Do you remember John Lyons? He is such a great, common sense horse trainer, and back in "the day" I got to see him at the Aqua Barn Ranch in Renton, Washington with his stallion Zip.
I've blogged about him before, how the horse seemed to understand English as he spoke to him, without any movement. "Hey Zip, go over there..OK Zip, come back to me now." Seriously, he never moved, he spoke into his microphone and his stallion came running back to him, to his laughter. He also called us to pray, which I found remarkable.
Here is a video where he shows us how to pick apart our ground pen work to infinitesimal degrees, and there in is his secret. It takes a while to watch it, but I hope you'll see the communication.
Yesterday I found an article my Horse and Rider magazine about runaway horses, and how John Lyons combats this common problem.
Here is the article.
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I'm not especially afraid of Mag running away with me. That's not actually on my list of worries.
It's just always on a list of my worries with any young horse, cuz as I went shopping for horses, it happened to me.
The delicate bay Arabian mare saw some newly packaged silage bales to her right and she bolted. I pulled her directly into the forest, thinking the trees will stop her if I cannot. And it worked. The man trying to sell her to me, eventually came back from his own runaway horse and said, "Why are you in the trees?" I said, "To stop." Poor little mare, I would have liked her.....
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John Lyons says to stop a runaway horse you have to concentrate heavily on just stopping. A horse with a really good "whoa" will be less likely to take you to the next county line at a gallop. Well, he admits, it helps....
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He says, in the article, that a runaway horse is a horse who will not stand to be mounted, or will not stand after mounted. And will not stand for any reason. It isn't "running away" - the horse just has no concrete idea about what stopping means, when requested.
So he goes into teaching it from the mounting block, from a walk, from a trot, etc, and then gets into this idea called "Riding into the Stop" which is an advanced movement where your halt is energized enough to carry the horse into immediately backing, or immediately trotting forward again. He seems to do it nicely, and repeats how we should never, ever "stop riding" to ask for a halt. Which is what I've done my whole life, so.....Hrm!
I'm not sure how I feel about his session on this horse, but the horse does seem to get the concept of not just dying in place. It seems the owner asked him for help specifically because her horse threw its head up every time she stopped.
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6 comments:
My trainer with my first horse was john Lyons certified. I'd gone shopping for a been there done that & hadn't realized that an x endurance horse was, been there done that AND wanted to get there fast 😂 She really helped me to break things down & slow Motion down. Only problem was it only worked when I was in the saddle, he took off with a few friends!
Love John Lyons, he was the first teacher who really opened my eyes about communicating with a horse instead if just riding (dominating) it.
Good video, I have been working on that kind of stop with Gussie all summer.
In other words, half halt into the stop. There's an article about the correct way to do a one rein stop also. It's not just about yanking the horse's head around. It is something you have prepared the horse with through teaching it to soften. I haven't gotten to read all of this article, but it looks good. https://www.equisearch.com/articles/stop-a-runaway-horse
The horse in the video you shared is an Arabian, so the self carriage is a little easier for him, but I taught a quarter horse mare the same thing, to soften into the stop. And although it isn't a guarantee to stop a run away horse, if your horse has been trained, schooled in this--in other words practice, practice, practice--it ups your chances of stopping it and not having to run into the trees. It's not always easy to keep your cool when a horse bolts, but you did! I rode an endurance horse that was for sale once, and I was shocked that it had no half halt, just a hard mouth. What a horrible thing to have to deal with on the trail.
On another note, that Arabian in the video....typical Arabian looking around at everything when off the bit. They are always so interested in their surroundings.
My dressage coach has us always carrying energy into the halt, so you may immediately trot or canter out of it if you wish. It's got the side effect of having horse and rider "sit" into the halt, which is a far nicer and more effective way of stopping than the energy running out through the forehand and pulling the rider with it.
I like the point of them running away, even if it's in walk because they dont wait at the mounting block. I'm trying very hard to be diligent in teaching my youngster about stopping and standing respectfully. She is so naturally forward and busy, it's a bit of a challenge making being still a happy place/reward for her.
I'm so accustomed to seeing riders wear helmets that it actually looks weird to see people without them (even in movies!)
So, I watched the video without sound, and still got the basic info: RIDE the horse, all the steps, including the halt. And THEN release. That's all stuff we work on in the arena and on the trail. I admit that I get lazy sometimes, and then I run into a balloon memorial in a blind spot on the trail, and that wakes me right back up! (in my defense, I wasn't completely dozing when we found the balloon, as it's on the edge of Bear Meadow and I was watching for bears!)
But the reminder to RIDE is important.
Camryn, wish I could find a Lyons trainer here.
Shirley, I'm glad you liked it - I thought the concept was great, kind of advanced for me but I remember in my dressage days something similar. Stop, back 2 steps, trot on.
KB, I use one rein when my horse gets rushy cuz we all know two reins won't help. He also knows how to bring his nose to my stirrup both ways, which I thought all horses knew but I guess not!
T, I'm enjoying reading about you and Sovie. I realized today that even when I practice standing still from the ground out there, when I let Mag fidget, chew on things, or grab hs lead rope, he may be physically standing, but he's not mentally standing at all. Hrm. It's hard. I lost my temper and whacked him today when I stopped, and instead of stopping, he kept walking until he was past me, cuz his friends distracted him. I blame myself for not being 100% with him. It's hard.
Aarene, that balloon memorial - wow.
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