Interview at the 2020 Washington state horse expo - The Northwest horse source

Evan shares his thoughts on horse saftey. Raising our standards on our horses education, from the trail rider to the show arena. Help your horse how to understand how to feel safe with you and he will be less likely to feel the need to protect himself.

Trainer’s Corner - Giving your horse the responsibilities

Does your horse take the initiative in his work? Why should we ask our horse to be responsible? Do you allow your horse to be accountable for his actions, and how do you do that? I believe the only way we can make a willing partner of our horse is by asking him to be responsible for his actions in our partnership. So, how do we ask our horse to be responsible?

Let’s start here: have you heard the popular horsemanship saying, “Do less to get more?” I like it a lot, but I think sometimes it’s misunderstood. There’s a place you are looking for with your horse where you can eventually do less.

For example, when you ask him to move over you want him to roll his own body over. This is because horses have a brain, nervous system, and muscles and are the ones that ultimately make the choice to execute the movement. In a true partnership with our horse, all we should do is present an idea to the horse, create a feel, and then the horse does it. Refinement comes through the creation of precision.

Now, think about when you work your horse. What does it look like? Do you move your hands and legs (or the lead rope) and try to make the horse do whatever it is you’re asking him to do? Ask yourself the following questions: Are you doing it? Are you forcing the horse to do whatever you want him to do? Or is the horse choosing and executing it himself? Often, we do not leave any responsibility up to our horses. We don’t wait!

This is one of the main themes we want to focus on as we advance our horsemanship. Get your horse to a place where, when you ride him, it doesn’t look like you’re making him work. Horse and rider should look like one; there should be no perceptible movements from the rider, and the two look like partners in a dance. This is what separates someone who just gets by with his horse from someone exceptional who has formed a true partnership with his horse. It’s feel.

When I ride my horse, I keep this on my mind. I don’t want to force maneuvers. I want my horse to pick up on the cues and choose to do them. I have my body, they have theirs. Eventually all I want to do is create a feel and a direction and then the horse decides.

At times we’ll have to use a rein, our legs, create pressure, release pressure, etc., but for now it’s not just what movements we’re doing. It’s how we’re teaching the horse to be an equal partner.

In fine horsemanship everything ultimately has to be the horse’s idea. That’s what every great horseman will tell you. You’ve got to get the horse to turn loose to you. It’s easy to get your horse to respect your hands and legs, but the key is to get your horse to hook onto a job. You create the feel and your horse takes over the responsibility.

You are always there to support the horse but there’s a place where they find their own way through things. They have to support themselves a little bit and control their emotions. This is because when we get into a situation where the pressure’s on, they need to be able to think their way through it.

So, getting back to the phrase I quoted at the beginning, I don’t look at it as us doing less; I look at it as asking the horse to do more. It’s about putting more responsibility on our horse so we can do less.

Some people do very little all the time, but they end up just idling—there’s nothing happening, there’s no connection, there’s no life in their horse. Training’s not about doing less and then the horse also does less. It’s about the horse taking on the responsibility. Otherwise, pretty soon, your horse is just dragging his feet in the mud.

So how do we start giving our horse more responsibility? By directing the horse more and correcting less. Correcting is telling. This is where humans have a hard time. The key is to learn how to direct the horse and allow him to take the responsibility. Your horse will learn over time to correct himself.

You need to make it feel good to your horse to be on the task at hand, and difficult to be off task, whatever the objective might be. In the beginning the tasks are very simple but they progress over time. The ultimate result is a horse who understands his job— a true willing partner.

Published October 2019 Issue of The Northwest Horse Source

Trainer’s Corner - The value of groundwork

Most horsemen today know the importance of training a horse through quality groundwork. But I think it’s important to have a deeper understanding of why groundwork prepares a horse to be ridden.

With every horse I plan to ride, I first check them out on the ground. Working the horse on the ground reveals if there is any trouble in the horse before I get on. If the horse is pulling on me, crowding me, if they are tight or tense, if they are inaccurate with their movements, if their movements are about self-preservation, or even if it’s just not good work, I’m not going to get on the horse and neither should you. I am going to make sure my horse is operating well on a lead rope on the ground before I ride, and I will explain why here.

Groundwork is not something you do because you are too scared to get on. It has a lot more to do with whether you are going to be successful or not when you get on their back. If things are operating well on the ground, you can have pretty high expectations when you get on their back. I’m not interested in just taking a horse for a ride and surviving. I want to improve the horse, building the relationship with them that I have begun on the lead rope.

Whether you’re riding the horse or working them on the ground, your true success or failure comes from your ability to make the horse feel a certain way inside and help them be balanced on their feet. Groundwork has nothing to do with lunging a horse in mindless circles to wear it out, nor does it have anything to do with desensitizing a horse until he or she is numb and dull. It’s all about getting the horse’s mind hooked onto a particular pattern and helping them turn their feet loose to you and take direction.

That’s all there is to it. If you cannot do this on the ground, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you will not be able to get it done on their back.

Always first and foremost… it’s about the feet! Regardless of what you do with the horse, if they’re comfortable placing their feet, the tension, the tightness, the fear, all go away. Even if you get a horse that’s very green or fearful and you do something that’s going to scare them, you’ve got to be able to shut the feet down, which are hooked to the rest of the horse.

Once you have the feet, you need to be able to hook the horse’s mind on a job, and the horse needs to take responsibility for whatever job you give them. Regardless of what you want your horse to do, once you learn how to get the horse’s mind on a particular task and then help the horse understand how to be balanced through it in their feet mechanically, you’ve got them. It’s that simple.

When you learn to create pressure and release in time for certain things in the feet, the horse will start to recognize that. They are smart animals; we are often the ones that struggle. Once you understand the pattern in the feet, they feel safe and comfortable and then the mind starts to turn loose to you. The next piece is to get the horse’s mind to follow you. When you create pressure, they recognize it and know what to do. That’s how things work with the horse. There’s no need for lunging in mindless circles, or endless desensitizing.

As I’ve learned more and more about groundwork over the years, I’ve realized how incredibly deep the subject is. A person’s groundwork can never be too good. It’s just as much of a refinement process as anything else you do with the horse.

As with anything, whether it’s brushing your teeth or tying your shoes, the foundational things you have in your life need to be refined over time. For example, what kind of feel are you going to use when your brush your teeth? What kind of thought are you going to put into toothpaste? Groundwork is no different. Understand that it’s not what you do, but the way you do it and with what kind of feel, and how you make the horse feel while you do it. Once you start to get an understanding of these things, I promise you that it will all carry over to your riding, taking it to another level.

Published September 2019 Issue of The Northwest Horse Source

Trainer’s Corner - Mobilizing the Poll

Helping The Horse Feel Good Inside and Out

There is a direct connection between what goes in a horse’s mind what they are willing and able to do with their body. To me, it is impossible to consider the anatomy and biomechanics of the horse, without other more subtle things going along with it. They are connected. Because of this, it is impossible for the horse, whether they are with a human, another horse or by themselves, to think a thought and not have that manifest itself in their physical body. For example, it is impossible for them to be in an emotional state of fear or in a state of curiosity without that also showing up in their physical expression. This is what is meant when you hear the phrase “horses never lie.”

When the human comes into play, they become part of the horses world. No rider, whether skillful or clumsy, can be around a horse without affecting the horse in a multitude of ways. The rider brings in a body, but also other ideas, goals, and positive or negative emotions. This combination of thoughts and attitudes coming from the rider, where it meets what is coming from the horse, will dictate what we see happening.

“Mobilizing the poll” is one of the first things an aspiring horseman needs to learn. In the 1820s master horseman François Baucher called it “jaw flexions”;  Ray Hunt called it “a soft feel.” The action of mobilizing the poll is when the horse swivels their head at the poll joint so that they tuck their inside jowl under their throat. They aren’t tucking their nose in per say, nor do they tilt their head. The purpose of mobilizing the poll is to help the horse release any brace that they may be holding in the muscles of their neck. Softening the poll feels good to the horse, so they learn to enjoy it. When the horse feels good physically it helps them feel good mentally and emotionally. Often, you get to the inside of the horse by working with the outside.

The jaw (temporomandibular joint or TMJ), as well as the “atlanto-occipital joint” (first joint of the spine) and the “atlas-axis joint” (second joint of the spine) all need to stay relaxed throughout the training process. Any tension in the jaw or poll will create tension or brace in their back, hinder saliva flow, disconnect the reins from the hindquarter, lock the front feet down and cause the withers to drop.

Here’s how to start the process: Standing at the side of the horse, near their head, I’ll place one hand over the bridge of their nose and my other hand underneath the jaw on the other side of their face. Using a slight torquing action, I will try to encourage the jaw to relax and move under the throatlatch area just a little bit, the same as if they were laterally flexed in that direction. If the horse braces against my hands, I will hold this slight pressure until they releases their atlas-axis joint where their head is attached to their spine. Then I’ll rub on their head and let them know they did well. This is just one step in manipulating the horses physical structures from the ground, but it is a crucial step. The goal is to teach the horse that they can move their jaw and look to the side and that and that when they do, it will feel good to them and help them relax.

Now how do we apply this when using the reins of the snaffle bit? To mobilize the poll in a snaffle, you’ll use a slight up and in motion with one rein. If the horse drops their outside ear and over bends in the neck, I’ll use the other rein to support the outside of the neck to prevent this and wait for the horse to relax laterally at the poll joint. Eventually lifting the rein should be enough to roll the poll in that direction.

When a horse rolls the poll correctly, the ears and the eyes all remain level. The midline of the face remains plumb to the ground. The inside jowl tucks under the horse’s throatlatch. Old classical books tell the rider to “look for the horse’s inside eye.” But, don’t get caught up in looking for the eye, that you start leaning over to the inside. Sit square and even on the horse while you observe their responses.

Give mobilizing the poll/getting a soft feel a try. Make sure you are asking for it correctly and I promise you this one exercise will begin to help your horse feel good inside and out about what you ask of him to do and is going to cause big improvements in your partnership. 

Published November 2019 Issue of The Northwest Horse Source