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 | Quantum Savvy The Road To Horsemanship | |
| The Road To Horsemanship Series, Level 3 |
 3.32. Setting Up Turns And Transitions
Imagine if every time we communicated with other people, we just told each other what to do instead of first asking politely. While we may - or may not - still do as we are asked, how do you think we would start to feel about the way we are being treated?
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 3.31. Riding Consciously
How aware are you of what all of your body parts are doing while you ride? It might seem like a strange question, however, often when we ride there are parts of us that are a little tight or tense, which will in turn cause our horse to be tight and tense.
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 3.30. Rhythm In Lateral Movement
If you think about impulsion and flexion and what it takes in order for a horse to be able to move freely and fluidly in all directions, you will soon see the obvious signs of natural flexion and therefore elevation.
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 3.29. Natural Principles. In The End Is The Beginning By now, at the very end of Level 3, you are probably feeling that you are finally getting a handle of Level 1. And of course, you are right. Often, it’s only when we have seen the whole picture and process that we really understand the beginning ...
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 3.28. Contact Riding - Finesse
Congratulations on reaching the last portion of the Foundation Programme portion of the Quantum Savvy educational system.
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 3.27. Rhythm & Flow
Most things in nature have rhythm and flow, broken only by injury or attack. Any animal that can blend smoothly with its surroundings has a natural advantage, either for sneaking up on its prey or remaining inconspicuously hidden from its hunter.
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 3.26. Contact Riding – Going Forward
So far in our contact riding sessions we have limited our movements to backwards and sideways as these are the easiest directions for the horse and those that make the most sense to him.
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 3.25. Body Dynamics In Contact Riding
At this level, it’s imperative to be really conscious of your body dynamics. With two short reins and more intricate manoeuvres, your accuracy and
offer will be more and more important.
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 3.24. Rein-Seat Connection
This is a term used when explaining the type of communication transferred from rider to horse when doing Contact Riding. Basically is describes the direct link from human to horse.
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 3.23. Ride That Hindquarter
When your horse engages his body for soft feel and vertical flexion, his whole top-line shortens. That is; from the tip of his nose to the top of his tail, his body contracts as he engages his muscles.
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 3.22. The 80 / 20 Principle
Building soft feel and vertical flexion for a horse, is like building and improving strength, endurance and flexibility in ourselves. For a horse to hold engagement and flexion for any amount of time, takes a lot of strength, physical fitness and concentration.
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 3.21. Lateral Flexion – Vertical Flexion
We understand the concept now of Natural Flexion, so how then should we go about setting it up? It’s important at this juncture to understand the sequence of events behind any horse’s action.
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 3.20. Natural Flexion
A concept for advanced Level 3’s and Level 4’s to consider is that of Natural Flexion. Back in an earlier article, we discussed soft feel and what it means and how it differs from vertical flexion.
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 3.18. Respect Gives Impulsion Gives Flexion
Already throughout the Quantum Savvy programme and previous articles, you will have noticed familiar patterns and building blocks; programmes and patterns that evolve and progress through each Level. Variations upon the same familiar themes.
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 3.17. Muscle Memory
Everyday we perform certain actions repeatedly, until they become second nature or involuntary to us. Actions like walking, picking things up, using a knife, fork or tooth brush become everyday habits that we take for granted. However, that was not always so.
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 3.15. Stallions
So, what about stallions? If we are working with a horse’s instincts and playing the dominance games that horses play with each other, how do you go about successfully handling a stallion?
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 3.14. Horseman’s Stick Riding
At this point of the QS programme, as we make our way through Level 3, we will primarily ride with two Horseman’s Sticks, testing and proving our independent seat and balance.
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 3.13. Perceptual Defence Mechanisms
We have already discussed denial and the limiting effects it can have on your success with horses. How do you know if you are in denial if you deny you have a problem? The answer is to be honest with yourself. Look for the possibilities that things could be better.
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 3.12. Proprioceptive Changes Have you ever been in the situation where you are trying really hard to get something to happen and it just will not? Then all of a sudden, something changes and it starts to work.
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 3.11. Riding Circles
At this point in the programme we begin to look further into the need to ride consciously and to be aware of what our whole body is doing whilst riding. For now, we need to introduce how to truly ride a circle.
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 3.10. Breaking & Starting Would you consider sending your child to school to have him or her broken in? ‘Child Breaking’ is probably not something that you would look for on your child’s school curriculum, however, we send horses the ‘The Breaker’ or ‘The Trainer’ on a daily basis.
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 3.9. Liberty – Freedom To Choose
One of the common things that we see in some forms of ‘natural’ horsemanship, is the misinterpretation of comfort and discomfort. Typically when it comes to playing with your horse at liberty.
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 3.8. Natural Principles - Foundations First – Then Specialise! One of the really great things about natural horsemanship is its ability to cross all bounds. Whatever discipline, whatever sport, hobby, recreation or work, the one key to success with any area to do with horses is the need for good horsemanship.
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 3.6. What Is A Horseman? The term ‘Horseman’ these days has been bandied about so much that it seems to have lost much of its true meaning. Many horse owners, when asked if they would like to be a horseman, answer in the affirmative and yet are hard pressed to explain exactly what one is.
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 3.5. Mental, Emotional, Physical
Success with horses can be attributed to working specifically on three areas; namely mental fitness, emotional fitness and physical fitness.
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 3.4. Playing On Longer Lines
As we discussed in the previous articles, playing on longer lines can be a great leveller. The further away from you that your horse gets, the more options he has to do as you wish ... or not!
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 3.3. Reward The Slightest Try – The Offer
So what does it mean to reward the slightest try? Have you ever seen someone, or maybe it’s happened to you, trying really, really hard to achieve something with a horse and it’s just not happening?
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 3.2. Natural Principles - Building Rapport
Horses are amazing creatures with so much heart and desire. Repeatedly they amaze us with their try and in what they will do for us, with no apparent earthly reason other than their willingness to give.
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 3.1. Welcome To Level Three – Longer Lines
Congratulations on reaching Level Three of the Quantum Savvy ‘Foundation Programme’. We hope you are as excited as we are about
how far you have come through the programme to date. This is a fabulous milestone to reach and we congratulate you.
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| The Road To Horsemanship Series, Level 2 |
 2.36. Saddles, Bits, Bridles & Pads
Having the right equipment when it comes to riding is just as important as the tools you use on the ground. Certainly personal preference will play a major role as will the type of sport or recreation you partake in with your horse.
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 2.35. Seat Points
Now, as we approach the final stages of Level 2 and begin our first steps toward soft feel and ‘Contact Riding’, our communication becomes more refined and subtle as we gain a closer contact with our horse.
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 2.34. Soft Feel Vs Vertical Flexion
From this point in the Qs programme and continuing throughout Level 3, we will refer to obtaining Soft Feel when looking at the more concentrated and accurate ridden movements and tasks.
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 2.33. Responsibilities – What We Need To Become By now you are probably discovering that to achieve success with horses, it is as much a journey about yourself as it is with them.
Sometimes more so! Traditionally it has been a pretty easy thing to do, blame the horse when he doesn’t do what we want.
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 2.32. Keep It Natural - Horse Care Horses have survived and thrived on this planet, evolving for millions of years, proving that not only do they have vastly developed survival instincts but also that they are a highly evolved species in terms of breeding, socialising, conditioning and environmentally.
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 2.31. Spirit In a previous article we discussed impulsion in horses; some being long and impulsive, some being short and lacking impulsion. When looking at the temperament of the horse, it’s also important to look at the spirit of the horse, particularly if it is being chosen for a particular sport or riders ability.
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 2.30. Cross Training Can you imagine having a job where you just did the same old thing, day in - day out, without any variation? Where the routine never changed, just over and over the same tasks.
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 2.29. Contact Riding / Soft Feel Through the Level 2 section of the programme so far, we have increased our respect and leadership levels by playing with our horses on longer lines with more challenging and provocative tasks. We have built our vocabulary and fluency by beginning liberty in a round yard.
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 2.27. Rein Positions
A recap of the various rein positions, their responsibilities and their actions.
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 2.26. Leads And Diagonals
As discussed in the previous article, when a horse moves, it has various gaits in which to do so, depending on how far he has to go, how fast and in which direction. When a horse is simply going from A to B in no particular hurry, he will generally walk.
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 2.25. Footfalls And Weight Distribution As we start to pick up the pace a little and begin to ask more and more of ourself and our horse, it becomes increasingly important to understand the way in which a horse’s weight is distributed at each gait and how his feet hit the ground and in what order.
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 2.24. Natural Principles. The Power Of Positive Patterns Already you will have noticed how often, when setting up a task, we refer to a particular pattern. Being gregarious by nature, horses respond well to familiar things; places, objects, their environment, other horses and people.
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 2.23. Natural Principles. Learning To Say ‘No’ It seems one of the toughest lessons for humans to learn when it comes to success with horses, is to learn to say ‘no’. This is especially true for women, who are often reluctant to express their desires so strongly.
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 2.21. Natural Principles
What is Green? Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘green on green makes black and blue’? The term ‘green’ by description, suggests growth or growing, in other words something still under construction and not yet finished.
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 2.19. Introducing The Snaffle
At this stage of the programme, it’s time to reintroduce the bit and bridle and for this purpose we will use a snaffle. We will discuss bits and bridles at length in a later article.
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 2.18. Ambidextrous – Both Sides Of The Story You may have noticed already that just because you and your horse can do something well on one side or in one direction, it does not necessarily mean that it will be equally as good on the other.
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 2.17. Your Horse Is Your Mirror
A wise horseman once said that horses are like computers; they never do what you want but they always do what you tell them!
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 2.16. Level Two … The Continuing Journey In Level 2, we uncover a whole new world of building respect from greater distances through longer lead ropes; have your horse respond to you with no halter or lead rope attached as you begin playing at liberty ...
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 2.15. How Much Is Too Much? So just how much is enough when playing or working with your horse? And how do you know when you have done too much? Sometimes, taking that first step is the most difficult. Our uncertainty and fear can make it difficult to get motivated; to get us to make a start and take action.
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 2.14. Own That Hindquarter If emotional fitness is defined by impulsion and impulsion comes from hindquarter control ... and hindquarter control comes from controlling the flight response ... and the one who controls the flight response is the Alpha horse, how important is it that we are emotionally fit leaders?
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 2.13. Impulsion
How would you like to be able to just think go and your horse goes ... at the gait you asked for? Then, to be able to just think stop, and your horse stops?
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 2.12. Progressive Desensitisation
There are a couple of useful ways in which to teach your horse to handle new situations and to accept all sorts of things that may occur in the human environment. One is by habituation and one is with progressive desensitisation.
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2.11. Independent Seat
How would you like to feel as at home on you horse’s back as you do on your own two feet? To be able to move when he moves, stop when he stops, all with ease and confidence.
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 2.9. Auditory Cues – When To Be Heard
Traditionally, the use of voice cues with horses has been common. Through your development we would like you to concentrate on building your communication skills through body language rather than verbally.
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 2.6. Phases – Part Four
The four phases of communication, comfort and discomfort, lightness, timing and building rapport are all crucial elements to success with horses.
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 2.5. Yield Or Escape?
When asking your horse to move off, how do you know if your horse is actually yielding or whether he’s just escaping and what do you do about it?
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 2.4. Timing Is Everything
Being prey animals, horses live for the ‘moment’ - of which there are about four per second. In other words, they give little thought to what happened two seconds ago or what will happen tomorrow.
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 2.3. Incentive – Comfort Is The Key
Now that you are working on longer lines in Level 2, i.e. your 22’ rope, the concept of comfort and discomfort will begin to take on new meaning for you.
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 2.2. Positive Reflexes – A Level 2 Perspective
A while ago I came across the story of a family that had hand raised a newborn foal. Apparently they used to take the foal into the house and lay it across their laps whilst they watched television.
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| The Road To Horsemanship Series, Level 1 |
 1.28. Mental, Emotional, Physical!
One of the most significant keys in achieving success with horses is having the right attitude. It’s important to remember that there is going to a period of awkwardness, unfamiliarity and confusion until the new skills become habits ... Now With Video!
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 1.27. Adrenalin Vs Endorphin
In creating ‘The Horse’, Mother Nature created the prey animal in its finest form. No other prey animal has survived as long and as efficiently in this world of predators as the horse has ... Now With Video!
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 1.26. Vision. The World Through The Eyes Of A Horse Metaphorically we have begun looking at the world through the eyes of the horse. If we take this one step further & look at how the horse’s eye actually works, we can gain further insight into why our horses the way they do ... Now With Video!
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 1.23. One Rein Riding
True advocates of good horsemanship agree that horses should have options and this applies just as much to riding as to ground-skills ... Now With Video!
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 1.22. Horse Floats – Dream Or Nightmare
Imagine all your worst nightmares coming true at once. By nature you are a sceptical,claustrophobic prey animal. Your vision lacks good depth perception, you are prone to panic and need to feel free to move at any given time ... Now With Video!
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 1.21. Phases – Part Three So far in parts one and two, we have looked at opposition reflex and the importance of offering consistent, polite phases; to use a pattern rather than your strength and to not increase your phases if your horse is already trying ... Now With Video!
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 1.19. Becoming A Horseman
For humans that think like people, learning to become good with horses can be a frustrating thing ... Now With Video!
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 1.18. Approach And Retreat
If success with horses is about understanding that we are predators and horses are prey animals, then it makes sense that our whole thought pattern and the way we go about our daily lives are in direct conflict with those of the horse ... Now With Video!
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 1.17. Sceptical and Claustrophobic
As predators, how many of we humans have ever considered what it was like to live our day-to-day existence knowing that we tasted good and that the world was full of creatures who would love to eat us ... Now With Video!
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 1.16. Body Language
The primary communication amongst horses is body language. Have you ever seen the old brood mare pull back her ears and send everyone running? ... Now With Video!
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 1.15. Simulating The Flight Response
Following on from last week's article on the Flight Response, the impact it has on the horse and how it affects our success with horses, let’s now use an example ... Now With Video!
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 1.12. Phases – Part Two
In Part 6 of this series, we discussed the importance of using phases when playing with a horse ... Now With Video!
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 1.11. Respect And Personal Space Have you ever been talking to a friend when a third person has come up and stood between you and cut you off? How about if you are in the middle of a conversation and the other person turns their back on you mid-sentence and ignores you? ... Now With Video!
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 1.10. Sensitive Spots To Look Out For
Have you ever come across a horse that just hates it’s ears to be touched? Or maybe one that will not allow you to put anything in its mouth. What about those that are touchy around the feet, flank or girth? ... Now With Video!
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 1.9. Approaching Your Horse
Some people have great difficulty just catching their horses ... Remember that our goal is to try to not act like a predator, so thinking and acting laterally rather than direct line will be a great place to start ... Now With Video!
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 1.8. Comfort And Release
If we are to achieve success with horses, it’s important for us to learn what motivates them and what they really need in their daily existence, as opposed to what we think they need ... Now With Video!
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 1.7. Equine Behaviour
As prey animals (animals that get eaten by other animals) horses will seek the safety of the herd for protection ... Now With Video!
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1.6. Phases/Yielding Your Horse, Part One
Have you ever seen a horse twitch his skin when a fly lands on him, but then not budge as a human pushed with all his strength to try and get him off his toe! ... Now With Video!
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 1.5. Right Brain / Left Brain
The horse, as with all creatures, has two sides to its brain; the left brain or logic side and the right brain or instinctive side ... Now With Video!
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 1.4. Thinking Like A Horse
Being prey-animals (animals preyed upon by other animals for food) means that horses are lateral thinkers ... they do not think direct-line like predators do ... Now With Video!
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 1.2. Equine Psychology
How long would the average human last if they were subjected to the same kind of treatment that many horses are on a daily basis? ... Now With Video!
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 1.1. Building Knowledge, Naturally!
A new weekly series on building a natural partnership with your horse. As horse lovers, many of us have had the dream of being able to just get on our horses and go – wherever we want ... Now With Video!
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