Training Tips To Live By. February 2003.

1. Release now! It is the release that teaches so when you hear this stop doing whatever it is that you are doing.


2. Offer the horse the best deal possible. This in essence means that we want to start as soft as possible so that our horse starts to look for the good deal. This is where I think we start to develop softness.


3. If it is tight it is not right. If the horse is resisting or is getting upset we are not communicating efficiently. We need to pause and rethink our approach.


4. Get off of their face! Most people ride with too much contact at the wrong time. To earn the right to ride with contact we must have control at all speeds and in all maneuvers on a loose rein. There should be no change in speed if I pick up or loosen my reins concerning collection. We want collection, not containment.


5. Stay in the middle of your horse. Do not lean into your turns. It will unbalance your horse and make it hard for him to do his job. In most cases I would like to see a parallel line with the horizon and shoulder and a straight line from ear to heel.


6. Cause it to happen! We will offer the horse the best deal possible however if we ask we must be willing to follow up with enough clarity and energy to make sure that the horse makes an effort.


7. Accept the try. It is the best they can do at the moment. If we expect too much we will just excite, frustrate or confuse the horse.


8. Don't ask a horse to try that is trying. He is already doing all that he can, be grateful.


9. Don't kill the try. We really need to keep a horse looking for the answers. If we lose this we have nothing, just a shell that is hollow and dull.


10. One rein, now! You are about to die, use your control rein, now.

Accepting The Bit. November 2002.

I think this month we will start at the front of horse and over time we will work our way back. When working with horses that have trouble accepting the bit, or young horses, we use a soft cotton rope (yacht braid) placing it between our fingers like we were holding the bit then allowing the horse to pick it up and drop it like we would with a snaffle. The cool part of this is that there is no way the horse can bump its teeth like with a regular bit, which is where most problems with bitting start. As with most problems that we encounter, we will have a competent veterinarian check the horse out that is really having trouble accepting the bit. We feel that it is our responsibility to make sure that there is no physical reason that the horse is resisting before we take more radical measures to cause a change in the horses behavior. When we are teaching (or reteaching) a horse to accept the bit we will insist that he horse knows how to drop his head to accept the bit before trying to proceed. There are several ways to achieve this, the simplest is to apply slight pressure on top of the poll and release when there is the slightest downward movement of the horses head. You will hear this over and over from us, but accept the slightest try by the horse, it is the release that teaches. If you have to make a mistake on your release, release too early rather than too late. By making sure that you can cause the horse to drop its head you will avoid forcing them to bump their teeth. We will make sure that the colt will drop its head to accept and to drop the bit when we remove it. We had one colt that really had a problem letting go of the bit and resorted to giving him a treat to chew on when it was time to remove the snaffle. It worked like a charm! Within a couple of days he was picking the bit up and dropping it like a pro. I will generally start using the bit on a colt somewhere around ride four or five. This varies with the individual colt; we want the horse soft and giving to the halter nicely before we add the stress of a piece of metal in their mouth. I will quite often have the colt carry the bit for a workout or two before I pick up on it. As with all of work, we want the snaffle to not be a big deal to our horse.