Equine-Humanistics

1. FENCE WALKING: 

Fence walking familiarizes your horse with four ideas:

a. Walking a line beside you (on both sides) not micromanaged by any pressure on the lead.

b. Walking exactly the same speed as you (not you matching the speed of the horse).

c. Managing the changes himself to do A & B, without having to stop and start, by being more attentive and willing to respond to cues immediately; there might be many transitions to the halt before this is available.

d. Moving his legs to form a round step that lands flat or heel first as opposed to stabbing toes into the ground.

Fence walking familiarizes the person with:

a. Creating clear boundaries that you use with discretion, they change only in the choice you make of which ones to use and when.

b. To develop acute awareness of ‘how‘ your horse moves in the walk e.g. straight, left, right, speeding up or slowing down.

c. To be observant of how he responds and executes both upward and downward transitions to the halt.

d. To choose a speed at the walk that very slightly ‘challenges’ your horse to make balance changes.

Cosmo Before Practicing the Fence Walking Exercise *NEW VIDEO*

Cosmo After Practicing the Fence Walking Exercise *NEW VIDEO*

2. SQUARING: 

Squaring familiarizes your horse with three main things:

a. Rocking their body back over their legs.

b. Moving diagonal legs together with matching steps in both timing and length.

c. Standing square and balanced with forelegs under shoulders and hindlegs beneath hindquarters. A ‘leg at each corner’ stance.

Squaring familiarizes the person with:

a. Presenting an aid to rock and then step back by having clear directional positioning, building energy, moving into and eventually touching shoulder if needed.

b. Being in the moment and aware of the horse's choices at any moment,

c. Noticing and rewarding the moment the horse makes the mental choice to respond,

d. Encouraging rocking back before stepping back,

e. Being curious to working up to being able to use only directional and energy aids to move your horse (making you able to move your horse from a distance).

3. CIRCLING:

Circling teaches your horse a proficient turn on center which in turn familiarizes many qualities:

a. Creating bend momentarily before moving.

b. Moving his center of balance back while moving front legs one direction and hind legs the other.

c. Staying within boundaries and moving in self carriage, choosing to move legs that enhance balance.

d. Developing symmetry in how he organizes turns in each direction.

Circling familiarizes the person with:

a. Knowing what a turn on center looks like in a horse.

b. Keeping the same boundaries as Fence Walking and presenting them on a circle.

c. Being acutely aware of when your horse is rocking back or falling forward and the posture that causes either.

d. Building an energy aid consistently before using the walking or defending boundaries aids.

e. Noticing how your horse moves from differing leg positions and which is the ‘stuck’ leg(s).

f. How to use the release of aids and being peaceful to encourage the horse to consider new choices.

Practicing Circling and Squaring - What Cosmo's Doing *NEW VIDEO*

Practicing Circling and Squaring - What Maree's Doing *NEW VIDEO*

4. LATERAL BALANCING:

This exercise is the icing you lay on when you have all the first three exercises done to a relaxed, proficient level.  It cultivates and teaches in the horse:

a. How to do a quality leg yield lateral move from the ground without restriction on the head or neck.

b. An understanding of how to match increased impulsion in the person without losing any qualities of balance, self-carriage, and calmness.

c. How to fluently manage moving from a straight line into a turn and back to a straight line in balance without disorganization of forward movement, neck, shoulders, or thoracic.

d. How to recognize and respond with confidence to the aids from the person to speed up, slow down, turn, go straight, and change gait.

 Lateral Balancing teaches the person:

a. How to take all the qualities created by the first three exercises and maintain them in forward movement.

b. To acutely be aware of when your horse is yielding away from you (bending) or falling towards you on his shoulders.

c. To be disciplined about creating movement by drawing and raising energy as well as driving and sending.

d. To notice the balance between ‘go’ and ‘whoa’ – is it just as easy to get him to go as it is to whoa and vice versa?

e. To be joyful, encouraging, grateful and rewarding of the smallest tries.

All these qualities enhance the horse’s understanding of what to do with his body in response to a person’s aids so when you create the same energy and systematic approach when riding, he will have a clearer idea what you are talking about.