Dear Alpha Mare,
I need some help with my Arab. He won’t do a slow trot or a slow lope. As soon as I ask for it, he turns on the speed (I used to use him in endurance racing, but I have quit that sport).
I think I messed him up by racing him so he doesn’t know anything but fast. I have been emailing trainers but no one responds. I’m getting discouraged because I don’t want to ride him as it is so uncomfortable. I just need to know what to do so I can have a relaxed ride. I hope you can help me soon, as the summers are short!
Hot To Trot in Alberta
Dear Hot to Trot,
Here’s your mantra: a horse can only whoa (or slow down) when it doesn’t need to go, especially a hot-blooded breed like an Arab or a Thoroughbred! A comfort zone in both their body and their mind are requisite for them to relax.
Now you can exhale knowing you haven’t messed him up. He was born to run! And run he will – away from everyone and everything until he finds a feeling of total alignment in his body that transcends into his mind telling him he is so “okay” and that “gotta go” is no longer his option of choice.
What it takes is compassion, awareness, and knowledge of how to reprogram an equine brain that, like a knee-jerk reaction, anticipates feeling bad and resorts to a flight instinct.
The good news is that these horses really don’t want to feel stressed about life. They really don’t. As soon as they see that you are no longer exacerbating or escalating such negative anticipations, they will be oh-so relieved to get over it.
I speak from a lot of experience on this one. Not only does every Thoroughbred here at the Secretariat Center in Kentucky come to us fraught with “oh-my-God-I-know-something-is-bound-to-go-wrong anticipation, my own ex-racehorse, Razzlo, was a replica of your Arab.
The first time I clicked a lunge line to his halter, he literally took off like a rocket. Exercise riders at the track were getting catapulted left, right, and centre (which is why he was sold to me). Quite simply, weight on his back had him anticipating the worst, so he’d explode, buck off whoever was up there and take off, you guessed it, like a rocket.
So believe me, I know the frustration you’re feeling, but it won’t take years to shift his mindset. It may take all of a couple of months. The key is to go back to the basics and lay a solid foundation of your horse seeing you as someone that moves him in such a way that his body always feels good.
In other words, you make it your goal to have him balanced and level-headed every time you do something with him, be it walking him in from the pasture, tying him to a post or cross-ties, leading, lunging, or riding him.
His well-being is contingent on his ability to not only move, but move well. And when he sees that this is your intention for him, he will come to associate you with toning him down rather than revving him up!
As your question pertains specifically to going under saddle, I’ll address his alignment concerns regarding your riding him. But don’t ignore the fact that everything you do with him – from grooming to tacking him up – puts his mind in a state of either calm or angst.
I do not step up on a horse that is anxious and exhibiting stress. I dissolve the stress on the ground first and only when I “know” he is okay with me do I ride him.
Learning his language and moving around him appropriately will work wonders in establishing a frame of mind for him to trust and say yes to you under saddle – or not.
So please don’t ignore the need to keep him square and straight in the cross ties or hitching rail, call him on counter-bending and flex his head down to level as you groom and tack him up, and make sure your bedside manner is very user-friendly during all of this.
Watch for positive signs like bowing, yawning, sighing, blowing, dropping his topline, shaking out stress, licking and chewing. All of these are anxiety-relievers and tell you that your horse is working through any angst.
When you feel your horse is in a good state of mind for you to ride him, and you still get a rushed trot that probably easily breaks into a fast canter, know that he is telling you he feels off-balance.
This is not unusual, especially in the Arab breed. They are very athletic, but also delicate. Think how you would feel if someone put a dead weight of 50 pounds on your shoulders (the vertical equivalent to a horizontal spine and central nervous system) and then told you to perform moves like a gymnast.
How long would it be before you’d want to dump the inhibiting weight so you could move both better and easier? Weight on a horse’s back makes them feel even more vulnerable than they already are.
And if you don’t stay balanced and aligned, and do what they need to keep themselves balanced and aligned, they tend to either lean into turns (pivoting rather than bending), or overbend from their neck.
Either way, your horse is, quite literally, “bent out of shape,” which causes him to go faster and faster to try to get away from such a bad feeling.
Your horse moves diagonally, like a skater, back to front, with a serpentine rhythm through its barrel. Learning to feel this rhythm and ride from your core – not your hands – will ensure that you are working “with” your horse, rather than against it.
Add to this softly connected hands that only block, never steer from or pull on the bridle, and your horse will begin to see that you know how it moves and how to keep it comfortable when he moves with you on his back.
If you can sit up straight, be the mast of his ship with your upper body, keep your hands and arms soft and supple with the bridle, your legs wrapped around him like a soft glove, and your core swaying with the movement coming through his body, you will groove with your horse into symbiosis.
A worried and braced (which leads to fetal) rider feels like a lead weight on a horse’s spine, and comfort will never be a word that comes to mind for either one of you. But you can’t help being worried if you ride him in an environment that could potentially set him off.
Perhaps you can find a place of safety (a round pen or small paddock) where you can ride your horse without distraction. Think “gumby” or “jello” when you visualize being on his back. Think “Zen” and “going with the flow.” Exhale and exhale some more.
Only when your horse feels you relax will he relax. Only when you can smile and giggle and blow and sigh will he feel like he can drop his head and let the stress go. But you can’t put the chicken before the egg.
Take it one baby step and one day at a time, and don’t get greedy for big results. Each time he halts square in the cross-ties or hitching post, each time he stands quietly for mounting, each time he stays calm while being groomed – praise him.
All of these are signs that he is calming down overall. All of these are signs that he is ready to stay calm for you in the saddle.
Kathryn
Kathryn travels extensively with her husband, Chris Irwin, as a trainer and coach conducting clinics and “Train the Trainer” sessions throughout North America. They are currently developing Riversong Ranch Equestrian Retreat on the shores of the McLeod River just west of Edmonton. If you have a question that you’d like Kathryn to answer in a future column, please email her at alphamare@telus.net
