How to hide your thoughts from the 'psychic horse'

[KarinUS]

My little smarty pants horse has really figured me out by now.
Sometimes it's very fun, like when we are supposed to just walk/trot and I think (but don't squeeze!) "I wish he would canter" and he does.
Other times I feel cheated out of practicing my aids when he picks up on the fact that I will want a downward or upward transition.
So how do you do it? Do you think of something else? I am guessing my body must shift somehow in anticipation of the next command but I really am not aware of it.
Since it IS probably something I do to clue him I am hesitant to give him a correction for doing something before I apply the 'official' aids.

[virtuallyhorses]

You need to be more determined about what you want (ie you are the one who needs to change ) because you are right - you can't correct him if he is picking up on what you are telling him to do, however subtle.

Decide what you want to ride gait\speed etc and do it , if he decides on something else then you correct him - if you are just dreaming along then he has every right to take the lead. If he is pre-empting you then this should be corrected - picking up or fiddling with the reins is a classic one that horses use to pre-empt an aid.

Have a day practising Anky's training basic - doing the opposite of what the horse wants. If the horse is very forward and constantly thinking I'll have a trot here or a canter here - choose to practice collection, halts and downwards transitions. If the horse guesses that you're going to ask for trot from walk - don't, keep walking, then halt, then walk again and so on When it starts to guess that you're going to ask for walk from the halt, then switch to trot. Essentially make him listen by doing unexpected things - but this means that you have to be concentrating on what you want and what he's guessing - its sort of fun and once the horse joins in, its really fun because he's like 'ok, what's next?' and really listening to your aids not guessing 'oh we've turned down the quarter line, we're going to leg yield' ....

PS I'm guilty too! so this is very much "do as I say, not as I do "! :D ;)

[cvb]

I found it helps if I am more focused and definite myself. e.g. instead of thinking 'maybe a canter soon', I will decide I am going to canter at a particular point (and only apply the aids at the point).

I found my focus improved when I did things like putting cones down in the arena to ride around. Like internal markers to go with the dressage letters.

I also

- set myself tasks like completely every school movement (shape) I can think of in walk before I trot
- making sure I don't always do the transition in the same area/place. So I have to think of new ways and places to do the work.

Its really helped me, hope it helps you !

[Shiny McShine]

I read in an article by the late Franz Maringer that one lipizzan stallion he used to ride would go into piaffe if you even thought about it. His trainer would tell him not to think about doing it until he got to the right spot but enevitably he would think about it 2 strides before and the horse would do it.

It all springs from the fact that our body is controlled directly by our mind (funnily enough ;)) so often if is just a matter of thinking or in this case not thinking about a movement. All in all you are very lucky you have a horse that does what you want before hand, alot of them do the opposite of what you want the second they know you are thinking of doing it :).

[galadriel]

What a lovely, sensitive boy :) A horse who can pick up on such subtle aids is a treasure.

Here's how I deal with the "thought -> inadvertant aid" difficulty (it may sound odd, I apologize; it's how I do it):

Suppose I am walking, and after going about 1/4 of the arena I wan to transition to trot. I "think" WALK very loudly to myself;
WALK WALK WALK

Going around the corner,
WALK IMPULSION FLEX WALK IMPULSION FLEX

Several strides from my desired transition, I begin preparing for the transition if I need to. I think WALK very loudly, and (going to trot) very quietly.
WALK (going to trot)
WALK (going to trot)

then AT the point, I think
TROT.

I suppose what I'm saying is that even when I'm preparing to do something different, I keep firmly in the forefront of my mind what I am doing *now*.

I would definitely not consider it "cheated" of using your aids when he's being psychic :) I would consider the both of you an incredible partnership. As far as I'm concerned, the eventual goal in riding is to be able to accomplish what you want without any obvious aids to have asked for it. Using such soft aids that you're not aware that you used them...is awesome :)

[eml]

My old horse a typical clever welsh cob and I were totally switched on...so much so I found it really wierd to ride another horse and other people found him difficult. I loved this communication but I have carried this to extremes with one of my school horses who reacts to my thoughts when I am giving lessons!

Goes like this thinks...'trot going well forward and round I think we'll move onto canter next' followed by loud complaints from whoever happens to be riding Magic...'you've been thinking again I definately didn't ask for canter!!'

[KarinUS]

cvb,

we make it a point to not do things at the same spots/ letters. DJ is much too smart for that.

I will try to be more precise in thoughts and actions and not think ahead.

I am still so far from being a good rider.
DJ, too, tells me that sometimes I don't have it together as I should. It's kinda funny since I rode him just horribly when I first got him! I look at the old pictures and shudder. And he was so patient with me then! Now he almost acts like he expects better from me when I don't do well.
When it's good it's very good but when I mess up he does let me know.
I am just glad he took it easy on me when I needed it.

[virtuallyhorses]

Karin, DJ sounds very like my Imp. We've been working on a better canter (me) and I was getting my act together and feeling very proud of myself - how different it was to how I used to grip and grind. I'm sure he heard these thoughts and suddenly started tossing his head about in the air - still lovely canter going on.

The reason - "look you silly woman, you have not got a nice elastic contact, look what I have here, 3 feet of rein to throw about! Concentrate!" Fairly rebuked, I adjusted my reins and he popped his head down, never altering stride, with a self-satisfied sigh...bl**dy smart alec schoolmasters, they are always on your case ;) :D

[cvb]

isn't amazing how high a standard some horses set for themselves ?

My mare is learning to jump. We had our 3rd lesson on Sunday, over a small course of around 20cm high :D She knocked a pole down. As she went away from the jump she had a real "annoyed head tossing" moment. Then jumped much bigger over the next jump to make sure it did not happen again. Thats why I'm keeping the jumps so small !

She just lights up if you tell her she's done something good. Bless her cotton socks. (Not that she doesn't have her moments - did you know that small fluufy chickens are known to kill horses ? :eek: )

[kedwards]

I could see how having a wonderful, genius, mind-reading horse might be a problem. A little like, "oh, it's so difficult to be so gorgeous.":D

Just ribbing you, but he does sound like an awesome horse. Bud isn't like that, but I have ridden horses who are very sensitive to subtle aids to the point where I had to be very deliberate in my plans. And, like you said, be sure to not do the same thing twice. They are such generous and willing animals, aren't they?

[KarinUS]

I have had DJ since May and only for the last couple of months has it been like that.
I bet once you have Bud for longer he will be able to read you as well!

Of course, DJ, can have his own mind. He can be quite a nut when it's windy- which is why I try to always make it to the barn when a cold front moves through. Then I get to ride my wild pony...;)

[kedwards]

Well I'm probably blessed. If Bud could read my mind, he'd probably wouldn't be so bombproof. On second thought, maybe he can read my mind, but he knows better than to listen to what I'm thinking. "No worries Mom, the flapping boat cover isn't going to get me. Why would you even entertain such silliness?"