Ozzy arrived last year from New Holland auction and has been a part of our training program since June 2013. He is a sweet and handsome boy who has made a lot of progress, but we were looking for ways to achieve a more steady contact and connection under saddle. Ozzy can get nervous in certain situations, and we needed some new ideas for how to keep him engaged with his rider. When a slot became available for Ozzy in a clinic with well-known California horseman Bryan Neubert, we jumped at the chance to take part.
Our head trainer Amy took Ozzy to Limerick, Maine to participate in the 5-day horsemanship clinic. In his previous life, Ozzy had learned to evade a rider by ignoring leg or rein aids and to ‘leave the scene’ when confronted with something scary, and Bryan focused on how to address these mental issues that many horses bring with them to the re-training process. He had Amy begin by asking Ozzy to soften to the rein by bending on each side. Once Ozzy could do that quietly, Bryan made sure that he could move his hindend over off of Amy’s leg aids. One of the biggest surprises overall for Amy was how Bryan had her really supporting Ozzy with better timing of the rein aids: he had her use a softening motion with the bit as a signal for Ozzy to go forward. Once Amy adjusted to riding with the more supportive rein, she was able to have greater control over Ozzy’s shoulders and consequently his straightness. Additionally, she was immediately able to make subtle corrections to help Ozzy refocus if he got distracted during the ride.
We put a lot of emphasis on our ability to affect the horse’s hindend, but Bryan was far more focused on the horse’s shoulders. For example, he told Amy that for every time he moves a horse’s hindquarters over, he might move the front end over nine times. It makes perfect sense once you think about it: since horses carry more weight on their front ends, where the shoulder goes the rest of the horse follows! Bryan had Amy do many exercises to work on controlling Ozzy’s shoulders, such as leg yield and counter-bend, turn on the haunches off of the outside rein, and backing up around a small circle while keeping Ozzy bent in the direction of the circle (that’s a tricky one). Another exercise which Bryan had Amy try involved four poles placed in a square. Amy would halt Ozzy facing the square, then ask him to sidestep along the length of each pole, all the way around the square.
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If a horse was spooky of certain objects or obstacles, Bryan advised working through it by keeping the horse’s feet moving, and then completely taking the pressure off as soon as the horse began to soften. At that point, he would have riders let their horses stand and rest beside the scary object. He put a lot of emphasis on the importance of taking ‘quiet time’ in between activities to give horses a time to let down and relax. A large part of each session was spent working through individual horse’s weak spots and trigger points. Since Ozzy has trouble coping with something potentially scary, Bryan and Amy spent a lot of time working with a tarp to teach Ozzy to confront new obstacles and to trust his rider to take care of him. It took awhile, but they got some impressive results!
The clinic was an incredible experience for both Ozzy and his trainers: Amy was able to watch Bryan work with a wide variety of horses and riders, and she came home with many new ideas and techniques to try. We are excited to continue the work that Bryan began with Ozzy at the clinic, and we look forward to continuing progress. Many thanks to Frannie Burridge of Piper Ridge Farm for hosting such a fantastic event!
