Ep 95: How to Seamlessly Transition to the Next Level of Speed
"My horse works great at slower speeds, but when I ask for a little more, everything falls apart." Have you ever asked for a little more speed from your horse only to feel like you went all the way back to square one? If so, you're not alone.
There’s a difference between falling back to square one and having a moment where you are back at square one. When the wheels fall off the wagon, it can be easy to feel frustrated and think you are starting over. But, in order to improve, you have to allow your horses to make mistakes. When you identify those mistakes, you identify the pieces of the puzzle that you need to work on next.
Adding speed is the quickest way to uncover weaknesses in your communication with your horse. For example, when you are loping a circle on a loose rein, does your horse stay the same speed? Or, does your horse speed up? If your horse speeds up, that is an indication that you are going to have problems when you try to go to the next level of speed.
Horses have two thought processes--thinking or reacting. Speed is a reactive response. For the better part of my training career, I used to work exclusively on the ‘thinking’ side of the horse’s brain. But I have come to realize that the ‘reacting’ side of the brain is equally important.
The truth is, we need those reactive responses to tap into that horse’s maximum effort. But once that effort is put forth, we must be able to signal that horse to come back to the ‘thinking’ side of its brain so that we can maintain control of speed and direction.
Reaching that next level of speed often requires us to get outside of our comfort zone. As trainers, we want to keep doing the things that make us feel confident. However, in order to progress, we have to push ourselves and our horses outside of that comfortable zone. The key is that, after we ask for that increase in speed, we have to have the tools in place to bring that horse back to something they feel comfortable with.
This is called a transition. To make these speed transitions seamless, we must establish triggers with your feel, timing and body position. For a full explanation of triggers and how they work, listen to Episode 87.
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