A) A simple walkover with halts at asterisks in between poles, half way over the pole, one foot over the pole, three feet over the pole etc. Close your eyes and learn to feel the pickup and placement of each foot.......... B) Walk and Trot over with transitions up and down at asterisks (Walk/Trot/Halt). The poles and cones are placed to allow many changes in directions, circles and halts............. C) The Maze. The goal is to find a pathway though without touching or going over a pole. Some areas are too tight to allow a bending turn and here you and your horse will learn turn on haunches, turn on forehand, side pass, back up while having a reason to do so.
Benefits:
- builds respect and trust
- strengthens your relationship and allows for a positive working partnership
- increases self-confidence for both horse and rider
- increase attentiveness
- gives your horse purpose and a sense of achievement
- gives rider purpose and allows for setting and achieving short and long term goals
- improves transitions
- improves balance for both horse and rider
What we will be doing
- teaching your horse when and how to take the initiative (build self-confidence)- teaching straightness (pole to tail alignment)
- developing “feel” for both horse and rider
- decreasing weaving and inconsistent striding
- strengthening topline
- creating impulsion
- teaching to increase and decrease stride
- teaching to adjust to changing situations
- learning to control every part of your horse’s body individually and simultaneously
- learning to trust your horse and your horse learns to trust you
- creating seamless transitions
- creating “round” and “lift”
- eliminating “lean” for both horse and rider
- teaching to move off leg
- teaching the horse “forward leg” “rounding leg” “bending leg”
Introducing your Horse to Poles
Use a snaffle bit to allow the flow of “feel” and communication between you and your horse, maintaining light but supportive contact.
In the beginning, measure your poles (2’ for the walk) to help your horse do it well and build self-confidence. Anytime your horse feels overwhelmed or gets “stuck” walk away then come back. When a horse feels overwhelmed he quickly loses confidence.
When your horse feels as if he is ready and is happily moving forward you can add more poles, setting them without measuring but keeping within the standard distances. Uneven spacing will help your horse to learn to adjust his stride and to adjust to changing situations.
Walk: 20 to 24 inches – may be elevated up to 12”
Trot: 36 to 39 inches – may be elevated up to 8”
Lope: 6’ to 6’6”- may be elevated up to 8”
Most trail classes are set for: Walk – 2’ Jog/Trot – 3’ Lope – 6’
Trust Your Horse and Learn “Feel” Through Your Seat
Walk over two poles with your eyes closed and feel for each footfall as it happens. Learn to feel his rhythm and cadence. Feel when he lifts up and sets down each hoof and which hoof he is using. Practice going over more poles with your eyes closed and once you can feel each footfall, start adding a halt. Mix it up. Halt with front feet over the pole, halt with one front foot over, both front and one back etc, opening your eyes only when needed. With each footfall, say out loud which foot has moved and how many steps it moved.
Begin turning and changing directions within and around the work area, leaving the area if the horse needs settling and going for a quiet walk, then back in. Add more poles to the work area without measuring precise distances. This is when your horse must start thinking for himself and taking the initiative for getting over the poles. Your horse becomes “the thinker”. This is where the working partnership begins, where the two of you begin working as a team. Your horse will begin to adjust to differing distances between the poles.
As you are turning and changing directions within the working area, use your “bending cues” and work on suppleness and precision. Think about not leaning to the inside of your turns or collapsing your hip or tilting your head to the inside. If you lean you will cause your horse to lose balance and to lean with you. Think about your shoulder being attached to his shoulder and if you drop your shoulder he will drop his. If he is dropping his shoulder to the inside of your turns on his own, pick up on your inside rein, straight up one or two inches until you have a good feel on his mouth which will raise his shoulder. Keep your shoulders up and straight, square with your hips and your horse’s ears, shoulders, hips, without turning your head or shoulders too far in the direction you are turning which will cause your horse to overturn.
Start building on your transitions as you did while learning feel with your eyes closed.
At this time we are not overly concerned about our horse hitting the poles as the horse needs to make mistakes before we can teach him the right way. Later, once your horse knows what is expected of him, you will start picking him up over the poles. You will want to teach him not to hit the poles. To do this, just before the poles, wrap your legs around him as if your legs were 10 feet long reaching under his belly and lift him up with your heels. Help him lift his belly and therefor his body and legs to get over the poles. Increase the time/distance that you ask for lift, teaching your horse to round his back.
MOVING UP TO THE TROT
Widen the spacing of your poles. Start with trotting straight lines only, coming out of the work area to settle speed, rhythm and cadence. Aim for the center of the poles and work on pole to tail alignment (straightness). Begin helping to lift your horse over the poles and you can add some raised poles which will improve rhythm and lift. Add transitions, walk to trot, trot to walk, walk to halt and start working on your trot to halt/halt to trot transitions. Make a plan before you head into the work area of where you will do your transitions and stick to it.
When you and your horse are comfortable with the trot poles and you are going over them with lift, shoulders and belly up, straight from pole to tail, start turning and changing directions as you did at the walk making sure to keep from leaning and using your bending cues. Add transitions, walk/trot/halt.
The Maze
OBJECTIVE – to travel between the poles, not allowing the horse to go over or hit any poles.
FURTHER USES OF THE MAZE - Much can be worked on and accomplished while training on the maze. Walk - trot - canter - lope overs, back ups and around, chutes (jog/lope into chute and back out etc), circles in the box, sidepass, turn on haunches, turn on forehand.
You and your horse should be working together as a team by this time. Working the maze will further this partnership and increase both of your balance and confidence.
Start with a fairly easy course leaving lots of “escape routes” (gaps between poles where your horse can get out of a sticky situation) Your changes of directions will require balanced turns with proper bending.
Use your legs for the turns and support him with light contact on an open inside rein. This is an excellent exercise for teaching “leg”
BODY CONTROL
As the course is adjusted to be tighter with less escape routes you will find that there will be areas where you cannot do a regular turn with balance and bend. This is where you and your horse learn to do turns on forehands and haunches and back ups and side passes, the poles being situated so that the horse can see what he must do to continue on the course. The course allows these maneuvers to come naturally….there is no way to make the turn without using these maneuvers. The horse and rider work together to solve the problem. They come to a spot where a regular turn will not get them around without touching or going over a pole and therefore must adjust to the course and both must learn to move parts of the body separately and simultaneously.
Once you and your horse become accomplished at the maze, you can spread the poles and build a course that allows you to trot through while practicing transitions.
TEST YOU AND YOUR HORSE’S PROGRESS
Once you feel confident that your horse is working with you, drop your reins and let your horse go with no guidance from you. See what he does. He knows that he must not go over a pole and will find his own route through the maze. Then start guiding him with your legs only and complete transitions using your seat and legs only helping him with your hands only when needed.
The Bend
Many people mistake “flection” for “bend.” Bend is lateral; flexion is giving at the pole. Bend is throughout the horse’s body from head to tail, the horse’s body is in an arc around the rider’s inside leg following the shape of a circle. To achieve bend the horse should know how to move away from pressure, specifically leg pressure (Leg applied behind the girth moves the horse’s hind end away from your leg. Leg applied in front of the girth moves the horse’s shoulders away from your leg. Leg applied at the girth moves the horse’s ribcage sideways, away from your leg).
The rider should be using a snaffle bit and two hands. The inside rein opens, the inside leg placed at the cinch/girth squeezes in an on/off motion, the outside leg goes back behind the cinch or girth and rests on the horse’s side ready to be used if necessary and the outside rein is in a position to be able to close or open as needed but never laid on the horse’s neck.
Working on a circle the inside rein opens towards the center of the circle, neither raised up nor lowered….straight across, with enough contact to feel the horse’s mouth. The feel is not a pull, if you feel you need to pull for your horse to listen to you and turn his head toward the center of the circle then use a squeeze and release motion with your fingers. If you try to give a solid pull on a horse, your horse will only resist by tensing his jaw and pull against you which will follow through to the rest of his body. With the horse’s head turned slightly to the inside of the circle, the body follows in an arc, aided by your legs. Your inside leg is at the girth squeezing and releasing, pushing the horse’s rib cage to the outside of the circle and onto your outside leg and rein. Your outside leg is laid on him behind the girth keeping the hindquarters from swaying to the outside off of the arc. Your outside rein is slightly open and has contact with his mouth and is keeping his shoulders to the outside of the circle without pulling so much that his head turns to the outside.
To move in on the circle, making the circle smaller, your inside leg and rein stay as they are, maintaining the bend while your outside rein closes slightly, coming a little closer to the neck and therefore moving the shoulders slightly in on the circle and your outside leg applies a small amount of pressure moving the hind end slightly in on the circle. Your horse moves sideways in an arc and you now have a smaller circle while never losing your bend. This movement will later become a “half pass”.
To move out on the circle, making the circle larger, the inside leg becomes more active, pushing the horse to the outside, the inside rein remains the same, keeping the bend, while the outside rein is opened (straight towards the outside of the circle) and brought further away from the horse’s neck, allowing the horse’s shoulder to move to the outside. The outside leg remains the same preventing the hind end from swaying to the outside. Your horse moves sideways in an arc and you now have a larger circle. This movement later becomes a “leg yield”.
In the beginning you and your horse will likely move in and out on the circle quickly, going from a large circle to a small circle in one swift move. Once you become accustomed to the aids and learn to “feel” how much pressure or release you need to complete the maneuver, you can slow down the movement, working on moving just slightly in or out, eventually being able to spiral in to a very small circle and out to a large circle.
Using Props and Visuals for Circles
POLES
Set poles in a circle, measuring the diameter at several points. The size of the circle being where the horse is comfortable trotting around it. Add another set of poles in a smaller circle inside the first circle. You and your horse will learn to ride a circle while having the opportunity to actually see the path you need to take to complete a proper circle and you will quickly understand the concept of “bend”. You can begin your circles keeping beside the outside poles or the inside poles and later can learn to move in and out on the circle between the two rows of poles and using the poles as guidance.
More circles of poles can be added and gaps can be left between the poles. You can use the gaps as the spot where you are to move in or out on the circle and can float in and out between the levels.
CONES
Set two in a line. Starting at a walk to establish the circle, ride circles around one cone using the center spot between the cones as the measure of distance to keep around the circumference. The distance from the center spot between the cones must be the same distance maintained around the cones. Once you are able to maintain a single circle around one cone at a walk, you can move up to a trot and can begin riding figure 8’s around both cones, maintaining two proper circles with the center spot between the cones being the spot where you straighten your horse and change the bend and direction of your horse. Later you can add more cones and travel around all of them, mixing it up, changing bend and direction constantly.
Adding further to this exercise, you can spread the cones further apart and move up to the lope, teaching your horse a simple lead change at the center spot between the cones where you straighten and change bend and direction.
Transitions with Props and Visuals
One of the most important aspects of showing Trail, whether it be traditional trail or mountain trail, is performing instantaneous and correct transitions and gaits of good quality in between. Competing at Trail is much more than going over or through obstacles. You and your horse can achieve perfect scores on your obstacles but it won’t be enough if you cannot perform perfect transitions and show excellent gaits. You are to perform specific gaits between the obstacles as well as over or through them. You are rarely given enough space to complete the transitions at your leisure and so you must be able to do them NOW. The instant you ask your horse he must respond, be done that transition and be moving at the new gait in the blink of an eye. The Traditional Trail course must ask for specific gaits with minimum distances at each gait (Jog 20 ft – lope 50 ft) to allow the judge sufficient time to evaluate the gaits. Even then, the minimum distances are short and to achieve them correctly while preparing for your next transition, you and your horse have to be really on the ball.
When there is a reason for you and your horse to complete transitions at a specific spot, your cues and the horse’s response to them come natural. You flow together, each of you doing your part, working as a team. While training, rather than randomly choosing a spot for your transition, you can plan ahead and have your transition take place at a spot that can easily be seen by both you and your horse such as at a cone or in between two poles. This is a goal for the two of you. To complete a certain transition at a certain spot and get it right.
Using poles, either going over them or around them in the maze, means that you must complete the transition properly and quickly. You must cue and your horse must respond instantly or you will hit/run over a physical barrier. There will be no such thing as “pretty good”, there will only be “blew it!” or “well done!” You both will learn to perform seamless and soft upwards and downwards transitions quickly and efficiently in succession with quality gaits in between. You will be able to complete a lope/canter transition from a standstill, a halt from a lope, lope to walk, lope to jog, all with ease.
Transitions up and down performed in quick succession is an excellent exercise for developing the topline and for shifting your horse’s weight to his hindquarters.
Overview
You and your horse will develop natural “feel”. You, as the rider, will learn when, where and how much or how little pressure to use to ask your horse to accomplish a move. Your horse will begin to not only respond to the smallest amount of pressure but will be anticipating the cues, waiting for you to give them, and responding immediately to them. Because your horse will be eagerly working with you, he will be balanced and confident and he will be having fun.
Throughout this training, your horse will understand where, what and why you are asking him to do certain things as he will have the visuals (poles and cones) to guide him. He will literally see the purpose of the exercises and will happily move through them, not just FOR you, but WITH you. When you first begin using props and visuals, you will soon see a spark of interest in your horse which will increase throughout your learning and you will feel through him his self-confidence building and a sense of achievement and happiness. Each step forward is an accomplishment for him which he can see, feel, and enjoy.
- builds respect and trust
- strengthens your relationship and allows for a positive working partnership
- increases self-confidence for both horse and rider
- increase attentiveness
- gives your horse purpose and a sense of achievement
- gives rider purpose and allows for setting and achieving short and long term goals
- improves transitions
- improves balance for both horse and rider
What we will be doing
- teaching your horse when and how to take the initiative (build self-confidence)- teaching straightness (pole to tail alignment)
- developing “feel” for both horse and rider
- decreasing weaving and inconsistent striding
- strengthening topline
- creating impulsion
- teaching to increase and decrease stride
- teaching to adjust to changing situations
- learning to control every part of your horse’s body individually and simultaneously
- learning to trust your horse and your horse learns to trust you
- creating seamless transitions
- creating “round” and “lift”
- eliminating “lean” for both horse and rider
- teaching to move off leg
- teaching the horse “forward leg” “rounding leg” “bending leg”
Introducing your Horse to Poles
Use a snaffle bit to allow the flow of “feel” and communication between you and your horse, maintaining light but supportive contact.
In the beginning, measure your poles (2’ for the walk) to help your horse do it well and build self-confidence. Anytime your horse feels overwhelmed or gets “stuck” walk away then come back. When a horse feels overwhelmed he quickly loses confidence.
When your horse feels as if he is ready and is happily moving forward you can add more poles, setting them without measuring but keeping within the standard distances. Uneven spacing will help your horse to learn to adjust his stride and to adjust to changing situations.
Walk: 20 to 24 inches – may be elevated up to 12”
Trot: 36 to 39 inches – may be elevated up to 8”
Lope: 6’ to 6’6”- may be elevated up to 8”
Most trail classes are set for: Walk – 2’ Jog/Trot – 3’ Lope – 6’
Trust Your Horse and Learn “Feel” Through Your Seat
Walk over two poles with your eyes closed and feel for each footfall as it happens. Learn to feel his rhythm and cadence. Feel when he lifts up and sets down each hoof and which hoof he is using. Practice going over more poles with your eyes closed and once you can feel each footfall, start adding a halt. Mix it up. Halt with front feet over the pole, halt with one front foot over, both front and one back etc, opening your eyes only when needed. With each footfall, say out loud which foot has moved and how many steps it moved.
Begin turning and changing directions within and around the work area, leaving the area if the horse needs settling and going for a quiet walk, then back in. Add more poles to the work area without measuring precise distances. This is when your horse must start thinking for himself and taking the initiative for getting over the poles. Your horse becomes “the thinker”. This is where the working partnership begins, where the two of you begin working as a team. Your horse will begin to adjust to differing distances between the poles.
As you are turning and changing directions within the working area, use your “bending cues” and work on suppleness and precision. Think about not leaning to the inside of your turns or collapsing your hip or tilting your head to the inside. If you lean you will cause your horse to lose balance and to lean with you. Think about your shoulder being attached to his shoulder and if you drop your shoulder he will drop his. If he is dropping his shoulder to the inside of your turns on his own, pick up on your inside rein, straight up one or two inches until you have a good feel on his mouth which will raise his shoulder. Keep your shoulders up and straight, square with your hips and your horse’s ears, shoulders, hips, without turning your head or shoulders too far in the direction you are turning which will cause your horse to overturn.
Start building on your transitions as you did while learning feel with your eyes closed.
At this time we are not overly concerned about our horse hitting the poles as the horse needs to make mistakes before we can teach him the right way. Later, once your horse knows what is expected of him, you will start picking him up over the poles. You will want to teach him not to hit the poles. To do this, just before the poles, wrap your legs around him as if your legs were 10 feet long reaching under his belly and lift him up with your heels. Help him lift his belly and therefor his body and legs to get over the poles. Increase the time/distance that you ask for lift, teaching your horse to round his back.
MOVING UP TO THE TROT
Widen the spacing of your poles. Start with trotting straight lines only, coming out of the work area to settle speed, rhythm and cadence. Aim for the center of the poles and work on pole to tail alignment (straightness). Begin helping to lift your horse over the poles and you can add some raised poles which will improve rhythm and lift. Add transitions, walk to trot, trot to walk, walk to halt and start working on your trot to halt/halt to trot transitions. Make a plan before you head into the work area of where you will do your transitions and stick to it.
When you and your horse are comfortable with the trot poles and you are going over them with lift, shoulders and belly up, straight from pole to tail, start turning and changing directions as you did at the walk making sure to keep from leaning and using your bending cues. Add transitions, walk/trot/halt.
The Maze
OBJECTIVE – to travel between the poles, not allowing the horse to go over or hit any poles.
FURTHER USES OF THE MAZE - Much can be worked on and accomplished while training on the maze. Walk - trot - canter - lope overs, back ups and around, chutes (jog/lope into chute and back out etc), circles in the box, sidepass, turn on haunches, turn on forehand.
You and your horse should be working together as a team by this time. Working the maze will further this partnership and increase both of your balance and confidence.
Start with a fairly easy course leaving lots of “escape routes” (gaps between poles where your horse can get out of a sticky situation) Your changes of directions will require balanced turns with proper bending.
Use your legs for the turns and support him with light contact on an open inside rein. This is an excellent exercise for teaching “leg”
BODY CONTROL
As the course is adjusted to be tighter with less escape routes you will find that there will be areas where you cannot do a regular turn with balance and bend. This is where you and your horse learn to do turns on forehands and haunches and back ups and side passes, the poles being situated so that the horse can see what he must do to continue on the course. The course allows these maneuvers to come naturally….there is no way to make the turn without using these maneuvers. The horse and rider work together to solve the problem. They come to a spot where a regular turn will not get them around without touching or going over a pole and therefore must adjust to the course and both must learn to move parts of the body separately and simultaneously.
Once you and your horse become accomplished at the maze, you can spread the poles and build a course that allows you to trot through while practicing transitions.
TEST YOU AND YOUR HORSE’S PROGRESS
Once you feel confident that your horse is working with you, drop your reins and let your horse go with no guidance from you. See what he does. He knows that he must not go over a pole and will find his own route through the maze. Then start guiding him with your legs only and complete transitions using your seat and legs only helping him with your hands only when needed.
The Bend
Many people mistake “flection” for “bend.” Bend is lateral; flexion is giving at the pole. Bend is throughout the horse’s body from head to tail, the horse’s body is in an arc around the rider’s inside leg following the shape of a circle. To achieve bend the horse should know how to move away from pressure, specifically leg pressure (Leg applied behind the girth moves the horse’s hind end away from your leg. Leg applied in front of the girth moves the horse’s shoulders away from your leg. Leg applied at the girth moves the horse’s ribcage sideways, away from your leg).
The rider should be using a snaffle bit and two hands. The inside rein opens, the inside leg placed at the cinch/girth squeezes in an on/off motion, the outside leg goes back behind the cinch or girth and rests on the horse’s side ready to be used if necessary and the outside rein is in a position to be able to close or open as needed but never laid on the horse’s neck.
Working on a circle the inside rein opens towards the center of the circle, neither raised up nor lowered….straight across, with enough contact to feel the horse’s mouth. The feel is not a pull, if you feel you need to pull for your horse to listen to you and turn his head toward the center of the circle then use a squeeze and release motion with your fingers. If you try to give a solid pull on a horse, your horse will only resist by tensing his jaw and pull against you which will follow through to the rest of his body. With the horse’s head turned slightly to the inside of the circle, the body follows in an arc, aided by your legs. Your inside leg is at the girth squeezing and releasing, pushing the horse’s rib cage to the outside of the circle and onto your outside leg and rein. Your outside leg is laid on him behind the girth keeping the hindquarters from swaying to the outside off of the arc. Your outside rein is slightly open and has contact with his mouth and is keeping his shoulders to the outside of the circle without pulling so much that his head turns to the outside.
To move in on the circle, making the circle smaller, your inside leg and rein stay as they are, maintaining the bend while your outside rein closes slightly, coming a little closer to the neck and therefore moving the shoulders slightly in on the circle and your outside leg applies a small amount of pressure moving the hind end slightly in on the circle. Your horse moves sideways in an arc and you now have a smaller circle while never losing your bend. This movement will later become a “half pass”.
To move out on the circle, making the circle larger, the inside leg becomes more active, pushing the horse to the outside, the inside rein remains the same, keeping the bend, while the outside rein is opened (straight towards the outside of the circle) and brought further away from the horse’s neck, allowing the horse’s shoulder to move to the outside. The outside leg remains the same preventing the hind end from swaying to the outside. Your horse moves sideways in an arc and you now have a larger circle. This movement later becomes a “leg yield”.
In the beginning you and your horse will likely move in and out on the circle quickly, going from a large circle to a small circle in one swift move. Once you become accustomed to the aids and learn to “feel” how much pressure or release you need to complete the maneuver, you can slow down the movement, working on moving just slightly in or out, eventually being able to spiral in to a very small circle and out to a large circle.
Using Props and Visuals for Circles
POLES
Set poles in a circle, measuring the diameter at several points. The size of the circle being where the horse is comfortable trotting around it. Add another set of poles in a smaller circle inside the first circle. You and your horse will learn to ride a circle while having the opportunity to actually see the path you need to take to complete a proper circle and you will quickly understand the concept of “bend”. You can begin your circles keeping beside the outside poles or the inside poles and later can learn to move in and out on the circle between the two rows of poles and using the poles as guidance.
More circles of poles can be added and gaps can be left between the poles. You can use the gaps as the spot where you are to move in or out on the circle and can float in and out between the levels.
CONES
Set two in a line. Starting at a walk to establish the circle, ride circles around one cone using the center spot between the cones as the measure of distance to keep around the circumference. The distance from the center spot between the cones must be the same distance maintained around the cones. Once you are able to maintain a single circle around one cone at a walk, you can move up to a trot and can begin riding figure 8’s around both cones, maintaining two proper circles with the center spot between the cones being the spot where you straighten your horse and change the bend and direction of your horse. Later you can add more cones and travel around all of them, mixing it up, changing bend and direction constantly.
Adding further to this exercise, you can spread the cones further apart and move up to the lope, teaching your horse a simple lead change at the center spot between the cones where you straighten and change bend and direction.
Transitions with Props and Visuals
One of the most important aspects of showing Trail, whether it be traditional trail or mountain trail, is performing instantaneous and correct transitions and gaits of good quality in between. Competing at Trail is much more than going over or through obstacles. You and your horse can achieve perfect scores on your obstacles but it won’t be enough if you cannot perform perfect transitions and show excellent gaits. You are to perform specific gaits between the obstacles as well as over or through them. You are rarely given enough space to complete the transitions at your leisure and so you must be able to do them NOW. The instant you ask your horse he must respond, be done that transition and be moving at the new gait in the blink of an eye. The Traditional Trail course must ask for specific gaits with minimum distances at each gait (Jog 20 ft – lope 50 ft) to allow the judge sufficient time to evaluate the gaits. Even then, the minimum distances are short and to achieve them correctly while preparing for your next transition, you and your horse have to be really on the ball.
When there is a reason for you and your horse to complete transitions at a specific spot, your cues and the horse’s response to them come natural. You flow together, each of you doing your part, working as a team. While training, rather than randomly choosing a spot for your transition, you can plan ahead and have your transition take place at a spot that can easily be seen by both you and your horse such as at a cone or in between two poles. This is a goal for the two of you. To complete a certain transition at a certain spot and get it right.
Using poles, either going over them or around them in the maze, means that you must complete the transition properly and quickly. You must cue and your horse must respond instantly or you will hit/run over a physical barrier. There will be no such thing as “pretty good”, there will only be “blew it!” or “well done!” You both will learn to perform seamless and soft upwards and downwards transitions quickly and efficiently in succession with quality gaits in between. You will be able to complete a lope/canter transition from a standstill, a halt from a lope, lope to walk, lope to jog, all with ease.
Transitions up and down performed in quick succession is an excellent exercise for developing the topline and for shifting your horse’s weight to his hindquarters.
Overview
You and your horse will develop natural “feel”. You, as the rider, will learn when, where and how much or how little pressure to use to ask your horse to accomplish a move. Your horse will begin to not only respond to the smallest amount of pressure but will be anticipating the cues, waiting for you to give them, and responding immediately to them. Because your horse will be eagerly working with you, he will be balanced and confident and he will be having fun.
Throughout this training, your horse will understand where, what and why you are asking him to do certain things as he will have the visuals (poles and cones) to guide him. He will literally see the purpose of the exercises and will happily move through them, not just FOR you, but WITH you. When you first begin using props and visuals, you will soon see a spark of interest in your horse which will increase throughout your learning and you will feel through him his self-confidence building and a sense of achievement and happiness. Each step forward is an accomplishment for him which he can see, feel, and enjoy.