Rod Miller IPHDA & NRHA Professional - Develop Your R.I.D.E.

Head set and behind vertical?

2012-02-12T08:33:00.000-08:00

Chances are that if you frequent equine blogs or watch training videos on the internet you have heard of both these terms.

Both terms refer to where a horse carries their heads while being ridden;

Western riders usually talk about creating a lower head set.
While dressage riders always talk about having the poll above the withers and not having the horse ride behind the vertical. (Behind vertical refers to the angle of their face compared to the ground with 90 degree's being vertical. A quick Google search of images for "behind vertical for a horse" will show many examples)

In my opinion both are worrying about the symptoms and not the disease!

Let's first talk about head set,

The result of proper training that develops a horses flexibility and strength through the top line results in the horse carrying its head in a balanced position for that horses confirmation.

Proper developing / training of a horse for certain events has the effect of moving the hind end deeper under the horse with the stride through rounding the whole back from croup to withers and the result is a low head carriage.

I call this changing the balance point instead of shifting weight to the hind end simply because I believe it more clearly explains what happens

Read this post More information on changing a horses balance point and why most horses (besides dressage horses) need to round this way.

There is a problem however that this type of developing a horse has created, a horse that has been properly developed this way is very fun to ride and watch because they are balanced and judges tended to place them first in many classes.

That however is the problem;

To many people see these horses and all they see is a lower head set and those horses placing first. That is why you now have so many people worried about head set and causing all sorts of other problems like horses dumped on their forehands and hind ends disengaged ( hollow backed) when moving forward.
The funny thing is that because of all the negative effects of manufacturing a head set we are seeing the reverse happening, people saying the horse has to carry its head above the withers to be correct. They are addressing the symptoms not the disease!!

Developing a horse to be able to move their balance point forward takes time and feel and patience, you cannot beat a horse into it and neither can you pet one into it.

The time needed is one of the hardest things for people to commit to because we all want to get to the show pen as quick as possible.

In my opinion head set is a term that causes bad training, Proper head carriage is a result of good training that teaches the horse to travel balanced and forward and each horses head carriage will be slightly different based on their confirmation.

Therefore if we force the horse to carry its head higher or lower than its confirmation dictates that it personally needs for balance we are restricting its ability to properly develop each horse as individuals.

Some horses can go below the withers with the poll and be balanced, (usually shorter necked horses that can really round through the whole back and reach really deeper because of the balance beam effect, the lower the croup the lower the poll) Others need to have the poll slightly above the withers (usually longer necked horses and ones that cannot round the back as much or drive as deep with the hind legs during the stride. Again the balance beam effect)

In my opinion in order to start correcting this epidemic in the horse industry people, judges included need to watch the horses balance and quality of stride instead of looking at things like head set and speed of legs etc.

Now let's talk about Behind the Vertical

There is a huge debate in the horse world right now (mostly dressage circles) about the effects of training your horse behind the vertical. On one hand you have a very successful dressage trainer who will school horses behind the vertical. And on the other hand you have people who are saying it is harmful to the horses to be forced behind the vertical.

I personally do not know or care enough about the training of dressage horses to get into that debate but because of a result of that debate there are those that are now attacking western trainers (reining specifically) about doing the same thing. That I do care about and is what prompted me to write this post.

Read the post linked to above to read why the form to function of dressage training and other training is different.

Let me stress right at the beginning, there are many trainers that will force a horse that resists their hands behind the vertical , and that has no positive effect on the horse and can cause strains and injury. But when a horse hides from the rider's hands and goes behind vertical on their own that has no adverse effect on the horse.

When some horses go behind the vertical it is their way of resisting moving or softening in their bodies. The same as some horse push against a riders hands there are many that will hide from a riders hands. This tendency will usually stay with the horse throughout its training and whenever the horse tries to resist they will go behind vertical in the face before it will soften in the body. With current popular breeding practices in the reining horse industry these types of horses are more and more popular in my experience.

How the trainer's deals with a horse that resists in its face or hides with its face is what matters.

You cannot jerk or force a horse to accept your hands and soften through their bodies, when a trainer tries that is when injuries happen.
Again it is about balance and how and what we want our horses to perform, A horse that hides from our hands tends to go on the forehand when they hide from our hands and a horse that resists our hands tends to hollow out their backs and disengage the hind end. How a trainer achieves balance in both these type of horses is different but the end goal of balance is the same.
So like head set saying that a horse should not be trained behind vertical is restricting the trainers ability to achieve balance in certain horses.

I believe the reason again is that a balanced horse usually wins in any event, and the people watching only see a horse who is behind the vertical when trained or slightly resists in the show pen, so they try it and if their horse is the type that resists the hands in stead of hides from them they try to force the behind the vertical training and that causes problems.

It is kind of like me getting in a race car and spinning out and crashing when I go fast, then saying having that much power in a race car is harmful. I am a driver and if I cannot drive it without crashing it has to be harmful?

Now I will admit that there has been very little to no studies done on the effects of western horses being trained behind the vertical like there has in Dressage.

But I do know the form to function of the 2 types of horses is totally different. I also know that I have been accused of having some of my horse behind the vertical at times and I have had no vet issues and no issues that even needed a chiropractor any more for ones that wanted to go behind vertical and those that did not.

I actually have had very very few needs for vets or chiropractors since I started to look at developing my horses to be athletes instead of training them for an event.

To demonstrate what I mean I am including 3 videos

The first is of a horse that has been taught to resist the rider's hands and before we can get them to soften in his body he has to learn to accept our hands. In this video you will see a horse that cannot even guide in a circle because he is resisting my hands and therefore has no softening in his body at all. Then within 11 minutes he starts to accept my hands and then he starts to accept and respond to my legs then he start to guide better and you can also see a difference in head carriage and he actually goes behind vertical a couple times on his own trying to resist rounding his back (or in this case going from hollow to level.)

In this next video you will see an example of a filly that has a tendency to resist my hands, and how I deal with it on my first ride on her.

In this next video you will see an example of a colt that has a tendency to hide from my hands, and how I deal with it on him.

In conclusion

Too often people try to emulate something they see others doing without understanding what they are seeing, sometimes talented trainers do things they do not even know they are doing so they cannot explain it. I learned a lot from watching the top trainers and found that they did not explain some of what they do even in their clinics or instructional tapes.

The best advice I can give about training and trainers is to

Watch who is performing the way you like,
Then see how often they have need for a vet or how many horses come out of a program crippled.
DO NOT ASSUME THAT EVERYONE THAT YOU THINK IS DOING THE SAME THING IS! VERIFY FOR YOURSELF BECAUSE THE HORSE INDUSTRY IS FULL OF EXPERTS THAT DO NOT AGREE. :O)

Until next time enjoy your horse and the journey that is training your own horse.

Rod

What are bio-mechanics and how do they effect the development of a horse?

2012-02-10T06:06:00.000-08:00

Many times through out this blog I have mentioned bio- mechanics, sometimes by name sometimes by reference to progressing our training.

Here is a dictionary definition of bio mechanics.

: the mechanics of biological and especially muscular activity (as in locomotion or exercise);

There has been a lot of study into this area by veterinarian and equine therapy professionals but as of yet I have found very little information that deals with the physical development of a horses muscles for specific equine events beyond dressage.

This is why it is up to each of us as horse trainers to think about what we are asking our horses to do and create a training program that will allow us to use a few simple facts about equine bio mechanics to make sure our horses are fit enough to perform the tasks we ask of them.

Simple facts about bio mechanics.

A joint moves according to the joint articulation, ie: the joint can move forward and back or it can rotate so that it moves both forward and laterally and how much rotation is possible in each joint
A muscle develops strength and flexibility by both stretching and compression stress causing slight tears that will repair into more muscle for both strength (bulk) and flexibility (length) .
If we cause to much stress the tears cause soreness until healed so it is important to exercise in a progression
Each individual will have physical limits of how much and how fast muscles will develop based on confirmation. This is often referred to as form to function

Here are some of my favorite pictures and explanations that help me to develop my own physical fitness program for my performance horses.

Because most of the information out there is designed for the dressage horse it is difficult to find information that is not designed to develop the physical abilities of a upper level dressage horse, so I try to find information that is not tainted with the preconceived notion that dressage is the only proper way to develop a horse physically. For more on my thought of the differences between developing a top level dressage horse and developing the type of horse we use in most western events read these blog posts.

Difference between dressage and PHD

Western dressage what is all the fuss about part 1

Western dressage what is all the fuss about part 2

Article that explains how a horses back works

Muscular structure of a horses back.

A couple key things we see in this article,

The muscles of the back work together to support the spine and move the horse forward, providing suspension and propulsion.
The muscles of the scapulas and pelvis support the back at either end. The nuchal and supraspinous ligaments work closely with the muscles of the back, they are of great significance to the support of the horses back; particularly when the horse is working under saddle. When these ligaments function efficiently it enables the back muscles to contribute more to propulsion rather than support.

Another picture that I used in a blog post about form to function.

Read my post about form to function

in this post you will notice that I talk about a slightly larger girth size? and if you notice the abdomen muscles have a lot to do with rounding a horses back from croup to whither and not just at the loin. I find this has a lot to do with the horses ability to move laterally smoothly. (covered in the above posts about the differences between dressage and PHD.)

My conclusion

The first step in developing any horse is to develop their top line because it is the top line that suspends the shoulders and hips and also provides impulsion. the video below from my post about PHD training progressions (aka WD what is all the fuss about part 2) does a great job of how and why we need to first get our horse to engage its back
Once we have the top line developed properly we can then further develop lateral and longitudinal flexibility to allow the horse to shift weight off its front end by changing the horses balance point created by the ability to reach deeper under with their hind quarters. Changing the balance point is discussed in the post about PHD training progressions
There needs to be much more discussion and studies done on how a to develop a horse properly for many events besides dressage because the form to function is totally different and to much of the information out there is being developed to support a theory and discredit others.
The best indicator of whether a person is doing well in their training of performance horses comes not only from the persons success in the arena but also the ability of them to create top performers without causing injury to the horse. I do not think there has been enough study done on the effects of different types of training and to much speculation based on it is not this way so it has to be bad.
I do know that since I have started to use my limited understanding of bio mechanics I have been able to develop horses capable of performing well in many events and not had the need for massage therapists and veterinarian injections.
One of the best tools we can use to understand how a horse is actually working is slow motion video and still pictures. Read my Blog post about the advantages of video and pictures

Until next time please think and ask questions, but most importantly enjoy your horses and the journey that is developing a performance horse.

Rod

The benefits of PHD for coaches and trainers

2012-02-01T08:43:00.001-08:00

When creating IPHDA and PHD our goal was to help riders learn to train their own horses and in the process become effective riders.

No matter what you want to train your horse to do they will perform better once they are fit both physically and mentally to perform the task. The process of developing the horse physically and mentally is commonly called foundation training or getting your horse broke etc.
What PHD does is take the foundation skills that all horses should have to perform at their peak in any event and gives a progression to developing those skills.

Therefore a PHD coach will not offer to help riders become Reiners or Barrel Racers or even competent trail riders, they will instead help riders pass the individual PHD levels, in doing so the horses and riders develop the foundation skills needed to learn how to perform any event that requires the foundation skills that they have developed with PHD..

In other words:

If you want to learn how to change leads then you and the horse need to be proficient at levels 1-5 to have the foundation skills needed to be able to change leads.
If you want to learn how to do a reining horse spin you and the horse need to be proficient at levels 1-4,
If you want to have your horse run resistant free clock stopping barrel patterns without knocking barrels over, then you and the horse need to be proficient at levels 1- 5,
If you want a willing trail horse to ride the trails on you and the horse need to be proficient at levels 1 and 2,
If you want to have the best trained horse in your area that can do any event, you and the horse need to pass level 1- 8 etc.

PHD coaching and IPHDA encourage both the rider and the coach to focus on the basics and advance only when they are ready. When Trainers and Riders cut corners to get to a specific goal those short cuts always show up in less than the best performances both horses and riders could have been capable of.

Horse that are trained for an event without the proper foundation, or ridden by riders without the proper foundation riding skills will start to anticipate and cheat in the show pen.

With the proper foundation training of both horse and rider keeping your horses from anticipating and cheating in the show pen is very easy, and you do not have to waste a lot of money schooling at practice shows to make up for a lack of foundation.

When the horse and / or rider does not have the basics needed to be maintained at their potential or worse, never even reaches that potential, the coach or trainer gets blamed.

Once the rider realizes that their horse isn't broke and they have not been taught how to ride their horse properly for the event they quit the coach or trainer!

Training horses is not hard, learning to ride with enough proficiency to be successful at many events is not hard. But they both are time consuming and requires focusing on learning and training in a progression.

All learning is more successful and less frustrating when done in a progression. You would not try driving a NASCAR until you could drive a regular car? You would not send your kid to high school before they could pass the grade school requirements?

PHD and IPHDA give both the riders and the trainers a fun rewarding way to make sure that their progression to performance horse and rider is a successful one.

Rod

Competition? The Good The Bad and The Ugly!

2012-01-19T05:56:00.000-08:00

I am writing this post because I love competition.

Why I love it is simple competition can usually be educational for those of us who want to learn, in that it can usually be a proving ground for differing idea's and ways of doing things.

If that statement sounded wishy washy with all the can usually's in it that is because competition can also be just the opposite of educational it can be confusing and raise moral issues. :o)

The reason for this is that even in competitions purest form where the results are measured in time, distance, or achieving an objective how the winning results are achieved can be questioned and disagreed on.

For instance;

Did the winner use drugs to enhance their performance
Did the preparation for competition include tactics that risked injury to the athletes (this one I really only care about when the athletes are animals. Human athletes can make their own choices as to how far they are willing to push themselves and risk injury to win.)

Then when we consider a competition where the results are based on a set of predetermined criteria and we have judges decide who did the best job meeting those criteria not only can the how were those results achieved be questioned but even the knowledge of the judges understanding of the criteria can and often is questioned.

The case in point for this blog post is equine competitions, and the resulting educational value and confusion and moral aspects that equine competition bring to the table.

The obvious educational value is watching the winners at the top level of any event and learning what it is they do to achieve the winning performance.

But;

How do we know that what the winners do meets our moral opinions on acceptable training practices?
How do we know that the judges are knowledgeable and not just biased towards the winner?

The simple answer is think, to often we listen to others opinions instead of thinking for ourselves.
With any competition there are 4 types of people involved:

Those that will try to win at any cost - These people are the reason that abuse and drug rules are needed.
Those that will win because they are just simply better at training and competing than most others. - These people are the ones who often get falsely accused of being in the 1st category
Those that are learning how to and are trying hard to get better at training and competing - Most of these will eventually find their way to the 2nd type of competitor and some will even raise the bar and become the icons of the sport for a short time until someone else comes along and raises the bar again.
Those that do not have the ability or desire to put in the effort it takes to be winners - these people are usually the ones that accuse the winners of cheating the judges of being idiots etc.

Because of the nature of competition there are always more in the 3rd and 4th groups than there are in the first 2 groups.

So how do we use this knowledge to think and make up our own minds?

Here are a few of things I consider and ask myself when ever I am trying to decide:

I never assume that a winner is from the first category, I will watch a person's horses over a period of time and judge the longevity of their success with each individual horse. If they seem to win a time or 2 on a horse then you never see or hear of that horse again then chances are that is not the person I want to learn anything from. I watch that person show their horses in competitions that have drug testing and see if their performances change. If they do change then I may still watch what they do but realize that some of what they achieve could be achieved through the use of drugs, which I wont use.
I always consider what category the person giving me their opinion about another trainer comes from, I disregard any opinion from a person I suspect could be from the 4th category.
I consider the competition the person claiming to know has won against if I am going to consider their advice- There are many levels of competitions and winners and most times the people in the 4th category will claim success and expertise but when their competition is considered they are nothing but big fish in a small pond.
There is nothing wrong with being a big fish in a small pond or even a small fish in a small pond. Many of the people in the 3rd category come from this environment and have great advice to offer. But beware of people who claim to be winners from this level and only have excuses that have nothing to do with their ability or work ethic for not winning at a higher level.
Deciding if a person is winning because of biased judges is easy just watch if the person wins under many judges or only when a certain few judges are judging. BTW this very seldom happens but is a favorite excuse of the people in category 4.
I am always wary of people who claim that there is only one way to do something - I have saw competition get tougher because of different ways of doing things and training techniques and breeding practices and believe that thinking is stagnating.
I respect the past champions but look to the new champions to learn from. The old ways are just that old ways and the champions of the past are to be respected for what they did but there are others that stood on their shoulders and improved on what they started.

So that is why I love competition it is the only way we can truly test success, it is not a perfect way to test success but is by far the best way we have. The really fun part of competition is that there are far more people in category 2 and 3 than there are in 1 and 4 and that means there are lots of nice people competing in equine events willing to offer shoulders worth standing on.

Till next time, Get out compete and learn, you do not have to be driven to win to learn from competition you just need to approach it with the proper mind set for your goals.

Differences inTraining principles / Tree / triangle between Dressage and PHD

2012-01-16T08:23:00.000-08:00

After I wrote the last post "Western dressage what is all the fuss about" I had a few good conversations with people who disagreed with me? No doubt this is the horse industry after all and one thing that is not in short supply in the horse industry is opinions. :o)

I enjoy learning from others opinions and mine often changes if I find that it makes my horses better. Even if I do not change my opinion these discussions help me better explain my own opinion.

So in this post I am going to try and explain the difference I see between the training principles of what are commonly known as dressage principles (translated from french meaning training principles) and what I have saw modern successful trainers for other events besides dressage accomplishing with their principles.

Before I start I want to emphasis that I believe most of this confusion is caused by different understandings of terminology commonly used in the horse industry. I will attempt to explain my opinion on as many of those confusing terms as i can in this post.

Training principles, there are 3 types of training principles in my opinion:

Basic communication training principles
Foundation training principles
Goal oriented training principle

Basic communication training principles:

These are a set of principles that basically say you can not force a horse to do anything and achieve the best results.
The best communication with your horse is achieved through aids/cues applied in rhythm with the horses rhythm
To properly train a horse you have to develop the horses physical abilities in a progression that does not stress the horse physically.

Foundation training principles

There are training principles for establishing a good foundation on any horses (like ones in the video below) a horse first has to accept contact and relax its head and neck and learn how to go forward with forward energy supplied from the hind quarters through an engaged back..
This is one of the first concepts I believe is not fully understood by many and by those that do understand it there are many different way of explaining it.

For example:

Driving through from behind (explains half of what has to happen)
Softer face (explains the other half of what has to happen)
Rounding the back (explains the result, but there is confusion about what part of the back rounds, you can have only the loin round)
Forward motion (more forward motion can be achieved by moving the legs faster and even while decelerating)
Shifting weight back off the forehand, (Again an example of what happens but there is confusion about about how that is achieved do you elevate the shoulders and load the hocks or do you round the back all the way from loin to withers and have the hind end move deeper changing the balance point of the horse and allowing the top line and hind quarters to take more of the weight without elevating the shoulders)
Engage the horses back (explains the results and since it does not suggest one end or the other, I think this is one of my top picks for terminology explaining this foundation principle.)
Forward energy, (explains what is created but does not explain how, but neither does it suggest a how to that can have a couple different interpretations so this also would be a good choice in my opinion.)

So I am going to explain foundation training principles this way. Engage your horses back to create forward energy.

Goal oriented training principles:

Goal oriented training principles have to do with the type of task that we want our horses to be able to do after we have applied the training principles. I believe it is possible to use both on one single horse if that horse is very trainable and depending on how well you want to develop the goal of each principle in your horse. But I do not think you can take one set of principles and achieve both results. You have to school your horse according to each set of principles until they respond according to those principles before the goals can successfully be switched on the horse.

Training Principles for developing strength in the hind quarters to achieve suspension and elevation in a stride.

These training principles are designed to take the developed top line that was developed in the first principle through engaging the back and creating forward energy and use it to help hold the horses stride in elevated suspension by raising the head and neck which has the effect of loading the hocks and using the loin muscles (shifting weight back) so that the hind quarters take more of the weight of the horse allowing the front legs to push up easier as the horse pushes forward with the hind legs. Because the horse has loaded their hocks through the elevated shoulders the hock bends as this happens.
How this is developed is explained in the last half of the previous video, if you notice they are showing the round developed loin.
These principles allow a horse be very powerful through its back so the forward movement can be powerful up and forward and the rider can control the amount of collection or extension very easily

That brings me to the next 2 term that I think are confusing but not necessarily misused just achieved in different ways depending on the training principle used. I will explain more after I explain the next training principle.

Training principles for training a horse to be able to move forward with a flatter and more laterally agile frame that is required by many other events (mostly events considered western events)

These training principles take the developed top line created in the foundation training principles and build on those by developing the abdomen muscles to allow back to round more from loin to withers so that the hind end can drive even deeper under the horse. This has the effect of getting more of the horses weight off the front end by simply moving the balance point of the horse stride farther forward. This allows the horse to move its shoulders laterally without the added need to push up to elevate the horses shoulders and thus loading the hocks.
This training principle actually requires the horses top line and gaskin, and haunches and abdomen muscles to act like a suspension bridge to support the horses weight. The main difference here is that when we ask the horses balance point to change so that weight can shift off the front end, they have to keep their head and neck lower to support the front end of the suspension bridge.
These principles allow a horse to go from a long ground covering stride to the deeper balance changing suspension bridge frame getting weight off their front end, so their front legs can move laterally quicker and smoother. Basically a transition from extension to collection so the lateral move can be achieved.

The difference between

Collection and Extension

between the 2 principles

as I see them.

Collection as described by all that use the term correctly, is a shortening of the frame and stride

Collection through elevation loads the hocks and requires the horse to push those shoulders up into an elevated position and the hocks and loins help hold them there for a moment of suspension. creating collection this way can be maintained by the horse with proper development for long periods of time. For example in canter pirouettes, passage etc. But it requires the horse to push up with its front end to shift the weight back onto the hocks and this takes away from the quick smooth lateral ability of the front legs.

Collection through changing the balance point can not be maintained for long but when properly developed it can be performed for short periods, and it does allow for the quicker more abrupt changes from lengthening of frame to collected frame for the lateral movements and speed changes required in many events, for example, stops in reining and roping, reining horse spins and turning a barrel in barrel racing.

There is also a difference between how each uses and develops extension as well, one creates extension of stride through suspension and power and develops the ability to control the amount of power effecting the suspension and extension.

The other uses extension of stride though more of a lengthening of the stride forward without elevation by controlling the lengthening of the whole frame to generate reach. Developing the ability to control the length of the horses frame from a flat reaching run to a balance point moving type collection for quick laterally athletic transitions.

I will work on developing a video explaining both types of principles but until then I hope this at least explained my opinion better. My goal is not to change anyone's opinion. My goal is to share mine and let people think and decide what works best for them.

Until next time think and watch it is your best tool against confusing terminology that can cause confusion and confusion does not allow us to learn.

Rod

Western dressage? What is all the fuss about?

2012-01-14T15:09:00.000-08:00

If you read almost any horse magazine in the last year you have heard of this new discipline. When I first heard about it I was curious as it sounded much like what IPHDA was doing. But after much discussion and watching I believe that again terminology is causing confusing in the horse industry.

Let me explain, I hear many trainers (in the past but more often currently) saying they have used dressage for years to train their western horses, and in fact I also have said that in the past. That is why PHD was created; so that the performance horse industry would have an event similar to dressage to help develop performance horses in a progression. PHD is an event with progressive levels of competition based on the training of a performance horse similar to dressage being a progression of training a war horse.

When I started talking to people involved with WD, I was talking about the difference between elevated energy and forward energy and a round frame (breaking at the withers and loin) and an elevated frame (breaking only at the loin and elevating the shoulders). If you search the archives of this blog you will find at least 2 or 3 posts I made about it over the last 5 or 6 months. So imagine my chagrin when I started seeing some of the top professionals in the western horse world talking about western dressage and it benefits?

This caused me to start to trying to figure out why the people of whom I had watched or read every educational bit of information they produced trying to learn from the masters did not see what I saw.
Here is what I found out and I am pretty sure will be explained by my mentors in the near future once they go up against a Dressage judge with their version of dressage.

There is a big difference between how western trainers use the gymnastic maneuvers that dressage has in their training progression and how the principles of dressage say they are to be used. In other words not all shoulder ins and all half passes are created equally, the hows and whys each discipline use them are different.
The subtle differences have to do with the desired effect that each discipline is trying to develop. This beings me back to the elevated forward movement (that requires vertical strength) of a dressage horse, and the flatter forward more laterally agile western performance horse.

So yes many top western trainers do use the gymnastic maneuvers that are used in competition in a dressage test but they do not do them according to dressage principles and according to WDAA the judging of WD is according to dressage principles. That is where terminology has caused the confusion again in my opinion.

I also think that terminology needs to take the hit for the whole concept of a western dressage, Because what is a western horse?

I do not believe a western horse needs to be rode by a guy in a wide brimmed hat (watch any weekend roping or barrel race or a trainer riding at home they seldom were western hats) ,
I do not believe a western horse needs to be rode one handed, (many are rode 2 handed their whole lives)
I do not believe a western horse moves in a specific way, (Watch a number of different breed shows that have western classes and you will see they all move different)

I think the only thing that all western horses have in common is the saddle, but then again, is a horse ridden in an Australian stock saddle a western horse or an English horse or an Australian horse?

My summary of What is all the fuss about:

I think the idea of Western Dressage is fine for someone that wants to ride in a western saddle and learn to do a dressage test according to dressage principles.
I do not think that doing gymnastic maneuvers according to dressage principles is what currently successful western trainers do
I really think that if the equine industry wants to assist people in education and learning they need to get to together and create a standard glossary of terms so that people wanting to learn are not always confused by terminology.

Until next time enjoy your horses and think, it is your best defense against confusing terminology.

Rod

Common problems, that keep horses from peak performances.

2012-01-12T10:40:00.000-08:00

I get a chance to watch and ride many horses, and one of the first things I do when I get on a new horse is go through what I call my "where do we need to start" or for you government types my WDWNS checklist!

I also go through this checklist each time I get on one of my horses I am training each and every ride. I do this to make sure my plan for what I want to work on that ride is ok with the horse that day. Read have a solid goal and a flexible plan

Here is my check list in order:

Does the horse accept my hands and soften at the poll (A horse has to soften at the poll first, if we are going to be able to eventually soften their top-line and keep them in alignment allowing 3-7 of my check list to be possible)
Does the horse accept my legs and not over react to a touch from my calf
Can I control the horses hips and shoulders at a walk with forward energy and still keep them in alignment
Can I control the horses hips and shoulders at a trot and still keep them in alignment
Can I lengthen and shorten the horses stride at the trot
Can I control the horses hips and shoulders at a lope and still keep them in alignment
Can I lengthen and shorten the horses stride at the lope

So far I have yet to get past 5 on any horse I have gotten on at a clinic or coaching session. The reason for this is that if the horse can do these things properly the rider and horse are probably doing really well at anything they are trying and do not need to attend clinics or get coaching. :O)

Here is what I have found to be the most popular issues and my opinion as to how to address them why they occur in the first place:

Many horses fail at number 1
Many horses fail at number 2
Most horses fail at number 3 when you have to put both 1 and 2 together

How we fix the problem with horses that fail number 1 on my check list:

These horses will either push back against my hands, or over react to my hands.

Usually the ones that push back can be taught to accept my hands fairly quickly, once they realize that;

I will not jerk and hurt them,
I will not ask them to accept more contact once they break at the poll
Most importantly they realize I am not going to quit asking them to accept until they do break at the poll.

Usually the horses that over react to my hands can not be taught to accept my hands until they will accept and respond softly to my legs.

The reason for this is that when a horse over reacts to contact by dropping their heads and necks or over bending, they throw themselves too a heavy on their front end position instead of just softening at the poll.
So in order to get them to come back up where they have to accept the contact you need to be able to drive them forward into contact so that they shift their weight back to at least a balanced position.
This is way harder to fix than one that leans or braces on your hands because it is much easier to get a horse to understand soften their poll in response to pressure from the reins, than it is to get them to understand move their feet to soften their top line so they can soften their poll to get release from contact on the reins.

How the problem was created that caused them to fail number one:

Horse that push back or brace against the rider's hands have usually been taught that reaction by Riders who have a tendency to do one of 2 things:

They cue their horse by going from loose rein to pull and this is like jerking on the horse and pretty soon the horse gets defensive by bracing getting ready for the jerk. This usually happens with lazy horses
They constantly hold their horses face because the horse feels like if they let go they will go faster than they want and the horse gets numb to the pull, then the rider gets a bigger bit and continues pulling and the problem just gets worse. This usually happens with higher energy horses.

Horse that over react to the rider's hands have usually been taught that reaction by Riders who have a tendency to do one of 2 things:

They cue their horse by going from loose rein to pull (jerking) on the horse and they continue jerking until the horse puts is face where they want it
They totally release all contact when the horse reacts to pressure in the way they want. This does not teach the horse to accept and respond to contact it teaches them to react to contact and to avoid contact.

How we fix the problem with horses that fail number 2:

These horses will either push back against my legs, or over react to my legs.

Horses that push back against my leg will learn to accept them once they realize that:

I will not spur or kick them without asking with my calf first
I will not keep asking them to move over with my spur once they move away from it
I will keep increasing pressure (calf, heel, spur, roll my spur, kick with my spur) until they move

Horses that over react my leg will learn to accept them once they realize that:

I am not going to quit rhythmically touching them with my calf until they relax
There is a difference between a light touch and pressure

How the problem was created that caused them to fail

number two on my check list:

Horse that push back against the rider's legs have usually been taught that reaction by Riders who have a tendency to use their legs tentatively and inconsistently. The horse learns to ignore the riders legs and tightens their muscles in order to protect themselves against the jab of a spur.

Horse that over react to the rider's legs have usually been taught that reaction by Riders who have a tendency to keep their legs off the horses sides and only use their legs for forward or lateral requests. The horse learns to react to contact from the leg instead of respond to pressure.

Why so many horses fail at number 3 on my check list:

This is the reason I wrote this post, :O) to explain the importance of acceptance of hand and legs.

The reason very few horses at my clinics and coaching sessions pass number 3 on my check list, (Can I control the horses hips and shoulders at a walk with forward energy and still keep them in alignment) is because in order to be able to do this a horse has to:

Accept your hands so you can control their shoulders and keep them in alignment
Accept your legs so you can create forward energy (not just forward motion) and you can control their hips

You may be able to control the shoulders, you may be able to control the hips while walking if your horse reacts to your hands and legs. But you can not create forward energy or keep your horse in alignment if they do not accept both your hands and legs.

Why this is a fact is that to create forward energy, or any of the other words that people use to describe a horse that is not on its forehand and moving forward with a soft top line is that the horse has to move forward with a natural cadence into a soft poll.

If the horse does not accept our hands they do not have a soft poll, read soft verse light
If a horse does not accept your legs you can not control the amount of response you get from pressure so there can be no control over the length of stride.

More common problems that not teaching acceptance cause!

If you have heard the term you have to work a horse from back to front and you understand what that means, then you understand that to create a forward round frame in our horses you have to be able to push the horses stride forward and longer with your legs while keeping the horse from dropping on its front end with your reins, this creates a round forward athletic frame. Thus the back to front theory.

All though the reason for the popular concept of training a horse from to back to front is certainly more correct than front to back where the rider tries to pull the horse back onto its hind quarters, which results in short resistant strides.
I personally do not like that term (back to front) because it does not explain what actually has to happen, I prefer train to the middle.

This is why I think "train to the middle" is more accurate;

I see way to many people driving horses forward into unaccepting, uneducated faces, (some using tie downs, martingales etc. to make up for the lack of acceptance) and pushing on unaccepting uneducated sides. This to often results in horses flipping over and/or straining muscles and ligaments while they are resisting something they do not understand.

This could all be avoided if the rider would spend the time;

Getting the horse to accept their hands and legs
Gradually develop the horses understanding that pressure from the reins means soften in the poll and shoulders.
Gradually develop the horses understanding that increasing / rhythmic pressure from the riders legs means increase the amount of reach (stride increase) from the hind end.

By doing the above they would develop the horses top-line muscles making the desired result of increasing the amount of drive from behind into a soft accepting face easier and less stressful for the horse as the top-line develops more and more..

Since the top line is in the middle of the horse, I think riding to the middle by gradually increasing both the amount of softening in the shoulders and loins that creates a round top-line is more correct.

Until next time remember the smallest changes can often lead to better result.

Rod

Is your Horse left handed or right handed?

2012-01-10T07:11:00.000-08:00

If you have rode many different horses it soon becomes obvious that some horses do things better one way than the other and therefore we consider them left or right sided.

Well I am going to offer you all a new way of thinking about this, Horses are stiff on both sides but in different places and depending on what we ask them to do one side is easier for them than the other.

What I find is that horses are stiff on one side in the hip and stiff on the opposite side in the shoulders. If you think about the bio mechanics of your horse and pay attention to what you are asking them to do and what they have to do with their hips and Shoulders to accomplish the task I bet you will come to the same conclusion.

I will use the turn around as an example: A horse needs to have a flexible inside shoulder to step back and across with the inside front leg and a flexible hip to allow the horse to maintain forward energy in the turn allowing the out side shoulder to follow the inside shoulder.

Most often when we start teaching our horses to turn around if we have not addressed the stiffness issue first we will find that the horse can maintain forward energy easier to the left but the inside shoulder does not step back and across it steps mostly across but because of forward motion the outside shoulder has an easier time of following so the initial start of slow easy turn arounds usually feel better to the left. . To the right they can step laterally and back with their inside shoulder easier but they have a hard time maintaining forward motion so the out side shoulder can not follow out and around it keeps trying to come back behind the inside leg making the turn rough and back wards ( this is very easy to feel that it is not correct.)

Most people will tell you that the horse is stiff on the right side but I am going to tell you they are stiff in the hip on the right and stiff in the left shoulder. This is also why horses take one lead better than the other usually, The side with the stiff shoulder and flexible hip, I will let you think about the reason why. :o)

This is also why I do not try to teach any type of maneuver to my horses until I can walk and trot a perfect circle both ways ( in alignment) Alignment makes them soften or stretch both hips and shoulders on the same side, and I will tell you it is usually easy to soften hips that shoulders so most people have better luck going left with their horses because it is the left hip that is usually stiff.

I spend a lot of time on this in my clinics and it always helps peoples turns lope departures etc without even working on the specific maneuver.

Let me know if this starts to make sense to you when you think bio mechanics and what you are asking your horse to do.. I will try and start a discussion about his on the face book page so we can study different problems and whether it is hips or shoulders and what side.

till next time when we think riding and training becomes easier to understand for horse and rider. :o)

Rod

Question about Lead changes?

2012-01-06T19:16:00.000-08:00

I got this question on my face book coaching page and I decided I would write my answer here and then link to it on Face Book. The question is,

" So Rod I was looking for some good examples (and poor examples for that matter) of lead changes. I see people execute them differently and wondered what is really proper in your opinion.? thanks a bunch"

Well first things first, a proper -good lead change has a few elements:

The horse changes his lead without changing their top line. in other words they do not change the profile of their top line, they stay level.
They change front and back legs from one lead to the other at the same time
They do not change the amount of forward energy during the change
They do not change the cadence of their stride while changing leads.

So if the horse and rider can execute a lead change and meet those 4 criteria they are correct and proper as far as I am concerned.

In order for any horse to do a proper lead change they have to have no resistance from jaw to hock on both sides (Lateral softness) and they can not be heavy on the forehand. If there is resistance laterally or they are dumped on their forehands they will not be able to meet one or more of those requirements.

The reason you see many different ways of performing and training a lead change is because there are a couple schools of thought on the best way to train a horse to change leads.

One school of thought for changing leads is they need to be straight to change leads and to be straight they have to have no resistance from jaw to hock so that they move straight (horses naturally move with a hip or shoulder leading) Once you can keep the horse straight then it is just a matter of having them move away from your leg with their whole body and they will change leads.

The other school of thought (the one I prefer) is that if you have very good soft control of the hips and the shoulders and your horse is not just non resistant from jaw to hock but actually soft from jaw to hock and soft from poll to croup through the top line, you can ask for and get the horse to change leads from any position.

The lead change is a fairly advanced maneuver and it opens up a number of discussion about proper foundation etc. But for me the foundation I need on my horse before I start asking for a lead change is:

I can transition between all 3 gaits without losing forward energy (read energy not motion)
I can control my horses stride length in each of the 3 gaits
I can increase and decrease the amount of forward energy in each gait (read energy not motion)
I have separate control over my horses hips and shoulders at all 3 gaits, hips with my legs and shoulders with my hands, I can move them the same direction or opposite directions without the shoulders or hips dropping (my horse stays up right between my hands and legs.)
I can canter a circle each direction in both a proper arc and a counter arc in their face and shoulders
I can counter canter a circle in each direction in both a proper arc and a counter arc in their face and shoulders
I can half pass realty well at a lope and I can either have the hip lead in the half pass or the shoulders or I can go straight in the half pass

Once I have that amount of control over my horses body and their feet I start to teach them to change leads. by asking for a half pass at the lope one way then ask for a trot for one stride and pick up the lope on the other lead and go directly into the half pass lope the other way. Once they can do that really well, I just do not ask for the trot step I just change the arc in their face and neck to the new direction and ask the hip to move over to make a complete arc. If I have done my home work and have developed the horses muscles properly they usually will change behind before they change in front ( I love this since most disunited issues are front changes by shoulder dropping in and hind do not change) Then the easy fix is to let the horse stay straighter in in its face and neck while I ask for the hip until they learn to change both at once.

If your horse changes in front but not behind they are stiff in the shoulders face and neck and are dropping their shoulders into the new direction.

If you want an idea of the type of control I want over my horses body before I ask them to change leads watch the video below from 5:10 to 7:30 that is the type of control I want over hips and shoulders before I ask them to change leads whether they are good leaded or not because I want them to change when I ask and not anticipate and be able to change leads from any position. (Straight, arced or even counter arced)

My next post will be about why I think many horses seem to be able to change leads one way much easier than the other. But until then think of this.
I do not think horses are one sided or the other, I think horses are stiff on both sides just in different places, which makes it seem that they are stiff on one side depending on what we ask them to do.

Until next time get real control of your horses body and lead changes are easy it is the control needed that is difficult. :O)

Rod

Soft verse Light

2012-01-05T09:10:00.000-08:00

One of the first things I ask students at clinics is to explain what they think soft and light mean.

I believe that in order to be an effective instructor one of the first things to do is make sure that we are all talking the same language.

Over the years as I was picking trainers brains for answer to my questions I found that the terms soft and light are used by everyone, but very often each term is used to explain many different things and many times both terms are used to explain the same thing. :o)

This totally confused me until I finally was able to get my first horse broke to be both soft and light.

BTW this accomplishment was not due to what I did as much as it was to the fact that I found a really really great horse to ride. He allowed me to make mistake after mistake and always allowed me to start over with out reminding me of my past mistakes!~ he was like a piece of clay that you could squish back into a ball if you did not like what you created. He was one of the first real trainable horse I had rode, with out him I probably would still be trying to figure out what everyone was talking about when they use the terms soft and light!

To explain the difference between Soft and Light I like to refer to each term’s opposite, Hard and Heavy. Then we can examine the differences between those as they apply to horses.

Soft verse Hard:

Soft describes something that has some give to it, it forms to a pressure, and something that is soft accepts pressure and forms to accommodate that pressure.
Hard describes something that has no give to it, it does not forms to pressure, Something that is Hard will react by breaking if to much pressure is applied.

Light Verse Heavy

Light describes something that takes a very small amount of pressure to move or influence its characteristics.
Heavy describes something that takes a large small amount of pressure to move or influence its characteristics.

How does this translate to horses?

My goal in horse training is to have my horses accept my cues and follow them willing.

If we read the above comparisons and apply it to my goal, we can see that in order to accept my cues a horse has to be soft. My horse has to learn to accept my cues, this means they have to learn to accept pressure from my hands and my legs and form their body to accommodate that pressure. By accommodating the pressure I apply they are finding the release from the pressure and everyone is happy!

Being soft is all that is needed for 90% of the horse events out there, and a soft horse can perform all of the PHD levels 1 -8.

If we require our horses to become light as well as soft, as reiners and western pleasure horses do then you need to decrease the amount of pressure it takes to have that horse respond softly to our cues.

Once I understood this difference I would watch different horses and could see that some had a soft look while performing (Some lighter than others) and others had a hard look while responding lightly.

I decided I liked the soft look best. That is why I train my horses to be soft first and then work on getting them as light as they will accept and still stay soft!

The next thing I learned as I tried this new understanding of soft and light on my horses was that not all horses will allow you to make them soft and light, but most will allow you to get them soft if you do not insist they be light.

The really cool thing is that although these horses may never be really light, as they got soft the lightness got better.

Here are a few things that will help you as a rider develop a soft horse

Do not ride around an issue if your horse is over sensitive you have to desensitize them, if your horse is dull you have to get a reaction, expect a relaxed response to your cue. Learn to be insistent and consistent with your cues, not rough or quick, pull or push as easy as you can but as hard as you have to. PULL DOES NOT MEAN JERK!
Your pressure on the reins should not be solid if they do not accept the pressure. Do not give your horse a solid barrier to lean on with both reins. A horse can not lean on one rein. Use one rein with steady pressure and the other rein should be massaging and moving in rhythm until the horse accepts the steady pressure from the one rein and gives.

I will attempt to verbalize the steps in how to pull on a hard mouthed horse and push a hard sided horse to develop a soft mouthed and soft sided horse!

This is only for getting a horse to give to pressure once they have accepted the pressure from our hands. If your horse does not accept the pressure from your hands ( they toss their heads push back stiffen their poll and top-line etc. we first have to get them to accept our hands and that is another chapter. :0)

Pulling - Remember one rein steady, only one rein increases massaging, give and take pressure.

We ask with light contact for the horse to accept a boundary that we set with our hands and soften their poll and jaw.
We are ignored - We ask with our fingers moving back from the barrier we set with the initial contact on the massaging rein.
We are ignored - We ask with our wrists moving back from the point our fingers pulled to on the massaging rein
We are ignored - We ask with our arm moving back from the point our Wrists pulled to on the massaging rein
If you are still ignored at this point switch hands the one you had steady is not massaging and the massaging hand is now steady.
Remember one rein then the other, Annoying! Do not allow yourself to be ignored At any time in this our horse accepts the barrier we set at the previous level, decrease our pull to that level until we are back at them accepting the light contact barrier.
ALWAYS ONLY pull from the previous barrier set back, never go forward from the previous barrier as this then becomes jerking and promotes a reactive response and not an accepting response.

Pushing, Pushing should always be in time with our horses stride, practice moving your legs in time with your horses rhythm.

We ask with our calf - we are ignored
We ask with our heel - we are ignored
We steadily increase pressure with our spur until we can not press any more, - we are ignored
We release our pressure and using our spur one time we kick with the same amount of pressure we just released you will get a reaction
Then repeat from the soft calf pressure

We ALWAYS need to be pushing if we are pulling!

When Pulling always maintain cadenced forward motion, if you can not maintain forward motion then back off on the pull just enough to get some forward motion and then push more with your legs till you get a cadenced forward motion.

You have to be able to use your hands and legs independently and feel your horses rhythm

If in doubt stop, get some advice and make sure you are doing it properly. Remember fixing a problem is harder than do it right in the first place.

I have video's on my Video blog that shows all of this just ask for an invite the video blog subscriptions are free right now.

Rod

Forward energy, What is it?

2011-12-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

After every V show I see that many of the judges comments are about forward energy, softening etc.

I also spend a good portion of each clinic or coaching session with new clients on the importance of forward energy and how to develop it in our horses.

Because forward energy is the foundation in our horses that everything else is built on, I decided that a video that explained what forward energy is and why it is so important to the development of performance horses was needed.

Once a rider has felt forward energy even for 2 strides, they quickly understand what it is and how it will help, (I call it the "happy butt look" when people feel it for the first time) but until you feel it or in this case see it it can be hard to understand.

By developing forward energy in their horses these riders in this video were able to:

Develop a smoother more cadenced stride in their horse
Improve their horses balance
Free up their horses shoulders for better guiding in both circles and turns
Have their horses work in a more athletic frame.

Thanks to the ladies that allowed me to use their V show clips to make this video they have all made tremendous progress with their horses and I appreciate them allowing me to show others how they did it.

I decided I am not a horse trainer?

2011-12-11T10:37:00.000-08:00

While writing the last blog post I decided that trainer was not the proper description for what I try to achieve with my horses anymore.

My horses have taught me that I am really striving to be a performance horse developer.

For me the difference is a trainer tries to find ways to achieve certain goals with their horses, those goals can be train a horse to do tricks, be competitive at a specific event, be confident with their surroundings, etc.

As a performance Horse developer I strive to develop the horses willingness to mentally allow me to communicate with them through my hands and legs while riding. As our communication becomes more developed I can help develop each horses physical capabilities. As I achieve each level in their development both physically and mentally they will begin to tell me at what event they will exceed at or enjoy. This allows me to market my horses to the people who will best enjoy them. I also make sure the horses full potential is realized by not taking any short cuts.

The biggest change for me during my journey from Horse Trainer to Performance Horse Developer was realizing that there are no short cuts to Developing a Performance Horse but there are many short cuts that can successfully be used in training a horse to be better at doing what we want them to do.

This is the main reason PHD the event is different from any other event as well. It is also why it can be hard for people to understand that tricks do not work for progressing through the PHD levels when it is obvious that tricks do work for training some horses and riders and many great competition horses have very little foundation development.
A properly developed foundation at each PHD level is essential for the successful progression though the PHD levels.

This means a fully developed PHD horse will have the proper foundation and development both mentally and physically for any event, but the reverse is not true. No single event horse will have to have all the needed foundation and physical and mental development it takes to be a fully developed PHD horse.

Developing horses that anyone will find fun to ride and are ready to learn the finesse and event specific skills of what ever they want to do with their new horse is my goal as a Performance Horse Developer.

Rod

Some of the horses I was privileged to own and train

2011-12-11T07:21:00.000-08:00

Developing as a trainer takes many good horses, developing as a coach takes many great students. I have focused on the students in this blog before but not so much all the great horses I have had a privileged to own show and train.

I have had some great ones, some good ones and some not so good, but I had to make every horse I raised or bought the best it could be. I could not just get rid of them and get another one. Because of that I had to work on developing a way to progress each horse to their full potential. I did this by watching other trainers, going to clinics and getting different tips and idea's. The most important thing I did was not keep doing something that did not work for me or the horse.

It was during this learning progress of my own that I developed the concept of PHD, once I had the concept of PHD in my mind I went to work with my horses seeing if it would work to develop better horses..
For me it has in a big way, and now I am wishing I had some of those horses from my past back to do things over.

My horses now are all more athletic, willing and capable of being competitive in many events because I take the time to develop them both physically and mentally in a progression that works for each individual horse. Some take longer at one stage than others but the progression is the same it is only the time to develop that changes.

"There are no short cuts to developing a horses full potential", that could be the greatest lesson of many great lessons I learned from my horses.

Below are a few of the horses that helped me in my learning progression:

I have to start with Tuff Joe Sugar, he is the reason I have been able to do much of what I do.

NRHA Money Earner, Barrel racing futurity money earner, Reined cow horse money earner, multiple AQHA Versatility awards showing in driving, working hunter, jumping , Barrels, Poles and halter all in the same shows.

Joe has been with me since he was a yearling, he was the last Barrel futurity horse I trained before switching to reining in 1992 . We both made the switch together and over the years Joe accumulated AQHA points or won money in 9 different events. Many of the horses in my journey to PHD are by Joe.

Slide me some Sugar

NRHA Money Earner
Slide Me Some Sugar is a great mare by Joe out of Sweet Rosie Twist that I won quite a bit on before selling her to a young lady and her Dad in the Netherlands Here is a link to her page on their website. They have her earning record up there.

Tuff Little Duster

NRHA Money Earner

Dusty is the first horse I showed as a reining futurity horse and she won money in both the 1997 Missouri Futurity and the 1997 South west RHA futurity. I sold her as a 3yr old and she went to the north east and was still showing in 2009. Great little mare by Joe and out of a Smokey Duster 2 mare.

Chicsation

NRHA Money Earner

Chicsation was by Smart Chic Olena and out of Sweet Rosie Twist. Chic won a couple NRHA classes for me and was the original horse I used when developing the PHD patterns. Chic was sold to a lady to show in the ltd non pro and rookie and is still showing and doing well.

Pic of the Nics

NRHA Money Earner

Nic was the first horse that I marketed as a barrel horse (since making the switch back in 1992 to reining) because he did not enjoy being a Reiner. This was a big step for me on my journey to PHD because it made me take a horse I had trained to be a Reiner and try something else with him. This made me consider what was similar between 2 totally different events. He is in California doing well running barrels the last time I heard.

Sweet and Joe

NRHA Money Earner

Sweety is still here raising Babies for us, she is a full sister to Slide me some sugar she was one of the last horses I trained before I started developing PHD.

The New Doctor

NRHA Money Earner

Doc was by a world champion pleasure horse out of Sweet Rosie Twist very sweet minded horse that went to a lady as her first reiner and I believe she still owns him.

Smartist

NRHA Money Earner

Smarty was a fun horse to show that I won my second NRHA Bronze Trophy on. Smarty went to Mexico and did quite well there for his new owners.

The Wright Slide

I started Canuck and had him trained to about a level 3 PHD, then I partnered with a Barrel horse trainer on him and she patterned him and ran him. He won the first futurity he entered and went on to be a 1d money earner and has a very bright future in my opinion.

Cee Amber Waves

If you have read this Blog or my face book page you have heard about Cee Cee, I bought Cee Cee as a yearling and she has helped me develop PHD and my training philosophy more than any other horse. I trained her as a Reiner, and it was in her 4 yr old year that I really started developing the PHD patterns and once Chicsation sold she was the horse I had to use to put the whole progression together. This turned out to be a great thing for both of us, she went from being pretty good Reiner to one of the most fun most broke horses I have ever trained or rode. She made me want to develop more horses like her, and I now have 3 others in the barn that are all in various stages of development towards being as nice or better than she is. :o)

Many other horses
There have been many others over the years that I raised and trained and sold that went on to be team penners, rope horses, Barrel Horses and Reiners. I wish I had pictures of them all but I do not.

Wet saddle pads train riders and horses, all you need to do is think, feel and learn!

Rod

Develop your RIDE!

2011-12-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

R- Rhythm

I- intuition

D-Dependable

E- Examine

R- Rhythm- Horse trainers must develop their rider rhythm, because rhythm is key to developing the ability to communicates with a horse in a manner they will not resent. Cues applied in rhythm with the horses rhythm will make sense to them and they will learn to accept our cues. This is important because we have to use pressure and release methods of training when we are mounted on our horses (in psychologists terms negative stimulus) But the stimulus of pressure we apply with our hands and legs can not be interpreted by the horse as negative. They may resist doing the action we are asking for with our cues but they can not resent or react out of fear. Applying cues in rhythm also allows us to feel when the horse is giving to our pressure and stops us from increasing pressure and causing confusion and frustration.

I- intuition - A Trainer must have the intuition to know how his horse is reacting to the pressure they are applying. This is important because as trainers we have to be demanding but never confusing.

If our horse is resisting the pressure we apply we need to keep applying pressure until they respond correctly, but we have to know the difference between resisting because they are trying to figure out the response we want that will allow them to find the release from pressure. Or are they confused because we have not developed the proper conditioning that allows them to be able to do what we are asking so they can find the release from the pressure.

Many times we will think our horses are soft and accepting doing a simple exercise and when we ask for a more difficult exercise we realize they they were not soft enough doing the simple exercise to allow them to understand what we are asking for in the more difficult exercise.

D - Dependable - This refers to the riders feel, the horse has to be able to depend on the rider to not increase the pressure after they have softened to the initial amount of pressure. This is very important because if we rely on the rider giving release when the horse responds we have a tendency to develop light horses instead of soft horses.
We have all saw the bobble heads, that drop their head when the rider picks up the rein but as soon as the rein is dropped the head comes back up. This is because the horse was never taught how to soften into pressure and use its whole top line to balance, they were only taught how to get away from pressure and dropping their heads is easier than softening their top line. Remember as performance horse trainers we are our horse personal trainers we have to help them exercise properly, and like people they do not always enjoy exercise.

E- Examine - As horse trainers we must always be examining what the horse is telling us. Every horse is different and develops at different rates. We always need to be thinking of different ways to make sure our horses are physically and mentally capable of doing what we ask. If they are not, then it is not the horses fault it is our job as trainers to figure out how to best work within and develop the individual horses physical and mental limitations.

This is important because there is no room for trainer frustration when training horses, if we get frustrated we tend to forget about the RID of RIDE and the horse starts to get more confused or more reactive.

Develop your RIDE and training horses is fun and rewarding.

Rod

Terminology causes a lot of confusion in the horse industry.

2011-12-03T17:35:00.000-08:00

The case in point for this Blog post is why myself and some others were getting frustrated with the suggested notion that dressage concepts can help modern competitive western performance horses.

We all know that good training requires conditioning and muscle development in our horses. That is where this terminology misunderstanding has started. I am a fan of dressage and Western Dressage but I was getting frustrated listening to people talking about how doing Dressage Tests will improve the western performance horse.

The reason this was frustrating to me is because I use many of the same types of gymnastic and stretching exercises in my training program but I know that how I do those exercises (shoulder in, counter canter, half passes, turns on the fore hand and haunches etc.) was slightly different than Dressage judges expected. I also know that if I train my horses to do those exercises to suit a dressage judge my horses will not be as good at my western events.

But still I kept hearing how dressage principles have been used by top western trainers for years and I use to agree.

I went as far as taking my Barrel and reining horse and riding a level 4 USDF dressage test with her and having dressage judges critique it trying to figure this out. As I expected when I did the maneuvers called for in the Dressage test they were not done according to dressage judges requirements. I also watched successful western trainers who said they used dressage principles in their training and what they were doing looked more like what I was doing than what the dressage judges wanted.

I have wrote a few blog posts about this in the past as well, how dressage is all about elevation and developing strength and impulsion up and forward to create more elevation and western is about level forward impulsion to create more speed and lateral quickness, among other slight variations

Finally today thanks to a conversation with a friend in Canada, it clicked for me the reason why! AS USUAL IN THE HORSE INDUSTRY IT IS TERMINOLOGY!

I believe now that when many people talk about dressage principles, they are thinking about the developing gymnastic stretching type maneuvers that Dressage uses in their tests.

But when a dressage person talks about the principles of dressage they are talking about how those exercises are to be done to develop a dressage horse.

I have also wrote this many times and maybe now people will understand what I am saying "Dressage horses are like body builders and most western performance horses are like Gymnasts". Both use many the same type of exercises to develop their skills but they use them differently. One focuses on strength with flexibility, the other focuses on flexibility with strength.

I know some people will disagree with me on this, and the one way they can convince me I am wrong is to show me a horse that is competitive at the top of western events and can do the dressage tests according to dressage principles.

If you have not saw this video before this will show you how a competitive western horse does dressage and it is not according to dressage principles. :O)

Until next time, never quit thinking, it is your greatest tool in learning to train your own horses.

Rod

The same only different!

2011-11-29T10:28:00.000-08:00

I love this saying even though it does not make a lot of sense at first glance.

There are many types of drills and exercising maneuvers that trainers use to develop and maintain horses. I always enjoy watching the warm up ring at events because it lets you study how many different ways there are to do the same drills or exercises. Then the competition arena lets you see how well they work.

What I have found is that it is not what you do, as much as it is how you do it, I have bragged on here before about Jessica (the girl running my barrel horses) but recently we have noticed people watching her as she warms up her horses. Very often they have a confused or amused look on their face because they do not know why she is doing what she is doing. They do not see the rhythm and the feel she is developing in her riding. They do not know that she is just making sure her and her horse are communicating first, and then making sure the horse is understanding and responding to that communication in a certain way.

But they do see her using exercises that they have saw other trainers using but they do not see the slight difference in how she does them. This I am sure causes them much confusion when they try the same type of exercises and it does not work for them as well as they see it working for Jessica.

So when you hear me say "it is the same only different" I am basically saying yes it looks like a small circle, a counter arc, a counter canter, a half pass etc. But how it is being done is not developing a progression that leads to where I want to go

Until next time look for the little things that are different, they can make big differences while appearing the same.

Rod

A fun summer and a rewarding fall lead to a bright future.

2011-11-22T12:29:00.000-08:00

This is a post about a Guy, a horse and a girl, :o)
The guy is me, the horse is Cee Amber Waves and the girl is Jessica Thompson.

Prior to this summer Cee Cee and I had done many things,

We had shown in NRHA competitions (placing 12 out of 13 times)
We had gone to the high school rodeo finals with my niece (Cee Cee being her horse for the queen competition, where they placed 3rd in the horsemanship competition)
We had developed the PHD levels together, (taking all of the requirements of Performance Horse events and combining them with all the exercises that top trainers from those events use in their programs and putting it all together to create a competition based on the training progressions used to create top performance horses. Cee Cee had to learn to do it all because I had to make sure the patterns flowed and worked and the progression worked.)
Started to compete in Barrel racing events with my niece and a great barrel racing trainer/ friend as her first jockeys. (My jockey days left awhile ago with my 32 inch pants)

For one reason and another this spring I found myself needing a new jockey, ( Sorry, other commitments etc. no drama or things to whisper about)

I had an idea that if I could take a rider with good balance and soft hands and train them in the same progression I trained Cee Cee in that we may be able to do even better.

Enter Jessica Thompson, I watched Jessica ride a fair bit at the barrel races while we were running Cee Cee in the spring, at first because she was cute, and then I started to watch the way she rode. What? I just appreciate pretty girls I am married to one.

What I saw as I watched her ride was a kid with great hands and natural balance, but had very little idea of what to do with them. ( it is Ok I have told her this already she wont get offended) So I asked her if she would ride Cee Cee for me, she agreed and our journey began.

Here is a video of the first 3 times she ran Cee Cee, I knew the second week we had the potential to create a great team. Jessica took what I showed her and she practiced and thought about it, and after one week she was able to take almost a full second off their first attempt.

They never looked back and I now tease Jessica that over the last few months she has learned how to run consistent, in the most inconsistent ways. She ran the same times in the same arena's by running different each time.
We would work on something at home and she would work so hard and think so much about one thing to get that correct, that something else wouldn't work as well, but the times stayed consistent.
I knew then that in a very short order if I was any good at my job they would put it all together and we would see just how good they could be.

During this stage, this is the progression we worked on:

How she was to use her hands to keep her horse running straight
How to use her hands to keep her horse from leaning in the turns
How to feel her horse
How to use her legs so that she could extend and collect the stride without getting the horse on the muscle
How to adjust what she does depending on what the horse feels like under her.
How to sit in a position that not only stays out of the horses way but most importantly helps the horse perform.

The next video is of the progression and practice paying off. One night in October (almost 4 months to the day from when she started) she got almost all of it together in one run and they took another 3 tenths off their Best to date.

Like any process there are break throughs that are only signs of things to come, not an indication that we are there yet. So we went back to running the same consistent times in inconsistent ways.
Each week a couple parts worked well, others not so well but the times kept consistent and the mare kept running strong. Then about 4 weeks later the next signal to me that we were really getting close happened. The mare started to rate on her own and the turns were all smooth if not quite as snappy as they can be in each run. (You need the forward energy all the way to the turn so that you can collect it and send it through the turn to make it really quick.)

I was excited when I saw the mare rating on her own because to me that meant Jessica was relaxing and riding her horse and in turn the mare was relaxing and not thinking about running so hard.
Because Jessica had made a break through with position and rhythm and feel, the mare was relaxing and the turns got more consistent and even though Cee Cee was not running as hard they were still clocking the same.

Here are 3 runs in that time. these runs did not win any race but they were consistent enough to win her the 1D buckle in a 5 race series, (I did not get the other 2 runs on video but they were the same)

Here are 2 more at a different arena running 16.3 both runs, the week after the 3 runs above.

So that brings us to the present, We are ready to add the last step, Get Cee Cee to run harder and stay relaxed. In this next video you will see that when speed increases timing and position on the part of the jockey is a little different. Jessica missed it on first but got it back on second and third and were still able to take 2 tenths off their best time to date in that arena (even with enough time to sing "the national anthem" while turning first) Look how much quicker the other 2 turns are. When we add more controlled forward energy that that energy turns onto more energy in the turns making them quicker as well. Add in the fact that she is running faster and It is going to be a great time in the near future for our team. I am sure it will take us a few runs to get all the timing and positioning figured out with the added speed,. I am also sure that because both Jessica and Cee Cee have a solid foundation built in a progression it will not take long and once we are there we can stay there with very little maintenance..

I have enjoyed the journey to get here, now I am excited for where we are. :o)

I will make sure to keep you up to date on the progress of our progression to stopping clocks and collecting checks!

Rod

Riders learn in a progression as well.

2011-11-17T08:15:00.000-08:00

If you are a student of the horse as I am and you read and or attend clinics trying to learn what other successful trainers have to teach, you have undoubtedly heard these terms in the past.

Softer in the face
Lighter in the face
Round
Impulsion
Drive from behind
Shift weight to the hind quarters.
Engaging the hindquarters
Elevate the shoulders
Forward energy

All of these terms have to do with developing a horse’s balance, strength, flexibility and responsiveness the rider’s cues.

Unfortunately I have found that most of these things are mysteries and confusing to riders until they can feel the horse. Like horses riders learn faster if they follow a progression.

The rider progression that I use to instruct riders is:

· Feel the horse’s rhythm through your hands and seat.
Develop the rider’s control of their hands to be able to use the horse’s rhythm while developing the horse’s acceptance of the rider’s hands.
Develop the rider’s control of their legs to be able to use the horse’s rhythm while developing the horse’s acceptance of the rider’s legs.
Develop the rider’s coordination between the rider’s hands and legs so that they give cues with each that are not conflicting to the horse.

Once a rider can do these things they have the tools to develop their horse’s balance, strength, flexibility and responsiveness their cues. To often riders look for short cuts in their own development as well as their horses development and they seek short cuts and tricks that allow them to temporarily think they have progressed. When in fact all they did was find a short cut to a single goal that does nothing to build on their over all development and in many cases harms their ability to progress.

There are no short cuts in horse training or learning to be a competent rider that work as well as steady improvement by following a progression that builds foundation.

It is called foundation for a reason, without a foundation you can build a house but it will not last long it is the same as with horses and riders.

The training progression for a performance horse.

2011-11-13T20:19:00.000-08:00

The progression of training a successful performance horse for most popular equine events today all require the same progression. The fewer steps in that progression you skip on your way to developing the specialized event horse, the better your horse will perform and the longer they will stay competitive and sound.

The PHD levels themselves are a progression in ability, but the training to master each PHD level also has a progression, having an understanding of the progression of training helps us all develop better performance horses.

Each level of the PHD progression increases:

The amount of strength and flexibility a horse must have.
The horse’s acceptance of the rider’s cues.
The balance and coordination a rider must have.

During the PHD level progression, the horse and rider will need to develop the ability to master the new levels requirements in the following progression. In other words, there is a training progression within the PHD progression.

Acceptance - The horse has to accept our hands and legs if we are going to use them to gain the desired responses from pressure applied with them. The horse can neither hide from (over react) nor resist (push against) the rider’s hands and legs when pressure is applied. This has more to do with the rider than the horse; the rider must have the balance and coordination to apply consistent cues so the horse learns to accept the contact.
Relaxed forward energy – The horse has to learn to relax and soften its muscles so they can create forward energy in each gait with a natural cadence.
Softness – The horse has to respond to the pressure from the rider’s hands and legs, creating enough longitudinal and lateral flexion for the task.
Balanced – The horse’s body has to be upright, equally supple on both sides, and willing to move forward with energy to be balanced. A balanced horse will have the hind feet following in the path of the front feet on both straight lines and circles.
Controlled Impulsion – The horse learns to vary the amount of forward impulsion according to the rider’s requests. The rider can change the tempo and length of the horse’s stride without the horse losing relaxation, softness, or balance.
Lightness – The amount of contact needed from the rider’s hands and legs to achieve the desired response is lessened.

Each increase in PHD level will require more refinement of the above training progressions.

Generally I consider how far up the PHD progression I need to take each horse depending on the event or events I am going to try and compete at with them. Here is an idea of what I consider a good PHD level for each specific event horses foundation.

Pleasure, horsemanship, trail and any rail classes - PHD level 3 -4
Reining and cow horse- PHD level 6 -8
Barrel racing and mounted shooting- PHD level 5 -6

The higher the PHD level you go with most horses the easier the event specific training is to train and the easier it is to maintain the event specific training once you start competing.

Feel and Rhythm and negative re-enforcement.

2011-11-08T18:04:00.000-08:00

If you have read my blog in the past I am sure you will know that I stress rhythm and feel in my coaching and training.

This has to do with what I am wanting my horse to do, I am asking them to work / exercise so they can perform like athletes, not just play and do tricks for me. Because of this I must use a combination of training techniques much like any athletic coach must use with their athletes. I must use positive re-enforcement techniques to show my appreciation of an effort to work at the best of their ability or for a skill performed correctly. But I also must use negative re-enforcement techniques to get my athletes to exercise and develop strength, flexibility and skills that they will need in their athletic careers.

I am not a fan of the term negative re-enforcement training, but that is what we do as horses trainers when we ask our horses to exercise or work. We apply pressure requesting a response and release the pressure when they do what we ask. How we apply the pressure can make the training acceptable (positive) to the horse or it can make the training really negative were the horse reacts out of fear or intimidation.

This is where the title of this post came from, in order to apply pressure that the horse will accept and not fear we must apply the pressure in a rhythm the horse understands, and we must be able to feel how the horse is responding to the pressure and not apply more than they are physically and mentally prepared to accept.

The rhythm that we must apply pressure with so that your horse can understand it and learn to respond in a positive manner is the horses own natural rhythm. This can be felt or watched anytime your horse is moving in a relaxed cadence gait.

The feel that allows you to know how much pressure your horse is mentally and physically capable of handling, and being able to adjust accordingly is slightly more complicated and requires:

Knowing how to listen to your horse and know how they are interpreting the pressure.
An understanding of the bio mechanics of how a horses body works, and knowing what muscles must be developed in order to make the desired response to the pressure easy for the horse.
Being able apply the least amount of pressure possible to get the desired response. IE as much pressure that it takes to get the response but no more than needed.
You must have the ambidextrous ability to apply differing amounts of pressure with each leg and hand simultaneously

To understand how your rhythm and feel effect the horses ability to learn positively from negative re-enforcement training think of dancing.

If you are dancing with a stiff partner it is hard for you to follow their rhythm. The same is true for the horse, if the rider is stiff they will not be able to follow you in the dance of horsemanship.
If you are dancing with a forceful partner you will get frustrated trying to follow them as they never give you a chance to follow they just throw and force you where they want. The same is true for the horse if we try to force them into performing.
If you are a stiff, lacking confidence type dancer then you probably will not enjoy dancing and even resent being asked, until you find a patient partner that will help you develop your rhythm and confidence with a slow 2 step before they show you how to tango. Learn to be a patient partner for your horse that applies just the right amount of pressure to develop your horses ability and confidence in a progression that allows them to learn.
The rider must lead in the horsemanship dance so developing rhythm and feel is your responsibility as a dance partner for your horse.

Horse trainers must wear many hats.

2011-10-19T19:32:00.000-07:00

I go back and review old blog posts from time to time to make sure that what I said then still is the best way to say what i wanted to say. While re reading those posts I came across this one, and what it says is so true and important for people to think of when working with their horses that I decided it needed to be re posted. :o)

From June 2011:

I have been working on how to write this blog post for many weeks, Ever since I did a clinic and was asked;

"Why were we taught by other clinicians to do this like this, when you are saying it causes confusion and frustration for the horse"

I want this post to explain my reasoning without it sounding like I am saying any type of training is wrong, some training just gets in the way of developing a horse the way I do!

No type of training is wrong, but all training should have a clear road map to follow to a desired destination, also understanding the directions to the destination and where that destination is, is important!

That is why Performance Horse Development and IPHDA is an attractive event for many different trainers and training techniques.

PHD is like a GPS system to make sure that no matter what direction you take you are still on a road that will take you to the proper destination, if you want to develop a performance horse.

Here is my philosophy on the number of different hats that all trainers wear and how I see them working together to achieve a goal and reach a destination.

All trainers in my opinion have to be like Parents, Day care worker, Grade school teachers, High school teachers, Physical fitness trainers, and finally College and Pro level athletic Coaches.

Like a parent helping the horse just like a young child develop the confidence and respect they will need to be successful in their life.
Teachers at all levels continue to build confidence and understanding that the horse will need to perform their life's job.
Physical fitness coaches make sure our horses develop the muscles to stay fit and healthy and capable of performing their jobs properly.
Coach, this is the job that is the easiest if the other 3 have been done properly and it is also the job that can have the most gratifying results in the horse industry. Here The coach gets to show how good their athletes are. But like any athletic coach if the first 3 stages of the athletes development are not done properly it can be very frustrating with athletes acting like prema donas or being plagued by injury.

Parents and Day care and kindergarten teachers,

I consider the first 2 stages of a horses development the parent, day care and kindergarten school teacher the colt starting stage. At this stage the horse is taught respect and manners and is exposed to life outside the pasture.

A good colt starter is worth their weight in gold to any horse trainer, but a good colt starter does not need to be a good trainer they only need to be a good horse person. They have to know how a horse thinks and reacts and know the best way to instill confidence, mutual respect and accept us as 2 legged partners in each individual horse.

The reason the job of starting colts is so important is there are a number of things that colt starters can do that positively or adversely effect the horses continuing education.

At this stage we will start to see what type of horse we will be dealing with. This will allow us to know how willing of a student we have and whether the horse needs more confidence or more respect and whether they will easily accept us and new surroundings etc.

Most of our lessons at any stage should come with lots of positive re-enforcement when they do the right thing but it is very important at this stage that we do not use to much pressure to get the proper response patience and understanding the individual is important at this stage..

A very important part of this stage for me is that the horses are not taught any type of response to pressure that will adversely effect their ability to understand the responses needed to pressure at the next levels of their development.

For example: If we ask them to give their face laterally to pressure we should not encourage any other part of their body to move without encouraging forward motion.

To many times I get to working with horses that have been encouraged to swing their butts in the opposite direction of the pressure on their face. Or taught to give their face without moving their shoulders in that direction or worse away from the direction of pressure.

I will explain the problems this causes in our advanced training as we discuss the next stages.

To me this is like teaching our kids not to talk to strangers and then later on trying to tell them how they can interact in society without talking to strangers. It is a fine line that must be taught but not over emphasized to a point of being confusing later on.

Continuing education grade school. (Including Gym Teachers)

When we set out to train our horses we usually have a goal of some event in mind we are want our horses to be good at. The same as when we have kids we all have an idea of what we would like them to grow to be, doctors, teachers, pro athletes etc. BUTregardless of our dreams we know they are individuals and as long as they turn out to be responsible, respectful adults we will have done our jobs properly.

With our horses those goals can be as simple as having a nice quiet trail horse, and other times our goal is to develop our horse into a competition horse that requires them to do many different things.

For example; lope slow and collected, spin, slide, run a barrel pattern, change leads, run fast and slow down smoothly, Jump over obstacles etc. any of the different requirements that equine competitions require us to do with our horses.

But no matter whether the horse is going to be a trail horse or a champion competition horse in some event, all horses must learn to respond to the riders cues willingly so that they can be exercised properly to develop the proper physical fitness levels to be responsible happy partners.

At the Grade school and high school level for horses I have one simple goal,

I want to develop the horses response to my cues to get one simple reaction. I want pressure on the horses left jaw to have the effect on my horses left hock of moving deeper, and pressure on the right jaw to have the effect on the right hock of moving deeper.

When I have the horses body developed physically so they are strong enough to do that at the speed the event I wish to do requires I am ready to go to college with this horse.

Like our kids this stages is the longest and the most crucial in their development. To reach my simple goal I have to:

Gradually build my horses acceptance to my cues so they will respond willingly
Gradually increase my horses flexibility with my cues so I can exercise all the muscles they will need to develop to be able to give me the response I want as an end goal
Gradually build the horses muscles to be able to to give me the response I want to my cues..

Why this left jaw left hock and right jaw right hock response is important is because to perform any of the events or tasks our horse will need to do in their life the most efficient way for them to perform will require that one simple response. For example:

Effortless Guiding including spins and roll backs and tight turns
Smooth transitions between gaits, including stops
Stride manipulation - extension and collection
Smooth transitions between extension and collection

If we think about these skills above there are very few things we will ask our horses to do in their life that do not require these skills.

Improper responses to pressure that cause problems:

This is why I do not like my early child hood workers to confuse the horse by re - enforcing a different response to pressure on their jaw. In this process of developing the jaw to hock connection I will be teaching the horse to move both its shoulders to follow its face and to do this the back must round and for the back to round the hocks must drive forward. All of this reaction starts to create the softness in the whithers that allows the shoulders to move laterally after the face.

If the horse has been over stimulated to kicks it hip away from pressure on the jaw this can become confusing to the horse.

Besides when we first start working with any horse they are stiff like a board and if you pull the jaw one way they will swing their butt the other way around stationary front feet or they will move both front and back feet and turn like a top. If your horses moves like a top at this point that is better than swinging it hip only in my opinion because at least all 4 feet are moving and it isn't backwards motion.

Teaching them to move their hips in this manner is not a body control function that helps in future development, it is easy for the horse and is to often explained as body control in my opinion.

For safety sake all you need when you apply pressure on the ground is they move their feet without resisting and without over reacting.

When you are in the saddle and teaching proper body control you will be stretching and compressing a horses muscles to develop strength and flexibility.

If you re-enforce improper body control that does not stretch and compress muscles changing it to start developing flexibility and muscle development will be confusing for the horse.

All developing body control requires the horse to move its face and shoulders in the same direction as the hip is moving, Anything else is only good for making sure the horse understands move from pressure and once they do you need to start working on proper development instead of thinking you have body control and wondering why it isn't helping your horse progress and develop flexibility and strength.

Which brings me to the next thing that causes problems for the continuing education started at the early childhood level. Giving their face without moving their shoulders and calling it flexibility.

If the goal is to get our horse to follow its face with its shoulders how confusing is this to the horse? I find it is much easier for the horse to understand if we first teach them to move forward when we ask for their face one way or the other and then once they start to accept and understand our legs mean forward motion and our hands mean go this way or that then we can work on their flexibility in the whole body not just their neck.

College level athletics coach

Now that our horse has developed the body muscles and the proper response to our cues that will allow them to perform any event it is time for the college level courses of how to perform the individual event skills more efficiently. If we have done our earlier education properly and the horse has an aptitude both mentally and physically this can be the easiest and most rewarding stage of the process.

Every event requires a little more precision or ability to work off lighter pressure or speed and way of doing the individual maneuvers or requirements but if we give the coach a willing, fit horse that responds with its hocks moving forward to jaw pressure there are few things that can not be accomplished to the best of the horses mental and athletic ability.

So the point of this post is to point out that there are lots of hats that a person responsible for developing a horse needs to wear. Making sure that you put them on in the proper order and knowing when to put each on and what they want to achieve while wearing each will help.

That is the philosophy that led to the creation of the event Performance Horse Development (PHD) PHD allows people to advance through the developing of their horse between early childhood development and college athletic coaches.

This period in a horses development is the most important and the least taught in my opinion. There are hundreds of people teaching early development and many successful event trainers teaching clinics and coaching on how they teach the event requirements, but there is very little being taught in clinics or events that allow people to learn the most important part of the horses development and bridge the gap between the 2.

Until next time enjoy the journey that is training your own horse.

Rod

Excerpts from my clinic in Alvin Texas

2011-10-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Martha Moore of Brigadoon farms for host this clinic and to the participants that allowed me to assist them on their journey of training their own horses.

Alignment

Keep all your tools in your training tool box

The progression of training through every level of PHD

I love it when plan comes together, :o)

2011-09-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

The friend I had riding my barrel horses since I started training them again was really good, ok too good! She was running at rodeo's and once summer came with me wanting to train my own horses and have her ride them, our schedules just didn't work as well as soon as she got running down the road.

So I asked a young lady back in June if she would ride my horses, I had only watched her ride a few times at the local jack pot. There was something about the way she rode that was raw yet with natural balance and a soft touch that I liked. Fortunately she agreed to come and ride and I have had more fun this summer with my horses than I have in a long time. I really enjoy working with someone that wants to learn, works hard at it and was willing to try something totally new to her and what she had previously learned.

I told her after a couple weeks of riding with her, that by November she would be able to get the most out of any horse I gave her.

This is not quite October and we are really really close. She is starting to feel her horse and letting her rhythm lead the horse. She is starting to ride the horse every step of the way with out getting in their way and without letting the horse work all alone.

There are still a few things to get right but it is now just a matter of time, as old habits die and new reactions take over. Great job Jessica and thank you for letting me be right. :o)

So I am confident that we will hit my stated deadline, for the Barrel horses, next up the Reiners :o)

Until next time enjoy the ride.

Rod

The first of my new set of Video's

2011-09-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

I finally got all the pieces together to start my new video series. This new series of video's will be called "Passing the PHD levels"

I have been waiting for the right horses at the right levels of development as well as a camera operator.

Here is the first one in the series, called "Acceptance the first step" I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to helping everyone learn how to pass the PHD levels and in turn that will make everyone more competitive at the events of their choice.

Myths I have busted in my life quest of being a better horse trainer.

2011-09-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

There a few simple truths I have found over the years and that is ever thing a successful horse trainer says has some validity based on the type of horse they ride. BUT there are many things trainers say that are confusing and some just wrong.

Below are a few examples of things I heard and still keep hearing that are just not the most efficient way to accomplish our goal of developing soft accepting horses that will perform willingly.

Myth 1:

"If you want your horse to be light do not pull his face or push on his sides"

Well this one is one that really got in my way for a long time while I was learning, because it is true if you want only a light reaction to your cues. But most people that say this also want a soft response and there fore the trainers who said or say this do not pull, but they would jerk and kick or use bigger bits and spurs to achieve a soft reaction they wanted.

I have since changed that thinking for me to be "if you want your horse to be soft they first have to accept your hands and legs and you can not achieve acceptance by jerking and kicking, nor can you achieve acceptance by not using your hands and legs. You have to pull and push in a manner the horse will accept and that manner is based on the horses rhythm" Then "you develop a lighter response to your hands and legs in the horses by using your rhythm and feel."

Myth 2:

A horse must be broke at the poll with a lower head set to be in a frame that allows them to drive forward with its hind end.

This one is actually true just very misleading, a horse has to be soft through its whole top-line to be able to drive forward and the poll is only one small part of the top-line. This one causes many horses to be dumped on their forehand and not have their hind ends engaged because a horse can evade the riders hands and break at the poll. Again this can be achieved with jerking and bigger bits but achieves nothing that is productive in developing a horses full potential. Also proper head set is a result of confirmation and a soft topline, a soft top line will result in a natural head carriage and most times in western horses that is level or slightly above the withers.

Myth 3:

If you want your horse to respond to light pressure release all pressure as soon as they respond correctly.

Again this one is true but confusing if our goal is to develop a horse that responds softly to light cues. This technique developes light horses (ones we can cue to lower or bend its head or neck) but does nothing for the muscle development needed to be able to respond softly. A horse needs to be helped to exercise properly if proper muscle development is going to occur. So for me the proper way of releasing pressure is let the horse find their own release ( once they have started to work the targeted muscles the amount of pull needed to get them into the proper position will lessen. This lessening of required pressure shows they are exercising properly on their own and can hold the position on their own some what. As they develop they will be able to hold the position with out our help and then they can respond to our light cues in a soft manner.

Myth 4:

We want our horses to follow their nose:

This one gets more people fighting dropped shoulders while circling or spinning or turning a barrel than any other myth. We want our horses to follow their face. If a horse tips its nose while being broke at the poll, the shoulders tip in the opposite direction of the poll. (remember the horse must be broke at the poll if the top0line is going to be soft) The worst thing about this myth is even people who do not allow the nose to tip but actually want the horse following their face say this "tip the nose a little"

Myth 5:

Move the rib cage over to make the horse arc..

This one is physically impossible for a horse as a horses spine has very little lateral motion. When a lateral arc is needed in our horses it is created with shoulder and hips moving not the rib cage. This one gets people using their tools (hands and legs) in a wrong order of importance when trying to achieve an arc.

Myth 6:

Is about elevated shoulders and when they are needed and the most efficient way to perform certain maneuvers.

First lets talk about how a horse elevates their shoulders;

They elevate their shoulders by pushing up with their front legs.
When ever they shift some of their weight to the hind end the amount of weight they have to push up with the front legs to elevate their shoulders is less.
A horse can not shift their weight back while creating forward energy if their poll is below their withers,

Now lets discuss when a horse needs to elevate its shoulders.

A horse needs to elevate its shoulder when extending its stride,
A horse needs to elevate its shoulders when in collection
A horse needs to elevate its shoulders when switching from one lead to another
A horse needs to elevate its shoulders when it makes a lateral move with the shoulders followed by forward energy, example roll backs and barrel turns
A horse needs to elevate its shoulders when performing 360 degree turns if the 360's are to be performed with the horses body straight (more on this later on)

We know that elevating the shoulders is done by pushing up with the front legs and we know that a horse can not lighten the front end if the poll is below the withers. Therefore if we want to reduce the amount of injuries to our horses front legs we must allow them to raise their heads above the whither when doing the above maneuvers.

Now lets discuss practical applications for some events.

A horse has 2 ways of increasing speed in the 3 beat gait (lope canter) one is to increase their cadence of the foot falls and the other is extending their stride. Most western events require horses to go fast either after a cow or for time or to show control. There fore it is important that we teach our horses how to extend their stride as well as speed up their cadence if we want to increase the speed for timed events or degree of difficulty shown in control type events. Note here: if the speed increase gets to a gallop where the 3 beat gait is disturbed the horse can not perform as athletically when asked to move laterally or collect.

note: a horse can only increase its cadence so much and asking for to much change in cadence will cause the horse to get nervous and fret. one of the main reasons I believe barrel horses get frazzled and Reiners charge to stop. to much holding the break and pushing the gas looking for more speed without allowing them to extend, only wanting quicker cadence. Extension feels so much more powerful but it feels slower than a quicker cadence until you get use to it. I always try to extend first then increase cadence of the stride if my horse can handle it.

We also know that to collect a horse has to elevate their shoulders (here is where I am going to really bust this myth of elevated shoulders) Most events do not call for or require a collected gait, the only 2 I know of are Dressage , and PHD ( PHD only at the upper 2 levels).

Let me explain, collection is explained as a shortening of stride and frame that shifts weight to the hind end causing the stride to have more suspension than forward energy.

The western pleasure lope and the small slow circle in reining are the only places that perhaps a slight collection is used but if we achieve to much collection (weight shifting back and loading the hocks) the horses movement gets to be to elevated instead of forward and fluid. So what I am saying is that in most events what is referred to as collection is actually just a shortening of the stride at a slower cadence.

Elevated shoulders are important but knowing when and for what will help you in your journey of training your own horse.

I will apply this to how we perform maneuvers in a new post in the future.

Rod

Naturally talented Horses and good minded horses

2011-09-26T08:36:00.001-07:00

Every time I have the privileged of being around many horses and riders I take the opportunity to learn and study more about what I like and what works.

Ever since I was very young I have heard about naturally talented horses and great minded horses and have spent my life trying to figure out what everyone that is successful looks for when they look for that once in a life time horse for their event.

It has only been in the last few years since I started to look into the understanding of bio- mechanics and how a horse thinks and reacts to stimulus that I have been able to explain (or I should say start to explain) What I have always liked instinctively about certain horses and why I purchased Tough Joe Sugar as a yearling. Here is a picture of him at 23 years young. (I wish I had pictures of him from when I bought him but life got in the way of me keeping any of them or finding them)

Naturally talented comes in one form for me!

Most of the horses that I have found to be naturally talented for any of the events I enjoy, Reining, Barrel racing and Performance Horse Development all had the same general profile.

Here are a few more of horses I have found to be naturally talented physically for the events mentioned above.

Everyone of the above horses was a performer in one or more of the events I listed and thinking back to them all I really wish I had some of them back now that I understand how to better develop their natural ability.

Here is a bio- mechanics picture that may help explain what I am looking for and why this type of profile suits me..

I have rode and done well and have saw many others do well on horses that did not have this type of profile but for me it took more time because there was physical development that had to take place before we started the physical training.

With the above horses the muscle structure I needed was already well developed and was there from the time they were born, it was just a matter of using exercises to make them stronger and more flexible.

Now Good Minded Horses come in all shapes and sizes

Now that we see what I look for physically I will explain why I would like some of them back, :o)

I now understand how to better develop that natural talent based on how a horse reacts and responds to stimulus (our cues as riders) and not all of the above horses were the same mentally.

Natural talent will only go so far and how a horse is mentally plays a large roll in how we are going to develop that ability. I have wrote other blog posts on riding different horses and how we have to use our tolls in different ways to encourage proper development of the natural ability our horses have. But in short it has to do with acceptance and the horses natural tendencies. ( I will address this in the next post)

A horse that seems to have a lot of suck back (natural stoppers I have heard them referred to) tend to be laid back and lack forward energy.

Horses with lots of forward energy (I have heard them referred to as natural spinners) tend to lack the ability to relax and want to stop. We as trainers can develop both these types of horses into great horses but it takes using our tools different to create the forward energy and relaxation needed to be efficient at for any event.

I am still studying the above profiles to decide what is most important to me but the one thing I do know is that these horses all took a slightly larger cinch than horses that had similar builds and did not display the same natural all round ability.

Till next time enjoy learning about the horse and whats makes them great and our communication with them pleasant for both us and them while developing their full potential.

Rod

Extreme Mustang make over. Natural horsemen and Centaur Riders!

2011-09-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

Me and my girls attended the Extreme Mustang make over on September 17th in Fort worth and I really enjoyed this event. There were some amazing examples of Natural horsemanship and some great minded horses and a great exhibition of rider symmetry with the horse.

All the Trainers had to start with an un- broke 5 or 6 year old mustang, then in 150 days present their mustang in this competition. What was displayed showed talent as horsemen and women on the part of the trainers and great minds on the parts of the horses.

Because of what I saw and what it made me consider I am going to describe a new phrase that I will use in my posts and clinics "Centaur Riders"!!

Centaur Riders have a feel and rhythm that allows for resistant free communication with their horses.
Centaur Riders have an understanding of not only how the horse thinks, but also the bio mechanics of the horse and how to use that knowledge to develop a horse physically so that they can perform the task the rider asks for without causing resistance due to unfit muscle development.
A centaur rider knows the horse has to first accept the riders cues,
A centaur rider knows that they can neither beat nor pet a horse into accepting their cues
A centaur rider will use their rhythm and feel in a manner that make sense to the horses to develop the horses acceptance of their cues.

I start this post with this new phrase and description because I saw great exhibitions of both natural horsemanship and something more! I think that more needs a name, so I gave it one. :o)

While watching the required compulsory part of the Mustang make over there was one very clear winner in my mind and as it turned out the judges agreed. This little mustang was really soft and the rider never once asked her for anything she was not willing to do. Considering the amount of time these riders and horses were together, the 360's and stops and lead changes this mare could perform were very impressive. She accepted her riders cues and responded softly every time he asked her. Others in the finals were able to do the required maneuvers but they were mostly resistant and/ or stiff thus allowing the little mare a big lead after the compulsory pattern . The second place horse after the compulsory's was fairly soft as well and it showed in her freestyle where she did a couple tempi lead changes (I missed them, was looking for the kids, but my wife who has a great eye told me when I asked how she did) allowing her to gain some ground in the freestyle as well but over all she was not as soft and accepting in the compulsories as the winner was.

In the freestyle portion of the event there were many other really impressive examples of horsemanship including the crowd favorite a guy that had 2 horses in the finals and both would ride in an open truck (Jumping up and down) go over some really elaborate and scary as heck obstacles, lay down let him stand on them and crack a bull whip etc. It was very entertaining and had a whole lot of wow factor.

This got me to thinking why I preferred the little mare that responded softly and was glad to see her come out on top. It all comes down to what we are wanting our horses to do and what we find impressive. From my posts on here and the whole PHD concept it is really obvious that I prefer and expect my horses to respond softly and willingly to the rider. I think the obstacles and confidence type things that many horsemen and women teach and accomplish are very impressive as well and takes a great horseman to create the confidence in their horses to do many of the things they do.

The difference for me is one (The soft performance) takes a Centaur rider's rhythm and feel that communicates with their horses in a manner that the horse accepts allowing the rider to develop the horses physical strength, suppleness and confidence in the rider to perform softly and with strength.

The little mustang that won showed this physical development in how she performed in the free style and why she had a big lead after the required lead changes, side passes, roll backs, and 360's .

The other type of performance in the freestyle (lots of trust) required the horse to have a lot of confidence and trust in the rider/ handler that they would not ask them to do anything that would hurt them. This takes a horseman that understands how to present their horses with different options and get the horse to do things that at first seem very scary to the horse (the natural horseman). This develops the horses confidence to accept different surroundings and situations.

The Fan favorite did this amazingly well and gained a lot of ground on the eventual winner in the freestyle routine.

So what I saw was a great display of different types of horsemanship;

One where the rider developed an athlete through acceptance of his cues with rhythm and feel, showing a very talented rider and trainer and a great minded horse .
One where the trainer developed an amazing amount of acceptance and trust in dealing with different situation in his horse, showing a very talented horseman and trainer with a great minded horse.

One I am calling Centaur riding and the other is natural horsemanship.

This is only an observation of what I saw and not a statement about what any of these great trainers can accomplish. They were given a certain horse and a limited amount of time, they had to decide what type of performance they could best achieve with their talents and their individual horse.

They all had to start with an un- broke 5 or 6 year old mustang, they all had to first gain the horses confidence and acceptance of them, a saddle and a rider. One trainer decided on developing a soft accepting athlete after he had the horses confidence under saddle. The other trainer chose to build on that confidence to show all the other scary things his horse would accept.

I would love to see the top 4 horses and horsemen and women try this again in another year with the same horses. Giving them enough time to show their talents as both a Natural horseman and a Centaur Rider. 150 days is not enough to do it all and in my opinion the winner chose the right progression and showed more of an all round type horseman/ rider by first gaining the horses confidence and acceptance to a point where he could then develop an athlete.

Before I end this post I should mention that my girls were way more interested in the concurrent run Mutt make over, and I must admit that watching the dogs perform what they had learned in the last 100 days was also impressive.
A personal note here Congratulations to our friends Mike and Susie Scott and their 3 girls Megan, Bryn and Emma, they adopted the second place dog Abby.

Until next time enjoy the journey that is training your own horse. And remember a supple willing horse is still the best testament of a great horse person who I will refer to as Centaur Riders :o)

More on being a centaur rider in the next post!

Rod

The difference between a soft response and a light reaction.

2011-08-27T04:11:00.000-07:00

Soft response is maybe best explained by saying "the horses accepts and responds in kind to the amount of pressure being applied with the reins or legs" it does not matter if it is longitudinal or lateral pressure from your hands and forward motion request from your legs or lateral motion request from your legs.

If you are a visual learner the difference between react and respond may best be done with a partner on the dance floor. Have someone move you around a dance floor with bumps and shoves, then have some one move you around with steady pressure that changes direction and weight depending on where they want you to go and at what rhythm. I think the difference between react and respond will soon become clear, :o)

Go dancing, have fun and turn your riding into a dance with your horse.

Rod

Putting an all round foundation to work

2011-08-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

I recently have been talking to a dressage coach and trainer about the differences between training for dressage and training for most other events that require a more forward level frame and self carriage. During this discussion I realized that I probably should ride a dressage test with one of my horses so that we had visual comparisons.

Because I train all my horses using the PHD patterns as the progression I was fairly confident I could make a fair showing at a level 4 USDF dressage test. Below is the resulting first try at a dressage test for both me and my horse.

Discussing horses and riders in my last clinic

2011-08-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

Every time I do a clinic I get to see different horse and rider combinations and each one gives me idea's for blog topics. This time instead of trying to create one blog post that deals with one or 2 of the different issues horses and riders have, I am going to discuss 3 specific horse and rider combinations and I am sure that many riders will be able to relate.

Horse rider combination 1, this is a young horse and an experienced rider that had developed good rhythm and feel.

This horse was going around way on its forehand and because of this the horse had trouble establishing a proper cadence, this lack of a steady cadence made it hard for the rider to use her rhythm to get the horse to accept her hands and legs.

The first thing we worked on was showing the rider how to get her horse to find and hold his proper cadence. (because he was on the forehand he was finding it hard to balance, like a baby that first learns to walk when they get leaned to far forward they scramble forward trying to stay on their feet and when the horse did this the rider was having to hold the reins to allow the horse to balance)

We did this by allowing the horse start to rush on a loose rein, then instead of just holding it back we would make the horse turn in a smaller circle while maintaining alignment until the horse moved with a steady cadence. Then we would repeat allow the horse to lose it balance on a straight line and scramble and then turn again until balance was established (alignment is very important in this exercise because without it the horse can drop shoulders or hips and will keep falling forward and rushing even in the small circles)

Once we had the horse going with a steady cadence without the rider having to hold the horses face for it to balance on we were able to start working with the riders natural rhythm to show her how to start getting the horse to move more level instead of on the forehand.

We did this by just making the rider aware of her rhythm and how to use it to pull and push on her horse so that the horse understood what she was asking and expecting. By the end of the 3 hours this horse was able to go level on its own for a short time and we even were able to get a few strides of extension.

Some of my philosophies and techniques that helped this pair were:

A horse can not lean on one rein
We have to use our hands and legs in rhythm with our horse if we expect them to accept them.

Pair 2; this pair included a green horse a little more advanced than the first horse (she could stay balanced and had a good steady cadence) The rider had good natural rhythm as well but was a tad heavy with her hands.

Because of this the horse had a tendency to either hide behind the vertical or shorten her stride, or both and this caused her to drift in circles either by dropping shoulders or hips.

What we worked on with this pair was first getting the rider to feel the horses rhythm and then work on the rider using her natural rhythm when giving cues to her horse. This allowed the rider to become softer with her hands and more effective with her legs in getting the horse to soften into her softer hands.

Next we worked on teaching the rider how to use her hands and legs to keep her horse between them while she was guiding. We did this by riding perfect circles with a visual aid to show the rider when the shoulders or hips were dropping.

By the end of the 3 hours this horse and rider were able to perform 2 almost perfect circles with a change of direction so that they rode a very nice figure 8.

Some of my philosophies and techniques that helped this pair were:

If we want a horse to stay between our hands and legs we must use 2 hands and 2 legs. it is impossible to stay between 1
A horse can not lean on or evade one rein, ( so in order to use 2 to stay between and stop the leaning one rein must be active and in rhythm with the horse)
If you are pulling you better be pushing (because forward motion into contact is the most important part of getting our horses soft when ever we pull we need to be pushing to create the forward motion.)

Pair 3; This pair was an older rope horse and an inexperienced rider that had no baggage and a natural seat so working on him being able to feel the rhythm of the horse through his seat and hands had the positive effect of allowing him learn to be more effective.

What we did with this team was have them work on the rider feeling the rhythm of his horse and start to use his hands and legs in a more effective manner to start getting the horse to accept his hands and legs.

This horse was very stiff in his face but because he was an older horse that had been rode a bunch his balance was fine and he had learned to do things in his stiff way of going. This horse would move forward into contact. But because the rider was still working on how to become a more effective rider he was having trouble getting the horse to soften his top line and move forward making any type of stride manipulation impossible. (this horse did everything hollowed out)

I eventually got on this horse and because he was so use to just leaning on the riders hands I went to pushing more with my legs and used my hands in a one steady and one active fashion and very quickly this horse started to round and allowed me to start stretching his top line. With a little time I am sure this rider will become very effective (this rider and then he will be able to work his horse in a proper fashion to allow him to develop the horses top line and get him working in a round frame instead of a hollowed out frame.

Some of my philosophies and techniques that helped this pair were:

To be an effective rider you must have rhythm and use that rhythm to give cues to your horse
You can not jerk or spur a horse into accepting and responding, (you get reactions from jerking and spurring and it is harder to always get the same reaction instead of teaching the horse to willing respond to pressure.)

If you have an issue with your horse that sounds similar to any of these or a combination of these examples make sure to check out my online video tips page or check out my online coaching for more detailed help on how each of these riders and horses improved.

Till next time go dancing; Learning to lead a partner effortlessly on the floor is the same as leading your horse around an arena :o)

Rod

Free offer for anyone that has attended one of my clinics;

2011-07-18T06:01:00.000-07:00

I enjoy watching people improve their communication with their horses and how that translates into better performances in any event.

Human nature makes us want to learn how to do something as quickly as possible, unfortunately moving forward without a proper foundation on our horses seldom ends up getting us to that finished point.

In order to help past clinic students stay on track I am offering free critiques and tips based on IPHDA V show rides. All you have to do is ask. :o)

If you have not attended one of my clinics I will critique V show rides for $10

If we want our horses to be athletes we need to train them like athletes.

2011-07-13T09:07:00.001-07:00

If you have ever exercised enough to get really fit for an activity this post will make lots more sense to you. :o)

Lets face it most of us would rather not exercise, it would be so much easier if we were just fit to do what ever activity we want to do, but we know that is not how it works. unless our activity of choice is sitting on the coach and eating, or in the horses case standing in a pasture and eating.

So we must exercise ourselves and our horses if we want to improve our athletic ability, but more important than exercise is proper exercise! For example if we want to be better runners sitting and doing bench presses all day is not going to help us reach our goal. What we need to do as horse trainers is think like a personal trainer, we need to know what muscles need to be developed in order to reach a goal and also what muscles are easiest developed first so that more advanced exercises are possible without causing injury.

The best part of exercise is that as we do proper exercise it becomes less work or in common terms for horses they get trained, I am going to suggest that when a person thinks their horse is becoming more trained, what is actually happening is they are developing the muscles needed to perform the task we are asking and the task gets easier so they perform better. That is why in my opinion some trainers do better than others, they have exercises/ drills they use that develop muscles properly (even if they do not realize this is what they are doing)

The trick in my opinion is to develop the muscles in an order that maximizes benefits of the exercise time and does not promote injury or bad habits in your horse..

Here is the order of exercising a horse muscles that I use for all my horses regardless of what event they will eventually be asked to do.

The first and most important muscles that need to be developed in a horse are their top line muscles, Top line muscles are also the easiest to develop, but because of improper exercise they are the least developed in many horses. In my opinion this is because to develop a horses top line you need to do is get your horse to accept your hands and move forward off your legs into your hands so that the top line muscles start to stretch and lift. The concept of acceptance and forward is often lost on many riders today. To often people jerk and spur to try and achieve forward into your hands or soft face or what ever other term you want to use. Then the other extreme ignores the forward and gets horses on the forehand which will not stretch and develop top line muscles.

Next I will stretch and develop the muscles in the horses hips and shoulders so that they can move laterally. A horse must have a developed top line to do exercises designed to properly develop hip and shoulder muscles.

Next I develop the horses hind quarters so that they can carry the extra weight that they will need to carry on their hind quarters when I start teaching them collection and rounding. A horse must have a developed top line and flexible shoulders and hips to do exercises designed to properly develop hind quarter muscles.

As each of these muscles develop and get stronger and more flexible everything I am asking the horse to do becomes easier for them.

So how do we exercise our horses properly? This blog is full of posts about the how to, this post is about the why. :o)

So the next time you ride or are doing some drill or exercise ask yourself what muscles am I developing with this exercise? If that answer does not make sense in the terms of your intended goal then the exercise is probably not going to help much in the long run. :o)

Until next time think of yourself as your horses personal trainer and chances are your rides will be less frustrating and your horse will develop into a happy fit athlete!

To end this post I am going to give you the simplest explanation of my goal when I am training any horse for any event. My exercise program is all about accomplishing this one simple task. If you think about my goal and consider its effectiveness for almost any event we want our horses to do you will see why I say developing an all round foundation will give you a horse that can perform any event with very little event specific training.

MY simple goal is this:

I want to attach the left jaw to the left hock and the right jaw to the right hock and I want their hind feet to work in the same direction and rhythm as my legs and seat.

Meaning if I put pressure on the left jaw I want the left hock to come forward. If I put pressure on the right jaw I want the right hock to come forward. If I put pressure on both jaws I want the both hocks to come forward, If I set a rhythm or ask for a direction with my legs and seat I want their hind feet to follow in that direction and rhythm.

Pretty simple? It really is as long as you work the muscles in the proper order and allow your horse to develop in stages. Which is why I have said in previous posts that if you take 1 year to develop your horses muscles, teaching them event specific maneuvers will take very little time, :o)

So the next time you ride or are doing some drill or exercise ask yourself what muscles am I developing with this exercise? If that answer does not make sense in the terms of your intended goal then the exercise is probably not going to help much in the long run. :o)

Until next time think of yourself as your horses personal trainer and chances are your rides will be less frustrating and your horse will develop into a happy fit athlete!

Rod

Horse trainers must wear many hats!

2011-06-08T05:31:00.000-07:00

I have been working on how to write this blog post for many weeks, Ever since I did a clinic and was asked;

"why do I get taught this way by some clinicians, and now you are telling me it caused confusion for my horse."

I want this post to explain my reasoning without it sounding like I am saying any type of training is wrong, some training just gets in the way of developing a horse the way I do!

That is why Performance Horse Development and IPHDA is an attractive event for many different trainers and training techniques.

PHD is like a GPS system to make sure that no matter what direction you take you are still on a road that will take you to the proper destination, if you want to develop a performance horse.

Here is my philosophy on the number of different hats that all trainers wear and how I see them working together to achieve a goal and reach a destination.

All trainers in my opinion have to be like Parents, Day care worker, Grade school teachers, High school teachers, Physical fitness trainers, and finally College and Pro level athletic Coaches.

Like a parent helping the horse just like a young child develop the confidence and respect they will need to be successful in their life.
Teachers at all levels continue to build confidence and understanding that the horse will need to perform their life's job.
Physical fitness coaches make sure our horses develop the muscles to stay fit and healthy and capable of performing their jobs properly.
Coach, this is the job that is the easiest if the other 3 have been done properly and it is also the job that can have the most gratifying results in the horse industry. Here The coach gets to show how good their athletes are. But like any athletic coach if the first 3 stages of the athletes development are not done properly it can be very frustrating with athletes acting like prema donas or being plagued by injury.

Parents and Day care and kindergarten teachers,

The reason the job of starting colts is so important is there are a number of things that colt starters can do that positively or adversely effect the horses continuing education.

For example: If we ask them to give their face laterally to pressure we should not encourage any other part of their body to move without encouraging forward motion.

I will explain the problems this causes in our advanced training as we discuss the next stages.

Continuing education grade school. (Including Gym Teachers)

When we set out to train our horses we usually have a goal of some event in mind we are want our horses to be good at. The same as when we have kids we all have an idea of what we would like them to grow to be, doctors, teachers, pro athletes etc. BUT regardless of our dreams we know they are individuals and as long as they turn out to be responsible, respectful adults we will have done our jobs properly.

At the Grade school and high school level for horses I have one simple goal,

When I have the horses body developed physically so they are strong enough to do that at the speed the event I wish to do requires I am ready to go to college with this horse.

Like our kids this stages is the longest and the most crucial in their development. To reach my simple goal I have to:

Gradually build my horses acceptance to my cues so they will respond willingly
Gradually increase my horses flexibility with my cues so I can exercise all the muscles they will need to develop to be able to give me the response I want as an end goal
Gradually build the horses muscles to be able to to give me the response I want to my cues..

Effortless Guiding including spins and roll backs and tight turns
Smooth transitions between gaits, including stops
Stride manipulation - extension and collection
Smooth transitions between extension and collection

If we think about these skills above there are very few things we will ask our horses to do in their life that do not require these skills.

Improper responses to pressure that cause problems:

If the horse has been over stimulated to kicks it hip away from pressure on the jaw this can become confusing to the horse.

Teaching them to move their hips in this manner is not a body control function that helps in future development, it is easy for the horse and is to often explained as body control in my opinion.

For safety sake all you need when you apply pressure on the ground is they move their feet without resisting and without over reacting.

When you are in the saddle and teaching proper body control you will be stretching and compressing a horses muscles to develop strength and flexibility.

If you re-enforce improper body control that does not stretch and compress muscles changing it to start developing flexibility and muscle development will be confusing for the horse.

Which brings me to the next thing that causes problems for the continuing education started at the early childhood level. Giving their face without moving their shoulders and calling it flexibility.

College level athletics coach

Until next time enjoy the journey that is training your own horse.

Rod

How we allow horses of different types to take tools out of our training kit part 2

2011-05-26T04:24:00.000-07:00

To many times at clinics I see riders trying to ride resistant horses, if your horse resists your hands and legs they have taken those tools out of your training kit.

That is why at my clinics I try to see what type of horses each rider is riding and show them how to get their horse to accept their hands and legs before we start using those tools to control our horses.

In this post we will talk about the horse that is resistant to our hands and .sensitive to our legs.

The first thing we need to do with any horse is get them to accept and respond softly to our tools (Hands and legs) and this type of horse is over reacting to our legs and resisting our hands.

What I will do with this type of horse is work my hands the same with one rein steady and one rein massaging until they start to accept my hands a little then I will just walk and gently start putting my legs on and off the horses side. To many times I see riders afraid to touch the sides of these types of horses because it gets the horse all flustered. but if we ever want to use our legs to help train this horse they have to accept our legs.

I will alternate back and forth between working on getting them to accept my hands and then my legs because this horse is usually a little high strung and working both at first really gets them riled.

When I work on the acceptance of my legs I may have to stay in a circle so I can keep the horse from charging off and circles allow me to direct their shoulders and keep them contained without having to pull on their face so much.

When I work on getting them to accept my hands forward motion is not usually a problem with this horse but they will still short stride but quicken their cadence. On this horse I will ignore the short stride until I have them accepting my legs to a point where I can use them to encourage longer strides without the horse over reacting to them.

Tips,

Work on acceptance of hands and legs separately
Work your horse in a circle when first getting them use to your legs.
Use your legs in the rhythm you want - not the rhythm they are giving you. Using tools in rhythm always helps the horse to accept your legs and hands. because it is working with their rhythm instead of against it.
For explanation and drills to work on your rhythm you can watch my video's, (They are on my subscription blog but subscriptions are free at this time) Just ask for your free subscription.
When your horse starts to accept your hands and legs separately then start to use them together to help them learn to go forward into your hands.

Common problems with this type of horse

They over react to our legs so much that we need to use our hands to keep them from leaving town, Use your hands as much as you have to but do not hang on their face,
Hard to use rhythm when the horse is all tense, but it is very important to try.This type of horse really responds well to our rhythm they are insecure and our ability to use rhythm helps give them confidence and lets them relax.

.Make sure to watch the video;s about alignment and rhythm and until next time enjoy the journey that is training your own horse.

Rod

How we allow horses of different types to take tools out of our training kit part 1

2011-05-20T20:09:00.001-07:00

90% of the time horses are one or both of the following:,

Resist our hands, (push their heads up into our hands)
Sensitive to our hands, (duck down away from our hands)
Dull to our hands, do nothing when we pull,
Sensitive to our legs ( jump or rush each time they feel our legs)
Dull to our legs, (ignore our legs and will not move forward when asked)

Any combination of these 4 allow the horse to take our hands and legs out of our training kit. So as trainers when we first start riding our horses we need to get them to accept our hands and legs. (this is for horses that are started under saddle it is not for colt starting, I do not do colt starting I hire people to start my colts and they are a very important part of my training and eventually I will get my colt starter to share how he does what he does because it makes my job easier)

These next few blog posts will be about how I get each type to accept my hands and or legs depending on how the horse feels when I first get on,

First lets start with the hardest one. The horse that is resistant to my hands and also dull in the body.

when a horse resists our hands we need to show them that they can accept some contact and go forward. (forward into contact is the most important thing we will ever teach our horses to do)

So I will use one rein hand steady and pull in rhythm with the other one until the horse starts to break at the poll and soften their jaw and whithers. I do not ask for a lot break or softening at first on a very resistant horse, but I do keep pulling until I get some softening or breaking or what ever other term you want to use for giving in the poll and withers. (the reason I pull steady on one rein and pull in rhythm with the horses stride with the other is that a horse can not lean on one rein but I want them to understand and respond to steady pressure eventually)

Once the horse softens a little in the jaw and whithers I stop pulling but do not throw them slack, I let the horse find the release from my hands by giving to the pressure but my hands stay where they are (NOT PULLING MORE) so that the next time when he resists I have a barrier there with my hands to start pulling again.

Now the hard part, most times a horse will want to also resist my hands with his feet, so now while I am pulling I need to be pushing as well to keep his feet moving forward in a natural cadence.

These are the hardest ones to get to soften because you have to push really hard with your legs at the same time you are pulling and massaging with your hands. (You will need spurs on this horse) But once you get them to soften to your hands and keep a natural forward cadence they have started to soften their top-line.

Common problem with this type of horse,

You really need to work in rhythm with the cadence of the stride you want from the horse with both your hands and legs, since a dull sided horse that is resistant to your hands will not allow you to feel their natural rhythm because they are always trying to short stride with their feet.
They may resist by really trying to elevate their shoulders (rearing) instead of round their back in under your seat. at the first sign of this reaction you must let go with your hands and drive forward with your legs, for fear of them flipping over. The main reason for this is that we try for to much softening in the poll and whithers all at once

I have had these types of horses turn into sensitive to me hands and resist down instead of up and I deal with that in a totally different way. I have had to go from treating the horse like a resistant faced horse to a sensitive faced horse all in the same ride.

We will talk about the next type in the next blog post. If you have a horse that fits any of the above mentioned types you can ask for the next type I explain. I will deal with them in order I get them in the comments section or I will pick if no one asks.

until then enjoy the journey that is training your own horse.

Rod

Make sure you keep all your tools in your training bag!

2011-05-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

I just returned from Anchorage and Wasilla Alaska where I had the privilege to work with a number of different horses. In the 4 days of clinics I worked with Barrel racers, pattern type horses, PHD, Reiners and horsemanship horses as well as many that just wanted their horses a little softer and smoother to ride.

We worked on a number of different foundation skills like acceptance, alignment, and body control and rider rhythm. We had horses that were resisting with their face and neck, their whole body, their feet and then we had some that were hiding from their rider’s hands and ignoring or over reacting to the rider’s legs.

It was fun for me to create drills for each type of horse and to instruct each rider on how to ride their specific horse. BUT THE 2 THINGS that each and every horse needed was clearer direction of exactly what the rider wanted and to learn how to accept the riders hands legs or both. As the riders developed their rhythm with their hands and legs and seat, the horses started to relax and start to accept their hands and legs instead of resisting or over reacting to them.

If we allow our horses to resist or over react to our hands we allow them to take 2 or more of our tools we use to cue them away from us.

This post would be very long if I said all that I wanted to about why acceptance and rhythm is important to any horse and rider regardless of type of riding or event. So I will stop here for tonight and continue in a day or two with a new post called “What we do to help our horses take tools out of our tool bag”

The good news for anyone that thinks feel and rhythm are beyond them as riders you are wrong most all riders have it they just need to develop it. :o) I got to go riding on the kinic River with a bunch of riders before I left Alaska and they were of all different abilities. At one point we were all riding side by side, just walking along relaxed and talking. I happened to look across and what I saw made me smile, every one of those riders regardless if they had been in my clinic or not, if they had trouble with working in rhythm or not in the clinic. They were all riding in rhythm with both their hands and legs and seats. So what that told me is every rider after they are confident enough to relax in the saddle, has the ability to ride in rhythm with their horse. Even the ones that find it hard at first!

Until next time enjoy the journey!

Rod

How important are foundation skills?

2011-05-05T10:15:00.001-07:00

In my opinion VERY IMPORTANT!!

I am guilty of needing a reminder every once in awhile how important not only building the proper foundation on our competition horses are but also maintaining our foundation even down to the lowest brick!

Here is my story from the last month and how that reminder cost me a lot of money and fun.

If you have followed my blog at all you probably know I train Reining horses using the PHD patterns as my foundation builder. Because of the PHD foundation my horses also run barrels pretty well.

What happens when we start to compete in a specific event( like I have of late) is that we tend to let some parts of the foundation we deem unnecessary for that event to slide. Well I did that with CeeCee, my Reiner turned barrel horse and it started to show about a month ago. We took her to a barrel race and she did not work properly so we came up with all kinds of reasons, some of our reasons excuses were probably part of the issue but not the major part.

Here is why we decided she didn't work well:

She was in heat, (in my opinion in hind sight the main reason that she picked that day to show me she needed her foundation maintained)
She was sore- (she isn't)
She is so new to Barrel racing that she just needs to get more seasoned- partially true

Anyway we came home and had a large entry fee paid for a big race in 3 weeks so we decided to just let her relax, we didn't push her just worked on getting her to stay round around the barrel. She ran a few times and got a little better each time, but still not like she was. So last weekend she goes to the BBR and she does really respectable running in the 2d but just not working like she use to, needless to say we did not win any thing but I did get my reminder.

I have had her home now for 3 days and she rides around just great, but when I tried to do some of the basic low level PHD patterns she had lost a bunch of her softness, her wait and most importantly her acceptance to my cues.

Because I have built in all the tools to maintain her foundation it will be pretty easy to get her foundation back in shape. It is only going to take a week or 2 to get her back to PHD level 8 foundation.

Where if I had spent a day or 2 each week making sure everything was still as soft and accepting as it needs to be to do PHD level 5-8 patterns then I probably would not have to go all the way back to level 1 and 2 phd patterns to repair those foundation skills.

Because of this I have started looking at my other horse as well. He exhibitions barrels well slow and started to develop a few holes when he started to want to go a little faster.

I have him broke pretty well to about a PHD level 4 , that is soft accepting at the lope and he works well at a lope. BUT I didn't not continue on with level 5 and 6 with him I went to working on the foundation that most barrel horses seem to need.

Guess what we will be doing now? We will be working on level 5 and 6 foundation skills and then we will go back to exhibitioning him.

I am betting if I had stuck with the PHD patterns as my foundation training this issue with speed would not have even showed up and he would have just started working the barrels a little quicker by himself as he progressed.

I am confident that this new plan will work because I have used it many times with my reining horses, I just needed a reminder. :o) When we get excited about competing we sometimes forget how important building and maintaining an all round foundation is.

I know I always tell my students to make sure the lower level basics work well before advancing each time they go to ride/ train their horse, guess I need to listen to myself more often. LOL

Rod

Can western dressage help western riders learn better training

2011-04-17T14:28:00.000-07:00

I am hearing that Western dressage is not about training a horse to be a dressage horse in a western saddle it is about teaching people to use dressage to make better western performance horses?

Well Can it do that? in my opinion Yes and No, there is very little difference between the very basic training when developing a horse and rider. Horses need to learn to accept the riders cues from both their hands and legs, the rider needs to develop rhythm and balance and the ability to deliver precise cues to the horse. So yes low level dressage tests can be beneficial to any type of horse and rider. After you get above a certain level in dressage it depends on what level or era of western training you are trying to improve!

Let me explain I am going to use the evolution of training a sliding stop to show this because it is the easiest to do with pictures. The same type of comparison can be done with spins ands circles and barrel racing and western pleasure but those are better saw with video.

Before we start this post I want everyone to know that all of the horse pictured here (below) were great horses trained by great trainers of their day! I have hopefully cut the photo's enough that very few but the most die hard reining fans will recognize them. It is not my intent to say one is better than the other only to show how frame has effected the performance of reining horses and most other western performance horse events.

So if you look at the pictures below you will see the first 2 pictures that show winning type stops for pre 1980, the 3rd picture is of a winning type stop from the mid 80's and the middle 3 are from the 1990's ranging from 1992 till 1998 or so.

The last 2 are of winning type stops from 2000 till now.

So how has this change evolved, in my opinion,

The change from the first two to the 3rd came from trainers developing softer hands,

The change from the 3rd to the next 3 came by the eastern trainers studying the western trainers methods because of a futurity champion called Boomernic. Boomernic was one of the first horses to actually break at the loin and elevate his shoulders while he stopped. Prior to that you can see by the first 3 pictures there is no rounding of the back just a transfer of weight to the hind end by elevating the shoulders.

This east meets west discovery led to reining trainers being introduced to similar principles of training that dressage promoted (shift weight to the hind end by rounding at the loin) and these came through the Spanish vaquero influence on the west coast trainers. So yes Dressage training had an influence on early western horse training in a round about way.

Some good things and some bad things came from this meeting of western and english training principles,

the good was that it led western trainers to discover the benefits of developing a round back (even if it was only at the loin) allowing for less elevation of the shoulders and making it easier to move laterally

The bad part was that many trainers watching and trying to emulate the few who figured it out, started getting their horses dumped on the front end and jamming in the stops. Mostly because they did not see the rounding of the loin they only saw a lower head set in the stop. That led to a couple years of really strange stuff but Reining grew out of it quick.

Then along came a certain trainer and one line of horses around 2000 (He is not pictured here, so there is no way you can guess who I mean) and they were able to stop with a round back without elevating the shoulders and keeping the front end light.

How did he achieve this? He found a way to get the back to truly round (not just break at the loins), with the highest part of the back being the middle of the back with the horse rounding their backs up in the middle and down at both the whithers and loin.

This real rounding allowed the horses balance point to move forward which transfered weight to the hind end without elevating the shoulders and still remove weight form the front legs so that the horse could move laterally much easier as well as stay loose with his front end while they got that really low to the ground butt draggin stop we Reiners have come to love.

Next more of the top Reiners all started to develop a round frame in the stops, then a few years later it showed up in the circles and finally the spins.

Once Reiners figured out how to develop this type of frame they just kept finding ways to develop it easier and the western performance horse industry moved from needing an elevated frame to a round frame.

Still need proof? Look at the back of the saddle? In the last 2 pictures the round frame is causing the horses back to drop away from the saddle. The previous pictures show hocks in the ground deep and broke at the loin but the saddle is still sitting on the back, ( the back is straight from the loin to the whithers)

In the last 2 pictures the saddle is sitting on the highest part of the back (under the riders seat) and the horses back is dropping away to the loins. Also look at how free the front legs are able to move, the balance point has to have changed taking weight off the front end allowing the legs to stay loose without elevating the shoulders.

To see the same thing in video is fun and to see it in circles and spins you need to watch video.

This is why I think the use of western dressage with dressage judges will not help develop horses trained to be competitive today, but it could help people that are stuck in the 70's get to the 90's. :o) if you want to get to the current trends with your performance horse training you need to try Performance Horse Development where we actually try to educate our judges about round frames and how they are better in western performance horses.

Thinking listening and asking questions is a must when training our horses.

2011-04-10T07:58:00.000-07:00

The reasons for this is that many people who train and coach use different terms to explain what they mean and feel, I am going to quote one of my favorite new bloggers here because it was her post that made me think I needed to address this for my students and blog readers.

Barbara Long - Dressage for western horses "Dressage has centuries of written and verbal tradition. Western riding has about 100 years, enough to develop it's own terms, and even more difficult, enough time to borrow words and assign different meanings to them. The biggest problem with both is that they are attempts to describe sensations."

Regular readers of this blog know that I am always making sure that my students and readers understand the difference between soft and light and why it is important to develop softness before lightness. So that is where I will start again in this post. and only because I have come to find a couple new terms and reasons, that I want to share with you :o)

The reason that we have to develop softness before lightness is related to self carriage. As trainers we want our horses to work off light cues and maintain a desired frame which allows for the stride and the cadence we desire; in other words we want our horses to work with self carriage.

To achieve self carriage we have to develop 3 things in our horses:

Their understanding of how to perform the maneuver we are asking
Their willingness to perform the maneuver we are asking
Their muscles to allow them to perform the maneuver we are asking

Number 3 we do gradually and continually with consistent exercises and drills to develop number 1 and 2.

As we develop a horses understanding and willingness their muscles develop and the amount of pressure from our cues (or contact) required to get them to perform the maneuver decreases as their self carriage improves. It is important to note at this point the amount of pressure or contact required for different maneuvers also varies depending on what we are asking and also the horses confirmation and aptitude for performing a specific maneuver.

Next lets talk about collection? First what is it? well ask 10 trainers and you will likely get 10 different answers and see at least a few different examples if you watch them perform what they describe as collection.

At one time I was describing a jog as a collected trot, but from analyzing this i realized I was mistaken, but the reason I was mistaken had nothing to do with what a jog is but with how I have come to describe collection, :o) I learned and accepted that collection was a shortening of the stride and that is what a jog is; a shortening of the stride. But as I studied other descriptions of collection and looked at examples given, I have since come to believe that collection is not about the stride but about the frame. How collection effects the stride depends on the frame used to achieve collection and also the cadence and energy requested by the rider. Confused yet? Let me explain:

Collection is a shortening of the horses frame the distance between the horses hips (hind legs) and his shoulders (front legs)

Frame is the way our horses top -line works and a horses top line effects how your horse collects and extends, Lets explore each term here:

- Collect is a shortening of the frame and can be through elevation or rounding

- Elevate is where the shoulders raise with an elevated face and poll and the shifting of weight to the hind end happens at the loin. resulting in a shortening of the frame

- Round is where the the back actually rounds with a rounding from the poll to the loin.

It is interesting to note that many riders that elevate the shoulders also talk about a rounding of the back when actually they are just rounding the loin.
And many trainers that talk about elevating shoulders are not elevating shoulders they are rounding the frame which drops the hind quarters below the rounded shoulders, thus putting the hips below the shoulders but not by elevating the shoulders.

- Extend is extension of a horses stride and depending on which frame we develop in our horses can be either front feet extending with back legs driving up or all 4 legs extending with the hind legs driving forward.

I will attempt to further explain frame with a few pictures and diagrams. Please do not laugh at my drawing skills they may require some imagination, :o)

The first picture is of an elevated shoulder with a rounding of the loin allowing for an up push from behind creating suspension in the stride and allowing the front legs to extend during suspension. It also allows for shortening of the suspended stride through collection or the shifting of more weight onto the hind legs allowing for more suspension in place popular in dressage maneuvers or in jumping where a horse as to drive up and over after collecting or extending the stride between jumps.

The second picture is of a rounded frame which allows the hind legs to drive forward and allowing an even stride length between both front and hind legs. Collection in this frame comes from rounding the back more and allowing the horses hind legs to take the weight off the front end much like changing the balance point of a scale can shift the amount of weight required to balance . This frame is useful in events that require the horse to move his shoulders laterally around his hind quarters fluidly and quickly as in reining horse spins and roll backs or a barrel horse turn.

The third picture is unfortunately what most riders achieve with out proper assistance. this frame cause impure gaits, horses that can not move laterally effectively or guide and transition with any type of athleticism or smoothness. There is no event where this is the desired frame.

So in conclusion when ever we are trying to train our horses we need to decide which frame will work best for our event depending on what type of collection and extension is required.

I invite comments and discussion on this topic as it is one that is important to understand if we are going to get the proper help for the events we want to compete in. I also keep learning new terms and ways to think about how our horses work each time I have this type of discussion so please assist me in my learning process and ask questions make comments etc.

As always enjoy the journey!

Rod

Turn arounds and cadence of stride,

2011-03-22T06:31:00.000-07:00

Here are 2 drills that may help you on your journey of training your own horse.

Remember that in order to do both these drills and have them be beneficial there are a number of foundation skills that you and your horse need first.

ARE you and your horse ready to learn about stride manipulation and rate? Are you ready to teach your horse how to spin? Ask me for a weeks worth of coaching and we will see.

Until then enjoy the journey that is training your own horse.

Slowing your horses cadence the first step to learning to manipulate their stride.

Starting your horse to step laterally properly to learn how to spin.

I believe,

2011-03-06T08:13:00.001-08:00

I believe that to be a good rider a person must develop some fundamental skills that include Rhythm and Feel.
I believe that I can help anyone develop enough feel and rhythm to train their own horse
I believe that anyone can learn to train their own horse once they have developed those fundamental riding skills
I believe that training a horse is like building a house, you have to have a plan and build / train one step at a time so that the next level is supported by the previous.
I believe that training horses takes constant maintenance of the foundation skills we are building on.
I believe that the better the foundation the more solid and easy to maintain a horse will be
I believe that I can offer the plan that will help anyone train their horse to be solid and easily maintained for many different events.
I believe I can help riders identify and fix foundation problems that are causing issues with their horses.

Because of these beliefs I am going to offer free help to anyone that would like to test my beliefs.

If you are having a problem/ issue with your horse that you would like to see if I can help with, follow the following instructions.

Send me an email at phdclinics@gmail.com or post in the comments section here
Describe in as much detail as possible the issue or problem you are having.

Video a demonstration of the problem or issue you want my advice on addressing.
Upload the video to youtube, ( you can make the video unpublished if you like where only people with the link can see it.)
Send me the link to the video either by

email at phdclinics@gmail.com
post here in comments section

I will respond to you with my advice in what ever way you sent the question or video to me

If you feel like I was able to help and want to continue with my coaching, then we will set up a personal coaching blog where we can privately exchange video's and comments.

No issue to big or to small, I enjoy helping people realize their goals, But I will not give you band-aid training tips to help you achieve those goals.

I will expect you and your horse to both develop foundations that will last the test of time!

This may take some time or it may come quickly,

we will not know until we start.

Rod Miller

Want to give reining a try? I have school horses that you can learn and even compete on.

2011-01-30T06:57:00.002-08:00

Last year the NRHA implemented a new entry level program (Ride and Slide) for people who want to give reining a try.

A couple of advantages that these classes offer to new comers to reining are:

Lower membership fee's $20
No competition licence for the horse
No non pro declaration for amateur competitors
lower entry fee's
Rider does not need to own the horse

Because the new classes do not require ownership of the horse I am offering reining lessons on my NRHA money earning school horses, lessons will include the ability to go to these NRHA shows and compete.

This is a great way to learn about the sport of reining and what is expected from the rider and the horse.

Lessons can be scheduled using one of our school horses or on your own horse if you prefer.

To schedule a lesson or series of lessons contact me at phdclinics@gmail.com

Seeing what the judges see

2011-01-15T05:56:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the first of what I hope is a popular addition to my coaching Blog and the first in a series of exercises to help us see what the judges see.

In the following video there are 3 exhibitors performing a figure 8 at the walk, watch the video and place the 3 exhibitors 1st, 2nd and 3rd based on their execution. Remember that PHD patterns are judges on the exhibitors ability to perform the maneuvers in a manner that shows the horses understanding of the basics of guiding and transitioning. In this example there are no transitions but is a quality that allows for smoother transitions.

When you have placed the exhibitors based on their performances, comment on this post with your placings and the reasoning behind your placings.

I will be awarding a prize for the most correct answer. What the prize is will depend on participation so share this with your friends. I will give my comments on January 25th.

Using Video to educate your eye!

2010-11-25T08:16:00.000-08:00

Many years ago I bought some high end video equipment (for the time) and I video taped horse shows. I videoed everything from reining to dressage and western pleasure to barrel racing.

This was before digital camera's and any still pictures had to be taken one picture at a time and it took a very talented camera person to catch the horses in those really cool poses during their runs that people like to have. Since I was doing video I thought I would try one of the first video printers to help get those cool shots for people. Long story short it did not work really well because the quality was lacking but it was a wonderful learning experience for me. While I was stepping the video forward one frame at a time looking for that perfect still I saw some amazing things as far as alignment and collection and extension were concerned.

What I learned from Video in slow motion.

In reining we want our horses to run fast, then slow down either to a small circle or a sliding stop. We want them to run in a manner that appears willing to the judge, to rate their speed from fast to slow, or fast to stop.

In Barrel racing we want our horses to extend their stride then compress their stride so they can turn off their hind ends to keep their shoulders up right and not leaning into the barrel.

Lets start with the fact that true collection is one of the toughest things we can teach a horse, that is why in the progressive levels of Dressage and Performance Horse Development do not ask for collection until the upper levels of training.

Collection is not a shorter stride or a slower stride it is a more compressed stride with the hind quarters reaching deeper under the horse and the back rounds by the horse breaking at the whithers and the hips, the shoulders do not actually raise but the hocks drive deeper with a compressed frame, this actually lowers the horses hind quarters thus the shoulders are elevated over the hind quarters.

Alignment effects the horses shoulders and their ability to perform at their best.

Alignment to me means 2 things,

First we have total body alignment for some maneuvers like running circles, sliding stops and changing leads, Training your horse to keep their body straight from face to croup while running straight, or keeping your horses body on an arc from their face to their croup that matches the circle your horse is running.
Second we have Face and Shoulder alignment to improve barrel turns, roll backs and spins. Teaching your horse to keep their shoulders upright while moving laterally and allowing enough softening of the inside rib cage to permit the inside shoulder to move around so the outside shoulder can follow .

The only real difference between the 2 is the amount of arc you need in your horses body while circling, verse spinning or turning a barrel, and that is relative to the amount of forward motion needed.

Using video to educate your eye.

The horses face has a direct relationship to your horses shoulders, to see this pause some video's and look at the relationship of the horses face to their shoulder position while they are circling spinning and turning a barrel.

Chances are if you see the face tipped out of alignment with the vertical plane of the shoulders, the shoulders will be dropping or drifting depending on the arc of the horses body and face and neck..

If the horses body is arced properly through the ribs and neck for the circle but the face is tipped, the shoulders will be going in the direction of the horses ears. If the horse does not have a proper arc in its body and neck the shoulders will be leaning in the direction the nose is pointing.

The horses ability to extend and collect has a direct influence on their ability to perform a sliding stop and perform a barrel turn quickly with the shoulders moving laterally while remaining up right. Pause some video's during the approach to a stop and the barrel and watch how the horses shoulders and horses back and hocks work.

Watching video's in slow motion is just one way to educate your eye and when you have an educated eye educating your body to feel becomes easier..

As riders we manipulate our horses stride, make sure you do it in a manner that has a positive influence on their training and not a negative one.

2010-11-21T19:30:00.001-08:00

One of the hardest things to teach your horse is to be soft in the body and face with out resisting in their feet with shorter or slower strides.

As riders we may want faster or slower strides, and we may even want longer or shorter strides but if we can not get a soft response to our hands and legs with out effecting our horses stride length or cadence of stride first any type of lengthening shortening or speed control will be less effective.

In order to accomplish this you have to first learn your horses natural relaxed rhythm. If your horses stride has already been manipulated negatively through training you will have to work harder to find your horses natural relaxed rhythm but it can be done.