How Not To Kill Your Students...And Other Important Stuff

This one's been a long time coming, and it's a topic which came up recently during a lesson with one of my younger students. That age old trick known as the "One Rein Stop". To knowledgeable horsemen, it's one of the 'seven deadly sins' of horseback riding, for good reason.

A few weeks back during a lesson I was teaching, the horse my student was riding spooked and took off. For a bit of background (no pun intended...), this is a highly trained, very well trained, great big tall Pleasure gelding: A sensitive and extremely responsive horse, ridden in a solid cheek curb with a mild correction port.

When he bolted, a few things had occurred or were occurring. We were practicing a pretty Western Pleasure slow jog on a nicely draped rein, it was, albeit early, evening and already dark, and other horses were also being worked in the arena. This particular horse isn't terribly fond of night time rides, though what set him off was simply another horse loping by: A thing that had never bothered him before in any setting.

Obviously, we must always keep in mind, horses are what we call flight animals, meaning their preference is to flee from danger, whether real or perceived, instead of ignoring anything they deem "scary". When a horse is already in high alert mode, care should be taken to read any potential for reaction. That said, in a riding lesson setting, we don't always have the opportunity to explain or thoroughly teach how to handle a possibly explosive reaction by an ordinarily solid horse before instinct might take over. In other words, there is indeed always the potential for horses to react in an uncharacteristic way, and we cannot possibly prepare every student for every feasible scenario.

Now, it wasn't the bit he wore or the horse's specific type of training which made this situation a bit concerning. In the end, my young rider remembered everything I'd taught him about CORRECTLY using the aids to stop his mount, and more importantly, through CORRECT riding, he stayed on. I couldn't have been more proud.

Here comes the heart of the issue in this installment. When the horse initially spooked and began to gallop, both the rider's mother and I began firmly telling him to sit back, use his seat as he'd learned, and pull back on the reins with increasing steady pressure. Another individual, however, was shouting at him to "Use a One Rein Stop!", which likely would have turned deadly.

Let's just stop here for a moment - I am not universally opposed to such a maneuver entirely, but it is absolutely not, and should never be, the automatic go-to for every horse in every such instance. What people need to understand is, both riders AND horses MUST be trained in this protocol in order for it to be effective and relatively safe. Even then, the safety of using such a maneuver is questionable at best.

Training horses to understand the "One Rein Stop" isn't exactly rocket science, though there must be solid and consistent work put into the horse for you to successfully get him or her to understand what you're asking for, and to 'program', for lack of a better term, the correct response into the horse.

Let's get started on that training process. Personally, I'll always begin with a simple smooth snaffle bit, either single jointed or double jointed -- whichever the horse prefers to work in. Anyone who's followed my column, followed this blog, or read my book, knows my stance on bits relatively well, or should! Some might ask, as others have done before, "Why this choice of bit?", "What if my horse won't go in a smooth snaffle?", or any of a myriad of other questions. It's my preference for many reasons, and all horses will work in one. For those who don't believe their horse can be ridden safely in such a bit -- Hogwash! Safety of both horse and rider comes down to the TRAINING put into the horse, not any bit carried in their mouth.. but I digress.

It is absolutely imperative the horse understands pressure and release, how to give lateral flexion, correct bending, and moving forward into connection. We can break each of those down to more easily digest them.

What does pressure and release mean? Simply put, with correct timing, we add pressure [seat, legs, reins], and then release said pressure as soon as the horse complies. During training for the "One Rein Stop", that timing is especially important.

Horses are amazing animals, and have the innate ability to bend in three basic places: The poll, the withers/shoulder, and the rib cage. Yes, you might notice how a horse will curve its neck when asked for both lateral, and vertical, flexion, however that's a reaction to the request for a bend and not part of the actual motion itself.

Bending is what occurs when we put lateral flexion together with correctly queuing the horse, by using precise pressure and release. Then we must work the horse forward, repeating these steps, until he or she has a solid understanding of the connection between those cues and the proper response. And this all must happen before adding in the half-halt motion, which is the beginning of teaching that actual stop.

Where do these steps come together to form that famous (or infamous...) emergency stop using a single rein? Well, first we've got to simulate a situation where we might need to invoke it, by adding speed, then teach the horse there must be a response to both our body language, AND that single rein, ceasing all forward motion.

By now, you have probably started to realize just how complex this process of learning for the horse is, and all I've covered above are just the basic beginning essentials. You should also have come to understand why this ISN'T a good idea to scream at a young child during a riding lesson who's on top of an out of control, sensitive horse! Put all of that together with said horse wearing a bit that has solid cheeks (high level of difficulty in getting that sought after flexion for an inexperienced rider), and a moderately large port in the horse's mouth, solidly attached to those cheeks as explained above, and you'll have created a recipe for disaster.

Making a very long story somewhat shorter, it's simply far better, easier, and more responsible to just teach our students how to ride properly, use the aids correctly, and practice the proper use of those aids in every lesson.

~SFTS