Has your horse got contact issues?

HAS YOUR HORSE GOT CONTACT ISSUES?

READ THIS IF YOU WANT TO KNOW FOUR TESTS THAT PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO THE PROBLEM TO HELP YOUR HORSE

I like to quote dressage trainer Karen Rohlf when I discuss the significance of getting the horse cool and responding correctly with its posture to the bit:

“If you want to piss an animal off put a bit of metal in its mouth and pull on it!”

I like to quote this reality because there exists a chronic lack of understanding about introducing the bit and rein contact to the horse in the horse world. I know because I have been a prime example of a person with no understanding of the time, effort or methods that are needed to prepare and educate a horse to be confident with the bit. I have been that frustrated person trying to solve behaviour problems by buying bit after bit searching for “the” bit, getting my saddle perpetually fitted or buying new saddles, getting my horse massaged, manipulated….not to mention all the magic supplements and herbs mixes promising solutions……..only to discover the mothership of all my horse’s anxiety and tension was because my horse was only perceiving the bit to be a bit of metal it is mouth that caused it a lot of discomfort and distress.

Poor training of the horse to understand and be confident with the bit results in horses with bad associations with the bit. The flow on effects of this negative association sees me rate it the number one root cause of behavioural and training issues that I resolve in dressage horses. My aim for this blog is to present four simple tests and observations you can make to assess the quality of your horse’s education, understanding and confidence with the bit, plus also to spread the idea that teaching the horse to understand the bit and allowing it to get confident with the bit is more important than contact or the horse working a “frame”. In fact contact and good posture are the end results of good training not things that are introduced too early because they can be detrimental and I believe that awareness of this issue can improve horse welfare, safety and performance.

Getting the horse cool with the bit requires three key things to happen – first the horse needs to understand what the pressure signals mean that you send down the reins from your connection to their mouths, secondly they need to have a sense of control of the amount of pressure they experience in their mouth and finally they need to be able to habituate to the pressure the bit applies in their mouth and for that to happen it is important that the bit is comfortable, fits well and their dental health is maintained.

While most riders and coaches will be able to identify that the bit needs to be comfortable and dental health maintained, the need for the horse to understand the bit is poorly understood with people not respecting that the horse needs to learn and understand what you mean when you send those various different types of pressures down the reins such as stop, go, turn. There is a lack of appreciation that the horse needs a lot of careful and dedicated education to understand, respond and be confident with ideas like “maintain the contact”, “inside leg to outside rein” or “half halt” that are typical instructions and directions given out to riders of all levels by coaches in riding lessons every day. But the most poorly conceived and executed training requirement is the need for the horse to perceive that they have control over the pressure that is exerted in their mouths. For the horse to perceive control, we make the connection between our hands and the bit and the horse add the weight that creates the steady contact as the horse seeks or stretches into the connection and it is this seeking or stretching that needs to be trained. The weight is created by the horse, they therefore control the overall pressure they experience, not us…and it is this essential need that allows the horse to develop confidence in the bit.

So how do you know if the horse has a good understanding of what the bit means, has a sense of control and is confident with the bit? Well, I conduct the following series of tests and observations…because if you know what to look for the horse lets you know!

TEST 1: HOW WILLING OR RESISTANT IS THE HORSE TO BRIDLE:

If the horse is not willing or resistant to bridle you will commonly see the following behaviour - clenching its teeth and refusing to open their mouth for the bit, raising or lowering its head to avoid bridling, biting reins in anticipation etc. These actions are the horse letting you know that it is not cool with the bit and it has a negative association with this really important piece of tack that we use for communication during riding and training.

TEST 2: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AT A HALT YOU PICK UP ONE REIN?:

This is a test of how well the horse understands what lateral pressure on the bit means, if the horse has good understanding and is confident it will respond swiftly off light pressure and softly follow the feel of the rein around and laterally flex its head, it will also have a quiet mouth and if you look at the eye it will be bright and focused in your direction. But if the horse resists the pressure, so there is a delay or you have to physically haul on the rein to pull the head around then the horse has poor clarity and understanding. Other things of great importance that I look for during this test is how active the mouth becomes when this simple rein request is asked. If you see mouth opening, teeth grinding, tongue lolling, yawning, eye ball rolling or horse appears to go to sleep then you have a horse that feels experiences negative thoughts and feels stressed about this request. If a horse does not respond well to this test or responds with stress, it means you need to spend some time teaching the horse to respond to your rein aids better and it is best to do this by starting off with really simple responses such as lateral flexion.

TEST 3: CAN THE HORSE WALK TROT AND CANTER ON A LOOSE REIN?

This test lets me know if the reins are being used for speed control of the horse. If the horse rushes off or progressively gets faster during this test you know the reins have been controlling speed and reins should not be acting like a constant hand brake that holds the horse back. Reins are for communicating flexion, bend, poll height and half halt, much more refined communication than a hand brake! When they are used for a constant hand brake action the quality of all the other communications eg. Half half are compromised and dulled because the horse is being subjected to a constant pull. Overall it adds unnecessary pressure the horse has to endure in its mouth as the horse should be trained to maintain whatever speed you ask the horse to perform without holding back or constant pushing forward.

TEST 4: WHERE DOES THE HEAD GO WHEN YOU GRADUALLY RELEASE THE REINS?

If the head goes straight up, well that tells me the horse is working in a posture where its spine is NOT flexed correctly but is most likely working in a posture where its back is hollow and in an extension. It indicates all the reins have been doing is holding the head in a false frame. It can also indicate the horse is tense. What you should see when you gradually lengthen the rein is the horse following the reins and seeking or stretching downwards.

These tests will help identify glitches in horses training, negative associations and if the horse is developing the ability to work with a correct posture. Once identified it means that the problem can be addressed. They are not tests that you just do once, they are tests that provide ongoing insights and you should always observe how the horse responds to the rein aids or responds to bridling. Changes or deterioration to responses are important insights because they can mean that training may have progressed too fast, new training or movements have to introduced slower or with more care or there are physical or dental issues that are making responses difficult and stressful. Finally, if whatever you have been doing to help a solve a horse’s behaviour or contact issues has not been effective or consistent in resolving behaviour……remember, horses respond how they FEEL so solutions should be aimed at making horses feel better by allowing them to understand and experience control, not just making them compliant! Whatever you are doing should be able to explain HOW it is going to make the horse feel better and more motivated to respond to you. Therefore, if what you are doing is NOT working, remember it is not your horse being difficult it is more likely that what you are doing is just not helping your horse or your horse has an issue (e.g soundness) that is interfering in their ability to feel comfortable.

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