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DESENSITISATION
OR DEAFENING THE HORSE TO YOUR AIDS Desensitisation or deafening the horse to the aids of the rider is one of the biggest issues I come across, with it occurring in all disciplines and at all levels. This is a common problem where horses are exposed to more and more pressure from our aids, in an effort to achieve or maintain appropriate levels of response. The reality is however, that although the pressure of the aid increases in both intensity and consistency, the response from the horse decreases, to the point where we often receive nothing but resistance. Horses do their best work when they are corrected for their mistakes and then left alone; allowing them to perform without resistanceOur aim
is to get excellent responses, to small, discrete instructions.
These instructions or “aids” are generally transmitted to the
horse through varying combinations and amounts of pressure, via the
rider’s seat, leg and hand. We
expect an immediate response to these "aids", like
turning on a light, its instant, you don't expect to flick the
switch several times before the light comes on.
To get a horse moving
freely without obvious resistance to our aids we need three
essential steps to take place in every aid or instruction that we
give. 1.
Accurate
aids from the instructor. (that’s you, the rider!) 2.
Appropriate
responses from your student. (the
horse) 3.
Reward student immediately I say
pressure works on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the least and 10
being the most or greatest, amount of pressure available. The scale
of 1-10 is relative to the experience of both horse and rider. For
example, 10 amounts for an experienced horse who chooses to ignore
you, would be far greater than for a green horse looking for a
correct answer. I always initiate my aids with “one” amount of
pressure. If that initial aid is not appropriately responded
to, then I immediately reinforce that initial aid with “ten”
amounts. The term “appropriately” is very important, as you must
have realistic expectations for your response, and the expected
response from a beginner, would be less than that of an experienced
horse. Once the horse has shown us that he is capable of producing a
certain level of response, we would not accept anything less in the
future. An appropriate response now, will be as good or better than
our previous best, our "benchmark"! This is how we set our
expectations. Horses
are unbelievably sensitive to small amounts of pressure, the fact
they may not respond to your “one” amount of pressure initially
doesn’t mean they can’t feel your aid. It simply means that they
either don’t understand that message; OR and more likely, they
choose to ignore you! It’s similar to asking a child to clean
their room. Just because it doesn’t happen when you first ask,
doesn’t mean that the child didn’t hear, or doesn’t understand
you! More likely, they know you will ask several more times before
you start to get serious, making threats that you both know won’t
get carried out. The child knows through past experience that you
find it easier to give in, rather than go through the drama of
holding out for the correct response. This
scenario is very common, and relates to the problem of
“desensitising” horses to our aids. We have given an instruction
but not received an appropriate response. Even worse we have
actually rewarded our student for a poor result, by giving in to
avoid a confrontation. As the teacher, what sort of response do you
think we will get; the next time we give the same instruction ?? Unfortunately
this is typical of the way we give our horse instructions. Whether
it be asking him to slow down, stop, move off our inside or outside
leg, produce a transition up or down, it doesn’t matter what it
is, we tend to not recognise, or choose to ignore, poor responses to
these aids, allowing the student to proceed, thinking he’s going
OK. He’s not, and it’s your job to tell him!
We
consistently see riders giving numerous, very obvious aids or
instructions to their horse, and accepting little or no response in
return. Before you know it the horse has got you pushing and
pulling, harder and more often than before. Soon you find that you
are constantly, niggling, pushing and pulling the horse, and still
little or no response. Similarly
if we always ask a horse to go forwards with 4 amounts of pressure,
then he will never recognize 1–3. By repeating this several times,
you will teach the horse that you don’t really expect him to move
until your aid reaches 4 amounts of pressure.
He is being desensitised to pressure, you have
taught your student to ignore 1-3 amounts and soon it will be more. To
guarantee appropriate responses, without resistance, we have to keep
things simple and consistent. If
we are asking a horse to move forward, we would only ask once, and
only with one amount of pressure. For this we don’t need to see
your leg move, a horse can feel a slight toning of your muscles, so
programme him to listen for that, rather than the normal 3 or
4 amounts of pressure from a flapping leg.
Remember we only ask once, don’t get conned into
asking again unless you want to program your student not to walk
forward until he has been asked many times.
Initially you may have to re-enforce your original
request, in order to get an appropriate response and for this we
will use 10 amounts of pressure. ( remember the pressure is relevant
to the experience of both horse and rider ) You may
have to repeat your re-enforced aid, increasing it as necessary
until the horse responds appropriately; at which time you
will immediately reduce the pressure back to contact .
A "contact" is an amount of pressure set by you, it is the
only amount of pressure that we intentionally
"desensitise" our horses to. I want my horses to accept a
very light contact, it's that fine line between a "loose
rein" and "one" amount of pressure that we have to be
able to identify. I would describe it as, "a standby amount of
pressure" that is
always present whilst a horse is working correctly. Whilst schooling
or performing with a horse we maintain a contact with our hands,
seat and leg; that contact becomes
pressure, when it is necessary to send information to our
horse.
Repeat
the process of asking with 1 amount and re-enforcing with 10,
several times in close succession, the horse will begin to go
forward when you first ask. Horses
aren’t stupid, if they find that by responding appropriately to
aids of 1 amount, they can avoid those of 10, they will listen very
carefully to your instructions. Remember,
“horses don’t respond because of your re-enforced pressure; they
respond to avoid it”. The
consistency of your results relies on the consistency of your
application. The
secret is just that, “consistency” and not negotiating with your
student. If he walks you
leave him alone, if he doesn’t ...don’t keep asking, "make
him to go"! The same
principle applies to slowing or stopping a horse.
We desensitize horses
to the pressure of our hands by constantly asking them to respond to
messages from our hands, but getting no response. It is just the
same as the aid to go forward, the horse has you gradually doing
more work, for less, or no response.
The answer is the same: ask with one amount of
pressure, re-enforce the aid if necessary until you receive
an appropriate response, then reward immediately. As much
as it is important to correct your horse’s mistakes, we don’t
prevent them from happening in the first place; rather we correct
them when they occur. Like
you and I, horses learn from making mistakes and then being
corrected for them. Let him find out what happens when he makes a
mistake. For
example: we don’t stop the horse from speeding up by constantly
holding him. You will gradually be holding more and more.
Soon you will be pulling hard on his mouth for no response,
he will be going just as fast, if not faster. If he speeds up
without your instruction, immediately slow him back down, then reward
him, by reducing the "pressure" of
your aid back to a "contact". If he speeds up again
you will repeat your correction, over and over if necessary. Your
student will soon realise that it is much easier to stay at your
speed, rather than be repeatedly corrected for speeding up. The
common question here is: “how much pressure will I use”? The only
answer is: “as much as it takes” You
must get your expected response and then maintain a "contact" not
"pressure". Correcting
mistakes that are already habitual, will take plenty of patience and
consistency. Things
to remember: You are
the teacher, therefore if you’re not happy with your student’s
results, you must tell him!
Be
honest with him as he is relying on you to correct his mistakes,
that’s how he learns. Only ask
once ("one amount") then make it happen ("ten
amounts"). Do not
negotiate on the results, there is no “nearly or sort of
did it”. If you accept it this time, he is entitled to think
it’s correct and therefore ok for next time. If
it’s not good enough, do it again until it is! Have
realistic expectations in the first place, allowing your student to learn through a series of
progressive building blocks, with each block being well established
before moving on to the next one. The
things that will defeat you are: 1. lack
of consistency 2. not actually getting the response you were looking for 3.
not rewarding the horse correctly Whoever
does the most homework wins! Steve
Jefferys contact
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