Teaching the fundamental response of moving away from pressure is key to accomplishing good training and a good relationship with your horse. Whether it is leading your horse, the main focus of this article, loading your horse into a trailer, or general handling of your horse, these are power tips you won’t want to miss! The principles apply to work under saddle as well.
Horse Training Power Tip: Responding to Pressure Is Vital for Great Training
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jennifer_L_Dayton]Jennifer L Dayton
A horse’s response to pressure is a key component to training him. Think about what you ask him to do: follow you into a stall, an arena, a wash rack, a horse trailer. To move away from your leg in lateral movements – leg yield, shoulder-in, haunches-in, opening a gate while mounted; to stop and to turn on the halter… all are common examples of response to pressure.
When your horse was a newborn foal, he kept very close to his mother. He did this for warmth, comfort and protection. As he grew, he wandered further from his dam, but would quickly return when he was startled or alarmed by an activity or sound. These instinctual behaviors never left when your horse was weaned. The instinct is to move INTO pressure; feeling safer closer to someone, and if there is not an alternative, that someone can be you. This is not a safe thing for you, however, and this idea is merely one example of the guiding principle that horses need to learn to move away from pressure.
Good ground work and halter training teaches the youngster to respond to pressure. To further develop this, the pressure should be from different stimuli: the halter and the handler. Consistency is so important for any horse, but particularly the young horse that is much easier to leave an impression on as their interactions and experiences are limited.
Focusing on the response of the halter pressure, there are three components to the halter that should result in three responses. Think about the parts of the halter. The horse should respect the pressure applied to the noseband, the headstall, and the cheek pieces of the halter. This is the most simplistic way to explain it, and many experienced handlers do this intuitively. For many others though, the handler simply hasn’t thought of it, and continues to endure poor behavior from their horse, not knowing what to do. In some cases, it becomes apparent that the horse behaves one way with one person, and another way with another person. The horse senses the confidence and knowledge of the person handling them, and the only way to improve the situation is to become aware of the problem, and consistently work on it.
So what does this idea look like? Applying the pressure should evoke an immediate result, in a soft way. Many times, the softness comes after some strong applications of pressure, especially when the horse has been confused by inconsistency. To make it plain and simple, if you put pressure on the headstall – the part that goes behind the horses’ ears, then the horse should move forward. If you put pressure on the noseband, the horse should yield or stop. If you put pressure on the sides of the halter, the horse should turn his head. The horse, with consistency, will often respond to the body language you have when you apply the aids, and you can improve the sensitivity of this after the foundation is laid. For example, if you start to jog alongside your horse, he should immediately begin to trot. If you stop, your horse should stop. Proper leading should involve turning your horse away from you when turning around, to minimize the risk of getting your feet stepped on, and lifting your hand to initiate the turn is fairly easy for the horse to understand.
When your horse is responsive to these pressures, the idea of loading into a trailer or a wash rack is also simplified. Most often, the difficulties in asking your horse to come into an enclosed space when it is resistant to go, is a resistance of the pressure applied to the headstall of the halter. The most vital mistake people make with this is not softening to the horses’ response. The horse must get a release when they respond, to reinforce the behavior. Difficulty in loading will come from a horse starting to yield to the pressure that is initially applied, but when getting no release for having yielded, they learn to back against it even stronger, or fly back. Never forget the importance of release.
Success with this, under saddle or on the ground, will come with the well-timed release. The importance of reading body language – knowing when the horse is saying no, when it is genuinely frightened, or when it doesn’t understand is also key. For more information on these points, see the articles on body language, trailering, and response to pressure under saddle.
Our horses love to please and to be led by a fair and consistent leader. You are on the right track by reading more about training ideas and techniques, and should be commended for that. For more details, please see the book “7 Secrets of Horsemanship” available November 2012 as an e-Book on Amazon.
Ebook: 7 Secrets of Horsemanship
This book takes you through 6 more ideas of training, in greater depth and with everyday examples. An imperative read for those wishing to foster a loving and respectful bond of trust between horse and human.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Horse-Training-Power-Tip:-Responding-to-Pressure-Is-Vital-for-Great-Training&id=7352184] Horse Training Power Tip: Responding to Pressure Is Vital for Great Training
