Is Your Horse Like a Rabbit?
Trainer Andy Curry interviewed and filmed Sam Burrell. Let’s listen to Andy tell describe this session:
Did you know rabbits can see forward and backward…
“at the same time!”
Tis true.
Horses are nearly as adept in their sight as well.
In fact, given patience and training you can get horses doin’ all kinds of cool things.
Most of us don’t aspire to get horses doing things that take years of training.
But what we should all do it is install an Operating System in horses.
What’s an Operating System?
An Operating System is basically the ability to communicate to your horse how you would like him to move his zones.
What do I mean by zones?
Well, you can divide your horse into 4 parts.
The head and neck.
The shoulders.
The rib cage.
And the hindquarters.
We’ll begin communicating how to move starting out with the snaffle bit and our rein effects.
And our aids of communication for the horse come from our hands through the reins, our seat (weight), and our legs.
Now here’s something you should know.
Sam Burrell, one of our trainers shows this in his DVD.
When he did, he commented on how learning this is what gave him breakthroughs in horse training.
In fact, Ray Hunt said to him, “The first thing you need to know is the last thing you’ll find out.”
What Ray meant was “It’s too bad you didn’t know this before because it would’ve made a startling difference in you and horse’s ability at first instead of years later.”
And now YOU know that this is something you should know now.
Why?
Because you’ll kick yourself if you wait to know it later.
So how does it work?
As an overview, you first need to understand the rein effects.
Don’t worry, they’re easy.
The first is the direct rein.
This is a direct rein to the horse.
YOu’ll take it half way to your hip and be able to just see the horse’s eye. This is very important.
On a green horse or one you’re retraining, hold you hand out to the side more so your horse can see it better and know what it means.
The direct rein is used to get lateral flexion. It’s also like a lead rope where you’d lead the horse around just like you would from the ground.
The next is the indirect rein. (aka: Neck Rein)
This has to be taught as a cue through repetition.
And here’s a little tidbit you should know.
It takes, roughly, 300-400 repetitions for a horse to learn a cue. And about 300-400 more to get good at that cue.
Next is the Direct Rein of Opposition.
Here you take one rein straight back to your hip.
Pulling both reins back directly opposes the horse’s forward motion.
This isn’t used much…especially in the beginning.
This is used mostly to flex at the poll and for collection.
And you should know this is not effective in controlling your horse. It’s mostly for communication and should be applied lightly.
Next is the indirect rein of opposition.
This is where you take the rein across the saddle horn to your opposite shoulder. Thus, pick up the right rein and point it to the left shoulder.
Now as you get your horse to go through “Zone” exercises, you’ll be using these Rein Effects.
For instance, Zone one is simply walking in a circle. You’ll use your inside rein and leg.
Walk about a 12 to 15′ circle. Be able to see the horse’s eye. You don’t need to see the whole eye… just be able to see it.
You want your horse going in a circle like a train does on a bent track.
Your inside leg is full of life with touches and releases and life in the hand.
Your outside leg is “Off”.
Use lots of soft touches and releases to keep your horse going in a circle.
You must first teach this at a walk.
Once mastered in the walk, then you can go to a trot and eventually the lope.
Eventually, your horse will flex toward your leg. If you touch the horse on the side with your leg, he should look that way and bend his rib cage away from your leg.
In a nutshell, that’s Zone one exercise.
There are several others, but you get the idea.
If you want to know more, click on the following:
Sam Burrell Horse Training DVD
Remember what Ray Hunt said.
The first thing you need to know is the last thing you find out.
If you don’t know how to do this, you should make the effort to know now because you will eliminate a LOT of frustration.
Stay safe on your horses!
Charlie
