Would you Relax? Let’s enjoy the trail!

**Lindsey Forkun Equestrian advocates for you to wear a helmet

Trail riding can be quite fun and enjoyable – provided both you and your horse are relaxed. Once you or your horse tense up, the ride can turn into an uncomfortable mess having you both wishing the ride could be over.

When working with horses we need to remember that the horse gets a lot of confidence from the leader – that would be you! If you are a nervous and tense leader, it means you could make your horse quite nervous and tense.

Here are some tips to help give a relaxed and enjoyable ride:

1. Choose a horse to suit your needs:

Everyone has different levels of confidence and experience – just like horses.
Choosing the right horse for a trail ride will help to give you a positive experience.

If you are a nervous or tense rider, then choosing a confident and experienced horse to help get you comfortable on the trail would be a good start. Even if you own a horse that is green – you can benefit from riding the trail on someone else’s horse that is experienced and confident. Once you are confident on the trail you can try taking your green horse out.

A confident and experienced rider may do quite well on a nervous or anxious horse that needs to feel the confidence from the rider.

Taking an inexperienced horse for walks out on the trail with you on the ground can be a great way to build confidence – while you stay safe on the ground. Even doing short walks around the barn and into different areas around the farm can help expose your horse to different areas and build confidence.

2. Choose the right equipment:

Having a bit in your horse’s mouth can actually make the horse more nervous and tense. Bits in the horse’s mouth put pressure in a sensitive area. If the rider has a tendency to choke up on the reins (really short reins) and pull on the horse’s mouth – this can cause a trapping feeling to the horse which will actually make the horse get more tense and faster.

This is because horses are prey animals and they don’t like to feel trapped.
When a horse feels trapped their natural response is to fight or flight – that means to run away or to buck you off.

Riding in a bitless bridle/rope hackamore can actually be safer because it will help to stop your horse from feeling trapped. If you use the right tools, you will still have just as much control as with a bit – rope hackamores/bitless bridles are the best because the rope halter knots can apply enough pressure to get your horse’s attention if needed.
Leather bitless bridles can be ineffective in certain situations where the horse is distracted and requires more pressure from the rider (if the horse is scared, then the rider needs to be able to apply more pressure to get the focus of the horse – you have to be more distracting than whatever is scary).

You also have to choose the right saddle for the ride. Being comfortable in your seat will help you to be relaxed. Riding in a deep western saddle may make you feel more secure, riding with an English saddle might be cfamiliar and make you feel comfortable, or adding a gel cushion to your saddle for you to sit on can help you stay comfortable an relaxed.

To view the bitless rope bridle used by Lindsey Forkun Equestrian please visit: http://www.lfequestrian.com/shop.php?view=productPage&product=3&category=4

3. Nothing wrong with dismounting:

Ever heard the ridiculous statement: ‘If you dismount the horse when he’s prancing around, then you will just teach the horse he’s won”?

How ridiculous! There is nothing wrong with dismounting the horse when you feel nervous or anxious - it is safer!

The goal with natural horsemanship is to develop a true partnership with trust and respect. If you and your horse are nervous, go ahead and dismount. Play some games on the ground to get your horse’s attention and boost confidence. You can do ‘encounter, wait, and revisit (one of the principals of natural horsemanship from: Natural Horsemanship: Answering the What, Why, and How for All Disciplines by Lindsey Forkun).

When you dismount the horse you put yourself in a position of increased safety and increased confidence. This will let you address the issue in a calm and positive way on the ground which will show good leadership to your horse. When your horse is relaxed you can get back on the horse.
For example, if your horse sees a scary rock up ahead and is just refusing to go forward and is starting to scare you by getting really anxious –just get off! Then you can lead your horse up to the rock on the ground, once your horse sees that the rock really isn’t going to bite, then you can get back on and ride safely past the rock.

The key here is confidence – if you are more confident on the ground, then get off and address the situation on the ground – you and your horse will both win because of the positive experience you will have created.
You may get on and off a dozen times on a trail – that’s okay!! With continued experience and practice your relationship with the horse will grow until you don’t need to dismount anymore.

4. Practice your skills before you hit the trail:

It makes sense to practice your skills before you hit the trail. You want to make sure you and your horse are working together before you put yourself into challenging situations. It’s about setting yourself up for success.

If you can’t steer your horse in a circle or in between two pylons easily – then why are you heading out on a trail? Practice steering, stopping, and moving forward in the ring before you go out on the trail.

You need your horse listening to you both on the ground and in the saddle before you tackle the distractions of a trail ride. You will know you are ready for a trail ride once your horse is calmly responding to all of your cues with a willingness to work for you.

You also want to practice desensitizing your horse before you go out on trails. You should get your horse used to as many things as possible to build confidence. Spray bottles, beach balls, tarps, dogs, bikes, cars, etc are all things you can introduce to your horse at the farm in a place of comfort. You should get your horse comfortable with these types of things before you head out on the trail – that way if you cross paths with a barking dog or a person riding a bike out on the trail, your horse is less likely to be scared.

5. Reward often:

Remember the reward is in the release (one of the principals of natural horsemanship from: Natural Horsemanship: Answering the What, Why, and How for All Disciplines by Lindsey Forkun).

This means that when the horse is calm and relaxed you must reward the horse by giving with your reins or providing some sort of release. A release could be loosening your rein, relaxing your leg/body position so that you aren’t bugging the horse, allowing the horse time to stand still, letting the horse have some grass, a friendly neck rub, or just leaving the horse alone (just trust the horse to do his job).

When you reward the horse for being calm and relaxed, the horse is more likely to continue being calm and relaxed. You want to make the right thing comfortable and the wrong thing uncomfortable – so if your horse is being anxious you are going to circles, patterns, transitions, etc to keep the horse’s attention. When the horse is calm and relaxed you need to leave the horse alone and/or some other form of a reward/release so that the horse understands that being calm and relaxed is very comfortable and rewarding, but being tense and anxious means more work (circles, patters, transitions, etc are all more work for the horse then getting to walk quietly following a path).

6. Go slow home:

Have you ever noticed that some horses seem to walk like snails going away from home, but as soon as you head towards home the horse picks up speed? Some horses can get so anxious on the way home that they may not even be able to walk – instead they’ll do a prance or trot.

You can help ease anxiety about riding towards home by remembering a few things:

·Practice going forward (trot or canter) heading away from home, and practice more slow walk and slow trot toward home.

·Practice transitions on the way home to keep your horse’s focus – ask for walk, halt, slow trot, and back up.

·If you are halting your horse, try to keep the halt short – asking an anxious horse to stand still can actually make the horse more anxious – instead ask for halt and then after a second of standing still, move on to a different transition like back up or walk. The other option is to stop and put your horse into a bend (bend the horse’s nose around to touch your foot – this is a calming position for the horse). (to learn more about bending please read my article on bending and collection http://www.lfequestrian.com/ArticlesBlog.php?category=2&post=2)

·Practice patterns of circles or leg yielding to help keep your horse’s focus.

·Dismount and play with your horse on the ground, moving the horse’s feet in turns, moving the haunches, and sideways to get the horse thinking and feeling more comfortable. Once your horse is relaxed you can get back on.

·Take a grazing break – choose places to stop and allow your horse to take a couple bites of grass on the way home, this can help show the horse that taking it slow on the way home can be enjoyable.

·Always walk the last 5 – 10 minutes of the trail towards home – this will allow the horse to cool down from the ride, but it will also reinforce in the horse that you never run towards home and the horse can expect to keep walking all the way home.

7. Check your rein length and your body position:

Horses can feel the tension in our riding if we are nervous. If you choke up on the reins or pinch with your knees the horse is going to know something isn’t right and you are uncomfortable.

Just think from your horse’s perspective – you are supposed to be this protecting and great leader, you are supposed to save the horse from all danger and not let any bears or lions get him, you are supposed to be brave and courageous. So if you are scared and shaking in your boots – well then your horse is just petrified!

Some horses are so experienced and confident that they won’t mind if the rider is nervous because the horse has seen it all before and knows there is no danger – these are the types of horses that are perfect for beginners and anxious riders.

However, a lot of horses are not very confident by nature and will get their confidence from their rider.

Tips for having a relaxed position that will help your horse stay calm and relaxed:

·Breathe! Remember to breathe regularly – your horse can tell a lot about your emotions from your breathing.

·Open up your knees and relax your legs – pinching with your knees will cause your lower leg (your calves) to loosen, which makes you less secure in the saddle and can make you more nervous. Pinching with your knees is also quite uncomfortable to the horse. Try letting your toes naturally turn out a bit, this will let your lower leg relax against the horse’s side and will take your knee off the saddle.

·Heels down and feet underneath you – your heels down with you heel underneath your seat will keep you secure in the saddle and comfortable with the horse. If your leg starts to fall backward or if you end up on your tippy toes with your heels up, you will become very tippy and leaning forward. Having your heels down and feet underneath your seat keeps you secure, comfortable, and safe.

·Sit up tall – when you lean forward you encourage the horse to move forward. The horse always wants you in the centre of balance with them. If you stay in the centre of balance by sitting up tall, then your horse will be more balanced and feel safer. Only lean forward if you are going up hill, and only lean backward when stopping/slowing/ or going downhill.

·Lift your turning rein – sometimes I see people steer their horses by pulling out in the direction they want to go, but also they pull down towards their saddle. Pulling your rein down will not balance your horse properly and could make the horse feel more nervous. Lifting your turning rein as you turn will keep the horse and you balanced through a turn, which will let the horse more easily relax. Think about always keeping your hands ABOVE the saddle height… if your hand is bumping into the saddle when turning or stopping, you know your hands are too low.

·Have a relaxed rein length – if you are too tight on your reins then the horse will start to feel trapped and can get more anxious and tense. You need to ride with a rein length that lets the horse move freely and comfortably on the trail, yet short enough that you feel secure and able to quickly stop or steer your horse if needed.

·Use your cushion! Try sitting on the cushy part of your bottom – often riders sit on their coccyx (tail bone), when really you need to tilt your pelvis so that you tuck your bottom under you so that you primarily sit on the cushy part of your bottom. Sitting properly on the horse will greatly influence the rest of your body and how comfortable the horse finds your position.

It is a good idea to have a coach help you assess your position – you can also use video, pictures, and mirrors to help see what you look like while you ride. Sometimes it can feel like you are riding in a proper position, but when you look at yourself you can see that something might be a miss.

Try using all of these tips and you should be well on your way to a more relaxed ride! For horses with severe anxiety on trails or if you are really nervous, you should consider seeking a natural horsemanship professional to help you in a lesson or some training.

For more information on lessons provided by Lindsey Forkun Equestrian, please visit: http://www.lfequestrian.com/Lessons.php

For more information about horse training with Lindsey Forkun Equestrian, please visit: http://www.lfequestrian.com/Training.php