Thoughts after travelling with Ross
Last weekend was the non-clinic with Ross Jacobs - in the end it worked out as a mixture of a few private lessons and a sort of half-clinic, which worked out well. I certainly learned a lot from watching him work and the sessions we did with Cash, although I didn't get back in the saddle- Ross was of the opinion that if I want to be safe with the little guy I need to get his anxiety levels really low before I think about getting back on. If that cup of anxiety is nearly full, then it's not going to take much to push him over into a panic, if I can get it close to empty, there will be more margin for error.
Rather than a coherent write-up, I have a bunch of things I noticed and that seemed important at the time, no doubt it only makes sense in parts and probably Ross would be sorry to see his work thus misconstrued, but this is some of what I got:
Rather than a coherent write-up, I have a bunch of things I noticed and that seemed important at the time, no doubt it only makes sense in parts and probably Ross would be sorry to see his work thus misconstrued, but this is some of what I got:
- The only thing you do when you are training a horse is direct their thought. Through the mind to the body to the feet. Horses have very few reflexive movements, so almost everything they do, even spooking, starts with a thought.
- When you ask for something and your horse is trying something different to what you are asking for, make it clear to them that is not what you want so they look for something else quickly. Don't give them too long feeling lost or coming up with their own ideas, keep them searching for the thing you are looking for.
- Leading, don't let the horse drag behind, don't let them get ahead, keep them in the spot where they can be with you. When a horse is dragging, Ross will keep the tension in the rope by just keeping walking at the same speed and then smack his leg with the rope ( he wears noisy chaps that help with this ) to put in more energy. It may seem counter-intuitive to make a fuss in the direction you are asking the horse to go, but they need to be able to handle it, so this has a kind of double purpose. With a more experienced horse the noise is more of an "excuse me, please pay attention" so you don't want them getting too anxious about it. Ross is of the opinion that you shouldn't wait for your horse, just expect them to come with you and ensure there is a consequence for not doing.
- There is a big difference between directing and driving a horse- when you drive, you set up something that you want them to move away from, when you direct, you give them somewhere to go.
- Ross does all his desensitisation type stuff, swinging the rope over the horse's back and so on, at walk. If they are stood still they can kind of plant their feet and shut the world out a bit, but if they are moving they will express their feelings more clearly and once they are calm on the move they are probably alright with whatever you are getting them used to.
- On a circle, you know a horse is straight if their shoulder and hip are the same difference from you. Ross has found no evidence that a horse can curve their spine behind the wither as it is often suggested they can on tomes of dressage expertise, but the shoulder and hip are the points on the circle so should be equidistant. See the line the horse is on, and keep them there. If the hip is dropping in their thought is moving out of the circle, if the shoulder is dropping in they are either pushing on you a little or their thought is moving out in that direction, either way you want to get them thinking back onto the circle.
- If you want to keep your horse thinking you must keep the work varied. They will find patterns that they can fall into without thinking if they possibly can.
- Never quit asking for something until you have a change of thought. Just moving the feet is not enough- if you ask for a left turn you need the horse to think to the left then move their feet. You should be able to ask them to look left with no mental pushback to the right, once you have that, they will be able to step left really easily.
- Don't tell a horse to drop a thought if you don't have a different one to offer them. If you just say "don't do that, don't do that, don't do that" you're going to create problems. "Don't do that, do this instead" helps them to find what you are looking for.
- Ross teaches hindquarter yields starting with the horse bent around until they actually bring their thought around with the rein. This is not the eventual goal, but they need to bend without trying to pull back at all and connect that bend to the feet. As the horse understands the cue you should have the rein connecting to the feet with much less bend. Ross looks for the inside foot stepping under.
- Start out controlling the hindquarter with your rein, with the goal being to get the horse to yield their hindquarter with your leg and the reins totally slack. If you are using your leg but the horse moves forward without support from the rein, they haven't understood that work yet, stick with the rein.
- Help a horse soften their neck in trot ( or walk, canter, but trot is easiest to start ) by lifting the inside rein straight up until they start looking for something different, as soon as they offer a lowered head, follow them down. Once they can relax down easily and consistently you can begin picking them up and asking them to carry themselves better, but that can only be done from a relaxed and long back. If their nose drops below their knee, they are starting to evade, just ask them not to do that.
- Never accept anything because anyone told you to. Always question why you should do something a different way. Test ideas, don't just accept them. Ross often asks people why he has told them to do something- he's really determined that you learn to figure things out for yourself.
- Observe everything about your horse- the tightness of their mouth, the shape of their nostrils, how much they are blinking, how they are moving- all these things are indicative of where they are at mentally.
- On voice cues: "A horse has a vocabulary of around nine or ten sounds, so sound isn't very meaningful to them. You can teach them to walk, trot and canter off sounds, but the walk you get will always be the walk they give you, the same for trot, the same for canter. I never heard of a horse who could do collected trot, medium trot, extended trot and so on from vocal cues."