Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Downward transitions

From: Pip

Hi Jessica:

Squeak had a severe back injury about three years ago. He damaged a lot of the ligaments and muscles that run over the lumbar region and as a result it took a lot of time, patience, massage and a wonderful farrier, to get him sound and happy. He is 100% sound now and a different horse. He can finally round up his back and step under himself, most of the time. The problem we are having is with our downward transitions. Trot to halt being the worst. I know that a lot of it is my fault, I"m not sitting deep enough in the saddle but sometimes, even when we get it all together, and he comes to a nice balanced halt, right afterwards he still flings his head up. I have wondered if this might be a left over conditioned response - from when it used to hurt him to halt in a rounded way and that he is anticipating the 'ouch' that isn't there anymore? Does this sound logical? is there a solution?

thanks again,

Pip

Hi Pip! I would check all the easy, obvious, physical things first -- his teeth, his saddle fit, and his back. If Squeak has no trouble with any of these, then you could indeed be dealing with the memory of/anticipation of discomfort. The only way to overcome that is by creating a new behaviour pattern to replace the old one. When you do your downward transitions, keep thinking FORWARD -- in other words, during a trot-walk transition don't think "we're coming down to the walk", think "we're going forward into an active walk." Don't drop Squeak as you go into the transition!

The same applies to trot-halt transitions -- the halt is a movement, after all, not a pause between movements. I suggest that you do trot-halt-trot transitions, varying the amount of time you spend at the halt, but never dropping Squeak. If you half-halt at the trot before you halt, then keep Squeak's attention during the halt, then ask him to move out immediately into a forward trot, you should be able to do away with the head-flinging.

If he's flinging his head up because something is bothering him, that "something" is likely to be a change in contact -- if you do trot-halt-trot transitions, the contact can remain unchanged. Try it and see what happens!

If you're doing this on the center line, you can also vibrate your inside rein ("inside" depends on which direction you will be turning at C) lightly as you go from halt to trot.

- Jessica

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