Anxiety: The Sneaky Monster

I have worked with a lot of students in the past who suffer from anxiety, and I struggle with anxiety myself. It's a tricky thing, because frequently fear and worry are based on completely logical issues. Riding horses is crazy! They are giant scaredy cats! But, for some reason, most of us are determined to overcome our fear and ride. There are several manifestations of anxiety that I see. A specific fear due to prior experience- which I find the hardest, but most straight forward to deal with. A general fear that things will go terribly wrong. And, as in my own case, a general uneasiness not necessarily related to horses, but detrimental to riding nonetheless. I find the more centered and focused I am before I get in the saddle, the better I am able to shut down the anxiety and have a great ride. That means some days I choose not to ride. On days when I don't feel I can do justice to my horse from his back, I like to choose an activity that gets both of us some exercise. It's much easier to settle and focus on a high anxiety day if I am in motion alongside my horse. I like to do showmanship or work on lunging on these days. Ground activities have the added benefit of increasing control on the ground, and they increase my confidence in my horse. A student sent me a great link about anxiety while riding, and I think it's worth sharing.
 

How do you deal with fear in the saddle? 

Summer Camp Chronicles Part I

Riding at summer camps was a big part of my early riding experience. As early as the age of 7, I was beebopping around on camp horses having the time of my life. While this wasn't a terribly educational portion of my riding carreer, it gave me lots of saddle time, confidence, and an appreciation for these hardworking saints. Someday, I'll write about those wonderful camp experiences, but today, I'm going to write about one of the most miserable weeks of my life.

It all started with a brochure I picked up at a local tack store. The camp was located in Canada, about an hour away from one of our favorite ski resorts. And it was a jumping camp.  Up to this point I had ridden almost exclusively western, but I reeeeeeally wanted to try jumping. I figured this was the easiest way to get some good experience under my belt.While I was a year older than the listed maximum age for the camp, I was allowed to enroll. I worked my butt off in my riding lessons getting in shape to jump, and when summer rolled around, I knew I was ready to jump sweet jumps.

The camp was about a 10 hour drive from home, but it just so happened some friends were taking a long summer vacation at the ski resort nearby. She offered to pick me up from the airport and drop me off at camp. My dad had faxed all the paperwork in advance so there wouldn't be any problems. We thought.
When I arrived, the gal asked for my paperwork. And wanted a parent to sign forms. She almost didn't take me... I was so nervous. Looking back, that may have been a blessing in disguise. Over the course of the week I was accused of sneaking into the 14 year old boy's tent among a litany of other silly charges that I had nothing to do with. But this isn't a blog about crappy camp counselors.. let's get back to the horses. I was assigned a plump little appy mare with no mane or tail to speak of. She was cute and reminded me of a horse at home... we hit it off pretty well. Sadly, the camp owner was not impressed. The very first day, she stuck me in the beginner group, many of these students couldn't even steer. Her reasoning? Because I was "just a western rider". After the first day I was moved into a more advanced group, and we immediately started off jumping 2'3'". This camp did not focus so much on teaching you what you were doing as simply surviving. Luckily, I didn't scare easy. Even after watching lots of refusals and runouts, it was my turn.... the feeling of just riding up to a jump and knowing my horse was going to sail over built my confidence, even though I had no idea what I was doing.

Looking back now, I realize how sad those poor horses must have been. Many had physical issues- I saw stringhalt, eye issues, and enough lameness to make you shake your head. I couldn't pull the noseband tight enough to pass tack check, and I'm quite sure my little close contact saddle with a plain pad didn't do any favors for my saintly appy's back. I did learn a few things about jumping... mostly how to stay out of a good horse's way. At the end of the week show for the parents,  the "just a western rider" won the equitation class. I'll never go back there, but I never want to forget my terrible week at camp.

This entry brought to you by Facebook

I've been a little uninspired lately as far as topics for blogs, so I reached out to my wonderful facebook friends for a little inspiration. Here are the things they wanted to hear about!

Grant wanted to know how long it takes for a horse to go from conception to rideable. It's a straightforward question, but the answer isn't quite as simple. The gestation period for a horse is 11 months, nobody argues this one. The time from birth that it is ok to ride them is another story. The average horse person will tell you two and a half to three years is old enough to start their riding career. There are some folks out there who start their horses at 16-18 months so that they are ready to show as a 2 year old. Racehorses all turn a year older on January 1. If they were born late in the year, they may be racing as a 2 year old much MUCH younger. Then there's the folks on the other side of the fence who say a horse shouldn't be ridden until their skeleton is fully mature, around 6 years old. If you are interested in more information on the horse's skeleton, Dr. Deb Bennett has a great article on her website. Now since this is my blog, here's my opinion. I think if you wait until a horse is 6 years old to start them, they have spent too much time not working for a living. I like to do lots of groundwork when they are still small and impressionable, around 2. I want them nice and quiet and to get them going under saddle. Then a break until they are after 3 to start their "real" training. Each horse is an individual and their physical and mental maturity should always be taken into account before doing any type of training.

Jamison wanted to know how many inches are in a hand, which is how we express a horse's height. There are 4 inches in a hand. Hand is abbreviated hh, and the inches over and above a hand are placed after the decimal. So a horse who is 15 hands and 2 inches would be 15.2hh. Many folks misunderstand the use of the decimal and would list this horse as 15.5hh, but that would not be correct.

Kelsey wanted to know if Mr. Ed could really talk. According to Wikipedia they used a thread across his lip to encourage him to "talk", but, being a very smart boy, quickly learned to watch the actor and start talking when his costar had finished a line.

And.. I found this video on youtube. Enjoy. Or marvel. Or wonder. Or.. whatever, I guess. ;)

Great Expectations

What goes through your mind while you're riding? If you're like many of my students and clients, you are focused on not letting things go wrong. "I hope Spooky McJumpypants doesn't freak out in the corner" "I hope Ol' Twobyfour doesn't brace through this transition" "Hopefully Mexican Jumping Beans isn't going to buck today"  This kind of thinking can be a self defeating prophecy. It's amazing how in tune our horses are to our mental state of being. They're just trotting along or whathaveyou, when they feel your body tense as you think about where they might buck/spook/swerve/brace or otherwise booger around. So your horse is thinking, "Well, shoot! Miss Rider Lady is really nervous about something that's coming up, I should be too!" We unintentionally clutter the horse's mind and make it more difficult for them to focus on the job at hand.

I was watching a boarder at my barn ride her beautiful black mare the other night. As they were going around I heard her say something along the lines of "stop bracing" to her horse... who continued to brace. Even though she was riding the horse in a way to correct the error, the horse continued leaning on the reins. When she changed her tune and asked the horse to be soft, the change was almost instantaneous.

Next time  you ride, try it. Make a note of the negative thoughts that you have, and see what happens if you turn them around into a positive. It's not a magic trick, your horse won't suddenly learn how to do flying changes; and we can't change our horse's natural way of going or temperment. However, it's amazing how well a horse will work when we get out of their way.

Compliant vs Trained

What is the definition of a trained horse? To me, a well trained horse will do his job for any level rider or handler capable of asking for it. He needs to know what the job is and perform it when asked. The rider shouldn't have to do a lot of holding, tickling, squeezing, begging, clucking, or smacking.
.
How well trained is your horse? Are you the only one who can get him to accomplish certain things? If the average user (with an appropriate skill level for your horse) can't get close to the same performance you can from your horse, you may be guilty of just getting him to do things rather than training.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how we teach our horses to do things. Because of our impatient nature, it's easy to get ahead of the program and push to the more advanced (more fun!) steps. But what does this do to our horse? If they are not confident with each increasingly difficult step, they will never be independant in it. If we let our impatience get in the way of our training, we really shoot ourself in the foot. Because as each stage comes along we are holding, helping, and asking our horse more and more. This limits us, because we can only help so much. If we want our horse to improve, we have to train their mind and body to accomplish the task when we ask for it.. not when we manipulate their body into doing it.  It's easy to just get-them-to do things rather than teaching them how to accomplish them in response to a cue.

When you ride  next, take the time to pay attention to your horse. Do you get responses to your cues? Or is getting advanced maneuvers more like trying to load a great dane into a lifted pickup? If the latter is the case, maybe it's time to slow down and go back to basics. Find the holes in your horses training. Break each maneuver down to it's most basic element and build up from there only as fast as your horse can go. Do not move onto the next step until your horse can reliably respond to the cue for the step you are currently on. If you are interested in a detailed example, Please visit this page, where he talks about getting control of the hindquarters.

Am I Cheating?

I was going to write a post about the benefits of using long and low, and how riding in this posture helps prepare a horse for collection; but I found this video on youtube. It's so good. Please, watch it. Then we should talk about it in the comments. :)

We ALL Need an Attitude Adjustment Sometimes

You know those days at the barn where your horse is happy to see you, and you are happy to see your horse. You have a great ride, and as you head back to put your horse away a big rainbow appears in the sky and birds fly up and land on your shoulder and sing you a beautiful bird song. Oh wait, that’s starting to sound a little like a Disney cartoon… but you know what I’m talking about. Why don’t we have that all the time?

It’s easy to fall into the trap of blaming our horses for a bad ride, but is this really fair? Let’s pick up the boss analogy again. A good boss only gives their employee tasks that they are capable of completing, gives the support the employee needs to finish the task, and acknowledges the accomplishment when the job is completed. How often are we bad bosses when we ride? Do we set our horses up for success, support them, and reward when they get it? Or do we let our expectations or memories from a previous ride clutter our mind and give our horse mixed signals? It’s easy to do, and the habit is hard to break. “He always spooks there” “You can’t do that to him from his off side” “He doesn’t do XXX” How many times have you said something like this about your horse?  How much of this behavior is human driven rather than horse driven?

When we ride our horses, a cluttered mind can really affect their performance. Horses, unlike humans, operate in the moment. They don’t have a master game plan or set of goals when you pull them out of their paddock. One minute they were eating or sniffing poo or whathaveyou and, the next, you came to catch them for a ride. We humans are great at making plans and goals, but where we fall short is helping the horse to clearly understand and accomplish them. We can inadvertently muddle our signals with tension in our body or mind. Our horses are so incredibly sensitive they can pick up on whatever physical or mental baggage we brought to the barn.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that if we just do it right then our horses will magically turn into the most obedient, cooperative critter in the world. They are still big prey animals with a mind and personality of their own. Certain individuals will always be more cooperative and pliable than others. Sometimes they ignore our wonderful leadership, but if we can stay consistent, clear, and patient they will usually come around to our way of thinking… eventually.

 I find, when I’m  not getting the response I want from  the horse, it helps to stop and take a little break; sometimes I let the horse stand and air up or walk on a loose rein. I don’t come back to the exercise until we have both calmed down, and I have figured out a simpler step to ask the horse for. By then, we are usually on the same page and ready to get back to work.

Lately, I’ve been searching out times to ride when the arena is empty. I leave the radio off, put my phone on the rail, and really focus on the ride at hand.  I want to be able to read my horse and give him the right workout for where he is at that day. It’s a struggle. It’s so easy to become distracted or frustrated, but the results speak for themselves. I’ve had some of the best rides ever in my life over the last couple of months. It’s exciting and makes my brain hurt at the same time.