A Willingness to Repeat

An overheard phrase, in relation to the gym made me ask, are all our horses willing to repeat an exercise?. An eagerness to allow an exercise to be reapplied often enough to make a positive change. I had to sit with this for a moment or two. Honestly, I let it stir around endlessly in my brain for about a week! Being careful and always chasing that elusive never to be found last detail while riding a younger more sensitive horse makes me love delving into these thoughts. Just the question alone makes me think about the factors that would effect the way a horse receives our signals and exercises. If the exercise is theory does that mean my horse receives it easily? Does the suitability of the exercise mean it’s easy to apply? When I think about how often I have to fathom through tweaking an exercise for myself to make it fit makes me pause before I choose an exercise for my horse. 

So not ever nervous to try an exercise implies a level of confidence from the horse in the rider but also a level of confidence in their own bodies. I’ve seen countless riders battling a particular movement, endless riders explaining in the most ethereal ways why their horse can’t manage a particular movement or situation. Is it unsuitable exercise or is it an unwillingness to repeat? There is always reasons something isn’t perfect but without recognizing the specifics any exercise could be called unsuitable. In lessons I try help riders break down why a session might have in theory improved a horse and what actual part of the exercise, what signals the horse found the most confidence in. I try to teach them to install this confidence directly from them and not just from an elusive training scale step. One of my favorite moments is a clients feedback of the week they’ve had between lessons “I haven’t perfected the exercise yet but this part of it makes him so much more happy and rideable. If someone tells me an exercise isn’t working then I query are you doing it correctly but not doing it right!

Body confidence should improve each time we ride, if not, how often is it okay to side step that before we’ve caused a problem and what’s the journey back for a horse?. There’s so many contributing factors. It’s so common to see horses nervous of their own athletic movement (while being ridden) and riders who are desperately trying to desensitize them while smiling through gritted teeth and saying what a wonderful time there having, in case admitting a difficulty opens a can of worms. Is positive training perfect training? 

Giving horses courage in a feeling, a set of signals or an exercise is often a different journey from plainly doing the exercise. I encourage my riders to seek what specific thing about the action makes the horse nervous and what set of signals turns the tide on that tension. Explore each step of a movement to find the crucial part that makes a horse sigh with relief and  move with enthusiasm. When a rider tells me they haven’t practiced something It tends to make me examine whether that moment hasn’t been found for the horse. 

For myself as a rider I’ve got to practice a strict structure in my lessons and recognize what gaps in my riding prevent me from being able to knit the moments together soon enough often enough. Those gaps I go home and pull apart and get ready to reapply. It’s not the strictness of the exercise that makes the willingness but the lack of gaps in the confidence  compounded for a greater time. I’m aware how that reads but it’s worth reading slowly and rereading. What is necessary to repeat in an exercise and what’s necessary to remove. Willingly repeat the willing.