Most horses’ first experience of the halter is struggling against it. So the important part of this Lesson is about releasing the tension and resistance caused by that struggle, that is still there all this time later causing you problems on the ground and when you’re riding.
Releasing the anxiety or even the emotional pain of feeling trapped also means releasing the physical tension and resistance CAUSED by that emotional stress.
Be aware that this release, like any other release, will be a significant contribution to fast tracking your way to brilliant riding.
That is not this lesson’s only contribution to fast tracking your way to brilliant riding though.
The feel that you and your horse will learn together in this Lesson is the same feel that you need in the bridle or whatever it is that you are going to ride in – so you can expect a direct relationship between what you learn here and your ridden work.
I am looking for your horse to understand the simple concept of “elevate the front end” – which means lift up the front end but without moving the feet, unweight the front legs so that they can move easily. Then we want them to be able to step to the left and step to the right – softly and co-operatively from the FEEL of their halter – then step forwards, then backwards and to be able to bring their head down with the feel of the halter too. And you are looking to establish a Comfort Zone with all of those steps.
That’s a very few words with a BIG message. Because to establish a Comfort Zone, you will most likely have to make it possible for your horse to release some old emotional stuff and that could take some time.
You are already prepared to take however long it takes, but the way that your horse responds to their halter sets the tone for the rest of their life – the way that YOU use the halter sets the tone for the rest of your life together.
The way that you use the halter, the sensitivity with which you use it, the firm, kind, smooth feel with which you use it will set the tone for everything else that you do together. The simulation in the smooth hands lesson is worth its weight in gold. Do whatever you can to get your reactions smooth and automatic without your horse first.
WE are mainly looking to identify and release any resistance, misunderstanding or trauma that has been involved in moving with the previous “ask” of the halter. You’re still looking for the active listening, the soft, alert eyes at each stage of this Lesson that will tell you that your horse is in their Comfort Zone. If their eyes stop blinking and they zone out, stop back off and wait for them to lick and chew no matter how long it takes.
Before you start this lesson
Make sure that the previous lessons are in your horse’s Comfort Zone. Check your Inner Awareness / peaceful feeling / Quiet Mind on the way to your horse with the halter in your hand, while you are waiting for your horse to come to you, maybe rub them all over, maybe play the mirror game for a minute or maybe move them around and be moved around and listen for any Not Quite Rights that tell you that you need to back off because there is something to attend to before you put the halter on for this halter lesson.
I say “maybe rub them all over” and “maybe mirror them for a minute or two” and “maybe move them around” because while it will not remotely be appropriate for you to do these things every time you go get your horse – if you get a Not Quite Right, it may work to fall back into one or more of these previous activities to find the place from which you are ready to move on.
Shall we talk about this again?
HOW might you experience that early warning signal that something is Not Quite Right? Keep your eye out inside yourself for:
- YOUR OWN breathing suddenly getting tight, shallow and / or speeding up,
- YOUR heart rate running faster,
- YOUR OWN jaw tight and tense,
- YOUR OWN lovely posture that should be acting like a big spring, going all tight and tense, which means your hand on the halter is going to feel rough for the horse. There’s that valuable walking in good posture again!
- YOUR OWN energy feeling yuck, flat, stagnant, blocked or even explosive,
- YOUR OWN body suddenly experiencing discomfort or even pain,
- YOUR OWN emotions of anxiety or frustration coming up,
- YOUR OWN worries suddenly escalating.
- because all of those things could be your inner guidance system at work and could be YOUR HORSE’s breathing, heartrate, tension, tense posture, yucky feeling energy, anxiety, frustration or worries. These are ALL ways that you can experience your connection to your horse depending on your natural talents.
And take action to soften off, back off, stop what you’re doing, maybe even take the halter off and walk a distance away, whatever you need to do to feel OK again, wait for your horse to lick and chew AND soak up the good feelings that come from that before you start doing that again.
Reminder: How often have you ended the day feeling stiff and sore, tight and tense, upset, AND IT WASN’T EVEN YOURS?
How did you go with your “is that really true?” question? “Could it really be their fear, their frustration, their tension, their worries, their pent up stuck feeling yucky energy that I’m feeling because of my connection with them?” Has the answer come floating in yet or is it still coming?
Ready to continue the lesson?
Don’t be disappointed if something that was in their Comfort Zone last week is all of a sudden not in it any more. They’re just working a layer, looking for the deep Comfort Zone. I’m telling you now, being connected to a horse as they bubble with joy is such a beautiful thing. You’ll judge for yourself if working these layers as they come up is worth it!
The life changing RELEASE, RE-LEARN and RE-PROGRAM applies to this task as well. Be clear about these very important three stages by reviewing your last lesson about getting our horse in their Comfort Zone with a halter.
The video below is to just give you something visual to explain what I mean. The audio lesson below it is the most important part of this lesson.
Later edit: As I watched this lesson doing some edits in 2019, I was thinking that for some horses, those rotations would have felt like they were on fast forward. So move much slower…. If you feel a stuck spot in your own body or with your hand, just pause on it and wait. Don’t push through the stuck spot!
Watch on Youtube if you need to.
The lesson
Click here for the alternate recording of Relearning the feel of the halter
This is a 10 minute lesson that you can download to your phone or mp3 player and take out to your horse. There’s a written version of the audio below.
I’m not looking for any complicated stuff, like moving each leg individually from specific movements of the halter. There is a great advanced version of this in Bill Dorrance’s book, so if you have read about that exercise, then by all means add that AFTER you’ve done this exercise. And if you’re a dressage rider or wanting to work in soft, elevated, collected feel, Carolyn Resnick’s Uberstreichen exercises, are a more advanced version, also excellent and worth looking up on Youtube – here’s the first Uberstreichen excercise here.
Keys to Success
1. Using a clear feel that does not even try to push past any blockage that your horse puts up – whether that blockage is due to confusion or to old resistance or old bracing patterns or even if it is your horse just saying no at this stage.
2. Having simulated with another person the smooth sliding hands that will enable you to slide your hands to your horse’s head with better feel.
3. Doing very slow movements at first so both you and your horse can feel that old blockage, that old brace or the exact moment when your horse is NOT coming with you with that “ask”. The slowness is just while you and your horse get used to this new feel.
4. Being prepared to stop even though you didn’t get what you wanted yet and wait for The Chew anyway is a major key to success that will make it possible for your horse to release any old resistances or even trauma from old events in the halter.
5. Paying attention to any thoughts or ideas that crossed your mind while you were waiting for The Chew and acting on them next time.
6. The good posture that you learned way back at the beginning will give you a stability on the ground that will give you a better feel for your horse.
7. Repeating this lesson as many times as you need to, for your horse to have released all their resistance to the feel you asking them to move softly in the halter.
8. And above all, LIVE THE FEEL THAT YOU DEVELOP IN THIS LESSON – if you want this responsiveness from your horse all the time then you need to offer that beautiful “feel” all the time.
Do you get it? If we want this softness and responsiveness, then we need to BE the change we want our horse to be.
Oh yeah… this is big.
NOW can you see why I talk so easily about achieving world class horsemanship?
Written Version of the Audio
This lesson involves asking your horse to do something for you and for the first time in all these lessons they can’t get away from you because the halter is on. So this could be a VERY big deal a big opportunity to release some old fear or confusion or resistance.
Be prepared to stop even if you don’t get what you want and wait for The Chew no matter how long it takes – i.e. do whatever it takes to release the resistance or trauma and find the Comfort Zone on this one!
Of all the tasks that I have been saying will Fast Track you to brilliant riding, this is probably the one that will most directly Fast Track you, because you are re-teaching your horse how to respond softly and thoughtfully and with complete understanding to the ask of a rein, even though you are still on the ground.
For the front legs to move smoothly, your horse will most likely have to shift their weight OFF of the front end first.
So the first thing I like to communicate is the “up” feel of the halter and to see if my horse can lift his head and maybe his shoulders up and unweight their front legs.
They have to be able to move their legs freely to do everything – go left, go right, forwards and backwards. Imagine that your horse is lifting their head and shoulders UP, then lift the lead rope up at the same angle that you would be using if this was a rein from their back, to signal a lift of the front end upwards.
FEEL for it, no push or pull or make.
If your horse does ANY tiny upwards movement, even a muscle shift, then stop and wait for The Chew no matter how long it takes.
If they don’t move at all, apply a little rhythm that EXPLAINS what it is that you are looking for. Like a tiny, rhythmic upwards feel of the rope three or four times.
And even if they do nothing at all, give you no response at all, stop, slide your hand back down the rope to a more relaxed position further down the lead, and wait for The Chew.
If you haven’t used this amount of softness before, they are probably confused right now and wondering what the heck you want them to do. And when you add pressure to confusion, you create fear and or resistance.
When they have chewed on this tiniest muscle shift, it may be OK to ask again, looking for a little bit more than they gave you last time – Imagine it in your mind, lift the rope and feel for them in the direction that you are looking for, apply a tiny rhythm that explains what you are asking for – then stop and wait for The Chew whether you got what you wanted or not.
Some horses might need to get this upwards shift into their comfort zone before moving onto the next step and if at any stage there is a big long processing and releasing of resistance or trauma, then a good break is probably appropriate, maybe even come back tomorrow.
You’ll notice I use the word trauma fairly loosely. There’s big things that have big lasting effects on your horse and small things that have small effects and I am using the word trauma to loosely cover both those.
When the front end lifts up when you ask, easily and smoothly, you can start asking the legs to actually move.
Imagine that you have eyes on the front of your shoulders, on the front of your hips, on the front of your knees and on the front of your toes. And when I talk about turning all eyes to look somewhere at the same time – those are the “eyes” I am talking about. Peggy Cummings calls this a rotation – a rotation of your whole body in the same direction at the same time.
Stand up now while you are at the computer and just gently swivel your whole body around at the same time, softly and naturally rotating and having all “eyes” look in the new direction at the same time.
This is great body language for your horse, it’s great “feel” for your horse and it’s great practise for when you are in the saddle because that is how you are going to turn your horse.
Yep, you will be so in tune together and in such a beautiful riding position that that is all it will take…
Now you want your horse to move forwards and away from you, so that’s where you need to look with all your eyes.
Listen inside yourself again, with noticing your breathing and heartbeat if you still need to and hold the halter under the chin around the clip again and imagine that your horse is stepping away from you and a little bit forwards – in the direction that you are facing, picture it in your mind.
And then use the halter to ask your horse to step away from you – put a FEEL of up and sideways and a little bit forwards at the same time into the halter.
If you push or pull on the halter here, your horse will have no choice but to either resist or defend him self by bracing something in his body to compensate. And that bracing is not comfortable to ride and nor is it joyful for your horse to have to defend themselves like that.
Imagine the responsiveness of the rein that you will look for in your riding and YOU HAVE TO BE THE CHANGE THAT YOU WISH TO SEE – you yourself have to be as soft with your ask as you want your horse to be in response.
So never put more pressure on in your asking than you want them to deliver back to you.
Pushing and pulling is probably what happened in their first experience of the halter and we want to change that – big time! Even slight bracing is not useful to us and we can get rid of it right here… Even a tiny push or pull will create a corresponding resistance somewhere in their body.
This lesson is NOT about getting your horse to step off the halter. I reckon we can probably all pull or push our horse around enough to get them to move their feet.
It’s about creating a comfort zone about your horse stepping off the “ask” of the halter and it’s about releasing the resistance and even trauma that may exist about doing that and finding the joyfulness of the deep comfort zone if that’s appropriate today.
If you haven’t worked with a friend and experienced the tiny differences between an “ask” and a pull before, it is an excellent eye opener to be the horse in that exercise and get to feel how even a small jerk feels ugly and notice how much your body tenses up when someone pulls or pushes on you – that’s the kind of tension we want to release from our horse’s prior experience.
When your horse gives you the first tiny muscle shift or sway in the right direction with the movement of the halter to the side, stop asking, take your hand off the halter, even step away if you feel like it’s a good idea and wait for The Chew.
If it’s going well, it can be so tempting to keep going all the way to the whole foot moving. But with many horses, you are less likely to meet resistance if you break it down into all these tiny baby steps and certainly it’s much faster to get any exercise into their comfort zone with baby steps.
When one direction is in their Comfort Zone, you can ask for another.
Here’s some thoughts about backwards from the halter.
Holding the halter under the chin again, this time you could face backwards instead of forwards.
Imagine your horse stepping backwards and then apply a backwards FEEL with the halter.
If your horse moves the tiniest muscle, stop, hold the lead rope in a more relaxed position further down the lead, maybe even take a step backwards and wait for The Chew, no matter how long it takes.
If your horse doesn’t move at all, apply a gentle rhythm of something like 3 taps of the back of your hand against his chest or it could be something like three gentle squeezes of the halter with your hand – use something that EXPLAINS what it is that you are asking for.
And stop when you’ve done the rhythm even if your horse has done nothing at all. And yes, you guessed it, wait for The Chew no matter how long it takes.
Don’t be tempted to ask for a full step. It’s in the baby steps that you will find your horse’s understanding and their comfort zone.
Some of you will get no movement at all because backwards is not so natural a movement for a horse so it can be a bigger deal.
That’s OK. Wait for The Chew anyway even if you get no movement at all.
Your horse will think about your request even though you didn’t keep asking. Sometimes we have to create a Comfort Zone with the “ask” itself and they can release resistance or trauma on the “ask” itself too.
When you get backwards established on the ground like this, then backwards in the saddle is easier to communicate.
And the better your backwards is when you are riding, the better “stop” you have. And I don’t know about you, but my Comfort Zone demands a good stop and I want a soft, responsive, understanding of the stop too!
I hope you enjoy this transformation to a new level of softness with your horse – it will go beautifully with this new riding seat that you have been developing.
Up Next
In your next Lesson we use techniques to smoothly and gradually increase your horse paying attention to you in the halter. It’s an important part of developing the leadership you need to reach big dreams with your horse.