Slowing down

[babypink1204]

I have a 4 year old horse who has had basic schoolin gin her previous life. Due to circumstances our school is not ideal at the moment so when I hack out I do try to do some schooling, but in walk only. After about 20 mins out and about I start to ask her for some sort of contact and flexion, by gently squeezing my reins and shortening them. sitting deeper in my saddle and a little more leg (apologies if I am totally wrong). What happens is my horse just slows down, I do not maintain the same pace at all. How can I maintain the same pace in walk with a nice contact and outline?

[Tor&Warrior]

What you are doing is correct. When she slows down you need to just ride her forward and little stronger so she is maintaining the walk you want. All horses when first learning to accept the contact and work round will slow down because she finds it hard its a kind of way of trying to avoid doing it and because she's un sure of whats being asked, but the more you ride her forward and she learns she'll be happy to ride herself forward into it.

Does that make sense or am I waffling??

[ros]

I suspect what's happening is that your horse is responding to your seat aids - when you say you try to "sit deeper" what EXACTLY are you doing? If you think about it I bet you're tensing some of those bottom and thigh muscles, or in some way dropping more weight onto the saddle through your seat, both of which will mean slow down or stop. If your baby doesn't quite understand that you want her to "step under" more when you use your legs, she's probably just responding to the signal she best understands out of the two or three that she's feeling at the same time.

Try thinking about wrapping your lower leg around her tummy in a slightly "lifting" way - as though you're asking her to tuck in her tummy muscles to help her lift and round her back. But at the same time don't forget that getting a horse to go "on the bit" isn't just about a round outline; it's also about encouraging it to lighten its front end by learning to transfer its weight towards the back end. You can help it to learn that by doing lots of transitions while you're out hacking - trot to walk, then quickly back up to trot; trot to halt, halt to trot, so that she has to carry herself in a way that enables her to respond quickly to your instructions. And you can also keep an eye on where you carry your hands, and make sure you don't drop them down too low. It's all very well saying there should always be a straight line from your elbows to the horse's mouth, but if a horse is plopping long with its nose on the floor you're just allowing it to stay there rather than carrying your hands in a way that will let it know where you want its head to be :)

[babypink1204]

I see......

You are quite right in saying I am tensing my backside. Accidentally though when I have been schooling in walk when I brush my lower leg on her she breaks into trot. I then bring her back into walk, ask for flexion, sit deep (which I know now is wrong), brush with the lower leg to have a more active walk and then she goes off into trot as opposed to a more active walk.

She does at times become much lighter, but is slower, ask for a bit of impulsion and its trot!

I should really try your suggestion with my leg and see how that goes

[ros]

Sounds as though your horse is a sensitive, responsive sort. That's great.

Just another point - don't confuse speed with impulsion (although I don't think you do from what you say). There's no harm in slowing things down a little bit if you want your horse to concentrate. Things like leg-yielding, for example, or shoulder-in (both of which you can easily do out hacking) shouldn't be rushed.

Mind you, as someone who's had to do most of their schooling on the roads for years, I do know it isn't always easy to ask a horse to work on the bit along the lanes! That's where the work on transitions comes in - it really does get the horse listening for the next instruction, and lightening himself in readiness to perform whatever movement you ask of him. My only problem these days is that as soon as I tighten my seat a little and take up my reins to let Merlin know we're going to do something different, he launches into the sideways stuff and I find us wiggling about all over the road! (He knows a little schooling session leads to lots of sugar :rolleyes: )

[Hyper]

Brilliant thread. It really illustrates the difficult tasks of teaching (appropriate application of our aids) and learning (the equine understanding them) that the human AND the equine need to master before we (the humans) become satisfied with the result!!

[ros]

Absolutely! It's all very well to read the aids for this or that movement in a book, or have them shouted at you parrot fashion by an instructor, but timing and co-ordination are the most difficult parts of learning to ride, I find.

The first step is learning what button gets what reaction from the horse, and sometimes I think it's actually more valuable to listen to the horse instead of the books! So you experiment a bit and find out exactly what happens when you put your leg here, or shift your weight just so, and if you get a reaction, you make a mental note of what your horse thinks you mean. Sometimes it coincides with the manual: sometimes it doesn't! Then you either give yourself a pat on the back because you got it right, or you try to work out why you got a different reaction from the one you were expecting, or you just accept that things sometimes work slightly differently on some horses. It's fascinating. And of course, whatever the outcome, you don't ever punish a horse for misunderstanding, and you always praise him when he so much as looks in the right direction, or shows the slightest sign of being on the right track.

One thing I always find very useful is that if I'm practising something new, I take it very slowly. When you start turn on the forehand, for instance, it really doesn't matter if you do just one or two disjointed steps at first, as long as the horse has got the general idea. The polished versions always takes a little longer!

[Hyper]

I like the way you describe the mixing of schooling when hacking out. My feel is that you're describing what has happened the first (or first few times) you've asked your horse to advance towards a different response.

It's quite the contrary to fight or flight isn't it? But I wonder whether the feel of slowing down might warrant a different interpretation altogether? Maybe your horse is trusting you enough to have really listened and then is hesitating because of a bit of uncertainty! In which case, (this is my heart speaking not my mind), a bit of reward for a major breakthrough (horse is listening and hesitant because he/she is unsure) this situation maybe warrants a celebration (for BOTH of you) and not more pressure........who knows???????

[ros]

If you're referring to my last post (if not, apologies) I think what I'm trying to say is that whatever level we think we're at, it never hurts to step back and listen to our horses once in a while. It's so easy to think that the horse is at fault when you don't get the reaction you expect; also, some people - bless 'em - always think it's their fault because they're rotten riders and totally useless! Tack and physical issues aside, I think the VAST majority of problems between horse and rider can be put down to misunderstandings on one or both sides.

I think I know what you mean about the "feel of slowing down" - sometimes you happen to stumble on the response you want more by luck than anything else? In which case, sieze the opportunity to tell your horse that yes, that's exactly what you wanted, what a clever boy he is!!! And hope it's repeated.

However, I do think there are some aids which are naturally clear, and tend to get a similar response from most horses - even babies - except possibly those which have become insensitive as a result of abuse (a word which I use in its loosest form). So the guidelines are there for us, and they give us a starting point, but we have to use our intelligence and adapt them as the need arises. Does that make sense?