What does that mean? And what do you want?

I see a lot of horses that are soft and supple but when we try to move them they are like a marshmallow. They have been taught to bend and flex from one rein, and one isn’t effective without the opposing rein to stop the bend. Then there is the horses that become dull or stiff from the steady pull, or holding pressure. As soft or hard as the hands may be, this starts to create a brace or dullness so then they need to be suppled some more.

We are treating the symptom instead of eliminating the cause. To maintain lite and responsive timing is a must, pressure to redirect the horses foot as it is coming down and loading is difficult because gravity takes over at a point and it is awkward for them to respond. All the horse can do is this situation is respond with the next step as it leaves the ground and wear the pressure.

This turns into a vague message best case scenario or causes resistance worse case scenario. Either way they tend to get heavy and dull and then the suppling process needs to be repeated. When the foot is unloading to move it is lite and easy to influence, this is the optimum point to redirect it. As the foot is unloading if we can have their weight shifted slightly they can be very responsive. If we only affect their head position at this point, it is such a short amount of time, they don’t and shouldn’t have time to brace against us.

If we do the math, let’s say if we are in a walk and we want to direct the horse to the right with its front end. And for simplicity sake let’s say that every two seconds the right front foot leaves the ground, this means that by the time the foot starts to unload and rises to the peak before it starts to fall again is a quarter of the time, then a quarter of the time it’s coming down and loading, then the other half the time it remains loaded as the other foot goes through the process. So it’s off the ground for one second and on the ground for one second, this means there is a half of a second we can positively influence that foot, or a quarter of the time it takes for them to make one stride. Then if we place the leading foot in the correct place and stay out of their way they can rebalance and place the other three feet accordingly and we can just repeat the process again.

There is a reason why some horses maintain a lite responsive feel without resistance. We just need to learn to feel what the feet are doing, then get timed up with them, and then rebalance them. Feel timing and balance can be defined in multiple ways, but if we develop a feel with a horse and loose it, then have to continue going through a process to regain and maintain that feel, we may look at developing a deeper understanding about the timing and balance and not just look for the feel alone.

Communicating with a horse isn’t just about delivering the message or enforcing it, it is about listening and trying to understanding why the message is not understood.

Martin Black