A small, but important fact to keep in mind when handling, training, and riding your horse is that horses are dyslexic by nature, and that a great deal of training issues can be simplified by going back to basics and making sure that your horse gets a daily refresher coarse about left and right. I gained a new appreciation for this seemingly small bit of information at a recent horse show, when we were working with one of our riders who also suffers from dyslexia, easily one of the most frustrating maladies that an equestrian can be afflicted with. Watching our young rider work diligently through the stride sequence needed to pick up correct canter leads on the ground, and listening to her voice her frustration with herself over having to review something that is simple for those of us not afflicted by this disorder suddenly gave me a new respect for my horses and their struggles with the same issue.
Hopefully most people that are associated with training horses are aware that their charges need to learn things equally on each side, and that horses do not automatically “cross over” skills that they learn with the left side of their bodies to be able to do the same thing on the right. In addition, since horses automatically move into pressure rather then away from it, confusion about which way to move off of which leg can become a big battle quickly once a horse’s brain becomes entangled, and we’ve all probably been guilty over the years of accusing our mounts of being stupid or lazy when they repeatedly lean into a leg or run through one side of a bridle.
With my new appreciation for the frustration of dyslexia, and my on-going belief that all horses really want to please us if they can only figure out how, I’ve become much more diligent about being sure to incorporate a refresher course about moving left and right into my warm-up periods each day. With some horses that seem especially challenged about leaning into pressure, I’ll even start on the ground before progressing to their backs with a short workout where they move the four corners of their bodies away from me on the ground before asking them to do it while on their back, and whenever things start to get away from me during a training session I’ll stop and check to make sure that Joe hasn’t been thinking so hard about the day’s challenges that he forgot to concentrate on left and right and which way is which.
Thanks to my young student, both my horses and I are experiencing a lot less frustration these days—I hope that it will work for you as well.
Bio:
Co-owner/co-operator with husband, Pat, in Trowbridge's Ltd., a full service breeding and training facility located on their farm in Bridgewater, Ct. Established in 1991. A professional horse trainer since 1978, beginning work for Sir William Farm, owned...
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