Creating Work Ethic

One of the biggest things that I wanted to make sure I was developing in TC when I took him on as a project was his work ethic.

I struggled for a long time with Rico in this department. Rico just didn't want to work for me. This could be seen in his laziness, in his lethargy, even in the way that he looked away from me when I came in his stall. Such a lazy horse, I wanted something that wanted to work. I thought I had to buy the work ethic or luck out with it.

Then I read this damn book, Academic Horse Training, which I keep mentioning but don't link to, so I'm sorry. And I realized that the problem wasn't that TC inherently has a better work ethic than Rico, work ethic doesn't exist in the way we think about it in horses. Horses respond to reinforcement. Instead of blaming it on Rico being inherently lazy, how about we flip the table.

Not lazy, just had a crappy rider for a while

I gave Rico no reason to want to work for me. I would use my leg, he would go forward, and instead of letting him, I got nervous and pulled on his face or I got off balance from his big gaits and pulled on his face. Soon he thought maybe leg does not mean go, so I got spurs and poked him, the same thing happened. Soon he learned to ignore my leg.

I put pressure on him to do things that he wasn't ready for and then got intimidated or didn't have the balance to support him in them. I didn't reward him, certainly not in the way the horses like to be rewarded in (primary reinforcements = scratching on the withers, which lowers heart rate, and food). And I made work hard for him to do.

Rico was lied to. Rico was told that he was bad when it wasn't his fault. Rico was put in bigger bits by my trainers and I was told that this was because he didn't "respect" the snaffle. Rico was made to do work that was hard for him because I skipped the basics and I didn't often know what I was doing. I wasn't doing any of it on purpose, I had no idea how to create work ethic.

He and I did have a really good relationship by the end <3

Like with this guy, I might look annoyed
but the reason why he's looking at the camera
is because for all of his shows the first year, I
had people come up to him after he did his test
to make a big fuss over him. Result: loves
showing, um... a bit too much

In my current office environment, I have two supervisors. One makes me want to work for them. They make work fun and every meeting we have together I leave laughing and feeling valued at the office. More times than I can count, this person has sung my praises in front of other people, offered to buy me coffee, and when I make a mistake, I'm not afraid to talk to them about it. I find myself thinking "how can I make so-and-so's day easier," I find myself doing stuff I wasn't asked to do. I have brought this person beer a few times because they let me know that the brewery my brother works for is their favorite.

The other supervisor isn't mean or rude or terrible to work for at all. I have never been yelled at, told I wasn't a good employee, or really had any negative experiences with them. But the job is very much just a list of things they want me to do and my only reward is my paycheck and a relatively rare thank you. And that's totally fine. But when this person asks me to do stuff, I don't jump at the opportunity. Never have I wondered what I could do to make this person's job easier or even really gotten to know or care about them all that much (I mean I'm not a monster, but if/when I leave this job, I will not be staying in touch with them). When I make a mistake, I'm a lot more nervous about approaching them about it, even though I don't tend to get too much of a lecture.


So when I'm riding, I think now about being the sort of rider the horse wants to work for. Work is fun, work is easy, I am appreciative of my horse's work, even if it's not perfect. When he makes a mistake, he doesn't get punished, I break things down to elements that he understands and try again. And it has been AMAZING how much I love riding so much more. I literally NEVER fight with this horse. Ever. Period. No beatings, no fights, no "showing him he can't get away with that," nothing.

In contrast to Rico, TC comes out and knows that every day he will be successful. That I will give him clear aids and give him scratches and breaks (and sometimes clicks and cookies) when he is a good boy. I'll never ask him for anything I'm not 100% sure I'm asking for, and I will never ask him to do anything that I'm not 100% sure he can do. TC is very rarely lied to. He knows that every time I move, I am asking for something, so he never "ignores" me. Because I have never told him anything that he has then been told by me to ignore.

Sometimes enjoying his work makes him act like a basilisk

So every time I ask TC to do something, I ask myself what I want out of him and evaluate if he's ready and if it's appropriate to be asking. If he can't do it easily, if it takes me too much pressure/force, if it inspires me to want to slap another bit on him or stick him in draw reins, he's not ready yet. I need to break it down further. I need to build his strength better. I need to reevaluate my own riding and aids.

Putting on movements should NOT be a fight. If every time the rider asks for a new movement, there's a fight, the horse will immediately get nervous/tense/defensive/angry when asked something new. That's not something I want him to learn, I want him to be curious and excited for another opportunity for praise when I introduce a new movement.

I ask myself what aids I am using to convey this information to him. Am I forcing him into the movement or am I aiding for it? I also ask myself if I am in a position where I can seamlessly transition from what we're doing now to what I'm aiding for him to do. If I ask him to trot am I going to get left behind? If I'm punishing him for doing what I ask, I'm lying to him. And it's going to be really quick for him to learn that I don't really mean it when I ask for things.

I ask myself what will he earn when he does it right, and sometimes it isn't a big long break with lots of scratches and sugar. Sometimes it's a "good boy" that I pair with a small scratch on the neck, sometimes it's just a change of what we're doing to something else with a release of pressure. And yeah sometimes it is that big reward with scratches and snuggles and cookies or clicks. It's amazing how enthusiastic he is about going back to do that movement again after a big reward like that. I've been using it to put our halt and rein back on and it's been coming on extremely fast.

So many pets, I love that he smashes his ears forward when he
is happy :) 

There's no harm in breaking something down further, there's no harm in taking a little longer to explain a concept. There is no harm in taking another few months to build up the horse's strength so they can physically do what is asked of them. 

There IS harm in pushing a horse beyond what they can do strength-wise, they will stop trusting the rider to have their backs when asking for something. There IS harm in slapping on a leverage bit or a double too early, they will not trust the contact and will give a false feel to the rider who will then push them too far too fast. There IS harm in being an unbalanced rider, this rider cannot stay with a horse and will be more likely to lie to the horse.

Changing the way we interacted is the number one reason why
we ever got to the GP level.

People are so quick to decide that their horse has a poor work ethic. I definitely was like that. Instead, answer the question: if you were the horse in this situation, would you want to work for you? What is the incentive? What does the horse get out of it?

If it's only to avoid punishment? It's not good enough. That doesn't inspire the kind of harmony that doing this sport well requires.

Rico came so far in the last few years when I stopped riding with trainers who encouraged me to fight with him. From my first lesson with the new trainer on my barely Fourth level horse, Rico and I debuted at Grand Prix eighteen months later. It's amazing what I was able to get out of him when I stopped fighting with him and started working with him. I can't wait to see how TC develops from such a low level with this mentality.

With Joy

Tuesday I went out to ride TC before heading to the dentist (late, sorry dentist) to get a filling refilled. I wasn't too enthused about it, but at least I got to ride. I always try to make my appointments be around 10am so it doesn't make sense for me to go into work before hand, meaning I get extra horse time.

Freshly dragged arena!

I've been focusing so much on how my riding has changed that I really haven't talked much about TC lately, but TC is doing super well. Both of us are really loving the spring weather... in February. I'm not complaining in terms of riding, but I am annoyed that it's been too warm to get pho or tofu soup (though I did finally break down and go to my favorite Korean place with Kate on Monday and get tofu soup, even though I was kind of sweating the whole time while eating it).

TC had Monday off and that was good for him. I know he needed it because he came out ready to work but not crazy on Tuesday. We walked around the ranch and I saw that one of the outdoor arenas was open and it had just been dragged! Yes!

We haven't been able to ride outside much, surprisingly. The arenas tend to open soon enough after rain, but then don't usually get dragged until a few days later (because if they got dragged right away, they'd be a soupy mess). TC was overdue for shoes so I have been avoiding riding in anything but absolutely perfect footing. But Tuesday we had perfect footing outside, so instead of walking back to the covered, we went into the outdoor.

I was expecting TC to be a nut, but he actually buckled down to work pretty well. He hates this one long side of that particular outdoor, despite that he literally walks on the other side of it every single day on our walks. But he just kept an eye on it while we worked. I'm fine with that, he can look at whatever he wants as long as he's staying with me.

EVERY TIME, please don't itch my very old
bridle, TC! It needs to last another season or two

We warmed up in trot and he immediately felt really good in the bridle. He's really learning how to reach for the bridle in a more solid way, and my leg now means that he steps even more into it instead of just going faster. He gives a really cool feeling in that work and it's just so fun!

We're still really struggling with the left side. It makes sense now, since I'm so unstable that way in comparison to the right. Luckily for me, I think it's actually his easier side, so as long as I'm really focused on my left oblique staying strong and me bearing down, he's quite good. It's when I let things slide out of alignment that he starts to fall apart.

So to the left, we were walking after a break and I got really prepared to trot him. I plugged in with my right seat bone, I shortened my front line, I focused on my bear down, put him way into the bridle, then asked him to trot...

and he squealed.

He didn't do anything but pick up a trot, a really lovely trot over his back. He normally squeals when he's having too much fun, like when we're cantering and he sees a bird shadow and is like FUCK YES MUST POUNCE or when he's trotting and I ask him to canter and he's just so beside himself because he REALLY WANTS TO CANTER. But a walk to trot transition? Really, TC?

Thinking about itching his face but instead just
sniffing his saddle pad, good pony

It reminded me of a post I wrote back in May of last year about TC being a party animal. That post was based off of a conversation I'd had with Kate about how expression in dressage could be elicited by either play or fear responses. Here's a quote if you don't want to read it all:

Dressage is all about enhancing the natural movements of a horse, and these movements come out in two different situations in the wild- when a horse is playing and when a horse is scared. I've seen TC cover some serious ground in an extended canter when he is afraid, I've seen him arch his neck and strike out at butterflies when he is playing. The idea of training then, is to incite this play response from the horse, rather than the fear response. It's easy to see in the horse's eye as they are working- are they expressive because they're having fun or are they expressive because they're scared.

I think that I could really go on and on about this idea since I've had some really interesting conversations with people about it... But perhaps later on. For now, I think that it was really fascinating to see TC find joy in even something as small as a walk to trot transition.

I think maybe that I've been low key blocking him in those and that it was a touch hard for him to comply with my ask when I'm a little bit in his way. So by taking away that block, he had a very clear path forward. And that plus a little extra energy on a warm sunny day meant that when I asked him to trot, he might have been feeling like HELL YES I CAN DO THIS and squealed.

He came way over his back like he was arching his body to strike out at a butterfly. But instead of being ridiculous, he picked up a big powerful trot. And I stayed with him as I've been working on lately and he maintained it until I started slipping out of my position. Poor guy, I probably deflated him.

I love ranch wandering

I just love how much this horse loves to work. We had another moment of excitement where he took off with me at the canter squealing and swapped leads. I went with it and we worked on the quality of the counter canter before transitioning to walk and picking the correct lead back up.

Obviously TC needs to not feel so much joy that he takes off with me or makes a bunch of noise, but I also feel like if I let him slowly develop out of it vs punishing him for it, he'll maybe keep that joy a bit longer. And I want him to think that dressage is the most fun thing ever, it's what is going to give him that expression in the show ring that I so want him to have, that I feel as though I have only ever achieved with force in the past. This time, I choose joy.

Party Animal

Wednesday morning I didn't have time to ride because I was heading down in the evening to ride my mom's possible future unicorn. I had about thirty minutes though, so I still went to the barn and threw TC in one of the giant grass turnouts. He mostly just grazed in there, but he really thought about not being caught by me when I came to get him.

Walking out he was a little high, so I put him on the longe line in the round pen and let him canter around and play a bit.

Wandering around after our Thursday morning ride

Thursday morning I had more time to ride, so that was the plan. I had in mind a conversation I'd had with Kate a few days before about a book/article/something she was reading. Hopefully she'll post more about it because it really hit home for me.

Dressage is all about enhancing the natural movements of a horse, and these movements come out in two different situations in the wild- when a horse is playing and when a horse is scared. I've seen TC cover some serious ground in an extended canter when he is afraid, I've seen him arch his neck and strike out at butterflies when he is playing. The idea of training then, is to incite this play response from the horse, rather than the fear response. It's easy to see in the horse's eye as they are working- are they expressive because they're having fun or are they expressive because they're scared.

We can dig way into it and compare it in different horses, but I want to focus on what this meant for TC and I.

I think I took the fun out of dressage for him a bit- too much pressure and not enough fun. He really thinks that dressage is the most fun thing ever, and I think that's because I find it fun and was always babying him a bit with it- not too much pressure and lots of praise. When he started to grow up, I stopped bothering him so much with praise and put more pressure on. He still felt amazing in the bridle and over his back, but I could tell that he was a lot more focused and working rather than having fun. That's fine, life isn't always going to be fun. But I want him to mostly think his job is fun, and I certainly don't want to push him to a place where he thinks it's NOT fun, because this horse is a party animal.

Trying to get a conformation shot

I wasn't sure what to do though. He's been better every day that I ride him, but I'm still struggling with things that were very easy just a week ago (mostly the canter). We're improving rapidly enough where I think this is all mental for both of us, which is good. I'm still going to get the saddle fitter out, he has a 4 day vacation next week, and we're not hauling out until mid June.

But I don't really know what he finds fun. I rode him on Thursday morning determined to find out what made him happy about working. We did lengthenings, leg yields, transitions, everything I could think of that he wasn't resistant about. He did them just fine, but just seemed to be trucking along like normal.

Hmmm. The only thing I knew for sure that this horse loves beyond all else (well, maybe not cookies) is praise. So I started telling him how great he was every other step, stopping here and there to pet him and make a big deal about him. And wow the difference. He completely changed under me. He was much more expressive and so much rounder without me having to do anything. He was straighter- this week he had been being quite wiggly. He was a lot more tolerant of corrections if they were preceded by and followed by praise.

By the end of the ride he was FOR SURE having a blast. And I had a giant lightbulb moment as we were walking around the ranch. The horse doesn't love dressage because it's dressage, he loves dressage because I love dressage, because I was so excited to do it on him. Because every time he surprised me by being naturally good at something, I would celebrate with him. He learned to love it because of me.

That's better

And with the focus turned to intricate little details and making sure that we get things right, and as I got used to the fabulous feeling this horse gives in the bridle and over his back (on my mom's potential unicorn, I like... struggled to get him on the bit at first because you really have to PUT him there, TC is just always there) I lost some of that awe that I had of him when he was coming back into work last year in rehab and this spring after our tough winter.

He isn't back to the place he was yet, we still have some rebuilding to do, but I think I figured out how to bring the fun back to dressage for him. Easiest behavioral fix ever. Incessant praise and lots of pets.