57. Spice the Right Brain Extrovert

As Spice is a right brain extrovert i have been doing some research on training techniques which are more appropriate for her temperament...I found the following article really useful...

DO:
✓Use a lot of consistency, it’s calming. For example,
circles are great and the more worried your horse is,
the smaller you need to make the circles. You could
also weave around barrels or buckets placed six-feet
apart. Frequent transitions also uses the principle of
consistency… keep doing one-rein transitions every
few strides, from walk to trot, until your horse refo-
cuses and calms down.
✓ Speed up, match the energy and add “four ounces.”
You need to be asking your horse to go more quickly
than he really wants to; this interrupts the fear pat-
tern. If you don’t feel safe and confident doing this
when riding, get off and do it from the ground. For
example, if your horse gets frantic and wants to head
to the arena gate, paces at the gate, etc., take him
there and get him to pace back and forth faster than
he wants to do it! Do it until he relaxes and be ready
to start again.
✓ Use longer lines when playing on the ground, it will
give your horse more drift. (22’ is ideal unless you are
good with a 45’ Line).
✓ Respect thresholds; use approach and retreat to over-
come them.
✓ Keep learning sessions short and simple.
✓ Relax when he relaxes. Until then keep your energy up
and get your horse busy.
Calming strategies: A Million Transitions; Small circles;
Tiny figure eights; Falling Leaf (1/2 circle changes of
direction while you walk forwards); Do what he wants,
only faster and smaller—“and then some!”


DON’T:
✗ Straight lines help a horse gather speed. You don’t
want this! Use straight lines only when your horse is
more self-controlled.
✗ Don’t hold him back; this increases fear. Give the en-
ergy a focus!
✗ On Line is better than Liberty if your horse is upset.
That way you can “hold his hand”. He’ll tend to get lost
and disconnected at Liberty.
✗ Don’t teach your horse more than one thing at a time.
✗ Don’t try to teach him when he’s upset or unconfident.
That’s the time to use calming strategies.
✗ Forcing him over thresholds usually results in
an accident.
Make it worse by: holding him back;
using stronger bits, tie downs, martingales, etc.;being
too soft and not matching his energy; not knowing
what to do – strong and focused leadership is es-
sential; blasting through thresholds; getting mad or
frustrated or scared.

So... when your horse has a Right-Brain reaction, you need to match it. Bring your energy up but in a positive directing kind of way and then use that movement big time... but not in endless circles. Get him to do a million changes of direction without making a full circle. You're going to need a lot of energy to do this because a horse in full Right-Brain mode is a force to be reckoned with. The worst thing you can do is try to stop him and the next worst is to send him in circles or try to be soft and calming. He needs to know your presence and feel your leadership in a positive way... you have to be bigger than the problem and direct all that fear and energy, not add to it. In this way he'll calm down. It may take a little time the first time, but every time after that it will take less until finally your horse will look to you before he overreacts. The real lesson however is... how can you set it up for success so he never has to go there.