Tips or exercises to retrain the horse that ANTICIPATES!

[Smthn_Like_Olivia]

Over the past year, I have been bringing my 18yr old Friesian mare back into work through lower level dressage. After going through several health issues, she is finally at a good place, healthy, and moving well. She is VERY intelligent and picks up on new things fairly quickly, however, she has a bad tendency to anticipate and try to take over the ride guessing what you’re going to want next. It has lead to a lot of inconsistencies in our schooling - losing rhythm, bad turns, etc. because I’m constantly having to correct.

Getting good responses to the aids has been difficult because she was ridden by a small child for years and before that she was trained in saddleseat for 2 years. Transitions are painful! Especially the downwards, because she is so slow to respond, except asking for a downward from canter, of course, then she likes to just throw on the brakes and walk!

So really, I am just looking for some exercises to keep her sharper on my aids and not try to take over the ride. Thanks for any tips!

[sortofbyx]

In small doses, because my gelding also learned to anticipate, coming up centerline at the trot and then cantering, cantering down centerline, trot, and pick up the opposite lead and canter in that direction helps to get them on the aids. It’s like you’re doing figure 8’s and changing over centerline. You can do it at all gaits.

[merrygoround]

Horses that anticipate make the rider think and plan ahead,

Make your aids clear and distinct, and do not ride set patterns. If you start a serpentine, and the horse anticipates a change of direction, turn into a change through the center of the circle, and then go on and do a downward transition to walk, then an upward to canter. You just must keep thinking.

[preppyeq]

My mare is pretty similar. She anticipates everything. If we canter and then go back to trotting every time we circle or get to a corner she tries to pick up the canter again. If we are circling after two circles she knows where to turn and will turn without being asked. Like merrygoround said, don’t ride set patterns. When I get off the rail and do random patterns like serpentines, figure 8, and lots of transitions my mare starts to pay attention and she is focusing on what I am asking. As soon as we do something more than twice she anticipates it and tries to take over the ride. My trainer told me to never do something more than twice in a row that my horse can anticipate and if I need to I can go back to it at a different point in my ride.

[Smthn_Like_Olivia]

Thank you. She makes the transitions really hard on me because of this. Like trot-walk transitions. It takes repeated aids to get her to slow down or go forward. It gets frustrating.

[luvmydutch]

Every time she makes a decision, do the opposite (not in a mean way…just educate her).

If you’re walking she she breaks to trot, halt her! If you’re trotting and she breaks to canter, walk her (or halt).

In a couple of weeks she will give it up.

My Morgan was a bad anticipator like this. Just doing the opposite of what she wants to do (every time no exceptions) cured her quickly and didn’t take away her drive to please because I corrected her with kindness.

Always be kind as she is trying to be a good girl.

Praise generously when she is listening and doing the right thing (good listening! Or good walking!)

Also praise and pat when she halts after trying to anticipate for listening to your direction.

[RedHorses]

Slow transitions doesn’t sound like anticipation, but more like a horse who thinks she knows what she is doing. If she was ridden by a small child then in a sense she already knows her job and you are messing her up by interfering with what she is “supposed” to be doing.

In addition to the suggestions above I would add that you might focus on what you want rather than correcting her mistakes. I mean that when she trots as you ask for a walk leg yield, focus on asking for that leg yield and collecting her rather than doing a trot-walk transition and then asking for the leg yield. With my young horse he gets scattered sometimes and guesses instead of thinking about the aids, at which point I ride around saying (yes, out loud) “What am I asking? Don’t guess, listen to what I’m asking.”

Remember to praise - voice, released aids, a quick finger rub on her neck - when she gets it right.

And above all, get on your OWN case to ride properly. No dialing it in, no sloppy aids, no erratic aids. Make sure YOU are being precise and clear in your riding (focus on what you want rather than corrections helps as it helps you avoid trying to do two things at once).

When schooling something like the transitions you are having trouble with try breaking them down. Today focus on NOW transitions, no matter how ugly, inverted, or otherwise nasty they might be. The priority is NOW. When you ask she must respond in the next stride, not three or four strides later. Tomorrow focus on smooth transitions that may take six gradually increasing strides to get the transition. Trying to get prompt and smooth transitions all at once is harder because your own focus shifts and confuses the horse. As she gets better on NOW days you can start to ask for smoother transitions later in the ride when the transitions come promptly with light aids. On smooth days you can start to ask for more prompt transitions as they come steady and smooth off light aids. As she gets better you won’t have to separate prompt from smooth, but right now she may benefit from that separation.

[SuzieQNutter]

You never do the same thing twice.

Don’t ride your dressage test before competing.

You learn to wait with your aids. Don’t change to canter position until you actually are going to ask for canter etc. This was something I didn’t know i was doing.

If she anticipates canter when you do sitting trot. Do sitting trot and halt, sitting trot and walk sitting trot and canter. Never the same twice unless you are learning to teach her something. Then it comes in handy.

[ArabDiva]

[QUOTE=Smthn_Like_Olivia;8914654]
Thank you. She makes the transitions really hard on me because of this. Like trot-walk transitions. It takes repeated aids to get her to slow down or go forward. It gets frustrating.[/QUOTE]

To me the behavior you describe doesn’t sound like anticipation – it sounds like evasion. I only say that, because I have a draft cross that does some of the same things. She likes to change the subject and evade by rushing and simultaneously ignoring the aids.

First you want to install that go means GO. NOW. It doesn’t have to be pretty, she may throw her head or invert, but she needs to move FORWARD the FIRST time you ask. Follow the ask-tell pattern – first ask with quiet aids. If you don’t get a response, give her a big THUMP-THUMP with your legs. When she moves off, lots of praise but KEEP HER GOING until you ask her to stop.

You also want to get her off your leg laterally. Schooling turn on forehand and ugly “sidepass” facing the arena wall (so she can’t move forward) are really good for this. Again, same principle. Ask, TELL. Make it black and white. Don’t nag with your aids, which is easy to do with these horses. And lots of verbal praise when she gives the right response – but don’t let her stop what she’s doing.

For the halt, if my horse is tuning out my half halt and halt cues, I move in a circle, smaller and smaller and SMALLER until she wakes up and realizes “Oh. Halting would just be easier.”

This learning can be done really well at the walk. Keep it interesting with changes of direction and lots of circles and serpentines. Only throw some trot at her when she’s really listening to you. It may take a week or more of mostly walking and just a little bit of trotting. But if you stick with it, you’ll have a sharper horse.

Again, it’s NOT going to be pretty, but until you’ve got a whoa and a go, you’re not going to have a willing dressage partner. Don’t worry about her frame at this point – roundness and connection will come when you have a horse that’s listening to you and beginning to use her back.

It can take a long time to install good habits and unlearn bad ones–a couple of months, in the case of my horse. And whenever she comes back after a couple of weeks off, my horse and I have a ride or two where we have to remember these concepts. But then everything is so much better.

Good luck.

[Smthn_Like_Olivia]

[QUOTE=ArabDiva;8915478]
To me the behavior you describe doesn’t sound like anticipation – it sounds like evasion. I only say that, because I have a draft cross that does some of the same things. She likes to change the subject and evade by rushing and simultaneously ignoring the aids.

First you want to install that go means GO. NOW. It doesn’t have to be pretty, she may throw her head or invert, but she needs to move FORWARD the FIRST time you ask. Follow the ask-tell pattern – first ask with quiet aids. If you don’t get a response, give her a big THUMP-THUMP with your legs. When she moves off, lots of praise but KEEP HER GOING until you ask her to stop.

You also want to get her off your leg laterally. Schooling turn on forehand and ugly “sidepass” facing the arena wall (so she can’t move forward) are really good for this. Again, same principle. Ask, TELL. Make it black and white. Don’t nag with your aids, which is easy to do with these horses. And lots of verbal praise when she gives the right response – but don’t let her stop what she’s doing.

For the halt, if my horse is tuning out my half halt and halt cues, I move in a circle, smaller and smaller and SMALLER until she wakes up and realizes “Oh. Halting would just be easier.”

This learning can be done really well at the walk. Keep it interesting with changes of direction and lots of circles and serpentines. Only throw some trot at her when she’s really listening to you. It may take a week or more of mostly walking and just a little bit of trotting. But if you stick with it, you’ll have a sharper horse.

Again, it’s NOT going to be pretty, but until you’ve got a whoa and a go, you’re not going to have a willing dressage partner. Don’t worry about her frame at this point – roundness and connection will come when you have a horse that’s listening to you and beginning to use her back.

It can take a long time to install good habits and unlearn bad ones–a couple of months, in the case of my horse. And whenever she comes back after a couple of weeks off, my horse and I have a ride or two where we have to remember these concepts. But then everything is so much better.

Good luck.[/QUOTE]

You are very right. She is also the queen of evasion! Even when I get some good work out of her, the moment I give her a loose rein to relax, she tries to leave the arena. She’s been allowed this type of behavior for years, so its been a rough road breaking her out of it. The anticipation maneuvers always come in when I feel like she’s just trying to hurry up and get it over with. Her paces get quicker and she’s just plowing through.

She was completely dead to the leg when I got her last year and had no clue what I was asking with bend or contact. I would ask my trainer to put rides on her for me because she was so difficult for me (a green rider). I would watch my trainer leg, then spur, then tap 5 times with the whip before she would even move out and even a couple times even kick out.

Now she will respond, but it’s often a slow response. These are great tips and we will work on this!

[ArabDiva]

[QUOTE=Smthn_Like_Olivia;8915883]
You are very right. She is also the queen of evasion! Even when I get some good work out of her, the moment I give her a loose rein to relax, she tries to leave the arena. She’s been allowed this type of behavior for years, so its been a rough road breaking her out of it. The anticipation maneuvers always come in when I feel like she’s just trying to hurry up and get it over with. Her paces get quicker and she’s just plowing through.

She was completely dead to the leg when I got her last year and had no clue what I was asking with bend or contact. I would ask my trainer to put rides on her for me because she was so difficult for me (a green rider). I would watch my trainer leg, then spur, then tap 5 times with the whip before she would even move out and even a couple times even kick out.

Now she will respond, but it’s often a slow response. These are great tips and we will work on this![/QUOTE]

Yup. The rushing comes because she’s trying to change the subject. You’re asking for bend, and for her to use her core and carry through her barrel, and that’s hard, so she just speeds up.

When you put the leg on and she speeds up, your first instinct is probably to take your leg off, but that’s wrong, because now you’ve rewarded the evasion.

You need to be able to put your leg on and keep it there until you get the correct response (i.e. bend vs speed), while half-halting to keep her from speeding up.

And for that, you need to install the half-halt first (what I said above re: getting your whoa and go, getting your horse on your leg and seat aids forward, backward, and sideways).

Again, it’s TOUGH to stick with it consistently because it won’t feel pretty. My draftx likes to throw giraffe-neck temper tantrums and it’s so tempting to want to just muscle her into a frame. But the problem is never the head, it’s the body. Once you get the body lined up, suddenly you have access to the head. I hope that makes sense.

It’s good that you’re working with a trainer. These things are tricky to figure out.

Good luck!