A 20-minute exercise can save you hours of work and thousands of repetitions.
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Simply pick up one rein and continue to add pressure to it steadily until the horse moves his hip, as Seattle is doing.
*Teaching people to train their horses to “give to the bit” used to be a challenge. At clinics, we’d work hard, but it wouldn’t be until the third day that the “light bulb would go on.” About then, the rider started getting consistent, the horse figured out what the rider wanted, and the lesson zoomed forward. But until then, it was difficult for riders to know how a “give” really felt.
Back then, I told people to take the slack out of one rein, brace their hand against the saddle horn and wait for the horse to give — to energetically turn his nose in the direction of the rein. When the horse gave, they were to let go of the rein. The problem is, it sometimes took a long time for the horse to give. Particularly, horses that had formal training would set their heads — sure they were doing the right thing — and refuse to move their nose to the side.
Once the horse learned that a release was available, however, things moved along faster. But by then, the rider was often frustrated or discouraged.
When I’d explain how a give felt, I’d tell people that when they took slack out of the rein, the horse was either going to give, to pull or to go into neutral. Neutral is just hanging out there — not pulling on the rein, but not giving, either.
What bothered me about it taking a long time for the horse to learn to give is that during all those hours of “not-giving,” the horse was practicing pulling or being in neutral — both things we were trying to teach him not to do. Using that system, it would take 2,000 to 3,000 gives before “give” was a conditioned response. After that, it was a piece of cake to use the rein to communicate to any part of the horse. But convincing people to practice 2,000 gives was a lot harder than practicing them.
I know that breaking a lesson down into smaller parts helps the horse learn faster. I just didn’t know a better starting point than asking for the baby give. But I discovered a better way, and it’s saved hours of time and frustration for both riders and horses. That 2,000 to 3,000 repetition time has been replaced by a 20-minute exercise. And the horse is lighter on the bridle as a result. Here’s how I made the discovery and how to teach your horse to give, the new way.
Simple communication
I view the rein as a communication tool, like a phone. The right rein talks to the right side of the horse’s body generally, and the left rein to the left. When I use both reins, I’m talking to both sides of the horse.
• Assuming you’re on a horse who’s beyond the first-ride stage, ask your horse to walk by squeezing or nudging his sides with both of your legs. Stop squeezing the moment he begins walking.
• Pick up the left rein, letting the right rein hang loose (but not so long that the horse could step on it, if you happen to have extra-long reins).
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Notice Seattle’s good head position compared to when he was learning the exercise in the previous image (top of page).
*Take the slack out of the left rein and add pressure to it slowly until the horse takes a big step to the right with his hindquarters. I tell people to think about his tail. Technically speaking, the horse will cross his left hind foot in front of his right hind. Then the right hind will step to the right. Once you’ve felt it a time or two, you’ll recognize the movement.
• The moment the horse begins the step over, release the left rein. That tells your horse he did what you wanted. Keep him walking.
• Pick up the right rein, take the slack out of it and keep pulling slowly but steadily it until you feel the horse take a big step to the left with his hindquarters.
• Immediately release the rein. Keep him walking.
• Continue this pattern, changing sides each time.
If you watch another rider do this exercise, it will look like this: The horse starts out heading north. The rider picks up the left rein. The horse’s nose turns to the left as his hindquarters swing to his right. The horse continues walking, but now he’s headed west. Depending on how big a step he takes, he could be heading southwest, or even south.
As you practice, the horse will become more responsive, turning sooner, smoother and more easily. The one thing you’ll have to watch, though, is that you keep him walking. That hips-over movement stops the horse’s forward motion (which also makes it a great stopping exercise for a horse who’s hard to slow down). Before too long, you’ll find the horse stopping when you pick up the rein.
Back to the beginning
Though our technique has changed, our goal, hasn’t. We still want to put light pressure on one rein and have the horse give his nose, flex at the poll, relax his neck and move his hip or shoulder (which, at advanced levels may be just a shift in weight). We’ve just made that “give” — the voluntary turn of the horse’s nose with his neck relaxed — step #2. We’ve essentially put a pre-step before the old step #1. After practicing “give” with the hips for 20 to 30 minutes, when you pick up one rein, the horse automatically does a baby give, and we never have to go through that hang-on-the-bit phase.
Now the training can proceed as before. If, when you pick up the rein, you’re satisfied with the horse turning his nose and his front feet following, such as you might be when making a little turn on the trail, then release the rein and allow the horse to continue walking. If the horse pulls on the rein or doesn’t bend as you’d like, then continue adding pressure to the rein and have him move his hips. He’ll figure it out. Before long, you’ll have a horse that steers and stops easily. Improving performance
While this is a neat way to teach a green horse what you want, it’s been really helpful in teaching older, more set-in-their-ways horses. You can use this lesson to just get a horse a little more responsive, so you’re not fighting on the trail. Or you can use it with your performance horse, getting him lighter on the bridle. It’s also a good warm-up exercise, because it asks the horse to stretch each side of his body and his back muscles.
Since our object is not to pull the horse’s head or hips around, our next goal is to see how light a rein we can use. If you got the response you wanted with 15 pounds of pressure on the rein, that’s OK. But now what about only using 12? Then 10, then 8 and so forth. Slow your hands as you reach for the rein, so your horse has time to respond. If the horse doesn’t respond as well on a slightly lighter rein, don’t pull harder. Go to the hips. In effect, it re-explains to him what you want. He’d prefer not to move his hips if he didn’t have to. So after a hips-over move, try again, using the lighter rein, and give the horse time to respond.
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You can use the same hips-over exercise when you have control problems or feel the horse is too heavy on the bridle.
*Want to have the horse do some other move, but to do it with a soft neck? Then don’t release until the move is completed. For example, let’s say that you want the horse to move his hips over, then his shoulders, as if he were going to sidepass. Move the hips, but don’t give him a full release. The horse will know that you want something else.
Ask his shoulders to move over and release when he does what you want. But let’s say that he moved his shoulders, but raised his head and stiffened his neck. Don’t let go of the rein. If he doesn’t soften his neck in a second or two, then ask him to move his hip, then release the rein.
So you can use the #1 exercise at any point in the training. And the horse will learn that whatever he did just before the release was what you wanted.
Remember, though, to keep your training fresh. If you just drill, drill, drill, you’ll get frustrated and the horse will tune you out. You’ll also miss the discovery opportunities that might allow you to improve your technique. Stick to the training principles, but be willing to adapt technique if you find a better way to explain to your horse what you want. Make a game of it, and you’ll be amazed to see how little pressure you can put on the rein and have the horse respond well.*
John Lyons
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