Photo 1

One thing all horse enthusiasts throughout the world have in common is they all want softness and collection both in mind and body of their horse. The horse world continually craves knowledge, understanding and a simpler way of gaining control without having to fight with their horse. To get it, there is an endless supply of information in books and videos. One thing lacking is the realism and understanding between the trained horse in the book or video and the disrespectful, disobedient behavior a lot of horse owners are faced with everyday.

When you ask horse owners from all equestrian activities what they are having trouble with when riding it usually revolves around the control or lack of control between the rider and the horse through the bridle, reins and bit! You'll continually hear people say things like "He opens his mouth when I take a hold of him", "My horse is always excited and won't relax".

We communicate with our horse with our hands, through the reins, bridle, and legs which in turn leads to control or a confrontation between the horse and our leg and hands.

When someone says that their horse runs off out of control with them, the first thing we think of is the rider pulling desperately back on the reins, the horse running with his head up and mouth wide open. It's impossible to physically force your horse to do what he doesn't want to, in this case stop and remain calm.

Instead of trying to "out muscle" your horse you need to "out think" him. When you pull straight back on both reins to gain control of his head and neck (vertical flexion) you immediately entered a tug of war you can't win, because your horse can pull against your hands easily. The horse's body is lined up and he can use all of his strength against you.

Photo 2

Imagine two men facing each other standing about 20 feet apart holding a rope. One of the men is very big and strong. The other is smaller and weaker. Obviously the stronger man can pull the smaller man off balance and move him where he wants (horse running forward with his head up and mouth open). Now imagine the two men but this time the smaller man is standing at an angle to the bigger man (he is still facing in the same direction). Now the smaller man can apply pressure on the rope and pull the bigger man off balance and make him step towards him. The bigger, stronger man lost most of his strength when his arms were pulled across his body because he couldn't balance himself and brace against the rope as he had before when he was facing the direction the resistance was coming from (rider pulling straight back on both reins). The smaller man didn't out fight his opponent; he out smarted him instead. He used "Lateral Flexion" to gain control of his unwilling partner.

Now that we understand how much easier it is to take better control of an over powering situation through lateral flexion, we can put it to good use in our horse-training program.

The key to Vertical Flexion is Lateral Flexion. The softer and more flexible we get our horse through lateral flexion (bending) the easier it is to get softness and collection (vertical flexion) of our horse's poll. Which in turn gives us greater overall control of our horses direction, speed and attention.

Horses have hard body's not hard mouths! Let me give you an example. If someone says to me that their horse has a hard mouth I ask them to take the bridle off and ride the horse in a halter instead. After a few minutes I ask, "does your horse still feel hard". The answer is yes! It proves that if the horse really did have a hard mouth he would have been softer and easy to control in general when the bit was removed. But instead he was just as resistant and hard as before. The mouth is nothing more than a sending station. If every body part (poll, neck, shoulder, ribcage and hips) is unwilling to yield and soften, the mouth will feel hard and unwilling to soften to your pressure on the reins. When you have your horse's body soft and supple, the mouth will feel very light, soft and willing to give to the pressure you apply with the reins. Basically, in a nutshell, the more we bend our horse laterally, the easier he will be to control!

Photo 3

The end result is to gain control of our horses head, neck, poll, shoulder, ribcage and hips. I gain control from the front to the back in that order because the farther back you get (shoulders, ribs and hips) the body parts get bigger and harder to soften and gain control of. However when you break it down into a step by step system (step 1: head and neck, step 2: poll, step 3: shoulder, step 4: ribcage, step 5: hindquarters) it is quite easy, especially when you move to the next step only when the preceding one is accomplished.

The horse I used in this article is a 2-year-old ranch bred filly that was very poorly started under saddle. She had no idea how to give to the bridle and soften vertically or laterally. Her attention was everywhere else but on me. To top it off she was nervous and wanted to speed up when you put her on a loose rein. The photos where taken during the very first time I rode his filly because I wanted readers to "see the real thing" so to speak. The entire ride lasted 33 minutes.

Once I had mounted this filly she was a nervous bundle of energy and I tried to control her the way most people would by pulling back on the reins. When I asked her to calmly walk off, she immediately started trotting and continued to build speed! (Photo 1)

I tried to slow her by pulling straight back on the reins and yes you guessed it, I had very little control. (Photo 2)

Then I tried to get her to soften at the poll, dropping her head and neck down (vertical flexion). (Photo 3) By doing this all I had done was enter a flight I couldn't and didn't win. I did this just to reinforce to you how hard it is to control a horse that wants to fight using only vertical flexion.

Photo 4

We gain respect from our horse by moving them left, right, forward and backwards, just as the dominant horse would in the herd. The first thing I am going to do with this filly is use all the uncontrollable energy in a constructive and positive way. Instead of us trying to make her relax and stand still I'll channel that energy using lateral flexion. (Photo 4) I'll hold my reins in a "bridge fashion" and slide my left hand down the left rein to make contact with her face. In doing so she immediately tried to run forward instead of having to yield her head and neck to the left (lateral flexion). I didn't try to slow her down or begin to jerk and fight with her. All I did was fix my hand on my hip and make it uncomfortable for her to run around pulling on the bridle. (Photo 5) What I did for her was set her up and let her figure it out, the more she ran around pulling against me the less relief and reward she found. Then after a few minutes she decided to try something else and soften the head and neck to the left. Immediately, I put my hand forward onto my knee to reward the filly. (Photo 6) I continue a couple more circles to the left just to reinforce the concept of "left rein means go left, think left and soften left".

Let's break down what just happened. All I did was "ask" her to walk a circle to the left and soften her head and neck. Her reaction was "no, sorry I'm not going to do that and you can't make me." In turn my thoughts were "that's correct, I can't make you but I can guarantee you won't get any relief from this pressure until you soften."

Photo 5

She then had to make her own choice whether to soften or keep pulling against me. So it was completely her choice to soften. That's the whole key to what my program is about, because it was her choice to give and soften, she actually thought she had won but really we both did. She got the relief she wanted and I got her to soften and release to the left.

When I take hold of my horse I always want to pull to my hip and release the pressure by dropping my hand to my knee. In doing so there is a very distinct difference between when I've taken hold of her and when I released the pressure to reward her. Also by pulling to my hip, if I happen to be a bit long on my rein (have taken hold too far back on the rein) I have got quite a bit of room to bring my hand past my hip and still have good control. However if I had pulled towards my belly and was long on the rein, my hand would be up around my face, which gives little control and at times can be very dangerous.

It is very important to release the pressure on the rein by sliding your hand forward to your knee. If you don't give back to your horse, he won't look for the comfortable place. He will just keep fighting against you, trying to fight his way out. Now I'll repeat the procedure to the right, which will let me know what side she is worse on. Now I'll work 2/3 on the bad side and 1/3 on the good side until they're even.

Photo 6

As I put the filly on a loose rein she tried to run off again, so I slid my right hand down the rein and fixed it on my hip. (Photo 7) I also used my legs to keep her thinking forward and around, forward and around. In the beginning your horse will probably lift his head and neck up and not be very willing to give to the pressure on the rein. Your horse might go around 9 or 10 circles before he tries to soften. He might only soften maybe an inch or less, but it's very important to still slide you hand forward and release the pressure. That 1-inch will soon be 2, 3, 4 and 5 inches and so on until he is soft and supple on both sides. You exaggerate to teach and refine as you go along.

The reason why I fix my hand to my leg is so when my horse gives, there will be an immediate slack in the rein. If my hand doesn't move and there is tension on the rein, which means my horse is pulling on me, but the second I feel any slack in the rein I also know he has softened to me as well. If your hand is out pulling in mid-air most people will be pulling so hard that when the horse does soften to the pressure their arm usually pulls back and removes the slack in the reins that the horse put there when he tried. Looking at it from the horse's point of view, when he softened he was pulled on even more and he never found the reward he was looking for.

Photo 7

Now that I've slid my right hand down and started bending her in a circle to the right, I'm going to keep her moving forward with my legs and wait for her to figure it out. After 7 or 8 circles of pulling on my arm and jogging around she then tries and soften to the right and I instantly release my rein pressure and bring my hand to my knee. (Photo 8) Notice how rigid my arm and hand look when she is pulling against me? Now compare how soft and relaxed my hand and arm are when she gives to the pressure. It's instant relief. I will continue to repeat the exercise on both sides and each time asking her to soften more and then releasing. When I released this filly to the right she tried to run off. (Photo 9)

So all I did was repeat the circles to the right until she softened. At any stage my horse speeds up when I put them on a loose rein, I will slide my hand down the rein and wait for them to soften and relax. If it takes 1 circle or 20, it doesn't matter. The longest time will be at the beginning and as you never release the rein pressure until the horse gives. It doesn't take long before the horse starts to relax and soften as soon as you take hold of him. When you release your hand forward, most horses will initially try to take their head away again and stiffen up; as soon as this happens you should take your hand back to your hip and wait for them to soften again. You never want your horse to just "snap" it's head back straight as soon as you release the pressure, Through time your horse will stay in that small circle, bending his head and neck around by himself on a loose rein.

Photo 8

Between each direction I will let my horse walk 15 or 20 feet on a loose rein before I bend them in the other direction. There are two reasons for this. One is that it is a test to see how relaxed my horse is and if he is listening to me. If he trots off and I didn't ask him to, he is trying to escape. If so it gives me an ideal chance to reinforce our later exercise, saying "wait and listen to me, please". Two is it also gives my horse a chance to think about the whole thing without overloading his mind. To begin with, he probably will be a little confused because normally he takes control of you and now all of a sudden he can't fight against you as he did before and you're not fighting with him. Usually with in 10 to 15 minutes he will start to figure the whole thing out and with every circle (bending) the horse gets more and more relaxed and you get more and more control. Yet again it is a "win, win" situation.

Photo 9

The reason this concept is so effective with an uncontrollable horse is simple. We take away their ability to fight with us as easily through lateral flexion and because we never get mad and fight with them. Remember all we do is "set it up and let the horse figure it out" in a non-aggressive manner and because the horse chooses to give he thinks it was his idea. That also means he'll have a better attitude and he'll remember the lesson more readily compared to if we tried to force him to give by jerking on the reins.

(Photo 10) You can see here after only 15 minutes of my lateral flexion exercise how this filly is starting to relax when I put her on a loose rein between changing directions. She is still jogging off without me asking her to, so the filly is basically telling me to keep bending her and waiting for her to soften and walk. Horses talk to us all the time. We just have to be smart enough to hear them. Look at the difference (Photo 11) now after a further 2 minutes of bending. She is now quite willing to walk on a loose rein and wait for me to guide her to the next cue to do what I want.

Photo 10

All of this was accomplished in just 17 minutes. Mainly because I didn't fight with her and I put her in a position so that she chose to give and relax as opposed to my trying to force her. The key is to set it up and let the horse figure it out. The end result is to have your horse walk a small circle (4 to 5 ft. In diameter) with it's head and neck bent to the inside and then keep circling on a loose rein until you ask them to straighten or change direction. Not only is this a great control exercise, but it also acts as a "discipline dare". For example, when I bend my horse to the left and release my hand down to my knee I basically am saying "go left, soften left and continue to circle left until I ask you to change direction".

Photo 11

Initially my horse is going to only do one or two steps on a loose rein (dare) before she tries to stiffen and brace against me by trying to leave the circle. However, every time your horse does this you immediately bring your hand back to your hip and ask him to soften again. It won't be long before your horse learns to wait for you to tell him to do something else. That 1 or 2 steps soon will be 3 or 4. Then after a week or so it will be 1 or 2 complete circles on a loose rein. Remember, exaggerate to teach and refine as you go along.

A native Australian, Clinton Anderson was born with a love for horses and an extraordinary, natural talent for working with them which has been encouraged and honed since he was a young boy. Clinton made his first trip to America in 1995, and has since made the USA his home. Presently, he and his wife, Beth, are based in Texas. His weekends are reserved for clinics. Between weekends he dedicates his time to his reining futurity horses. Seeing is believing, but learning for yourself makes the difference. Why not buy his range of videos or treat yourself and your horses by attending one of his upcoming clinics or, schedule one for your own area. Clinton accepts up to 12 riders in each clinic - rides each horse - and helps each rider with specific problems, or, helps them learn how to expand and enhance their horse's performance. More details are available from Clinton's website or you can email him at downunder@horsenet.com or click here

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