{"id":1173,"date":"2018-10-19T19:56:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-20T02:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/?p=1629"},"modified":"2019-02-21T13:07:45","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T20:07:45","slug":"introducing-horses-to-obstacles-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/19\/introducing-horses-to-obstacles-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Horses to Obstacles &#8211; Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;d like to\u00a0introduce five of our <i>Strategies for Success<\/i> that we follow when we start working with horses on obstacles or anything new and unknown.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>We build it in the groundwork, then ride it in the saddle.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>We never force a horse to go on, over or though something they&#8217;re scared of. We <em>do<\/em> go forward when the horse is in release and following our focus.<\/li>\n<li>Find ground zero.\u00a0 This is the position, proximity to an obstacle, or a maneuver that we <em>know<\/em> the horse can achieve.\u00a0 We can always start successfully from our ground zero point.<\/li>\n<li>We define success as, \u201c<em>anytime the horse tries for us,<\/em>\u201d and reward and encourage our horse when he tries.<\/li>\n<li>We allow the horse the time he needs to investigate the obstacle before we continue to ask him forward.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Strategy #1: We build it on the ground, then ride it in the saddle.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Showing your horse something new by starting with groundwork offers many advantages in training and is an essential part of our horsemanship style.\u00a0\u00a0Here&#8217;s some background:<\/p>\n<p><b>Pressures are cumulative.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-1640 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/acrobats-1934552_640-300x251.jpg\" alt=\"cirque du soliel\" width=\"300\" height=\"251\" \/>Stress in our life adds up. For an example, let&#8217;s assign a value from 0 to 10, to each stress you have on a particularly crappy day: You&#8217;re a gymnast and have\u00a0an audition for Cirque du Soleil first thing Tuesday morning. Here&#8217;s\u00a0the scenario:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You sleep in because you forgot to set your alarm. Your stress level rises\u00a0when you realize you&#8217;ll be late.\u00a0<strong>2\/10<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>You try to put together a quick nutritious breakfast but knock the bowl on the floor and spill it all over. No breakfast for you. <strong>1\/10<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>You get a text from your mother saying a family member is in the hospital. <strong>3\/10<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Your impeccable timing results in you hitting every red light. <strong>2\/10<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So you&#8217;re already at an 8\/10\u00a0before you even start the audition.<\/p>\n<p>Consider these questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What if your ability to handle pressure caps at a 7\/10?<\/li>\n<li>What will your reaction be when another pressure enters the scenario, such as someone cutting you off in traffic?<\/li>\n<li>In your present state, how capable are you to perform an athletic manoeuvre that requires an intensity of thought and focus?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We know that short-term stress can have a major impact on our ability to think critically, make decisions and perform basic tasks. In some cases, we might even make irrational decisions. In some cases we <i>snap<\/i> or <i>lose<\/i> it. Our ability to perform decreases measurably.<\/p>\n<p>This is a reason people train and rehearse prior to an event or performance. Knowing that we&#8217;re subject to stress when we&#8217;re required to perform, we intentionally train to a higher standard so that when pressure affects us, we can still pull off a successful outcome. Another thing we can do when we train something new is to eliminate pressures so that we can focus on individual pieces.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Yo<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1561 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/horsemeter-300x136.jpg\" alt=\"handling pressure\" width=\"300\" height=\"136\" \/>ur awareness that horses are also subject to cumulative stress is the key point here.\u00a0 You might say that, as a prey animal, their lives revolve around varying degrees of pressure.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In order to support our horses, we can start by doing the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Teaching them how to deal with pressure.<\/li>\n<li>Initially exposing them to only one pressure at a time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let&#8217;s connect the dots with a practical example:<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve done some groundwork having our horse walk across a platform (a pressure). It is going okay and our horse manages to walk over it.\u00a0 We decide to try it in the riding. We find the riding is not as good as the groundwork; the horse refuses to even put a foot on it. Have you ever had a horse struggle with walking through something, only to find he&#8217;ll follow you through it easily if you get off and lead?<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1642\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1642\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1642\" src=\"http:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/DSC_0826_crop-300x185.jpg\" alt=\"obstacle course\" width=\"300\" height=\"185\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1642\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scary Water Box<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One reason is that, in the riding, the horse is subject to a higher degree of stress. Continuing with our example, let&#8217;s say that the horse can handle a 5\/10 in pressure. The platform is a 3\/10, so he can accomplish it when we&#8217;re on the ground. However, having a rider on his back is a 3\/10 also.\u00a0 Now you&#8217;re at a 6\/10 &#8211; more than he can handle. A\u00a0horse whose pressure level has been exceeded will likely resort to their instinctual behaviors: freeze, flee or fight.\u00a0 And we&#8217;ve all seen that happen. The good news is that we can train them to another option: <a href=\"http:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/teaching-our-horses-to-handle-pressure\/\">release and focus on us.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>You might be wondering, &#8220;<em>Why is having a rider on his back a pressure?&#8221;<\/em> There are a few reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Your mass is a pressure that can cause brace and\u00a0affect balance.<\/li>\n<li>Your horse now has a predator over his head that can cause him stress via hands, legs and complex emotions.<\/li>\n<li>The horse is now going first (see <em>What about Leading<\/em>, below).<\/li>\n<li>The horse has had previous negative experiences with riders or trainers and now expects a bad day when someone mounts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The strategy here is to find the place the horse can succeed by <i>eliminating<\/i>\u00a0or <em>reducing<\/em> pressures.\u00a0 This is our <em>ground zero point<\/em> and we&#8217;ll chat about that in article #3 of this series.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #104e8b; color: #fff; padding: 10px;\">\n<p><strong>What about Leading?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Although\u00a0leading first &#8211; in this case intentionally walking <em>ahead<\/em> of the horse to show the horse that if <i>you<\/i> can walk though it, he can too \u2013 can be helpful when you really need it, it can be\u00a0unproductive for long term training.\u00a0 Horses are born followers and can <i>naturally<\/i> follow another horse (or you) across something. It is, however, an entirely different perspective for them when they&#8217;re the one in front. And when you&#8217;re on a horse, they <i>are<\/i> in front, physically. Their head and feet will get there <i>before<\/i> yours.\u00a0 So what&#8217;s the solution?\u00a0 Here&#8217;s two suggestions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Teaching the horse to handle a higher pressure; and<\/li>\n<li>Increase your\u00a0effectiveness\u00a0in leading from behind. Can you <em>send<\/em> your horse across an obstacle?\u00a0 If so, it&#8217;s more likely he can pull it off with you in the saddle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Your observational vantage point. <\/b><\/p>\n<p>When you&#8217;re on the horse&#8217;s back you are not able to observe his entire body. When working with particular exercises, such as establishing balance \u2013 it&#8217;s beneficial to see the whole horse from the ground. You can observe his shoulder, poll, back, hind end and footfall pattern easily. This\u00a0teaches us how to communicate to the horse because we can instantly see how our actions affect\u00a0changes in all parts of his body.<\/p>\n<p>We can work with all of our aids on the ground as effectively as we can in the saddle. Showing a horse to move off your leg or releasing to the rein can be replicated very\u00a0successfully\u00a0on the ground. A side-pass is a great example; it generally only takes minutes to have a horse in a relaxed elemental side-pass in the groundwork.\u00a0 The reason?\u00a0 A horse was born being able to side-pass; it&#8217;s humans that need to learn how the horse balances and uses his body, so that we can ask it of him (VS force him to move sideways).\u00a0 And once <i>we<\/i>\u00a0understand the components and learn the feel in the groundwork, it&#8217;s easier for us to transition to the saddle.<\/p>\n<p><b>Eye to eye contact. <\/b><\/p>\n<p>In the groundwork, we can solve many leadership issues (for example, fear) by having the horse focus on us.<\/p>\n<p>The retina is considered to form from the same tissues as the brain. You can think of it as part of the brain. It&#8217;s connected through a dedicated cable of nerve fibers: the optic nerve. The visual information we receive through the eye overwhelms our other senses.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #104e8b; color: #fff; padding: 10px;\">\n<p><strong>Where do you look when you&#8217;re going for a walk? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have observed that <i>most<\/i> people, when walking or leading their horses, look at the ground. My theory is that we do this subconsciously to eliminate as much visual information as we can so we can <i>think about something else <\/i>or<i> <\/i>concentrate on something particular. If you look up and forward, your brain is forced to process what you see and where you are going in the forefront of your consciousness. Therefore, if your horse is looking at you, then he <i>is<\/i> thinking about you. This strategy can be important when introducing a horse to a new pressure: we desire that when under pressure, the horse looks to us for guidance. If he looks away when we apply pressure, his body will soon follow and he&#8217;ll leave. We can train the opposite.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1641\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1641\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1641\" src=\"http:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Scott-Phillips-PH-Clinic-july-185_edit-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"eye contact\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1641\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eye to Eye with Zeus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There is much said about <i>getting the horse&#8217;s eye<\/i>. Let me explain how this applies to our style of horsemanship. When people are scared, we&#8217;re taught to look them in the eye. By doing so, we can communicate sincerity, confidence, pride and comfort. As a communication tool, it&#8217;s huge. When someone looks you in the eye, it also indicates that they&#8217;re paying attention to you.<\/p>\n<p>Tying this into horse training works like this: when you have established a leadership role, the horse will follow you <em>empathically<\/em>. This means that if you are scared the horse will follow you in that. If you are confident, the horse will follow you in that. But if they&#8217;re looking <em>away<\/em> all the time, this indicates they are not following you and are either considering which way to leave OR following another pressure which outweighs you. To assist, we can be in a position where the horse can look us in the eye. In this way the horse can follow our focus, energy and confidence.\u00a0 For a horse that is very scared, we use particular focus exercises to cause\u00a0him to believe that the safest and most peaceful option is simply to\u00a0focus on us. It&#8217;s a guaranteed game-changer.<\/p>\n<p><b>Safety<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The saddle is not the place to discover what causes your horse to flee in panic or buck. Ending up in the hospital means there will be days or weeks where you can&#8217;t ride and that will suck. Let&#8217;s look at colt starting. I need to be confident that the colt can handle a level of pressure <i>higher<\/i> than having me on his back &#8211; before I get on his back. Doesn&#8217;t that make complete sense? And the ground is a perfect place to develop that. Let&#8217;s say we inadvertently create more pressure in the groundwork than the horse can handle\u00a0and\u00a0he bucks or runs away.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t worry about it.\u00a0 Stay calm (your horse needs that) and make a mental note of what that pressure was and start smaller next time. Then work him back up to that level, and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>A horse will learn how to handle pressure in part by how <i>we<\/i> handle pressure, just like your kids will learn how to react to stress by watching what you do when situations take a turn for the worse.\u00a0 We desire that, as a leader, the horse is a mirror of us. If we want the horse to release and relax to a pressure, then <em>we have to do the same<\/em>. When we get in the saddle, however, not only do we create a pressure for the horse, we create one for ourselves. If you&#8217;re not certain of what the horse will do, then you <i>are<\/i> experiencing anxiety and you <i>will<\/i> transfer that to the horse. Why not gain confidence in the task on the ground, first?<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Groundwork isn&#8217;t only for the horse, it&#8217;s for you.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><b>Tools and Toys<\/b><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1643\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1643\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1643\" src=\"http:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/DSC_0001_edit-300x216.jpg\" alt=\"obstacle course\" width=\"300\" height=\"216\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1643\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Starting with Groundwork<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We can use a variety of tools and toys from sticks to pool noodles to ball guns to tarps to squeeky toys. In short, we can use whatever we can think of to stimulate the horse&#8217;s senses, his body or the space around it. In this way we can isolate specific spots that the horse needs help with. We can clearly teach the horse that the answer to pressure is always <i>release to tension and follow me<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Because we can access the horse&#8217;s entire body from positions on the ground, it&#8217;s an ideal place to perform these exercises.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #104e8b; color: #fff; padding: 10px;\">This is different than bomb-proofing or desensitizing. Those are methods that generally teach the horse to not move when pressure is applied. Just like us, horses can only ignore a certain amount of pressure \u2013 just because they&#8217;re trained not to move doesn&#8217;t mean they can handle the pressure.\u00a0 Nor does it mean they can handle <em>increased<\/em> amounts of pressure. One of the horse&#8217;s instinctual behaviours is freezing under pressure, so these methods can play into the horses genetic behaviour instead of teaching him anything. Instead, our style is to show a horse <em>how to handle pressure<\/em> \u2013 anywhere and anytime. Once that understanding is in place we can increase the pressures because the horse understands how to handle them.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f67d5b; color: #fff; padding: 15px 10px; font-size: 1.2em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1634\" src=\"http:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/bulb-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"75\" height=\"75\" \/>Do you see the connection to the obstacle course here?\u00a0 An obstacle is simply a pressure.\u00a0 If the horse knows the answer to pressure is to release tension and follow your focus you&#8217;ve nailed all the scary things on\u00a0every obstacle course.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The benefit of groundwork in introducing obstacles and teaching horses how to handle\u00a0pressure is that we can observe the horse&#8217;s response and manage the result in an environment where we can control the pressures. When first introducing the horse &#8211; and our clients &#8211; to pressure management, being on the ground is a requirement because of how we ask the horse to release tension in his neck and poll. In addition, we can learn to work with our tools in a very positive and beneficial way prior to doing it in the riding.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s it for part 1!<\/p>\n<p>Make sure that you have your<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazinghorsecountry.com\/\"> free account on our website<\/a>, then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazinghorsecountry.com\/Video\/VidLibrary?id=9\">click here<\/a> to watch the video.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #d1d1e0; color: #fff; padding: 10px; height: 215px; text-align: center;\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazinghorsecountry.com\/Video\/VideoCategories\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1645 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Capture-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"watch our videos\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazinghorsecountry.com\/Video\/VideoCategories\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">You can watch all our videos here!<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We build it on the ground, then ride it in the saddle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/articles.amazinghorsecountry.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}