Category: Ian and Liz’s Blog

Ian and Liz on horsemanship and much more.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Teaching Horses And Riders

In order to improve how I work with people I have been reading about different teaching styles and methods.

One that stands out for me is the Feynman Technique.

Basically to really know a subject you should be able to break down even the most complicated matter and simplify it.

Try and structure it in your mind and simplify it in a way that might be understood by a child.

Try and do this in your own words so that its not just rhetoric or the words of others.

This is a way of confirming to yourself that you have a grasp of the subject.

Making something sound so complicated that only a genius could understand it might be good for your ego but is a very ineffective way of conveying knowledge.

Parroting the words of others is often used to convey the illusion of knowledge.

This may prove that someone has a good memory for words and phrases but is only effective, in teaching, if those words and phrases are used in context.

The Feynman Technique is as much about learning as it is about teaching.

To know a subject you must be able to break it down and simplify it to the point where you can explain it to a child.

Now, if you are working with an animal you must be able to break it down and simplify it to a point where you can help the animal learn it.

You might consider that you only have actions to make your point.

Ian Leighton and Kendric

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Sleepless in the Saddle – Liz Leighton

Equestrian Awareness – Tiredness & Fatigue

Elizabeth (Liz) Leighton – Horse Safety Australia Accredited Senior Instructor
Partner Ian Leighton Horsemanship

I’ve been thinking about the realities of the working lifestyle and riding over a few years now, and have found myself at times struggling to find the motivation to push myself further with my riding.  I’ve since discovered that much of this is due to stress and physical imbalances that have manifested themselves at times as lethargy and a lack of mental focus.  I am a continual work in progress to be a better, fitter and more mentally present horsewoman, and am fortunate to have a great support network to help me on this path.

A discussion a while ago with my nephew about his post graduate studies into sleep disorders, fatigue, routines and disruptions in high risk industries started me thinking about the impact of  fatigue in equestrian activities.  I’m not just referring to workplace or competitive environments but also recreational and trail riding activities as well as general handling.

I’ve had a number of conversations over the years with horse owners following injury, returning to the saddle after recovery or making the difficult Continue reading Sleepless in the Saddle – Liz Leighton

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Discovering Relaxation & Softness – Liz Leighton

I’ve been reading a little lately about relaxation and softness of mind and body, and put a few words down to remind myself periodically of what I’m working to achieve in my horsemanship.

I read recently where someone questioned the difference between softness and lightness, or soft/light, and what it means in horsemanship. It made me think through how these terms are used so often, and often aren’t explained. Whilst many good horsemen/horsewomen will often interchange these terms so that they are in essence speaking of the same thing, what it should translate to Continue reading Discovering Relaxation & Softness – Liz Leighton

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Let’s Get Deep About Your Seat

Ian Leighton on why your position is so important to your horse


Let’s Get Deep About Your Seat.

Learning how to use your seat is one of the greatest changes we can make to improve our riding, our horse’s willingness, his balance and carriage and to help him stay relaxed while using his natural energy.
Use your seat in a way that makes the horse feel like he can do what you are asking of him.
Often this is not explained well and is made much more complicated than it needs to be.
Like anything we do it’s not just a matter of learning the theory and everything falls into place but takes some commitment to become what your horse would like you to be as a rider.


If it takes that much effort to learn why would I want to, or why do I need to?

Imagine riding all day without getting tired or feeling like you are really working.
If we can learn to keep ourselves and our horse balanced and not restrict what he does or “get in his way”(a term that is often used to describe a poor or unbalanced seat) the amount of Continue reading Let’s Get Deep About Your Seat

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Young Horses

Young Horses

If you are considering  young horses or a green horse then also consider that young or green horses are still learning.

Young horses
Ian working with some young horses.

If you have no or little experience with young or green horses then you are likely to have trouble. You should not ride and handle youngsters like an old pony you learned on. They are still learning and often too sensitive to deal with that.

You shouldn’t take your green horse home from the breakers, give it a month off, throw on a poorly fitting saddle and swing up expecting to have a great time.

You should not expect that you can do the things you saw at the horse expo or in a video without the practice it takes to develop the feel and timing and instinctual responses that are the difference between good horsemanship and poor horsemanship.

With green youngsters your confidence cannot be false confidence based on a less than frank picture of where your horsemanship is at.

The good news is that many people can learn to be good with a young horse and help it develop into a great older horse.
Those that seek ongoing guidance from people who are experienced and competent with a young horse and are willing to change themselves and how they operate are the only ones that have good odds of being successful.

If you had trouble with your old horse chances are, without some changes, you will trouble your new horse .

Our video series Groundwork For Young Horses is a great place to start.
It covers everything from hardly leading to picking up feet to float loading.

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Want a Soft Horse

Every time your horse leans on the reins or the lead rope or on the handler see it as an opportunity.

Don’t just hold and teach him that it is ok to lean.

Don’t give to him and reward him for leaning.

Don’t punish him and make him too frightened to give you a soft feel when you want it.

Ian working with a horse at a clinic. It was cold.

Don’t hold him tight and make him feel trapped so that he feels like he has to lean or pull.

Don’t avoid his leaning
by staying out of his way or letting him teach you.

On the ground or while riding, don’t avoid teaching him his responsibility to not pull or push on you.

Avoid making it something he must endure every time you handle him for the rest of his life. That is neither comfortable for the rider or fair on the horse.

You could just hold a little more and release when he gives you a soft feel.

Maybe move his feet a little until he stops leaning and then let him stand as a reward.

Also, if he is leaning hard enough, follow him and maintain that contact until he stops or steps forward and then release.

You could use your presence and focus to help him understand what to do to gain that release.

Try to set the situation up again a few times so that he has a chance to properly learn how to avoid being in this conflict.

You could be totally consistent about this so that he learns to have a conflict free time every time he is with you.

Find some help with this if you don’t know what to do.

You could teach him in a subtle way at a stand-still how to respond to a soft feel so that he understands it  Giving your horse a nice life means not shirking your responsibilities here. The more you allow him to learn that leaning is ok the more he will have to endure the conflict in the future.

Often the behaviour that causes the horse and rider the most discomfort “is not” caused by anything sinister. It is often caused by unwittingly teaching the horse to respond the wrong way to things.

Remember every time your horse leans you are presented with another opportunity to make his life more comfortable in the future.

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Confused?

Confusion and indecision is rife in the horse world.

There are so many ideas and gadgets and supplements and feeds etc out there all being marketed as the best way to go and the only thing to do if you like your horse even in a moderate way.

Ian and Kendric having thinking time

On the net everyone has an opinion on how everything should or should not be. Often these opinions Continue reading Confused?

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Preventative Riding

Thought for the day:
The most common cause of issues between a horse and rider under saddle is what I call “preventative riding”.

Preventative riding is what a rider is doing when they spend more time trying to stop the horse from doing things than directing him or allowing him to do things.

If you ride in a preventative manner by holding onto your horse with your reins and legs in order to control it or prevent it from going too fast or from veering off-course or from bucking or any other manner of unwanted behavior you are most likely causing the behavior that you are frightened of.

Riding like this causes riders to be stiff and unbalanced and to hunch up when the horse panics. This in turn greatly increases the chances of falling off.

There are horses around that deal with this type of riding but they do so because they are dull or desensitized to it or are just working in a state of learned helplessness.

You can’t have feel when you use your reins like a set of handlebars or a brake lever.

Riding properly into the bridle on an engaged horse has nothing to do with anything I have written above.
All horses need to learn to go on a loose rein also.

There is so much rhetoric thrown around, about getting a horse to trust you, but “trusting your horse” is probably the biggest step you must take toward this.

If safety is your main concern then you need help to learn that safety comes from keeping your horse from feeling trapped, learning to balance, learning to teach your horse how to take direction and learning that the horses energy comes from from your energy.

You may want the fancy stuff or just a safe horse but learning not to be a preventative rider is the only way forward. This is walking before you can run. It can’t be over done.

Self control is the most important type of control there is when riding.

The picture is a group of great people working on this at one of our clinics.

Posted on by — 2 Comments

THE IMPORTANCE OF BODY LANGUAGE

Body Language – Groundwork for Focus and Energy

Many people associate horse riding with giving their horse a cue to elicit a response, but how do riders get on with a horse that hasn’t been trained to respond to cues, or with a horse they want to take further in its education?

Riders can greatly increase their ability to teach in a way that a horse can understand, without it having had any previous exposure to what is being taught. They can also work in a manner that does not over-stimulate their horse, reducing the likelihood of eliciting a rushed, unbalanced or reactive response. This will help them to be able to direct their horse with the appropriate amount of energy, whilst maintaining a relaxed composure.

What do horses already understand, without training?

“Horses are born with, or develop early in their lives, a natural ability to read the focus and body language of another horse, and that of other animals, developing an understanding of their physical intent.

I guess we don’t think about it enough at times but so much of the horse’s natural behaviour patterns are related directly to their evolution as a prey animal. While selective breeding over the years has changed this for some, many breeds have built on the natural qualities of their ancestors for speed, agility and alertness. Reactions that would have been a huge advantage for prey animals to evolve with would have been an ability to ‘read’ and process the places where a predator’s attack may occur and manoeuvre accordingly to avoid this.

The horse’s ability to ‘read’ the intent of other horses would also be helpful to avoid collisions if they happen to be running fast in a large herd. You only need to see a foal running beside its dam when they are startled or run in fear, to see how it mirrors the mare’s movements and direction, appearing to be attached by an invisible cord. Consider how quickly and accurately they must process this information to avoid collisions and attacks.

When you see young horses being sent-off by older herd members for apparently no, or very little, reason, it makes sense that it is because that is how they learn to avoid a potentially fatal attack at some time in their future. An older horse always seems to gain quite a reactive response from a younger herd member and many believe it is all about respect of a more alpha horse.

I believe there may be a much more critical reason than has become accepted by many horse people. It makes sense to me that it’s more to do with the longer-term well-being of the herd and that it’s an evolved mechanism to assist in the learning of how to avoid becoming the victim of predators.

Nearly everything that has naturally evolved in the animal world is about the betterment or future survival of the species.

HOW does knowing about this help us train our horse?

Having some understanding of the nature of equine body language and intent gives handlers the ability to direct their horse during the process of teaching ground work and to understand how they may conduct themselves in order to lift up or lower energy levels or gain responses without directly chasing their horse.

Let’s take a horse learning to follow a feel on a lead-rope as an example.

One of the most common problems I see in ground work at the many workshops or clinics I teach in, is an inability for people to control their horse’s energy when asking it to move off during ground work.

To help the horse understand where we want it to go, focus and energy can be increased, thereby using our presence like another horse would.

Often handlers will ask by leading out with the rope and then chasing the horse away with a flourish of the flag or stick or the end of the rope, causing the horse to take flight in an erratic or rushed way.  For overly desensitised horses, their reaction may be to ignore the handler and stand their Continue reading THE IMPORTANCE OF BODY LANGUAGE

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Keeping it Real

Real Women who Ride

Keeping it Real

I’ve been enjoying some travel time with Ian, teaching and supporting Ian’s training workshops as well as finding a bit more time for myself and our own horses.    I’m not much for annual resolutions, but taking some time out at home for the holiday break I’ve found myself thinking about what I set out to accomplish during 2017, and found that my path meandered along as I found new things to be inspired about.  I don’t believe that our path in life is straight, and it’s the winding bends that sometimes reveal the most amazing view.

View from the Spirit of Tasmania – Bass Strait

I have aspirations for my horsemanship, goals if you like, things that I am continually working towards.  It is only on reflection that I realise I’ve achieved more than I think I did.

There is no doubt that working with horses requires a great many qualities, both internal and external, but I think the most important is having an honest dialogue with yourself.  Regardless of your level of riding ability, we can all do little things to make a difference in our pursuit to be better horsemen and horsewomen.

This week I had thoughts that I had disappointed my horse – I set myself up for failure by not keeping the situation real.  My failure was small in the scheme of things, I lost my balance riding and had an unexpected dismount.  Nothing hurt, but I worried my horse during the process – on remounting I had to suck it up a little, find that inner confidence, and accept that I had created the situation and was accountable for what occurred.

Accepting that things don’t always go to plan is part of the process, there is an inherent risk in working with horses, and one that in order to progress we must be mindful of.   One thing I know, I need to work harder off the horse on my fitness, core strength and balance, so that on the horse these critical things are more solid.  This is never more evident as a mature rider than when returning to riding after a break, bringing horses back into work after a spell, riding young or green horses, or when building on training techniques which require me to have control over how my body operates so that I can more readily maintain and correct my balance.    I need to spend more time in the saddle, working on what needs to be worked on to get these things solid.  Never forget those foundations – the basics of softness, balance and relaxation, and allowing my horse to move forward encouraging these elements, and breathe so that I remain soft, balanced and relaxed.

One thing I am now more confident and secure with is keeping the whole thing real.  I am at where I am at physically, and acknowledging this as I work on being a more fluid, balanced rider is liberating.  Taking the realistic approach allows me to take a step back as I need to, and then taking that step forward with the knowledge that I am more capable and committed to doing the work that needs to be done.

This is where we need to keep it real.  To progress as riders, we need to be physically up to the challenge, and it can be a challenge.  This past 12 months I’ve worked steadily to be more physically up to the demands of riding, and in having this honest dialogue with myself, I need to do more.  This doesn’t mean signing up to the gym or running up mountains.  For me it means doing more exercise in a way that fits in with the demands of my lifestyle, and committing fully to the daily exercises set by my physio in order to have my body functioning in a more dependable way.   To life an active life, I have to be more active – and let’s be honest, working with horses is active.

I am fortunate to meet many riders in our travels, from many different backgrounds, with vastly varying degrees of ability, experience and fitness, each one balancing the demands of their life with their desire to improve as horsemen and horsewomen.   We all have one thing in common, our love of our horses and a willingness to do better by them.  Keeping our successes and failures real and in perspective is important to our growth as riders, and to do better by them we must work to do better by ourselves.  If you need a motivation to work on your fitness, remember how much it will benefit your horse and your riding.  Find those 30 minutes a day to do that something better, find them to feel better and live better.  If you need a reason to find those 30 minutes, look at your horse.

I will continue to work on this as we do everything, both on and off the horse – one step at a time.

Oh, and sometimes the view from home is the very best view of all.

Liz Leighton © January 2018