Ask Katelyn— Click on the Questions to Read Katelyn's Answers
Questions
Q: My daughter wants to take riding lessons. She is 6. At what age should a child start?
Q: I work full time. I only have 2 hours at a time to ride my horse, 3 days a week. I’ve been told recently that I should do groundwork with my horse before I get on. I would rather spend my time riding. Is groundwork really necessary?
Q: How does pressure and feel relate to directional movement? (Brief interview between Kate and a student)
Answers
Q: My daughter wants to take riding lessons. She is 6. At what age should a child start?
A: Children mature at different rates. The age that children are ready for formal riding and horsemanship coaching varies depending on the child. Your child’s personality and physical and emotional maturity levels are indicators as to when to should consider formal horsemanship education. For example: Some children are physically ready to ride at 5 and emotionally ready at 7. I do a formal evaluation on each child before taking them on as a student. I want to set the child up for success and fun. A bad experience at a young age can result in problems down the road.
Q: I work full time. I only have 2 hours at a time to ride my horse, 3 days a week. I’ve been told recently that I should do groundwork with my horse before I get on. I would rather spend my time riding. Is groundwork really necessary?
A: The answer is a resounding YES! Everything you do on the ground relates directly to what you do in the saddle. Good groundwork is essential to your communication and relationship with your horse. I don’t consider lungeing a horse around and around in a circle effective groundwork. Groundwork helps you open the lines of communication with your horse so that he can tune into you and not his herd in the pasture or the hay he had been enjoying. It is a perfect opportunity to get with your horse and start feeling of him, which opens up the space for him to feel of you. It is a very safe and effective way to introduce something new, review or fix something that isn’t working.
I especially like to back up occasionally and do something with a horse on the ground that he does really well. A little bit of time-spent building a horse’s confidence goes a long way. You cannot separate groundwork from riding because groundwork is an integral part of riding well. If you would like information on how to do effective groundwork, check out Leslie Desmond’s video series “American Horsemanship for Young and Old” and the book “True Horsemanship Through Feel”, written by Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond. There is plenty of information out there on groundwork. I recommend these two sources, as I have never seen operating with feel to fail in bettering the relationship between you and your horse. There will always be those times when you find yourself in a situation where you must saddle-up and ride without much warning. A solid foundation and on-going groundwork preparation can make or break a successful ride on those occasions when you have no choice but to get on and go. Feel is the basis for what I do every day with horses and their owners. Let me know how this works out for you.
Check back soon to the article section of my website as I am currently working on an article explaining some easy and effective groundwork exercises that you can incorporate into your groundwork routine.
Interview with a Student: Pressure and Feel as relates to Directional Movement.
Student: I have some questions about how to get a horse to move directionally with feel.
I understand that when you want a horse to go forward, it is not necessary to kick them or squeeze them, pulling your legs from them is release enough. Is this right?
Kate: Yes, you absolutely wouldn’t want to kick, squeeze or pull on a horse to ask them to go. However, it is always best to use one leg or the other to release the horse to go forward. At first, it may be difficult for some students to move one leg independently from the other and both legs inadvertently come off the horse together. An instructor might choose to build from where they know the student to be. I saw that sometimes in your last lesson, you were moving both legs simultaneously without realizing it. I saw it as an honest attempt to comprehend the feel of what it takes to communicate forward movement to your horse. I will remind you about the use of one leg from now on, but before this point in your development, I felt it might have been too much information for you to digest all at once. Allowing and encouraging experimentation helps you develop your sense of feel. However, using one leg is very effective and less confusing for the horse.
Do you remember your first attempts at forward movement from the saddle? If you recall, when you opened your leg, the horses shoulder and wither rose or lightened. The horse is able to move more naturally, athletically and with lightness if the neck and shoulder are freed up first. That little jump or rising up was the first step in the process. When you get lightness in the front end by the energy created by the movement of the leg off the horse, it allows the horse to use the power from his hind end to propel him forward with very little effort.
Student: OK, I didn’t know that one leg was better. Does it matter which leg you use or does which leg you use depend on direction?
Kate: Most horses have a favored side or one they are more comfortable seeing or feeling a human. I like to find out which side sets the horse up for success in understanding and begin from there. For some horses, it makes no difference to them which side you operate from. That is useful information when you are asking a horse to move off in a particular direction or asking him to turn. If you need a horse to move off to the left, why not release him to the left. Make sense? In turning the horse once you already have forward motion going for you, you may just have to open the toe to the direction you would like the horse the turn. What I have spoken about thus far has to do with leg movement. Are you clear about what else creates communication of the turn?
Student: To add directionality to this, you can turn and look in the direction that you wish to go, shorten the rein on the side in which you would like to go, and apply a little leg pressure on the same side as well.
Kate: I am starting to see where your confusion is coming from. Let’s see if we can work this through.
The Basics of Turning:
1. Be sure of what you want to do and how you are going to do it.
2. Think and have intention of where you want to go.
3. Look where you want to go.
4. Open the toe to the direction you want to go.
5. Open the rein without pulling on the horse to the direction you want to go.
* If the horse does what you ask and makes the desired turn before you finish the entire sequence, stop your directing immediately and leave him alone. If your feel is good enough to get your horse to turn off an intention or a thought…don’t fix what isn’t broken. Does this make sense?
I usually like to avoid discussing what not to do, but in this instance, I think it may help you to see things more clearly. Notice I said nothing about shortening the rein and applying leg pressure when discussing the dynamics of the turn or forward motion. These movements are in complete contradiction and are confusing to the horse. Shortening the rein in this case usually results in pulling which adds pressure to the horses’ mouth. When combined with squeezing the horse like a tube of toothpaste or adding leg pressure from one side or the other, the rider succeeds in adding pressure to both ends of the horse at the same time. This is very unpleasant for the horse and sends a conflicting message to move forward and stop at the same time. Since the horse isn’t clear what the rider wants, he may do nothing or try something other than move forward in attempts to figure out what is being asked of him. The next thing the horse feels is a swift kick in the ribs for his efforts to understand. The horse has no choice but to move or he gets another kick. Once he figures out moving forward makes the kicking stop, he does so. In most cases, he puts up with the rein pulling and moves through the discomfort. He might have decided the pressure in his mouth is the lesser of two evils. I will leave you with one thing to think about. No good has ever come from teaching your riding horse to move into or through pressure.
I seem to remember asking you at one point to shorten your reins a bit. I also recall that I said it right before you attempted forward movement and a turn. I can see how the misunderstanding happened. If it happens this easily among humans, can you imagine how little it takes to cause misunderstanding between you and your horse? I hope this clarifies my intention. Later we will talk about shorter rein vs longer rein. What I will say now is short does not mean tight.
Student: Are you implying that leg — of any kind that is contacting the horse- is not as important as looking and turning in the direction you want to go while opening the rein? If I’m turning to the right, is it the right leg that moves away from the horses body and the right toe turns out?
Kate: Everything you do means something to your horse. What I think you are asking about is concerning what happens to the opposite leg. It acts as an indicator to the horse as the direction not to go and the opened leg or toe acts as an indicator to the horse as a place to go. The opening of the rein on the same side as the opening of the toe invites the horse to go in that direction. You show him the direction or "way", then get out of his and allow him to move freely.
I remember you asking why people are taught to give leg pressure on the right side for the horse to turn left and vice versa and why we don’t use this method. You told me that this is how you were taught to ask a horse to turn.
The theory behind applying right leg pressure for left turn while pulling on the horses head in the direction of the turn with the left rein is that the horse will move away from the pressure from the leg and at the same time move in the direction his head is pulled. Let’s simply test the theory!
To start to understand the dynamics of the turn, I would like you to do an experiment for me. Find a partner and have her stand next to you. Spread your feet shoulder width apart. First have your friend lean on you from one side until you move. What happens and what does it feel like? Notice what your feet have to do for you to stay balanced and hold that thought.
Next, take a headstall or bridle and hold it close to where the reins attach. Have your friend get behind you, pretending to be the rider. You get to be the horse. Have her pull back on… let’s say, the left rein to mimic the way you were first taught to turn a horse to the right. What do you notice about the way you have to adjust your balance to stay upright? What happens to your feet in order to turn for your rider? How do you feel at that instant about your friend?
If you want to gain a little more experience how the horse feels, get on all fours and have your friend sit on your back. Be creative. Experiment with all of the possible combinations you can think of in order for her to turn you in one direction or another. Use what I have taught you as one of the combinations. Let me know what you discover.
Student: So, what happens if you were riding using only leg?
Kate: I am not sure I understand what you are getting at, but pushing, pulling, yanking, squeezing, driving with your leg and kicking have no place in riding with feel whether you have bridle and saddle on your horse or not. In our next lesson we will do some experimenting and see what works and what doesn’t. You may be surprised.
Student: This makes sense. Perhaps I’m just trying to understand the "less", but I’m still stuck in the "more."
Kate: I applaud you for your great questions and your efforts to work all this out. "More" will become less and less as you improve your feel. You are learning a completely new language! Give yourself a pat on the back and a break. You have learned quite a bit of the feel vocabulary already.
Q: I have been looking for a place to board my horse. It seems that at the bigger, more popular facilities, they charge more to incarcerate your horse than they do to keep them in a pasture. Why would people pay more for this? Is it better to keep the horse inside?
A: I often wonder about this too. It is not only bad for your horses emotional and mental health to keep a horse in a stall 24/7, but it is really damaging to his physical health as well. Horses need fresh air, grazing time and interaction with other horses. Unfortunately, this is rather inconvenient for the people who own them. They prefer their horses clean, without scratches and ready for a ride or the show whenever the owner wishes. It is purely for the convenience of the human. Notice how many trips the veterinarian makes to this kind of facility vs a ranch with wide open spaces for the horses to roam. I am not saying that horses don't need protection from severe weather. Bringing them in for protection from extreme conditions or illness is fine. Some people prefer to bring their horses in at night. Although not necessary, I see no real harm in this practice as long as there is a run or paddock open to the stall. One of my horses prefers to sleep in a stall when he is really tired. He has his run of the property and can do whatever he wants. It is his choice to sleep inside. My advise would be to let your horses have as much outdoor time and space with other horses as you can. They will thank you for it.
