Almost all of us use “cues” when training our horses. Today I want to talk about cues in training.
I should first offer my definition of a cue so that we all know what I am talking about, irrespective of your definition.
“A cue is a pattern or signal that elicits a response from a horse that requires no interpretation on the part of the horse.
In other words, a cue is a signal to a horse, which requires very little brainpower on the part of the horse and only one-way communication (human to horse).
Cues need to be taught and are often all-or-nothing. For example, a voice command to trot is a cue. But while the word “trot” is a cue that tells the horse to trot, it does not indicate to the horse what kind of trot it should be (either a medium trot or an extended trot, or a collected trot, etc.). There is little room for nuance on the part of the horse. The trot the horse offers is the trot you get if you rely on the word “trot” to evoke a trot from a horse. So that’s a cue.
Now contrast that with, instead of presenting a cue, we offer a feel.
A feel requires a horse to interpret pressure (either contact pressure or energy pressure). Feel is not “on” or “off”. Feel has nuance and can have a multitude of responses that require a horse to process and interpret the different inputs. Let’s look at the trot as an example again. If I were to ask my horse to trot from feel, I would apply stimuli from my seat, my rein, my legs, and maybe my voice. It would involve adjustments to my muscle tone, my balance, my centre of gravity, the feel in one or both reins, and more. And these adjustments of pressure would be dynamic and constantly changing in a nanosecond. Each input to the horse would present a feel that the horse has to interpret and give meaning to. It requires a horse to focus in a way that cues don’t. Furthermore, by using feel, I can elicit whatever type of trot I wish by adjusting the feel of each of the elements of reins, legs, and seat.
In this way, working through feel is working with a horse. It keeps the line of communication available. But working from cues is nothing more than bad trick training where a horse learns a response to a single command. Cues offer commands that don’t require the horse and rider to do it together. Cues are like sending a horse a text message of what you want them to do. Whereas, working through feel is like leading your horse through a dance.
I was teaching in Montana recently, and one morning, at the breakfast table, Jean said she watched a video the day before of me working her horse. This was followed by a video clip of Jean working with her horse. She was reminded that I had told her to work her horse as if they were dancing, and Jean was Fred Astaire. Watching the video and remembering my advice was a light-bulb moment for Jean.
When a horse learns to follow a feel, teaching movement is relatively easy because the horse understands how to respond to any sort of pressure. But when a horse learns to respond to cues, each new movement requires an entirely different cue. So if you teach your horse to trot on the lunge when you raise a finger on your left hand, you can’t use your finger to evoke a canter – you’ll have to use a different signal, like using your other hand or pointing your finger downward, and you’ll still only get one type of canter.
Sometimes feel becomes a cue. Consider a horse that has learned the aids for canter. It begins with the horse cantering from the feel of the seat, legs, and reins. But if the horse is exposed to enough repetition of those same aids or the canter is asked in the same location of the arena in the same way, very soon a horse learns to canter immediately it senses the rider preparing to present the aids. It anticipates what is going to be asked and does it even before the rider is ready.
I discourage a horse anticipating my requests and turning the feel I present into a trick because it makes it difficult to alter the quality and precision of the movement by adjusting the feel I present. So if I begin to get ready for a canter and my horse anticipates it, I then have to interrupt my horse if the type of canter he offered is not the same type of canter I intended.
I don’t want you to think there is no place for cues in training. We all use them. For instance, many people use a cue to signal their horse should lift a leg when cleaning the hoof. I use a cue to ground tie my horse and to call them running from the paddock, and to sidle up next to the mounting block. Cues can be very useful.
Sometimes, we use cues alongside feel. For example, when we start teaching a horse to neck rein in a turn, the outside rein is used to cue a horse to flex to the inside, while the rider’s seat and legs offer a feel for the horse to follow to turn to the inside of the turn. Later, then outside rein and leg can become a feel, but not in the beginning.
However, we should appreciate them for what they are and realize their limitations. We should be aware that cues interfere with our ability to establish a partnership with our horse.
Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse from Bandwagon 1953. Watch this clip from 1m 20s - 3m 50s. We should all strive to have a partnership like this when working with our horse.