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Cueing for Control
Be in control! Teach your horse to be consistently obedient to your cues. Remember, overall obedience to a wide range of cues is key to a well-behaved horse. By working on improved control you will produce a safer horse, and this will do wonders for your confidence. The bonus – a more enjoyable horse!
I was told once that the better prepared you are, the more successful you will be. For this reason, I prepare my horses for maximum control by getting them mentally and emotionally relaxed and in a learning frame of mind. The round pen is the most powerful tool I have to do this. However, this can also be achieved with groundwork exercises that are both effectively structured and progressively introduced to your horse. For better insight on these exercises please review my DVD “Earn Respect & Gain Control”.
Round penning techniques are invaluable for earning respect, building confidence, developing willing attitudes, and establishing trusting relationships. It is with round penning techniques that I can get my horse focused in on me and in a learning frame of mind. This, of course, is very important because without these fundamental roots I would have no way of communicating or preparing a horse to be responsive, obedient, or light to my cues.
It is important to note here that just because a horse has “joined up” with me in the round pen doesn’t mean he’ll do everything willingly and correctly for the rest of his life. The “singular use” of round penning techniques will not allow the control of your horse to progressively grow and expand.
In order to produce a well trained, controllable horse, we need to expand upon the focus and respect that we established in the round pen. We do this by introducing a systematic way of successfully conditioning our horses to be obedient to many cues. In my training program, a horse must learn to respond to a wide range of cues. Basically, the more cues I teach my horse, the more practice he will have being obedient, the more controllable he will be.
The Cue:
A cue is simply a verbal command or a physical signal that prompts a reaction, which results in a specific response. If I want my horse to be light and obedient to a near invisible cue, I need to apply my pressure in a way that is both quiet and non-demanding. It is important that we do not get busy or aggressive with our request. The simple truth is the quieter we are, the quieter our horse will be - and the lighter we are, the lighter our horse will be.
Sometimes I will complement a physical cue with a verbal cue such as a “cluck” or a “kiss”. For example, on my go forward cue, I can complement my leg pressure with a verbal cue as yet another way of getting my horse tuned in and listening to me. I can also use a verbal cue to set the cadence of the stride whether I’m asking for a walk, trot, canter, spin turn, roll back, or back up. Verbal cues are mentally helpful because they give a horse “reaction time” to respond.
The Reward:
Horses learn to respond to a cue by “discovering” the correct
reaction to the cue, and then having that specific behavior reinforced by
a positive experience – which is a release of pressure! We can enhance
the response of our horse by perfecting our “timing” and by being
consistent with our reward. Being on top of our game means being in sync with
our horse! This simply means that we need to learn how to “feel”
what’s going to happen before it happens. In other words, by listening
to and monitoring what our horse is saying to us, we will learn to feel what
he is going to do before he actually does it. This is how we improve our timing,
our feel and our release of pressure – and this is how our horse becomes
sharper and more responsive to our cues.
Consistent repetition of the cue, along with a consistent, well-timed reward
for the correct response is your recipe to success. Eventually, after thousands
of repetitions, the response becomes a habit and the cue elicits a conditioned
response.
The Reinforcement:
There are times when it is necessary to reinforce a cue. In order to keep our cue light, we need to prove to the horse that he needs to respect the cue. For example, in the case of the go forward cue, if my horse didn’t respond to light leg pressure, I would reinforce my cue with a spur or a riding crop. Remember, the reinforcement is simply the motivation the horse needs to become obedient to the cue. Eventually, the horse will respond to a light cue to avoid the reinforcement. Throughout a training program there will be times when we will need to exaggerate our cues, however, it should always be our goal to refine as we go. As our horse gets more and more broke, the lighter and lighter our cues become. Invisible, this should be your goal.
There is a fine line between success and failure when it comes to the reinforcement of our cues. On one hand, we do not want our pressure to become too intense; otherwise the horse will associate the reinforcement as punishment. On the other hand, by not demonstrating enough authority, the horse will learn to ignore the cue. I have seen riders using “wish-washy” attempts to reinforce their go forward cue. My only advice here is to put some effort into reinforcing the cue. Otherwise, you will be consistently busy bumping, grinding, and nagging, as you pick on and irritate your horse to death. There is no better way to teach a horse how to become totally oblivious to both you and your cues.
Achieving a maximum level of obedience and control takes hard work, commitment, consistency, and dedication. In reality - a rider can only achieve success through the countless hours of repetition and the development of good timing and feel. This is how we produce a safe and enjoyable horse.
Remember - “Success with horses starts with us”!
This article was written for the June/July issue of Horses All magazine.