I have a 5 year old mare who is extremely sensitive and a big, powerful mover. She is finally accepting the leg and not shooting away from it, but she is so sensitive that any shift in weight or direction causes her to lose her balance a little. That makes her speed up, ad she overpowers herself , which leads to more loss of balance, and so on. She responds to the smallest of half halts ( literally, just contracting my abdominals), but i need some exercises to help her learn to balance her big gaits, stay connected ( when she speeds up she tends to raise her head and lose the connection) and be able to tolerate shifts in weight and direction without losing her balance and speeding up.
suggestions ?
It sounds like strength on her part.
Ingrid Klimke said she lunges only her young horses every second day. It allows them to find their own rhythm and tempo.
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It seems that you have a faboulous horse. I tend to favor the hot sensitive horses.
BUT…that places great responsibility on the rider to understand the horse and not shut down the animal.
I would suggest that you need to work on yourself. You need to understand what YOU are doing and learn to measure your aids so that you don’t overwhelm this horse.
If you approach it correctly, this horse can provide you the PhD in horsemanship.
Remember Alois Podhajski said…“My horses, my teachers.”
Pluvinal - ah yes, i am working on this . She is the most sensitive horse i have ever bred and i am taking my time with her. And yes, i am to blame, but i am all she has, so we have to learn to accept each other and become a partnership. I have never ridden a horse that i could just use my stomach muscles to half halt! No timetable, but i want to do my best by her and to make it easer for her .
Then don’t work on “exercises.” Work on understanding your horse. Work on understanding how the horse reacts to YOU.
Spend time reflecting…er., meditating…to develop awareness. Ride around quietly, with no purpose other than to develop perception about you and your horse and how you are communicating.
You do “this”…the horse reacts like “that.” Try to understand that.
Lets say you ask for a trot transition…the horse runs off. Ask yourself did you ask too strongly? Did you over react to the horse’s response? Try to ask for a transition with a smaller aid. What happens? You say you can halt from the seat…this is great.
Ask yourself how do you communicate your intentions to your horse. Try to do less, not more.
These are the horses that “can read minds.” It is a gift you have. The responsibility is totally on YOU to understand what YOU are doing that the horse is responding to.
The horse is not offering stuff out of thin air. The horse is responding to something it thinks you are asking for.
Ask me how I know. BTDT.
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I agree with @pluvinel Spot on.
A horse like this has strong potential to be a fantastic dressage horse. You want sensitivity, you don’t want to have to muscle around a 1000+ pound animal, or have any dullness.
My PRE taught me so much about this. I learned so much from him as a young green horse (I got him just started under saddle). I still learn from him 3 years later. He has taught me to be very aware of my body (both in the saddle and on the ground) and how to use it correctly. The sensitivity is amazing. I’ve become a better and more mindful rider.
If just a slight shift in your hips or just a slight touch of calf pressure is enough, do no more. If the trot is too quick, think about it. Did you ask with too much leg? Is your body/post truly dictating the speed?
98% of the time when my horse is doing something odd, it is because of something in my body that I am or am not doing. You really have to look at and reflect on yourself. Yes, young/green horses do need to learn balance, but you may realize that the horse has more balance than you do and the horse is actually catching your off balance moves. I have no idea if this is the case here, but something to consider.
I appreciate these sensitive types and how much of a joy it is to work with them.
I’ve watched a few others ride my sensitive horse and a lot of the time, it’s not so nice. They are yelling at him when he only requires a whisper. Instead of fluid soft correct work, they get tension, stiffness, and an odd forced movement. There is a finess to it. It’s like if you, a person of normal hearing, are sitting in a small enclosed room and someone comes in to have a conversation and begins shouting. Yeah, its communication, but it’s too much! Only enough volume to be heard clearly is necessary.
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I love the advice Pluvinel gave you.
A horse like this is a gift that will teach you to ride with correct and soft aids.
This kind of horse will let you know when you are incorrect, and will let you know when you are right.
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And it will make a huge difference to the horse.
Hubby came in and complained that Sim was overacting to the canter aid.
I asked why he was continuing (and personally wondered how long he would have continued to) give that canter aid if Sim didn’t need it. Change the aid. Lift the inside seat bone. Do as little as possible.
The result was amazing. The whole horse seemed to sigh and relax. The canter improved ten fold.
I told my instructor this anecdote but not the last sentence. My instructor turned to me and said he had never seen Sim canter like that, not even with me on him.
I just said I told you he had relaxed.
I am a fan of the uber sensitive horse and my Trakehner mare is one of those. She feels the slightest switch of my arse if I shift or reposition. She has made me a better rider and I really love the light touch it takes with her. BUT - that said, the young horses need to learn to accept the aids such as your legs being on. If you put some leg on her or him and they scoot forward, I think you just have to support and half halt to keep them at the pace or cadence you want and not take the leg away or you are allowing them to teach you. He or she must learn to accept the aids, so I believe you should leave it on and keep it light, but the horse must accept the aid as well. JMHO - good luck - what is your horse’s pedigree?
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I will politely disagree with some of this advice.
Of course the horse needs to accept the aids. But once a horse “understands”…I like this better than the word “accepts”.
Then I follow the French advice “Descente des mains, Descente des jambes”…eg., cessation of the aids once the horse has answered the rider’s request.
If you put the leg on and the horse scoots forward…GOOD!!! …it has complied with your request…or what the horse thinks is your request.
The “cure” is to develop better understanding from the horse, or to develop better finesse in asking from the rider, or both…and NOT apply more hands.
I am a firm believer in the training approach of “Hands without legs, Legs without hands”…and the additional training advice that a horse should be “self propelled” and stay in the gait the rider requests until it gets gets another request.
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Pluvinel, we are in agreement pretty much. But, keeping the horse between a light leg and hand is what maintains contact, balance and frame. Of course the pressure to ask for more forward should be lessened as a reward, but that does not mean completely take away the leg - it should remain passive but still “on” the horse IMO.
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I agree if the horse is panicked about the leg being on then the horse is trained to go with leg on or without. If the horse will only go with leg on they are taught to go with leg off.
We have said nothing about the horse being “panicked.” The horse needs to understand the leg… horses have not read the riding instruction manual, so the horse needs education about what use of the leg means. it is up to the rider to provide that education.
And @TKR, maybe words get in the way, but I actually DO mean cessation of the aids…eg., take the leg off…until you ask the horse for something else.
We don’t give the horse enough credit. The animal feels a fly…so the horse will feel the “pressure of the leg” as we sit on his back.
We are sitting on him and our leg is on his sides…I guarantee the horse feels the pressure of the leg. As a matter of fact if a rider is carrying unconscious tension in the hips, a sensitive horse will feel that.
The cessation of the aids, (descent de mains, descent de jambes) means exactly that…the hands (mains) and legs (jambes) cease to act.
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The problem is when the rider thinks they do not have the leg on.
This happened with my Mum. Vinnie told me she had her leg on by getting to close to the logs on the arena and almost walking on them. I said take leg off to be told that she did not have the leg on. Mum had been riding under instructions for 50 years, so I am not talking about a beginner.
After several attempts and being told the leg was not on. I had to say I know you don’t think you have your right leg on. I want you to lift your right leg up and take it right off her. Low and behold Vinnie went straight. Vinnie was actually too wide for Mum’s hips and it was probably the first red flag that Mum would later need a replacement hip later in life.
My horses go forward with my core muscles and legs mean go sideways. Yes leg also means forward if I ask for it, but I can ask with seat alone. I have never worn spurs. I can’t. I have too short Achilles tendons and can’t put my heels down. SIGH.
All horses can feel a fly on their sides. All horses do not need a stronger aid than that, they just need to understand what you mean. The problem is that the horse learns much faster than the rider and the rider does not realise they are not being consistent with their aides.
Being consistent with correct timing is really what horse training is all about.
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TKR - she is by Everdale out of a Bugatti/TB mare.
