08/01/2023
Pressure & Release for this beautiful training Tuesday:
"Punishment and reward" are words also commonly used, but I find that they open the door for confusion about the way horses communicate. Timing is essential, and "pressure" and "release" are literal terms here, so there's not much room for interpretation. In the most literal sense, when you apply pressure, your horse feels that - when you release, your horse feels that. It can be as light as a feather (horses can feel a fly on them, they can feel you, i promise!) and the release can be just as light.
Think of how a horse would communicate to another horse in the wild. They would not bring one another treats. They would back off, releasing pressure from the other, changing the position of their body in relation to the other horse to indicate that they are no longer asking for them to move. To apply pressure, they would close in on the other horse, or apply pressure literally through a kick or a bite.
We cannot expect horses to think like us. If you want to communicate with a horse, you need to think like him. You're the one who wants to communicate, so get in his head - he doesn't prioritize communicating with you, his priorities are his hay, grain, and water.
When riding, so little as opening up the fingers and closing is enough to communicate with your horse. Hold until they lighten, and then you lighten. Eventually this will create "self carriage", the feeling of the horse carrying itself in the bridle without needing to be held up by the rider. The rider should never be working harder than the horse. Don't overdo it, get in and get out when you get your desired response from the horse, so as not to numb the horse to the cue. And this can be done to set the horse wherever you'd like, whatever your discipline calls for. For a higher headed horse - release when they raise their neck. For lower - release when they lower.
Often, people ask, "How hard do you have to pull?" Well, not at all. If anything, hardly the same amount of pressure you would need to pick up a pencil and then drop it.
I really prefer to not have horses leaning into my hands. This makes it difficult to ask anything without them coming out of frame. When they're carrying themselves, I find that they still stay soft and give no matter how little or how much pressure you apply. The one thing I'm told the most is "it's simple. it's just one million simple things at once" and it's so true.
This is just a little outlet for me to learn more by writing out the things in my head. I hope that it can help somebody out there, or just interest people that like to learn about different training methods.
