Relax (Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff)

There are times when I get caught up in routine, in habit, in responding to situations without even being aware of conscious of my own actions or feelings. And what does that bring about in my horse? Nothing but tension and poor communication, even distrust if you will.

On the other hand, when I am in a position of self-awareness, responding to things as they come at me with my mind open and ready to in a logical manner I can elicit from my horse greater trust, relaxation and communication.

I always think that horses are a great link to bringing us humans back to our roots, to ground us in a way that was once natural but in the modern world seems a million miles away at times. They kill the outside distractions for us if we let them, shut out frivolous concerns and even shun the idea of time.

We get the opportunity to enjoy being in the moment if we are present enough to realize it and take hold of it, but often we get caught up in thoughts that do not help us in the here and now but pull us into superficial goals and actions. We fight and fuss over the horse, struggle with the basics and yearn for the complex achievements.

Copyright © Noelle LaBelle

I was thinking about this sort of thing all of yesterday and much of today. I was working with Scout yesterday and he came out with a lot of nervous energy under saddle, a bit of an oddity although there has often been a low-level of nervous energy running through him over the long term. Something which I am still playing with ideas to sort through. We've made vast improvements but it is still there showing its face from time to time. Today he was much better from the start but began to work into more nervousness as we proceeded. I went back to an idea I've been playing with that seemed to make the most difference a few months ago before I took a bit of a hiatus with him (lots of traveling going on!).

So, around and around we wandered in the arena. Just using one rein, taking the slack out and asking for bend in one direction, allowing my hand to be stable and quietly simple. I spent a lot of my own consciousness observing if I was breathing, what the speed of my own actions were, if my seat was blocking, following or driving (behind, present, or ahead of his movement), etc. The slightest admission of Scout towards what I was hoping to encourage him into – which was relaxing into an honest bend in the direction we were traveling – and a release of the rein would commence. He began calming almost immediately. I could feel it the loudest in the change of his walk gait. His tension was creating a block in the stride of his hind legs – causing a gait that was slightly irregular, but also jarred my own seat into a movement that had more up and down with a rough transition on each step (almost felt as if he was holding his breath in his hindquarters if that makes sense). This changed to a glide in the walk, my own seat felt no rough movements but simply melted into silk as each footfall of his hind legs gracefully carried his weight.

Copyright © Lissy

In the reins there was no irregular contact. When I touched the rein I was working on he stopped bracing or attempting to bend in the opposite direction before conceding, but rather softly followed into a graceful bend with such lightness that there was never a hard connection on the rein. Like soft butter. Like air. And into a half halt that required only a lift of my own chest and drop of my pelvis to bring him to a square and balanced stop.

I believe relaxation has to be one of the first priorities in training horses. Without it everything becomes compromised and more difficult. It is the elephant in the arena. I spent 10 minutes yesterday just massaging Jobi's mouth. Today I spent 2 minutes while grooming him massaging his mouth and then periodically during in-hand and lunging work. And it shows in his responses when I work with him. When he is tense he braces his neck and leans on reins, tucks his head behind the vertical, tosses his head, sucks back and hesitates. When he is relaxed he responds quickly and gracefully, he has no head issues, contact is light and beautiful, he is forward and accurate. Work becomes a dance – a graceful one rather than a step on my toes dysfunctional.

Copyright © Suzanne

In looking back at some of the biggest problems I've ever encountered with horses I've trained or retrained, it comes down to their level of relaxation. Relaxed horses are easy. Relaxed horses are not lazy horses either… nervous horses are the ones presenting challenges. And the learning curve when you are nervous (whether you are a horse or person) is much bigger than when you are relaxed.

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