A Subtle Change with Big Results

I was lucky this week, I got my lesson on MJ. Those wonderful weeks of riding three times are long gone, and I just hope I can get back to that soon!

When I got to the stable Mary, the young lady who helps me groom and tack up MJ, brought him in to the wash stall while I got my Haas brushes hoof pick, curry comb and brushes out for her to use on him. She groomed him while I talked to Debbie and made a pit stop, and when I reappeared she told me that MJ had just one sensitive place, where the tail cord of him blanket crosses his hind legs. This is a big improvement over his whole skin being sensitive every time it is touched.

Debbie came up, checked his back and girth area, and she tacked him up. On the way to the riding ring MJ was sort of stiff in spite of all the warming gear we have on him. I started by walking him around, he was definitely behind my leg and he stumbled a little bit where the footing was full of hoof prints. Debbie had to go off a few minutes and she told me just to walk, she was not happy with his stumbling.

MJ had already “told” me that extending his walking stride was just not possible right then, so I decided to go to the super slow walk. He readily obeyed my slowing down leg aids and happily did the slow walk. As we went around I could feel him “arranging” his legs and his leg joints until he felt right, and when Debbie came back he was ready to walk at a normal speed without any more stumbling.

His ready obedience to going into a super slow walk should have shown me that something was different with MJ. I first noticed the difference when I asked MJ for a leg yield, something I have been asking for months on end without any success. This time MJ gave me a real leg yield, Debbie said he was crossing his hind legs properly and I was able to keep his body more or less straight. I was amazed, since MJ had been so stiff I had not expected more than a tiny hint of a leg yield, not a full leg yield.

The wonders did not stop there. When I asked him for a turn on the forehand it took him just one step to “plant” his front end and his front end stayed in place (while keeping the walking footfalls throughout) the rest of the 180° turn in place. The next three times I asked him for the TOF he “planted” his front end immediately.

From the first time I got up on MJ's back 20 months ago I have been asking for turns on the forehand EVERY RIDE, and I got the same results every ride—it took him three steps to “plant” his front end so on an 180° turn we got one step in place. Some weeks the second or third TOF resulted in only two steps before he “planted” his front end, but he never gave me a turn on the forehand where he “planted” his front end from the very first step, until the second time I asked for a TOF this Wednesday.

All the months I asked him for a leg yield his response went from “WTF are you asking for” to “you know you are really irritating me” to “there is absolutely no way that I can understand you and even if I could understand you I can't do this” to him giving me a tiny, tiny hint that he understood me. Of course I lavishly praised every hint of a proper response to at least he understood that I was asking for something and he had a general idea of what to do in response to my aids.

Wednesday it was so different. I gave my first aids for the leg yield and MJ cheerfully did a leg yield.

Amazing. He gave me two things I have been working on forever on a day when he started off pretty stiff and somewhat uncoordinated.

Last week, after being groomed with the Haas brushes for chestnut horses, he was pretty good to me. This week he was amazingly cooperative. The only thing I can think of that gave me this result is that when we groomed him with the regular curry combs and brushes he would get really tense and defensive, I could see him restraining himself because this horse, above most other horses, really likes being a GOOD BOY! So he mostly kept still until he could not longer stand it, and then he would politely sidle away from the brush, always defensive and never enjoying his grooming, and trying in spite of everything to cooperate even though we irritated the heck out of him even before I mounted.

This week and last week he did not get defensive when we groomed him, the Haas brushes did not irritate the heck out of him and he stayed in his default personality of Mr. Cooperative Very Good Horse. Since his skin was not irritated he did not tense up his muscles, and therefore my aids went through without any impediments. This was SUBTLE, and I could have ruined it in a second with any abusive riding at all, but as long as I rode him well he would do whatever I asked for if he understood it.

This was the missing piece of the puzzle that was getting MJ to improve as a riding horse. Everything I had done before, the BOT and Fenwick stuff, the double bridle with the titanium bits, me riding him Forward Seat and not interfering with his movement, and the copious amounts of praise I gave him at any hint of obedience had helped, but it was the Haas brushes that got him to the next level of prompt, willing, cheerful and full obedience to my aids, even aids that he had previously ignored.

I had never ridden a horse with such sensitive skin as MJ before in my life. I had no idea of how irritated some horses can get with brushes that other horses accept without any problems. I now realize how much I must have been irritating the horses I ride when I groomed them with the regular brushes and I feel guilty about all the times I got after them for not obeying me when I rode them. In the end it was MY FAULT for not “hearing” what the horses told me about the grooming brushes.

But now the future is brighter. If I can get such a remarkable improvement in a 28 year old passed around lesson horse in one ride just think what you could do with your own horse.

Haas brushes do not irritate the horses as much as other grooming tools. Horses who are not irritated can give you a MUCH better ride. Make yourself and your horse happier, get some Haas brushes and curry combs, and learn how wonderful it can be to ride a horse that does not start off the ride still irritated by his grooming.

Maybe, just maybe, you might end up realizing that your horse IS the horse you always dreamed of.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran