From the Long Island Horse Directory:

                                      http://lihorsedirectory.com/

                 Training Tips

               by

                Gail DeStefano

                   Bad horse day? Or just bad Horse?

      We all have them.. But which one is the question. Is it you or the horse?

As a trainer, I want my students to enjoy their lesson and get the most they can out of their time. But, there are days when things are just not going right.

      Adults seemed to have the hardest time coping with a bad horse day. They get frustrated with themselves which then causes a chain reaction. Some begin to take their frustration out on the horse. Instead of squeezing with their legs, they begin to kick. Their good body position changes as they become more aggressive. Their hands begin to pull at the horse's mouth and words can be heard across the ring. If I begin to see a melt down I ask them to halt and have them walk their horse over to me. We then begin a discussion on what they think the problem might be.

      Sometimes it is as simple as just feeling that they had a bad day at work and it has followed them into the barn. I said simple because, usually after a few minutes of listening to the student vent and truly understanding how they feel, this gives them time to take a deep breath, clear their heads and they are ready to focus. Other times, it may be more of a self inflicted, "I just have to get this correct!" The student then becomes more focused on the negative. This in turn leads to a feeling that they will never get it right. Once in awhile I do find a student who should just take up golf instead! But, this is very rare thank goodness.

      Most of my adult students are taking riding lessons because of their love of horses and they want to learn how to improve their riding skills in a safe, fun environment. It should be fun riding a horse, either a school horse or your own horse. We seem to forget that we are not going to the World Equestrian Games to compete. Yes, it is exciting to enter a local horseshow and it can become addicting, expensive and fun, but not at the expensive of taking the joy of riding away. If you seem to be putting too much pressure on yourself, you can be sabotaging your own learning.

       The one type of rider that makes my head spin, being a student or just anyone riding, is the one that blames the horse for everything. I am sure you have seen this type of rider. They blame the horse for not going straight, or turning, or not cantering, or not slowing down. Horses react to what you ask them. If you do not ask the horse to canter correctly the horse is not going to canter. You have to ask the horse to turn with your eyes, seat and shoulders if you want him to turn correctly. Is your horse not stopping? Did your body ask him to stop? Or are you just pulling on the reins, and squeezing with your legs as you hang on? Learning to ride quietly and correctly does not happen over night, especially, if you are only taking a lesson once a week because, you do not own or lease a horse to practice on. So, I try and teach my students one important word...patience. Being patience with yourself and your learning, and patience with your horse will payoff in the long run. 

      Horses can also have bad people days. It took me 10 years to figure out that one of my horses hates being ridden at night after dinner. Do I still ride him after dinner? Of course, but I do try and ride him more during the day. When I do ride him at night, I look for the signs that he has had enough and stop before we get into a fight. This seems to work. My point being is, you have to know when and when not to ride, or when to get off. You have to learn to read your horse.

       I have one adult student that has owned her own horse for the past year. I was very proud of her the other day, when she tacked up her horse and walked her into the indoor and her usually quiet mare turned into a wild eyed she devil. At the time there were not too many people at the barn and I was not there. The rain was pounding on the tin roof and this seemed to set the mare off. (She has been ridden indoors with the rain many times) but, the owner had also bought a new saddle and a new bit. The combination at that time was not working out too well, so the student opted to untack her and call it a night. That was the best thing she could have done. My question is, would you have gotten on and ridden? Many of you will say yes of course! Keep in mind I am talking about a usually quiet horse that nothing seems to bother her. So, what kind of ride would you have had?  Would you be fighting with her to get her attention? Would you be forcing her to ride in the scary ring? Of course you would be.  Would it be fun? No! In this case my student made the correct choice and proceeded to have a nice lesson the next time she rode. No fighting with her horse, no blaming the horse for acting badly. She knew not to ride, where many others would just get on.

       I am talking about the less experienced riders, not the experienced riders that would get on any type, make or model of horse in any type of condition.

       Next time you are around the barn, keep an ear open to what people say to each other after they are done riding. You will hear parents ask their children "How did you do?" The children will say "Good" Then listen to the adult riders. You might hear "So, how was your horse today?", the answer being either good or bad. I think this brings me back to my title question "Bad horse day? Or bad horse?"  Shouldn't we look back on how we did riding the horse? If we did "well" then the horse did well. If we did not do as well, how can you blame the horse, he was only doing what you asked!