I often see riders become angry because their horses aren’t doing what they want them to do. So, for a moment, I’d like you to consider riding from the horse’s point of view.

Although we know that we’re planning to ride in the arena and jump a few fences, the horse doesn’t understand this at all. Everything that is said between coach and student is unintelligible to the horse, making the only line of communication the rider’s touch.

Horses want a secure touch that carefully guides them every step of the way. This is not just through the hands keeping light and steady contact on the reins; but also through the legs, which become a horse’s “security blanket.” The animal can feel secure if the rider is always guiding it; but the horse is lost if the rider drops these lines of communication. All of a sudden, it is aimlessly moving around the arena, becoming apprehensive because it doesn’t know what the rider wants it to do next.

You may have a plan, but it won’t work out unless you successfully convey it to the horse. For example, I sometimes see riders galloping at an angle toward a fence, but not making it clear to the horse whether they want to gallop past the fence or jump it at an angle. When this confusion arises as a horse approaches a fence intended to be jumped at an angle, the horse will usually run out. You have to remember that horses gallop past fences frequently when performing a circle before the course, so the fact that you’re now wanting to jump the fence at an angle is not always clear.

To jump a fence at an angle, the rider’s hands and legs should be holding the horse’s body straight on the approach, and the rider’s eyes should look at a focal point beyond the fence to further indicate the desired direction of travel. In contrast, to gallop past a fence on the opening circle, the rider’s aids should keep the horse uniformly bent from head to tail, so that the animal is not looking straight ahead to the nearby fence, but is bent to the inside of the curve. (For more information on bending, see “How to Bend a Horse” in the “Horse Articles” section.) The rider’s eyes should also be looking along the curve–about a quarter of a circle ahead–with the jump that is being passed visible in the rider’s peripheral vision so that he won’t accidentally guide the horse’s shoulder too close to the standard. These directions–given to the horse through the touch of the rider’s hands and legs, which place the body position of the horse–differentiate what the rider is asking.

If you were blindfolded and about to go through a difficult maze with the help of another person steering you with their hands on your shoulders, then the way they touched you would be very important. The steadier the touch, the easier it would be for you to go through the maze and feel secure; but if the person occasionally removed one hand or both hands, you’d become anxious and confused.

Although the horse can see, it can’t understand the verbal instructions your coach is giving you, such as “Jump fences 1, 2, 3; halt, back up four steps; trot fence 4; then canter fences 5, 6, 7, and 8.” Only the rider’s touch is going to convey these instructions. So give your horse confidence through a steady touch and be sympathetic to the fact that you know the plan ahead of time, but the horse doesn’t. 

If a horse is excitable when it comes out to work, riders tend to work the animal for long periods of time in an effort to wear it out to achieve compliance. The initial excitability of the animal causes an adrenaline rush, just as though the horse were fearing for its life and needed adrenaline to enable it to run fast for a long period of time to escape a predator. If the rider (or even someone longeing a horse) doesn’t give the animal frequent breaks, the horse’s emotional state remains frenzied, which keeps the adrenaline flowing.

If a horse is very nervous at the start of work, it’s fine to give it short spurts of canter with the rider’s seat off the saddle in two-point position—no more than three times around the arena—followed by a break of about five minutes so that the horse’s level of both adrenaline and oxygen can decline in intensity. As you know, adrenaline and oxygen can cause humans to accomplish what seem to be super-human feats of physicality, and the same is true of an animal; so it is important to get the horse back to a more normal physical and emotional state before you start to work again, or else you’ll find yourself fighting a battle you cannot possibly win.

The oxygen and adrenaline levels are very important, but the horse’s mental state and its ability to realize it is tired are equally important. A walk on a long rein (or at least as long as you can have and still control the nervous horse) provides the animal an opportunity to relax; and once it has relaxed a little, it will realize it is tired. Just as you come to a point in a hard day that you think, “I’m worn out,” and start finding ways to take it a little easier, the horse will do the same. Instead of looking for things to spook at, it will just mind its business and cooperate.

This principle is true in all training of the horse. You don’t want to exhaust the animal, for this can be dangerous if your horse doesn’t have what it needs physically and mentally to do what you’re asking of it—for example, jumping a course of fences. What you’re really looking for is a relaxed horse that is willingly submissive. You’ll get this when you offer frequent breaks in your work routine.

If you’re longeing the horse, change directions about every five minutes, and take plenty of time while you’re switching the equipment to the other side, so the horse has a little time to settle. Also, don’t longe more than 20 minutes. After this time, when you get on the horse, walk it for at least five minutes on a long rein and let it relax. If you have time, you can even take the horse back to the barn, cool it out, then tack it up later for your ride. You’ll be amazed at how much more successful your work session will be if you’ll give your horse time to calm down, relax, and feel that it is a little tired.

If you’ve taken the route of short periods of canter in two-point, go three times around the ring, take a five-minute break, then change direction and do the same thing one more time. If this doesn’t sufficiently calm the horse, you can do the same routine twice more; but again, concentrate as much on a lengthy break time as you do on the cantering, so that the horse can become more calm, relaxed, and aware of the fact that its body is tired.

The people who constantly resort to lengthy gallops or an hour of longeing end up with a horse so fit that the initial problem of the horse being at a physical advantage is greatly increased. Also, overwork can cause lameness and other physical problems, so it’s not a wise thing to do. The next time your horse is keyed up, use short periods of work, interspersed with frequent breaks, to make the horse’s mind and body more manageable, rather than taking the lengthy and less-successful route of working your horse nearly to death or attempting to muscle it into submission.

It is wise to teach your horse to land on a certain lead after each fence that is last in a line of fences and over any other fence that immediately precedes a turn. By landing on the correct lead, the rider avoids the flying change of lead altogether, which makes the round smoother, gives the rider more time to think about the upcoming fence, and avoids any penalties that might be incurred by a poor lead change.

It is best to teach the horse to land on a desired lead by working over a single fence placed in the middle of an imagined figure-eight pattern. The fence should be in an open area so that the horse can jump the fence and circle to either the left or right without running into anything.

First, you can work only one side of the pattern–for example, jump the fence on a circle to the right several times, giving the horse the aids to land on the right lead:

• right indirect rein
• left leg in behind-the-girth position

These are the same aids as those used for the right lead canter depart. There are two additional aids that you can also use to help the horse understand what lead you want:

• the rider’s eyes looking slightly toward the direction of the desired lead
• both of the rider’s hands shifted slightly toward the direction of the desired lead, so that the outside hand acts as a mild neck rein and the inside hand acts as a mild leading rein.

Once the horse responds correctly to the aids by landing on the right lead a few times, give the animal a break as a reward and let what it has learned “sink in.” Then, try jumping the same fence and asking the horse to land on the left lead.

• left indirect rein
• right leg in behind-the-girth position

Also, remember to:

• look slightly toward the left
• shift both of your hands slightly toward the left

When the horse has got the hang of it, you can work a figure-eight pattern over the fence, first landing on the right lead, then landing on the left lead, etc. Be sure to apply your aids subtly, for you’ll be penalized if the judge sees you slinging your upper body around in the air or yanking on your horse’s mouth to get the lead. The aids should be subtle, with most of the work being done by your lower leg, rather than your upper body or hands.

The two most important factors in a relationship with any horse are trust and consistency.   Especially when a rider is approaching an obstacle to be jumped, the horse needs to feel that the rider is trustworthy—that is, the rider is presenting the horse at a reasonable take-off spot from which it can safely clear the fence.  If the horse knows from experience that the rider can be trusted, it will usually make every effort to obey, without being hindered by fear and anxiety.  If, however, the horse has found the rider’s judgement to be unreliable in the past, it will nervously try to figure out the situation and protect itself, sometimes chipping in or even stopping at the fence.

Trust is developed when the rider is consistent in his approach to the horse.  If you think about your relationships with other people, who do you trust?  Would it be the person who was supposed to pick you at the airport, but forgot?  Would it be the person who owed you money, but never paid?  Of course not! The people we trust are the ones who consistently come through for us, time and time again.  People are not perfect and can make honest mistakes; but you have to realize that for every mistake, even an honest one, you’ll have to work very hard to regain the trust of the person—or horse—affected by it.

To be a “benevolent rider,” your full attention has to be on your horse every minute you’re on its back. Your legs and hands should be giving the animal guidance and support so that it can relax into a relationship with you.  Without clear guidance, the horse is left guessing about what is coming next, and this causes a certain level of anxiety that is increasingly heightened as speed and obstacles come into play.  If you want compliance from your horse, prove to the animal you are trustworthy.  You build this trust by being reasonable in your demands, accurate with your aids, and constantly thinking ahead so that you can guide the horse calmly and securely through even the most difficult courses.

• March 31, 2016
• By Jennie Carleton

Anna Jane White-Mullin jumping the last jump at 1971 Maclay Finals. Photo by Budd.

There are great riders and great horses, but there’s a certain magic that happens when just the right combination is paired together. Anna Jane White-Mullin and her Thoroughbred horse, “Rivet,” are an excellent example of such a partnership. Their story is one of hard work, horsemanship, and the heart of a thoroughbred.

While most of the top junior riders competing in the equitation classes today have mounts specifically dedicated for that purpose, that was not the case decades ago. Riders often had one horse to show, and that horse would typically perform “double duty,” ridden in both the hunter and equitation classes, and sometimes in the jumpers as well. Rivet was no exception. Anna White-Mullin was kind enough to share her story with me so that I might share it with others. The following is her account of how she and Rivet came to be:

Anna & Rivet Riding Without Stirrups at Ox Ridge in 1971.

“We bought Rivet from the well-respected Hungarian horseman, Gabor Foltenyi, who was running a barn in Michigan at the time.  He was working to develop trust between himself and Rivet, who had been physically abused by a young male rider. Gabor’s stated philosophy was, ‘You get more from a horse by winning his confidence and allowing him to enjoy the sport, and then keeping him, at all times, under gentle but complete control.’  I watched Gabor quietly tack up the horse with flowing, gentle movements that made me realize he was trying to gain the horse’s trust.  Gabor was famous for his ability to develop a horse through flatwork, and this really showed when I tried out Rivet.  He was a beautiful mover and the most supple horse I’ve ever ridden, so we were pleased to be able to buy him.  We were told that he was suspicious of almost everything and had to be dealt with quietly to get the best from him; but it was still a surprise at the first horse show when my father went into the stall to feed him and Rivet sat down on his haunches in the corner, looking wide-eyed and panicked.

“Later that day, he had to be measured before we could compete in the junior division, and the steward said he measured as a Large Junior Hunter.  I tacked him up and showed in my first hunter class at the Ox Ridge Horse Show and was lucky enough to win it.  Afterwards, my coach, George Morris, said, ‘How did this horse get measured as a large?  He couldn’t be a large!’  So we had Rivet measured again, and he came up as a small.  I was then faced with the decision of whether to keep my points for the win in the Large Jr. Division and show as a large for the rest of the year, or to forfeit those points and show in the Small Jr. Division thereafter.  I decided to keep the points and continued to show him as a Large Jr. Hunter for the rest of my time with him.  After he was sold to Bradley Caine at Winter Place Farm in Maryland, he was measured again and shown as a Small Junior Hunter thereafter.

Anna & Rivet, 1971 Maclay Finals’ Presentation at the National Horse Show.

“Rivet turned out to be an interesting horse to show. He was easily spooked, so I had to longe him or give him a controlled gallop on the show grounds to work him down enough to score well in the early classes. He served as both my Equitation horse and Junior Hunter, and he usually came through for both.

“In 1971, he was the Large Junior Hunter Champion at the National Horse Show and carried me to a win in the ASPCA Maclay Finals that same year.  He also crossed into the realm of jumpers when competing over U.S.E.T. courses (now known as the U.S.E.F. Show Jumping Talent Search) and took me to a gold medal for 20 wins. Rivet was a wonderful partner, and I’m grateful to George Morris for finding him.  He searched a long time for not only the right horse, but also one that was affordable.  I feel so lucky to have had the opportunities afforded me by this multi-talented horse who overcame his fear and distrust to become a true champion.” 

Anna with her trainer, Ronnie Mutch, after winning the Maclay Final

“Rivet” on the cover of “The Chronicle Of The Horse,” Aug. 20, 1971

Article by: Jennie Carleton

Jennie is highly involved in the horse show community. As one of the founding members of the USHJA Wheeler Museum Committee, established to highlight and educate the membership and the public on the history of the Hunter/Jumper Sport, she has assisted in the formation and promotion of every exhibit. Having pursued an education in journalism, among other fields, Carleton has authored a number of articles and press releases for various equestrian publications and considers writing and horses her two greatest passions. Carleton also established and continues to manage several Facebook Groups dedicated to the history of the hunter/jumper sport and its preservation. This includes the USHJA Wheeler Museum Group, which was the brainchild of Carleton and her close friend and committee co-chair, Bill Rube. In 2015, Carleton began working for the National Horse Show as a social media coordinator, as well as assisting the USET Foundation as they prepared for the 2016 Olympic games.

Ida and A.O. White, Jr.

The horse-show season is in full swing, and many parents are struggling with how to be helpful to their children involved in competitive sport during their formative years.  Having had a great deal of assistance from my parents and eventually reaching the pinnacle of my ambitions as a junior rider, I believe I have some insight on the do’s and don’ts of parental involvement.  First, my parents always made it clear to me that they were my support system, so that I could have the best chance of reaching the goals I had set for myself.  I saw other parents having ambitions for their children that were unrealistic, including expecting children that did not show an extraordinary ability or work ethic to have ambitions to reach the top of the sport.  Lots of kids just want to ride and show for the sake of being with their horses and enjoying the exciting atmosphere of the show ring.  They enjoy giving their horse a bath more than working thirty minutes each day without stirrups—i.e., their enjoyment comes from love of the animal, rather than competitive ambition.  As a parent, you have to size up the abilities and interests of your child and not expect him or her to have ambition just because you do.  It is the rare child that has a consistent competitive hunger, and even rarer is the child that has both the drive and ability to win.  A person’s physical build, mental acuity, coordination, and ability to “get along with a horse” all come into play.

The goal as a parent should be to see where your child fits in the whole scheme of things and dedicate yourself to the best interests of the child.  This includes being honest with yourself about the resources you can provide. Buying a horse, tack, and riding clothes; paying for board, shoeing, and vet bills; and paying for lessons and horse shows can be a great expense that drains the family budget.  In my case, my mother was a stay-at-home mom of three, and my father a self-made man, who owned an engineering firm.  When he could see the cost of riding activities climbing as I reached the last few years of my junior career, he learned several languages so that he could work worldwide to afford the horse activities without jeopardizing the overall financial picture for our family.  I was fully dedicated to the sport, so he stepped up in an extraordinary way to help me.  At the same time, a friend of mine had an enthusiastic father who went greatly into debt and probably ended up in bankruptcy.  His emotions outweighed his common sense and, in the end, the entire family paid for it.  Making sure you are reasonable about finances is one of the best ways you can support a competitive child.  As a junior, I braided my horse’s mane and tail, even for the largest indoor shows.  Until I reached age 18, my family usually took the horse in our trailer, rather than paying a shipper; and I did the grooming, bathing, etc.   Doing these things helps a person become an all-around competent horseman and can defray a lot of expenses.  With both parent and child working together to make ends meet to accomplish a goal, a lasting bond can be formed.

Finally, support your children by supporting their coaches.  My parents put me with the best coaches available in the area, then encouraged me to listen to and respect them.  When things went wrong, for instance, my mother might say, “I’m sure if you keep trying to do what he’s saying, things will get better.”  She never took the stance that the coach was wrong and shouldn’t be picking on her little darling.  Parents who are always mad at somebody—the coach, the judge, other riders, etc.—are not helping, but instead are raising the child to be full of excuses.  One of the most important avenues to achieving success is having a realistic view of where you stand in relation to your competition.  If the child is convinced that “the coach is crazy,” “the judge robbed me,” and “I really should have gotten a ribbon instead of her,” there is little incentive for improvement.  One of the best ways to learn is to observe other people who are great in the sport and see what they are doing that makes them better than you.  First, you have to realize that they are better than you!

My parents helped in every way:

• holding horses in the hot sun and freezing cold at horse shows
• driving to feed the horse in the early morning at a show so that I could have a little extra time to get dressed and eat breakfast
• going thousands of miles through unfamiliar towns with a trailer in tow to reach a new showground
• never putting pressure on me to win, but encouraging me to always do the best that I could in any situation

My parents, A.O. and Ida White, passed away many years ago.  I still think about all they did for me and remember them with the greatest love and respect.  It isn’t because they spent a lot of money on me, but because they helped me do what I was trying so hard to do.  That is what your child really wants.

A horse usually “jigs” at the walk when it does not fully accept the rider’s leg. You need to do a lot of relaxing work at the walk, such as riding on trails or in a field, making sure that you don’t take your legs off the horse’s sides for even a moment. If you will concentrate on keeping a light, but steady, feel with your legs, then your horse will learn to expect the constancy of the legs and will even crave it, much like a child craves the comfort of its “security blanket.”

When you are working in the ring, try to keep your horse moving from one bending movement to the next, rather than just going around and around the arena. When working on a bend, you have more control of the horse’s hind legs, particularly the inside hind leg, which is controlled by your inside leg—that is, your leg that is toward the inside of the bend. Movements such as circles, serpentines, half-turns, etc. will slow the horse down a little and tend to make it stay in the four-beat rhythm of the walk, rather than break to the two-beat trot. In addition, using suppling movements, such as the shoulder-in, will help slow your horse and make its footfalls more precise.  You can learn how to perform additional lateral movements that can be useful in solving this problem in my latest book, the fourth edition of Judging Hunters and Hunter Seat Equitation.

Finally, half-halts can be beneficial, as long as you keep your legs on all the time, rather than taking them off if the horse breaks gait from the walk to the trot. To learn how to do the half-halt properly, read “How to Perform at Half-halt” in the Horse Articles section of this site.  You can go directly there by clicking on http://annamullin.com/how-to-perform-a-half-halt.

Where I live in the South, there is often an oppressive heat wave for many days.  The challenge is to make your training enjoyable, productive, and safe during hot weather.  First, try to ride early in the morning or late in the evening to avoid the highest temperatures of the day.  The morning hours are preferable because you have the benefit of the cooler night air preceding them, so the air feels fresher and, in the case of the South, less humid.

When you’ve finished riding, let the horse walk on a loose rein for a few minutes to cool down.  Then give it a quick bath, use a sweat scraper to remove excess water, and, if the animal is still hot to the touch, walk it until it is no longer producing steam and its body temperature feels normal under your hand.  You can then let the animal graze on a lead line until its coat is dry.  If the horse is put into the stall wet, it usually has a hard time drying out, so it begins to roll in the shavings or straw to dry its coat. This makes a big mess and can result in the horse getting “cast” in the stall—that is, as it rolls, its feet get stuck against a wall.  In this case, the horse sometimes can’t get its feet off the wall without assistance.

There has been a lot of debate about the temperature of water given to a horse after work—both water that is drunk by the horse and water that is used to bath the animal.  There are times when very cold water is used on key places on a horse to bring its temperature down, for instance, during the cross country day of a three-day event.  However, horses are not usually reaching extreme temperatures after a routine workout, so in general I would say to bathe a horse in tepid water after a workout.

At a show, I usually leave buckets of water in the sunlight so that the water heats naturally.  Even though a hose may be available, it won’t necessarily have anything but cold water to offer, and there is always the chance that you’ll have a hot horse needing a bath at the same time that many other people do, so the buckets are a smart insurance policy.

I think the temperature of the water is also an issue of trust.  You don’t want the water to be cold enough that it makes the horse dance around in evasion.  If that is the case, the animal begins to realize that you are not a kind person, and it remains overly alert to see what else you might do that is thoughtless.  That is a terrible relationship that spills over into everything else you do with the horse, both mounted and unmounted.  No matter what the temperature of the air, the bath water should be comfortable and put the animal at ease.

As for drinking water following a bath, either tepid or cool water is fine, but as a rule of thumb, let the horse have no more than half of the typical five-gallon bucket at first, then walk the horse in a large circle (some people walk all the way around the barn), allowing it to take a sip every time it approaches the bucket until it is no longer interested in drinking.  The key thing here is to keep the horse moving as it is cooling down.  A slow cool-down is always the smartest thing.  As I mentioned earlier, once the horse’s body temperature is cool to the touch, you can let the animal graze.  This is a nice reward for a horse that  has finished a work session and allows the coat to completely dry.

For those of you who don’t already know, there is a wonderful online resource at  http://www.equestriancoach.com/, created by well-respected horseman, Bernie Traurig.  The site provides video instruction by Traurig and many other fine riders.  A subscription fee provides full access to the site, and specific videos can be purchased individually.  This site is an extraordinary opportunity for riders and coaches to get important training and showing information from “the best of the best,” and I hope that many of you will seize this opportunity.

To show Bernie Traurig’s achievements in a worldwide perspective, I’m including his biographical information below:

Bernie is one of the few riders in the world to successfully compete on an international level in three disciplines—Show Jumping, Dressage, and Eventing.   As a Junior, Bernie won both the American Horse Shows Association Medal Finals and The American Society for The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Maclay Finals. He was a member of the United States Three Day Event team for three years and was second in the trials for the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Bernie has ridden many National Working Hunter Champions. Some of the more famous include “Gozzi,” “Royal Blue,” “Riot Free,” and “Circuit Breaker.” In  Dressage Sport, he was the winner of 15 Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special classes. He was short listed for the 1986 World Championship trials and the 1988 Olympic Games.  He is the winner of 48 Show Jumping Grand Prix. Bernie represented the United States Equestrian Show Jumping Team several times, including the 1982 World Championships in Dublin, Ireland.  He competed in six World Cup Finals, finishing fifth in Del Mar, California, in 1992 as the highest placing American rider, and eighth in Dortmund Germany in 1990. He was the winner of the US League qualifier for the World Cup Finals three times.

As many of you know, for several years I cared for an elderly friend, who at one point was “at death’s door,” but made a miraculous recovery. I was thinking about the various aspects of her care, and it brought to mind how the success of any endeavor—whether it involves a human or a horse—has to do with vigilance. It is the constant attention to all aspects that can make a critical difference:

Planning–You need to know what your goal is and consistently work toward it. This involves a broad plan that is broken down into logical steps. If circumstances cause the plan to change, you have to quickly orient yourself to the new situation.

Care–This encompasses proper nutrition, everyday attention to cleanliness, the correct approach to wound care, etc.  Whether it be horse or human you are working with, it is important to be as well-informed as possible. This involves getting advice from experts and doing some research on your own. Where the issue of care is involved, you must be very observant, monitoring even the smallest changes that indicate progress or a relapse.

Finances–Every decision must be made with a realistic view of the available financing. You always want to be thinking ahead to what things may cost and how you can have the needed amount of money available when the time comes.

Compassion–As the saying goes, “No one cares what you know until they know that you care.” You can have the most beautiful barn, the finest tack, and the most expensive horses in the world, but you won’t get far in this sport unless you can communicate your compassion to the horse. Once the horse knows from your quiet guidance that it can trust you, it will willingly give you all that it has to offer in performance.

Having noted these things, let me say that the life or death of my friend was in God’s hands, not mine; but I can honestly say that I did all that I could to help her, and a woman who was on a respirator with a feeding tube down her throat ended up riding a stationary bike in physical therapy two weeks later. Whether caring for a horse or a human, vigilance can make all the difference in success or failure.