Heed the Warning: Don’t Make a Big Deal out of Anything!
Somewhere in Les Vogt’s foundation level of Cowhorse U. program, he says, “Don’t make a big deal out of anything you don’t want to be a big deal.” Well, I didn’t heed the warning, and I think I may now be suffering the consequences.
Les also says that you basically have two horses to train, the right side of the horse and the left side. This is how the big deal started—I only trained one horse.
First I noticed that, ya, Leo was doing a turn-on-the-forehand to the left. But then I realized that somewhere along the line, he totally forgot how to do it to the right (my fault for sure – practice both sides consistently goof!). I also realized the I DIDN’T HAVE THE NECK!!! ACH! I realized that even on his good side, his head was up in the air and pulling hard on the bit all the way around. Yikes!
Solution, I thought = get annoying with the bit. Alternate pulls until he drops his head and gets off the bit. That worked pretty good on his good side. I have the neck…in one direction.
I kept trying for the turn-on-the-forehand on his bad side. He would back up, go sideways, and almost always try to go forward. He would push through the bit and walk on. When he did that I would get more aggressive with the bit, not a dead pull, but obnoxious alternate tugs. If he even made a step in the right direction, I would release and tell him what a good boy he was. BUT, I think I tried too many times, for too long, two days in a row. He finally, out of frustration, brought his front two hoofs off the ground.
I got on him today and he was immediately aggressive. He was whipping his head back and forth as soon as we started walking, like he was trying to rips the reins out of my hands. He reared up several times (just when I was asking him to stop or back up a little). I had to pull him into tight circles. When I did that, tried to one rein him around, he resisted aggressively, so I had to give the bit a few healthy bumps to let him know I wasn’t playing either.
BAD RIDE, and I’m sure it’s because I made a big deal out of that one topic. He’s toootally defensive with the bit right now. He is a horse with an attitude, so when he’s frustrated he expresses it aggressively and today he was getting dangerous.
In the end, I had him do some easy stuff. Vertical flexion at a slow jog, lateral flexion at a jog. He did calm down with that, but all in all, a miserable ride. I’ve learned my lesson. Now how do I fix it? I think I’m going to drop the topic for a few sessions and see if that works.
I shouldn’t end this like it’s all bad though. He’s been an amazing horse lately. He’s normally so good about giving me his head and neck. He’s very responsive and has maneuvers (Cowhorse U) #1 and #2 down and is excellent at #3 and #4 on the right side. 
I know exactly how you’re feeling! I had this same problem with Mea a couple weeks ago. I was working on spins & Doug wanted me to try to get them to take 1 or 2 more steps on their own as I release the reins. Going to the right she did soooo good she would almost do a full circle (spin) on her own. So I tried to the left, she’d stop immediately, so I thought ok, I’ll just keep working on it, well she finally got tired of it & I admit I did get aggressive with her & frustrated because I’m like “WHY??? You do it sooo good going to the right!” So she ended up pushing into my outside leg & would pop up like Leo did everytime I would ask for a left spin. So I thought ok I’m just going to trot off & get her going forward & doing something else. So I trotted her off for a while & occasionally I would stop her & do a left spin, just asking for 1 step across at first & eventually was able to do a full one, then stopped for the day. I told Doug about it the next day at my lesson & he said I handled it well & asked to see the left spin, I was nervous, thinking she would blow up again, but she didn’t she went around just fine. He said if you do too much “tight” exercises as he called them, spinning or disengaging hind end, like you’re doing, you have to balance it with some forward impulsion exercises to give them a chance to stretch out a bit. Now she’s doing spins great both ways. I just ask for a little bit more from the spins each ride, spend just a couple minutes on them & that seems to have helped.
16 Apr 2008 at 7:57 am
Amanda,
Thanks so much for the response. It really helps to know that his behavior is normal. Did Mea ever do it again? I tried to do a lot of forward work today and it seemed to help. Right up to that little bolting incident we had. Ha! Ha! He was still very defensive today though. It might take a few days or weeks to fix the damage I’ve done.
18 Apr 2008 at 1:16 am
She never did it again, but I haven’t had to be aggressive with her since either. I think thats pretty much what made her do it, she was getting sick of doing spins to the left & kinda had a mental breakdown & WAS NOT going to do anymore. I always forget too, that she’s still young (5). Now when she does a good spin, I’ll ask for a little more the next time or 2, then I quit for the day. If he’s still be defensive, you may want to forget about working on it for a week, then come back & try it.
18 Apr 2008 at 7:30 am
Ya, thats what I was thinking. I think I might try to fit in a little more trail riding. Jim’s property has direct access to mountain trails. Sometimes I just let Leo run til he’s done up the side of it. He’s got a lot of energy, so I should probably let him burn it off once in awhile and do something different. Even though I could do it all day, I think maybe horses can get bored doing arena work all the time.
18 Apr 2008 at 9:05 am
I think that is so true, which, I can’t blame them. It would get boring to go round & round, same scenery, same walls. Right now my “arena” is an alfalfa field, so there is different things to look at for Mea, but I try, after every training time to ride off somewhere…recently it’s been in the barren bean field across the road from me & just walk, no training, just an occasional trot or canter. I think she enjoys it.
18 Apr 2008 at 10:33 am