A Woman's Touch
to Training Horses

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I had to design leg cues that wouldn't interfere with other work under saddle and yet be totally commanding of her attention. Since the forward motion is so intense in this horse, the most important thing to teach was a back up. For a calm horse, the "whoa" would be enough. But for this firecracker, I needed much more. The back up was my "backup" system. Horses can run wildly forward or even sideways without thinking, but in a back up, they have to think of where they are going. They are forced to concentrate. In one or two lessons, the horse will start to get the idea and do a few backward steps without reins.

The back up is my first building block. The method is simple. Both heels are used well behind the girth together with a nudge for each stride back. Be sure to release your legs after each nudge. The horse should be far enough along in his saddle work that he knows to yield to the fixed hand. You don't pull back with the reins, merely stop forward movement so that to the horse the obvious option is to back up.

Gradually increase the steps as the horse becomes accustomed to backing up. When my horse was really difficult, we might back up twice the length of the arena, over 300 feet! Very quickly, she became more focused. Also, as she started to relax doing the back up, her high head carriage would change and she would round her neck with her head almost to her knees, and this is a high-headed Saddlebred!  Also, her hind legs would come more underneath as her back rounded too. I realized that all these years I had neglected a valuable training exercise. Without interference from the reins, she would always find the balanced position. Her mind was relaxing, too, as she focused on this work. Then, when moving forward, she retained some of the roundness and focus on my legs.

The stop cue is merely the first nudge of the backup. When moving forward, the first nudge will stop the forward motion. Additional nudges give the back up. Eventually, just both legs going back will be enough to signal stop.

The forward or walk cue is bumps of calves at the girth, not squeezes. It may take several quick bumps for the horse to realize he may go forward. Do not squeeze with your calves in any of this work. We need that later on for other cues.

For weeks, we only worked the walk. Any tensing up or bouncing was met with a back up command. The back up would be for as many steps as it took to get her rounded and relaxed. You do not fight the horse. That only brings out the adrenaline you don't want in this type of horse. Just calmly ask for the back up. It is not a punishment. It is taking the horse back to the first building block where he has learned to find relaxation and focus. As the horse progresses, just putting your legs back may sometimes suffice for the stop. After all the backup practice, the horse will stop easily. A few steps forward and stop. A few steps and stop. Just remember, you must be telling the horse something every stride or they may forget you.

Turning is quite easy for the horse to learn. Several feet from the fence, turn the horse into it with a gentle leading rein. Follow through with the outside heel behind the girth. Use the fence instead of the rein to get the last part of the turn. You can work up into a flat sided figure eight, most of which the horse can do reinless in one or two sessions. The curves into the fence will become reinless very fast. Do not use any more rein than necessary. Let your heel become the guide. If the horse speeds up or becomes excited, go back to the basic building block to regain calm and focus. Soon, you will be doing regular figure eights and not need the fence. You can hone your signals by practicing around barrels making circles of various sizes and patterns. If the horse drops his shoulder into the circle, making it too small, use the inside heel at the girth to get him back where you wish. Be sure to release the outside heel first or he may stop because feeling pressure on both sides is so close to the stop cue, even with just one heel back. The horse learns these things so easily. For us, it's not so easy. But with practice, you can come up to the level of your horse.
While the horse must have forward impulsion to turn, the turn cue without forward impulsion results in a turn on the haunches. Start with only a step or two to work up to a reinless, full 360 degrees. Stop if there is any rushing by the horse. Instead of a back up, you can cue the other direction a step or two. The first goal is to have the horse relaxed and responsive. Then, you can easily perfect the turn on the haunches.

It will become quite easy for you to work in half, quarter and full turns on the haunches with work on the rail. To practice these turns into the rail, nudge the horse over a bit with your outside heel at the girth so he has enough room for the length of his body to clear the fence. Eventually, you may want to use this for a collecting exercise by getting closer to the fence so he must round his back and neck thus bringing his hind legs underneath his body.

The first two weeks, I used the rail quite a bit as my capricious mare would drift a lot. That way, I only had to work on controlling one side. But once the circles got better, I only used the rail as warming up on the flat figure eights. Larger circles only required a light touch of my outside lead. To spiral into a smaller circle took a bit more pressure and gentle rubbing. If she was resistant, a light touch of spur (lay on flat, don't poke) got her attention, giving me my smaller circle. The horse needs a moment with no heels when changing direction, otherwise he will stop.

After several weeks with Gem lathered in frustration (only from walk and back up), she began to have some calm times. Eventually the sweating ceased. Now, I needed a strategy for the canter.

The first cue would be a squeeze with both calves. This was NOT to ask her for canter, but to prepare her so she could collect a bit before the actual cue, the press of my outside heel. We would practice the squeeze for part of our figure eights so she could learn that it did not mean go faster, but at the same speed, just more collection. In hindsight, I should have done much more of this before doing the actual canter, but my first conception was the double cue. For a calmer horse, that probably would have been fine. For mine, I had to go back to the squeeze alone many times to prevent her anticipation of canter. And when we did the canter, I only allowed two steps. At first, I had to use reins, as she started exploding. But soon, my heels alone would stop her despite her excitement. A good place to start canter is just before you come to the middle of your figure eight. You're going to stop anyway to change the lead. Then, as the horse improves, you can start farther back. You will be amazed how soon you can do circles at the canter.

By now, your steering at the walk should be almost perfect. Steering at the canter is trickier. First, the canter must be calm enough that the horse can accept other leg cues. As my mare though cantering circles was still going too fast and I hadn't enough control of the size of the circles, I decided to rate her at a nice, slow canter. Without reins, this required frequent stops, even backing up as her excitement level demanded. She did get much better, but I had to use reins to show her exactly what I wanted. She was still using way too much energy, but the explosiveness was gone. I could have stopped right here, as I had achieved my goal. She was relaxed enough to accept the reins in cantering. But I was so impressed how this method got through to her, I decided to see what interesting things might be done reinless. So, to fix these sloppy, reinless circles, I decided to use my toes on her elbows. That's where my toe is when my leg is in front of the girth. Remember, the leg behind the girth means turning, stop and reverse. If I keep using my outside heel of the canter cue, she will just canter in smaller and smaller circles. Now, the toes can direct her more sensibly, almost pointing the direction. Since these cues are used only at the canter, they need to be taught at the canter. To make the circle larger, use indirect inside rein and inside toe. To make the circle smaller, use leading inside rein and outside toe. With lots of practice, the toe cues can take over for the reins.

While horses are slow to learn voice commands, it is well worth the time to have them. It may be a while before your legs are always doing the right thing. So a word might clear confusion from your horse’s mind. My horse was difficult to rate, always trying to go too fast. I used "steady, steady," a lot with her, and it was a great help. Learning to stop from her early, bouncy canter, my legs didn't always go back soon enough, and "whoa" gave me a backup.

My mare is now so relaxed that I can do a long work out, with lots of cantering on a warm day, and she doesn't even sweat a bit. She still has occasional anticipation, but it is easily dispelled. It is such a joy to have her go calmly into a relaxed canter, with or without reins.