate” involves determining the refinement of the horse’s stop and go—and whether there are any issues with those two critically important components that may also cause other problems.

The “Plan” element usually revolves around the main issue or problem I’m having with the horse. In most cases, everything I encounter is based on the elementary and simple—but very important—“go” and “stop” cues. Everything we do with a horse has its base in those two cues. Whether you ride western pleasure, dressage, trail, whatever—everything you ask of the horse has its base in go and stop. It’s simply a matter of how refined those cues are in your horse.

Bolting = Go; Bucking = Stop

In developing your plan, define what the issue is. Perhaps the horse has a simple issue like bolting when you get on him, or he bucks—those are two separate issues, of course, but reflect the horse’s understanding and execution of ‘go’ and ‘stop’. A bolting horse doesn’t understand the stop cue well enough, and the bucking horse doesn’t want to go and sometimes stops too much.  

By sitting down and creating a plan, ask yourself what exercises you can do that will make it clear to the horse what your rein cues mean, what your leg cues mean, what stop means, what go means. A benefit to this plan is that when you implement the “action” part of it, you’ll know what you want the outcome to be.

When I create a plan for a particular horse, I typically have between five and seven lessons I want to teach the horse. These steps are all laid out in my program, which makes it easy to progress. If you follow the steps on the DVD, you really don’t have to worry about addressing and defining each specific problem, because everything goes back to ‘go’ and ‘stop’ cues!
For instance, part of the basic plan may be to just ask your horse to walk down the fence line, stopping every five steps or every five fence posts. Then ask the horse to stand still for two seconds, and then allow the horse to go forward. That will allow you to assess the horse’s reactions; be observant of everything he does or doesn’t do.

Knowledge is Power:  How Much Do You Know?

Being very specific with how you make your plan may be more important than the actual plan itself. That’s because knowing my program and watching the DVDs will give you an understanding of a specific way to ask the horse to stop or ask the horse to go. You must understand these two principles first!

For instance, part of the lesson plan would be to ask yourself if you truly understand how your rein cues work by knowing how the bit works in the horse’s mouth. Having that clear knowledge gives you the ability to speak a language that the horse can understand. Here’s an example: By picking up the right rein and applying a measurable amount of pressure to the horse’s mouth (think of a scale from 0 to 10), the horse will begin to slow or stop the right front leg. This makes sense to the horse, and it’s very specific to the rider, because the rider has a very clear goal in mind. He can then evaluate the horse’s response, look for improvement, and build a goal within his plan.

If I pick up the right rein, and the horse continues to move forward with five, six, or seven steps before he actually begins to slow down, then I’ve determined where my starting point is. The next time I ask the horse to stop, it might take the same amount of time, but my hope is that we can get a little improvement. Having a “cueing scale” or a “pressure scale” rated from 0 to 10 really helps. If the horse doesn’t respond at a level 1 on the scale, which is just light contact, then will a little more contact at level 2 work? We can then work up the scale: 0 being no contact at all, with just your hands on the reins, up to 10—the pressure that gets the job done immediately. This scale helps you assess the horse’s response.

Having a goal in mind makes it easier to have a goal for the horse. For instance, if the horse today is a 4 to 5 on the pressure scale to get him to stop from a rein cue, tomorrow you might want to work toward getting a response at the 3 level. Our goal is to work towards getting a response at 0 (which involves high-level body language cues), although a more realistic goal is a 1 or a 2.

Step by Step: Literally and Figuratively

Setting a goal for how many steps it takes the horse to stop is another excellent measurement. If it takes your horse three steps to stop, then set a goal for one step for the next lesson. Then one step turns into a sliding stop. Or if you’re a dressage rider, this progression results in the immediate half-halt you’re looking for. Regardless of discipline, this is how you want to set up the process.

I’m always looking for improvement in the horse; each time I pick up the reins there should be some sort of deeper understanding in the horse’s mind of what I’m asking him to do. The “kiss” method, “keep it simple, stupid,” is appropriate here. I see a lot of riders tend to over-complicate things in their minds. They’ll take something really simple, like asking the horse to stop its feet, and turn it into something really complicated. In my clinics, people would ask how many inches their hands should be in any direction to ask the horse to stop, how many ounces of pull—concepts that overcomplicate something that should be very easy to accomplish. That’s way too much information/technique for a person to even think about, much less try to incorporate to get a response from their horse!

Keep your actions simple. Make your goals easily attainable. Don’t stride out to the barn one morning with the intention of teaching your two-year-old horse a 25-foot reining slide stop in one session! No one can do that! Make your plan so that both you and your horse can succeed incrementally—‘chunk’ your plan down to bite-sized pieces so you and your horse don’t choke!

Make sure your goals make sense. Don’t plan to work all morning on getting your horse to stop, and then all afternoon on getting your horse to go.  Be specific about what your lesson plan is for that day, so that when you walk out to catch your horse you’re clear about the plan.

NEXT MONTH we will begin with goals for the human. Until then be safe, have fun.