Almost all of us use “cues” when training our horses. Today I want to talk about cues in training.
I guess I should first offer my definition of a cue so that we all know what I am talking about, irrespective of your definition.
A cue is a pattern or signal that elicits a response from a horse that requires no interpretation on the part of the horse. In other words, a cue is a signal to a horse, which requires very little brainpower on the part of the horse and only one-way communication (human to horse)
Cues need to be taught and are often all or nothing. For example, a voice command to trot is a cue. But while the word “trot” is a cue that tells the horse to trot, it does not indicate to the horse what kind of trot it should be (either a medium trot or extended trot or collected trot, etc.). There is little room for interpretation on the part of the horse. The trot the horse offers is the trot you get if you rely on the word “trot” to evoke a trot from a horse. So that’s a cue.
Now contrast that with, instead of presenting a cue, we offer a feel.
A feel requires a horse to interpret pressure (either contact pressure or energy pressure). Feel is not “on” or “off”. Feel has nuisance and can have a multitude of responses that require a horse to process and interpret the different inputs. Let’s look at the trot as an example again. If I were to ask my horse to trot from feel, I would apply stimuli from my seat, my rein, legs, and maybe my voice. It would involve adjustments to my muscle tone, my balance, my centre of gravity, the feel in one or both reins, and more. And these adjustments of pressure would be dynamic and constantly changing in a nanosecond. Each input to the horse would present a feel that the horse has to interpret and give meaning to. It requires a horse to focus in a way that cues don’t. Furthermore, by using feel I can elicit whatever type of trot I wish by adjusting the feel of each of the elements of reins, legs, and seat.
In this way, working through feel is working with a horse. It keeps available the line of communication. But working from cues is ‘trick training’ where a horse learns a response to a single command. Cues offer commands that don’t require a horse and rider doing it together. Cues are like sending a horse a text message of what you want them to do. Whereas working through feel is like leading your horse through a dance
When a horse learns to follow a feel, teaching movement is relatively easy because the horse understands how to respond to any sort of pressure. But when a horse learns to respond to cues, each new movement requires an entirely different cue. So if you teach your horse to trot on the lunge when you raise a finger on your left hand, you can’t use your finger to evoke a canter – you’ll have to use a different signal like using your other hand or pointing your finger downward and you’ll still only get one type of canter.
Sometimes feel becomes a cue. Consider a horse that has learned the aids for canter. It begins with the horse cantering from the feel of the seat, legs, and reins. But if the horse is exposed to enough repetition of those same aids or the canter is asked in the same location of the arena in the same way, very soon a horse learns to canter immediately it senses the rider preparing to present the aids. It anticipates what is going to be asked and does it even before the rider is ready.
I discourage a horse from anticipating my requests and turning the feel I present into a trick because it makes it difficult to alter the quality and precision of the movement by adjusting the feel I present. So if I begin to get ready for a canter and my horse anticipates it, I then have to interrupt my horse if the type of canter he offered is not the same type of canter I intended.
I don’t want you to think there is no place for cues in training. We all use them. For instance, many people use a cue to signal their horse should lift a leg when cleaning the hoof. I use a cue to ground tie my horse and to call them to run from the paddock and to sidle up next to the mounting block. Cues can be very useful.
Sometimes, we use cues alongside feel. For example, when neck reining in a turn the outside rein is used to cue a horse to flex to the inside while the rider’s seat and legs offer a feel for the horse to follow to turn to the inside of the turn.
However, we should appreciate them for what they are and realise their limitations. Cues do not encourage a back and forth communication between us and our horse. They are simply a command of what to do and when to do it, but NOT how to do it. The absence of the “how to do it” is fundamentally the problem of relying on cues. This video of Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire is the best example of using feel with a partner I have ever seen. I implore all of you to watch every moment - even when they are walking through the crowd at the beginning. The feel they offer each other is what we should all be trying to present to our horses. When you have finished watching it, go and dance with your horse.