Episode 246_ How do I get my horse to keep doing it longer_.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Speaker1:
Many times. The secret to getting something maintainable is to actually make that first response easily repeatable.
Speaker2:
Podcasting from a little cabin on a hill. This is the Stacy Westfall podcast. Stacy's goal is simple to teach you to understand why horses do what they do, as well as the action steps for creating clear, confident communication with your horses.
Speaker1:
Hi, I'm Stacy Westfall and I'm here to help you understand, enjoy, and successfully train your own horses. In this season of the podcast, I'm answering questions that your mind may offer you when you head out to train your horse. This week I'm discussing this question. But how do I get him to do it for longer? Or it could show up like he's kind of got it. But how can I get him to do it for longer? Or I want to keep him loping until I tell him to stop or I want him to stand until I tell him to go or I show in Western dressage and he keeps popping his head up during the free walk. I want him to keep it down until I tell him to bring it back up. Can you hear how all of these are versions of I want him to do it for longer? Or how do I get him to do it for longer? A big part of getting a horse to maintain something starts with focusing on the horse's first response. Here's another way to say it. Repeatable comes before maintainable. Repeatable is key. Repeatable. Your ability to repeat something begins to solidify the answer. Repetition ensures that the horse sees the pattern and guesses more confidently and more quickly. Go back to last week's episode 245, where I explained that when the horses are learning, there's an element of them guessing. Repeating something and making it repeatable is what helps eliminate the guessing and solidify the answer. When you solidify the first response, you confirm that the horse understands that first response.
Speaker1:
Don't worry, I'm about to use some examples. When you solidify the first response, you're confirming that the horse understands. Here is a human example. When I got married, my last name changed. I knew that my name had changed, but I didn't have the repetitions in to have a first response that was really solid. So if randomly asked, What's your name, I would actually hesitate because I didn't exactly know my last name. Conceptually, I knew I'd change my name, but my habit was to say my maiden name. So in that example you can see where repeatable is what caused me to solidify my answer. Now let's move to a horse example. Let's use teaching a horse to canter or lope on the end of a lunge line. When I'm teaching a horse to lope on the end of the lunge line, I use a verbal cue. I do a verbal kiss when I want them to lope off. So I kiss and then I use the lunge whip to encourage them because they've already learned to move forward in response to me tapping on them. I've done that at a walk. I've done that to move them up to the jog. So they are learning to read my body language and that extension of my arm, that lunge whip, so they understand those cues. What I'm doing now is I'm adding a verbal cue. When I kiss the first time, the horse doesn't know what it means.
Speaker1:
So what I do is I kiss, and then I insist on getting one stride of canter. So that means I might kiss. And then, because I reach out there, I might encourage them. They go faster, they go faster, they're trotting faster and faster and faster. And then they get one stride of canter and I drop my energy down. This makes some people crazy. I get one stride and then I back off. Then I do it again. I'm specific. I'm going to ask in the same location. So let's say if the horse is lunging around me, I'm going to ask at 12:00. So the horse is coming around, depending on which direction they're going. If they're going counterclockwise, then they're actually going three, two, one. And then they would arrive at 12:00. I would kiss. And then I'm going to ask them and insist on them going until they break into the loop. Maybe that doesn't happen until 9:00. And I'm going to keep repeating that until it's easy. And what will happen is the horse will begin to connect. The dots of this keeps happening. Every time I come to 12:00 and she stops being insistent every time I do one stride of lope. And this setup allows the horse to figure it out. I keep doing this over and over again. Repeatable comes before maintainable when I say it makes some people crazy. Sometimes people will have the impression that if I want the horse to lope, if I ask the horse to lope, it should then lope until I ask it to stop.
Speaker1:
And although this might be true, this is how the beginning works. And the beginning will be what creates your ability to teach maintainable when the horse comes around and I raise my arm up and I kiss and they lope off easily. Now I know they're actually understanding the cue. We haven't even gotten to the point yet where I want to try to maintain it because if they can't get the first stride of the lope easily, what happens when you then chase them around and try to continue getting a new first stride every time they break? So let's say that they lope off at nine and then they break gait and you decide to ask them to lope off again at six and then they break gait and you decide to ask them to lope off again at three. Remember, we're going counterclockwise every time you keep asking for that new one. If the horse isn't getting clear feedback on what was correct and then being able to solidify just that first answer. What typically happens in this scenario is the horse just tries to get further away from you, so they start dragging you because they're just trying to physically get their body further and further away. You didn't set up a system where they can easily see the pattern and they can easily see the repetition and they can start to associate your verbal kiss. And when they do the right thing, which is I, then I'm going to be annoying until they actually lope.
Speaker1:
And then as soon as they lope, I back off. So believe it or not, I'm actually training both the departure and that drop in my energy after they get that correct lope stride. I'm actually training both at the same time, even though I'm mostly focused on the departure or the easily repeatable part of the go. So maintainable becomes easy when that first cue becomes easy. So let's say I've gone out there and I've done this for a few days in a row and the horse comes around in this example, I'm going counterclockwise in my mind. So my lead rope is in my left hand and I kind of raise that up and I get ready to kiss and I kiss and the horse lopes off brilliantly. I never even got to do anything with my lunge whip because I didn't even have any reason to go to any kind of annoying thing to get them going when that happens. Now, I believe that the horse has that cue. Typically they're also now carrying it two, three, four strides, because that's just actually easier than doing one stride and then trotting immediately. So for the horse that gets to this point where when they understand, oh, when she does this, she raises up her arm, she kisses, I can feel her energy is up and she kisses and I lope off and then I get released. I fully understand that the ability to move from that to being able to maintain 6 to 10 full circles around on the end of the lunge line happens very quickly.
Speaker1:
Without a lot of nagging. Because I prioritized the first response. Once that first response is very good. Then what happens is when the horse goes around and breaks gate after a quarter of a circle, then when I actually kiss again at 9:00 because they loped off at 12:00 and they come around and they break gate at 9:00, then when I kiss, there they go. Oh, I'm a little bit surprised that it's happening here because it's a new location. But I know the answer. Yes, I know my name without a hesitation. I know the response to this cue without hesitation, all because of prioritizing the first response so many times. The secret to getting something maintainable is to actually make that first response easily repeatable. In this example, because I make the lead departure repeatable and I let them break gate and then I ask again eventually what the horse ends up seeing is that lope to trot, to lope, to trot, to lope, to trot, to lope, to trot is actually more work than just continuing to lope. So they end up choosing to continue the lope until they feel that energy drop. The key here is they choose it. For me. I also would label this as key. My thought, my belief that repeating the beginning is valuable matters. I don't see the break of gait after one stride. When I begin teaching this, I don't see that as a problem.
Speaker1:
I see it as an opportunity to ask for that first stride again. So I focus on how accurately they go when I ask at 12:00, that's where my focus is. And because of this, I'm not hung up in what's not working about, whether they're maintaining it multiple strides. I'm very focused on they go quickly, easily without stress when requested, and then I trust that what that will do is later on, I will be able to ask them to go again and again and again. And then it will all come together. Remember, Repeatable comes before maintainable all. Another great example of this is the way that I do my trailer loading when I'm asking the horse to go forward in trailer loading. When I begin tapping rhythmically on the horse's hindquarters, I want them to take a step forward. If I'm doing a trailer loading demonstration with a horse that has been labeled a problem with trailer loading, what often happens is when the horse is sent up to the trailer and asked to go on, they go up to a certain point and they stop. And to me, this is where a lot of the conversation gets confusing for the horse. When I put the horse in that situation and I begin tapping on their hindquarters, all I'm doing is asking for one step of forward motion. That can be a front leg. That can be a hind leg. I begin rhythmically tapping, and when the horse makes any forward step, I release.
Speaker1:
What happens a lot of times with horses who have trailer loading issues is they're standing there and you begin tapping and they begin backing up. In my trailer loading. I followed them and I continue tapping. So imagine that if the horse is standing still and I begin tapping, if the horse begins backing, they have not yet taken a step forward. So I continue tapping. I don't escalate. I don't try to stop them. I follow them and I continue tapping until they take one step forward. That one step forward might come. After backing up for ten feet, I still release because I want to be consistent with when I begin this rhythmic tapping, I'm going to release the tapping. When you take a step forward, good job. And by simply focusing on that, not focusing on the fact that the horse got further away from the trailer, not trying to act like a tree and hold them still, not trying to escalate how hard I'm tapping the further they get away by simply being very good at releasing when the horse takes a step forward. This is the primary tool I use when loading the horse on the trailer. Can you also hear where it would be the primary tool that I use when teaching a horse to lunge and then later on how it would fit together with that lead departure on the lunge line. Remember, repeatable comes before maintainable. So when that horse is backing away from the trailer, it is another opportunity for you to continue tapping until they take a step forward.
Speaker1:
When they consistently take a step forward to your tapping, that's when it becomes repeatable. When it becomes repeatable is when the forward motion will become maintainable. Let's do one more example. An advanced one. Let's talk about the lead change. The lead change is very associated to a snappy lead departure. A lead departure from a walk to a lope is going to be a very good indicator of your ability to do a lead change. A lead departure from a walk to a lope means that the horse is walking. You give the cue, the horse lopes off. A lead change would be left lead lope, You give the cue, they lope off into the right lead lope. So it's just a departure inside of already loping. So the quality of the lead departure from a walk matters. Because if you get that quality of the lead departure from the walk, from the trot, from the standstill, the quality of the lead departure matters because repeatable is also a piece of how you move the needle on some other things. So the lead departure from the standstill helps the horse understand the new lead departure into the other lead change. This concept of repeatable comes before maintainable is hidden in everything you do with your horse. If you have questions about this, go to my website and either leave a voicemail or email me at Stacy at Stacy westfall.com. Thanks for listening and I'll talk to you again in the next episode.
Speaker2:
If you enjoy listening to Stacy's podcast, please visit Stacy westfall.com for articles, videos and tips to help you and your horse succeed.
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