QUESTION: To get my high strung Thoroughbred focused, I do a lot of circles, swinging on and off the rail, serpentines, gait changes, half circles, etc. Anything but go straight down the rail and around. I find it very difficult to do these maneuvers when in a warm-up ring with all the traffic. Do you have any suggestions on what can be done in this type of situation to help the horse focus on me rather than all the distractions?
Answer submitted by Christy Bigelow:
It sounds like you are going about this the correct way. Wanting to properly school your horse and yet still be aware and courteous of your fellow competitors.
My suggestion to you would be to try to school your horse when the schooling areas are less busy. I know this sometimes is impossible. But if you have early to mid-day classes, try to get in the arena fairly early, beat the rush. If you braid first thing in the morning, why not ride first then braid after. If your classes are in the afternoon use the lunch break to school. Also, check out the show grounds, is there a place you can go and school that may be somewhat quieter?
If you do get stuck riding with a bunch of people, perhaps start with lots of up and down transitions to get your horse listening and paying attention to you, adding in the rest when traffic allows. Hopefully your fellow competitors will be as courteous to you as you are to them and yield to you when you add in your circles or are working on your lateral work.
Good luck to you and your horse!
Answer submitted by Diane Marcina:
Short answer on my part for that one. that may have people scoffing. oh well. That horse is still using the reactive part of his brain. Only natural horsemanship will make him use the thinking part of his brain, which is the best calmer there is. The rider's way is not 'wrong', it will work.maybe, but I promise it will take a lot longer. The exercises we use in natural horsemanship take very little time, once the horse knows them (which does not take a lot of time either), and can be down in very little space.
Oh, and by the way, it's not only people w/cowboy hats that are believers in these methods
Think David and Karen O'Connor
Good luck
Answer submitted by Cherie Petty:
Your figure work to direct your horses' attention to you is a good idea and I think you can still do that in the warm up ring BUT you have to be creative and flexible. Perhaps if you add transition work at home ( say walk as you cross the center line in the serpentine for instance) you could then incorporate that into your work at the warm up. For example , you may start your half circle and see on coming traffic so you add in a walk transition which focuses the horses attention as well as allowing you time to get out of someone's way. As serpentines take up so much room again use transitions to other gaits or decreasing the size of the 1/2 circles by spiraling them in or out to avoid on coming traffic. Of course it is a given that you are giving an effective half halt before the transitions or change of directions and these also refocus attention.
I find riding in the warm up a test of skill for everyone SOMETIME harder than the test.
My simple rules for riding in the warm up
1. Be polite
2. Look up
3. Be flexible
4. Your goal in the warm up is to get you and the horse relaxed
Answer submitted by Shelby Blades:
Dealing with a mentally active horse can certainly be a challenge! Your approach can be a very effective one, but does have limitations, as you are noticing! 1) If you are limited on space, this technique can be difficult to utilize. 2) This technique does not always address the root cause of the lack of focus.
The first thing I do when addressing an issue with a horse is look at the training scale. The first wrung is: rhythm, relaxation, and tempo. The second wrung is: suppleness. When we are dealing with a horse who lacks focus, what we have is a horse who lacks relaxation. Generally, this also manifests itself in a lack of steady, appropriate tempo. Before we address anything else, the relaxation and tempo must be there.
all right, we know what the goal is. Now the question of how to achieve this. "But I thought that by using quick changes of direction and mixing up the figures, I was addressing the relaxation?!"
When you don't have the option to use the whole arena, you can 'force' relaxation through tempo. But here is the tricky part: you cannot HOLD the horse into a slower tempo and expect him to relax. You must ENCOURAGE a slower tempo to ALLOW the horse to settle his mind. How do we do this? A very easy way to slow the tempo is to slow your own posting. When your horse wants to quicken the tempo, do not follow by quickening your posting. Set the metronome in your head and do not deviate from that steady, relaxed tempo. Tick cock tick tock never changing tick tock tick tock always the same tick tock tick tock steady tempo. Do NOT grab with the hand to slow the tempo, or you will inevitably tighten the horse and create more tension.
"That is all fine and well," you say, "But I have to use my reins to slow my horse down." Well, then you need to do more work at home before putting your horse into a stressful show situation. Work at home on rating the tempo using your posting. Keep a steady, elastic contact with the mouth, do not force flexion or 'head set', and ride the hind legs with your posting. Practice this at home until you CAN regulate the tempo without the rein. Then try it in the show ring.
Thoroughbreds can be tricky, but can also be thoroughly rewarding.
Shelby Blades
SW Dressage