Episode 340: Why Your Horse Keeps Falling In—and Leaning on Your Inside Leg

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Episode 340.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
This is where for many riders, they get tempted to push the horse out with the inside leg. So let's listen to it from the horse's standpoint. You're going to turn the horse to the left, they're going to overturn, and then you're going to take the left leg and push them out or to the right. And then what are you going to do?

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:
Stop and turn the arena lights on. Okay, Enzo. Let's go. Hi, I'm Stacy Westfall and I'm here to help you understand, enjoy and successfully train your own horses. I'm riding Enzo right now as I record, so it'll be interesting all of a sudden. As soon as I started recording, I started noticing the echo in the ceiling of my indoor arena. It's funny how your brain focuses on different things depending on what you're doing. Anyway, back on track, I am riding Enzo as I record this podcast because he inspired the podcast. Today I want to talk about riding a circle and horses that lean in, and the rider who's tempted to push them out with the inside leg. But before we get to there, I actually want to start with the more advanced example, which is what Enzo brought to the table, and then I want to work my way backwards. So if you haven't done lead changes, please listen anyway to the beginning of this, and then I will go back to the circle example. I think this is the right moment to remind you that although I am an experienced rider, I'm not perfect and my horses are not perfect either. What I am as a rider is aware, I am aware, and I watch myself and my horses. In that awareness is where I find what needs to be worked on or addressed.

Speaker1:
And I also discover little moments where my body tells me what it's feeling in the horse's body. I was riding Enzo, and he invited me to use my body in a particular way, and in that moment I accepted his invitation. And then as soon as I was aware of that and felt it, I decided it was going to make a podcast episode. So let me tell you about that moment. I was loping around the arena and I was working on lead changes. I was loping or cantering on the right lead, and I was preparing to ask him to change leads onto the left lead. And as I was circling in this right circle, he began leaning heavily against my left leg. He was leaning out of the circle because he already knew. He suspected he anticipated what was coming. And so he was leaning in the new direction. He was like, we're going to go to the left any moment now. So he began leaning to the left. I had not asked for the change of direction or the lead change yet. So this is the moment that I'm going to call the invitation as I was loping to the right and he leaned to the left. He invited me to close the door, which I did. I accepted the invitation, and I closed my left leg to prevent him from drifting to the left or changing to the left lead, which is what I think he was thinking because he was anticipating about three strides later, I thought, there's the problem.

Speaker1:
And what I want you to mostly see in that example, because it's an inside out example of what I'm about to talk to you about horse falling into a circle is that there will be these moments where it will feel like the most obvious thing to do is to plug a hole with one of your aides. So in this case, Enzo was thinking about leaning to the left. It felt really obvious that if I didn't want him to go to the left, I could just close my left leg and prevent him from doing that. But the problem is, I'm loping a circle to the right. He's leaning to the left, and I'm holding him from going further to the left with my left leg, and my right leg is pretty inactive. So my right leg is inactive or open. I'm using my left leg, but we're not turning to the right. And for me, that is where the problem lies. When I look at the imbalance that would be caused by doing that habit pattern 100, 200, 300 more times in a row. What I know is that eventually the meaning of my left leg would become blurry. Typically, my left leg means move forward or move away from.

Speaker1:
But if he's leaning on my left leg and all my left leg does is maybe maintain him from falling to the left and my right leg is open, which is a door he should be going through because it's open. Then I'm subtly starting to skew all of my aids into an imbalanced position. Now again, you may not be working on lead changes, and your mind might even say, ah, she's talking about lead changes. I can't follow along with this. You can. You can follow along with the idea that I was loping a right circle and my horse was thinking about going to the left. Adding the idea of a lead change just tells you why he was thinking about going to the left. But there are many of you who ride your horses to the right, and your horses think about going to the left for many other reasons. All I want you to hear is that I will subtly be changing the meaning of the cue if I don't stay consistent across time. Another way to say this is I need to be very mindful of my habit pattern. Let's go to the much more common example of riding a circle to the left, and the horse cutting in on that circle. Let's say that you intend to ride a circle that is 60ft wide, and you would like it to be pretty much circular.

Speaker1:
So you are riding the horse and turning left, and then turning left, and then turning left. In order to keep this horse going on a circle to the left. I want you to think for just a minute what that might sound like to the horse. It might sound like to the horse. Left, left. Left, left. And it turns out if you do that hundreds of times in a row, eventually the horse goes. I have an idea. We should go left. And at some moment, it's very common for horses to go too much to the left. So instead of a 60 foot circle to the left, you begin to notice that parts of the circle are being cut off. They're turning more like a 50 foot circle in some parts, or maybe a 40 foot circle or even smaller. So essentially, the horse is on the correct path of thinking because you've been saying, go up here, go left, go up here, go left, go up here. Go left, left, left, left. And now the horse is essentially over, offering the idea of left. This is where for many riders, they get tempted to push the horse out with the inside leg. So let's listen to it from the horse's standpoint. You're going to turn the horse to the left. They're going to overturn. And then you're going to take the left leg and push them out or to the right.

Speaker1:
And then what are you going to do? Let me say it again. You go forward. You ask the horse to turn to the left. They turn too much to the left. So you take your inside leg, your left leg, and you push the horse out, back out to that 60 foot circle. And then what is the next thing that you say with your aids? I'll bet you the next thing you say with your aids is left. Okay. Are you getting warmer? Let's go. Repeat that a hundred times. Left. Oops. Too much. Left. Right. Left. Left. Oops. Too much. Left. Right. Left. Left. Left. Too much. Left. Right. Left. Too much. Left. Right. Left. Are you beginning to see the problem? If you are circling to the left, and your horse, rightfully so, starts to think I could be helpful. And I can go left even before you ask. If you push the horse to the right and then immediately ask them to go to the left, and you go, repeat that where the horse cuts in and you push them out, and in the horse's mind it begins to say inside leg and then turn left inside leg, then turn left inside leg, then turn left inside leg, then turn left. Eventually guess what happens. You push with your inside leg and the horse pushes harder against you, as they should, because the last 150 times that they overturned to the left, you pushed them out with the left leg and then turned them back to the left.

Speaker1:
So oftentimes with these horses begin to realize is, yes, you're pushing them out, but you're about to take them left again. So they lean even more onto your inside leg because they see the habit pattern. They see what's coming. Yes, they try going left and you did push them out, but they know you're about to take them left again. This moment right here is worth pausing and thinking about, because this is the moment when your aides or your cues begin to change their meaning. This is the moment I want you to become aware of, because this is the moment on the circle. That's exactly like the invitation Enzo gave me during the lead changes. This is the moment when the horse overturns. They turn too sharp and you feel invited to push them out with your inside leg. That moment right there is critical because you've got to see the entire habit pattern. You must be aware of the fact that if you push the horse over six inches with your inside leg and then turn the horse back into that inside leg, and that is what you repeat 167 times. The horse is going to begin to say inside leg is then followed by turn sharper to the inside, and they will be correct.

Speaker1:
Your assignment from this podcast is not to try to see the solution yet. I'm going to record a podcast and release it next week. That is the solution to this. What I really want you to focus on right now is just simply seeing the problem. See the problem, especially from the horse's point of view. See that when you're riding a circle, it might sound like a conceptually easy thing in your mind. But to the horse, as I'm walking around here right now on Enzo and I say, turn to the left and go up here, turn to the left. Go up here. Turn to the left. Go up here. It makes sense that he's going to, at some point be a good boy and offer. Turning left a little bit too much. How I answer that is critical to the way that he's going to receive my Aids in the future. Let's go back to Enzo's example for a second. I know this if I begin to feel that invitation from him where he leans, and I accept that invitation by trying to simply hold him on a line with my one leg, I will eventually morph or skew or change the meaning of that left leg. So if I put that left leg on and it's supposed to mean move away from.

Speaker1:
But in that instance I allow it to be. Hold you on the line. Eventually, he will become more dull to moving away from that leg. And he will be correct, because that will be the habit pattern that I went into. Habit patterns are frequently much stronger than individual aids. Habit patterns are composed of your individual cues or your individual signals or aids. But habit patterns are the thing that most powerfully influence the way that your horse thinks. And your habit patterns, as well as your horse's habit patterns, are the most accurate predictor of what is happening in your mind or in theirs. To wrap up this week, I'm going to invite you to listen to this rebroadcast of episode 304, which is a discussion on anticipation because this leaning in on the circle is anticipation. Listen to this question that Sophia called in and listen to my answer. Challenge your mind to see the connection between this discussion on anticipation and what I've just been talking about here, about a horse cutting off circles. It's the same exact reason the horses cut in on corners. Also, listen to the question and my answer. Challenge your mind to see the connection between these two discussions, and come back next week where I'm going to share the solution for the horse that cuts in on circles or avoids corners.

Speaker3:
Hello, Stacy. My name is Sophia and I have a question. How do you approach the phenomenon that when you train a horse and the horse is very compliant, and then after the horse has been taught a new exercise, the horse does it all the time on its own initiative, or doesn't wait for your signal because he thinks this is what you'll be asking of him in a minute. The problem can be, for instance, he doesn't wait for me for us to go into canter, so he just goes into it by himself. And that makes me feel like I'm not being a clear leader. And also I don't want to take his initiative away from him, but I want him to wait for me because when he does things like that, it makes me feel not sharp on my signals. Love your podcast. Greetings from Denmark.

Speaker1:
Thanks for the question, Sophia. What you are describing so well is anticipation. And the fascinating thing about anticipation is that anticipation, the horse guessing what we are about to ask is a big part of training horses, especially if you want them to be trained as a thinking partner. So the first part of training with anticipation feels amazing in the beginning of training horses. We are doing repetitions in a way, so we actually create anticipation of what's about to come next. So the first thing I want to tell you is congratulations, you did that. Now if you picture training as an arc, I like to picture it as an arc, like a rainbow. And that first half of the training that we do with the horse feels like we're using a lot of anticipation and it's a good thing we say the word whoa, and then we ask the horse to back up. And 100 or 800 times later when we say it, they stop on their own and they back up because they anticipate what we're about to ask them to do. And basically you've done a similar thing, but with cantering. Now back to the rainbow. In the beginning of training, we're using a lot of this type of repetition so the horse can see what's coming so they can anticipate what's coming next. But then the second half of that rainbow happens, and that's where anticipation becomes what you described. Anticipation can begin to feel like a problem.

Speaker1:
Here are a few things for you to think about as you work your way through this. One thing you mentioned in your voicemail was, it makes you feel like you're not being a clear leader. And again, I can see where this level of anticipation could give you that impression. But I would also like you to look at and acknowledge that you have been very clear. You have been so clear that your horse is able to easily predict what you're about to do. You could look at this situation and feel like you're not being a clear leader, or you could look at the same exact thing and you could see that you were very clear. And now it might be time to rock the teeter totter. If you have been a long time podcast listener, you will know that I like to talk about teeter totters. But since you also mentioned you're from Denmark, and I'm not quite sure if teeter totter or seesaw or that exists in all parts of the world. This just occurred to me. By the way, I would like you guys to go over to my website and you can see a picture of it. But basically it's this idea of it's like a set of scales and balancing something out. But on the child's playground, they're not trying to balance it out. One child rocks up and the other child goes down, and they go back and forth on this teeter totter.

Speaker1:
Now, I really need to know if this is a worldwide thing when I think about the teeter totter idea. The reason I don't typically like to use the idea of a scale is because people always want to make that scale balance out at zero or perfect in the middle, where they never do a little bit too much of one thing or a little bit too much of another. And I don't find that's a realistic way to live. So I like the idea of the teeter totter, because that means we're taking the same idea of a scale, but we're moving it back and forth on purpose. When I put this into the physical world, if you sit and balance on something, whether that's a bicycle, whether that's a unicycle, whether that's a ball that you can pick your feet up off the ground, or a beach ball while you're in the water, you will notice that you will wobble or move in order to stay balanced in the middle. That's what I'm talking about. So I don't consider this wobble or this movement or this anticipation one direction a little bit too much to be a big problem. It just means we need to rock it the other way. So your new assignment is to begin to teach him to anticipate or to hunt for your downward transition. If we look at the canter as an upward transition, the thing you now need to balance it out with is his anticipation of a downward transition.

Speaker1:
Another way to look at this is that if a horse is offering the canter departure frequently, then I will begin to put that horse's behavior into the hot category. Again, if you've been a long time podcast listener, you're going to hear me use terms like hot or cold for the horses. And so that hotter horse that easier to go horse is more likely to offer the upper transition. This might not be his natural state of being his default mode, or it might be. But either way, when the horse begins to frequently offer an upward transition, you can actually begin to treat them as though their behavior is currently that of a hot horse. And if you want some tips on how you would handle a hot horse or a cold horse, you could go back to my website and you could search. There's a search feature up in the top corner, and you can find podcasts that I've done on those specific subjects. So back in episode 70, I did an entire episode on using more leg on Hot Horses. That would be a great one for you to go listen to. And episode 42 Training Hot Horses would be another great one for you to listen to, even if you might know he's not naturally at his core, a hot horse.

Speaker1:
But if he's behaving in this moment like a hot horse, or if you're listening and you have the opposite issue, go back and listen to some of the episodes that teach on how to deal with those specific things, because at the end of the day, I want to be able to, on purpose, rock that teeter totter, rock that behavior back and forth. Because when I can bring the horse to the warmer or hotter side, and when I can on purpose, bring that same horse back down to the colder or lazier side. When I can do that, App. I can now begin to bring that closer and closer to where I can bring them up a little bit and down a little bit. And the closer together that gets, instead of it being over three weeks or four weeks, when it gets down to 3 or 4 days, and then when it gets down to 3 or 4 cycles inside of one ride, and then when it gets down to 3 or 4 minutes and I can rock it back and forth, it can get down to 3 or 4 seconds. And that's when it feels like you've got the horse really balanced. But remember what I said a minute ago about wobbles to me on my most finished horses? I can still feel that easy access to either the upward or the downward. So remember, we're actually not trying to fully get rid of the anticipation, but we are trying to be able to balance it out so we could have a way to balance between the upward transition and the downward transition.

Speaker1:
And when you can do that skillfully, that's when it feels like you've got that magical balance. So many of us are looking for. I think the real key in this entire message, I think the heart of the matter and the real issue that you're facing is in this one sentence, I don't want to take away his initiative. I think this is an issue that many writers face, especially when they are aware, like you are, that you actually trained the horse to do the behavior that you now don't want them to do so much. Because when you recognize the horse is putting out effort, when you recognize that he is trying and professionals will call it, this horse has a lot of try or sometimes you'll hear. It said they have a great work ethic. When you say his initiative, when you know he's putting in that effort, which is a really great thing, but you also know that you'd like him to do a little less of that great thing. The question becomes, how do you tell him that you appreciate the effort, but he's getting ahead of the question. Let's go back. He's anticipating, so he's guessing the answer before he's actually heard the question. This reminds me of watching a game show where the contestant has to hit the buzzer very quickly before anybody else, and then tell the answer.

Speaker1:
And if you've ever seen a game show like that, there are oftentimes where the game show host will read 2 or 3 words, and before the full sentence is out, somebody is hitting the buzzer because they're willing to guess, even though they don't really know the full question. That's essentially what's happening with your horse. So how do you tell him that you appreciate the effort, but you're getting ahead of the question? So the real challenge here is the quality of how you address his guess. If you can be ahead of the guessing, that would be my number one choice. And what that means is, if you feel him building up to offer the canter departure redirect before he offers it. This will make you a more proactive rider, and that would be my number one choice. However, if you don't see that coming and he offers it and you find yourself in the middle of an unwanted Wanted Kanter departure even at that moment. Gently take hold and redirect. Redirecting to me has a different quality of contact. That happens when people say they're going to make a correction versus they're going to redirect. I know it might just sound like wordplay, but for me, when I see somebody say they're going to redirect versus when somebody says they're going to correct, there tends to be a more smooth and kind and ahead of moment that happens when somebody is willing to redirect.

Speaker1:
I did a podcast a while back talking about redirecting attention, and I'll find that and put a link to it in the show notes over on my website. But basically the analogy I used is, what would you do if you had a challenge to take a young child into a candy store all the way to the back and get them to the bathroom without them asking for any candy. And I proposed that you would have to get ahead of the idea that they were going to ask the question, and you would have to redirect their attention to a lot of other places the ceiling, the floor, anywhere but the candy rack. In this case, the lead departure is the candy. The horse is going after the lead departure. So if you can get ahead of that in your ability to see when he's going to offer it, and if you can redirect his attention at that moment, those are going to be two of the main methods I'm going to use. I actually just got back from my fifth trail ride on Luna. If you listened to last week's episode, I actually recorded that the very first time that I took Luna out on the trail, which was alone. The next trail ride I took her on was with one other horse. The next one, we were alone again.

Speaker1:
The fourth trail ride. I went in a group of six. So there were five other horses. And then today I went alone again, and I was doing lots and lots of redirecting to stay ahead of the things that Luna wanted to offer. I also don't want to take away her initiative. She wants to be very forward, but I also don't want her rushing downhills where it puts both of us in danger of tripping. And I don't want her getting into habit patterns. Now that I'm going to fight against later. So I am constantly doing tiny movements and rewarding tiny tries on my five and a half mile ride today. I would not even know how to start counting the number of times I redirected to teach her and to show her before a problem happened. If I had to give you an idea, I'm probably doing a version of redirecting every 3 to 5 steps. Sometimes it's every other step, and sometimes it might be 5 or 6 steps, but the average would probably be around that 3 to 4 steps, because there's a lot going on and I don't want to make a huge correction. So my other option is to make lots of small redirections. And even though this is only trail ride number five, it's amazing to me how much me using detail is already showing up in her listening for detail. Again, this reminds me of the wobble I talked about riding a bike, or if you drive a car and you pay attention.

Speaker1:
You're making micro adjustments in the steering wheel. Even on a straight stretch. And the same thing goes for riding a horse. Making those micro movements is what I want to call an unseen wobble that really, truly is a part of the conversation. And as I wrap this up, Sophia, what I want you to remember are these two pieces from the four square model in the rider's mind category. You have proven through your horse's physical behavior that you are capable of teaching. And that's why he knows about the canter. It's why he's offering you the answer that he's so excited that he learned. And the horse's mind. We can see the horse's mind reflected in the horse's body. We know he's capable of learning. That's why he's offering what he learned. This means you are capable of rocking the teeter totter in the other direction. Teaching him something on the slower side of movement. Downward transitions. Walking adjustments inside of a lower level gait. When you teach him a few more ideas that he can then anticipate, you'll begin to see that he will have more than this one thing to offer you. And that's when the conversation begins to take on more depth. Thanks again for the question, Sophia. That's what I have for you this week, 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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