From: Frederike
Dear Jessica,
Three months ago I got my lovely 5-year old Friesian gelding who is a very good-natured and amicable horse. I'm so happy with him, but I must get him to be more forward and responsive to my leg-aid, because he has tension in his croup and doesn't use his hindlegs enough. I've had him treated by a physiotherapist, who says he's overburdened his left hindleg-right foreleg a little bit and who's treated him with good results. But this of course doesn't change his response to the leg-aid, although he moves more easily forward now. As a Friesian he tends to "close down" on stronger leg-aids and on the use of a whip. When I lunge him, the same problem occurs, although he does seem to have more respect for someone who drives him from the ground than in the saddle. My instructor, who is a very accomplished dressage-rider in the Netherlands experiences much of the same problem with him, and advises me to use spurs. I'm a little weary of this, because 1 I feel that if he closes down and ignores stronger leg-aids and the whip, he will come to do so on spurs as well, which would lead me on a gliding path towards using spurs every step or sharper spurs etc 2 I would like him to LIKE going forward rather then to force him forever
I would like your opinion of this, and would also like to know any advice you could give me on how to ride and train him.
Thank you, Frederike
Let's take these possibilities one at a time.
If he doesn't understand what you want, it's possible that he has been asked for too much, too early in his life. He shouldn't have a bad reaction to a whip, which, after all, is nothing but a useful extension of the rider's arm. If he has a bad reaction to the whip, he has probably had a bad experience with it. If using a whip from the ground or the saddle causes him to "shut down", the whip has almost certainly been used wrongly in the past - perhaps for punishment, or perhaps by someone who doesn't know how to longe or how to ride. Most people don't know how to longe correctly, and some people try to longe a horse whilst constantly cracking the longe whip or flapping it on the ground behind the horse to "send it forward". All this actually does is confuse or frighten the horse, and cause it to view the whip as a source of annoyance, fear, or both.
If he's shutting down, there are two possibilities that come to mine. One is that he may have been asked for too much, too early, too often, and that he shuts down in self-defense against physical stress, because he has learned that doing more and more and more will only make him exhausted and sore. The other possibility is that he is shutting down in self-defense against mental and emotional stress. This is quite common when riders tell horses what to do, but never tell them when they have done it correctly. This is common in horses of all ages. Riders should have good manners, but many riders and trainer do not! Horses will work hard, and do so very cheerfully, if the rider says "please do this" and "thank you for doing that" instead of "Do this" and "Do this again" and "Do this with more energy" and "Do this again with more energy". A horse that is not told when it has done something right will eventually lose interest in doing anything at all.
"Thank you" can be verbal and audible, but it doesn't have to be. It can also be a soft pat on the neck or a scratch on the withers, or it can be nothing more than the first and most important "YES, THAT WAS GOOD, THANK YOU!" signal: the cessation of the rider's aids. The "yield" of classical training and the "release" of natural horsemanship are one and the same - a moment of NO demands, peace and quiet, and a chance for the horse to relax and realize that the rider is pleased with whatever it just did.
I think that a whip will be much more useful than spurs in this situation. Let me explain why.
The purpose of the whip is not to punish the horse, but to enforce the polite request made by the rider's leg, with the idea that when the horse understands the leg aid, it will respond to the leg and not wait for the whip. Most horses, not only Friesians, will tend to "shut down" as a reaction to a series of escalating leg aids. When you think about it, this makes good sense from the horse's point of view: since nothing the horse does elicits a favourable or affirmative response from the rider, there's no point in doing anything at all.
The "escalating aids" method is not only unpleasant for the horse and physically tiring and frustrating for the rider - it can also be dangerous. I've seen quite a few riders fall off their horses when the horses eventually made the connection between the hard kick and the need to move forward promptly. The sequence of events is always the same: the rider continues to escalate the leg aids, the horse continues (as it has been trained) to ignore them, until the hard kick. That is, the horse ignores everything until the moment just BEFORE the kick, when the rider pulls both legs away from the horse so as to kick it really hard. The horse, aware that the kick is coming, moves forward energetically just before the kick lands... and just when the rider is precariously balanced on seatbones ONLY, with both legs off the horse. The result of this, more often than not, is that the rider's hindquarters will experience a sudden, unplanned contact with the arena footing. ;-)
Many riders are horrified at the thought of using a whip, and refuse to do so, because they don't understand HOW and WHY and WHEN to use the whip. In fact the whip can be a teaching tool, used to help your horse learn that what you want is for it to respond promptly, generously, and energetically to your LIGHT leg aid. Escalating aids desensitize the horse to light aids; the whip, correctly used, will SENSITIZE the horse to your light aids. That's exactly what you want to accomplish. Never forget that your ultimate aim is to sensitize your horse to your leg, so that he will jump forward with energy in response to a soft, brief pressure from your calf.
Remember, to teach a horse to IGNORE the leg, use this sequence: light leg - heavier leg - very heavy leg - KICK! If you want to teach a horse to RESPOND to the leg, use this one: light leg - light leg again, immediately followed by ONE sincere smack of the whip behind your leg (or, with a young/green horse, anywhere behind the saddle)! When the horse jumps forward, praise and reward him, and give him a moment to think about what just happened.
One very nice "side effect" of using a light leg aid (and using the whip only to teach the desired response, and later, only occasionally, to back up the soft leg aid if the horse appears to be having difficulty remembering the lesson) is that you are always ASKING your horse politely, not screaming at him or forcing him. He can therefore go forward when you ask him to, not out of sullen resignation but out of cheerful understanding and acceptance of your aids. ANY horse will come to dislike signals that are escalating, repetitive, and that don't acknowlege his reponse.
Your horse is still quite young, and may have a great deal more growing to do before he is in his "grown up" body. His skeleton won't be completely developed for another two or three years, or possibly even longer. As he is only five years old now, the constant changes in his body length and balance, changes that may be completely imperceptible to the rider, can affect his movement and his degree of "forward" from day to day.
Your perception of tension in the croup is probably quite accurate. He is probably also tense in other areas. If he is tense in the croup, he is almost certainly also tense in the back. These are very ordinary consequences of a training program that asks a horse for too much, too soon. You'll make better progress if you will place your focus on developing and helping him learn to use his belly muscles, so that he can become strong, tighten his BELLY, and allow his back to lift and stretch.
At this point in his training, the single most useful exercise for your yong horse will be TRANSITIONS - from walk to trot and trot to walk, from trot to canter and canter to trot, and from halt to trot and from walk to canter. To help him strengthen his belly and stretch his back, allow him to canter on a long rein as part of your warm-up. During this part of the warm-up, you should stay in a half-seat so that his back will be free.
Another factor in croup and back tension can be saddle fit. When you're riding, training, and conditioning a very young horse, you have to monitor the saddle fit constantly. When a five-year-old is in training, the shape of its back can change literally from day to day. Check your sdadle fit every day, and if your horse becomes unhappy or resistant or annoyed for what seems to be no reason at all, think FIRST about saddle fit!
There is a limit to how much use of the hind legs you can fairly ask for, especially when you are dealing with a young horse that is not physically mature and is likely to be a bit "downhill". It's best not to ask for too much, because nothing will make a horse sour and sullen more quickly than constantly asking it for more than it can give. A horse that can't ever satisfy the rider becomes frustrated and then either angry or resigned, depending on its age, breeding, and temperament. Make each ride pleasant for your horse. You can ask him to work, but ask for a little at a time, be generous with your praise and rewards, and end each session either by doing something that he does well and easily, or by asking for him to TRY something that he doesn't do so well yet - perhaps ONE step of turn on the haunches or turn on the forehand, or whatever it is that you are teaching him. Then get off and loosen his girth, praising him all the time. He'll be happy, and the next time that you ask him to do whatever it was, he will be more enthusiastic and more confident, and he'll make an even bigger effort.
Jessica
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