the darkest hour is just before dawn

Over the years, when working with young horses I've seen a lot of interesting things. Horses never cease to amaze me. They never cease to teach me new things. And they keep reminding me how little I know and how much more I need to work on my own self control. But that's a topic for another post :-)

There is one observation I've made quite often during the progression of turning a green (unridden) horse into a happy mount. Progress isn't linear. Some days I make a little headway, some days I can do three steps in one session and the horse is happy and relaxed. Other days, there is no progress and we both do well just to go over yesterday's lesson. Oh, and then there are those days when there is an obvious regression. That is when stuff I have gone over already, which the horse seemed OK with, suddenly isn't "there" any more. I have to be content with finding something from a much earlier lesson which I can reward the horse for doing well, so that we can finish on a good note.

Those days are frustrating. Most likely not totally pleasant for the horse, as he is evidently worried about every little thing and can't relax. But most definitely, they are frustrating for me as the horse's trainer and mentor. Firstly, there is the job of having to think of ways to not escalate any issues that emerge. Secondly, it's about looking for alternative ways to make the horse comfortable in what he is asked to do, and that calls for a fair bit of creativity on those days. Sometimes the regression isn't from the horse being spooked or upset. I've seen it happen in headstrong horses, who decided that today isn't the day to cooperate. I've also seen it as something that arises from outside circumstances, which meant that no matter how much I try, I can't get the horse's attention from the other exciting stuff out there.

Just as there can be no meaningful progress if the horse is scared, there can also be none if the horse has a different agenda or can't focus due to distractions. To get somewhere, the horse has to be OK in mind and body, with a willing attitude and me in the centre of his attention.

Well, some days it doesn't matter how good my intentions are. I just can't create that mindset. That being so, I really just like to do some basics and find a thing or two which I know the horse can do ok. Then I give praise and put them away. I will admit that I bitch and grizzle about it, because my inner perfectionist would like to see at least some progress EVERY training session. And so it was yesterday when we brought in the two geldings we currently have in work. It was (in my eyes) an abysmal session. They were flighty, scatterbrained, seemed to have forgotten most things and on top of it, seemed grumpy. I was grossly disappointed in what we achieved.

We all went and slept on it.

As so often in the past, today was a totally different matter. Both horses had a totally different attitude. Their facial expression, their posture indicated they were good to go. It was as though they had had a discussion about it overnight. Or rather, as though there were different horses in their skin. They looked keen, they were relaxed, they responded to tiny cues. The one time one of them was spooked (justified), he jumped and then stopped and settled immediately. We made huge progress. Both ended up going off the lunge, one of them for the first time. And did it well.

I could feel the different attitude and preparedness to work through the reins, and through the saddle.

Let me explain that.... Reins are sort of obvious, as one can feel if there is a give to a half halt or any other cue straight away. The quality of that little give is also important. There is just a different feel. I jokingly talk of butter sometimes. When things are perfect, it's like soft butter. (Accordingly, resistance feels like hard butter, or even frozen butter ;-) .)  There is also a different feel through the saddle. That includes whether the horse is relaxing the topline and seeking a bit of stretch. But it's more than that. When tense, it's not just the top neck and back muscles that are tense, but it also seems to be the whole skin. The saddle feels to be strapped to the back and it feels firm and unyielding and stuck. When relaxed in the right way, muscles and skin tone are different, allowing the saddle to feel a bit more loose. Not loose as in: loose girth, but loose as in: more movable, an organic part of the back and therefore a connection between me and the horse.

Honestly, it's a bit of a difficult thing to describe, and it took me some years to develop the sensitivity to feel it, and then some more time to come to realise just how important all this is. The next step is to try to create it in all my horses, all the time. That is not possible of course, but that's the goal.

Picture (by Yvonne Lehey): Castellano during one of last week's sessions. I asked for a stop. It's not too square, but his topline is soft, he's let out a big sigh and is lowering his head. That's the moment we reward, although of course, he is rewarding himself already.

The lesson learned for me here is that I should not be too harsh, but to accept that we all (horses included!) have 'off' days. This is no blemish on my record as a trainer nor on the horse's training diary. Rather, it is part of the overall progression, and it makes me appreciate the big progress days even more. Sometimes, the biggest problems occur just before the biggest steps forward. Sometimes, we just have to believe in ourselves, and keep working towards a goal. If the underlying principles are correct, then the goal will be reached, and often sooner than expected.

Out of the three horses we worked this morning, every one of them made me proud. To celebrate, I'm going to reward myself with going horse riding this afternoon :-)

responsibility

I had to think fairly hard to come up with a title for this post. I'm still not sure if it's the right one. Thinking about it gave me a chance to reflect on what I want to say though.

We were working Castellano and Bailador again this morning. They have now both had about half a dozen sessions of groundwork. They have both been introduced to a pad and roller, then the saddle and a little bit of work on the lunge. We don't lunge much, but I find it is a really important part of preparing the young ones mentally. It also gives them loads of opportunity to become familiar with gear. They can show us their personality and how they react to various situations and give us opportunity to help them through stressful moments. For no matter how slow we progress, how much care we take, there is some stress involved. New things always cause stress, but if presented well, they also lead to learning. For the horse and for us.

The way I see it is that as a trainer, I'm acting also as sort of a mentor for the horse. I'm not just teaching him stuff. I am also responsible for his well-being and his progress. Therefore, I never say: we take 6 weeks to start, and in week 1 we do X, in week 2 Y and so on.... Sure, I have a set of exercises I favor, to achieve certain goals, the main one being that the horse is OK with me riding him and accepting my guidance at the end of it all. How I arrive there, which specific path I take, and how long it takes, that depends entirely on the horse.

My responsibility as a trainer/teacher/mentor is to find the right balance between two extremes: applying a healthy amount of stress to promote learning on the one hand, and giving enough peace and quiet time to let it sink in and give the horse the chance to relax on the other hand. My other responsibility is to present the right exercise at the right time to set the horse up to succeed. That isn't always easy. Something as simple as asking a horse to stand still at the wrong time can mean to set him up for stress and a failure, and other times it can be perfect to make him feel OK.

As so often when we work horses, we talk about new things we learn, what we observe in the horses we are working with and weird things we hear about from other people ;-) We are constantly bouncing ideas off each other and critically look at our own and each others work. Sometimes by observing, sometimes by looking at photos we take of each other. I have grown as a trainer since I've had the opportunity to work closely with Yvonne. In some ways we are very similar, in other ways very different. We help each other out, and while we both have some stronger areas, our goal is to become better in all aspects.

Anyway, coming back to the horses we were working this morning, and I have a perfect example to illustrate my point about setting up for success....

We were lunging Castellano. He only wore the saddle for about the third time. He was last worked briefly two days prior. He has not had much human contact in his early life, so he is still finding his feet mentally. He was a bit unsteady this morning, possibly not in the mood to work. He was fully focused on his handler, but he needed to move his feet because he was unsure of the situation. Yvonne recognised that he wasn't settled and allowed him to move on a little. Often enough, a couple of rounds of trot or gait are enough and the settle themselves. But he started to get into a stop/start pattern and was beginning to pop his head up every time she asked him to move forward into a trot. As a result, he was neither settling nor moving smoothly and he lost his bend while trying to evade to the outside with his nose. In addition, the stop/start was beginning to stress him and looked like it was becoming a pattern.

I suggested to take a whip to be more accurate with the forward cue. To walk him only and firstly look for the soft feel on the rope, the stepping under and bend of the neck. To be a little bit more pro-active when he wanted to stop, and to try and keep him in at an even speed. After only two rounds of walking, he looked a lot better. Started to relax, step under and bend. Then I suggested to look for a particularly soft moment (both relaxed topline AND release towards the inside with the nose), and then ask for the trot at that point in time. As always, she asked for the upward transition with only posture and a slight hand signal, and it was nice to see him do the transition smoothly and keeping his outline. A few steps, then she allowed him to stop and gave him a reward. She then walked him on again and looked for that same point to ask a couple more little trots, until shortly after, he did two perfect rounds on each side in lovely self-carriage while following the feel of the bend in the rope.

What a huge effect. Following such a small adjustment. It wasn't anything we don't normally do, but it still was a bit of an AHA! event, as it allowed me to realise the importance of it and to put the whole matter into words.

 

This is Castellano during a previous session. Nice bend and stepping under 

well. But not the ideal time to ask for an upward transition. Here I'm just asking 

him to keep walking and to relax. Photo by Yvonne Lehey.

 

 

This looks better. 

After today's session, he was able to maintain this throughout his walk trot 

transitions and while trotting. We should have a picture next time :-) . Photo 

by Yvonne Lehey.

 

Bailador is showing what I'm looking for. Moving nicely in gait, he has put a

bend in the rope. His inside hindleg is stepping under. He is in nice relaxed

 self carriage and focussed on me. I need to do next to nothing to maintain 

his outline, bend and speed. Photo by Yvonne Lehey.

 

Same feel again other side, and at the walk. Photo by Yvonne Lehey.

As trainers, we are responsible for the learning progress of our horses. Finding ways to help him learn by setting him up for success is one of the fun and challenging things we need to think about and become good at. Teaching horses is part science and part art, and it is the little challenges which make us grow as trainers and human beings. The learning therefore is a two-way street, one that never ends.