A Horse That Goes Forward To Light Leg Aids is a Happy Horse

Happy Horse Tip #5
Make sure your horse reacts to light leg aids. Your goal is to “whisper” with your aids and have your horse “shout” his response—Not the other way around!
To check that your horse reacts to light leg aids:
• Close both legs and see if he immediately responds with a surge from behind as if he’s going to do a lengthening.
• If he doesn’t, correct him by tapping with the whip or bumping with your legs to send him forward. (The intensity of the correction depends on the sensitivity of your horse.)
• Then slow down, and RETEST. Ask for the lengthening again with an aid as light as a mosquito bite. (Remember, your horse can feel a fly on his side so he can feel very light aids IF you train him to react to them.)

The key here is to RETEST. Otherwise you’re just teaching your horse to go forward to the “correction” not from the light leg aid.

For more tips for training a Happy Horse, go to: www.janesavoie.com/happyhorse

Rearing, Bucking, or Lazy Horses Need to be Taught to “Think Forward”

Rearing, bucking, nappiness as well as needing “a lot of leg” are all symptoms of your horse not going forward. Many people think that forward only means going forward over the ground. That’s the physical expression of forward. That is, going forward is a direction in the same way that going sideways is a direction.

But having your horse “think forward” is even more important if you want a horse that’s safe and not exhausting to ride. There are 2 aspects to this concept of “thinking forward.”

1. Your horse needs to maintain the energy of his gait on his own so you don’t wear yourself out just keeping him going. So, in this case, if he stalls out, don’t give a driving aid first. Just correct him by tapping with the whip or bumping him a couple of times with your legs. When he goes on his own (even if it’s only for a few strides in the beginning), be sure to praise him a lot. If he stalls out after a couple of strides, correct him again, and then praise him as long as he’s maintaining his own energy. Repeat this process as often as you need to until he understands you’re not going to “help” him by nagging with your driving aids.

2. If you give a driving aid (leg, seat, or voice), and he ignores you, correct him as described above. Then go back to what you were doing, and RETEST with the same light aid. If you don’t “retest”, you’ve only taught him to go forward to the correction—not in reaction to the light aid.

Once you’ve taught a lazy horse to “think forward”, you can whisper with your aids to get him to “shout” his answer. Not the other way around.

Then you have a way to tell your lazy horse to go forward if he wants to rear or buck. Click on Whoa and Go for more info on teaching your horse to think forward.