Keep Your Eye On the Road from Foundation to Finish

How many times have you read a wonderful article in your favorite magazine, learned all sorts of new techniques from it, to only hit huge resistance when you try these on your horse at home? Or how many times have you watched your favorite trainer at a big show doing some ‘new trick’ on a horse who is really excelling in your event, but when you try it later on your horse he explodes and slides backwards in his training and understanding? Or even, how many times have you gone for a lesson or clinic, followed your instructor to the finest detail, but got no change or positive results?

Everyone has. I feel there is a real lack today in complete knowledge of how horses progress from Starting through Finishing. We have a plethora of articles on every subject but where can one go to make sense of it all. I have clients every day bringing me excellent articles with wonderful ideas and information, which are totally not applicable to that client’s stage of development. I do my best to keep ‘the big picture’ in my mind’s eye and my clients’. It is a challenge we all face daily.

Yesterday I was giving a lesson to a talented girl on a lovely horse. This horse was six or eight but had only left his farm once before (her first lesson three weeks before). Yesterday he arrived overstimulated and reactive as I expected. (His first lesson took nearly two hours for him to settle enough to mount and walk successfully.) On this day however he came through his fear much more quickly and she was mounted within thirty minutes. Here is where it got very interesting. He started with huge Safety issues – afraid and spooking from everything. Soon he wasn’t as fearful and moved into having Comfort issues – he needed to move but wasn’t ok moving. Once he got ok about moving he wanted to Play and investigate everything. That soon turned into a Dominant powerful horse who needed stronger leadership. All of this happened within two hours.

As exciting as this was for me, the fast way her horse changed posed huge challenges for his rider. Horses (and other animals too) can change very quickly, humans unfortunately do not. We must challenge ourselves to recognize when our horse is needing more foundation in an area, and we must recognize when our horse is ready to move to the next step. Many problems are encountered by an incomplete Foundation – many many problems. But I also see many problems with well educated horses who never progress past the ‘middle’ steps in training. We have so much information today on this Middle area, more today than ever before on the Foundation, but very little on how to break through into Advanced Finishing. I want to provide a roadmap one can follow to get there.  

Foundation

We must start by building a solid Foundation for our horse to refer back to for the rest of his life. This Foundation would include Confidence building exercises (despooking); Isolate and Separate exercises to teach horse how to isolate and move each of his parts separately; and Energy excercises to teach him to bring his life/energy up (go) and let his life/energy out (stop). At this stage we ride one rein and leg at a time and many horses are in a rope halter all the way through this stage.

Horses that present spooky/fearful, no go or no stop, bucking, stiff or bent to one side … are the horses that need their Foundations filled in to keep progressing.

At the end of this Foundation program your horse should be confident in you and his enviorment; he should be able to move all his parts separately (front end, hind end, neck, ribcage); he should mirror your energy and walk/trot/canter/stop with little effort.

Middle Stage

The Middle Stage is where most horses end up and never leave. Many never progress because there are gaping holes in their foundation; others never progress because their riders have no more education. Most riders never progress out of this stage themselves; of those who are fortunate enough to have a Finished horse to ride, few actually grasp the concepts that got their horse that finish. I want to create riders who can get through the Middle and enjoy Finishing as many horses as they desire.

The Middle stage includes more challenging Confidence building involving Obstacles and Transitions; it has all the Bending and Counterbending; it includes Sideways at all gaits; it has refinements in leads and speed; we introduce both reins and legs used together and the bit (if horse was in snaffle up to now) and spur. We start with Taking Power Away exercises and leave here with Putting Power In exercises.

We can trailride, foxhunt and show. We can show in over fences classes, western pleasure, hunter under saddle, trail, reining, equitation, horsemanship but true refinement still escapes us. Acurate western riding patterns elude us. Flying changes on a strait line, tight jumper courses, world show finesse is not achieved here. Many riders become frustrated as they hit their heads on the glass ceiling of this stage – keep moving!

Finishing Stage

The Finishing Stage is where all the long hours building this solid horse gets refined and rewarded. This stage holds all the elusive maneuvers you always wanted but never understood how to create. This stage is about Refinement and Straightness. Refinement and Straightness in everything including transitions, balance, all gaits, sideways … It is about Putting Power In for more brilliant maneuvers. It is about riding with two reins and two legs all the time. It is about riding from inside of you instead of rough hand/leg/voice commands.

This stage creates the confident ‘broke’ horse we all desire. He can spin, he can jump, he can change leads. He can be so fine tuned, he is difficult for some people to ride. Many of these horses are the Saints of our industry, taking rider after rider to the top. He deserves respect and great care even when his body starts to fail. Few truly get here – I want that to change and have more horses and riders enjoying this wonderful place.

I will expound on each stage in other articles. I want you to take from here that there is a natural progression in your and your horse’s development. Take the time it takes to complete each stage, but keep seeking more knowledge. It will deepen your understanding and bond. You can achieve more than you ever imagined!