Ep 65: Rebuilding Your Horse’s Foundation After Time Off
During the winter months, it gets harder to devote adequate time to our horsemanship. The days get shorter, the temperatures get colder, and it’s simply not as easy to find favorable conditions for training.
Time off isn’t a bad thing if we are aware of the correct way to approach training after a break. Time off reveals where our horses are weak in their fundamentals which, in turn, indicates we, as trainers, have been weak in our communication.
The most critical point to remember is that we cannot try to make up for lost time in one ride.
If we approach the first ride after a break with a rushed, lengthy agenda, we are almost certainly setting ourselves, and our horses, up for failure. Preserving positive communication between horse and rider has to be the #1 goal.
If we rush through our training and have a stressful riding session, our horses will begin to associate us with that one bad ride instead of the 20 good rides before that.
For this reason, we have to approach that first training session back with the mindset that we are going to go back to the basics and identify the gaps in the horse’s foundation.
It takes hundreds, if not thousands, of consistent and correct repetitions of basic fundamental exercises to maintain a solid foundation with your horse.
One of the most common areas where a horse will display weakness in their foundation after time off is in their collection. The control of their lateral and vertical softness often diminishes when this area has not been reinforced in a while.
When lateral and vertical softness is taken away, our control of speed and direction is taken away. To regain control, there are a few fundamental lateral and vertical flexion exercises you can perform. The key to these exercises is the timing of our release.
When controlling speed and direction, we are essentially controlling the movement of our horses’ feet. Likewise, the timing of our release needs to be dependent upon the movement of our horses’ feet, too. As soon as the horse picks up its feet to bend laterally, provide the release.
The better we get with the timing of our release, the easier it is for the horse to know that they have found the right answer. And, the easier it is to build trust with that animal.
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