Tag: riding

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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The Old Way with Horses

The Old Way with Horses

Often we hear people from this day and age talking about how the new way is so much better than the old way. It sounds like they have discovered how to be more empathetic and less damaging to a horse than anyone in the past ever could.

They talk about new methods, training styles and attitudes as though they could never had existed in the past and the whole of history has been ignorant all along.

Here are some things I have come across recently. In a book called “The Virginian” written by Owen Wister in 1902 about range life in Wyoming, and beyond, he talks about not working young horses too hard for fear of “springing their legs” (or them developing splints) and not being useful older horses. He also wrote the lines, as near as I can remember without searching for it, “Doesn’t a horse rely on us to help him? Isn’t he just like a child”. The book is a novel, or fiction, but the attitudes and ideas were from somewhere.

In his book Hell West and Crooked published in 1988 Tom Cole wrote about his life as a drover, horseman and buffalo hunter in the north of Australia in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Its a long time since I read this book but he specifically talks about not putting horses to work until they are four or five years old. Again because that is the only way they could get them to last the distance.

I guess my point is that these guys relied on their horses and needed to look after them for the sake of them being reliable and functional for as long as possible.

It was not all the rough tough stuff that movies, and people with something “new” to sell would have us believe. It was also not all as bad as someone with a little less experience and age on them might say to give them the illusion of credibility.

I am not saying that the rough stuff didn’t exist then but we need to remember that the good, the bad and the ugly is just as prevalent today. Add the competitiveness of todays society and the money involved and we have a dimension that was no where near as commonplace in times past.

Traditional knowledge has taken several thousand years to evolve. It was developed by millions of horsemen and horses.

Army’s could not function on horses with sore backs or lame horses. Large pastoral operations and droving outfits did not want the burden of their horses only having a short usable life.

Most people in isolated locations often weeks or even months away from the nearest hospital did not want to ride frightened, worried or unpredictable horses. Unfortunately the stories of accidents and unfortunate “goings on” made much more of a story. I guess doom and gloom in most news broadcasts now is what takes hold of the general public’s ear.

In those older times horses suffering serious genetic disorders were generally not purposely “bred on” for aesthetic reasons and breeding stock had to prove their suitability for work and going the distance.

As much of the unsafe, unhealthy and unhappy things that horses have to endure come from a lack of experience and understanding as what emerge from a lack of respect for the horse. Not all that was done in the past is sinister and not all that is purported as a new revelation is in the best interests of the horse.

In the event that someone thought I may be someone they could ask for advice on this, it would be, “don’t be too quick to jump on a new bandwagon and don’t be too hasty in abandoning what preceded it. Lots of times a change is attractive to those who have not yet mastered the status quo”.