MORE John Lyons methods

[Horsestwo@aol.com]

Susan;

If you are really interested in the JL stuff you should consider getting his 
book "Communicating With Cues" part 1.  I don't know if part 2 is out yet but 
the book covers all the training articles from all the Perfect Horse magazine 
issues since the beginning.  It covers in more detail than I can possibly 
type all the philosophy and all the methods he uses for training horses.  
Don't overlook the importance of ground work (round pen, leading, WESN) to 
help teach things that you will be using under saddle.  Even if you don't 
think it pertains to saddle work you are getting the horse used to learning a 
lesson, being rewarded and generally having a positive relationship with you.

When you say he pivots, is he stopping forward motion and turning (pivoting) 
on his front foot?  That would be moving the hindquarters around the front 
end which is the same as swinging his hips.  Or is he stopping forward motion 
and rolling back on his hindquarters?  It doesn't really matter but as I 
learn more JL stuff I have found I need to pay attention to what part of the 
horse is actually doing the moving.  You can eventually teach a horse to move 
a specific body part with the rein so you have to know if he is swinging his 
hips or moving the shoulders, etc.

You can't wait until the horse is in the middle of a spook to regain control. 
 If you have taught give to the bit and he is very responsive practice in an 
arena or some place you feel safe and there are few distractions.  Make sure 
he knows the cue to speed up and slow down within each gait and with 
transitions between each gait.  Practice spiraling in and out on a circle.  
Be sure you can get a good stop without having to pull back hard on the 
reins.  Remember that the reward is the release of pressure on the rein(s).  
Get him lighter and lighter.  Then when you go back out on the trail practice 
the EXACT same things and don't treat him any differently.  Use the EXACT 
same cues in the EXACT same way and expect the EXACT same response.  My JL 
certified trainer, Jean Franzmeier, likes to say "The same thing only 
different" meaning it may be a different location or with different 
distractions but the everything else is the same.  Your focus should remain 
the same...is the horse performing what I asked him to do?  If you were 
asking the horse to move one step to the right while riding down the trail 
and he thinks it's more important to look at something on the left you know 
he is blowing off your request.  If you are 100% sure you have taught him 
that cue then you can apply enough pressure with the rein (NEVER with a jerk) 
to get him to take that step with a nice give to the bit.  Give him jobs to 
do as you are out riding, practicing everything you have taught him in an 
arena.  Don't let the trail suck the training out of your horse, use the 
trail riding to perfect all the moves you taught.  You will have the horse's 
attention when you pick up the rein and the horse gives you the attitude of 
"Yes, what would you like me to do now?"  It is the GREATEST feeling in the 
world.  

I went from having a very head strong horse who was always on his own agenda, 
with whom I always fought, to a willing, calmer, more responsive horse, whom 
I always get to praise.  He still gets excited but I am picking up on his 
body language sooner and getting his attention back by giving him something 
to do.  It's calming to the horse because I am saying "can you do this small 
thing that we've done a hundred times before?" and he gets to say "yes".  
That's what I mean by a "yes answer" question.  The horse can get it right 
and get a reward (release of pressure) when you've taught it and done 100s of 
repetitions.  I'm not changing my cues or my body language or my rewards just 
because I'm on the trail or because there is a crowd or a barking dog or 
whatever the distraction.  Also, when something does jump out and get him 
excited he can calm down quicker because in all our training he has gotten 
excited 100s of times and calmed down 100s of times.

JL talks about being an "active" rider vs. a "reactive" rider.  Active means 
asking your horse to be doing something on your agenda NOT reacting to 
something the horse just did.  Try to be 2 or 3 seconds ahead of your horse 
in his thinking.  Pick up on the body language: are the ears pricked forward 
intently? can you feel him bunching up ready to explode? is he tense and 
stiff?  The best way to determine if you have his attention is to ask for 
some simple thing such as rating his speed and see if you get instantaneous 
response.  When you get those responses you can head off the "stop and whirl" 
kind of spooks.  Safer, calmer and more responsive.  Those are the reasons I 
have stuck with and will continue to learn the JL methods.

Melanie in AZ


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