Training Tips

March Training Tip

"The meaning of your cue is the response that you get!"

Have you ever been in a conversation where you said a few well-intended words to a friend or acquaintance, only to have that person take those words the wrong way? Think about it. We as humans have developed a language so sophisticated that it is comprised of thousands of words and, we also have scholars to help us craft our communication skills, yet we still manage to miss-communicate on more than just an occasional basis.

In person-to-person communication, most of us communicate on a "message sent, message received basis". To be sure that the intention of the message that you sent was what the other person received, it's wise to observe the response that you get from that person. The reason for this is simple; the meaning of your communication is the response that you get. What you intended to say to the other person is irrelevant; it's how the other person interpreted it that counts. This phenomenon is just as true when you are training horses. If you are cuing your horse to move away from some type of pressure, and you are not getting the response that you want, closely examine the response that you are getting. Your horse will be showing or demonstrating to you exactly what your cue means to him.

As an example, some time ago I was working with an amateur rider who was being told by her instructor to sit down on her horse's back every time she wanted to stop him. This is great advice if the rider has already pushed his horse to the bridle with leg and asked him to step under himself to prepare for the weight shift of a downward transition. If, however, this hasn't happened, by repeatedly sitting in the middle of the horses back and ignoring moving with the center of gravity of the horse, any horse, including this one, may try to raise his head to escape the bridle.

This is exactly what happened. Every time the woman sat down on her horse, the horse would raise its head out of the bridle. I asked her why she was so obvious about sitting in the manner that she did. Her answer was, "I am telling my horse to stop". I asked her if she had ever noticed that every time she sat back that her horse raised its head. She said "No, I have been to busy telling him to stop!" By not connecting that sitting down on a horse's back is in fact, a cue, and, by not noticing what was happening every time she administered the "cue", this woman very patiently "taught" her horse to raise it's head every time she sat down. As you can imagine, this technique was not working very well towards achieving her outcome of showing in Western Pleasure.           

What you think you are telling your horse is meaningless; it's what your horse is doing about what you are telling him that is important. And... If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. If what you are doing is not working, do something else.

A more recent example occurred during a big show that I just attended. I was working with a client who was having a problem with a Country Pleasure horse. The problem was that the horse was becoming stiff and non-responsive off of the bridle. This was an accomplished horse that this trainer had recently purchased for a client, and this was an important show. I got on the horse to evaluate him and to get a feel for what might help. The horse was locked up and very stiff on the left side of his mouth and body. This didn't make much sense to me as the trainer is very accomplished, and routinely develops soft, responsive mouths on his horses. I knew that the horse had to engage his hind end a little more if he was to be able to support himself in the bridle, and, as the trainer had been doing, I was using some "ball ended" spurs. The horse was not unusually tense about the spurs. After some cantering and some trot work, by making the horse "bend", or yield a shoulder every time I used the bridle, we had made some progress. I put my client back on to see how he felt about the improvement. We both agreed that we were still missing something as the horse would canter well, but was still tight in his trot. I made a bit change to a slightly milder bit because he had his jaw slightly clamped in a way that reminded me of some horses when they are nervous about too much bit. I stepped back on, this time without spurs (unintentionally). This time, after several minutes of schooling in the same manner, the horse was noticeably softer. It hit me right then that we had been using spurs to tell the horse "Get up under yourself", and he had calmly but stiffly been trying. Instead of the spurs telling him "It's time to lift your ribs and go forward now", (which is what we thought we were saying) we were actually telling him that it was time to get tense. He was going forward without lifting his ribs (which occurs only if he lifts his back, which helps him use his hind leg). From this point forward, it took only about 5 minutes more work for the horse to really start trying for us.

For more information, I asked my client a few questions to help him back track and review the history of how he arrived at this predicament. (We both learn from this very important step) When he arrived at the show the horse was a little non-responsive so he started to use the spurs. (Which he normally did not need) The horse then started to respond better to his legs, but was slightly heavy (more responsive but in a stiff manner) so he added more bit. From that point on in the show, the horse kept his frame, but became increasingly more difficult to balance at the trot because of more rigidity (tension) on the left side. What my client and I both failed to notice was how this horse "showed his tension".

This horse was so passively acceptant that the fact that he was tense was hardly noticeable. He was placid but stiff. It reinforced to me my own principle that the meaning of your cue really is the response that you get. In summary, to make the best use of this principle, you must believe that your horse will tell you what he needs to move forward from an impasse. You just have to listen, watch, and notice what your cues actually mean to him!

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