The Life-Changing Magic of Flexing the Poll

I had a lovely, satisfying session coaching an adult novice rider on her big plank of a Quarter Horse.  He was ever so obliging and lolloped around in walk, trot and canter, doing what he was told but always with his lower neck muscles (brachio- and sternocephalicus) slightly engaged and his nose slightly poked.  This had the effect of hollowing his whole way of going, making it impossible for his slightly out-of-balance rider to sit effectively on his bounding paces and making both of them uncomfortable, particularly in canter.  He usually tipped her back into trot about half a circle later, causing an out of balance rush.
The fix was just so simple, but so incredibly effective, that I really wished I'd taken some before and after footage!  Before, particularly in canter, the horse was on the forehand, flat, unbalanced, rushing and motor-biking through turns.  After... well!
First I taught the rider how to steer!  She had a really ingrained habit of steering the horse like a bicycle, dropping the outside rein and overusing the inside hand, pulling it back towards her body.  By teaching her to keep an even pressure on both reins, looking with her eyes and her chest in the direction she wanted to go, opening the inside rein and keeping the horse's neck straight (and at 90 degrees to the shoulders), the balance through turns improved already.  It also left her contact steady to start to implement flexion.
The next step was teaching both horse and rider how to isolate the bending of the neck just into the poll, turning into what we usually term 'flexion'.  There's seven vertebrae between the poll and the withers and the joints between them are all more flexible than the poll - it takes time and repetition to show the horse we want him to just ease his head left or right (until the rider can see, variously, the eye, the cheek piece of the bridle or the nostril... each horse will be different!) but while maintaining a straight neck from poll to withers.  It's also important to watch for twisting so if the horse's ears aren't level with each other, you can lift up the hand on the side of the lower ear to even things up.
Soon, this dear old gelding was smoothly flexing left and right in the halt, with his crest muscle flipping back and forth over the nuchal ligament.  He seemed to quite like this and gave several big sighs and yawns!  Horse yoga!  It's a fun way to tell if the poll is truly flexing.  Sometimes if horses are a bit musclebound or tight in the neck it can take a while but this guy was pretty quick.
Into the walk and then trot, and JUST by keeping his neck straight and implementing inside flexion on a 20m circle, his whole way of going changed.  Suddenly that propped, nose-poking posture was gone.  His lower neck muscles were beautifully soft and wobbling, showing complete disengagement, and crest rose up in front of his withers.  His abdominal muscle suddenly activated, showing as a marked muscle line, like you can see in very fit racehorses and eventers.  It was great!  But it was when we stepped into canter that it became MAGIC!
I had also coached this rider about how to lift instead of push with her seat at a canter and by employing a different seat action, maintaining inside flexion and a straight neck, the funny old horse was TRANSFORMED!  His stride was suddenly like a little rubber ball, bouncing along!  The rider could sit tight in the saddle extremely easily and he now looked like he was travelling uphill, not dragging himself along by the forelegs.  SO SATISFYING!  So simple!  But not easy.
This rider was an absolute pleasure to teach, thoughtful, trusting, willing to listen and willing to give things a try.  And the horse was a total gem, he really seemed to appreciate learning (or maybe relearning?) a different way to use his body.

Improving halt transitions - the Three, Two, One Exercise

This exercise teaches the horse that you are going to give him consistent preparation each time you ask for halt, and a clear reward – the release of rein pressure – when he does halt. Being consistent with the preparation teaches the horse to give a consistent response.  Being clear with the release of pressure teaches the horse to give quicker, lighter responses and you will soon find that you are getting better, quicker, lighter responses from smaller aids.

Step one.  Have someone stand in front of your horse and try to pull you out of the saddle by the reins.  You will instinctively engage your core muscles, deepen your seat and lock your shoulders and elbows.  Then, lean back a tiny bit, enough to bring your nose back behind the line of your belly button. I call this “sit strong” and it will become your preparatory aid for halts and downwards transitions.  The horse should never learn that they can move (pull) the rider and this is an especially bad habit for children’s ponies to learn!

It takes three steps of any pace for a horse to make a balanced transition to halt.  Think of a horse in a paddock cantering to the gate at dinner time and halting smoothly, they can all do it!

Step two: Tune in to the steps of the forelegs at walk and count backwards from three, halting on one.  So, sit strong, then count: Three, Two, One - on One, the horse must be stopped.  You will have to use your judgement as to how much pressure it takes but be prepared to pull quite hard, at first if you need to.  I pretend I’m riding up to the edge of a cliff, to give myself a sense of urgency!  If the horse has learned to lean or pull against the bridle, this might feel counter-intuitive, to pull harder to get lighter, but ultimately we need to retrain the basic response, that two reins means stop. I also count out loud and insist my students do so.  Saying it out loud makes you commit to the timing and makes it harder to cheat!

The important part of the exercise is that the MOMENT the front legs stop, you release the pressure.  Push your hands forward up the neck and then rub the withers and make a fuss of the horse.  Positive reinforcement will help him learn even faster.  It’s helpful to gauge the degree of pressure it took to achieve the transition at this point.  I use a 0-10 scale, with 10 equalling “pulling as hard as you can” and 0 equalling a loop in the rein.  Most horses need a fairly strong pressure initially, up to an 8 or a 9 in some cases.  The timing is the important part.

Step three: Walk on again and repeat the exercise: sit strong, Three, Two, One-release, with the release coming as close as possible to the horse stopping his forelegs.  After a few repetitions you will probably notice a few things happening.  If your horse has some incorrect rein associations, i.e., has learned to pull against the rider or balance himself on the hand, he might start to throw his head around and get upset that you are ‘changing the rules’.  Keep going!  These horses, often ex-racehorses or horses that have had training aids used on them, sometimes have many years of conflict and confusion to unlearn before relearning this new, correct response.  The other thing you might feel happening is a dropping of the horse’s hindquarters as you prepare or begin to apply the aid. This is great progress!  The horse is beginning to shift his weight back quickly in order to make the transition in three steps.  Watching from the ground, we often see an exaggerated drop or ‘fold’ of the hind legs as the horse learns that he’d better get his hocks under him because you are insisting on his meeting your timing for the transition.  This is the development of a really important building-block for further training, connecting the hind legs with the mouth.  We want the horse to lower his hindquarters when we touch his mouth and 3-2-1 develops into a highly effective half-halt.  But that’s for later.  For now, only do full transitions and keep those releases clear and quick.

Be careful that you are not grinding your seat down into the saddle through the exercise.  Tuning in to the walk steps sometimes invites a sort of swaying action of the hips in time with the three, two, one count.  Sitting strong means sitting still - too much activity in the saddle will make it hard for the horse to lift and engage his back under you.

Keep throwing the reins away and giving big, exaggerated releases for each correct response.  Be really insistent that the horse stops on One, trust the exercise!  The responses will get quicker and lighter and then you will be able to use lighter aids but be prepared to insist – don’t be squeamish about using strong pressure if you need to.

Keep monitoring how much pressure the response is taking to achieve, using the 0-10 scale. Once the transitions are consistently meeting your timing and you are getting quick responses from lighter signals (1 or 2 out of 10), you can begin practicing the exercise out of trot.  Correctly executed trot-halt transitions are incredibly beneficial to the horse’s training and strength.  When starting to ride the exercise in trot, it will feel very quick, almost radical!  But trust the exercise and be consistent. 

Step four: From a slow trot, tune in to the rhythm of the forelegs (you might need to look at the horse’s shoulders) then sit strong, Three, Two, One-release, using as much pressure as you need to achieve a halt on One. DO NOT RELEASE WHEN THE HORSE WALKS!  You are looking for a direct trot-halt transition so keep the pressure on. As the front legs stop, throw your hands forward to let the horse know he’s made the right decision.  Even if the horse has been giving light responses out of walk, be prepared to use stronger pressure in the first few tries from the trot.  It requires lots more coordination and balance to achieve the trot-halt transition but keep insisting the horse follows your timing; you don’t want to accidentally train him to ‘dribble’ down into halt.

Step five: As the transitions get better, you can start to test and further lighten the response to the rein by adding a backwards step after the halt.  Ride the exercise as normal: sit strong, Three, Two, One-release, then immediately pick up the contact again and use enough pressure to achieve a backwards step, then release.  This is not quite the same as rein back; there are no leg aids involved, we are just deepening the downwards transition response and once a horse is already in halt, a downwards transition has to be a backwards step.  With clear releases, this backwards step will also get quicker and lighter.  Again, if horses have ‘baggage’ around poorly-understood rein responses, you might get conflict behaviour here, head shaking, pulling, and tilting the poll or tail swishing.  Be consistent and release the pressure the second the horse steps back, even the tiniest bit.

Step six: practice! Some horses seem to learn this exercise really quickly and show a really remarkable improvement in the first session.  Others need longer to make the improvements but almost all of them do, this exercise is really valuable for nearly every horse!  I have seen one or two who really resist and need patience and persistence for the lesson to sink in, sometimes this is because of a physical limitation.  Horses who are croup-high or built downhill will have to do a big physical shift of weight to achieve the transition in three steps. One horse I worked with started displaying conflict behaviours during the trot-halts and was found to have arthritic changes in his hocks – the timing of the exercise imposes engagement so he struggled when he had to ‘sit’ in the three steps.  If we let him halt more progressively, he could keep his hind legs straighter and avoid the pain in his hocks, so look out for signs of discomfort and consult your vet if necessary.

With practice, you will soon see improvement in the trot-halt transitions, and probably start to get improved lowering of the hindquarters and folding of the hind legs.  Over several days or weeks, a light, soft, immediate, engaged trot-halt transition from a feather-light touch on the reins is very achievable!  Canter-halt is a little harder to achieve because of the amount of activity and resulting inertia during the downwards transition, but the same technique can be used for these more challenging transitions over time.  Remember that it takes a fair amount of muscular strength to achieve and be alert for signs of muscle soreness and don’t drill the exercise too insistently on an unfit or weak horse.

Horse training = detective work

I taught a young girl on a very nice mare, newly purchased.  I rode the horse several times over several lessons and found her a sensitive but very responsive and easy ride.  The girl sat nicely but her experience was via a not-very-good riding school and she wasn't the most educated or thoughtful rider.


As the weeks went by, the combination got gradually worse.  The horse started to show some strange and slightly worrying behaviours, such as becoming hard to catch, pinning her ears back during grooming and tacking up, and an erratic unwillingness to go forward under saddle.  My immediate thought was that there was some physical cause for these behavioural changes - a sore back, perhaps.  The saddle fitter, the masseur and finally the vet were called and the horse was given several weeks off.  When she resumed work, she continued to exhibit some fairly angry behaviours and reactions.  I and the mare's young owner, and her parents, were baffled.  Low-level lameness was suspected but tests were coming back clear and the vet's advice was to work her harder and see if there was any change.


The answer came one day when I arrived for a lesson and the girl was already on and already struggling - the mare was napping to the gate, 'jacking up' and threatening to rear, whipping around unexpectedly and basically being really very difficult.  I decided to lunge the horse to see if there was any lameness or irregularity in the gait evident.  As soon as the rider dismounted, the horse relaxed.  I lunged her in walk, trot and canter on both reins and she went perfectly. Foot-perfect, in fact.  No tension, no nappiness, no cranky faces or unwillingness to go forward.  Smooth, relaxed, supple. 


Then I put the rider back on but continued to lunge the horse.  As before, she went beautifully. 


Finally, I took the lunge off and left the rider in charge... and that's when the lightbulb flashed.  It was the rider.  This perfectly decent young rider was doing *something* that the horse HATED.  I think it was a slightly busy lower leg; I think the rider was trying to manoeuvre/position the relatively green horse with her legs before the horse had any idea of what a lateral leg aid was.  So, from the perspective of the horse, there were lots of arbitrary individual leg aids going on, when all she'd ever been used to was single, soft leg aids that meant, go forward. 


It was so interesting that this rider issue presented so much like an unsoundness issue.  Not long after this the horse started unceremoniously dumping the rider and was sold.  She has since been very successful with her new owner and the previous owner has found a new horse that she clicks very well with.

Lazy Horse Rules

I'm following up my post on hot horses by writing one about their opposite number: the lazy ones!  I've been schooling a few of these challenging steeds lately, and one of my regular adult students is adjusting to life with a lazy horse after retiring her whizzy one and is finding it a bit of a challenge.  As with most horse training, the key to riding lazy horses effectively is to keep things super simple.


RULE NUMBER ONE:  USE SOFT LEG AIDS
It may seem counter-intuitive but lazy horses need light, focussed aids with clear expectations.  You need to let go of 'what usually happens' and ask yourself what you WANT to happen, my phrase is, use the aid you wish would work!  So if it generally takes three or four hard nudges to move your lazy horse from a halt to an unwilling walk, you need to let go of that and use one light aid... then be prepared to back it up!  It will depend on the horse how you go about the escalation of pressure.  A lazy but sensitive soul might be terribly upset if you use a crop hard behind your leg, where a more phlegmatic specimen might need several wallops to get the message.  You might need to give several hard 'pony club kicks' to get to the point that the horse is properly going forward. Whatever your escalation is, it has to be something the horse wants to avoid in the future, by that I mean, the horse has to be motivated by it.  I often have a good response from simply swishing a whip loudly around the hind quarters, with the added bonus that a smack can be reserved for when you really need to get some forward.
I also like to use my numerical scoring system to quantify and monitor the strength of the aids.  Using the 0-10 scale, with 0 being no pressure and 10 being 'the hardest kick you can do' it's a good tool to monitor what feels 'normal' to both horse and rider.  Generally I like lazy horses to be sensitised to the point that a light touch of both legs (=2) gets an energetic upwards transition, every single time. 


But how to make that happen?!


RULE NUMBER TWO: USE FEWER LEG AIDS
To begin with, I like to school lazy horses using 'whole transitions' - moving between the paces rather than within them.  This adds a nice clarity to the aids - lazy horses are often so desensitised to their nagging rider that the aids' meanings need re-schooling.  So, applying a leg aid with the value of two while the horse is walking will achieve a trot transition (or else the aid will be quickly and meaningfully escalated).  A few steps of trot later, the rider brings the horse back to walk, not asking him to maintain or energise his trot at this point - this will blur the meaning of the leg aids.  Once the horse is bouncing into trot on a light aid, it's time to build in the 'cruise control...'


RULE NUMBER THREE: MAINTAINING THE PACE IS THE HORSE'S JOB
It is such a dis-spiriting feeling, getting halfway around a circle or up the long side and the pace dwindling underneath you.  Riders generally 'chase' the horse at this point, giving a few random leg aids and being satisfied if the horse doesn't drop down out of pace he's in.  But over time, horses need more and more 'chasing' and all those leg aids confuse things.  Is the rider, who is using their legs vigorously in the trot, wanting to maintain the trot, increase the trot, canter on?  Remember Rule Number Two: fewer aids! 


After a successful upwards transition, the rider's job is to monitor the pace. You can feel when the energy drops - when the steps become shorter or lower or slower.  Precisely at that point, I like to give the horse a soft vocal reminder (a click or hiss) and if no forward is achieved by that, a sharp smack with a whip.  Note that I DO NOT use the leg at this point, for reasons of clarity.  The horse may be a bit upset about getting a smack but this will actually work to your advantage in the long run.  Next time he hears your vocal reminder, he will remember what followed it.  With consistency, the horse will learn that dropping his energy has consequences.  Of course, the fitness level of the horse should be considered while training this.


RULE NUMBER FOUR: HAVE DIFFERENT AIDS FOR DIFFERENT RESPONSES
A different aid to "go forward within the pace" or "move up a pace" can make a massive difference in the responsiveness and rideability of lazy horses.  Expecting a horse to interpret what its rider is asking for when two aids are identical and two responses are totally different is unfair, and the antithesis of good training.  A definite nudge of the lower legs is good for a clear transition while a slower 'push' of the whole leg for 'more' is a good differentiation for most horses and riders but you can use any two differing leg aids you like.


RULE NUMBER FIVE: ONE LEG NEVER MEANS GO FASTER
Training lateral steps with lazy  horses often has a remarkable effect on their forward-ness.  It's like you can 'wake up' their sides by tuning the lateral response.  Be careful, though.  If the horse responds to a lateral aid by quickening or energising (even though that's what you might ultimately want) again, it blurs the true meaning of the aid.  I'll do another post soon about starting and refining lateral leg aids.


RULE NUMBER SIX: DON'T FORGET YOUR SEAT
Sometimes if a lazy horse is tired, uncooperative or confused, it's very tempting to give them a chase up with the legs.  Be warned though, and remember Rule Number Two.  The more leg you use the more the horse is going to tune you out.  There are a few occasions when using your seat to create or maintain energy can work really well, such as a horse who struggles to maintain the canter or who loses forward during lateral movements.  We don't want the horse to rely on the rider to push him along but by giving a little 'buzz' with an energetic, animating seat, you can often get the horse to lift and swing his back more and maintain his own impulsion.  So if your horse feels like he's about to drop out of canter, instead of using a leg aid, use an elevating, lifting action of your seat in rhythm with the pace to maintain the tempo.  Even very green horses can be trained in this way as they seem to instinctively follow the rider's activating (or resisting/collecting) seat.  More on this in a later post too!


RULE NUMBER SEVEN: SCHOOL THE DOWNWARDS TRANSITIONS TOO
Just because your horse is lazy and stops when you stop actively riding, doesn't mean it has a full understanding of what the rein means.  And there may come a point that this training will be put to the test and the horse that is normally so willing to stop becomes a war horse charging into battle and ignoring his rider's aids altogether.  The 3-2-1 exercise teaches the horse how to fold the hind legs and lower and engage the hindquarters in preparation for the downwards transition which occurs strictly in the rider's given timing.  This creates a really effective half-halt which is very useful once the motivating aids have been properly established.


Good luck with your lazy horses!

The day I decided to stop steering with my legs

Slightly controversially, I believe all basic steering of the green horse should be done with the reins. I clearly remember the day I came to this conclusion.

I was working for a very famous event rider. Her horses were very large, very fit and very well schooled. I was not especially fit, having had some time away from horses, but was (and am) a pretty long-legged, muscular rider. But I was struggling.

The arena we rode in was un-fenced and dug out of the side of a hill. I was riding a truly enormous TBx who was 17.2hh at least and broad with it. He was working at Medium level, apparently, but the most basic of movements was eluding me for one reason. I just didn't have the leg strength to shove him around the arena!

I remember the horse falling out of a 15m trot circle and actually starting to go up the side of the 'cliff' as my outside leg (WITH SPUR!) pushed and pushed against his 700 or so kilograms. He went through the aid as though I wasn't there and I thought, "There has to be a better way!"

I think the better way is to make sure the horse knows about a blocking outside rein. Opening the reins to move the shoulders is EASY and it refines down to the point you can hardly see the movements. It is POWERFUL - a horse going through an outside blocking rein can be given a clear inside opening rein to direct the shoulders back to where they need to be. Moving the forelegs with the reins gives the rider precise control over the placement, which, as I've blogged about before, is a powerful leadership tool that riders can harness. It also tunes-in the horse to feel and follow the position of the rider's shoulders, which is very helpful at Elementary level when shoulder-in, travers and renvers are introduced.

Careful use of opening and blocking reins teach the horse that "his nose is not connected to his forefeet" which can be the case in some green horses who struggle to move in counter-flexion and who habitually need to be pulled back to the outside track with a backwards-acting outside rein; this is seen all too often with riding school and pony club ponies. Horses who are too green, too desensitised, too hot or too pushy to go sensibly off an inside leg cue can do a credible Preliminary test all by steering the shoulders with the reins. After all, 20m circles barely require any bend at all!

It's only after the precise control of the shoulders is well established by horse and rider that I start to introduce bend around the inside leg. And I never (or very rarely) talk about a "blocking" outside leg. How can the horse differentiate between a leg aid that means 'go laterally away from this pressure' and 'continue on the line you are on without moving your hindquarters'? Seems counter intuitive to me!

More on bend in later posts, I think!

Getting your ducks in a row

I have been musing on the importance of what I call 'alignment' while schooling horses. I'm talking about a straight neck between the reins including being straight in relation to the shoulders, that is, forming a 90° angle across the withers. Then, inside flexion of the poll brings the inside eye into the rider's view but a receiving outside hand gently prevents the neck from leaving it's straight position. Even on a 20m circle, the neck should be carried straight. (This is another controversial topic for some trainers.) The flexion of the poll flips the crest muscle to the inside of the circle, which helps release the lower neck muscles, in turn, these soft neck muscles allow the shoulder to swing in a loose arc with no tension.  Changing the flexion flips the crest over the nuchal ligament and is a fun 'twang' to watch for!

Most of the green horses I ride need a fair bit of work to maintain these parameters. But when they do it, that's when they suddenly learn to use their bodies.

Similarly, flexing at the poll, truly giving the rider the authority to move their heads independent of their necks, is like physiotherapy for horses. I rode a thoroughbred the other day whose neck was almost a zig-zag it was so crooked. This also caused a lot of tension in the contact. I forgot about alignment and even placement (for a little while!) and JUST worked on getting him to flex laterally at the poll. It took ages of trotting about and changing the rein and holding the inside rein very short and gently and gradually rocking the neck back straight again with the outside rein. But when I got it, the horse unlocked! His trot stride length tripled! He sighed a big sigh and snorted and loosened and it was just magic.

Schooling through a dressage test

With lots of students preparing for competitions, some of them are identifying a new challenge in learning to ride a dressage test.  But not just RIDING it, schooling it.  It's hard enough remembering the movements, the order, the reference points for the circles, etc.  It's even harder to remember that your task is to show the judge how well your horse can go.  There's no point getting brilliant work at home when you can take six trot circles to prepare for every canter and there's no pressure and no atmosphere.  The basic work has to be reproducible under tension-inducing conditions.  And you, as a rider, need to plan for this in your schooling.  Identify the exercises that create the softness and achieve and maintain attention and rideability that you need for riding a test.
Horses and riders who are only beginning to learn about contact need to look for opportunities to create submission and softness in the jaw.   So, as you're riding up the centre line and straightening the horse using the reins, pay attention to how the horse's mouth feels as you make the correction and give a corresponding release for any tiny softening you feel.  Find a hundred reasons to soften your hands - every correction or flexion aid is an opportunity to check the submission and encourage lightness in your horse.  Before corners, through corners, after corners, before transitions, through transitions, after transitions, keep that jaw mobile, keep the neck straight and the poll flexing in, then reward with soft and still hands.
RIDING the test will give the horse the best opportunity to display the qualities of rhythm, suppleness, impulsion, straightness and collection - the training pyramid against which all of the dressage tests are written and judged.