California Riding Magazine • May, 2009

Ask Charles Wilhelm
Being Consisent.

Reader: Sometimes when I ride my horse I have great rides. At other times the rides are not good at all. Can you explain this and offer some suggestions to help?

Charles: In training a horse, on the ground or riding a horse, or having a relationship with a horse, there are major factors involved in speaking the horse’s language, in other words, communicating with the horse. Consistency in this communication is a huge factor. Consistency in a horse’s life is very important. What does consistency mean?

Consistency means that we do things in the same way each time. For example, picking up a rein or putting a leg on the horse. Each time we should ask and execute cues in the same way. That is being consistent.
Sometimes a friend will show us a different way of doing things. For example, to pick up a lead or ask our horse to move its hind quarters over in a different way than we usually ask. This may be good but it is not consistent with what we usually do and it may take our horse some time to become accustomed to this new cue.

Consistency may be lost when we have had a bad day or are not feeling well. If our cues are always consistent, even when we don’t feel well, we can ride in a consistent way and have a good ride. We should not let how we feel interfere with how we work with and train our horse. For example, if you have a major headache and you go out to see your horse and the horse steps into your space and you ignore it and you don’t correct it like you always do, then you are being inconsistent with your training. This means you are inconsistent with your relationship with your horse and your horse will not understand and will step into your space again. When we teach a horse to respect our space, we have to maintain that relationship. There is no time that the horse will go on automatic pilot and assume what you want and make its own corrections. So, consistency is a big factor.

Don’t Be Lazy

One of the things I see at the ranch is that when some riders in class are feeling tired, stressed or just not enthusiastic about riding that day, they are more lazy about standards and what is expected from the horses. They do not initiate cues properly, or do it halfheartedly. That brings up something else that comes up regularly in classes - not following through. In other words, the owner puts a leg on the horse and the horse does not listen. Consistency says that when I put a leg on the horse, that means the horse should move, whether it is a side pass, moving the shoulders or hips over or whatever, it should happen. The cue means something and the follow up is important to make sure the horse moves off the leg. When we don’t follow through, the horse learns that he need not always listen to and obey the cue.

Sometimes the rider’s attitude can interfere with the communication with the horse and the result is that we don’t have such a good ride. A rider’s good, positive attitude can influence the quality of the ride. Even if the horse didn’t perform 100 percent, if the rider’s attitude is upbeat, the ride will be a good ride. Also, if we are not in a good mood, we tend to be less forgiving if our horse does something wrong. We may not follow through on our cues, become impatient or even take our mood out on the horse. These are all things to be aware of.

When the quality of our rides varies so much from day to day, we need to think about all these things. Number one, what is our attitude as we approach the ride? Number two, are we consistent in the way we communicate with the horse? Number three, are we consistently following through with our cues and getting the horse to respond to our leg pressure, rein aids or whatever cues we are using with the horse?

One more thing to consider is that horses have their bad days too. They can be having a bad hair day, breakfast didn’t set well, or whatever as they are flesh and blood as well. That is why I always have my clients warm up their horses before they come into class. We lunge or round pen to get the freshness off the horse, get it thinking about working and listening to the cues, and also to see if the horse is off. Knowing and understanding your horse, what is normal and what may be off is very important. Thinking about these things and doing the best we can to stay consistent will ensure that when we get into class or out on the trail, we will have a better ride.

God Bless,

Charles Wilhelm
Remember It’s Never, Ever the Horse’s Fault