The quickest way to the top training secrets revealed.

About the Author

Mr Peter Andrew Shaw

Peter comes to us with a lifetime of successful experience as a coach, rider, judge and teacher. He spent 22 years in Public Education, becoming the Principal of three different primary schools in his career. Peter has been training, riding and judging since his early teenage years, reaching Grand Prix level judge in 1988 and now an FEI Level 3 Eventing Official, having working in many states of Australia, the UK, Europe and USA with the highlights last year being officiating at Aachen and the European Eventing Championships in Luhmuhlen.

As a rider ,Peter has won on every horse he’s competed on in Dressage, Eventing, Show Jumping and Showing and won at the Australian Dressage Championships, as well as winning up to FEI Level. His students have won up to and including Grand Prix dressage and 5* eventing. He also trained the Philippines Dressage Team to win Bronze, Silver and Gold, in the World Dressage Challenge. Quite a full career for sure.

His love of photography keeps him busy in his travels between coaching and officiating all over the world and Australia.

The quickest way to the top training secrets revealed.

Funnily enough, I know it’s no secret to those at the top and the reason they know the way to stay at the top. It takes a great plan, great patience and discipline to stick to that plan and know how to stick to or find that secret pathway through training process.

I guess it also depends on the horse flesh you have under you or can afford and that you can afford the lessons from those expensive trainers. Actually no, not entirely and not always.

 

Many so called, ‘ordinary’ horses for one person, have surprised their riders, or their new riders, as training progressed and they’ve gone on to win major events when first thought to not have what it takes. Conversely many very fancy young horses haven’t progressed for one reason or the other. I remember a very, very fancy young horses here that looked amazing as a young horse, but he used to give each fence so much air, that eventually he stopped as he couldn’t keep going that much higher each time.

So, what’s this secret that not everyone knows that will help you bring out the best in your horses, no matter which horse or how rich or poor you are. Yes, sadly the basics. Mmm, “Not that old chestnut”, so to speak. Sadly yes. Horses are very simple animals to train. It’s the humans who are more complex. Horses are sentient, fight or flight animals who learn when they are rewarded, or the aide is taken away. They actually learn through operant conditioning, and in fact negative reinforcement. This negative aspect refers to the taking away of the aide or pressure, not saying something horrid as in human terms. Positive reinforcement is adding something like a treat or a pat. So, in that sense timing is a huge factor, as well as knowing the aide and knowing when and what to reward. It’s a bit like ‘The Gambler”, “You’ve got to know when to hold em and know when to fold em”.

I purposely chose these photos as it doesn’t matter which discipline, it’s all the same.

Enough beating around the bush, let’s get down to business. What are the things horses need to know? Well the first four are “Start, Stop, Left, Right.” That’s start for the legs, stop for the reins, turn left so the left front leg goes towards eleven o’clock and turn right so the right front leg goes toward one o’clock. I’ve seen horses that turned their back legs away to face the other way, not move their shoulders correctly. You’d be surprised how, coming back and fixing the responses to these simple things can improve so much more of the work as well.  These can make horses lighter and quicker in the responses and better balanced. There are a few other responses we can look for, or secure, to ensure also before we move on. We are looking for a horse to travel “spine on the line” on a straight line and on a curved line. Horses, and riders, for that matter, are generally inherently crooked.  Funnily enough I almost always improve the rider, to improve the horse, so check on your balance and straightness before you try to fix your horse’s crookedness. When the horse can travel spine on the line on the line on straight lines and curves and we can do a good circle, a good corner and increase and decrease the size of a circle, keeping the shoulders aligned, we then look to “side stepping” away from the flexion and bend, then “side stepping” towards the flexion and bend, then rein back and we’re pretty much got it sorted. I guess there are a few things that are missing here and for me, that’s the how, when and maybe why, but certainly the how and when and maybe even how much and how often.

It’s important to realise what you’re trying to do with the exercises you’re doing, the shape you’re asking the horses to travel in and the benefit or damage done due to these factors. We must try to allow our horses to reach to the bridle and lift the back and step through from behind. Yeah, yeah, everyone uses the words, but what is really the key to their correct use. Well, why should a horse reach forward with the neck rather than be put  ‘deep and round’ as many call it. Well, I’m seriously glad you asked, and I assure you, your horse will be too.