Jessica Bryce

Tag: young horse

  • 4 Keys to Feeling Like a Winner, No Matter What

    and not letting anyone else’s expectations over-ride your success

    How do we get from “green as grass” to a calm and reliable riding partner that you can take anywhere?

    It can feel like such a long journey that you’re missing out on doing the things you want to because your horse isn’t ready yet. Or maybe you thought your horse was ready so you gave it a go but it didn’t work out and now it feels like you’ve gone backwards, or stuffed it up, and don’t know how to get back to good.

    Pictured below is a horse I’ve been working with for the last few months, called Polly. She’s not a young horse (in her teens, in fact) but had been out of work for several years and we didn’t know if she’d been to Club rallies ever before.

    I wanted to take Polly to a clinic with one of my favourite trainers, but it was an expensive clinic, a long way away (about 3 hours drive) and we’d have to camp overnight there. It was a big commitment of resources to get us there and I didn’t want to “waste” my time and/or money if Polly was too stressed to be able to participate in our lessons, or not settled enough to take on new learning while we were there.

    The Test Run

    Here’s what I did: I booked us in for a lesson at my local Riding Club, and planned my schedule to allow the whole day for it, so we wouldn’t be rushing to get there on time, or needing to get home again to do something else (aka set myself up to be calm and present).

    I made sure we arrived really early, so Polly would have plenty of time to relax in the yards and take in the busy atmosphere, and for me to walk her around the grounds before our lesson time to let her become familiar with the environment. (aka set my horse up to be calm and present)

    Before our lesson started, I explained to the coach my intention was just to give her a positive experience out and about and be able to ride calmly in the arena, and that we weren’t all that fit and may not last the full hour. (aka pre-set the expectations with others involved).

    I reminded myself to listen to my horse as she showed me how she was feeling and how equipped (or not) she was to take on this kind of outing. I reminded myself not to get caught up in wanting to achieve anything in particular, and not to compromise on my horse’s wellbeing for my own ambitions. (aka. pre-set my own expectations).

    As it turns out, Polly was a superstar; she stood calmly in the yard munching from her hay bag, and she was calm enough walking around the grounds that I felt it would be okay to get on and attempt the lesson.

    Polly was somewhat distracted by the horses showjumping in the next arena while I was riding, but otherwise took everything in her stride. We didn’t finish the lesson because I felt she was getting tired and becoming resistant to moving forward (which she never is at home) so I politely excused myself from the lesson at that point.

    Success! We went home feeling like winners! Feeling like it would be okay to book in for the clinic away from home, and feeling grateful for the experience and that I stayed true to my principles and held my horse’s wellbeing as my highest priority even while expecting her to cooperate and participate in activities that were fulfilling my human ambitions!

    How to not let other people’s expectations over-ride your success

    Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all rainbows and lollipops, during the lesson when Polly was constantly looking to the outside of the circle/arena to see what the jumping horses were doing, the coach was trying to get us working on inside bend…

    Afterward, back at the yards, another rider said to me, “Gee, you didn’t last long out there.” (No doubt you can imagine the tone.)

    But by measuring our success by my own scale, by my own pre-planned expectations and intentions, and by being okay with the fact that neither achieving inside bend on the circle, nor lasting the full hour in the arena were a) not part of what I set out to achieve that day b) not required for success in my eyes… and by remembering that the opinions or observations of anyone not in alignment with the principles and philosophies that I train by, are simply an example of what I don’t want/need that serves to remind me to stay true to myself.

    The HOW is much more important than the WHAT that we do with our horses, and finding that harmony between participating in our chosen activities/equestrian sport and respecting our horse’s half of the partnership can be like walking a fine line, not always easy!

    My four keys to feeling like a winner no matter what are:

    🤩 setting myself up to be calm and present

    🤩 setting my horse up to be calm and present

    🤩 pre-setting expectations with others involved

    🤩 pre-setting expectations with myself

    There will always be those who think differently to you (and aren’t afraid to make it known) and there are always those who are relieved to see there’s someone else like them out there (although they may not always make themselves known!) Stay true to yourself and stay true to your horse, and you’ll always feel like a winner.

  • Bi-focal Vision and Environmental Familiarisation

    Did you know the horse’s eye operates kind of like bi-focal gasses? Unlike our human eyes, which have muscles that pull our lenses into different shapes to adjust our focus from near to far, in order for the horse to adjust his focus he has to raise or lower his head.

    By raising his head and looking through the bottom of his eye, the horse uses his long distance focus (think about that “periscope up” impression they do when there’s something way over there that’s caught their attention).

    By lowering his head and looking through the top of his eye, the horse focuses on what’s closest to him. (Think about how they put their heads down and snort when there’s something of concern nearby.)

    What does this mean for your horse when you take him somewhere new? The horse’s first concern is always for his own safety, and as flight-animals safety comes from being able to run away. From being able to spot danger at a distance, so that you can either get a head start on the running away, or avoid it completely by running away before it gets here.

    One of the things we always do at my Young Horse Social Days is allow time for arena familiarisation. For some of the horses who come along, this is their first outing away from home, and we want to make sure they’ve had ample time to explore and become comfortable with the arena/work space, before we try to do any groundwork or riding.

    What we often see is that the horses are first very interested in looking out of the arena. Many stop to look out the open side of the indoor, or are looking around at the other horses to see what they’re doing.

    It’s counter-productive to try to ask anything of our horse while he’s in “giraffe mode” because he’s far to consumed with being on watch for danger to be able to focus on anything else. What he needs in this stage is just time. Time to take it all in, time to process the new environment and time to reassure himself that he is safe.

    How much time, you might wondering? It can really differ from horse to horse, depending on all the obvious things, like how used to going new places he is, how many times he’s been to this venue, or how the other horses are behaving around him. It also depends on what baggage he’s carrying, his personal history so to speak, and the relationship he has with the handler. (Like children, horses will often behave differently with someone they don’t know, than someone they know well.)

    (It goes without saying that we always need to maintain our own safety, and measures can be taken to keep the out-ward looking horse under control and handler safe, that is a given.)

    After a while, we begin to see during the arena familiarisation time, is that the horses start to bring their attention and focus closer to themselves. Investigating the arena itself, sniffing the dressage letters on the wall, stopping to check out the mounting block, or pawing and sniffing at the sand.

    At this stage, when the horses have satisfied themselves that the larger environment is free from danger, and they’re feeling safe enough to lower their heads to adjust their focus to their immediate surroundings and things that are close by; that’s when we can successfully begin to ask the horse to bring his attention to the handler’s requests.

    We can now start to ask the horse for some simple tasks to see if he’s ready to move into a frame of mind that’s open to receiving learning/training.

    The value of arriving early enough to give your horse plenty of time for environmental familiarisation cannot be underestimated. It also includes workspace familiarisation time if the arena and yards/stables/float aren’t close to one another.

    For horses that are well-travelled and seasoned competitors, the process of going from high alert to a calm and ready to work state may only take a few minutes. For the young/green or nervous horse, allowing him enough time to go through the process at his own rate, before expecting any kind of work from him, can make the world of difference to his (and your) experience having an outing away from home.

    Understanding the horse’s bi-focal style of vision helps us be more patient and compassionate when our four-legged friend is going through his process. It develops the bond and trust between us and shows the horse that we see him, hear him and are willing to work with him.

  • Recognising Insecurity in the Young Horse

    and 3 principles for growing self-confidence

    Horses are herd animals… there’s safety in numbers… we’ve all heard this so many times that it’s easy to brush over it, without considering the practical implications in our everyday horse handling. Could It be, that some of the things we think of as “normal” or “basic” or “not-that-hard” could actually be making the young/green/anxious horse feel extremely vulnerable and insecure?

    It’s easy to take the simple things for granted, especially if we’re used to more seasoned horses who already know the job. Standing quietly in the tie up, lifting their hooves on request, being groomed, leading safely through gates, being washed… the list goes on. Any one of these “normal” every day tasks that we expect a riding horse to do routinely, can be a big deal for a youngster. Signs of insecurity are sometimes mistaken for naughty behaviour, and we sometimes miss the message and get frustrate d or cross with the horse, right when he needs us to be his rock of support.

    Here’s an example, I’ve just started working with a 3yo gelding I bought last year, who has been hanging out in my paddock being a horse in the herd for a while ,and is now ready to begin his foundation training. I won’t start him to saddle until he’s 5yo but there’s plenty we can get going with now that will help that process go smoothly when the time comes.

    For the past week, I’ve been bringing 3yo Oliver out of the paddock (where he lives in a herd of 5) and up to the stable/yards for familiarisation sessions. On the first day I made sure he had an equine support crew in place; our 28yo grandfather of the farm was in the yard to one side, and the dominant herd member from Oliver’s paddock on the other side. I knew both of these horses would be calm in the stable, and happy to munch on some hay without getting rattled by little Oliver’s nervous behaviour between them.

    In situations where there’s no equine support crew available, the human support crew become a critical source of comfort and leadership. By leadership I mean, example of calm and confident behaviour. Showing the young horse that you’re not worried; that you see his concerns but don’t join him in them. That you’re grounded and reliable. Staying nearby is important, so the horse can see you all the time and doesn’t feel like he’s been abandoned all alone in an environment he’ feels uncomfortable and in.

    Picture this: you’re a horse who relies on his flight response, long legs and speed to keep yourself safe. You’re used to having your horse friends around you, and you pretty much live in the same paddock/property your whole life, without any opportunity to explore new places or see new things. (There’s a lot of “same old, same old” in the lives of modern horses!)

    Suddenly the human, who you mostly like, but sometimes gives off confusing messages, takes you into the tie up/yards which is an unfamiliar and often changing environment. (Think rugs hanging up that might be there one time and not the next etc). You get tied up, which makes you feel vulnerable because now you’re in an unsettling situation and your normal method of keeping yourself safe has been taken away. (Flight response.) Then your human disappears into the tack room out of sight and now you’re feeling insecure and all alone.

    Can we blame the young/green horse for pawing at the ground, chewing on whatever he can reach, panicking and pulling back, fidgeting, calling for his friends, refusing to pick up his hooves (can’t give away control of my legs when I might need to run away any moment now!) and not being able to “behave” or stand quietly, or cooperate or receive training, in this situation?

    My 3yo Oliver has been coming into the stable every day for a week now, and that’s all it’s taken for him to be chilled out and okay in there on his own now. He’s eagerly waiting for me at the gate each day, comes in to hang out and munch on some hay, then goes back to the paddock again. Low-fuss familiarisation session in areas that will later become your work space are a great place to start for any horse, even with less young or less green horses that you’ve just bought and have come to live at a new property.

    Using these three principles of environmental familiarisation, equine support crew, and human support crew, we can help grow our horse’s self-confidence so that he can learn to be calm and independent in the work space. These principles can be valuable for all kinds of scenarios, big and small. Only a calm horse is ready to listen, learn and receive training, so there’s no gain in trying to work with a worried or insecure horse as the work won’t sink in, and both parties will feel dissatisfied with the situation.

    Taking the time to monitor and manage how your horse is feeling is the main ingredient to any successful horse training recipe. Being a grounded and reliable human support crew, someone who doesn’t get rattled or become stressed about the horse being stressed, takes practice and intention, but it’s well worth establishing the habit and the relationship you have with your horse will flourish for it.

  • Lateral Work and The Young Horse

    Lateral Work and the Young Horse

    How soon is too soon to get started?

    My answer to the question of ‘can lateral work be introduced to the young horse too soon?’ is: yes! In most situations it most certainly can, but there’s one exception to the rule. Let’s look at the three most common scenarios so that you can make an informed decision about what’s right for your horse.

    Scenario 1: The Traditionally Trained Horse

    Almost all the horses I come across these days have been trained the Traditional way, meaning using methods riders and trainers have learned directly, from in-person experience (lessons/clinics etc) with their instructors/trainers. The ‘tradition’ of riding, and horse training ‘know-how’ being passed down through the generations directly.

    As you know, this usually means sending the young horse off to an expert to be started under saddle. The trainer normally does some groundwork as part of the process, but s/he has the horse for only a short amount of time, often just a matter of weeks, so the focus is on getting the riding happening.

    In this scenario, the education of the horse is entirely left to the owner/rider and there is a lot to cover before lateral work should be attempted.

     Dressage is a progressive training system, meaning key building blocks need to be in place before we can move on to the more difficult movements.    

    Freely forward movement

    The horse must be willing to travel freely forward in all gaits, he must be ‘in front of the leg’ before lateral work can begin. This means when you ‘rev the engine’ you get a response straight away.

    A horse with a good work ethic is one that complies with the rider’s requests with no brace or tension. Tension shows itself in many ways, from the obvious tail swishing, ear pinning, head shaking, napping and baulking, to the much less obvious red flags such as breath-holding, braced back and tense jaw.

    Free forward movement requires an absence of tension in the physical, mental and emotional. This can take a long time; many, many months and sometimes years. In fact, some horse and rider combos never achieve it.

    Acceptance of contact

    In order to sculpt our horse’s body into the shapes we need him to learn for lateral work, the horse must be accepting of our use of contact. Whether bited or bitless, if the contact creates physical resistance in the horse’s body our efforts will be lost before we’ve even got started. How can I influence the horse’s hind leg with my hand? If there’s brace anywhere along the fascial chains from the jaw to the limbs then I can’t.

    The horse’s jaw is intrinsically linked to the rest of his body through chains of muscles. Most riders are familiar with the concept of the dorsal chain, otherwise known as the ‘topline’. These chains are like a string of sausages; each sausage may be its own individual, but they’ll all joined by a casing of facia that allows them to work as one. Any tensions or blockages anywhere along the chain will rob the horse of this ability to move in a whole-bodied way.

    Only when the horse is accepting of the contact can the bit be used for the subtlest form of communication and become a training tool of great refinement.

    Adjustability

    It’s too soon to start lateral work if we haven’t first got the ability to show the horse straightness. Right now I might hear you saying, ‘but, Jessica, true straightness is a long term goal and impossible for the young horse.’ That’s right, but in order to show him what straightness is like we need to have the adjustability to put him back on course when he strays. Not to say that there’s any expectation of him maintain that straightness, just that we can influence it by adjusting his vertical balance.

    Scenario 2: Not a Dressage Horse

    Not all riders have dressage aspirations or even ride the Equestrian disciplines, but the physical benefits of lateral work can help every horse learn to carry their rider in a healthier and less tiring way, keeping them sounder for longer.

    Lateral work has a big role in many working horse disciplines and is a big focal point in Western training as well as in Dressage. Having been exclusively an Equestrian rider myself, a couple of years ago I was surprised to discover there are actually quite a lot of similarities between the highest form of western riding and Classical Dressage. Different gear and different terminology, but physiologically and philosophically the same thing.

    All the same pre-requisites apply to non-dressage horses (free forward movement, acceptance of contact and adjustability) they may just be known by different names.

    Scenario 3: The Classically Trained Horse

    There are a small number of Classical Masters to be found around the world today (if you’re in my neck of the woods you may be familiar with Manolo Mendez). However; the majority of our learning as modern Classical riders come from the legacies left behind from the Great Masters of the (Neo)Classical times; through their books, theories and philosophies. If we’re really lucky we might have access to someone who has been studying Classical Dressage for a lifetime, but many of the living Masters are held closely behind the walls of institutions like the Spanish Riding School.

    If you’re a classically trained rider you will have introduced work in-hand to your young horse well before starting him under saddle. In this case, you can start riding the lateral movements much earlier as your horse already understands the aids and has learned how to carry himself, so all you need to do is translate your ground training to aids from the rider.

    Confidence

    The horse’s confidence in being ridden is the second to last pre-requisite because asking him to alter his balance in this way before he’s truly comfortable carrying the rider and has learned how to adjust himself to a dynamic load is unfair. No matter how well we prepare our youngsters for riding, it is a worrying thing for the young horse in the beginning and he needs plenty of reassuring and short sessions so that we stop before he becomes tired.

    A relaxed rider

    Finally, for our lateral work to be successful in its aims of improving the horse’s suppleness, stability and way of carrying the rider we need to be the kind of rider that’s not getting in the way. A ‘moveable’ rider is one sharing the qualities we desire in our horse of calmness, partnership, suppleness, independent balance and the absence of tension. For example, there’s no point asking our horse to move sideways if our outside leg is blocking the very same movement. It’s a life-long journey becoming the kind of rider that walks the fine line between influencing the horse and giving him room to move freely and I encourage all riders to undertake some form of ‘lateral work’ in their own training regime, such as yoga.

    Conclusion How soon is too soon to get started with lateral work with your young horse? No matter which of these three scenarios is most like your situation, if you’re wanting your horse to perform to a high level you can’t beat lateral work as a building block for your training. I’ll leave it up to you to decide when the time is right for your horse, but if you’re looking for more guidance just reach out to me

  • What can you teach me, young horse?

    What can you teach me, young horse?

    I love working with the young horses. It is so relaxing and so rewarding. We humans could learn a lot about interaction with others from our horses.

                    My routine at the moment ends with the young horses in the evening. I’ve got them in the front paddock beside the house so as soon as I get home they’re waiting for me, and who could resist those faces peering over the fence with forward ears and bright eyes. There is no pressure; my day’s work is done and I don’t have to touch the young horses if I don’t want to. That freedom makes them even more appealing, like something I could chose to do for fun.

                    I have written about Abdi in my post In Your Own Time, Horse she grew up with next to no human contact and even the simplest things like putting the halter on are a big event to her. So it doesn’t matter what we work on, every session is valuable. Every session is another drop into the cup of her life experience.

                    Older horses, or even young horses that have had plenty of handling, will fill the gap to a certain degree if their human is not present in the moment or if their signals are not clear. That just doesn’t fly with these horses of little handling. They are always aware, always watching, and they can see through any guise to the underlying intention. Every now and then I’ll have a moment of sheer awe and amazement at just how sensitive they are. Last week; for example, I was combing out a mane at the end of a session and thinking to myself how nice it was to spend time with horses and how relaxing it was to simply enjoy their company. Then I began wondering how I could reorganise my working day to get more of this time and as soon as my thoughts left the present moment the horse walked off. This was no co-incidence, it was a reaction at the precise moment of the change in me, the perception of the most subtle shift of mindset.

                    Working with these horses is more like having a conversation with them than a training session. I’m trying to stay mindful, living only in the moment with no preconceptions or expectations of what might happen and no fixed plan of what I’ll do next. Only when I am connected to myself and without mental distraction can I be truly honest and open with the horse. This is such a peaceful way of being. My actions are guided by the horse’s reactions and the feel of the energy between us. The rest of the world does not exist nor do its stresses or demands. Working this way has similarities to meditation and the feeling of calmness and relaxation lingers on after our session concludes. There is no better way to spend my last half hour of daylight each day.

                    Before sharing these special moments with our horses we first have to share them with ourselves. How many times have your hands been doing one thing while your mind is somewhere else? Or talking to someone without even looking at them? Staying present in the moment and performing tasks without mental distraction takes practice and it’s hard going in the beginning. It’s well worth the effort though, not just as a means to an end when working with horses but also as a better way of living and being around others.

    My journey with horses is intertwined with a journey within myself and many of the lessons I have learned can be applied to interactions with all other beings, four legged and two legged alike.

    Abdi’s sister, La Nina

    Originally published 16 July, 2015 for jessicabrycehorsemanship.wordpress.com