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I’ve Got No Brakes!

You finally find time in your busy schedule to ride your horse; you tack up and proceed out into the wild suburban trails. Halfway through the ride your horse suddenly becomes “agitated” and begins to “dance about the trail”. You try to calm him by petting his neck and talking softly to him, but this has no effect on his demeanor and now you are beginning to become anxious because you feel your safety is in jeopardy. The feeling of angst overwhelms you and you begin to shout and pull at the reins, all which prove to be a futile act of restraint upon the horse. The horse now completely confused by your actions, bolts and leaves you clutching at the saddle. You try in vain to slow your horse, but he has shut off any responsiveness to your stop cue. He veers sharply to one side, throwing you off balance, leaving you no choice now but to bail off onto the hard rocky ground below.

Sounds like a bad dream doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it is reality for many of you. The unresponsiveness of a horse when he is in flight is incredibly frightening. The total loss of control, the unpredictability of the horse, and the uncertainty of what to do can be overwhelming for some riders. Fortunately, there is hope for those of you in this predicament. With a few simple exercises and a clear redefining of your horse’s cueing language you can stop this behavior from being expressed by the horse. Flight is a powerful thing. It is a chemical change that is triggered from deep within the brain. These chemicals flood through the body changing the way body functions. It speeds up the heart and the lungs, and makes the muscles much more powerful. In the horse it also shuts off any responsiveness to our cues. They seem to go into a trance like state, where only one thing matters and that is survival. The horse can’t reason why it is going into flight, it only knows instinctively that when something is scary or when it is uncertain or confused about a situation it’s best option is to flee.

When the horse bolts or runs away from it handler or with a rider it has gone into flight. The horse has become scared of a particular event that is taking place or the horse is so completely confused about its cueing language that he has no other choose but to run off. When a horse does this habitually (more than twice) it becomes a consolidated behavior in the horse.

Most riders believe runaways are a product of a poor leadership role between the horse and rider. I feel that line of thinking is merely another poor attempt to excuse the lack of a solid training philosophy. The simple truth is the horse does not understand your cueing language for stop. If you want to rehabilitate the horse away from this type of reaction you need to reconsolidate the stop cue, not work on your leadership skills.

My program Connective Horsemanship® teaches five distinct elements; basic control, lightness, rhythm, line, and connection. Of these five elements runaway horses can be helped by practicing all of them. Because the length of this article does not allow for me to expound fully on all of these elements, I would recommend that you purchase my video series or become a member of my connection club. However, I will explain briefly how my program can help to rehabilitate this type of horse behavior. As I explained earlier runaway horses are a by product of a poor stop cue. To consolidate the stop cue you must first have a go cue.

Make sure that your horse is completely consolidated to the go forward cue in-hand and under-saddle. This means that the horse responds without any delay from the time you initiate the cue until the time he responds. When you have a go cue, you can work on the stop cue. Begin to teach the stop cue on the ground first. Place your horse against the arena wall, tap him at the girth with your cue stick and ask him to go forward. Allow the horse to take five or six steps forward and then begin applying pressure to the lead rope backwards towards the horses shoulder. If the horse doesn’t respond to this pressure, begin moving your hand upward and forward along the horses neck and towards his ears. It is important that you keep a consistent steady pressure on the lead as this is being done. Appling pressures along this line will essentially paralyze the horse’s feet from moving forward. When the horse begins to slow his inside front foot, release the pressure and apply again.

Stopping is a series of slower steps. What I am looking for is a series of three steps all progressing towards a stop. First you will slow the inside front foot, then the outside front foot and then you will stop the inside front foot. The horse will square up and stop any forward motion. I practice this stopping sequence from Basic Control (a basic understanding of the stop cue) all the way through to Connection (a complete and total consolidation of the stop cue in-hand). If you have a horse that is having difficulties understanding the stop cue with the halter and lead and is not hyper-reactive with his go forward cue, you can place the bridle on the horse which may make the lesson much clearer for the horse.

When you have consolidated the horse to the stop cue on the ground, tack up and repeat the process of going and stopping along the wall under-saddle. A 60 foot or larger round pen works well for these types of horses and will be the safest place for you to work. However if you do not have a round pen to work in, then any pen large enough to work in will suffice. You will ask the horse to go forward and stop with the same cues that you have refined in-hand. Keep in mind the problem that you are working with. You are on a runaway horse; he has the potential to do it again, so keep your safety first.

Work him through Basic Control, Lightness, and on into Rhythm. Rhythm works on the horse’s emotional state. You are going to speed up his feet and slow down his feet again and again. You will go from a stop, to a walk, to a slow trot, to a fast walk, to a stop and so on. Repeat this process until you have complete control over each front foot of the horse.

Rehabilitating a runaway is a process of redefining the stop cue and it is what I do here at the National Equine Behavior Center on a routine bases, and it is something you can do with a solid lesson plan and Connective Horsemanship. Keep in mind that flight is the driving force behind your horse’s behavioral problem, and when you control the mind you can control the feet. Go teach your horse to stop and you will teach your horse to have a true connection with you.

Ryan Gingerich performs his Connection Tour for scores of horse owners and horse trainers all around the country. He has been mentored by three great horsemen John Lyons (who certified Gingerich), Richard Shrake, and Australian dressage trainer and coach, Dr. Andrew McLean. More than a decade of rehabilitating horses and training horse people has gone into the development of Ryan’s no-nonsense training method Connective Horsemanship®. To bring him to your area or to learn more about his training method visit his website www.connectivehorsemanship.com or call 1-800-359-4090.