How to fix anticipation in a horse....

[One_Two_Three]

Me and my OTTB have been together almost 2 years now. He’s been retired the same length of time. He’s smart. Too smart.
He’s really coming into his job and LOVES what we do.

But the issue is: When I ride, I take up a light contact while active, trot, canter, movements, etc. When we’re taking a walk break, I let the rein out and hold the buckle. A release, a praise for being good, a break. When I pick him back up, he starts dancing sideways, sticking his head out and sideways (like a good green racehorse would of course)… We haven’t even gone from walk to trot (or sometimes to Canter. He seems to do it most once we’ve had a trot session and he thinks we’re going to canter next.) It appears that he’s just anticipating, trying to figure out what we’re doing next based off of what we’ve done in the past.

To counteract this and try to correct it, I’ve done everything from changing what we were going to do, walking over poles, changing directions, etc, backing up, halting… just anything other than what he thinks we’re doing or what I thought we were going to do…

But he still gets antsy. It seems to come and go once we’ve had a full workout, but we’ve got his first show coming up Thanksgiving weekend, and I’d like to be able to give him a loose rein during the walk without having him get all funky when I pick him back up for whatever the judge asks for next.

Am I doing something wrong? OR does someone have another idea of what I can do to keep him guessing instead of assuming and starting to get goofy about it before I’ve even asked?

I know it’s because as I restarted him, we had quite the monotonous pattern of walk, trot, canter, walk, and then work on other things whether they’re trot or canter or walk related. He knows the pattern. I’m trying to break the pattern so he doesn’t anticipate any longer. Maybe I haven’t been redirecting his mind enough yet? I’ve been working on this for several months now but he still does the sideways jog and throws his head weird whenever I take him back up and he knows we’re about to work at a faster pace again.

Before you ask, no it’s not the saddle, it’s not his health, everything is 100% perfect on that front. This is strictly a behavioral weird anticipation thing. He’s incredibly smart and absorbs things almost immediately. He expects that we’re going to do something faster than a walk when I pick him back up, so he gets excited and starts wanting to do it…how can I fix that other than what I’ve been doing? Do I need to not release him and hold the reins at the same length regardless of whether we’re taking a walk break or actively working? I just hate to not give him that release.

[thehorsedream]

Have you tried working with that rein contact while walking? It didn’t seem like it from your summary. I know that I have issues with my horse getting excited and hollowed in his back when we go back to work sometimes. I’ve been working more on contact and being connected through his back at the walk recently and we seem to be having many more days of not getting overly excited going from loose rein to contact now.

[BrownMareDon_tCare]

Oh those OTTBs that are too smart for their own good!

I do the same thing as you with the long rein walk break routine and my mare reacted the same way to picking the reins back up. The only thing I have found that works is to pick up the reins when it doesn’t mean we are going to resume work. Walk long rein, pick up reins and continue at the walk, go back to long reins and repeat ad nauseum. You just have to ride through those first jiggy walks when you pick up the reins. My mare is very responsive to soothing voice commands, so when she starts anticipating, a long, low “waaaaaalk” or “slooooow” is really helpful. When she walks, she gets the reins back. I then pick them up again and the cycle repeats. Until hopefully, one day, it doesn’t.

It took a while for them to learn the jigging routine, so it will likely take a while to unlearn it. Lots of deep breaths and patience will be required. Good luck!

[Showbizz]

How are your down transitions? Canter to trot, trot to walk, canter to walk? My guess would be there is tension in those as well. Working canter to trot and trot to walk, remember to focus on PUSHING your horse into the down transition, rather than PULLING him. Once those transitions are solid, use the same training to PUSH him forward into your hand when you pick up your reins. It’s a process. Good luck!

[SweetMutt]

I’ve been through the same thing with mine. Here’s my solution:

Work at the walk with contact. When you first pick up the reins and he starts to jig, quietly ask for some lateral work (even just some leg yields or bend left, then right, and so on) until he engages his hind and softens. When he stops jigging, just walk on with contact. Really work on having a good back to front connection at the walk - he still has to listen and you still have to ride, even just walking. (Not saying you aren’t riding, but lots of people go to the walk and go into “hang out” mode.) I especially like to do this at the end of a ride, where we walk on for 5-10 minutes and then I get off, so we don’t get used to there always being more speed coming.

I also really like walk-trot-walk or trot-walk-trot transitions. Keeps them light in front, keeps the walk engaged, keeps the brakes fresh, and lets them see that you don’t always go trot around for laps and laps when you pick up a new gait.

[One_Two_Three]

Wonderful! You guys have all added some very useful things to help me battle this nicely.

His downward transitions are GREAT–when we’re doing the up down up down transition pattern. If we just go off cantering, he hollows immediately upon pressure when he knows I’m asking to slow down. So that does show a hole in our transitions. I will get to work on focusing on the downwards now more since he’s become so responsive to upward transitions. (it used to be a battle to get him to move forward…I know, strange for an OTTB, kind of). Upward transitions (of course) are beautiful. I love to brag about his flawless walk to canter transitions that we worked so hard on last year. Time to start the downwards now.

I think as a few of you have said, I do need to work on the connection at the walk. It IS so easy to go into “hangout” mode, especially when we’re both enjoying catching our breath. I believe this will be my starting point with him, building up the connection at the walk. And eventually, hopefully, be able to implement the difference between a rewarded stretch out walk and “we’re still in business” walk.

He really loves transition work. I loved teaching him his cues for each gait and seeing his responsiveness as we progressed. I suppose I may have slacked on the downwards. We look like a mule with a sack pack up top when we slow. Whoops!

[longtimelurker]

[QUOTE=SweetMutt;8938529]
I’ve been through the same thing with mine. Here’s my solution:

Work at the walk with contact. When you first pick up the reins and he starts to jig, quietly ask for some lateral work (even just some leg yields or bend left, then right, and so on) until he engages his hind and softens. When he stops jigging, just walk on with contact. Really work on having a good back to front connection at the walk - he still has to listen and you still have to ride, even just walking. (Not saying you aren’t riding, but lots of people go to the walk and go into “hang out” mode.) I especially like to do this at the end of a ride, where we walk on for 5-10 minutes and then I get off, so we don’t get used to there always being more speed coming.

I also really like walk-trot-walk or trot-walk-trot transitions. Keeps them light in front, keeps the walk engaged, keeps the brakes fresh, and lets them see that you don’t always go trot around for laps and laps when you pick up a new gait.[/QUOTE]

I was coming to this post to suggest this as well. I ride one like this, and when I am ready to take contact at the walk (but am not ready for an upward transition) I put him in a very slight shoulder fore. Not anything dramatic (or anything that will stand out in a flat class) – just enough to keep his brain and body engaged.

[IPEsq]

It’s just the flip side of the lazy horse problem where walk is assumed to equal nap time. Sometimes, you’ve got to make them really work at the walk. Whether it’s at the start of the ride or in between trot or canter sets or even part of your cool down. Another thing you can do is to do just some walk rides. Like, get on and walk for 45 mins and have him work, give him breaks, work again, do your lateral work and serpentines and halts and backs and walk over poles, but don’t go above a walk. Make it a workout, with a good amount of time on contact.

[greysfordays]

[QUOTE=IPEsq;8938824]
It’s just the flip side of the lazy horse problem where walk is assumed to equal nap time. Sometimes, you’ve got to make them really work at the walk. Whether it’s at the start of the ride or in between trot or canter sets or even part of your cool down. Another thing you can do is to do just some walk rides. Like, get on and walk for 45 mins and have him work, give him breaks, work again, do your lateral work and serpentines and halts and backs and walk over poles, but don’t go above a walk. Make it a workout, with a good amount of time on contact.[/QUOTE]

I love the concept of a working walk.

I would also just caution too much drilling. These horses are such overachievers that sometimes it’s good to have a ride where the focus is on rhythm and not transition transition transition, so that he doesn’t go into the ring every time getting into hyperwork mode!

[VelvetsAB]

While a nice long rein and walk break are nice, I find a lot of riders forget to do work at the walk.

Even when warming up, at a walk, take up the contact and do leg yields, shoulder in, haunches in, spiral circles. Then do it all again at a trot, and then back at a walk.

It’s a bad habit to always throw away the reins as soon as you are down to the walk. Just as it’s a bad habit to let a horse root the reins away.

[Showbizz]

As many have said, it is easy sometimes to forget to actually school the walk.

That said, I find it’s also the HARDEST gait to school WELL. If I have a hole in the walk, I revisit that hole in the other gaits. If they are non-existent, sometimes I have to get creative to find ways to solidify the walk. It truly is my most difficult gait.

[NeedsAdvil]

Totally agree with the walk-trot-walk and trot-walk-trot. Another exercise that seemed to help my know it all OTTB was to walk as fast as I could get him to go without breaking into a trot. Trot as slow as you can without breaking to a walk. I would also often leave the ring for a few minutes and walk around and come back in and walk more before resuming “work”. It will take patience on your part and a LOT more walking than you are probably used to! :lol: Like when you think he’s ready and relaxed, walk for 2-3 more minutes!

I found that I was actually a big part of the problem. Not only was my horse anticipating, but I was too. And then I started to anticipate him anticipating. So maybe get really comfortable with longer walking breaks where you change the amount of contact every couple of minutes. Another thing that helped was learning how to do a dressage style free walk, where they are still working but get to stretch and cool down a bit while still being on the aids. Then when you pick the contact back up, it’s not this drastic “back to work now!” change.

[CERT]

I have a milder version of this with some of my lesson horses. Student mounts, picks up reins, horse starts walking off and I offer the gentle reminder of “did you ask for that?” I also tried one mare who believed contact=canter and dropping the contact=walk. A matter of habituation and what we allow and make comfortable.

You have some good suggestions here already.

Picking up and lengthening the reins in the walk until it isn’t a deal is a good place to start. Have him realize that jigging isn’t the answer when you pick up the contact. Just stay quietly “there” until he relaxes, let him have his neck, pick up again, rinse and repeat. Eventually he will realize that his release comes faster when he calmly picks up the contact rather than tossing his head and skittering sideways. He’s just looking for the quickest route to comfort and sometimes horses will go through a lot of “discomfort” if they think that will give them their release.

Do you always work in the other gaits on contact? I like to be able to work in all three gaits on a loose rein as well as on contact. He should be able to carry himself without you having to “hold” him together.

Transitions between gaits are great, but don’t forget your transitions within gaits too. More walk, less walk, lengthen trot, shorten/collect trot, etc.

Good luck working through this training bump. Good on you for trying to address it fully and not just looking for bandaids.

[M_O_Connor]

[QUOTE=One Two Three;8938350]
Me and my OTTB have been together almost 2 years now. He’s been retired the same length of time. He’s smart. Too smart.
He’s really coming into his job and LOVES what we do.

But the issue is: When I ride, I take up a light contact while active, trot, canter, movements, etc. When we’re taking a walk break, I let the rein out and hold the buckle. A release, a praise for being good, a break. When I pick him back up, he starts dancing sideways, sticking his head out and sideways (like a good green racehorse would of course)… We haven’t even gone from walk to trot (or sometimes to Canter. He seems to do it most once we’ve had a trot session and he thinks we’re going to canter next.) It appears that he’s just anticipating, trying to figure out what we’re doing next based off of what we’ve done in the past.

To counteract this and try to correct it, I’ve done everything from changing what we were going to do, walking over poles, changing directions, etc, backing up, halting… just anything other than what he thinks we’re doing or what I thought we were going to do…

But he still gets antsy. It seems to come and go once we’ve had a full workout, but we’ve got his first show coming up Thanksgiving weekend, and I’d like to be able to give him a loose rein during the walk without having him get all funky when I pick him back up for whatever the judge asks for next.

Am I doing something wrong? OR does someone have another idea of what I can do to keep him guessing instead of assuming and starting to get goofy about it before I’ve even asked?

I know it’s because as I restarted him, we had quite the monotonous pattern of walk, trot, canter, walk, and then work on other things whether they’re trot or canter or walk related. He knows the pattern. I’m trying to break the pattern so he doesn’t anticipate any longer. Maybe I haven’t been redirecting his mind enough yet? I’ve been working on this for several months now but he still does the sideways jog and throws his head weird whenever I take him back up and he knows we’re about to work at a faster pace again.

Before you ask, no it’s not the saddle, it’s not his health, everything is 100% perfect on that front. This is strictly a behavioral weird anticipation thing. He’s incredibly smart and absorbs things almost immediately. He expects that we’re going to do something faster than a walk when I pick him back up, so he gets excited and starts wanting to do it…how can I fix that other than what I’ve been doing? Do I need to not release him and hold the reins at the same length regardless of whether we’re taking a walk break or actively working? I just hate to not give him that release.[/QUOTE]

What you are describing is super common. But the good news is that it’s VERY easy to fix in just a few rides (with a refresher every now and then).

Horses learn through repetition, and they get very good at anticipating what comes next.

Riders often fail to notice that the aid they THINK is the one they are using has been ‘overwritten’ as far as the horse is concerned by a prior aid that always precedes the main ‘signal.’

The horse is responding to the earlier aid, not the one that comes next. A rider might even unwittingly make this problem worse, by not applying the next aid at all

For example: “I didn’t even need to add leg! He was already trotting the moment I picked up the reins…” What has happened here is that in the horse’s mind, picking up the reins has become the signal to trot. No leg need apply.

Well…that’s wrong!

Good news is it’s easy to desensitize the horse, and get rid of that unwanted response to picking up and/or shortening the reins. You just have to concentrate on it for a few days as follows:

Tack up and get on as normal…even do a little bit of work, to warm up as normal. Then, walk, let the reins slip…pat your horse (just as you describe).

Pick up your reins and ACT like you are going to trot…your horse will definitely get nervous about this…but instead of trotting, you’re going to say “whoa…” and let the reins slip again while you continue to walk…repeat this, and repeat this, and repeat this…it may take 5 or 6 or 8 or 12 times…

…but somewhere around the 4th or 5th time, your horse will start to sense a new sequence…keep in mind that the whole time you are doing this, your aim is not to trot, but to impress on your horse that you picking up the reins is just that, and nothing more–definitely not something he’s going to need to respond to.

Eventually, your horse won’t even react when you pick up the reins. So when you do start trotting again, make sure that you first shorten your reins, and then wait…(say ‘whoa’ even)…then deliberately add some leg that DOES mean trot.

(Or canter, or whatever else). Mix up your routine a little. This way you have a horse that is responsive to you, but not anticipating and reacting to a signal that you aren’t deliberately giving him.

Your horse will get better at it if you do…but eventually you’ll let your guard down (we all do) and he will let you know when he needs a refresher. Just start over…and next time it will only take a few repetitions to get your signals straight again.

[One_Two_Three]

[QUOTE=M. O’Connor;8940917]
What you are describing is super common. But the good news is that it’s VERY easy to fix in just a few rides (with a refresher every now and then).

Horses learn through repetition, and they get very good at anticipating what comes next.

Riders often fail to notice that the aid they THINK is the one they are using has been ‘overwritten’ as far as the horse is concerned by a prior aid that always precedes the main ‘signal.’

The horse is responding to the earlier aid, not the one that comes next. A rider might even unwittingly make this problem worse, by not applying the next aid at all

For example: “I didn’t even need to add leg! He was already trotting the moment I picked up the reins…” What has happened here is that in the horse’s mind, picking up the reins has become the signal to trot. No leg need apply.

Well…that’s wrong!

Good news is it’s easy to desensitize the horse, and get rid of that unwanted response to picking up and/or shortening the reins. You just have to concentrate on it for a few days as follows:

Tack up and get on as normal…even do a little bit of work, to warm up as normal. Then, walk, let the reins slip…pat your horse (just as you describe).

Pick up your reins and ACT like you are going to trot…your horse will definitely get nervous about this…but instead of trotting, you’re going to say “whoa…” and let the reins slip again while you continue to walk…repeat this, and repeat this, and repeat this…it may take 5 or 6 or 8 or 12 times…

…but somewhere around the 4th or 5th time, your horse will start to sense a new sequence…keep in mind that the whole time you are doing this, your aim is not to trot, but to impress on your horse that you picking up the reins is just that, and nothing more–definitely not something he’s going to need to respond to.

Eventually, your horse won’t even react when you pick up the reins. So when you do start trotting again, make sure that you first shorten your reins, and then wait…(say ‘whoa’ even)…then deliberately add some leg that DOES mean trot.

(Or canter, or whatever else). Mix up your routine a little. This way you have a horse that is responsive to you, but not anticipating and reacting to a signal that you aren’t deliberately giving him.

Your horse will get better at it if you do…but eventually you’ll let your guard down (we all do) and he will let you know when he needs a refresher. Just start over…and next time it will only take a few repetitions to get your signals straight again.[/QUOTE]

Excellent! This helps out quite a bit, too!

Everything suggested here sounds amazing! I can’t wait to get on him this weekend to start implementing some of these things!

[mpsbarnmanager]

My TB mare is 23 and she still anticipates after a free walk on a loose rein. As soon as I start to shorten the reins, she thinks we are going faster. It has never mattered how I distract her, walk only for whole rides, nothing I ever tried changed her. She showed in so many pleasure classes that she learned we walk, trot, walk, canter, walk, reverse, walk, trot, canter, and DONE. She is anticipating because she is smart and wants to be done. Good luck. lol!

[M_O_Connor]

[QUOTE=mpsbarnmanager;8943678]
My TB mare is 23 and she still anticipates after a free walk on a loose rein. As soon as I start to shorten the reins, she thinks we are going faster. It has never mattered how I distract her, walk only for whole rides, nothing I ever tried changed her. She showed in so many pleasure classes that she learned we walk, trot, walk, canter, walk, reverse, walk, trot, canter, and DONE. She is anticipating because she is smart and wants to be done. Good luck. lol![/QUOTE]

Try the above and get back to me. Stick with it…it literally takes about 30 repetitions and a resolve to do nothing else for a couple of rides…(I don’t just stay in the ring while I’m doing it though–as soon as they stop hopping, I just go for a walk, but the ENTIRE TIME you need to be dropping/picking up/dropping picking up…saying whoa as you pick them up (and ask them to stop and stand at times so the word whoa doesn’t become as meaningless as picking up the reins…)

[Lord_Helpus]

Easy. Jump on a circle. It works.

Set 2 jumps (at “3” and “9” on the clock) far enough away that it is a comfortable bend, but close enough that you never stop circling.

(9)| ___________|…| _____________| (3)
|
Then start jumping. Your horse will speed up (as always) the first 4 - 5 circles, but will gradually slow down and jump out of stride. You need to keep going — at least 10 circles, maybe more. DO NOT look for a spot. DO NOT grab his mouth. He needs to figure out how to jump slowly and adjust his stride to meet the jump well.

You can use all your other aids (voice, weight (stay in the exact center of his balance) and legs to guide him around) but your hand can only steer to keep the circle round. And it needs to stay round, so you are only straight to the jump on the last stride.

Then turn around and circle the other way.

When this becomes boring, since he is being so soft and easy to ride, change it up a little and jump the first jump, but instead of circling, ride straight to a jump that is a quiet 3 strides away. Then get back on the circle.

It helps to have another person call out “straight” or “circle” as you are in mid air, so you do not know where you are going and cannot anticipate.

After several days of this, you can try jumping single jumps. But the minute he speeds up, canter right back to the circle until he relaxes again.