Why do most show jumpers have to haul on the reins to get their horse to check a stride when approaching a jump? Why do most team-roping horses fidget so much when waiting for the cow to be released? Why do most barrel racers launch themselves when released at the start? Why do most reining horses struggle to stand quietly when asked to wait before a spin? Why do most eventers fidget at the starting line? Why do camp drafters leap around in the yard before the steer is released?
I know there are exceptions to all of these examples. Occasionally you see a horse waiting patiently and quietly, listening to everything the rider is presenting. But for the most part, when it comes to anything to do with speed, these are the exceptions, not the rule. Most horses are jumping out of their skin waiting for the rider to let them go.
I have a fair amount of experience with show jumping, so I’m going to focus on discussing show jumpers as an example of the issue. However, it is only a small leap to extrapolate my thoughts about show jumpers to other competitive sports.
From Pony Club to World Cup, I have heard all my life how much “Dobbin The Wonder Horse” loves to jump. You can see how much he loves it by how enthusiastically he goes around the course. He loves jumping so much that the rider can hardly stop him. However, the puzzling part is if you put a few raised poles in a paddock, it is a rare horse that will spend their day jumping back and forth over them. Even Dobbin will go around them rather than over them. Since he loves to jump so much you’d think jumps in a paddock would be like Christmas to him.
The same is said of anything riders love to do fast because it's fun. For example, if horses love to cut cows, why do they need a rider on their back? If they love to run barrels why don't they run endlessly around the trees in their paddock for fun?
In my entire life, I have perhaps seen one horse that I suspect did enjoy jumping. One horse out of all the jumping horses I have ever seen! That’s a very very very tiny percentage. Yet I reckon about 50% of owners with jumping horses tell me their horse love to jump. They are convinced it's true. Why else would he want to rush at a jump?
The truth is very few horses love to jump. They rush around the courses, ignoring all but the most painful reefing of the reins because they are stressed to the max and running on adrenaline. It’s the same for most horses in events where speed is important – eventers, endurance, racing, roping, reining, camp drafting, polo, etc.
Why are they so stressed?
I believe it comes from improper preparation for speed. Asking a horse to do anything in a hurry stimulates the release of adrenaline. Adrenaline is a stress related hormone that prepares a horse for flight or fright. It makes the heart pump faster and harder. It re-distributes blood flow to the organs needed for flight or fight like lungs and muscles. It increases respiration. It puts the central nervous system on alert. It prepares the body for rapid exertion.
It then makes sense that when we want a horse to put out a fast effort we are happy for the adrenal gland to kick in. Without it, it would be a lot harder to coax a horse to do things quickly.
However, the problem with this adrenal burst is that most horses are not far enough along in their training to be able to control the consequences of all this energy. Instead of responding to the rider, horses often react to the adrenaline and associated stress and go into flight mode.
The reason why a horse enters flight mode is because asking a horse to hurry before it is ready triggers its survival mechanisms – including adrenaline release.
For example, a barrel racer is asked to stand around until it’s time to go. Then the rider suddenly spurs the horse hard to get a quick start. This instantly triggers a flight reaction, instead of a response to the feel of the rider. It’s almost out of control. The same can be said of team ropers, eventers, and many other sports. Horses are asked to go from zero to a hundred in an instant. All the horse understands is to run for his life. It is only gadgets that keep a semblance of control. There is very little softness or gentle discussion between the horse and the rider.
To give you another example, I’ll talk about what happens in the case of many horses during jumping training.
If I was to introduce a young horse to the idea of jumping there are several things I can do.
One very common thing is to run a horse down a jumping lane at liberty or on the lunge. This involves chasing a horse along a laneway to force it over a series of jumps. Even though the jumps start quite small, the act of being chased by a handler to discourage the horse from stopping or turning back, but to canter forward over each jump, causes a major flight response. So in this scenario, many horses associate jumping with flight.
Another way some horses are introduced to the notion of jumping is to start with trot poles and a grid. The focus is generally on trotting the horses over the poles - forward and in the middle of the poles. When the horse accepts this, a small cross rail is added to the last stride. The horse is expected to trot over the poles, jump the cross pole, and canter forward. Forward is strongly emphasized in this exercise.
In a relatively short time, the poles are removed and a ground rail is introduced in front of a jump that gets bigger and bigger. Again forward is the priority. It takes no time at all before the horse learns that rushing towards the jump and getting it over and done with is the way out of trouble.
In my experience, asking a horse to soften and relax in front of a jump is discouraged because there is a fear that if the rider does not push the horse forward it may learn to stop at the jump. The result is a cascade of mounting pressure on a horse to go forward, which very quickly turns into rushing at jumps. To gain some control, riders resort to strong bits or hackamores, martingales, and a lot of strong rein action. But this only adds to the horse’s stress and flight response. It is a vicious cycle.
In my view, it doesn’t have to be this way. I have worked enough jumpers to know that a horse can be forward and still soft and listen to a subtle feel from a rider. A horse can approach a big jump and still hear when the rider whispers a request for a slight adjustment without the need for strong reins, spurs, or martingales. I know this is possible. I know it.
It starts by getting the basics of focus, clarity, and softness as good as can be before even starting with ground poles. Then it continues by keeping those basics and making them even better as you introduce poles, cross rails, etc at a soft trot. Anytime a horse loses the quality of the soft trot, start again and don’t ask for more until the soft trot is re-established and consistent. Gradually go to bigger jumps, different strides, change of angles, etc – all at a soft trot. Teach a horse to turn off a jump and come back to it from a different angle. Teach a horse to stop 2 strides in front, wait, and then jump from 2 strides – all at a soft trot. In time, introduce the canter and the canter to trot to the canter in front of a jump. Start to put combination jumps together. But over and over make focus, clarity, and softness the priority, not going over the jump. The important part of jumping is what happens both before and after the jump – not over the jump. After all, jumping is only dressage with sticks dotted around the arena.
I hope you can see how the principles of how you might teach a horse to jump with a quiet mind can be adapted to the training of horses in other sports. There is no excuse for what goes on in the competition world except laziness and apathy.
Historically I have found it incredibly difficult to convince people in different horse sports to slow down and focus on the basics before advancing. It seems universal that people attracted to adrenaline-pumping sports don’t have the patience to go slow and take their time instilling the basics. As soon as a horse shows signs he can do something, people instantly put pressure on him to do it faster. It doesn’t matter if you can show them the horse will do better and be sound for longer. They don’t care.
Perhaps I have not convinced you that a horse can be trained to be relaxed for high-performance sports. But I do hope you’ll at least consider that just because a horse does something fast and out of control does not mean he loves doing it.
