Horse Exercises

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Okay, let’s see… Hip-Shoulder-Shoulder: (you should try and use one rein as much as possible, using the other as little as is possible) 1) pick up the left rein, (at a walk and later you can do this at a trot) 2) hold that left rein (at whatever position or amount of pressure you find through trial and error to be right) and 3) watch the horse’s left shoulder 4) when the horse’s left shoulder stops moving (and it’s rear end is STILL moving) that tells you that it’s “disengaging” it’s rear (remember, disengaging is a fancy way of saying that the front stops and the back moves around like the hands of a clock) 5) at that moment, give the horse back a little bit of slack as a reward and signal that it did the first step right – but keep enough pressure to let the horse know that something else is still expected 6) now switch your thoughts to “back up” (which will put you unconsciously in a body position that tells the horse the same thing) and 7) bring that same left rein into a position that tells the horse to back up (ideally this will be you pulling the chin (the horse’s) toward its left breast) You’ll find later that when the horse backs up the best, he will naturally carry his head in this area) 8) when the horse steps back, release and IMMEDIATELY move forward, be careful to move out right away (no hesitation) and to not move out sluggishly – that will erase any benefit you would have otherwise gained 9) pet, repeat on the opposite side the other exercise doesn’t have a name, perhaps we’ll call it the “Petra-Nater”: (use both reins equally) 1) walk forward, pick up both reins equally, drop your legs against the horse (apply pressure as is necessary, see below), bring the reins toward you a bit and drive the horse into the bit with your legs (in other words, “collect him”), applying pressure till the horse puts himself into a collected frame and is not pulling on your hands 2) give the horse back a little rein (to say it got the first part right, that’s ‘over’) and ask the horse to back (be careful to keep the horse in the same correct frame DURING the transition (very important)) 3) when the horse backs for a step or two “in frame” and relaxes, give back a little rein again and 4) immediately move out and forward BEING CAREFUL to make sure that the horse stays in frame DURING the transition and for a step or two. remember, you should not let go till the horse relaxes and gives to the bit (you’ll feel it in your hands). With the PetraNator exercise, if the horse freezes and won’t back, then immediately (but be all-business about it) pull back one rein (it doesn’t matter which) and “disengage” a hip. when the horse disengages KEEP MOST BUT NOT ALL pressure on the rein (that is, give some back) to let it know that it did something right but that more is expected, begin pulling equally with both hands again to get it to back. so remember this: when you ask the horse to back and it balks, one rein or the other has to ALWAYS have some amount of pressure applied (through you asking to back, through the balk, through the disengagement and through the final back up. You can give some rein back and still apply pressure. Remember: 1) from now on, don’t pick up the rein without first laying legs against the horse (and applying whatever minimal pressure as is warranted by your horse’s present state of mind), then drive the horse (with the legs) into the bit and “collection” 2) and, before you let your horse out of this “frame,” you’ve gotta ask for some sort of change from the horse (in leg speed or direction) - that is, you can’t simply pick up the reins and put your horse into “position” and then let go Keith