An Easy Way To Look At Training Redirecting Pressure
July 10, 2014
Written by: Josh Lyons & Keith Hosman
Written by: Josh Lyons & Keith Hosman
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Your horse is like a garden hose. Pressure, or energy, flows through your horse from one end to the other like water through a hose. To stop the water you wouldn't simply crimp the hose in half - and to stop your horse you wouldn't simply pull back on both reins. You won't stop the water and you won't stop the horse. You'll get leaks until you teach your horse to deal with the pressure.
Crimp the hose and you get leaks, pull back on both reins and your horse "gets leaks." He'll leak that energy. Body parts will shoot out to the left, to the right, up or down. He'll jig to the right or left, bolt, shoot backward, buck or rear. Want to teach your horse a particular movement like a sidepass? It's easy when you know how to channel individual body parts. 
The solution is this: Use training exercises to let a little pressure leak here and there, redirecting that energy to your advantage. For example, in our Hip-Shoulder-Shoulder exercise we begin by walking forward, then pick up a rein and ask one shoulder to stop while the rear end keeps moving. We cause one shoulder to stop, so we make a connection between the rein and stopping the shoulder - but we allow the energy to continue flowing by allowing (or causing) the hips to keep moving. By not bottling the horse up, we've helped keep him calm, yet achieved a training objective. We've shown him how to channel that energy into a turn, a stop or whatever. And for the horse that wasn't stopping, it's become a simple thing to "turn the water off."
For instance: Is your horse getting jiggy with ya? Does he just kind of dance around, looking for trouble? Look for ways to redirect this energy in your every day riding to calm him down. Want to teach a particular movement? Begin thinking of "re-channeling" the movement of your horse through a combination of body parts. Allowing pressure to escape "out your horse's shoulder" back and to the left creates a spin to the left. Allowing half his energy to go out his shoulder to the left and the other half out his hindquarters to the left creates a sidepass. It's easy when you break it down and stick with it.
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Wanna teach your horse to drop its head and stay relaxed? When you're finished with this article, click here to read about the "Classic Serpentine." |
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