Bending it to keep it straight

It's really quite remarkable how much my riding and my horses have improved since I started learning cowboy dressage.  I can almost look back on my horsemanship journey and see concrete benchmarks marking my steps forward like footprints in unchartered territory.  Each little hard won victory or experience carrying me forward to the next epiphany for me and my horses.  Having difficult to ride horses as well as the opportunity to ride school masters has been instrumental in both my struggle and my growth. 

When I began my horsemanship journey by embracing the traditions and the teachings of the Californio vaquero style with the emphasis on light communication and building your horse slowly I learned patience and the importance of the nuances in try.  My horses were soon much better for it.  I could see them seeking me, hunting the try and getting softer and more responsive each and every time we were together.  With Cowboy Dressage creating a place to showcase the traditional tack, riding, and horsemanship (albeit without cows which to staunch traditionalists means it's NOT traditional at all!) I thought I had found the perfect blend.  I could create and train my traditional bridle horse via the old tradition of jaquima a freno and embrace this new community of softness, lightness, and kindness.  What a perfect world!

Then we got the opportunity to compete at the final gathering last year.  We eagerly signed up to participate in the vaquero division, excited to be with like minded horsemen on the court.  Our test scores, for our first competition, were quite good in partnership, harmony and straightness.  All things we had been working towards through our training in the bosal.  I was riding my Morgan straight up and was pleased with his carriage and finished look.  Reality hit in the form of our scores for bend. 

Both Dan and I had very little bend in our horses.  We could mostly hit our marks on the court, have good transitions, but no bend through the corners, on our circles and our quality of the travel down the long tracks was often counterbent just a hair with our horses often looking to the outside.  Not bad, and not something you would watch from the sidelines and gasp at, but enough that it got us both seeking to improve that in our horses. 

The traditional bridle horse is a very straight horse.  He has lightning fast reflexes and responses to cues and soft from nose to hip but not known for his ability to round laterally.  There are pages and pages of discussions in the social media vaquero groups discussing whether leg cues are even used in creating traditional horses or whether it was all rein cues.  But most of them will agree that you want the horse straight beneath you. 

Let me tell you the story of our Morgan mare Mercy.  We started her as a 3 year old and decided to stick to tradition and training in the bosal with her.  If you've ridden Morgans at all you know they can be a little bendy and squirrely as youngsters.  Dan, thinking this is the very thing he dislikes about Morgans the most decided that with this one he wasn't going to do much lateral flexion.  He was going to keep her pretty straight in the bosal and see if we couldn't keep her from being so squirrely and bendy. 

So, 4 years and lots of miles later we have a great trail horse.  She pretty much goes where you point her.  She is quiet in the bosal and easy to ride.  In a straight line.  Creating bend or softness or any kind of lateral movement other than the leg yield is difficult for her.  Now, for many folks that will never be an issue.  She can head down the trail and do whatever you ask of her, but if you want a little more and want to create softness and eventually move her into the bridle, that's going to be very difficult for her.

So, what we learned from that little experience is that you can't skip the bend.  Creating bend in the bosal is much more difficult in a green horse than it is in a bit.  It's not impossible at all, but takes more time and more feel and it's more difficult to get it working properly.  That's why the Dorrances, and Ray Hunt and other folks that were traditionalists started incorporating the snaffle.  It's the best tool out there for creating the bend and lateral flexion in a young horse. Once you've established lateral flexion it's easier to carry that lesson over to the bosal and work off the previously established muscle memory in the bosal.  If we weren't doing Cowboy Dressage it probably wouldn't be a very big deal.

When we share our passion for Cowboy Dressage with folks they are often under the impression that it is easy.  Straight lines and circles? Pah, anybody can do that.  What's the big deal?  Right? The most frequently asked question is, "Do you have to start with just the walk/jog tests? Aren't the walk/jog tests for beginners and kids?"

Not so much.  While it's true you can and should be able to take any fairly broke horse and ride Walk/Jog 1 and hit most of your marks and stop mostly straight and have good transitions, I doubt most folks can hit the bend the judge at C is looking for.  Most western riders, especially vaquero horseman just don't train that bend, and without it, you won't hit your circles dead on.  Nor will you hit most of the other marks on the court.  The Cowboy Dressage court is based on the 10 m circle.  The transitions from mid-line to the track on the wall all happen on a 10 m bend.  That bend is the only way you can be straight when you hit that mid-line. 

Every time I'm teaching a group of riders and explain that they won't be straight until they bend they look at me like I'm crazy.  It doesn't even make sense that you have to bend to be straight.  But it's the truth.  In order for a horse to be truly straight beneath you, you must have the bend working well on both sides of the horse's body.  Mercy, our straight mare, drifts on her straight lines.  The only thing I can attribute it to is that both sides of the horse are not developed and working evenly. 

Bending is like horse yoga.  It builds muscles and strengthens the body on the lateral sides by shortening the muscles of the inside of the body and lengthening the muscles on the outside of the body on a bend.  Repeatedly changing your bend by altering your 10 m circles is like spending some time in the gym doing crunches and toe touches.  It strengthens the core and allows for muscle development that helps keep the horse straight and even underneath you. 

Bend also helps the horse to develop self carriage, which we are all about in the vaquero tradition.  Vaqueros want a bridle horse with presence that proudly carries that bit straight up.  I hate to say it out loud, but when looking at the pictures of the traditional bridle horses, I abhor their necks.  Most old time vaquero bridle horses had long necked horses that were overdeveloped at the poll due to holding that bridle horse formal self carriage position.  They have large muscles from poll to C2/C3 without concurrent development of the neck at the base. 

Here are some examples of what I'm talking about.

Circa 1900's, a little harder to see but there is more muscle at the dorsal poll than along the more distal vertebrae.

Straight up bridle horse, circa 1800. Easy to see the over developed neck at the poll and first few cervical vertebrae
 

Here is a more modern working bridle horse.  Beautifully turned out and straight up.  You can see the muscle development at the proximal aspect of his neck without concurrent muscle development more deep in the cervical vertebrae. 

My own horse was beginning to have this look as well.  I rode him proudly straight up in the bridle for most of last year.  I was very pleased with his finished look and formal flexion and willingness.  My heart sang to hear him work that cricket.  But, when I would see pictures of him, I wasn't as thrilled.  I kept thinking it was just a bad moment or that it was a bad angle.  His body had changed so that my saddle wasn't fitting how it should.  His self carriage had developed into something that was hollow through the back even though it was flexed beautifully at the poll. 

Working Straight up in the bridle.  Notice the heavy muscle that ends about about C3.  I can tell by my shoulders that he was jarring me in this jog around the rodear.  To the casual observer he looks round and soft but it's false flexion with no engagement behind.

This picture was the one that really got me thinking.  He looks like somebody else's horse in the this photo.  Really showcases the loss of muscle development at the base of the neck.  This was after 9 months in the bridle.  Here he is wearing his Mylar bit at a CD clinic when I realized I had NO bend in the traditional bridle.

 

Eitan and Sante Fe showing could muscle development along the entire neck and proper self carriage in traditional gear.

Showing how bend and shortening of the inside of the body on the circle create even full body muscle development.

As a veterinarian, correct muscle development and body use is not just a goal, it's a must.  The very last thing I wish to create while riding and enjoying my horse are changes to his body that are detrimental to his health and longevity.  A very big part of my journey to lightness and soft feel is an attempt to avoid many of the pitfalls and rider induced changes to the horse that we see in so many of the equine disciplines.  Full body health and mental soundness first and foremost. 

So, typical of my journey, I had again missed some steps along the way and poor Chico was paying for it.  God love that horse. He has taught me so much.  Every mistake I have made in training or horsemanship has been made and corrected and made and corrected again with that poor boy.  For those of you that are saying to yourself, "I'm afraid I'm going to make a mistake and ruin my horse", let Chico be your guide.  They are amazingly forgiving animals and as long as you keep the try alive they will keep seeking what you are offering even if you keep changing it up.

So, after CD finals when I realized that sticking just to tradition was not furthering our goals specifically with bend and softness on the CD court I did some soul searching to see where I was going from here.  My journey is not about points, scores or blue ribbons, but the beauty of competition is that it gives you a benchmark and feedback from a bystander (that is not your husband or your cowgirl friends) to help you see if you are meeting your goals.  Obviously I was missing something. 

When we went down to ride with Eitan this April, he put Chico back in a snaffle (EEEK!  My bridle horse!!) but he did it because I had some holes to fix before I could move forward.  When fixing holes in your foundation, you use foundational tools.  If I was better, or my horse not the product of such muddled training I might have been able to go back to the bosal to fix it, but I don't know.  Good full body bend is such a hard thing to find in a bosal. 



I'm proud to say that we are now bending like champions.   We have the bend.  We can create the bend and ride it forward and can change the bend easily from one side to the other.  My horse looks like he's been at the gym.  I have much much better development through the neck, shoulders, and whithers.  And, surprise, surprise, he is also moving straighter through his free gaits. 

Working on counter bend to develop the muscles at the base of the neck and shoulders

 

Demonstrating 10 m bend and riding the bend forward to complete a circle.  Once the bend is established, you don't even have to look at your markers.  The horse completes the circle by staying on the bend.

I hope that through continuing our callisthenic exercises this summer Chico will be able to go straight up in the bridle eventually.  His path to the bridle horse has been anything but traditional, but I hope that once we both get there we will have all the pieces and parts working in conjunction.  The difference in softness with my horse and body development and quality of movement is all because of developing bend.  We will be straight up in the bridle someday, but we getting there through the bend. 

 

So, if you ride with me this summer, expect to hear a lot about the bend.  I'm willing to guarantee you don't have it working for you as well as you think you do.  You think you have a good broke bridle horse that can stop a cow and turn on a dime?  Well, I bet you can't ride a 10 m circle at a walk with bend.  Different strokes, for different folks, but I want the horse that can do both! 

Zappy Butt and Your Pancreas

Have you ever noticed how some folks are always on a horse that walks out?  I mean really covers some ground.  You may have also noticed that it doesn't matter what horse that person is riding it will end up in the front of the pack.  I'll admit it; I'm one of those.  Yes, I confess, I have a zappy butt.

Having a horse with a good ground covering walk is an important thing, especially if you are one of those riders who likes to get out and cover a lot of ground.  Some of us that do a lot of trail riding and put long days and lots of miles on their horses look at those slow walking horses with complete exasperation.  But, you can bet that we are also the ones fighting the whoa as well.  We have tons of go and not much whoa.  Our horses are also going to likely be the ones that once you get to scenic overlook they want to take it in for about 10 nanoseconds before returning to moving off down the trail.

During my amazing week with horseman, Eitan Beth-Helachmy this spring, it became painfully obvious that my zappy butt that serves me so well on the trail providing those great ground covering gaits was a complete burden when working on softness and collection, and lord help me if I ask for a free gait.  I have trouble turning my zappy butt off and my horse has learned that the only thing he can rely on my seat to tell him is to move forward, forward, forward like there is a current of electricity running from my cheeks to his back.

Zappy butt shows up in the most inconvenient places.  Do you maybe have a zappy butt?  Here are some tell tale signs:
1. Any time you release rein the speed of the gait increases often breaking into the next gait
2.  Whoa is a process and not an instant transition.
3. Your horse walks forward in the turn on the HQ, Turn on the FQ, Side pass, halt, etc.
4. Your horse has trouble standing still for extended periods of time (such as longer than 2 seconds!)
5. Your horse MUST be in the lead because he can't stand to follow one of those slow moving horses.

I'm sure that's not a complete list, but it gives you the idea of the issues a good old zappy butt can cause.

Part of my journey to softness and creating a bridle horse that responds so well to your body has been to learn to communicate less with your hands and more through all of your other aids.
Learning how to dial down your energy in your zappy butt is so essential to improving the communication between horse and rider.  Eitan spent an entire session with me just having me raise and lower (lots and lots of lowering!) my energy level and letting my horse feel that change in my body and respond.  When I think about all of the great horseman that I have had the priveledge to watch ride I think this is one of the things that helps distinquish a good horseman from a great horseman.  When a great horseman gets on a horse he will spend a minute or two adjusting his energy to the energy of the horse until they are on the same page.  It's really neat to watch, actually, like watching Einstein calculate algorithms or Mozart compose symphonies, or Monet prepare a canvas. There is an art to it when it is really working and you can see when horse and rider are moving as one and ready to begin.

I've begun to incorporate this technique with every horse that I get on.  It helps to teach my horse's patience and it helps us to mentally and physically get our bodies on the same wave length.  After mounting I just sit there, heavy in my seat, relaxed in my legs try to drop my energy down into the horse.  If the horse needs reassurance I'll lean forward and pet them on the neck a little.  If they need a little help standing still and waiting on our energy conversation I might do some lateral flexion until the feet are still and then try to get us on the same page again.

Learning how to control and utilize your zappy butt is only the first step.  Each of us has an energy center that the horse can feel and learn to respond to.  Turning down the forward energy in your zappy butt and then forcusing that energy and directing it allows you to direct changes in how your horse responds to your body.  The horse can follow that directional energy if you learn how to cast it out.   I like to think of my directional energy center in the vicinity of my pancreas.

As I was watching Eitan effortlesly go from a short walk to a stop to a back I couldn't see any change in his hands or seat.  I asked him if he was asking the horse to back with his hands and he said he was backing the horse by shooting his energy backwards.  Sure, sounds easy enough.  I about gave myself a belly ache trying to shoot my energy backwards.

But practice makes perfect and visualization is the key with some of this Zen and the art of Pancreas riding.  When I think of my furnace sitting in my pancreas and mentally shoot my energy backwards (which still is accompanied by an intense grimace of concentration on this horseman's part!) my horse will learn to respond to that feel like he responds to any other feel that I offer.

It comes in so handy to be able to ride with your pancreas.  Is your horse falling in on your circle or leaning on your leg in the free walk or free jog?  Try casting your pancreas out over his outside shoulder.  Is your horse's free jog of poor quality, maybe too fast?  First check your zappy butt and then shoot your pancreas just a touch down and backwards.

Where my pancreas really comes in handy is on those long diagonals.  When teaching your horse to ride a straight line and stay centered without a lot of micromanaging, it's important to direct your energy to where you are going.  In my mind, I cast my pancreas out in front of me where we are going like a blast of Spidey's web pulling us along to our destination.

The free gaits are a great time to get the zappy butt and pancreas working together for you.  The free gaits are tough for a lot of people, especially if you are used to holding onto your horse and directing his every step with your hands.  The transition from working gait to free gait needs to happen right at the letter the gait is called for.  If you are crossing a long diagonal and you don't get into a free walk until you pass 8, you've already donated half your points to the judges.  Instead, your energy should immediately go from working, softened gait to free lengthened gait within one step.  When you step off the track at K to cross to M from the working jog to the free jog, your zappy butt should talk to that right front leg to extend to the free gait.  You drop your hands and lengthen the rein allowing the horse to drop and lenthen the head and neck and the direction should come from the line of energy being shot from your pancreas right at M.

Of course these aren't just techniques that I use on the Cowboy Dressage court.  Cowboy Dressage is how I help train my horses, but the end goal is to create a better partner in the other things I do with my horses as well.  Zappy butt and pancreas are working to help improve my comminication on the trail as well as in the arena.  Most of my time on the trail is spent in the free gaits unless I'm manuevering through obstacles or going down hill.  That means that commuincation and direction must be occuring more through my zappy butt and pancreas directional center than through my hands.  My young colt has had limited trail time with me so far and can get a little nervous and has trouble with his cadence on the trail.  He also gets a little bothered if I am micromanaging with the bit while he is busy exploring the trail.  The best compromise to establish communication for the both of us is if I do more guidance with my body and less with my hands.  It's a great way to explore the dialing up and down of the energy and lengthening and shortening of the stride.

It all sounds kind of silly and maybe not everybody's mind works like mine does (thank goodness!) but it's important to really realize, deep down in your core where real truths lie, that the horse can feel your thoughts through your body.  He may not respond because he's learned not to rely on those body positioning or changes in energy, but you can dang sure bet he can feel them.  We teach our horse to ignore our body by over using our other aids.  When you ask first with your body then reinforce with your hands, or legs, the horse soon learns to trust what your body is doing.  You can never get true softness just through the reins.  It's a full body communication.  Hands, feet, legs, seat, zappy butt and pancreas all working as one.

Fit to Ride

January is the month of resolutions.  Did you know that over 47% of Americans make New Years resolutions with the majority of those Americans putting fitness in the top 10?  With 69% of Americans over age 20 being over weight it's easy to see why fitness goals are in the top 10.  69 percent!!  That number astounds me.  I would like to believe that our numbers in the horse owning public are little below the national average given our fairly active outdoor lifestyle, but I suspect we, as a demographic, suffer a fairly high statistic as well.

As a veterinarian I am daily faced with the task of assigning body condition scores to my patients.  I examine the horse, using my hands as well as a weight tape and give it a score between 1 and 9 to describe it's overall condition.  I like to see most of my patients falling somewhere in the range of 4-6 with 5 being the goal for most recreational horses.  Because there is such a stigma against "fat shaming" in America right now I find that many of my clients are appalled when I flat out say, "your horse is fat".  They may giggle, joke about being an easy keeper or say he "wintered well".  They are often quick to say that he's a good horse anyway or that they love him anyway as if my comments about his weight somehow devalue or belittle the horse.  This is American anthropomorphism at its worst. As a veterinarian I am concerned only with your horse's overall well being and more importantly longevity.  I want  you and your horse to have a long, healthy and productive life.  He can't do that if he isn't kept healthy throughout his life.  There are a multitude of problems that are associated with prolonged obesity in horses including, lipomas, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, arthritis, and laminitis.  Interestingly enough these conditions mirror the most common conditions associated with obesity in humans: diabetes, osteoarthritis, stroke, heart disease, some cancers and gout.  I'm not being "mean" when I tell you your horse is fat. I'm doing my best to help you recognize it, correct it, and make changes so that you can help your horse live a long and healthy life.

Wouldn't it be simpler if it worked this way for us humans?  If our doctor would just look at our "owner" and say, "She's fat.  Cut the grain completely, switch to grass hay only at 18 pounds/day and exercise for 25 minutes 3 times a week.  Muzzle if you need to."

Unfortunately it's not that easy.  We, as horse owners are probably guilty of making poor choices for our health due to our busy schedules with our horses.  While you are busy rushing to the barn and getting ready to ride or mixing the 5 different supplements that your horse gets every evening you may have forgotten to feed yourself properly.  A bag of chips and that extra slice of pizza that somebody left in the fridge will suffice for a lunch on the go.  No time to exercise because you have to get to barn to get your horse his turn out time. There are more excuses than there are bales of hay in your barn.

Luckily our life on the go helps to keep things from getting too out of hand for most of us, but is it enough?  We expect athletic excellence from our horses.  We want our horses to be in top form and able to be at once graceful, athletic, swift, and able to go all day without tiring.  Can we expect less from ourselves?

I think in order to get the most out of your partnership with your horse and the best performance it is important for us to be as fit, flexible and healthy as possible.  For an equestrian, balance, flexibility and fitness improve our feel and timing in the saddle.  By decreasing the weight our horses are forced to carry we can avoid having to ride a 1200# horse.  There is a reason draft crosses are currently enjoying a popularity trend.

This year I made many resolutions (I like to think of them as goals) for my horsemanship.  I want to advance my horsemanship skills and improve my feel and timing and go on to accomplish goals both with my vaquero horsemanship and cowboy dressage.  Among those goals I added working on my own fitness.  As I've aged I have lost flexibility and added pounds.  I can't continue to ask for excellence from my horse without demanding the same excellence from myself.

There are many many programs out there that are designed to target the muscles and areas that most equestrians need to concentrate on the most.  Pilates and yoga are both excellent disciplines for increasing core strength, balance and flexibility which are all important for a balanced rider.  Recent research has even linked some equine lameness with back and balance problems in the rider.  Improving your own balance and flexibility may help your horse to move more balanced beneath you.

For back country riders, fitness is even more important.  While nobody likes to think about the worst case scenario, we have all heard the horror stories of horses becoming injured in an accident in the back country resulting in the rider having to hike out.  If you are not fit enough to hike out as far as your horse has carried you in, you have no business being out there in the first place.

So, I challenge you, my fellow horse friends, to take a real look at both you and your horse's body condition score.  Determine if your horse is at an ideal body condition and make the necessary changes to assure he is.  Your veterinarian can help you with this.  Then take a hard look at your own body condition score.  If you need to make changes there, have a strong talking to your body's owner and start those changes today. I bet if you take at least half as much interest into the quality of diet and exercise you prescribe for your horse as you do for yourself you will make changes for the better.  Do it for your horse.  Do it for your horsemanship.  Do it for yourself.



Here are some resources especially for horse folks.

http://theequestrianathleteplan.com/

http://www.equifitt.com/equestrian.html

http://www.livestrong.com/article/351282-fitness-exercises-for-a-horse-rider/

Tangled in Tradition

I promised myself when I started this blog that it would only truly be a useful and accurate reflection of my horsemanship journey if I shared both my good and bad experiences, especially as it relates to my growth and education in the Vaquero Tradition of horsemanship.  I've been avoiding writing this particular blog entry because I know how it will look to the folks that are the true die hard, 3 B visalia ridin', hand braided rawhide reata twirling, mustache knot tying honest to God Vaquero horseman out there.  But, I've put it off long enough and until I get this blog post done and off my chest I won't be able to go on and share my experiences in other areas of this tradition in horsemanship.

Let me start off by saying that I adore the traditions that go along with this style of riding.  I have a flair for the eccentric and the thought that this isn't something that just anybody out there is doing appeals to me greatly.  I love the tradition of quality hand made gear that would be passed through generations.  There is a certain pageantry in the way a Vaquero horseman outfits both himself and his horse.  Pride in self and mount are paramount throughout the tradition and I love that about it.  It really does do something for your horsemanship when you put pride in your gear and turn out.

Like any long standing tradition there is great wisdom in the way things are done that speaks to well thought out observations in both rider and horse.  But, also like many deep seated traditions, there is blind loyalty to a way of doing things that is routed in the thought process "this is how it has always been done there is no reason to change".  Many of the older traditions that were once part of the standard tool bag for a Vaquero have fallen out of favor in the light of modern knowledge.  One of those is the dia de sangre.  One of the ways that some of the old Vaqueros used to instill that "trigger fire neck rein action" where a horse will jump into his turn around when the rein touches the neck was to repeatedly quirt the horse's neck until it was extra sensitive (read painful) so that he would flinch away from that pain when the rein was applied.  It was a nasty day for horse and rider and it wasn't something that needed to be repeated, generally, but it did happen.

So, the modern horseman that chooses to learn, study and apply the traditions of the Vaquero will necessarily choose which traditions to follow.  Do you start in a snaffle like many of the horseman of the great basin or do you stick to the more traditional jaquima?  Do you forego any bit but the traditional spade and skip over some of the smaller transition type bits?  Do you ride with parachute cord mecates instead of mane hair?  Do you double your horse in the hackamore? Even among staunch traditionalists there is considerable argument.  Do you follow Rojas or Connel?  Which one was right?  From the standpoint of historical argument and research there is an unlimited amount of minutia to debate.  It is all fascinating stuff.

I believe the reason that we are seeing a resurgence of this style of riding is because it has been romanticized to a certain degree by the hand of time.  We look back on the talented horseman with their prancing bridle horses and want to believe that they were always soft, and kind and looking for a better way of building that ultimate partnership with their horse.  The trigger fire horse that responds in an instant to just a jingle of the rein chains is a beautiful thing.  They carried themselves with panache and style and grace with a formal flexion in their spade bits that you just don't see anymore. The relatively foreign idea of not starting a horse until it was 4 or sometimes even 6 so that they were mature and grown even has a romantic quality to it.  While we like to believe that this was because these older horseman were being careful and respectful of young growing joints, according to Ernie Morris, once those horses were under saddle and put out to work they were asked to put in a full day's work and anything younger would break down too fast.  So, there was knowledge that a younger horse couldn't stand up to the work but they were also working their horses harder and longer than most of us do today.  There are two sides to every story and looking back on history tends to place a rosy glow.

So, in my drive to really try to learn and study and preserve the traditions of the vaqueros I have embraced the gear, methods, and training programs to the best of my ability.  One of the things that I love about my involvement of Cowboy Dressage is that they embrace and encourage folks to ride within this tradition as well.  I was very excited to be able to attend and show at the recent Final Gathering.  After looking over the entry classes available I decided that in order to show support of the Vaquero classes and hopefully build this division as well as interest in this tradition that I love I would ride only in the Vaquero classes and only bring my traditional gear along with me.

Some of you who have followed my blog posts know that I don't currently have a horse that has been brought along solely through the vaquero tradition.  As my journey has been a learning experience I have experimented with all sorts of training modalities and disciplines in an attempt to learn and grow and find out what works best for me and my horses.  There is of course, nothing wrong with trying different things but if you truly believe in the tradition of training a horse that responds to signal rather than cue to create the ultimate bridle horse you know that you can reform a horse but not ever make a good solid bridle horse if they aren't started the right way.

So my 12 year old gelding is a product of many years of muddled training techniques.  It's a wonder he doesn't have more baggage than he does.  He does really pretty well for me in the bridle (he's currently in a hooded mona lisa) but if things get hot for him I lose him mentally and the bridle horse tradition only really works and looks good if you don't have to touch that bit very much. Ideally Chico would probably stay forever at the two rein stage where I had the ability to two hand him and support him in his times of mental meltdown.  Unfortunately this particular set up doesn't fit in such a manner as to allow for an underbridle.   So, at the Cowboy Dressage finals my horse decided he was unable to listen to the signal from the bit as well as my aids. When showcasing your horse in a forum that places an emphasis on lightness and softness having a horse refuse to listen to a one handed bridle bit doesn't look very soft.  Also when you ride "straight up in the bridle" you rely on the horse bending through his body through the use of your other aids (there is considerable debate within the tradition about whether a bridlehorse SHOULD even bend through his body around your legs, but I believe they should) so when you are unable to back up your legs through communication with your hands to create bend you find yourself in a position from which you are unable to help your horse.

I did put him back into the bosal so that I could work him two handed but since he IS NOT a traditional bridle horse this was of limited help as well.  What I really needed in order to help my horse focus and understand even in times of stress was a bit that I could create bend with.  Because I was trying so hard to stay true to tradition I didn't have that option for him.

Now, just for my friends that are struggling like I am to properly follow the Vaquero tradition let's outline the things I did wrong for my horse in this situation. First of all this wasn't a horse brought along in the bridle horse tradition from day one so I can't expect him to respond reliably all the time with a muddled foundation.  Second I went from the bosal to the bridle without the two rein stage. Shouldn't be a big deal on this particular horse because he's had lots and lots of time in a bit but it's true that we skipped that stage due to constraints with gear.

So here is my "Oh Gee" take home message from this stage in my horsemaship journey.  Tradition is wonderful and beautiful and poetic and often seated in wisdom handed down from many generations.  I will continue to study and learn and try to do my best working through training my horses in this tradition.  What I hope to never do again, though, is compromise my horsemanship and my ability to effectively communicate with my horse for the sake of tradition.  I'm not saying I condone using whatever means necessary to get the right behavior out of your horse, I'm saying EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION.  It doesn't matter what language you are speaking if your horse is completely unable to listen at all.  I hobbled my horsemanship by only bringing traditional gear that limited my ability to effectively communicate with this particular horse.  It resulted in poor use of my aids and frustration for a horse that was already upset.  I was saying, "Calmete caballo" when what he probably needed was "there there old chap" since that was his original language.  My horse needed me to be there for him and support him and help him through his time of need.  If I can't do that for him within the constraints of this tradition I will seek whatever tool I can to help him out. I may get some funny looks when I pull out my french link snaffle and pull off the bosal when he's having a bad day, but if it helps me to help him, you can point fingers all you want.

Rider Enduced Changes in the Horse

The old adage, form begets function surely applies to our horses.  While horses can perform beyond their form or breeding they excel best when used for the purpose for which they were designed.  This is why Clydesdales pull the Budweiser hitch and Arabians do the Tevis cup and not vice versa.

What shouldn't surprise us though is function also begets form.  Our horses will reflect the use that we put them to.  In veterinary medicine we see specific injuries and performance related issues associated with specific disciplines as the horses are used.  It's a natural extension of our relationship with our horses.  You cannot ride a horse to any extent without changing the way that horse's body in some way. This isn't always bad and it happens in all walks of life.  Many of our bodies reflect the work that we do unless we work hard to avoid that.  Asymmetrical development in the dominant arm of any person that preferentially uses one arm for the majority of their work is a good example of this.  Unless they consciously build muscle in the opposing arm, the arm being used most will be the strongest.  Our horses are the same.

What I'd like to talk about today is the way we can affect change in our horses for both good and bad and how we can avoid some of the pitfalls of poor muscle development, braces, and other injuries that can shorten or limit the useful life of our horses. Eventually I will write an entire book on this subject as it is one dear to my heart so paring it down to fit into a blog post has been difficult.  There are far reaching implications and a plethora of details and minutia to be debated in this topic.  Let's start with just a few.

"Saddleback" is a term that refers to the hollowing of the top line behind the shoulders and eventual sinking and swaying of the back after years of service under saddle.  Common thinking in the horse world is often that this is a phenomenon of old age and is unavoidable.  To some extent that is true.  As a horse ages and is subject to heavy loads it's back will wear and break down.  Unless the horse exercises the muscles responsible for rounding and shaping the back, gravity and work will eventually win and you will see a pronounced sway.  Conformation of the horse definitely plays a roll in this.  Horses with long backs and laid back shoulders will often carry themselves with poor self carriage.  Self carriage does not necessarily come natural to the horse and you can see "saddleback" on a horse that never carried a rider.  It's common in cart horses that push with their shoulders instead of rounding their backs to push through their entire bodies.

While "saddleback" can be a natural process of aging, poor riding habits can compound this problem. Just like good posture in people, proper self carriage in the horse must be cultivated. A horse that is allowed to carry himself in a sunken and hollowed way will advance into saddle back quicker than one that is in a conditioning program designed to keep those muscles functioning.  Just people, some horses will need more time in the "gym" toning and shaping those muscles while others will seem to be toned and shaped without added work.

I have a horse that tends toward saddle back.  He has high withers and long sloping shoulder and as he has aged this problem is getting worse.  This also happens to be the horse that I do the most back country and trail riding with.  He has a long ground covering walk that I enjoy riding but he tends to go hollow when in this gate.  If we spend too much time out on the trail and not enough time doing calisthenic exercises encouraging rounding through his top line this problem gets quickly worse to the point of effecting my saddle fit.

So how do you encourage your horse to round and lift and shorten his back to build those top line muscles?  Transitions and work on soft feel help the horse to bring his back up.  The time that we spend on the Cowboy Dressage court is incredibly valuable to toning and shaping his muscles and top line.  Transitions done with soft feel from working walk to free walk and working jog to free jog ask the horse to repeatedly shorten and then stretch those muscles.  It's like doing leg bends at the gym.  It focuses the energy of the ride up through the top line and encourages self carriage combating the dreaded "saddleback".

"Oh No Muscle".  This is a muscle that I am very familiar with in my patients.  Anytime I need to do an intravenous injection into the jugular vein and place my left hand on the horse's neck to raise the vein I can tell exactly what kind of hands the person riding the horse has.  The "Oh No Muscle" is the over development of the muscles on the bottom of the horse's neck.  They run on each side of the neck and form the jugular groove and are responsible in part for flexing the neck and moving bones in the throatlatch area.  Over development of these muscles will give a horse a "ewe" neck appearance that may be completely secondary to use and not due to conformation at all.  In general, when I put my hand on these horses to raise the jugular vein their first response is to raise the head and neck and flip the nose up.  These are your classic head tossers and they tend to ridden with both a tie down and gag type bit to discourage the behavior.  These are horses that are long accustomed to bracing against pressure.  Better than 50% of the time these horses will also have damage to bars of their mouth from long standing bit pressure.

 This habit is tough to break in a horse even with a rider that has good hands.  The deep seated bracing and flipping of the head are so ingrained as a defense mechanisms these horses will say "Oh No!" before anything is even asked of them.  They generally start flipping their head before I even touch them with a needle and many of these horses will engage in this behavior in the pasture flipping their head at flies, other horses, or any stimuli that they classify as irritating.

The best cure in this case is prevention.  This is a case of a horse learning to push against pressure as a defense mechanism.  If there is never pressure to push against the horse cannot develop this habit.  Pulling relentlessly on young horses or even older horses that are being forced to preform in a way that they are not properly prepared for will develop this habit.  There are shelves of tack devices to counter this human produced equine behavior.  Tie downs, martingales, cavesons, draw reins, gag bits, correction bits, etc are all developed by folks trying desperately to remedy this behavior pattern as well as establish "proper" headset.  There is only one way to be sure that the "Oh No muscle" doesn't raise it's ugly head on your horse.  Soft Feel.  That's the only sure fire, 100%, always going to work gadget and you can't buy it in any tack store.

Bar damage is the last thing I would like to cover in this blog and this is a tricky one to address.  As I mentioned above, I'll often see bar damage in horses with a big "Oh No" muscle but it can be much more insidious than that.  Bone spurs on the bars of the horse's mouth will often go unnoticed by the rider and have largely been undiagnosed in horses until more recently.  Research has been done recently examining the differences in jaws from horses that were ridden and those that were feral examining the changes that we see in our domestic horses.  In jaw bones collected from slaughter houses from horses that presumably spent time with a bit in their mouth we see thickening of the bars, bone spurs similar to shin splints, hair line fractures, roughening of the periostium due to continued stimulation of bit contact. Without doing extensive comparrisons of horses across disciplines and with good information on the type of riding and type of rider they were carrying all we can do is extrapolate about the damage and potential damage that we are doing to our horses with irresponsible bit use.

The advent of widespread availability of digital x-ray technology is going to allow us to better examine the jaws of horses that are experiencing signs of resistance or bracing to the bit.  Physical examination can provide good information as to the health of the horse's mouth and state of the bones of the jaw.  I assess the bars on every horse that I float and can usually tell if a horse is having trouble with the bit.  I find bone spurs, thickening and roughening of the surface of the bars through palpation of the bars.  You can generally tell if the horse is stiff to one side over the other or has a tendency to fight the bit.


Often a horse with bit wear on the teeth has been attempting to alleviate undue pressure on the bars by attempting to hold the bit in his teeth.  When I see a horse with rounded premolars they generally will have thickening along the bars as well.  In my practice I would say that in general I see the most bar damage associated with snaffle bit use, gag bit use and horses that are asked for "collection" or head set in the show ring.  These are the horses that seem to experience the most pressure on their bars.  This is in no way a scientific observation but only a personal one based on the hundreds of horses that I evaluate in my practice each year.



Every horse's mouth is a little different.  Some big boned horses naturally have very thick and rounded bars and these seem to hold up well to carrying a bit.  Other horses have very thin delicate bars and these are generally at greater risk for damage.  Young growing horses that have very active periosteums in the jaw and are experiencing the growth of adult teeth are especially susceptible to damage from excessive bit use.

Mitigating this damage relies on protecting the horse's mouth and respecting it.  Hard mouthed horses are not born, they are made.  While there will be variation between horses depending on bar conformation all horses have to potential to feel and respond to very light stimuli on the bars of the mouth.  Building responsiveness in a horse by rewarding try and soft feel will help teach a horse to be responsive and "soft mouthed" without undue damage.

Allowing young horses to mature prior to bitting is also a good practice to minimize damage to the bars.  This is one of the things I love most about the vaquero tradition that relies on the bosal saving the sensitive mouth for advanced training.  Once the horse is carrying a bit he has advanced far enough in his training to be able to respond with very slight pressure on the mouth.

But, a good horseman can definitely ride a horse in a bit without causing undue damage.  I think of a young woman in my practice with a 8 year old horse that she has been riding in the snaffle bit for 5 years.  When last I floated that horse his bars were pristine.  That is a woman with beautifully soft hands.  I don't advocate the widespread use of bitless bridles to irradicate bit damage.  I advocate the widespread education of the hands of horseman that use the bits to improve timing and feel and mitigate damage before it happens.

There are many, many more examples of how our riding choices and uses of our horses affect their bodies.  I will revisit this topic at a later date to discuss some of the other issues that we see that are affecting our horse's physical and mental well being.

When to Hold 'Em, When to Fold 'Em

Despite what some folks may infer from my blog posts I do not under any circumstances consider myself a trainer.  I am aspiring to be worthy of the title of horseman at some point in the future but am fully aware that that is a title that is earned and not given out willy nilly.  In cowhorse circles it's often referred to as being a "hand" or being "punchy".  Whatever you call it, I am not it.  I am a lifetime student of the horse struggling like so many would be horseman out there to learn how to best communicate with these sensitive and complex animals that are so deeply linked with my soul. These blog posts are a record of my journey and the growth I experience on the way.  Sometimes growth is painful and for dense people like me I find the lessons are repeated as often as necessary until it sinks into my cranium.

With the widespread popularity of the Natural Horsemanship movement as well as the rising interest in colt starting competitions like Road to the Horse, many folks consider the ultimate goal to be to start a horse themselves and train it from the ground up.  I admit to being one of these.  I really want to someday take one of my home grown colts, do all the groundwork myself and then through diligent training take it clear from jaquima a freno sticking as close as possible to the traditions of the viejos. With luck and a lot of hard work, I may still get that accomplished in my lifetime.

The natural horsemanship movement has done a lot of wonderful things for horses and owners in the past 25 years.  Unfortunately one of the things that it has done that has not been entirely helpful for horses in general is to perpetuate the notion that anybody and everybody can start their own horse with the help of the right set of DVD's.  I don't believe this is true.  Just like not every parent is cut out to be a teacher just because they have kids, not every horse owner is cut out to be a colt starter just because they have young horses.  Starting horses or kids off on the right foot with the right foundation is a very special skill set.

Dan and I have now gone through the process of starting several of our own horses with fairly good results.  We have had pretty easy horses for the most part that make our jobs easy and make us look good.  With the right kind of horse, anybody can experience a degree of success.  But what happens when you get that horse that doesn't necessarily play by the rules?

My young black Morgan didn't play by the rules.  I've owned Kit since he was a weanling and have known him since he was a day old.  I have tried to raise him the same way I had all of my other young horses, hopefully avoiding mistakes I had made with any of them.  As a weanling I took him on hikes around the property, exposing him to as many things as I could think of.  As a yearling I started some basic groundwork in the round pen and then continued that over the winter before he turned two.  I started him under saddle as a long 2 year old and with the exception of the first 10 days of bucking with the saddle every day he did really pretty well.  If anything I was afraid he was dull and lazy with a tendency to buck a little when he was bored. I gave him the winter off and expected his 3 year old year to put him back to work and start his journey to my ultimate bridle horse.

Then he bucked me off.

Ray Hunt has always said you need to know what happened before what happened happened in order to understand what happened and I will freely admit to having no friggin' clue. We were trotting along on a nice loose rein when out of the blue (at least as far as I could tell) he came unglued. I'm not talking about jumping sideways a step or two or taking a few good natured leaps. I'm talking about full on grunting, head between the knees Pendleton Round-Up old time bronco busting poster child.   I got right back on him, like a good kid, and figured maybe I should go back to more round pen work.  He was tight in the round pen and I was afraid of getting pitched as spectacularly as he had pitched me in the arena. After all, I am not a trainer (I believe I've mentioned this) and I need my body functioning in order to do the things I need to do to make enough money to buy these horses hay.  He pitched me off in June and it took me until August with a handful of rather tentative rides on him (he didn't buck again, just felt like he might)  to realize it was time for me to call for back up.

It was a hard thing for me to do.  I'm stubborn, sometimes to my own detriment, and giving up on this horse and admitting that I was afraid to go further with him was a difficult thing.  But, I had to admit that after several months of dinking around with him I was going backwards and not forward.  I was afraid of getting hurt and it was transmitting to him and he was getting more and more nervous.

Dan and I chose Jon Ensign to help us get past where we were stuck.  Dan and a 2 year old mare that he wanted started and he helped convince me that getting Kit to Jon was the best course of action.

Oh my gosh, I am so glad I did!  Jon reports that he didn't have any trouble with him which bruised my ego only slightly but otherwise reassured me that I had a good horse that needed expert help.  Luckily I hadn't created a monster with my dinking around.  Once he had somebody who was confident to let him move forward and trusted him not to come unglued he became a solid citizen.  Jon put 30 days of training on him and exposed him to ropes, cows, water, and all the things that we would have done over the next 6 months.  I am so much further along in my training with him and now I have complete confidence in him and he in me.   We can go forward from here and refine and shape and work on the things that I would like to do with this colt in the future.

No, I didn't start this one all by myself.  I had some help.  I'll try and start the next one on my own but if I run into a snag or feel at all intimidated I am turning to the folks that do this for a living.  I have to tell myself that it is no different than when a competent and well respected horseman asks me to give their horse an IV shot because it makes them nervous.  Of course they should have me do it, it's what I do.  Having a confident and accomplished colt starter help you with your colt is not selling out (I had to tell myself this over and over) it's making the best decision for your horse to become a solid citizen.  Money and time spent on training is never wasted.  Like any investment into education, the money is well spent.

So, the moral of this story and my step along my journey is to know and understand your own limitations and weaknesses.  It's good to have realistic goals and to work hard at learning and expanding your comfort zone.  It's also good to know when you are in too deep and need some help. Calling for back up in the interest of not only saving your own skull but assuring the continued success of your horse is an important part of being your horse's advocate.  I now have a much better understanding of that.

Practically Perfect Isn't Perfect At All

It's been kind of a different summer for me, from a horsemanship perspective.  I have been traveling the vaquero trail so to speak for a few years now and this year I sold my hackamore horse mid summer.  It was a tough decision for many reasons and you can go back through my blogs to read about that particular journey.  I had planned on getting my 3 year old some saddle time this summer and continuing his journey towards becoming a responsible youngster but ran into a little bucking issue and had to call in for back up.  So, I've spent the majority of time on my 12 year old Morgan gelding, Chico.

Chico is a wonderful, magnificent, gregarious horse with an amazingly engaging mind.  We have a true connection like old friends.  I've had Chico since he was a very green 3 year old and have put all of the training past his first 60 days myself.  I've come quite a long way since I started trying to figure out how to finish a horse.  Chico was the first horse I had to finish on my own and honestly, though I have been riding since I was 8, I didn't really know how to go about it.  So, I started muddling and trying things and feeling my way along.  Every bad habit that Chico has is thoroughly my fault.  He has a brace on his left side thanks to my tendency to bend him more to the right.  He walks off when mounting often because I trust him and don't make him stand still like I should.  I've ridden him in every conceivable bit, bosal and contraption and tried almost every discipline with him trying to decide both where I wanted to go as a rider and where he should go as a horse.

What I've created is a pretty brave, quiet, fairly broke horse with some well ingrained quirks that I just put up with in him that I would have NEVER allowed in my hackamore horse.  While I can ride Chico in the bosal and have attempted to "restart" him that way he will NEVER be a true bridle horse in the traditional vaquero way.  He's never quite figured out responding to signal but is pretty light just off pressure most of the time.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to ride in a Cowboy Dressage clinic with Dale Partee.  It was a great weekend to spend with Chico and I looked forward to the opportunity to spend time both with my best bud and all my good girl friends as well.  Cowboy Dressage is wonderful for many reasons, but the true Jack Palance "one thing" (A City Slickers reference, I'm sure many of you will get it) that I took away from this past weekend was to hold myself and my horse accountable.  Cowboy Dressage is an exacting discipline.  Because you are riding straight lines and circles on a fairly small court accuracy and timing is a must.  We've been riding on the cowboy dressage court for two summers, playing in the dirt as it were.  But this weekend "sorta" round and "sorta" straight and "almost right" wasn't good enough.  Dale was so good about making sure we did it again and again until we got it right.

And you know what?  Chico can do it.  Even if he's wiggly sometimes and opinionated and not always perfectly bent around my leg, if I don't accept that as the answer and continue until he has it right, viola!, there it is! I'm so in the habit of close is good enough with Chico because of all of the mediocre training we've done that I've created a mediocre horse.  But, he doesn't have to be that way. I can raise the expectations for both Chico and myself and he will rise to the occasion.

I don't really have a good reason for why Chico has always been allowed such leniency in our training while I was so strict with Moony.  Perhaps it's because I was too close to him or felt unsure with what I was asking.  The good news is that that can change.  I don't have to "retrain" him, all I have to do is ask for precision.   He knows dang good and well what I am asking.  He knows how he is to respond.  What he doesn't know is that "meh" isn't enough.  Dale reminded us of a quote she picked up from Buck Brannaman that I will have to paraphrase here because I didn't have a pen.  Don't ride your horse the way he was or the way he is.  Ride him the way you want him to be.

The vaquero journey and Cowboy Dressage are natural partners.  Even though the traditional vaquero never had a need to ride patterns in an arena, the tradition of horsemanship, soft feel, and taking your time to make things perfect are all the essence of both the vaquero tradition and Cowboy Dressage.  The vaqueros didn't just strive for pretty dog gone good, they wanted perfection and precision in their cues creating a trigger fire like response in their bridle horses.  A good vaquero will communicate with his horse so subtly that you will never see what he is asking.  You don't get that level of precision with "sorta" right answers.  You get that with striving for perfection every single time you ask your horse to do something. The vaqueros used cattle to train their horses in percision.  I'm using the Cowboy Dressage court.

You know, when you really think about it, it's a good motto for life as well.  Don't live your life the way it was, or the way it is, but live your life they way you want it to be.  Strive for perfection in all things and with grace and a good heaping of try perfection can begin to happen.

A moment of perfection from this past weekend.