Stop Flipping Your Flipping Head!

Laura's Morgan and Head Tossing in general.

The Morgan show world is infinitely different than the Quarter Horse world.
I used to barn-share with a top notch Morgan trainer and it was a lot like Daffy Duck trying to talk to Fog Horn Leghorn when we tried to talk horse. A lot of spitting and bellowing went on, but we really didn’t have a clue what the other was talking about.

What made things work was a mutual love of horses, a sense of humor and an open mind.
I had an opportunity to ride some of their horses, saw them fitted to show and have a vague idea of how things go.

The halter horses were shown with a lot of fire and high-legged action. I’m not sure how your mare was shown, but from what I saw of the Morgan world, halter didn’t prepare a horse to carry a rider any more than it does a halter quarter horse.

I firmly believe a horse is just a horse up until we split them off into our desired disciplines, so I think my basic approach should work just fine with this mare. The goal is to get her to engage her back and hind legs while she's packing a rider. That way she can pick up her lope when you want her too.

That great big floaty trot she does is not setting her up to transition into a lope.

I'm also a big believer in letting the horse figure as much of this out on her own as possible.

I would work this mare through her WTC on the longe line. I would not use side reins under any circumstances until she can easily take her leads in both directions on the longe and with me on her back.

Side reins will dump her on her front end, block her shoulder movement and make it difficult to transition at all, much less pick up her leads.

If she is stuck in the trot I would get her upward transitions clear on the longe line and then start riding her.

I would focus on getting my WTC before I began serpentines or circles. If you want to ride her while she’s learning to balance herself with a rider (because this is what it’s all about at this point), I would work on the rail in my arena and transition up and down from walk to trot to extend trot to walk, etc. I would use my corners to create some bend and very elemental steps towards collection.

If I bring her down from a working trot to a jog about ten strides before the corner, stay balanced in the middle of my horse, hold my hands quiet and steady and drive her lightly into my hands with my outside leg while steadying her with my inside leg at the cinch she will frame up on her own for a step or two.

Her reward will come from the release of my hands and legs on the straightaway.

I would encourage forward movement with every ride until we were loping nicely.

Then and only then would I think of adding artificial training aids (anything other than hands, legs, maybe voice). I have to add here, I’m not a believer in using side reins, martingales or draw reins to create a frame. I believe this teaches my horse to drop her head in false collection, break at the neck instead of the poll and learn to lean on my hands.
Then we have to teach them to drive the hind legs into the dumped over front end and try to lighten them off our hands. It seems like working backwards to me. I much prefer to teach a horse to drive with the hind legs into my hands, it creates a lighter, softer horse with less to undo. If I use training aids at all it is to show my horse where to be, after she understands how to drive from the rear and then I take the aids off. I rarely use an artificial training aid for more than 10 minutes at a time.

So, that's what I would do. I think this is a great question to run by Johnny Rotten. Much more of the show Arab training crosses paths with the Morgan than AQHA. If he hasn't trained Arabs for halter I'm sure he understands this type of halter stuff better than I, since he showed around it, so he might have some good insight.

I also received a few questions about head tossing. I'm good at fixing this one.

First I want to get into where this nasty, distracting habit comes from. It comes from being picked at by the rider.

A horse initially tosses his head to get away from the pressure of whatever equipment you happen to be hanging off his face. I'm going to say a bit because I'm a bit person, but ANY piece of equipment, even the wonder don't-hurt-my-baby, bitless, pressureless, made-from-the-threads-of-magic-spider-web bridle will cause a horse to toss his head if he's being picked at.

Nervous hands who hold too tight cause the first toss. The rider (rightly) thinks, "I'm holding the reins too tight," and releases the horse.

Said horse has a light bulb go off.

"Aha!" He thinks.

"When I toss my head my rider lets me go."

And so it begins.

The horse begins to effectively teach his rider to let him go by shaking his head every time he wants a release. If he doesn't get it he shakes harder.

By now the horse is usually being held very tightly and often wearing a tie-down or he is being ridden with no contact at all.

When he is sent down the road (and trust me, he will be) he will be described as "very light mouthed and sensitive" or "spirited, only for an advanced-intermediate rider".

The horse himself feels very anxious. His head tossing becomes a vice. His shoulders begin to lock up and he gets heavy in the front.

Am I close here?

What has happened is the horse is giving the cues and the rider is responding to them. The horse worries because he gets no direction and the rider worries about nose bleeds. We have to reverse the process, and get the horse responding to our cues.

So here's what I do. I make darn sure I mean it when I have contact. I may mean frame up, I might mean turn, I might mean stop. But I mean it. I use the amount of pressure I would like the horse to react to and back it up with my legs.

I don't uses a martingale, a drop-nose band, a draw reins, nothing.

If my horse starts shaking his head I maintain the same contact (not more) through all the shaking until I get what I want. Then I release. I send a horse forward into my hands when he shakes his head.

I want my horse to begin equating head shaking with a bunch of forward lateral work, not getting a release.

I remember to loosen my reins after the horse accepts my contact.

I don't fidget or play with my reins. Every movement I make means something to my horse, it's best if I don't leave it up to my horse to decide what that is.

I focus strongly on loosening the shoulders. I will go back to riding two-handed. I will take hold of my horse and ask for a turn, using the reins, my hands and legs. I want the inside front foot and shoulder to break loose and follow my horse's nose (which is following my hand), before I release him.

I ignore all head shaking, the release comes with accomplishing the task.

I'll do lots of leg-yields and eventually half passes at a walk and trot.

I like these kinds of exercises because they require light contact with the mouth and intelligent use of the seat and legs.

It's good for the horse and rider both.

I give big releases every time I get somewhere.

I make darn sure I spend a lot of time standing around resting on a loose rein. As in no contact with the mouth.

If my horse starts shaking his head while resting he gets to go back to work, with contact and forward, until he quits shaking his head.

When I ask for a back, I ask for it one rein at a time, and push with one leg at a time, trading contact with each rein with each step.

Have you ever played around with moving your horse just one foot at a time, forward and back? I've done it with Ray Hunt and I'm pretty sure John Lyons does it too. I'll dig around and find the specifics because this is a great exercise for teaching a horse to accept pressure and teach a rider how her reins and legs actually work.

I have turned many a head tosser into a Steady Eddy this way, but once the behavior is there it can come back at any time. I try to always respond to a head toss with energetic forward, moving them left and right with my bit and hands, to loosen the front end, and hanging in there until the head shaking stops. Then I loosen my reins!

I hope this helps