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
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.
Recently after a conversation with a wonderful friend, I started thinking about modern life and the common belief that to be successful you just needed to work harder. There is no doubt, to be successful takes dedication, perseverance and commitment, but perhaps it also takes a rightly timed opportunity and sometimes just a little bit of luck.
I once heard someone in a position of professional influence state that if young employees wanted to get ahead in their career they would need to work harder and for longer hours for no more reward than their contracted wage or salary – that was the thing that would be recognised and the way professionally forward and up. With an extensive career in organisations that supported this management style, I’d had some experience with the pressure placed on people and the stress and reduction in overall productivity that resulted.
From what was said, it could easily be interpreted the perceived act of working harder and longer hours was in some way more important that the substance produced. How could an observer identify whether that time was used productively or efficiently? A person could also take from this that even if they gave it their very best in fair exchange for what was being offered, why was the expectation for more the thing that would be ultimately rewarded.
Perhaps this is not what the speaker intended, however the management context in which it was said made me question this overall corporate and often adapted lifestyle ethos. It set me wondering about how we interpret the concept of working harder and how we apply it to what we do. Did quantity outweigh quality, and if they were to be considered equal, why was there an acceptance that more for no more in return was ethical. How did it transpire that establishing an environment of inequality could still elicit loyalty, effort and ultimately success?
I am very aware of the consequence of working long pressured hours, and the resulting occupational disengagement, burnout and stress that results. I am also aware of situations where this approach has been applied to horse training, and the consequences.
It made me think that if this speaker applied this approach to working with horses, how successful would they be? Could they believe working a horse harder, or faster, for longer periods, with little or no release or reward would extract more potential or achieve a greater training result in a shorter time?
If we trained horses the way many corporations manage people, how successful would we be?
I think most horse people would agree that this approach and mental attitude would not encourage or foster successful sustainable development or training. Working a horse physically harder or for longer periods won’t expedite a more positive result – it would likely be detrimental to long term physical and psychological development.
I thought about my life and the capacity we have to influence others through our own actions. It made me think about my personal professional philosophy of fostering and supporting a proactive and engaged team-based environment, and that a sense of contributory equality and maintaining this balance was the key to long term mutual success.
Horses and people have a lot in common. Pushing either to the point of frustration or exhaustion is neither productive or conducive to long term success. Expecting a result when neither has the developed skill set to successfully demonstrate or deliver the desired outcome is an exercise in futility, nothing will improve unless you ensure the foundations are in place. And foundations are more than just the basics, foundations are everything accumulated through learning and experience up to the point we are at now. This takes time, guidance and practice. In fact, you never stop building those foundations.
Corporate management could learn a lot from good horsemen and horsewomen. It’s not about how hard or fast or long, it’s about encouraging and creating solid foundations which foster and encourage a positive work ethic, and importantly recognising effort and rewarding it that makes good training.
There needs to be sense of equality between the parties. Creating and maintaining a healthy balance as incrementally you improve on what’s already there is how you build success. In fact, creating a healthy and sustainable lifestyle works the same way.
Sometimes this means working a little slower and removing the pressure, and taking the time to fully understand and get the task at hand done well. You have to be consistent and fair to yourself, and others working with you, and apply yourself to the best of your ability taking into account the foundations also held by the rest of your team.
Perhaps if corporations managed people like the way we should be training our horses, they could have a more willing, engaged and contributing workforce. Finding and maintaining that equitable balance, where effort is recognised and rewarded. That really would be applying the more modern concept of working smarter, not harder.
One of the most frustrating problems that I see with young horses that have not been started under halter or poorly started is that of an inability to yield the hind end or an inability to learn to yield the hind end easily.
Ian’s daughter Maddi working with a foal on its first handling.
Many times this is a result of the only prior contact being scratches on the rump or bum by well- meaning owners or people who have access to the foal. Often the only place they can touch a more sensitive one or one that has not been taught to be caught and face up is on the bum while it is having a drink from its mother. This is not ideal and very quickly becomes a habit that the foal is comfortable with or even enjoys. This creates a few problems for Continue reading Should we let foals back up to us for a scratch?
