11/03/2023
Four years old, but always relevant.
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Aurora has just turned six. I bred her and was fortunate enough to be present when she was born at 8 p.m one lovely summer evening. It was a textbook birth and when I first saw this beautiful little black face with a big white star on her forehead, I thought ‘Wow the horse gods really did hear my wishes!” A little later when I discovered she was a filly, my wishlist had been completed. Aurora was such a sweetheart and so easy to do anything with.
It wasn't until I decided to do some float training with her that I noticed something different about her to my other horses. In recent times I have found that I've done so much groundwork with my young horse that by the time it comes to float training, usually, they will just walk on pretty easily. Aurora struggled a bit with the float, and the anxiety it created caused her to get a bit stuck emotionally and her reaction to feeling worried was to go backward as fast as she could.
Now I never pushed her to the point where this was happening, it was just a reaction I observed when something startled or worried her. It almost appeared as though she was a little backward thinking at times, and I don't in any way mean that negatively. In fact in terms of horses backward and forward thinking and a lot of the other ways we describe them is not relevant when they are themselves among other horses. It is just a way I use to describe her so we can understand it.
When I started her under saddle she was one of those horses with more whoa than go. We've all seen those types of horses, often they're considered lazy or quiet, and no doubt we've all either ridden or seen horses that people have trouble getting to go. Some might even have to resort to using tools like whips spurs, flags etc to get the horse moving forward.
I hadn't had a horse like Aurora before. My horse's had always had more go than whoa, so I wasn’t at all used to the version that took a bit to get moving. I fell into the trap that many people do where I started to get a little bit too busy with my legs…
Aurora began to change, I'd be getting a little busy with my legs and seat and when she went forward I observed her body language. She had stiffened and her front legs, her ears pinned back and her tail was swishing. I thought it'll be ok, after a couple of sessions she will have the idea of going forward we will be fine I won't need to use my legs. About a week on I noticed that the ears going back, was now starting when I lightly touched her with my legs, and I thought actually this is not what I want for my beautiful baby horse. I don't want her associating my legs with feeling uncomfortable. In fact, I don't want her to associate me with feeling uncomfortable, no nice partnership is going to come from that.
I thought about the issue of forward and about horses who don't have a natural tendency to go forward. I knew I didn't want to go down the track of using a whip, spurs or flag, I'm not criticizing those things but they are not for me. I feel that if I am needing to use them then something in my communication with the horse is breaking down and it is up to me to find out what that is.
It seemed to me that Auroras natural inclination to pressure was to move backwards away from it or get stuck when my other horse's inclination was to move forward. I began to see that going forward for a horse was far more than just the physical act of moving forward, but for it to have freedom and softness the horse really had to think about going forward for themselves. Otherwise, I was essentially making it happen, forcing Aurora to go forward. Nothing forced can have freedom and softness with it. I needed to find a way to inspire her forward thought, help her understand that going forward rather than her natural inclination of going backwards actually helps her feel better. The freedom of movement with balance would allow her to relax and let her mind go to a more positive place.
Over the last 18 months, I have used exercises which help build the forward thought into Aurora. I think of her forward thought like it is a muscle that was a little weak, and we need to strengthen it. I’ve built up her go forward response so it feels more natural to her and with enough repetition that she understands going forward brings peace and comfort to her, rather than tension and anxiety.
Today, Aurora is as forward as any of my other horses. This is important and powerful knowledge that Aurora has given me. It has helped my other horses tremendously and it's allowed me to help a number of other people and their horses with various “not thinking forward issues” too. Let's all think about inspiring our horses to go forward rather than making them :)
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