Balance, as it pertains to the rider, comes from the saddle and the biggest reason that most people do not understand balance is due to the fact that they think that they are smarter than the saddle. The saddle has been made, redesigned and refined over many years to make it easier and easier for the rider to become part of the horse’s movement.

The saddle is designed to do a very specific job – so let it! Do not try to sit anywhere but in the seat of the saddle. When used correctly, the seat of the saddle will throw you into the correct posture for your body to be in the correct position to allow for maximizing the placement of your body’s weight over the horse’s center of balance.

As you sit in the seat of the saddle; push your shoulders back and upright, legs hanging straight and freely from the knee down not forward or back, but perpendicular to the ground. The balls of your feet placed inside the stirrup (nothing more) allowing you to control lateral or side-to-side balance. The amount of weight is just enough to keep your feet placed within the stirrup, but not so hard that you brace yourself and become tense.

A balanced rider is relaxed not tense or controlling. When you do become tense it radiates to the horse and that creates problems for both you and the horse. So don’t start.

Once that you are relaxed make sure that your eyes are forward and your head is up making sure that you do not start to stare at the horse’s withers or the back of their head. This will make them extremely nervous, either one of those actions will make you appear as a predator and the horse then starts to feel that you are getting ready to strike. What you want to do is project confidence and stability to the horse by looking through the horse’s ears far forward of the point that you are presently at. This one action will do agreat deal in giving the horse confidence and trust in what you are asking them to do. What this does is show the horse that there is nothing to fear from you or the area that you are both in at this time.

Enough about the basics of the use of the saddle, my next post will get into the legs and their proper use. So until next time “Ride for the Brand”.

Once that your hands are doing the job that is necessary you can critique yourself by watching the ears of the horse as you are riding. This is easier than try to “feel” if you are doing it correctly. So how might this be accomplished? To put it very simply you need to watch the reaction of the ears the pressure that you are putting on the bars of the mouth. The ears will tell you if you are putting too much pressure to one side or the other when you are doing anything, even standing. The ears need to remain level at all time — to create correct and equal pressure to the mouth.

Once that you can get close to mastering the feel of the bit you will find that it is only about 90% of what most people think is contact.

Keeping the ears level show you the position of the poll (of the horse) and it is the position of the poll that determines if the ears are even. For if the ears tip to either side and they get out of balance (parallel with the horizon) you have created too much pressure to the side that is lower and the horse is over flexed on the lower side. This will then throw the movement of the body totally out of balance which will make the horse uncomfortable and in some cases uneasy. Additionally when the ears become out of balance you will notice that the entire head starts to tip to the side that has the lower ear rather than being balanced and equal.

Once that this rider error starts and if left uncorrected it sets in motion the movement that is referred to as “walking through the bit” to occur. This can lead to a horse that “bails out” and cannot be trusted since the horse feels that it cannot be trusted.

With that very basic explanation of the hands I will move onto the seat and its importance with the next post. So, until next time “Ride for the Brand”.

Remember that there are five things that the rider has to be proficient in and if they are not there cannot be any progression beyond that of a green or unfinished horse. And they are;

1. The proper use of the hands and seat,
2. Understand feet placement,
3.  Understand and be able to use their legs correctly and apply the correct and necessary pressure,
4. Have the right mental projection, and
5. have the right attitude.

I am of the old school, I don’t believe that an inexperienced rider can learn from an inexperienced horse and visa versa. I do believe that an inexperienced rider can learn quite a bit from an “old campaigner” (an older and very experienced horse) and that it can be your greatest teacher and help you develop a true love of horse companionship. I have always found that it is positive reinforcement that creates great experiences and memories. One of my strongest beliefs is that “Green Horses and Green Riders Make for Black and Blue”.

If you want to go onto creating finished horses and you feel that this what you truly want to do then you need to understand what you have to learn and use what you will get here to learn what the horse will expect of you. It is a team effort that starts with you. You can create a great horse with the right knowledge or you can create a horse that is not able to be trusted when the chips are down.

The next post will deal with starting on the five points one-by-one and letting you realize your strong and weak point and we will start with the proper use of the hands and seat.

So until next time “Ride for the Brand”.

The rider can learn quite a bit from just watching and noting a horse’s reaction and their response to any situation that they do come up against on a daily basis. You can buy all of the books you want on behavior of the horse but you will never learn as much as you taking the time to observe and learn from the horse in their natural settings. Take the time to watch them in the field, both alone and within the herd atmosphere. What a horse does on their own is quite a bit different from what a horse will do interacting with other members of their accepted hern. Remember, the number one goal is to become a totally accepted member of your horse’s herd.

The next post will get back on track and continue the discussion about finished horses but I felt you needed an example that everyone has gone through in order to put all of what I am covering in this series.

So, until next time, “Ride for the Brand”.

The horse does not need to react as it did in the previous post when it is startled by anything. In fact if you have the trust of the animal and project confidence at the same time, the horse will turn to you with all of its ability and ask you what it needs to do. And it can be handled in a manner that show a team effort with you being the team leader.

1. Once the horse does stop you will feel the entire body of the horse draw up and focus under the seat of the saddle, at this point it is looking for the confidence and the guidance as to what it should do in this situation.
2. You MUST remain calm for the sake of both of you. DO NOT tense up, you must relax and remember that you are the one that is in charge – so act like it.
3. It is best to also loosen the rein of the horse at this point and allow them to see that you have no fear of the item that they are startled over, let the horse have a minute to realize that the whole situation meant nothing to you and that there is no need to get upset, let alone run away from it.

As you earn to react and be this way, the horse will build trust and confidence in your abilities and the fear factor will start to reduce over time. Now the fear factor may reappear with other riders that do not know what to do and have not the information that allows them to control the fear factor, but once that you learn that you can control the situation through your body language that you project to the horse, the better the horse will be in situations that need understanding and positive actions.

In the next post I will continue with fear and mastering it. So until nest time “Ride for the Brand”.

the rider totally tenses up throughout their entire body, they grab a hold of the reins and pull back and their legs clamp tightly around the barrel of the horse. Both the mind of the horse and yours are racing at the speed of the Daytona 500.

So lets look at what you relayed to the horse through your body language and actions.

1. Your body tensed up means that you are fearful of an even greater threat they have found – after all you are supposed to be in charge here and if you are ready to run away from this situation the horse most certainly will not want to stay around.
2. The next was the grabbing of the reins and then pulling back on the bit. That relayed to them that you are wanting to stop and stop right now! No second guessing here as well as the increased pressure  of the bit becomes painful. So now the horse has to contend with pain along with the fear factor. Here is where it starts to compound the initial problem.
3. Once that you clamp your legs around the horse it is the same as if someone came up behind you and suddenly grabbed you around the waist. You go straight up in the air and you are startled, it is no different for the horse except with the horse’s inability to try to process all of this information at one time; the horse will revert back to the instinctual thing to do – RUN and BOLT!

It is at this point in time that you have totally lost control of the situation and there is no way to easily get control back, in fact the horse will bolt to get out of there so fast that their only concern is their own preservation since they now feel that they cannot depend on you for guidance. So it is at this point you will most likely end up on the ground and the horse quite a distance from you.

The next post will continue with how to take control of this same situation and give the horse the guidance that they are looking for.

So until then “Ride for the Brand”.

How does this apply to finishing a horse? Quite simple, if the horse is not finished they do not have the knowledge that they can turn to you for guidance in times of fear. Let’s take it a step further and compare an unfinished horse and a rider that does not understand their role in a fear situation with a finished horse and the rider that has the confidence to guide the horse through their fear process.

We have been taught to handle fearful times as a human being, but the horse has a different reaction to an identical situation and what you need to understand is how to help the horse handle fear on their own terms. Understanding that will allow a fearful situation to be met head-on and handled as a team.

Most riders end up with problems with a horse simply through the use of their own body language that they relay to the horse. Let’s look at a very simple and everyday situation that can happen when you are out trail riding and the horse becomes unexpectedly startled by something that you aren”t able to see. First the horse will stop dead and start to look around and in many cases locate it long before we do, it is at this point that the horse will give a slight indication that it is unsure of the situation. In the next few seconds your reaction to this indicator will determine the results of the over all situation. You can become started or you can remain calm, the choice is up to you.

In the next post I will go over the outcome of becoming started and then remaining calm.

Until next time “Ride for the Brand”.

So how does a horse become finished? Well it all starts with the rider and what they project to the horse on a very structured basis  and once that the rider has the committment that they want to have a finished horse, creating one come very naturally from trust and confidence that the rider projects allowing the horse to pick those very things from the rider.

A finished horse starts with;

1. A complete and working knowledge of the five categories of bits and their correct usage,
2. The understanding and correct usage of hands and the principle of contact,
3. The proper placement of the feet,
4. The proper usage of the leg and its overall function,
5. Proper use of body and the correct signals that need to be sent to the horse through contact in the area of the back,
6. The correct mental projection of the rider, and
7. The attitude of the rider during the whole process.

The one thing that most riders go through is fear and when you do not know how to control that fear and allow it to overtake either the horse or the rider it becomes a great danger to both. Understand that the horse will get its confidence from the rider, consequently it will also have fear relayed to it by the same manner. That is why it is very important for the rider to be in control of their emotions at all time when on the back of a horse, and that ability comes from education, knowledge and experience.

It is like any pressure filled job, there are times that when the pressure is on that training and experience have to become second nature and automatic in response to any one particular situation as it arises.

In my next post I will continue with this subject and give you an example of how and why this works and is necessary.

Until next time, ”Ride for the Brand”.

First and foremost, years ago there use to be two main types of trainers – those that started horses and those that finished horses. The people who started horse, did just that, they started horses and got them introduced to being ridden by people and that type of trainer could take a horse just so far. Once that they reached that point they them turned the horse over to someone who could move the horse past the basics and start the finishing process. During that time frame, from start the horse to being finished there was a period of close to two years.

Looking at the changes that have happened over the last few decades, in the horse business, I have seen many different people showing the aspects of starting horse and then never going past that point – let alone getting to the point of a truly finished horse. This pertains to both English and western disciplines.

What I want you to realize is what it actually takes to get have a finished horse. The kind of horse that use to be everyday and are so hard to find today.

In my next post I will start to explain the basics that are required of the rider to even be able to move a started horse into the program of becoming finished.

Until next time “Ride for the Brand”.