I was asked a question about the process of teaching a horse to be light on the reins. But before I answer that question I have to talk about a couple of things.

This first part is going to get a little cerebral. But I believe it is important to understand because understanding how to teach a horse softness MUST start with understanding what is softness. So forgive me if this first part gives you a headache. The next post (part 2 in a few days) will outline more of the practical principles involved in teaching softness.

Firstly, I make a distinguish between “lightness’ and ‘softness’. Many people think they are the same thing. But not me. So here is how I define the difference. Lightness is a physical response to pressure. That means a horse will move how we want when we apply a small amount of pressure. On the other hand, softness is an emotional response to pressure or feel. That means a horse will respond to a small amount of pressure AND feel emotionally comfortable with it. To add to the distinction, lightness usually involves avoidance or fleeing from pressure, whereas softness is most often when a horse goes with the pressure. A soft horse will feel comfortable and give to a light pressure. But a horse that is only light won’t feel emotionally comfortable and will be trying to escape pressure. There is very little value in teaching a horse to be just light but teaching a horse to be soft should always be our goal.

I know that explanation might take a little bit of thoughtful analysis, but it is a distinction well worth understanding.

The second thing I believe we need to understand is that the process of teaching a horse to be soft will depend on the baggage a horse carries. For example, I most likely would approach the process differently with a very young horse that was inexperienced with the idea of yielding to a feel than I would with a more experienced horse in which training had created bad habits.

I am going to attempt the impossible task of explaining these ideas by using a single example of teaching a horse to lead from a feel on the lead rope. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out how to apply these principles to train a soft levade in your horse.

The first step is to distinguish between knowing if your horse is leading from lightness (ie, yielding to a small amount of pressure but with ill feelings) or from softness (ie, yielding to a small amount of pressure and with okay-ness).

A horse is always trying to do what it is thinking. So softness comes from a horse having the same idea to do the thing we are asking it to do. Leading with softness means the feel on the lead rope motivates the horse to think that it has better ideas than to stand still. Once the horse lets go of the thought to stand still the lead rope then helps the horse to think that going with the feel of the lead rope is a better idea. It’s not that standing still is a bad idea, just that going with the feel of the lead rope is a better idea.

On the other hand, lightness entails obedience where the horse follows the feel on the lead rope because it thinks NOT going with the feel is a bad idea and will result in more trouble. So it goes with the feel of the lead rope because it worries not moving is a bad idea instead of thinking moving is a good idea. It’s a subtle but extremely important difference. Lightness involves worry, but softness does not.

There are a few ways to know if your horse is responding from lightness or softness. In principle, the transition from an old thought to a new thought is the most obvious. For example, people often think that softness is about how little pressure from the lead rope or reins or rider’s legs is required to evoke a change of thought. But these movements can cause mental and physical tightness and rushiness because of the horse’s ill feelings. 

An alternative means of testing if a horse is light or soft is to interrupt them in mid-thought and see how much trouble that creates. For example, what happens if I apply a feel on the lead rope for a horse to walk forward 3 steps and back up 2 steps with no halt in between? If the horse has soft thoughts the transition from forward to back will weigh almost nothing and show almost no sign of resistance or anxiety. But if the horse is only light, there will be signs of resistance and worry in the transition (eg., change in posture or backing crookedly) even though you apply only a small amount of pressure or feel.

One last thing I want clarify is that ‘softness’ and ‘soft feel’ are not the same thing. Many people (including professionals) confuse the two concepts. I don’t want to take more space on this topic except to say that soft feel is much closer to lightness than softness. It is not a substitute for softness and not something I teach or put much thought or effort into.

This is a very brief and cursory explanation I believe we need to understand how to train softness in a horse. I could go on in much more depth about these concepts. However, now that you have a rudimentary understanding of lightness and softness, the next post will try to cover the principles of teaching softness to a horse.

NEXT: Teaching Softness - Part 2