Personal Equestrian Goals.

Do you ever set goals to reach with your horse(s)?  If you answered yes, then great for you and your horse.  If you answered no, then why haven't you?  Goals are an important part of any aspect of your life.  Even if they are small goals, like trot around the arena one time without breaking gait; or larger goals like, train my horse to accept a rider.  Just like in any other aspect of life, you need to set both long-term and short-term goals.

For someone who has been riding for more years than they care to count, setting goals will help remind them why they loved working with horses to begin with.  For a beginner, setting goals helps them see where they are in relationship to where they want to be.  For example; you set a long term goal of training your horse to run barrels at next year's annual rodeo.  This makes you look at the fact that you're currently watching barrel racing at this year's annual rodeo, and while your horse is trained to ride, he/she is still a long way from being finished.  So, you know where you are and where you want to be a year from now; and from there you can set some short-term goals to help you achieve your long-term goal. It could also make you realize that you don't know the first thing about barrel racing, and that your time would be better spend with an instructor or knowledgeable friend that does know something about barrel racing.  Funny how things can work themselves out with a little goal setting.

New hand or old hand, set goals for you and your horse to reach together.  You will be glad you did when you accomplish them.

Good luck, happy trails, stay safe, and God bless you and yours.

Until next time,
Lisa

The Balance Between Desensitizing and Sensitizing.

I have heard the phrase, "people who practice 'Natural Horsemanship' have lifeless or dead horses because of all of the desensitizing" too many times to count.  This results from an unbalanced ratio of desensitizing to sensitizing.  It comes from someone who wants a "fearless" horse, and figures that the more objects that they can get the horse used to the better.  So, this person spends countless hours desensitizing the horse to whatever they can dream of, but next to no time sensitizing the horse to ques.  The result is a horse that shows no physical reaction to anything, including what it is supposed to.  Sounds like a fun horse to ride, right?  I personally don't think so, but if that is your cup of tea then get after it.

The purpose of desensitizing a horse is not to teach them to react to nothing.  It is to teach them to look to you for the appropriate response.  It's to show them, that if you stay relaxed and calm; so should they.  That is why when you start the process in ground work, you are supposed to keep your body language neutral and relaxed.

The purpose of sensitizing is to get them to respond to light pressure, like a change in your seat position, versus a heavy direct rein because that is what it takes to stop the horse on its best day..

The biggest issue with using desensitizing/sensitizing in training horses is finding the proper balance between the two.  Wouldn't the world be perfect if it was 50-50 on every horse that you ever worked with?  (I hope you can see the sarcasm dripping from that question.)  Every horse, just like every human, is different and requires different ways of training.  If you start with a horse that is laid back and quite frankly lazy, you will want to focus more on the sensitizing.  Doing this will get the horse where it responds to your ques to move off your leg, or to simply move faster.  If you were to start with a horse that is very reactive to everything, you would want to focus more on the desensitizing.  This would help calm the horse down and probably slow it down.  If you worked this horse on a 50-50 ratio, you would quickly turn it into a complete and total idiot that spooks at everything and bolts when you ask it to move off your leg.  Whereas, if you done a 50-50 ratio with the laid back, lazy horse, it might not move at all for you, or it might have the energy and response of a fence post.

Neither desensitizing nor sensitizing is a complete training program by itself.  They have to be used together and in balance for each particular horse for them to develop the proper results.  This is what most people miss, and just to the desensitizing exercises.  Find the balance for your horse, and you will end up with a horse that ignores what you want it to, but still responds lightly and quickly to your ques.

Good luck, happy trails, stay safe, and God bless you and yours.

Until next time,
Lisa

Rider Balance.

If you, for one moment don't think that your balance does not greatly effect your horse's ability to perform, let me lay out a scenerio that will likely clear it right up for you.

Let's say that you are a 130 pound woman, in good shape.  Find two kids, one that is roughly 20% of your body weight, so about 26 pounds; and the other about 30% of your body weight, so about 39 pounds.  Please use either your kids or a friend's kids for this, I don't want you going to jail and saying that I told you to do it. Lol!  Just playing with ya some.  Now, with you standing upright, like you normally would put the first kid on your back, and have him/her stay as balanced as they can and hand on as best they can.  Walk around with them like that for a little while to see how it feels.  Once you get the feel for that, start having the kid lean left or right, forward or backwards.  Compare the two feelings mentally.  Now, get down on your hands and knees and give them a horsey ride.  Again, once with them balanced and again with them leaning in every direction.  Notice how differently you have to move to stay underneath them when they are leaning.  Now, repeat his entire process with the heavier kid.

By the time you finish this exercise with both kids, you will more clearly see how your balance or lack thereof effects you horse's performance of even the simplest tasks.  The weights that I used as examples are common percentages that we regularly expect our horses to cart around on a daily basis, so it really isn't unrealistic to use those same figures.

Ok, so you have some balance issues that are effecting your horse's performance.  Where do you start to correct it?  Well, first things first.  Check out yesterday's entry titles "Importance of Saddle Fit for Horse and Rider."  Make sure that your saddle is not hindering your effort at a balanced ride.  For the sake of this post we're going to say that the saddle fits the horse and you properly, and move right along.

Ok, the saddle fits you and the horse, what's next?  Let's do some exercises that will help evaluate your balance.  Take a 4" x 4" x 8', and place it on the ground.  Can you walk from one end to the other without falling off or rushing through because you lost your balance?  If the answer is no, then you need to work on your balance on the ground before worrying too much about your balance when mounted.

How do you work on your balance to improve it?  You have quite a few options and they can be a simple or a complicated as you wish to make them.  On the simple side, you can work on increasing the time that you can stand on one foot without losing your balance.  Start on level ground and work up to using a balance board or ball.  On the more complicated end, hire a personal trainer, and work with him/her to improve and balance out your over-all strength.  Also go to some yoga classes to help you remain flexible and also aide in increasing your balance.  Now, most of us will fall somewhere between those two extremes, and some of us will do nothing at all to improve out balance.

So, let's say that you fall somewhere between the two extremes.  You have access to a gym, either at home or a membership, but you don't really have access to a personal trainer, or you really just can't afford to use one.  That's alright, in today's world the internet can provide you with plenty of information to get you started.  Sites like www.bodybuilding.com offer free memberships, and offer thousands of articles written by personal trainers to get you started.  The thing that you have to keep in mind, is that your core strength is what helps keep you balanced.  I mean your abs, right?  Wrong!  I mean the entire trunk of your body, abs, chest, upper back, lower back, and obliques, trained in symmetry to create a strong base from with your arms, legs, and head extent from.  If your core is symmetrically strong, it will increase your over all balance, both in and out of the saddle.  The key is for opposing muscle groups to be equally strong, because they pull on each other, to stabilize the body.

Many exercises work more than one area of the body at the same time.  So, instead of just aimlessly going from station to station at the gym, write out a clear and precise plan for the day that includes; which part of the body you will target, which exercises, how many sets, how many reps per set, and the weight used for each exercise, even if it is just your own body weight.  Make a plan and stick to it.  Your balance will not improve over night, but it will improve, but it is something that will have to be continually worked on.  Which is only fair, we expect our horses to get into shape for riding, so should we.

Improving your balance will not only improve your riding ability, it will increase your horse's athletic performance as well, because he/she will no longer have to compensate for your imbalance.  Over time, as you and the horse get accustomed to your new found balance, your confidence will increase and so will your horse's.

Good luck, happy trails, stay safe, and God bless you and yours.

Until next time,
Lisa