When Push Comes To Shove

Lets face it... The horse industry, and we as horse people, have become obsessed with pulling! From the first riding lesson we take, we're taught the very basics.... "Pull the horse in the direction you want to go." "Pull the horse to stop." Then we progress to "pull on the bit to get a headset" "pull the horse to rate them towards a jump." Pull! Pull! Pull! The key to any horse's success in any discipline is momentum. Push!!

Pull is a foreign concept for a horse. Push is something they can understand. Ever try pulling your horse somewhere they don't particularly want to go? You against their thousand pounds isn't going to cut it. In this scenario, "pushing" by means of driving them forward from behind is usually much more successful.

Ever look out in the paddock and see your horse cantering around, perfect frame, round body, perfect lead changes? Then, we, the egotistical human, get on and think we need to train these things. Add martingale, draw reins, tie downs, and heavy hands, pull to make the horse have the headset we want. The best thing we can do for our horses is get out of their way, the rest comes naturally, as it does when their loose in the paddock. Push!!

I like to think of a horses momentum as a circle, when explaining why your horse needs to move forward to achieve proper frame. A horse is trotting... driving up underneath, then stretching out behind, with their legs. Energy travels up through the horses hindquarters, and over the top of their rump. It then travels across the top of the horses spine, lifting it up. From there it continues through the horses wither, round through the top line of the neck, and through the head to the mouth. And it all starts with pushing your horse forward. When the focus becomes on pulling the horses head in to where we want it, some strange shape of the body is formed that defies the laws of physics, and we achieve what I like to call "faking it." The horses back becomes hollow, stride shortens and becomes less smooth, and usually a tug of war ensues at the end of the reins. By instead focusing on push we ride our horse forward and "into" the bit, producing a naturally round body, smooth stride and supple mouth, all without ever touching the reins.

A good illustration of forward motion and circular momentum can be seen on the lunge line or in long lines. The horse enters the ring head up, looking around, acting silly, with a short choppy gate, sometimes even tripping. As the handler drives the horse forward a noticeable difference becomes evident. The horse begins to relax, stride and body elongate, back rounds, head and neck reach down and forward. This is usually followed by "Wow, that looks way more comfortable!"

So, get out of our horses way! They'll thank you with a gorgeous, smooth, and natural frame, that I guarantee yanking on draw reins will not.

Push!