Regulating a horse’s speed seems to be one of the most common issues that come up regularly at clinics. Either people are lost on how to get their horse to move with more energy or how to move with less energy. It appears that putting the forward in a horse or taking it out is a perpetual mystery to many people.
I want to make it clear from the beginning that in my opinion, forwardness/impulsion is a state of mind. It has little to do with how fast or slow a horse is moving. A horse could cover the ground so slowly that it is overtaken by the shadow of a tree and still be forward. Alternatively, it could be moving so fast that it breaks the sound barrier and yet still not be forward.
For the sake of this essay, I define forwardness as the ability to move freely without feeling hindered by a desire to hold back or a necessity to flee.
For a horse to be forward it has to feel comfortable inside. Emotional comfort is a pre-requisite for a horse to be forward, as it is for most things to be of quality. If it is comfortable a horses thoughts are available to be directed by the rider.
When a horse is forward it not only focuses on the rider, but it yields to the rider idea to think forward. This can only happen when a horse has soft thoughts about following the feel that a rider presents. If the thoughts are hard and troublesome, there is a worry about being forward that can either lead to resistance to moving the feet or a desire to take flight. Either way, hard thoughts lead to a separation of a horse’s feet from its thoughts.
When a horse is reluctant to move forward with freedom, then the solution is to direct the horse’s thought to be in front. Sticky feet are the result of a horse’s thoughts not being forward. Nothing will improve until there is a change of thought.
However, don’t confuse dullness to a rider’s leg with a lack of forward. They are not the same thing. Dullness is the result of a horse tuning out (insensitive) to the feel of a rider asking a horse to move. Conversely, a lack of forward comes from a horse’s worry or confusion about the feel of a rider’s leg pressure. More often than not, this worry comes from anxiety or confusion caused by the way a rider uses pressure, rather than an actual fear to move.
With a dull horse, you might have to use varying amounts of pressure to create a new, more sensitive meaning to the feel to go forward. On the other hand, when the lack of forward stems from worry about the pressure, it is wise to keep the pressure small, but persistent - and reward well for each small try.
When asking a horse to move results in a flight response, it is mostly associated with fear. Horses that mentally separate from the rider and are hard to slow up, don’t know how to yield to the pressure of being asked to go forward without evoking an adrenaline response. Too many riders try to slow the feet without calming the mind. When a rider applies the reins to give them braking power to slow a horse down, more often than not they build more anxiety into a horse. A horse that feels the need to leave will only be made to feel worse when told by a rider that it can’t leave. That’s why so many horses jog (or worse) when heading home on a trail ride.
The best approach for a horse whose mind is way ahead of its feet is to bring the feet and the mind back to the same place, where the rider is. There are various approaches to doing this, but one of the easiest and less risky ideas that work for many horses is to direct the horse’s mind to a different place than where it is going. Rather than tell a horse to stop going so fast, try using the reins to tell it to go someplace else like to the left or the right or to circle. It needs to be a small enough turn or circle in order to get a horse to want to slow its feet. When the feet slow, leave the horse alone to speed up again if it wants, then turn or circle again before it leaves in a hard way. Try to be ahead of the thought to leave. The better the timing the quicker the change will come about.
The change of direction encourages the horse’s mind to keep focus on the rider. At first, it may take a lot of work and seem like there is no progress. But in small increments, the horse’s thoughts will focus on the rider more strongly and stay for longer. Eventually, a horse will not feel the need to leave and its forward will be soft and free. But it takes practice and consistency.
Like most things relating to having a horse go well, forward is all about a horse’s soft focus (as opposed to hard focus), which is determined by its emotions. Once again, emotions drive behaviour. Is there a behaviour where they don’t?
Both Anna Bonnage and Belle have the same thoughts regarding forwardness and are working as one. Nice job Anna.