Not long ago I was helping a girl whose horse was anxious about being separated from his paddock companion. My student rode her horse to the back gully of her property and I walked alongside, while the companion horse was waiting at the gate to the adjacent paddock.

There were a couple of moments when the gelding didn’t want to ride away from his friend, but Natalie handled it really well and made a good change. The ride was uneventful until we headed back towards the paddock where the companion horse was waiting. Even then Nat did a great job of keeping her horse mentally with her. But when the other horse called out and the gate was in sight, Nat’s horse became very excited and threatened to bolt homeward.

I grabbed one rein while I stood next to the horse and Nat stayed in the saddle. I told Nat to just sit there and let me take control of the reins. I held the rein firmly and asked Indy to shift his weight and soften. I waited and waited. Every time Indy leaned on my hand, I firmed up even more and waited. It took less than 60 sec for him to melt into my hand. He had hardly moved his feet at all, yet he couldn’t have made a bigger change in his energy level if had just run a 100-mile race. I released my grip on the rein and told Nat she was okay to ride him back home now. He was a perfect gentleman the rest of the way (even when his friend called out again). When we finished and were talking, Nat asked me what I had done to get the change. She thought I had done hardly anything compared to how busy she was working to keep him together, yet I got a better change.

It was an excellent observation and a good question. And I believe what I did is the basis of everything I try to get across to folks. It is the difference between whether a horse hates his work or is okay with it. It is the difference between lightness and softness. It is the thing that eludes most horse people and even more horses.

What I did with Indy was wait until he had a quiet mind. I released for the quiet mind.

So what is a quiet mind?

I believe a quiet mind is a restful mind, a settled mind and a mind that is not working on a plan. A quiet mind is not a sleepy mind or a dull mind. It is alert. It is waiting. But it is peaceful.

When a horse is bothered his mind cannot be quiet. An anxious horse has a busy mind because it is constantly working on evasions and resistances. His inside bubbles away and churns over at high speed. Many people confuse a horse that is “light” on the aids with one that is soft. But being light on the aids can be an evasion, and evasion is not a characteristic seen in horses with quiet minds. Being “light” is about the outside of the horse. But softness requires a quiet mind in a horse. Softness is about the inside of the horse. A horse can be light, but not soft. However, a horse cannot be soft without being light.

I think when we talk about the “happy” horse; we are really talking about a horse that has a quiet mind – his insides are calm. When you see a horse working that has a busy mind, you can be sure he does not feel okay inside. Whether or not a horse has a quiet mind is my personal test of a horse that is comfortable with the training.

The trick becomes to recognize a horse whose mind is quiet. Many people confuse dull or shut down horses with quiet. But I think such horses are quiet only on the outside and have quite a lot of turmoil inside. Their minds are not quiet, just their feet. You can usually tell this by the lack of responsiveness in such horses.

I have spent many years trying to tell people about what is a soft horse or what is a horse like when he feels okay. It’s always been a struggle to put these ideas into concepts that have meaning for people. But when I really break it down to the essentials I realize I am just talking about a horse having a quiet mind.

The horse does not have a quiet mind, but I’m working on getting his mind centred and calm so that his body can be relaxed and ready.