Down The Fence with Richard Winters
Article III

As I sit down to update you on the progress of our young quarter horse stallion “Rocky,” we’re just coming up on the 60-day milestone.  He just received his first set of front shoes last week.  Most of the colts come to my training facility un-shod.  I’ll leave them barefoot as long as their feet are holding together (no serious chipping or cracking) and they’re not ouchy or sore footed.  As with Rocky, often times it will just be front shoes the first time around.  Two-thirds of a horse’s weight is on their front feet and that is generally where they get tender, if they do at all.

Rocky has been a great student.  He is at the point where he can be saddled and bridled (with a smooth snaffle) and readily walks, trots, and lopes circles around the arena. He understands how to back up and is moving off my leg laterally.  He can also be ridden around the barnyard or out on a trail.  One important concept that I work on daily is lateral flexion.  This is an exercise you just can’t hardly do too much.  This yielding exercise teaches your horse to bend his head and neck to the left and right when you lift on that specific rein.  When I draw my left rein to my left pocket, I am looking for my colt to bend and bring his nose around to my boot.  I expect him to readily do this without feeling obligated to move his feet.  If I bring up life in my body and squeeze with my inside leg, only then is it appropriate for him to step his hindquarters out of the way.  Horse training is simply teaching a horse to yield to pressure rather than resist against it.  I want my colt to follow the feel of my hand and rein and find comfort and softness in that yield. Ultimately, I’ll be asking for vertical flexion.  (Rocky’s head and neck coming down and in while I pick up on both reins.)  The foundation for that is lateral flexion.

In this second month, I have also introduced the idea of yielding to leg pressure to the left and right. At first, any kind of sideways steps are rewarded.  In time, these maneuvers will become more refined into proper and correct side passing and half passes.  Whether you are starting a young colt or we’re talking about your older saddle horse, lateral leg yielding should be high on your priority list.  If all you have are your reins to direct your horses’ body movement, you’re going to be extremely limited as to how handy your horse will be.  If you can move your horses’ body parts, using your hands and legs in harmony with one another, then you are on your way to higher levels of performance.

Often times, I am asked how to get more forward impulsion in a colt.  “I kick and kick but he just won’t go forward.  Then he gets mad and bucks!”  Here are a few things to keep in mind.  Give him a place to go.  The round pen is not very conducive to forward momentum.  Once I feel that both the colt and I can survive the experience, I’ll ride out in the large arena.  Riding out on the trail or even around the barnyard can get a colt moving forward as well.  When it looks like they have a place to go, they move out better.  You can also play “follow the leader” with another rider.  Horses are natural followers and can gain a lot of confidence with another horse in the lead.  Also, don’t use too much leg early on for impulsion.  Bring up some life in your body, slap your leg.  Tap or spank with rhythm using the end of your rein.  These techniques will help drive your colt forward more effectively.  Too much kicking will often times create a sulled up attitude with pinned back ears and switching tail.  These are not characteristics you want to promote.

Another idea to consider is the concept of one-rein control.  Ninety percent of everything I’ve done with Rocky up to this point has been one rein at a time, bending to the left and right to disengage the hindquarters and a lot of lateral flexion.  If you start pulling back with both reins to control your colt (or worse yet, pulling back in an attempt to balance yourself!), you will create blocks and bracy spots in your colt.  Then you’ll email me and say that he doesn’t respond to the snaffle and you’re wondering what other kind of bit I’d recommend!  Remember; “Two reins for communication.  One rein for control.”

In future articles we’ll talk about collection and a horse traveling with contact or “on the bit.”  Yet before that happens, (and at anytime in a horses development) my horse has to be comfortable moving in all three gaits on a loose rein carrying himself balanced and relaxed.  Collection is a feel we’ll develop with our horse, but it should never degenerate to “riding the brake” or pulling on the reins to balance ourselves.

Rocky is well on his way to being a productive equine citizen.  At sixty days, we are “over the hump.”  Come back to class next month and Rocky will show you all the new things he’s learning.