Head Lowering
Rusty is naturally fierce and intent. His concentration is great and when working on a task he is totally focused on that task. That said he is also silly and fun and can be totally relaxed. One friend here has been recommending it to me for ages. Watching another friend of mine use it to do a wonderful job of helping horses she is working with learn to relax made me think. It’s so much fun watching people who are out there working and helping horses and their people. Reading others opinions on how things should be done and going on about ideal working conditions, not so much.
The goal is to help horses calm down by teaching them to lower their heads. From this naturally calm position they take on the calmness implied by the position and relax. I understand it works for people too, you will be happier if you pretend to smile. Might be worth a try.
My problem with it comes from my strong dislike of head dragging western pleasure horses and my hatred of the recent trend in reining of horses dragging their noses on the ground. I like a Baroque style, up hill horse, working from behind with their hind ends under them. I didn’t want to throw my horse onto his fore quarters.
On the other hand. Collection doesn’t come from head position. I’ve long since stopped any attempt to set heads. Rusty curls way under at the slightest touch of halter or bit. Before we can round he needs to relax, calm down and not be so intense. We were seeing what he could do without reins. Not bridleless, his occasional tendency to throw in a buck rules that one out. We were mostly meandering aimlessly asking him to go one way or the other with my legs, he wanted to leave the arena and go run. It was turning into a particularly, and unusually, upset riding session I decided to finally put her example into play.
My horses all learn a grazing cue. They have for years, long before any +R stuff. I like them to be able to eat when we’re out riding but don’t want them pulling on the reins all the time. We started from the ground touching my hand to the base of his neck and clicking when he dropped his head. Then moved to the saddle, same thing. Touch his neck, click when he drops his head. First at a stop, then walk, finally a couple times at the trot. The cue will need to be changed to something that is not my grazing cue. I’ll have to ask if and what other people are using. It will be fun to practice this some more and see if this helps him not to be so fierce.