Strides for Success

Tag: Aids

Understanding and Refining Your Half Halt
What this episode is all about & how it can help you:-
- Understanding how the half halt is like an intercom system for your horse!
- Timing, Timing, Timing and why you are probably doing too much for too long…
- Thinking about riding into your hand, rather than against it
- Working towards slowing the front end to ‘catch up’ the back-end
[smart_track_player url=”https://op3.dev/e/traffic.libsyn.com/dailystridespodcast/1021-Understanding-and-Refining-Your-Half-Halt.mp3″ title=”Understanding and Refining Your Half Halt” social_linkedin=”true” social_pinterest=”true” social_email=”true” tweet_text=”Thinking ‘half’ when it comes to the half halt ” hashtag=”equestrian #horseriding #halfhalt” twitter_username=”strides_success” ]

Riding horses is all about balance. It’s a balance between your aids, it’s actual balance sitting on your horse. However one of the most essential, yet difficult balancing acts is the half halt. There is an ever shifting balance between the aids, the rider and the horse. In this episode I want to dig a little deeper into the half halt with some practical advice you can use immediately to get results.

What is the half halt?

The half halt is a communication aid between you and your horse. It is your way of bringing your horses attention back to you, in order for you to then give directions about what you want him to do.

Unfortunately what often ends up happening many riders is that they are so busy babbling to their horse – via the seat, legs, reins and fingers – that when they ride a half halt, their horse has completely tuned out. He is no longer part of the conversation at all.

Simply put, the half halt is all about bringing your horses attention back to you, so you can then convey something to the horse.

It all happens much quicker than most riders imagine…

I like to think of the ‘half’ part in the name ‘half halt’ as pertaining to the amount of time it takes to ride the aid. No longer than half a stride. You can then take it a step further when you think about performing the aid within one footfall of your horse.

Many riders hold the half halt for too long, and rather than it being that fine balance we mentioned at the beginning, it becomes an anchor in the sand. Doing this has an obvious effect on the horses way of going.

Rather work on getting your half halt to the point where it is so refined that nobody can see you doing it, and nobody can see the effect on the horse.

It is also important to keep in mind that your goal should be to apply the half halt BEFORE things start to fall apart. Many riders leave it too late and this results in an almost panicked and rash use of the aids in order to rebalance.

How should you apply the half halt?

Firstly, there must be a clear difference between what you are doing now and what you are going to do when you apply the half halt. This difference is often missing due to the rider being too stiff and tense in the saddle.

Think of ‘allowing’ through your seat and back in particular. If you can establish and then maintain a lovely looseness before you apply the half halt it will make all the difference. The half halt is that little bit of resistance for that split second. When used correctly and consistently your horse will feel the change. The difference.

It is also worth remembering that it is a ‘slight’ resistance. Subtle. Quiet. This is why developing a strong core can make a difference to your communication with your horse.

The next part is that the horse shouldn’t change course from what’s happening. He must be moving forward before you apply the half halt aids. Once applied, he shouldn’t slow down, he shouldn’t stop. This is where your leg aids come into play. With them, you will ask your horse to continue moving forward. This all happens in a split second (that one footfall) – leg on, leg off – and ridden in a way so that you are not bumping the horse. It must be a subtle increase in pressure, and then a decrease in pressure, all inside that split second.

Understanding the role of your hands in the Half Halt

The third part of this simplified explanation is your hand. A lot of riders make the mistake of bringing their hand back in the half halt, in other words they come against the horse.

Rather think about your legs bringing the horse into your hand.

Your hand will not move back. Rather think about the resistance that began in your lower back spreading up, across your shoulders and down through your arms. Your arms will also have a certain amount of tension, resistance, in them. That resistance is there to meet the energy that comes through when apply your leg aids. It is truly a balance of your aids.

The relationship between the front end and the back-end

The half halt is what you can use to connect the back-end to the front end. If ridden correctly, it will cause the front end to lighten so the back-end can come under it. In order for this to happen, the back-end must be coming forward from behind.

The result is a lovely lightning. It is your horse re-balancing, re-adjusting, re-calibrating everything in order to lighten and carry itself a little better.

It is an every changing and evolving aid

The half halt will be ridden differently for every horse and every situation. The balance of the aids must be adjusted to fit the current scenario.

When working with young or less experienced horses, or less experienced riders, the lightness will not happen straight away. It takes physical and mental development in both horse and rider in order to really tap into the true power of a subtle half halt.

However, these instances the answer is to perform a lot more half halts than a more experienced pairing or team of horse and rider would require.

Summing up the Half Halt in a few simple steps

Next time you are on your horse, think about the one footfall – that you should allow first through your back before you can ask for that little bit of resistance through your back.

How your leg is then asking the horse to continue to move on so that it is bringing the energy in, but then your hand is there to meet that.

Your hand is not coming up against the horse, your horse is rather coming into your hand, you are holding it for a split second and then you are releasing.

That is the half halt in a nutshell.

Happy Riding

Lorna

Links mentioned in the episode:-
Links to other content that will help with this topic:-
December 4, 2017
How Well Does Your Horse Understand Your Aids?
Have you ever become frustrated when someone is failing to understand and respond appropriately to your requests and communications? Have you ever experienced this in the saddle? For many riders, they noticed that, even more frustratingly, this often occurs when they feel their riding should actually be improving.

You’re not alone. Many riders begin to feel this way after they have taken action to improve their skills in the saddle. It could be that you invested in extra lessons, attended a clinic, joined Daily Strides Premium, completed the 30 Day Rider Fitness Challenge… Perhaps you have studied a little more deeply as to the hows and whys of particular aids and the timing of them. Whatever it is, you will have recently done something to take your skills in the saddle to the next level, but it actually seems that things are going backwards!

The first thing that comes to mind for many riders is their horses responsiveness, or the lack thereof, when they apply their aids. However, I want you to ask yourself, is it a responsiveness issue or a basic language breakdown you are experiencing?

Often we improve our riding, but fail to update our horse on the fact that the situation has changed

Now before we go any further, firstly I think it is fantastic that you are working towards better communication with your horse. But remember, your knowing what to do and then you doing it is only one half of the equation.

Your horse has not attended the same ‘study group’ and, if we think of our aids as a language, he has no idea that the dialect has changed…

Part of improving your skills in the saddle is to effectively communicate with your horse in order to update his ‘responsive’ and ‘listening’ skills as well. However, before you rush out and begin ‘retraining’ your horse, you need to first figure out exactly what he understands, and what has gotten lost in translation.

I suggest starting at the beginning with the basics. How effective are the simple ‘stop / go’, ‘steady’ and ‘turn’ commands working? Very often we learn how to better control our seat when directing our horse, however our horse is still listening for the ‘old aids’.

Next time you are in the saddle, work on establishing the basics again:-
- Half halt
- Moving forward and slowing down
- Bending and turning
From here, you will need to test how well your horse is truly understanding your aids. Knowing what he understands and what is being ‘lost’ will give you a good starting point to move on from.
- Test the walk to halt
- Test the walk to trot
- Test the canter transitions
- Test the ability to adjust the length of the stride
- Test how your horse understands the lateral aids
Once you know where you stand with your horse, you can then look at how you can begin to educate or train your horse to understand your aids, giving you both clearer communication in the saddle.

To help you with this process, I have created audio programs for you to download, for free, that will take you step by step through this process.
May 2, 2017
Returning to Riding – Step by Step

So you have made the decision to get back into the saddle. You feel great about it. Making a decision, one way or another, often has a way of settling us a little, even if the road ahead is less than smooth.

But there you are, big girl pants on; all mounted up, bum gently lowered into the seat of your saddle… And to your absolute dismay, you have absolutely no idea of what to do now that you are up there!

What many riders forget to take into account once they are back in the saddle is that things are very much changed from when they were there last.

Your body is not as ‘responsive’ as it once was. Your mind is not as focused as before. Your plan is not so clear. No, rather let’s just come clean with the stark truth that you have no idea of what to even plan for.

It’s a little overwhelming, isn’t it? Figuring out what to focus on first. However starting with the basics and easing into it is always the best approach; for your body and mind!

I am going to suggest a little more of an unconventional, but realistic and simple way to ensure you spend your first few rides laying a solid foundation. Invest the time upfront, in the beginning, and you will see the results of this later when even more difficult things are tackled with ease.

1. Knowing what is moving, and when

So first and foremost, as you settle back into the familiar feel of your horses walk, take the time to really know what is going on underneath you. When you are returning to riding it is inevitable that you will spend quite a bit of time initially in the walk. Put this time to good use by studying your horse’s movements – and how this affects your own movements in the saddle.

Your seat is one of the greatest methods you have of communicating with your horse. However, regardless of how well you can control your core and seat, it is only truly effective if used at the correct time and place.

To do this you have to know, eventually without even consciously thinking about it, what your horse is doing at any given time underneath you.

Master this in walk initially, and then from here work on your ‘feeling’ skills in trot and, later once you are fitter, canter. This is a skill well worth investing in.

2. Moving Forward

It sounds so simple, but you would be surprised at how many riders think that merely moving constitutes moving forward.

When we speak about forwardness in riding, simply put, it means that your horse is going somewhere with a sense of purpose. This is regardless of whether he is in walk, trot or canter.

Now, it is also worthwhile noting that forwardness is not rushing. If he looks or feels like he is late and trying to make up time, you are no longer moving forward, but rather running.

Confusing, I know, but think about soldiers marching. They are going somewhere with a sense of purpose. Their stride is full of energy, but they are not rushing, they are not racing and while they have a sense of purpose, they have freedom of movement to ‘swing’.

When it comes to horses, moving or going forward is essential for everything, so spend a little time knowing how it feels and ensuring that your horse is doing it when you ride.

3. Your Half Halt

So once you have your horse moving with a sense of purpose, it is important that you can direct this ‘purpose’ or energy where you want it to go. All channeling or directing of energy when it comes to horses really does come back to the rider’s ability to perform a smooth, fluid half halt.

Returning to riding is actually perfect for mastering your half-halt, especially during earlier rides.

It helps ‘retune’ your horse to your, most probably less than perfect, aids again and it allows you to become intimate with your core; how it works and how it influences your horse.

Your half-halt is essential to all things in your riding, so invest time in refining yours.

4. Rhythm and Balance

The final piece of the ‘where do I begin puzzle’ is becoming acquainted with your horse’s natural rhythm again. Couple this with the ability to feel when things are balanced, and when they are not, it is a valuable lesson to recap when initially getting back into the saddle.

Later, when you begin to change gears a little, the ability to maintain a steady rhythm will serve you well. Of course, knowing how your horse feels when he is beginning to lose his balance will ensure you can rebalance, using your trusty half halt, before things go too far and the energy or forwardness is lost.

Keep Things Simple

Unfortunately one of the downsides to not having a plan is trying to do everything at once – resulting in you achieving little in the long run, and becoming extremely frustrated about your lack of progress!

Remember to keep things simple for at least the first week or two. Master the above basic steps and skills while you and your body become familiar once again with the feel, movement, and sensations of your horse underneath you.

Returning to riding is a big, often scary, step for many riders. Give yourself a little head-start by having a plan of action from the moment your bum makes that long-awaited, keenly anticipated, contact with the saddle.

Happy Riding

Lorna

Read the post Returning to Riding – Great Expectations HERE>>

Returning to Riding

Are you returning to riding? Are you feeling a little overwhelmed with it all? I may just have the thing to help you get back into the saddle – and enjoying yourself there again!

The Original Returning to Riding Plan is a complete step by step audio program that takes you from ‘not riding’ to regularly riding and enjoying yourself again. The plan is laid out over 6 weeks, however, you have lifetime access to go over it again and again as you want in the coming weeks, months, and years.

You can find all the details HERE. And I wish you all the best in making your ‘Returning to Riding’ as enjoyable and successful as you dreamed it would be :)

February 14, 2017
Crookedness in the Saddle; Identifying Yours

Crookedness – it is a word and a concept that is continuously showing up when we talk about horses, riding and training… It is also a little like the ‘chicken and the egg’ – which comes first? Many riders make the mistake of thinking it is only the horse we are speaking about. Meanwhile, riders can be just as crooked, if not more so, than their horses – and because of the relationship, one will always affect the other.

When was the last time you honestly assess how straight or crooked you are when you are riding? Perhaps it all looks good when you are actually riding on the straight; but things become a little twisted when any change (either in direction, gait, tempo) happens.

Crookedness in riders shows up in lots of different ways. Sometimes it is very obvious, the stirrups are different lengths, or the rider is leaning. But other times it can be very subtle; perhaps the horse becomes disunited in the canter, or a hand or arm tends to dip on a corner.

Regardless of the degree of crookedness, what is almost agreed upon by all riders is that unless a conscious effort is made to practice symmetry in the saddle, crookedness will creep into your riding in some form or other. This is simply because all people have a dominant side, which will compensate for the weaker side – particularly when the going gets tough.

So, this being said, what can we do as riders to become more straight and, how can we then influence our horses to follow suit with us?

Assessing your horse & saddle

What many riders don’t realise is that crookedness is sometimes created by the horse itself or the saddle. Horses, just like us, have a dominant side. Why this is so has been the topic of many debates and there are many schools of thought on it – however what is important is that your horse favours one side or the other. Taking this into account and depending on the work or training a horse does, this can sometimes lead to the horse becoming unevenly muscled. One side of the body will become disproportionately stronger – and therefore larger – than the other. If the shoulder or back muscles are involved, this will then affect how the rider sits on the horse.

The other consideration before you even mount up is the flocking or padding in your saddle. Over time saddles become worn, just like a shoe would on your foot. This ‘shape’ can be influenced by a few different things, the rider, the horse or the quality of the saddle in general. The result is that the saddle is no longer symmetrical. This lack of symmetry can often be the cause of the uneven stirrups, or one seat bone being more forward or dropped than the other.

I suggest having a good look at both your horse and your saddle and stirrup leathers. See if there are any noticeable differences between the right and left side. If there are, have an appropriate professional assess ad make changes where necessary. Once that is done, you can then turn your attention to yourself.

Assess your reflection

Unfortunately not all riders are blessed to have mirrors in their arena, however this does not mean that they cannot make use of other ways to assess their crookedness when they are riding. There are windows that you can use as mirrors. You can also use your shadow on the ground. Both of those suggestions definitely require a little more effort on your part, but if needs must…

Begin by halting in front of the mirror / window / shadow. Square your horses shoulders to it, so you can see exactly how ‘equal’ you are on either side of your horse. Assuming that you have already checked your equipment and horse to make sure the issue is not stemming from there, check are your stirrups the same length? Are your shoulders the same height? If you and your horse could be safely chopped in half, head to tail, would both sides be an exact copy of each other?

Keep in mind that, if your head is also ‘straight’, your eyes won’t lie to you. Many riders spend so long being crooked that it feels ‘normal’ . In fact, when they are corrected, it feels so unusual and different, your brain tells you that it couldn’t possibly be right.

If you have been harbouring a certain crookedness in your riding for any length of time, you may very well have to retrain your brain to what is actually straight again.

If you do notice any crookedness here, look at ways you can measure this quickly when you move away from the mirror. Maybe it will involve looking if your knees are symmetrical. Or perhaps it you can place stickers on your clothes, marking your left and right point of shoulder, or hip. There are lots of ways you can get creative, but what is important is that you know what actual straight feels like and keep correcting things back to there.

Finding Straight when Riding

Once you have a good idea of what straight looks and feels like at the halt, you can begin accessing your position when riding. This is where your dominant side plays a big part, and where your markers or stickers will really help you if you don’t have mirrors in your arena.

Start off in walk on the straight. Notice if you are remaining symmetrical. Try focus your attention on your seat bones in particular, and the way your weight is distributed between them. It should be equally or evenly balanced between both seat bones.

Confusingly for many riders, ‘weighting’ your seat bone does not involved shifting your weight or lifting your weight off your other seat bone. It rather involves the muscles in your pelvic and core areas.

Keep in mind that regardless of what you are doing, their should be an equal amount of your body on either side of the horse. The left will not visit the right and vice versa. If you find yourself leaning or shifting over, bring it back to centre and straight before trying again.

Becoming a positive influence

It is only through continuous correction that you will overcome any crookedness in your riding. Once you are truly straight, you may find that a lot of your horses ‘crookedness’ will also vanish. As riders our relationship with our horse is a unique and special one. We are directly influencing each other all the time when riding.

Let your influence on your horse be a truly positive and straight one

Happy Riding
Lorna

There are 4 audio programs of step by step instructions on this topic waiting for you inside of Daily Strides Premium. You can simply download them to your phone and listen while you ride. You can find out more about Daily Strides Premium HERE

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November 29, 2016
Relationship between Your Inside Leg and Outside Rein

Most riders have heard about how they should ‘ride from the inside leg to the outside rein’; but really – what does that mean?! How exactly do you ride from what seems like a bit of a diagonal and what about all the other aids? Should we forget about them?

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The term ‘riding from the inside leg to the outside rein’ is one that is used a lot when it comes to riding. The confusing part of it however, is that this concept is so much more than just those two aids. In fact if it is done correctly, it is a finely balanced combination of all your aids – that is continuously requiring adjustment and ‘recalibration’ with every passing stride.

A channel for your horses energy

What is important to remember is that your aids are like a channel for your horses energy. Think about the banks of a river; they keep the water in, and therefore, flowing where they want it to go. Your aids work in the same way for the energy your horse creates.

When you ride, you ask your horse to create energy with his hind quarters. This energy must then be directed where you want it to go. If you allow it to just ‘run out the front’, your horse will most probably become quite long and stringy. He will also become heavy on his forehand. If you hold too much energy in and don’t allow it to flow, you run the risk of encountering an explosion of sorts!

Understanding that your job is to ask for the creation of energy and then regulate the flow is, in my opinion, the first step to grasping the concept of the ‘inside leg to outside rein’.

How responsive is your horse to your aids?

From here, you need to asses how responsive your horse is to your aids, particularly your inside leg. Is he quick to respond to questions you ask with it, and does he clearly understand what is expected of him when you ask those questions?

Your inside leg asks for the energy to be created. This energy is created in the hind quarters and then flows though the horses back to connect with the front end. As we have already mentioned your aids then channel the flow of this energy. However this cannot happen if your horse ignores or is unresponsive to your questions to begin with.

You cannot channel and regulate what is not there!

The Role of Your Outside Rein

So once this energy is flowing, your inside leg is then used to ‘contain’ it and keep it in the imaginary river that we spoke about earlier. However, all rivers need two banks. This is where your outside rein comes into play. it is the opposing channel or bank for the inside leg.

Now, obviously, this is a very simplified version of what is going on, however in order to fully understand how they work together, I find it is one of the easiest ways to explain the concept.

What is important to realise is that it is this relationship, between inside leg and outside rein, that then dictates how that energy flows through the horse. If it is allowed to run freely out the front, or if it will be regulated.

If you are regulating that flow of energy, you then need to begin working on how you are balancing that flow.

Balancing Your Inside Leg to Your Outside Rein

Again, think of the energy as being water in a river. If it is allowed to run freely out, it will be fast and lack direction. If it is dammed up, their is much more potential there to work with. If it is blocked, well, it may just explode (think bucking and general high jinx)!

You need to work on balancing the energy being created, keeping the energy flowing in the ‘river’ and deciding how much you are going to allow it to flow out. Once you understand this, it is now time to incorporate your other aids into your communication.

Your Other ‘Supporting’ Aids

In order for the relationship between the inside leg and outside rein to truly work; your outside leg, inside rein and seat must also be involved. Their role is more of a supporting one – they are not the lead characters in the relationship!

The additional involvement of your inside rein and outside legs will constantly change, depending on the questions you are asking your horse and his response. If you fail to incorporate them into your riding, the basic principle of your inside leg to outside rein cannot work effectively.

However, if you overuse the supporting aids, well it’s a little like “too many cooks spoiling the broth”. It becomes overwhelming, each aid fighting for your horses attention and consideration. This is where you see the horse either shutting down completely and ignoring the rider, or becoming agitated, frustrated and displaying far too much excess tension throughout their body.

Fine Tuning this Relationship

Initially you may have to use more pressure or apply your aids more frequently until your horse begins to understand what you are asking. How long it takes until you can begin to become more subtle with your aids will depend on your riding skills – and how quiet you are when riding – and also your horses training.

Refining the relationship between your inside leg and outside rein means having your seat and body play a larger part in your communication with your horse.

Begin by Focusing on the Where & How

I suggest you begin by focusing on your position in the saddle. If you are in the correct position, your body is in the best place to apply the aids clearly and correctly. This is true for your leg and your rein.

Pay attention to your ‘lines’; head, shoulder, hip, heel and then ‘elbow, wrist, thumb, rein, bit’. When those correct lines are in place will have a dramatic influence on the effectiveness of your aids.

From here, work on your horses responsiveness to your aids and how much pressure and how often you are applying those aids. This is always changing, from stride to stride, so it is up to you to begin developing your feel in order to consistently adapt your aids to the situation.

Happy Riding
Lorna

There are four more audio programs on this topic available for you to download and listen to while riding inside of Daily Strides Premium. The additional programs will take you step by step through the process of applying these aids when riding, helping you to better understand and apply this concept in the saddle.

They are part of the ‘Rider Aids Collection’, a series of audio programs all about the different aids we use when riding and how you can best apply yours. This collection is divided into Seat Aids, Leg Aids and Rein Aids; allowing you to find the group of lessons that best suit your particular needs – regardless of where you are in your riding.

You can find out more by visiting HERE >>

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November 15, 2016
Increasing Your Horses General Responsiveness

Are your horse’s response times a little dismal? Do find yourself asking… and then waiting… and maybe asking again… and maybe, just maybe, on the fourth or fifth request you are lucky enough to get a response?! Responsiveness is the factor which can make all the difference with you and your horse when working together.

Riding is a little like day-to-day life in this regard; a quick response to something will often set the tone for how the relationship will proceed from that point. Slow or non-existent response times lead to frustration, hold ups, loss of attention and energy. They leave an overall bad taste in your mouth.

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Riding a horse who is less than responsive to your aids is a frustrating place to be. It results in the quality of the overall ride or performance to deteriorate. Accuracy, energy, balance, rhythm, transitions, straightness and just plain old enjoyment all diminish when your horse seemingly ignores you.

Many riders will also notice that their progress stagnates; after all it becomes rather difficult to improve things when the basics are missing to begin with.

But before we get into how you can begin ‘fixing’ your horses responsiveness, it is first important to figure out why your horse is indeed ignoring you.

Many riders believe that horses who lack good responsiveness are lazy, unwilling and perhaps a little too laid back. This can be true in certain situations, however, it is my experience that many horses are rather trained to ignore their riders.

This ‘training’ is usually unintentional, but it happens none the less. When we speak about riding, it is good to remember that horses only learn what we teach them. We teach what we do repeatedly or consistently… If you are doing the wrong things consistently in the saddle, your horse will begin to think that is the correct way of doing things. I know, a bitter pill to swallow for many riders!

Focus on ‘how’ you are asking your questions

A good example of this is the walk to halt transition. When riders are ‘training’ or ‘schooling’ in the arena, special attention is given to the quality of this transition. The aids are timed to perfection, the coordination, the balance, the straightness, the rhythm – all beautifully carried out in the correct time and sequence to produce a wonderfully balance, square halt.

However – on leaving the arena, perhaps to cool down on a short hack or the walk back to the stalls, both horse and rider seem to switch to ‘relax mode’. While the relaxing itself it not wrong, very often the consistency of how things are done when in that mood is. Horse and rider arrive at the barn and rather than the wonderful, well planned transition which happened 10 minutes earlier in the arena being repeated – the rider simply ‘hauls’ on the reins, the horse ‘falls’ into a standstill, legs everywhere, and the rider slides off…

The next time they get into the arena, the same rider will complain and moan about the fact that their horse is ‘unresponsive’ to their aids. Meanwhile they told, no – asked, their horse to be just that on arrival at the barn the previous ride. Do you see the connection?

The same applies with all elements and aspects of riding. Your horses responsiveness is often a direct reflection of your consistency when asking

Pay attention to what you are doing ‘between’ questions

So once you become clear on how you are asking different questions, you need to also start focusing on what you are doing between those questions.

We often hear the term ‘quiet’ used when describing riders. It is a confusing term for many, but I suggest you begin associating the term with how the horse hears things, rather than us riders.

When we are in the saddle, we are communicating all the time with our horse. Understanding this simple concept is the first step to developing this ‘quietness’ in the saddle. Can you turn up or down the volume of your aids? Are you perhaps shouting at your horse, without even realising it?

Shuffling, moving, shifting, driving, leaning, nudging, swinging, banging, fidgeting, collapsing, wriggling, pulling, tugging – the list is endless – all result in you speaking with your horse. Is it any wonder that he begins to tune out and ignore everything.

Riders who have little or no control over their movements in the saddle are like the chatty 3-year-old child… You soon train your brain to ‘ignore’ the chatter, only paying attention when the tone / noise levels change. Unfortunately, many horses who practice non-responsiveness are treating you just like that 3-year-old chatter box! They only pay attention when you ‘shout’ at them, perhaps using your crop or an extra forceful kick…

Tweaking the conversation to improve responsiveness

All good conversations have a purpose. The reason you being to filter out the 3 year olds babbling, is just that, its nonsensical babbling! There is no purpose to it. The same applies to your aids.

You need to begin thinking about every move you make in the saddle, and filtering out those that are only there for the sake of being there. Become intentional about every single aid – regardless of where you are riding or what part of the ride you are on.

I find that one of the easiest ways to begin this process is to firstly correct your position and posture in the saddle. The correct position is hammered home by trainers and instructors the world over for a reason – it places you in the best place to be most effective with your aids

From here, begin doing your homework regarding how best to use your body to communicate different questions to your horse. Spend time learning about what aids are required the half halt for example. Then start working on in-graining that sequence of correct aids into your riding, so as you don’t have to consciously think about them every time. Put the basics on autopilot.

Let Your Horse Know the Conversation Has Changed

The final piece to the responsiveness puzzle is retraining your horse to understand and respond to your newfound clarity in the saddle. This may take a while and can only be attempted once you have streamlined your aids / chatter / conversation first.

Remember, by moving and ‘talking’ all the time, you have trained your horse to ignore you. Now, you need to retrain him to the mindset that anything you ‘say’ from here on out will be of value and will only add to your conversation

I suggest having a crop or riding whip for this. Ideally we want your horse to respond to your seat, but those aids need to be refined first, before he can differentiate between a ‘speed wobble’ and an actual ‘aid’ coming from your body in the saddle. Start with the simple lesson of ’cause and effect’ – you put your leg on, he responds to it.

Cause and Effect

The reason I say to carry the whip is because initially you may have to back your leg up with your stick. Leg – no response – leg and stick – response – reward. The next time you can try again; Leg – response – reward. It may take a few tries for your horse to realise that your leg is now a quality part of the conversation that must be listened to. In my experience usually 2 to 3 repetitions is enough to get the point across.

It is also important to remember that your stick / whip / crop is only there to back up your leg. Not to be used alone at any point in the ride

It should be used directly behind your calf muscle / lower leg / heel area, not on the shoulder or hind quarters. To use it anywhere else in this situation is, in my opinion, confusing and cruel towards your horse. It should also not be used with undue force. A simple tap – a reminder of sorts – is enough to draw attention to your leg and get the desired result.

Make sure that when you ask your horse to move forward, you are then ‘positioned’ correctly to ALLOW him to move forward. Otherwise, again, it becomes confusing for your horse.

Re-schooling your horse to become more responsive is a challenge, however once you have your position and aids streamlined, progress can be achieved quite quickly. Keep in mind that responsiveness is trained – unresponsiveness is also trained. Make sure that what you are saying to your horse is worth listening to and from there, set the basics on autopilot.

Happy Riding

Lorna

If you are finding that your horse is unresponsiveness to your aids, take responsibility and begin working on your coordination in the saddle. Your ability to control your body results in your being able to have more ‘meaningful conversations’ with your horse, through your aids, when riding. Join the 100% free 30 Day Rider Fitness Challenge today to begin reining in your ‘non-stop chatter’ when riding!

This topic is the introduction to 4 more audio programs specifically focused on improving your horses responsiveness when being ridden. The rest of the programs are created to be listened to while actually riding your horse. You simply download the programs to your phone, pop your phone in your pocket and work through the exercises while you ride your horse.

If you are interested in finding out more about these programs and all the lessons inside of Daily Strides Premium, you can visit HERE >> for more information.

August 23, 2016