The Bearable Lightness of Being III

horsegenes said: I am still out to lunch on whether this type of lightness is what I felt on Mikey. I don't have any connection with Mikey and he has been through several owners because frankly he can be kind of a butt head. He is not a super "honest" horse. I do believe that the connection is part of it. He understood my body language and what I wanted for sure. I think the other part of it is the horse's ability to move "lightly". His way of going, the length of his stride and how he uses his body. The difference between a football player and a ballerina. While a football player can be agile and athletic and perform ballet moves, he is never going to have look or feel of someone with a different body type.

Her point is valid. She was riding a horse she didn't have years or months of time on. She didn't know the horse's in and outs, the horse certainly didn't know hers.

This is where the next phase of lightness comes from. Training. Lightness comes from training our horses to respond to our cues immediately, softly and completely.

I was riding with a young trainer, Devon Warren, before I met K. The first time I went out to his place I went with a friend who took lessons with him. I just planned on watching, but he wasn't going to have that happen, so he put me on one of his horses.

I had much the experience horsegenes had. The horse was amazing and so lightening fast in his responses I couldn't begin to keep up with him. He was also a sad, angry, neurotic mess.

I left that day knowing two things. I wanted to be able to ride well enough to teach my horses to be like his. I didn't want to end up making them as miserable as the one I was on.

I would say that was the turning point for me and horse training. It began a passion, (maybe an obsession) that is still with me today.

The next big jolt came after I had been riding with K for about a year. He had me ride a mare he had taken to the top 10 in AQHA Open Cowhorse at the Worlds (his first big win) and had coached his wife to ride and win the AQHA Amateur Cowhorse Worlds on the same horse, the same year.

The thing that blew me away was how straight and upright she was. When I sent her down a line she went like an arrow, in spite of me, not because of me. She knew to hold herself up, stay dead straight and hold her line through run downs, circles, stops and spins. It was astounding.

I wanted that feeling in my horses, that assurance of what to do and how to do it, no matter who was on them, including me.

"They have to know their job," K said. "If you go into the show pen and turn into a gunzel, the horse has to know its job so well it can cover for you."

I cover the road I meandered down to find these truths in my stories. So I won't drag you through each step. It has come down to a few very basic truths and the simplicity is almost ridiculous, but that's where the complexity falls in too. Because let's face it, as humans we can't ever be happy if things are too simple. We have to muddy them up.


1. Make sure your cues are accurate and honest..

Example: Keeping forward movement

Before you can ask your horse to move forward with lively movement and stay there you have to actually want it to happen.

This is an area I fail in repeatedly. While my horses do eventually weed through my unclear signals and start moving forward freely it takes me way too long to get the message across. Why? Because I'm chicken. Buck, buck, BAWK!

I first noticed it in my students and then, regrettably, in myself. If I ask for a horse to move freely with my body, but I'm actually thinking, please don't go, please don't go, then they don't go.

This is often the case with a student trying to lope and with me going down the fence or opening up across a field.

I might physically tell my horse, GIDDYUP, but my stiffness, rein grabbing, stomach clenching body language is saying, JUST KIDDING! MAYBE NEXT TIME.

This creates a horse that doubts your cues, which leads to all kinds of messy misinterpretations.

If you aren't ready to lope, then work on free forward movement at a trot.

Don't cover your nerves by bossing your horse around. Tie downs, heavier bits, tons of lateral work or stopping and backing don't create forward. They stop it.

The biggest culprit? Cuing a horse to go forward with your legs while simultaneously clutching the reins. This is the single biggest block I see in achieving lightness.


2. Understand each maneuver 100% before you try it on your horse.

   Example: Lope depart.

   In order to train for a lope depart, you and your horse have to understand and be able to achieve easily -both leads, free, forward movement, trot with even, steady cadence, leg yield at the trot, and having your horse wait to translate your cue change instead of getting upset or anticipating you.

  If you don't understand how to get these things it's your job to learn them, understand them, and then teach them to your horse.

3. Make sure your horse understands each maneuver 100% before you expect success

 Example: Run down

In cowhorse and reining one of our big fancy moves is the rundown, which ends in a long, beautiful slide stop.

The biggest mistake I see made is when horse and rider only think of the stop and not what it takes to get there.

The horse needs to know how to take the line she's put on and stay there. If you have to hold her straight through the entire maneuver then you will ball things up, trust me.

When I first start a young horse we work on going straight every bit as much as circles and lateral movement.

When she can hold the line she's put on (at a walk) then we start working on distance. When she will go the length of a field, or the arena then we move up to a trot.

When she can hold a straight line at the trot for as long as needed on a loose rein, without my legs holding her in place, then we move up to the lope.

I don't worry about building speed or heaven forbid, connecting the stop to the end of the line until I know 100% she can hold a straight line.

Then she is ready to learn to transition speed up and down on that line and I don't have to worry about her fading to the right or left.

When she understands the two concepts together I'll add the stop, which I've been working on separately.

4. Understand release as a reward.

    Example: opening or closing a gate

   We're going to get into the cookie giving, horse hugging argument here again, I can just feel it.
My biggest problem with giving a horse a cookie, a pat or a clicker as a reward for correct behavior is it stops all action (see #2) and takes the horse's mind off the job at hand.

Giving a release as a reward needs to become as natural to the rider as a squeeze to create action.
A release can be given in the middle of a rundown at 25 mph and your horse will feel it, get it and prepare for the next step in your plans, if she has been conditioned from day one to understand the release as a reward.

A release is the cessation of hold. The reins relax, the legs relax, the assistance you have been giving your horse to accomplish a maneuver ends, because the horse has done what you asked.

If the horse immediately quits the action you're rewarding then you guys have still have some work to do.

So, onto our gate.

Step one. Stand by the gate. Nothing else.
Position your horse, release your cues and expect the horse to relax. Right there. Not moving one foot.
This first step can take a while.
Position, release.
Step two. Get contact with your horse. Put hand on the gate. Release.
Step three. Contact. Unlatch gate. Release.
Step four.Contact.  Ask horse to side pass away and open gate. Release pressure for a split second but don't let go of contact.
Step  five. Move haunches around gate while your hand stays on said gate (I'll let the gate swing with babies, they wobble at first). Release pressure only.
Step six. Side pass to close gate. Release all cues.
Step seven. Get contact. Close gate. Release.
Step eight. (very important!) Stand and relax, horse completely released until she stands.
If the horse gets antsy repeat step one.

See what I mean? By making the release an understood reward you get the horse to break down the maneuver, understand the concept and take small steps.

5. Build your base

Example: Turn to the left or right

Lightness doesn't come right away with each maneuver. When we first start teaching our horses something it can feel a lot like towing a cinder block through a mud hole.

If I want to turn my horse to the left, I will set up my cue as clearly and simply as possible. For me, that means picking up my left rein and later a cue with a neck rein.

If you have a different plan, that's fine, just make sure the horse understands each aspect before you put it in place.

I simply pick up my directing rein, make enough contact to slightly turn the nose and wait.

Eventually the little slug will turn and go. I follow the first sign of forward movement to the left with a squeeze from both legs, then release my cues.

This is my base.

Every time I feel an improvement in response, that becomes my next expectation. So the base builds and lightness increases.

6. Be consistent with all cues.

example: Simple leg cues

This is much harder than it sounds. This means your body must repeat the cue the same every time.
Another reason to keep things simple.

My horses all know, without fail, that both legs on means go, one leg off means turn to the open leg, both legs off means stop and back until I rest my legs on them again.

Until these things are forever and ever embedded in their brains I don't add the subtleties of lift, lateral work or drive.

My leg cues are clear and concise, every time. Again, as time goes on we begin to read each other and add depth and nuance to my leg cues.

This can only happen if my horse truly understands what is going on with each cue.

Lightness comes from communication. If we learn to communicate clearly then the stress begins to fall away from both me and my horse and the lightness increases. You and yours too.