Something else you want to do is encourage relaxation, so as you're doing these things, your horse will get excited
you need to always go back and tell the horse it's okay.
Go back to flipping the rope over, so this is desensitizing,
Now another thing you will want to do is get the horse flexible.
I'm going to pull on this rope very gently
and I want her to give her head to me.
and she did, so I'm going to tell her she did a good job. I will pull again,
and I will just keep expecting a little bit more, until she puts slack into this.
Now she's not exactly sure what I'm going to do, so I will just hold this
until she puts slack in the rope.
This is all part of getting the horse to yield to pressure.
She hasn't quite done it yet, so I'm just going to hold, and when you start working with this,
you need to not worry so much about the time, now she moved the back end,
because that's what she thought she was supposed to do.
now she's softened on this side.
Remember, what you do on one side you need to do on the other side too.
Horses have two sides, and you've got to train each side.
If you work with just one side, you may get one side soft and quiet,
flexible, and pliable, but the other side will not work.
So once we get them where they will move their head, we just want to continue working on that
until you get to a point where you just pull the lead rope very gently with your fingertips,
and the head will come around.
The next thing we want to work on is getting the shoulders to move.
And basically we want to create motion, that will encourage the horse to move.
If it doesn't move, then whatever motion we are creating will run into them.
So we will do this,
and then when she stops, the motion will quit.
If our advance is too strong, we will scare the horse and they will quit thinking.
So we want to start off slowly....she moved her head, now she moved her feet,
so that was good. So we want her to understand that we're not going to be brutal about it,
but that we're giving her a chance to move, and if she moves,
then whatever motion, whatever stimulus we are applying is going to quit.
And then after awhile, just the slightest motion will cause them to move their feet out of the way.
So once we get the shoulder and the front end of the horse moving,
out of our space, then we begin to have a way to move this horse with us, away from us, and towards us.
We want the horse to come to us, so we put a little pressure on the lead rope,
and we invite the horse to come to us, and when it does, we don't continue to pull.
If we continue to pull the horse doesn't get release. So it's all about giving that horse
a release, and you want to get subtle with this, I'm pulling with just a little pressure,
she moves her foot, and I give her release.
So they learn that they can do certain things, do the right things, and get release from pressure,
this rope is just putting very slight pressure just behind her poll.
so we've got the front end where it will move away from us, and we've got the horse where it will lead towards us,
the next thing we need to do is get some control of the rear end.
and most clinicians refer to that as 'disengaging the hindquarters'.
They cannot run away from you, they cannot buck, that pretty much puts them in neutral,
if you disengage the hindquarter. In order for us to disengage the hindquarter, we will want the leg
that's closest to us, to move in front of the outside leg.
and basically we do this just like we did to the front,
by implying that we're going to tap, and when the horse takes the first step, we quit.
Now we're going to ask for a little more,
and the horse is backing up, so I'm going to try to get it to go forward, there
there, there, there. So we continue working on this, again on both sides of the horse,
so that we can get the front flexible, the head and shoulders moving side to side,
the back end moving away from us. The next thing we want to do that's very important is
to get the horse to go in a circle around us. We want to do something, most people refer to it as 'lunging',
what we actually want to do is teach the horse to follow our direction.
So if we can give direction, even though it's just with our hand, we want that horse to follow that direction.
If it doesn't, we will not go and spank the back.
because the back end will simply revolve around because we've already taught that to the horse.
We will sling the rope towards the shoulder of the horse, and once the horse moves forward,
we will stop swinging. So I'm asking the horse to go out in that direction,
and I can exaggerate this move with my hand being open, and say "go out there."
The horse doesn't go, so I encourage with this, and its perfectly fine for them to just walk,
you want to encourage relaxation, you might have to hold your hand up for awhile,
so that you are actually leading the horse in a circle.
You want to do this at a walk, and then at a trot, and eventually at a lope.
When you are ready to quit, you will pull the rope a little bit towards you, as you lean.
Horses read body posture. They are masters at understanding what we want just by the posture of our bodies.
If I want to go that way, I will ask, if she comes too close I will just tap her with the rope,
and I'm just letting her go around.
I will ask again, I didn't ask her to stop, so I will ask her to go again.
Now I will ask her to stop by focusing my attention on the hindquarters.
After they learn this, they will get very good when you lean, and focus your energy, your vision
on the hindquarter, they will move that hindquarter out of the way because they know that means that they can stop.