Connecting Ground Work and Riding Horses

One of the challenges in offering instruction is to communicate clearly with students AND horses. As I overhear, read or watch many “horse training” sessions/clinics I find that there’s a general lack of “connection” in the student’s ability to understand how the “here and now,” especially in how the quality of their ground work relates to their future ride.

Often new students are able to “talk the lingo,” sounding like they’ve seen a lot, and attempt to go through the steps or concepts they've been taught, but are still experiencing problems with their horse.

After watching other riders or professionals, too many students want to imitate “how it’s supposed to look,” or a specific exercise, task, etc. with no concept as to what the point is of what they are asking their horse to do.

Unfortunately this diminishes the student's focus on being “present” when they are working with their own horse in the “here and now,” because they are fixating on the task accomplishment versus the quality of the conversation with their horse.

I find it as easy for human students to get just as distracted or “lost” as their equine partners often do. People tend to be unclear as to how they are asking for a movement, then they wait and see what the horse is offering physically until the horse quits moving.

This is reactive riding and only offers the horse after-the-fact critique. Instead folks need to learn to stay mentally present starting on the ground and continuing throughout the ride.

When the horse is lost mentally and then searching physically, he needs to be receiving feedback from the handler/rider so that he can discover what the rider is asking of him. This means each thing he offers, needs to be addressed by the human, otherwise he is left unclear and will come up with his own agenda.

I no longer am surprised when a student has an “Aha” moment from some casual comment I make, when it seems as though they had already been “getting it” throughout the session. My seemingly offhand comment can sometimes be the catalyst that triggers a domino effect in the student’s brain that finally connects the “links” from what they’d first addressed on the ground to what they are now currently using as tools to communicate when they ride. As a teacher these are always highlight moments!

It’s also a reminder to me how clear I must be not only in presenting information to the student but also to confirm from the student in their own words the concept they now understood and how it relates to themselves and their horse.

I continually attempt to explore “better" ways to explain my theories and concepts from my own hands-on training with horses and during my sessions working with people. Each year I tend to start to hear myself say certain “catch phrases.” This summer that “theme” is the following:

"In the discussion with your horse, offer a pro-active positive alternative rather than a critical reactive critique."

I try to explain the how, why, when, etc. to students so that they learn how frequent the conversation changes, how continually the ride needs to be assessed and how to offer effective "tools" in what they communicate with their horse.

This empowers students to be able to think through scenarios, make decisions and influence the ideal outcome during their rides when I'm not present or teaching. This type of interaction builds confidence in both the horse and rider and is the foundation to a quality and successful partnership.

My teaching theories are based on this basic concept:
By creating a mentally available horse, I can influence his thoughts and emotions, which contribute to creating reasonable physical movement.

I believe that just like horses people learn in different manners. Even if I’m saying the words and explaining/interpreting what the student is seeing or feeling from the horse, if the student’s brain is “overloaded” or perhaps “ahead” of where they physically are at, distracted, or are unclear, (yes they share this affliction just as many horses do,) they will not be able to really HEAR what I’m saying.

So even if I think I’m being clear, I have to remember that just because I offered the information, does not mean it was received by the human student as I had intended it to.

This is EXACTLY what happens when many folks attempt to communicate with their horse and the animal does not seem to be understanding. The instinct for people is to continue asking in the same manner, rather than to search for another way to present what they want! The challenge for the human is to learn the balance of how to persist communicating with the horse until he understands, but without making the horse defensive while doing so.

A person learning to have the mental discipline to stay present creates a continual line of two-way open communication with the horse, which to a herd animal is all the support they need.

Do you feel unclear about some aspects with your horse? Find out how I can HELP you! Click HERE