Tom Widdicombe clinic report June 08

[Elaine]

Right, am just back from Toms 3 day clinic over somewhere north of Luton airport. Report follows - have done each horse seperately rather than a day by day approach. We'll see if it makes sense anyway.

[Elaine]

I arrived over on Saturday morning at 11am after a 6am start, so missed most of the first two horses. Weather was lovely, and everyone was very chilled sitting out watching the proceedings.

Saw the end of a lesson with a stunning bay arab, so here's a rough overview of how they got on. As always, I probably missed heaps and any mistakes are my own.

GORGEOUS BAY ARAB - Saturday morning 10am.

I missed the start of this so knew nothing about the background of this horse. First problem was that there wasn't a lot of 'go' - horse tended to ignore the riders leg a bit, so instead Tom suggested that you don't nag with legs.

Instead:

1. Ask once politely with legs (primary cue)
2. If you get no reply, use a secondary cue - (not your legs again!!) so either a stick, slap your leg, use a wipwop, whatever you want. Don't spend all day nagging your horse with your legs if its not working, you're just training your horse to be even better at ignoring your legs.

Halt to walk transition:

1. Ask nicely first, don't just kick cos you assume your horse won't move from a light leg aid. As above, always start with a light leg aid, give your horse the oppertunity to get it right. If that doesn't work, then on straight away to your secondary aid. If you do this consistenly your horse will figure it out quickly and become more responsive to the leg aid. You've gotta mean it (the secondary cue that is)

This is a smashing horse, but he pulls against the bit and sticks his head out in front A LOT (most transitions, halts, when walking, trotting, etc)

On Saturday morning, it took about 7 steps to get this horse to go from walk to halt. (thats a lot of steps!!)

This horse is braced in his body, so both forwards (he was sluggish) and backwards (took ages to stop) were not good at all. The plan for the few days was to work on getting rid of the brace, and make this horse much easier to stop & start on cue, and not have to put a lot of unnecessary effort into it.

GORGEOUS BAY ARAB - Saturday afternoon, recap lesson.

This was at the far end of the arena so didn't see much, but they worked a little on walk, trot & canter.

GORGEOUS BAY ARAB - Sunday morning 10.30am.

Today the horse was paying more attention. Go actually meant go today!

The walk was better right from the start, the horse wasn't half asleep. Worked on both regular and fast walk. Today the leg cues were more effective. (good improvement!!)

Good transition into trot, did some backup too, and some canter. If your horse looks outside the arena (out the window) get his attention bask ASAP!!

either:

1. use rein
2. give him a job to do - eg turn or something else

Walk to canter transitions were worked on a little:

1. walk-trot-canter-fast canter
First time the rider asked too much and ended up running into canter and then running off in canter. (This is also because horse is on forehand a lot, and does the whole head sticking out thing which makes everything much more difficult)

2. walk-trot-canter
Second time they tried, they ended up with a trot, and then a very flat canter. Again horse too much on forehand, makes everything, including transitions, hard. Transitions were a bit messy / slow.

When riding, dont tip forward or lean in as this makes it difficut for the horse. Also sit before you ask for canter. The reason going into canter was hard, was because trot was not working really well. Decided to go back to basics.

ok - first up, need to work on the brace in front end, the nose sticking out and the weight on the forehand issues. This horse wasn't balanced. When he stood still, it was easier for him to take a step forward, than it was to talke a step back. (It should have been 50/50 if horse was really in balance).

Horse tends to end halt with left fore forwards (habit). Go straight, not wobley in backup.

Did a lovely soft halt, then pushed out head at the end Its just something you've got to be aware of, and correct each time from now on when horse does this. Make it so there's nothing in it for the horse when he pushed his head out. Practically that means you do one of two things:

1. Make your hands like a post. If your horse pushed head out, he pulls against a non-moving post. If he softens his job, he gives himself an automatic release with the post - to do this put your arms in one place (and keep them there - sometimes it helps if they are against your sides, just for this)

2. Lift your hands so the bit acts on the sides of his mouth, decreasing pressure on the tongue and helping horse to relax & soften.

Horse has a BIG brace every times he goes from walk to halt. Work on that. Same with all transitions, nose pokes out and horses goes on forhand.

Did a lot of circles in walk working on this. When horse moves his head around a bit, bump him again so it doesnt get him anywhere. When he relaxes, you relax too and reward by doing nothing.

A very good session, really getting to the root of this issue and a good plan in place about how to deal with the issue. When fixed, horse will have less/no braces, stop & start will be lighter, backup easier, and transitions a LOT better.

Great work all round from trainer, horse & rider ;D

GORGEOUS BAY ARAB - Sunday afternoon 3.30.

Missed this as it was up at the top of the arena

GORGEOUS BAY ARAB - Monday morning 9.25.

1. walked around with impulsion.
2. Ridden softness (that brace thing from previous post) be consistent.

Asked for halt from walk, horse halted, horse pulled, reins held like post, horse relaxed jaw after a few secs, got a release through the reins PERFECT!!

Nice backup then with softness, without any pull . Horse was just drifting back - you shoudl need no pull on the bit to do this.

WALK - played with slow & normal walk. Don't let the slow walk become a habit though!

HALT - want from walk to halt. got distracted bya noise, so had to wait 3 or 4 secons for softness in jaw AFTER horses feet stopped moving. GREAT work by rider ;D - you don't release when the feet stop, you release when you get SOFTNESS.

BACKUP - did nice straight backup.

FQ yield (moving front feet around, back feet stay in same place) - first ask your horse to think backwards until you feel his weight shift A LITTLE backwards (not taking a step though) then pick up both reins and move them the direction you want front legs to go. Feel this whole thing as ONE movement.

If you are working, and your horse gets distracted / panicked / spooks etc, get your horse back on the original job ASAP. Dont sit there doing nothing. Make the time when the horse isnt working due to spook (or whatever) as shoret as possible. A good rider is a proactive rider.

Sidepass - nice one way, a bit tricky the other way, so used wall to help horse figure it out.

FQ yield - difficult cos horse was on the forehand (had lot of weight on front two legs so it was hard to ask him to pick them up). If you can get rid of braces and head sticking out, you'll improve FQ.

HALT - how do you halt if you get unwanted bnswerehaviour? eg. ask for a FQ and get all legs moving, etc. ANSWER - a) stop your body b) do whatever you need to do.

HALT - Practse being in halt. Eg - mount up then stand for 10 secs before you go somewhere. OR have horse on loose lead rope. Stand away from him everytime he moves, ask him to move back to original position and stand there.

WALK - dont let horse choose speed of walk - eg do fast walks in arena and slow walks out hacking (the opposite of whats happening now)

HOMEWORK:

no grey areas when doing homework
clear & crisp cues.
Keep life in the walk.
Practise normal & slow walk.
Work on softness, which should have a good positive effect on a lot of things with this horse.

TROT - asked horse to trot, again he stuck his head out the whole time (same as walk). Work on the same thing. If horse sticks head out, hold hands like post. If that doesn't work, lift your hands up.

GORGEOUS BAY ARAB - Monday afternoon.

walk- lift hands up when he sticks his head out to encourage him off the forehand and to soften his jaw.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This was a briliant rider & horse combination. It was a tough job for the rider as they had to really focus the whole time on whether the horse had a soft jaw or not, and react accordingly. A gorgeous horse too. With work on the softness and getting rid of the braces, this horse could literally do anything The improvement from Sat to Mon was incredible, and rider has now lots of homework to work on, which will really make a difference to how her horse goes. Overall, great progress from all

[Elaine]

Beautiful coloured horse - Sat 2.45pm

When moving from walk to halt, don't release your hands until the horse stops pulling. Again, this is like the previous horse. Release on softness (jaw) not when horse pulling reins.

Then did nice halt, waited for 3 secs after horses feet stopped for softness and horse to relax jaw.

Be ahead of the action - catch the horse the SPLIT second he thinks about slowing down near the gate when walking around. (the horse tended to get slower near the gate)

Rider said she knows that she is slow - BUT! - when rider focus on improving the slowness, horse isn't slow at all!

Do stuff on your terms not on your horses terms. Take charge more then the horse will be better off, with a little direction.

Listen to the noise of feet hitting the ground. Make footfalls lighter.

If your horse gets distracted, dont just sit there doing nothing.. ask your horse to refocus back to his work straightaway.

Use the same escalation of aids each time, don'y throw the kitchen sink at yoru horse each time. Cues need to make sense to the horse. Don't be a sheep (ride as you're told without questioning anything)

//thats a big one for me.... KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS!!! I used to be a sheep but I got over it !

halt - walk trans - don't die. No slow steps. When going from trot to walk, dont think 'slow down'. Think START WALKING.

Did some nice backups, got much lighter.

1. mean business
2. reward with softness

LEADING A HORSE

If you pull horse with rope, horse will tend to pull back against you.
If you ask with the rope (more of a feel through the rope than a pull) you often get the horse to move with you.

There is a release within the ask.

Beautiful coloured horse - Sat 4.20pm

No slow steps in walk online. Stopping also better.

Beautiful coloured horse - Sunday 1.50pm

Did walk & trot on one line. Got up, walked about. Halted, horse a bit braced. Tried it again. Remebr rider has to be more important than whats happening outside.

Work on halt - remember to wait until the inside of horse has stopped - not just his four feet/outside of horse. e.g. if horse stops with a brace, dont relaxed and give him the reins. Wait until he's soft first and you dont have the pull on the reins.

Have the same cues all the time, dont change them.

STEERING

Need to be soft in front (doesn't pull agian st your hands)
Needs to be focused on you (listenign to you not staring outside)

HORSE SPOOKS

Ride through it, get back to work ASAP. (the ASAP part is important!)
Don't panic, be calm.

Backup straight - keep the horses front end and yourself looking at Tom if needs be.

Nice HQ yield, nice FQ yield.

Don't try to be too brave. The goal of all this stuff IS TO HAVE FUN!

Beautiful coloured horse - Sunday afternoon

Cantering around

Beautiful coloured horse - Monday morning

Walk
Don't let horse lean, if he does lift your hand when he pulls head down.
If this happens repetively and you always correct this by being polite, then you're not being effective. Instead catch the thought before the head goes down, and maybe be a little firmer. Rider is being too grateful for anything - instead don't be afraid to look for more / better things. You've got a super horse & you're a super rider so its all possible if you aim for it!

HAVE to be consistent.

- Fast welk
- Halt (came back off bit nicely and softened)
- Tractor outside, so give your horse a job to do inside to focus him on you again.
- NICE halt!!!!

Rider is now being more proactive, and you see a big difference with the horse

If horses head goes down in trot, lift your hands. Be on the ball - correct what you don't want straightaway.

Have a plan, and then remember to do your plan (even it means writing it on your arm!!!) ;D

Everytime head goes down, lift your hands - EVERY TIME!!!!!!!!!

GOALS:

- Get a fast walk
- If head goes down, lift hands
- Halt - Take out the HQ step sideways (little brace in right hip). Try to stop it before it happens. Just use thought to stop it if you can.
- From halt, horse tends to step off with one leg more than the other. Be aware.


Nice sidepass.
walk - figure out when does inside hind leg leave the ground. It happens when barrell swings away.

If your legs are too far forward (common issue) you wont be able to feel barrel well as your legs will be along thinner girth line.

If you always squeeze too much with your legs, you'll restrict movement of barrell too which you dont want to do (horses then find it hard to Breathe)

When your leg is pushed out, horses back foot is about to leave the ground.
When your leg is in, horses front foot is about to leave the ground.

[Nice push of HQ over in walk, using the above timings]

When your leg is out, exaggerate the push in with yoru leg, to encourage horses inside hind leg to move sideways underneath him.

if this is too tricky, do a few steps in walk, then HQ yield, then walk on again for another few steps (this worked really well).

Also - bend in neck helps when you try to do this.

Beautiful coloured horse - Monday afternoon

Did a little more up the top end of the arena.

[Elaine]

Big dapple grey irish draft 10yo I think - Saturday 11.30am

Rider wants a connection to the horse.

Few points to start - overhandled young horses can be hard to motivate as they have no fear factor (in the nicest possible way) you can overbomb proof a horse - ie so now he won't move without a bomb!

Work on 1 line.
RULE - no slow steps!
If you get slow steps or horse looks outside the arena, twirl rope or use voice / energy to wake horse up / refocus him.

When you ask for something, be sure you get it. Mean it when you ask.

Horse currently in denial about the human being there, still going around looking to the outside of the arena the whole time.

Ridden - A surprise - got a really nice ongoing walk.
Halt - When you ask for halt, horse pulls on the reins, DONT release when he stops moving his feet, release WHEN HE STOPS PULLING ON THE REINS. Be like a post (ie.. just stay still, dont pull, but dont give when pulled against).

BACKUP - dont use your legs. 2 legs = go on forwards. 1 leg = go sideways.

- halt to walk transition
1. be soft at halt (jaw relaxed, not pulling on reins)
2. then cue to walk on

(horse leaning on bit at this stage)

- The feel we want in the reins is next to nothing, but it is something.

- neither horse nor rider should have to pull on reins in the end - its a communication device.

This horse & rider do pull on reins a bit, so we need to change that.

GOAL: Get the pull out of this horse!

So when horse pulsl (again like preious horses, same thing)

1. have hands like a post
2. or lift up two reins if post doesnt work
3. or lift up one rein

Whatever works to stop horse pulling. When horse stops pulling, release as a reward.

Riding a horse who leans is like driving a car with a flat tire. You've probably still moving a bit but nothing (brakes / steering / accelleration) will work very well until you get a new tire.

Set up a communication to your horses mouth based on feel.
Its not about head position, outline, etc. Its about feel & communication & softness.

Cause of horses pulling (well one anyway!)

1. we pull on horse
2. then horse pulls against us
3. we release /l oosen reins when horses pull
4. then horse pulls again to get another release.

So if horse leans forwards and down don't release - lift your hands, then when pressure on reins lessens and jaw relazes, NOW you can relax the reins. Its all about timing, being consistent and trying to make consequences simple and predictable so your horse can figure then out.

Big dapple grey irish draft 10yo I think - Saturday 4pm

Not leaning as much
More determination from the rider.
Lovely horse, did some lateral work.

Big dapple grey irish draft 10yo I think - Sunday 11.30am

Lateral work
Trotted around arena - small steps, on the forehand.
Halt - pulled thorugh it. Found release after about 15 secs - good work from rider!!!
Another halt - found release after 2 secs

HQ yield - had a little pull in it.

Horse braced. Rider doing a good job and being a post. But it wasn't working.. lift hand up instead.

Godo walk to halt.
HQ yield.

Talk about closed hips restricting horses movement - don;t make excuses for your horse! If you ask your horse to move his bum, he should move his bum.

FQ yield - soft feel (like you're about to backup) then turn. Don't get too cosmic about it.

FQ yield along fence.

Then move inside hind leg

1. know when inside hind leg is moving (see previous post about the horses barrell)

Small circles, lateral flexion looking to push inside hind leg out. Wait, when you get it, reward (release, walk on straight etc)

Sidepass from halt - dont go on for too long. Reward a try.

Big dapple grey irish draft 10yo I think - Sunday 3.50pm

If horse leans dont accept it - have hands like a post or lift hands if needs be.

No ones perfect so dont beat yourself up if you make a mistake. key = relaxed jaw in horse.

When you feel a pull, address it asap.

Trot - again pull present, rider did cool job lifting hands when required and relaxing when required. nice unscheduled canter!!! horses really coming off forehand and getting softer, thus all transitions were becomming MUCH easier

A COOL canter!!!

Horses need to be off the forehand and have be soft / no braces to canter well.

A really good session!!

Big dapple grey irish draft 10yo I think - Monday 1.35pm

ONly canter when your horse is ready, i.e. is not pulling or leanign on the bit, as this makes canter transitions much easier.

-walk - work on ridden softness, relaxed jaw, get rid of leaning.

- dont let horse walk around leanign on your hands.

- if horses leans, use your hands like a post, or lift them up STRAIGHTAWAY!
to walk on:

1. touch with legs
2. if no response use a different cue (secondary cue)

DONT keep nagging with your feet. Be consistent.

Need HEAPS of determination & commitment to do this, but horse had a brilliant rider who's well able

Again, when in trot, horse WANTED to canter, so literally went UP into a cool canter

Just do it, don't judge yourself, be a kid, have fun & explore with your horse.

Fabulous!!! LOts of good stuff to work on with this horses. Once you get all this pull stuff fixed, there is just a lot of fun ahead. I really liked this horse, and the rider did a fabulous job all weekend ;D

[Elaine]

Cool black cob saturday 2.30pm

walk - heavy
backup - a little heavy

BRACES: Horse sticks his head up like a giraffe. If you release the reins when the head is up in the air, you are training your horse to be a giraffe.

Do not release on a brace.

Figure out where your horses mind goes when she braces - her mind goes outside the areana. When she gets soft, her minds returns back to the rider and the work they are doing.

Trot - think about softness in jaw (and when to release those hands)

Cool black cob saturday 4.20pm

Picking up feet. Use soft arms and hands when holding feet up - ie don't just yank cos horse will pull against you.

Cool black cob sunday 2.30pm

Work on softness in walk and trot.
goal - to relax the raw rather than just flexing at the poll.

You can get a horse to do stuff and not be relaxed, but whats the point?

key = relaxed jaw

TROT: If horse pulls, lift your hands. This worked really well.

When you lift hands, bit acts on the corners of the mouth. Less pressure is now on the tongue and you tend to get a quicker and better response.

If the tongue relaxes, then other things start to relax then too.
Be happy if you get a little - reward it.

Rider very good at having hands like a post when needed and good at releases (you ned good timing!). But rider commented that she made LOADS of mistakes along the way before she got this good, so there is hope for everyone who needs to learn how to do this.

Great determinded work from rider.

HQ yield - if you turn the head & neck a little it helps a lot. (Tesco, every little helps!)

DO a HQ, walk around, do another. Don't assume you're crap if its not working.

Cool black cob sunday 4.20pm

Feet - don't let horse walk through handler when you ask horse to pick up feet.

online - different speeds of walk.
goal = horses attention on human & work.

Cool black cob monday 11.30am

Walk - if horse pulls, lift your hands until horse stops pulling. be consistent and patient.

Stop & Hq yield. Good, not taking any prisoners. Horse finding it mentally difficult.

- Practise, dont quit.

- Be a little more effective, see if it makes any difference (ie do it quicker, you dont have to do it harsher)

- walk & trot: as above. really good effective rider resulted in a much improved horse.

Cool black cob monday afternoon

Did a few canters up the top end of the school, this is a big achievement as horse can start misbehaving in canter sometimes.

[Elaine]

8yo unstarted black cob sat 9am

Missed this one

8yo unstarted black cob sat 4.40pm

- walk online
- horse distracted, whinnying gallopping about

work on focus, circle in walk to do this.
10 mins later had quietened downa good bit.

8yo unstarted black cob sunday 9.00am

1. put lunge line on far side of horse and around derriere, and pulled it to get horse to follow a feel.

First time = you got 1/2 reaction, 1/2 response (ie a worried response)
Next time it improved.

Put rope gently over nose - 1st time got a reaction. 2nd time got a response.

Did same for rope over forehand and ears.

This stuff gets easier, as you've got a different starting point each time you teach something new.

Be generous if your horse makes an effort: "what was good about that"?

10 mins later - horse good with ropes all over head.

LONGLINING

Good along side of arena, little nervous in open area, ignores steering a bit (looks to the outside) hold and wait till horse comes back for release. Dont be sloppy with training.

If it all gets messy don't panic (no ones perfect)

bridle & bit: horse found it scary when bridle and bit went near head at the start, but was a fast learner and relaxed quickly with 5 mins practise.

Question: Does your horse actually like you (as in what humans think 'like') or do they simply feel safe in your company and think you're useful to have around as you take some of the stress away from them?

Goal is not to desensitise horse, goal is to prepare horse to be a working horse.

Roller went on. Walked with bridle & roller on one line.

8yo unstarted black cob sunday afternoon

Put bridle and metal bit on, but horse not 100%. Tried a happy mouth instead, better but still not happy. Went back to using hand around horses mouth, to get horse used to having strange things in its mouth. Did a few mins of this, horse relaxing and improving.

Rested saddle on back.

This was the last horse of the day, so we all stood around chattign for 10 or 20 mins with horse standing there with us. Every so often tom'd do somethign small with the horse - walk horse around, wrap rops all around barrell (like a girth) etc. Horse REALLY chilled out, this was NOT the same horse which we had out yesterday!!!

8yo unstarted black cob monday afternoon 2.35

Happy mouth bit in, horse much better
Walk in hand (one line)
Saddle on

Horse VERY chilled. Good attitude (due to work on previous two days) Its amazing how much you can change the inside of a horse in a few days,, and thus the outside.

Walked around on one line.

We agreed that we preferred non-events rather than cowboy moments

Stirrups go on the saddle.

Walked around a bit with saddle & stirrups.
Longlined with tack & dually.
Person leaned over back with handler holding horse. Better on near side, so practise on off side)

Its really good just to hang out with your horse.