Improving Horse Transitions

 Horse Transitions- Mental and Physical

Most horses I meet fall into two categories:

*Fearful or defensive (tight, rigid, lethargic movement) when moving forward

Or

*Hyperreactive and overreacting with fast, fleeing movement when moving forward

Here are some of what I look to address in re-educating or starting with the inexperienced horse.

I work with the untacked horse first, I am watching for the disconnect in his brain and body, defensiveness towards human pressure, imbalance in his movement, and dramatic upward or downward transitions. This tells me what I need to address before adding tack.

I'll work the horse on a lead increasing and decreasing my spatial distance, being able to direct his focus and energy. I watch for triggers if I move in a certain manner or towards various body parts. All the while the lead rope acts as my communication support to help him think and slowly in segments work through any troubling areas.

Later, I work on the quality of tacking up while the horse is not tied. I'm looking for potential mental triggers from previous experiences of saddling that may lead to fussy, chaotic behavior.

My goal is to help the horse learn to let go of fears, tension, etc., during the tacking up as it directly influences his movement if he retains defensiveness.

At some point, I'll add in working with the horse loose while tacked to notice if there is a change in his mental and physical state. I'd address those concerns by breaking things down into smaller segments with supportive, specific Conversations, allowing him lots of opportunities to pause, process, and release tension.

By the time I'm riding it often is like colt-starting, irrelevant of the age of the horse. Being able to first direct the horse's thoughts, allows him to understand what will be asked, and he can prepare to move his body accordingly.

Then I add energy indicating I'm asking for his movement focusing on adaptable, soft changes transitions within a gait focusing on the horse learning to balance and carry himself... before asking for changes between gaits.

I use the analogy that transitions should not feel like you're popping the clutch. There should feel like a slight increase or decrease within one gait before asking for the next gait. Otherwise, there is often a lurching or jumping into a faster gait, or a "falling into" a slower gait.

So many people randomly ask transitions in an unclear, chaotic manner often creating a "surprise" cue, and unintentionally teaching the horse to respond in unwanted defensive behaviors.

Then the rider feels like they have to "contain" the horse's chaos, and a vicious cycle of the horse experiencing anticipation, defensiveness, flee, and fear starts to be associated with speed.