Most of us strive to achieve lightness with our horses. We want to offer kind, gentle cues and have a smooth flowing response. I honor that similarity among us and commend you for it. Lightness in a horse is a wonderful feeling. Both horse and human operate together in this scenario and almost become one being. The word Centaur comes to mind.

***Smoke and Eric moving free and easy.***

Obtaining this state where horse and human become one is more of a rarity. A goal that is out there which we hold in our minds and work towards. This can, at times, be a struggle. For wanting to reach lightness we often attempt to be light. Always offering a light touch and hoping for a response, waiting for that light touch to sink in to the horse. We want our horses to reach that point where they say to themselves "Oh this is the cue for that, I get it."

It has been my experience that offering lightness can build lightness in a horse. This approach leading to a gentle free moving horse takes skilled hands. Well timed releases that encourage a horse to seek out the correct movement. This, and working with a horse that has had minimal human interaction.

When the canvas of a horse's mind is fresh they are much quicker at trying to find that which we are offering them. Older horses that have seen some trouble or felt the sting of the whip are less willing to trust that lightness is real. They check out mentally and the volume needs to be increased for them to even hear what we are saying.

To this older horse that is hard and braced up, a light touch is futile. This type of horse does not respect the human enough to allow guidance. They would much rather be back at the barn swishing flies off their buddies nose. When around humans they constantly are looking for a way out. Searching for an opportunity to bolt.

This can be a dangerous situation and whispering cues or trying to blow on their mane to achieve something will most likely lead to the human getting hurt. This approach is like trying to carry all of your grocery bags at once out to your car using only your pinkie on the left hand. The bags will soon fall and hit the ground smashing the bread and denting your canned goods.

Lightness cannot be obtained by constantly offering lightness.

The way to get to lightness is by offering lightness briefly and quickly changing to a cue that is sure to get a response. This response at first may not be the correct one, but reward the attempt.

An approach like this where a gentle cue is offered, then immediately followed up by one that gets a change, is way more effective. Applying this will quickly result in the horse beginning to tune into those more subtle cues. They realize that something happens prior to the moment they are woken up from their day dream. The good deal that is offered to start with becomes the cue that the horse tunes in to.

Applying this approach to the way you deal with horses will begin to gain their trust. Them knowing that there is a way out of being braced up is comforting. A horse would prefer to not be troubled and constantly acting out of self preservation.

When they begin to respect a person's guidance and leadership they will be quick to offer a response. Gladly following a leader that brings them confidence.

Let's keep that goal of lightness and work towards achieving it. The challenge then becomes how light can you get?

Happy Trails!

Eric

Easton Horsemanship