I remember the first time I watched a John Lyons video. He said the important things to remember about horses were . . .Well, I can't remember all of them, but I remember this one: lazy. He said horses are by nature, lazy. Owning a very energetic forward breed, I am not sure I always agree with that, however, I was reminded recently that sometimes it is good to stop as the reward.
When I was at Julie Fisher's place, her husband Craig was riding in the arena. He was riding a really pretty grey mare who was trained as a cutting horse (if I remember correctly). Craig was helping a young woman who had just purchased a horse from them and after her lesson he rode is mare a little (and had probably done some riding before, I just came in at the end). He rode up to Julie and said 'I'm getting off her, she did a good job'. What is funny is that this is only the 2nd time I have met Craig and he said the same thing the last time about the horse he was riding.
Craig has helped me remember that it is important to STOP and reward your horse. If you have achieved something good in 5 minutes, stop. If you accomplish something great, stop. I have a tendency to ask 1 more time. One more time often leads to two more times and so on. . .so then I find myself with tired and overworked mount who I struggle with during the next ride. This morning I rode Santana and when I got a good down transition, I stopped.
6 comments:
That's a great reminder....thanks for the tip!
Stopping is soooo important - as you said. It is our nature as humans to drill, drill, drill...
One thing I do is to stop that lesson and then go do something fun for the horse - like ride out on the trail - go for a walk to a nice green grassy spot - give a back rub - go visit the horses across the street... Then I might go back and do a different lesson. So stopping doesn't have to be stop riding or being together - just stopping that particular drill.
What a good point annette. Since I ride mostly in the arena, I forget all the other fun things that you can do for your horse besides go round and round in a circle! :)
GREAT POST! Next to consistency I believe knowing when to stop is THE secret to getting great results from your horse. I agree with Annette, you don't necessarily have to stop riding and put them away. Horses don't just get lazy, they get bored too... Just because we are dead set on getting that perfect circle, transition, whatever doesn't mean that is going to translate to the horse through repetition to the point of exhaustion.
I see so many people make that mistake. Frustrated and going nowhere except eventually backwards.
I guess I'm fortunate, I started off in a barn that stopped when the horse did something right. It's always been a part of my horse vocabulary.
I had to laugh at your opening comments about John Lyons and horses being lazy while your riding a very energetic forward moving horse. I remember the same thing from my first encounter with John Lyons and I, too, have pretty energetic forward moving horses. Kinda funny, but I learned a lot from John too.
Excellent advice. These days it's easy for me to not want to stop, as a huge step forward is something as simple as allowing a horse to eat grain out of my hand. Too tempting to take it another step and touch them!
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