Ride Your Horse Proactively with “The Valium Exercise” To Reduce Shying

Horses shy from tension so there’s lots you can do to ride proactively to help them relax. I call one of my favorite exercises “the Valium Exercise” because it’s so effective at relaxing a tense horse.

Let’s say your horse likes to shy at a particular corner of the ring. Start the Valium exercise well before you get to the corner.

Here are the aids for the “Valium exercise”.

THE ACTIVE AIDS
1. The Inside Rein:
• The action of the inside rein is the same as it is for loosening the poll (indirect rein). However, in this case, ask for a bigger bend. Turn the key in the lock to bend his neck until his face is 7 inches (+7) to the inside of a neutral position (neutral means his chin is directly in line with the crease in the middle of his chest.).

To use an indirect rein, turn your wrist so that:

1. Your thumb points toward the center of a circle.

2. Your fingernails point up toward your face

3. Your baby finger “scoops” up toward your opposite shoulder

4. Your entire fist stays forward in the “work area” but moves over toward the withers. (Come very close to the withers, but don’t cross over.)

5. As soon as you’ve turned your hand in that position, return to a normal position with the thumb as the highest point of your hand

• Bend and straighten your horse’s neck 7 inches three times.
• Do the “three bends” one right after the other. Do them very quickly but very smoothly.
• Make sure to keep a contact with your horse’s mouth before, during, and after you bend him. Don’t let the rein get loopy.

2. The Inside Leg:
• It’s very important to use your leg at the same time you use your inside rein.
• For example, bend your horse’s neck 7 inches with your right wrist, and squeeze with your right calf at the same time.
• By doing so, you’re telling his right hind leg to go forward into your right hand.
• In this way, you put your horse “through” the right side of his body.

THE PASSIVE AIDS
1. The Outside Rein:
• Keep your outside rein steady and supporting to limit the amount of bend in your horse’s neck to seven inches.
• Don’t let your outside hand go forward toward your horse’s mouth. Keep your hands side by side.
• As soon as you’ve bent your horse’s neck 7 inches, use your outside rein to straighten it and bring your horse back so he flexes at the poll. That is, his head is one inch to the inside of where it would be if you had his chin lined up directly in front of the crease in the middle of his chest.

Important: Don’t keep him bent until he “gives”. That’s the wrong kind of “giving”. He’s just giving in the jaw, and that’s not what you want! You want him to come over his back as he connects his hind leg to your hand.

2. The Outside Leg:
• If your horse is very stiff because he’s so tense, you’ll need to support him with your outside leg to prevent him from swinging his hindquarters out when you bend him with your inside leg and rein.
• Make sure all four of his legs stay on the original line of travel. Your horse’s neck is the only part of his body that comes off the line of travel.

The Sequence of Aids Is:

Go on a circle, and bend your horse’s neck 7 inches three times in a row. Then leave him alone for 6-8 strides to give him time to react to the aids. During those 6-8 strides, make sure your contact is elastic depending on whichever gait you’re in.

Elastic contact means:

1. In the walk and canter, your elbows open and close as if you’re rowing a boat.

2. In the trot, your elbows open and close like a hinge or like you’re washing clothes on an old-fashioned scrub board.

Keep alternating between doing the valium exercise three times and then being quiet for 6-8 strides. If you’ve been effective, your horse will lengthen and lower his head and neck. He’ll also feel looser and softer in his body and more mentally relaxed.

For more information on how to ride proactively and help your horse pay attention to you so you can both relax, go to relax tense horses.

Don’t Let Your Horseback Riding Fears Hold You Back!

My new program to help you Raise your Fear Threshold and escape “Fear Paralysis” while horseback riding is just about ready.

I want to thank all of you for your awesome input on your personal riding fears last month. After hearing about some of them, I added extra tips and tools to the program. Thanks to your help, it really has become your program.

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Do You Make These Mistakes When Your Dressage Horse Shies?

I’ve dealt with a lot of spooky dressage horses, and I find that often shying gets worse because riders do one or all of the following things.

1.    Hit or kick him to make him obedient.
2.    Make him walk straight up to scary object and face it straight on.
3.    Forget to go around your ring in both directions.
4.    Force him to go close to the scary object.
5.    Patting and soothing him while he’s shying.

Let’s understand the nature of horses:
1.    Horses shy because they’re afraid.
2.    A horse shies because his natural instinct is to keep himself safe by fleeing.
3.    His eyes are set on the side of his head so he can see with binocular vision (like us) as well as monocular vision.
4.    Many horses are claustrophobic.

So looking back at the first list of rider coping strategies, you can probably see why they don’t work very well.
1.    If your horse is afraid, punishing him convinces him there is something to be afraid of.
2.    Asking your dressage horse to walk straight up to a scary object is one of the most frightening things you can do. In his mind, it’s like asking him to meet a cougar head on.
3.    Like people, horses have a dominant eye. When the dominant eye is on the outside, your horse is less apt to spook because he can survey the environment for possible danger. When the dominant eye is on the inside, he’s more anxious. He’ll want to whip his head around and check out his surroundings with his dominant eye. And while he’s doing that, he’ll be shying from potential danger.
4.    If you try to go by the scary object as close as possible your first time around the ring, you’ll add to your horse’s anxiety.
5.     If you pat him, you’re rewarding him for being spooky. In his mind, you’re praising him for keeping you safe, and he’s more apt to repeat the behavior.

Taking all of the above into consideration, here’s what I do:
1. I never punish a horse that shies.
2. I don’t reward the horse while he’s shying.
3. I walk around a new environment (ring, field, arena) in both directions so he can see everything slowly the first time with both eyes.
4. If the scary object is at A (a flower pot, for example), I won’t go all the way to the short side my first time around the arena. I might turn across the school between V and P. Then each time around I get gradually closer to the short side so when I finally go by the flowers, it’s no big deal.
5. Once I’m working I add the following 2 tools. Well before the flowerpot, I bend my horse’s neck so much to the inside so he can’t see it with either eye.
6. When I’m beside the flower pot, I soften my inside hand forward so my claustrophobic dressage horse doesn’t feel pinned against whatever he’s afraid of.

Click here for more tools to deal with the spooky horse.