Trisha wren ~ Connect With Your Horse

Recently a client brought a horse for a lesson, and explained to me that the main problem they have was that the mare gets very excitable while out hacking. She would be fine until they were about 1/2 a mile out, then the whole rest of the hack was a bit of a fight, with her rushing, head high, spinning etc. She was no different with company or without.

We discussed exactly what usually happened, and I gave the owner (we'll call her Gail) various ideas for ways of tackling the problem. As we were actually in an arena however the horse was behaving perfectly, and Gail was not sure what else it would be useful to work on that might help her hacking problem. I asked her to ride her round in walk and trot so that we could see how the horse was going and take it from there. She was strung out behind, with her nose out and the muscles under her neck tense, so I suggested we look at how the horse backed up. (Backing can be a useful way of teaching a horse how to use its hindquarters, round up under you, and soften in front.) I explained that ultimately we were looking for straightness, feet flowing in diagonal pairs, and softness in front.

In the beginning the horse could not figure out what to do with her hind feet, taking each step wide out to the side whilst hollowing her back, or sidepassing in a circle. The horse was not particularly worried, and never broke sweat, but she was confused about this new thing we were asking her to do. Gail was getting tense and stopped breathing; she was confused too, as she had several things to think about at once, and she was getting worried about the potential of the horse getting upset. Consequently, as soon as the horse objected in any way to what we were asking of her, Gail basically quit and let her walk out of it in an attempt to calm her back down. All this was achieving was that the horse thought we wanted her to get upset, because every time she did Gail gave her a release.

I asked her whether this was how things went when she was out hacking, and she said yes. "So, if she gets upset, you just kind of avoid the issue so it doesn't get any worse?" I asked. "Well….. yes!" she replied. "It's not really working, though, is it…?!" I explained to her that what I was seeing was that she had never worked through or really dealt with this (and possibly any) issue with the horse; what was happening here in the arena was indicative of the bigger picture between these two. Gail then said, "You know, my whole life is like that…. I avoid confrontation rather than deal with things…" Oh, really?!

We started again, and this time Gail was more focussed on actually getting through the problem. We needed to get the horse through her confusion and worry and out the other side, to show her we were really asking for quite a small and easy thing and that if she listened to us and trusted us she'd be just fine. Gail concentrated on staying relaxed and calm, and asking the horse consistently and clearly for just one or two steps straight back, releasing as soon as she got a try. It only took a few times, with a relaxing walk in between, before she was getting a nice soft backup. The horse was calm, and Gail relieved and thrilled at the progress they both had made.

I see this phenomenon regularly with riders and their horses, where the 'problem' they are having with their horse is a reflection of a similar pattern in their non-horse life. The good news is that if we can make a change with our horse for the better, the rest of our life should also improve!

Trisha