[QUOTE=BatCoach;8509575]
For those of you have have sensitive horses, what is the best ways that you have found to maintain the focus on you?
Whenever I take my OTTB into new arena he gets tense and easily distracted. I’m a calm rider and my typical way of dealing with this is letting him walk on a comfortable rein until he settles into his rhythm, which normally works but if there are lots of horses/bikes/tractors etc on the periphery he gets more keyed up. It can get to the point where I know I am not trusting him(defensive riding) which obviously makes him more tense.
I ride him 5 x a week, and he is a sweetheart on the ground, he lunges well and is great in environments he is comfortable with so I know that I can hold his attention and communicate with him, its just that sometimes he gets into survival ‘lizard brain’ and I’d like to know what you guys do to prevent this.
I’ve tried putting him in lateral work, voltes and give him a variety of things to do, but there have been times when all this activity makes him fussy and resistant.
I want to show him down the road, so I need to know that I can trust him in uncertain situations when I can’t control what is happening outside the show ring. Drugging is NOT an option, nor is lunging him until he is too tired to think.[/QUOTE]
I have a very spooky and insecure horse. I think there is alot of good advice here, but I would not recommend sitting on your horse unless your attention was 100% on your horse.
Last year, I took Sir SpooksAlot to several local “open” shows. The beauty of these shows is that a) they’re chaotic and if you can handle them, you can handle any recognized show b) you can enter and scratch at will c) people - including competitors and show managers - are extremely accommodating if your horse is having difficulty d) none of this goes on your horse’s record and e) it doesn’t cost alot to attend. We also did a couple of dressage schooling shows and a couple of two-day shows.
The key for the one day shows is always getting there EARLY and walking your horse around, let him graze around the arena, let him see everything, and generally get at ease before the atmosphere picks up. Often, you can walk in the arena before the competition, and I like to practice (on the ground) jogging off with my horse, doing several trot, walk, halt, walk, back-up, trot off transitions on the ground. This gets him thinking that he has to listen to me but there’s no pressure because I’m on the ground. I also stand up in the judges stand so he knows people stand up in there.
I also teach turn on the forehand and turn on the haunches (not second-and up level, but swing forehand around haunches) at home. I don’t think this ruins the true turn on the haunches later on because the two are ridden very differently. Also sidepass. When my horse is truly acting up from nerves, I take him to a walk and put him into a pattern of these exercises. There’s no big forward momentum yet he’ll fall on his face if he’s not paying attention because they all activate the crossing of legs and reach with the crossing. And since he knows them so well from home, it’s easier for him to focus on a “square pattern” or something similar or whatever at a show. SURE, he’ll get fussy if he doesn’t feel like he wants to pay attention but too bad. He has to pay attention because he’s going to do these simple exercises until he does them. They’re low impact - he can do them all day. Then I’ll trot off, halt, side pass, trot off, etc. That’s REALLY hard to do unless he’s listening. Once he starts listening more, I lay off the difficulty. He knows leg yield and that’s an easy exercise he can do to maintain his focus. Especially if we go left for several steps, straighten, go right. I make doing the right thing=easier ride and doing the wrong thing=harder ride. Over the course of last year, this strategy worked really well and he became easier and easier to focus at shows. I even managed a kid riding a big wheel in proximity of the arena - my crowning achievement.
I think our best class was a class where he was absolutely losing it (there was highly unusual activity going on outside of the arena) and I knew I was going to lose anyway. So I “threw” it and rode it exactly how I needed to: lots of shoulder-in and haunches in (still trot - even though the movements weren’t called for), and I put in circles in the canter (maintained canter even though circles weren’t called for). I leg-yielded in the walk (not called for). The most important thing wasn’t aiming for a win, but teaching my horse that I WILL ride him in an arena, and when he relaxes and listens, things get easier for him. I obviously didn’t win but the judge commended me for giving my horse the ride he needed given what was going on. i wasn’t riding for that day, I was riding for the future.
So to recap, I think if you can find some low-impact movements that are really difficult for a horse to do if attempting to run away with you and make your horse solid at home with these exercises, they become the familiar “training touchstones” when you are at a show and your horse is having difficulty focusing. I find that hot horses really need routine.
Oh, the other thing I’ve done is do obstacles at home. I’m lucky to have my horse at a place with several obstacles. this sort of work really taught my horse to say “I have no freakin’ idea what this is, but it must be something you think I can figure out and it won’t kill me, and so I’ll trust you”. I did things like put fake flowers and pinwheels in the dressage letters at home, all sorts of things to create distraction that he had to learn to handle.
I need to have in advance a set of go to small space doable excersizes such as tiny figure 8’s or mini serpentines because my horse tends to act up more along limited space dirt paths between arena and barn (though occasionally in arena as well)