Spooking and how to deal with it.

Now that I have a sound method of dealing with this problem it has generally ceased to be a problem but I remember the sheer frustration of riding a horse that was very spooky. Erik is the only trainer I know who deals with it clearly and successfully. As he says "Bring me any maniac and I will have him trotting around like any old plod within a couple of days"

So how does he do it?

Walking on the buckle consistently and calmly is the perfect antidote for horses that get nervous or excited but you need to know how to do it well. This is a whole other subject and not one than easily translates into words. One needs to practice steering and aiding on the buckle on a calm horse before dealing with a nervous or excited horse and in any case, a nervous and/or inexperienced rider on a nervous/excited horse is a recipe for disaster! Above anything else the rider needs to be completely calm and confident to help this type of horse.

One also needs to learn the "Fire Drill". The "Fire Drill" is a quick and safe way to pick up the reins in one smooth movement without panicking so that you can gain control quickly and calmly. You take the end of the reins in one hand while the other hand (with the whip) is placed around both reins close to the withers. You then draw the reins through your whip hand until the reins are short, then take up the reins in both hands and bring the horse to an immediate halt while saying "whoa" clearly and calmly. (This makes you breathe and gives the horse an additional cue to stop). As soon as the horse has stopped, go back to walk on the buckle. Repeat as necessary but DO NOT HOLD the horses in any way. This needs to be practised when there is no need for it so that when you do need it you react instinctively and easily rather than grabbing the reins in a panic.

There is a slight difference between

• a) a horse that is "not listening" and or distracted by something - another horse calling to him for example - and
• b) a horse that seems frightened and/or spooks at an object or won't go into a particular area within the school.

In the first instance you have to be a bigger distraction than whatever it is the horse hears or sees. The frequent turns and small circles are essential so that the horse focuses on the work, NOT on the rider. If the rider is engrossed in the work, rather than the horse, the horse will also start to focus on the work as it's small brain will not have space to think about anything else. In the latter case, the horse may be anxious about the actual work especially if he has been over pushed in the past, so it is important that the rider recognises the signs that perhaps the work is overly demanding and backs off or gives the horse a break. It may be that the horse has no confidence in his rider and feels that he has to be on constant alert to any dangers - he lacks sufficient leadership from his rider. However, in both cases the following guidelines will regain calm and establish confidence between rider and horse .

NB. The method below relates to work in an enclosed area as clearly it would be foolhardy to allow a horse to wander around on a loose rein when riding on a busy main road although the riders attitude (1 below) should be the same..

• It is vital that you pay absolutely no attention to the horse's antics or to whatever it is that spooks him. You see and hear nothing and remain physically, mentally and emotionally calm and detached.
• Learn the "Fire Drill" so that you can ride him "on the buckle", (ie a loose rein) confidently.
• Stay at a safe distance from whatever it is that is spooking him. Do NOT try to force the horse into the "spooky corner" or whatever it is. When he is calm and confident he will go there all by himself.
• Distract the horse by riding small circles and turns left and right on a long/loose rein - "on the buckle". Again, this needs to be done calmly and competently and has nothing to do with twirling the horse around ever decreasing circles. Use an active (gentle, persistent and insistent) inside rein if the horse continues to try to look at whatever it is that has distracted him. This is the only time you can use an active inside rein on its own and it should say "Look this way please, look this way". It absolutely does not say "Get your head down" although the end result when the horse has relaxed and regained its confidence will probably be that he will lowers his head. This is a by-product, not the aim.
• There must not be any hint of holding the horse , especially at the site of the "hidden tiger" as this will always result in more tension.
• The legs should remain passive until the horse has regained calm. An active leg when the horse is against the rider mentally and physically would probably have to be quite loud (rough?) to get the horse's attention and therefore would not be useful and would only add to the tension.
• If the shying is only very brief a gentle "check - soft" on both the reins may be all that is necessary to maintain calm and focus.
• Bending away from the object of "fear" is also useful in an emergency but it works best if done way ahead of time so that the hand can soften at the actual sight of the spook.
• No matter how badly the horse behaves it is vital that the rider has no thought of punishing the horse. Smacking him "to tell him he is being naughty" is simply counter productive and generally adds fuel to the flames. Getting off to thrash him is even worse! The horse instantly recognises the anger or fear behind your actions which is why a spooky horse will sometimes be very calm with a novice, non-reactionary, non demanding rider and yet produce all sorts of "bad behaviour" with an experienced but more demanding or aggressive rider.

One of my pupils told me a brilliant story which illustrates perfectly the way to deal with nervous horses - it may not be word for word so I hope she will forgive me for any inaccuracies. She went sailing with a friend who was an experienced yachtsman. While out at sea, a storm got up and she became absolutely terrified. Her friend seemed totally calm and told her it was nothing to worry about but that he was going to take her back to shore and safety. However, he then asked her to help him and talked her through a number of simple tasks to keep her busy. She soon became calm and forgot her fears and they got safely back to dry land.

There are a number of important points here.

• He didn't tell her that he was concerned about the conditions, quite the opposite in fact; he acted like he sailed in those conditions all the time and it was no big deal.
• However, he acknowledged her fear and acted on it even if he couldn't see anything to be afraid of himself. This is very important as it would not have worked if he had said "Yippee, let's see if we can make it to France!" which would have escalated her fears considerably.
• He distracted her from her fears by giving her something to do. He didn't give her some impossible task, just kept her quietly busy so that while she was following his directions she forgot about the fear.
• At no point did he show any signs of his own misgivings and yet he told her later that it was in fact a severe storm. This is another important point as it doesn't matter if the fear was real or imagined, he acted as if it was nothing.

"She" is like the nervous horse and "he" acted like the knowledgeable rider and the storm was the spooky corner - a tiger ready to pounce and no matter whether it is real or imagined. It is the same thing to a horse.

Horses that are nervous, aggressive or excitable need competent handling and this applies to work "on the ground" as well as in the saddle. In this respect, some "Natural Horsemanship" techniques may be the best starting point for the novice horse owner. However good ground work does not guarantee good ridden work and someone who is extremely competent on the ground may lack sufficient skills in the saddle and , of course, visa versa. Likewise, some horses can be angelic under saddle and evil in the stable. Either way, it is up to the rider to acquire the necessary skills to find a solution to the horse's difficulties. You should also recognise that the horse is a flight animal and even the most unflappable horse can still surprise one. If that frightens you, then stick to mechanical horses!

"The horse already knows how to be a horse; the task of horsemanship lies entirely with the rider"
Erik Herbermann

To Bend or Not to Bend, that is the question.

This theme seems to have cropped up quite often lately. First, when I went to see Tim Stockdale, then with Erik, then Bettina Drummond and then it has cropped up again in lessons. Generally, you need to keep the neck straight - calm forward and straight are the key words for any horse. It is perfectly correct to ask your horse to "look in" and adjust his neck (with the reins) so that he does not look out but it is absolutely wrong to have the horse bend from the base of the neck and fall out through the shoulders which generally indicates too much bend in the neck. If a horse is "difficult to control" a bit more bend helps as long as it is deliberate and temporary. Likewise, if a horse has problems stepping through its back, sometimes some small circles or a bit of leg yield with a bit more bend will help him. However true gymnastic bending comes from the hindquarters which is something else entirely. Asking actively with the rein when the horse is against that rein is mostly pretty futile - measure your wrist, then measure your horse's neck - No contest! In fact the problem is not so much the heavy rein but rather the lighter empty rein and if you can encourage the horse to reach into the empty rein, especially when it is on the inside, the horse will automatically become softer on the heavier/stiffer rein. Of course, it goes without saying that the cause of this uneven feel in the rein is in the hindquarters so ultimately, that is where the correction should lie. The rein which feels stiff/hard/unyielding corresponds to the horse's stronger, or as Erik prefers to call it, "preferred" hind leg. The soft side where the rein feels light, soft, empty, loose corresponds with the horse's weaker, (less preferred) hind leg. Therefore, one needs to encourage the horse to use that leg a bit more. When he does, both reins will start to feel more even. If your right hand is your the preferred hand, you would probably be quite clumsy and somewhat reluctant to use the other "less preferred" left hand. It would be useless to keep saying "Don't use your right hand" unless you were also encouraged to practice with your left hand. Thus with the horse - by giving him nothing to argue with on the "preferred" side and driving actively on the "less preferred" side while riding calmly, forward and straight on simple school figures, he will automatically start using both hind legs evenly. This may not happen instantly but if the rider is consistent, it will happen quicker than you might imagine.

Bending either way then becomes easy and you can start with the real gymnastics of encouraging the horse to bend in his hindquarters - the hip, stifle and hock.

So, how do I bend the horse?

I love asking this question as most riders start talking about the leg because they don't want to pull the inside rein. Very noble if slightly misguided. You may, should, must use the reins to initiate a bend. You could have a fantastic inside leg but if the horse is gawking to the outside, it will be virtually useless, so first ask your horse to look to the inside. Do this by having both reins; hold the inside while slightly giving on the outside until the horse turns his head then, both reins even again, neutralise. By easing the outside rein forward the horse will give up/lengthen the outside of his body whereas actively pulling on the inside rein will result in him shortening the inside of his body - not very useful. (You can do this with your own head and neck. Starting from a straight head position, first draw one ear down to your shoulder and feel the effect. Then, after straightening again, try lengthening the opposite ear up to the sky and feel the difference) Then the position of the rider's seat and legs will confirm the bend. If you can't do this in halt without the horse moving it's whole body you are going to have a hard time doing it in the other gaits and you will find that the horse falls in or out depending on where his head is. This is where a little leg yield comes in handy so that the horse not only softens to the inside rein but also softens to the inside leg. I often find that riders seem to be struggling with the bend but in fact they are pulling on the outside rein to try to steer the horse into the corners thus making the horse look out and fall in more. The remedy is "bend in, squash out". As you become more adept with aligning your horse and influencing him through the seat and legs, the hand becomes a minor player in bending and the horse's neck becomes relatively straight as he becomes more able to bend in his ribs and hind quarters.

So when should I bend the horse and when should I keep him straight?

Difficult question! First, if your horse is looking to the outside, (and you are not deliberately counter bending him) you should ask him to look in and this is a rudimentary form of bending. If this results in him falling out through his outside shoulder, (circles and turns tend to drift outwards), you are probably bending his neck too much and he is probably bending from the withers rather than in the middle of his neck. In this case, you should straighten the neck, bend in the opposite direction until he becomes straight and his shoulders become steerable - this may feel like you are actively counter bending him. If he starts to fall in and make his turns and circles smaller than you had planned, then you need to bend a little more to the inside, "bend in, squash out" feeling. The same applies if he is straight but you feel like he is motor-biking around the corners and leaning in - bend him a little more and move him off the inside leg. This is why leg yielding is an essential exercise for both horse and rider. The horse has very little bend but moves away from the inside leg and guiding/steering becomes a little less hit or miss. If he is neither falling in or out and he is reaching evenly into both reins you can bend him as much as you like or as much as you are able to without losing control (steering) of the shoulders and the hindquarters. If smaller circles and more bend results in the horse's quarters or shoulders deviating from the circle line, you have asked more than the horse is capable of at that time. Make the exercise a little easier until he is more supple - 10m rather than 6m circles, shoulder fore rather than shoulder in.

Will bending get his head down?

Well yes, it will which is why so many people use the reins actively to "get the horse on the bit". Any manipulation with the head and neck is usually at the expense of another part of his anatomy (see Helen Davies report). A pleasing head carriage is only a very small piece of the jigsaw so having the head down, even if the reins feel light and soft and it looks quite pretty, is useless if you haven't got the whole horse. It is like putting new wall paper on a wall that has a huge crack in it. Erik is the only trainer I know that refuses to allow the riders to fiddle, wiggle, pull, milk, take and give, tweak, massage, call it what you will, to get the horse's head down. Every other trainer I have been to or seen will insist that the horse is "on the bit" irrespective of what the rest of the horse is doing and taking no account of the skill or lack of it, of the rider.

Having your horse in a "round outline" is the aim of all serious riders but having the head down is no guarantee that you have achieved this. A round horse that is truly on the bit always feels great to sit on whereas a horse that has had his head fiddled, wiggled, pulled, milked, tweaked, massaged into submission doesn't, but they can look very similar. When I first trained in Austria with John Lassetter on his beautiful Lippizanners I questioned why his pupils rode them in draw reins. His answer was that it would take far too long to teach the riders to ride the horse correctly on the bit so it was better for the horse?s backs if they were ridden in draw reins which prevented them from coming above the bit. He is right, it takes a long time to learn how to ride a horse correctly on the bit and it is impossible if the rider has not yet established a correct position! If you can't fulfil this basic requirement of a correct posture, you will be relying on your horse?s good nature to go well in spite of you rather than because of you.

(Watching Sally Tottle teach Alexander Technique many years ago convinced me that there is more to sitting correctly than just looking pretty. The horses, as if by magic, all started to carry themselves and go in a round outline without the riders even picking up the reins.)

How to recognise when the horse is using his back correctly?

This is a question which often troubles me. Sometimes a horse looks quite good but I know that something is not quite right. As soon as I sit on it, it feels awful and I know that there is a fundamental problem. So when I look at some competition horses and I know that something is not quite right, how do I know? And why do the riders not know? Or if they do know, how can they not do anything about it? Don't the judges see it or is it just the difference between 80% and 100% and therefore seen as unattainable?. If there was an easy answer to these questions, the whole judging system would be turned on its head because while it is easy to see if a horse is above or behind the bit, hollowing his neck or going over bent, it is far more difficult to see what the back is doing or what the rider is (or isn't) feeling under the saddle. Most people are fooled into thinking that the back is correct when the head is correct but this is only true if the rider truly leaves the head alone and allows the horse to put his head where it naturally wants to be. (As I have said before, Erik is the only trainer I know who teaches this.) Generally the rider and/or trainer asks that the horse adopts a specific head carriage and then asks the hind end to "catch up" to the outline. Many riders/trainers are extremely clever at doing this and so it really is difficult to tell the difference. The action of the hind legs is quite a give away - out behind, crooked, over active hocks and little flexion in the hips - but again, a horse can look very active behind and appear to extend and shorten spectacularly well and yet be incorrect. One should be able to tell from looking at the back but it can appear to move quite substantially behind the saddle with lots of swing and yet still be either locked or disconnected under the saddle. The true, correct gaits of the horse is an excellent guide to good work but, as we have seen in our Observation Skills sessions, photos can be incredibly deceptive and what appears to be "correct gaits" when frozen in time are actually hurried and choppy when seen in motion. However, the fact remains that if one has had the good fortune (or skill) to have sat on a "good" back, one can feel the difference.

So what is a "good back to sit on"?

It should feel swinging and comfortable - some people say "loose" - but more than that, it should "carry" the rider. What does that mean? - it means that the whole horse is pulsing energetically forward under the riders seat so that the rider feels "buoyed up" by the horse. It feels a little like when the horse is fresh and feels like it might buck but without that nervous or excited tension. At the same time it feels like you can just sit really easily and quietly and all the aids go through your whole body. And yet there is elastic, energetic movement under your seat.

The great thing about lessons with Erik is when he rides your horse and brings it to that point so that when you get back on you have this amazing feeling in the horse which you can't explain but which you will never forget. Unfortunately, once felt it is a like a drug and you want more and you will no longer accept the cheap imitations offered by others. Even worse, you have to strive to perfect many small details in your riding over many years before you can reproduce that feeling on your own. As Erik says:

"Does practice make perfect? NO! Good practice brings us closer to perfection"

Here are some other "pointers" which I have found helpful in recognising a "good back"

1. If the horse was trotting on concrete, would he still look soft and elastic or would you worry about the damage to his joints?
2. Does the muscle in front of the wither seem to be full and pulsing?
3. Do the muscles of the horse appear to be working evenly?
4. Is the head and neck arched with the poll the highest point and the nose on or in front of the vertical?
5. Does it look like the rider is sitting easily and vertically or are they "water skiing" or pinched off their seat or very wobbly?
6. If the reins broke would the horse run away, fall on its nose or would the rider fall backwards?
7. Does the rider have a secure but light contact with the horse's mouth and does it look like it is 50:50 between horse and rider?
8. Do the diagonal pairs of legs in trot look parallel?
9. Is the extension of the foreleg, the toe, in line with the horse's nose?
10. Does it look like the withers are carried up or do they look dropped, especially at the base of the withers?
11. Do the paces look "uphill" or is it just a high neck?
12. Does the rider have to keep lifting the hands to keep the horse "up"?

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