Be Your Best Horsemanship

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Activating the Thinking Side of Your Horse's Brain: Part II Jan 07, 2020

Show notes

The way your horse acts is a direct reflection of you. Even if you are working with just one horse, you are a trainer. Every time you work with your horse, you are establishing habits—good and bad.

Bad habits are reactive responses. Things like pawing, kicking up, or bucking occur when your horse engages the “reactive” side of its brain rather than “thinking” side. If your horse is doing these things when you get on its back, your horse is not ready to learn.

Too often, trainers who are struggling with their riding adopt the mindset of “I’ll fix it tomorrow.” But, this mindset only reinforces your horse’s reactive responses. You must be mindful of the signals you are sending your horse.

For example, in barrel racing—if you have a horse that has been going by the first barrel, you begin to anticipate this exact response. When you anticipate, you are starting to correct a problem before it even happens. Horses are smart animals, and they can feel the tension in your body when you begin to anticipate a problem. Often times, this tension is enough to flip the switch from the horse’s “thinking” side of its brain to the “reacting” side.

Your horse’s reactive state of mind is the number one thing that holds you back from progressing. When your horse adopts this mindset, it is controllable, but not trainable.

But, there is some good news—you, as a trainer, are capable of flipping the switch back and helping your horse engage the thinking side of its brain. When you control your temperament, you soften your mind, as well as your horse’s.

Activating the Thinking Side of Your Horse's Brain: Part I Dec 31, 2019

Show notes

When you have a weak link in your foundation, there will come a time where progress becomes incredibly difficult. There will be a point in time when getting to that next level seems nearly impossible.

When I was a young trainer, I used to believe that I was only training the horse if I was on its back. This mindset severely limited me from establishing a strong foundation with the horses I worked with. This was because I failed to understand the difference between how a horse thinks and how a horse reacts.

Horses have excellent memories for both good and bad situations. When they feel pressure in a situation, they have the choice to either think or react. Every horse has a “fight or flight” mechanism, and each horse is different in how they respond to this instinct. Horses that engage “fight” mode tend to push back and dominate the training session or display other negative reactions, such as pawing, rearing, kicking, or bucking.

These reactions are caused by the horse’s failure to activate the thinking side of its brain. As a trainer, you can help stimulate your horse to engage the thinking side of its brain long before you ever step up into the saddle. You use a combination of pressure and release to stimulate thinking and understanding. The key to this combination is that once your horse gives the response you are asking for, you have to immediately release. If you keep asking for more without a release, your horse gets confused.

You can apply pressure without ever touching the horse. Our presence in a horse’s stall can be enough to add pressure to some horses, especially young ones. Think about this — if you apply pressure on the ground and your horse doesn’t respond, how is that going to carry over when you are on its back? If your horse pushes back against pressure on the ground, what makes you think that they are going to move away from the pressure of your leg once you get on its back?

Your horse has to respect the space you are trying to create. When your horse develops respect, it starts to develop trust and understanding. When your horse feels pressure, it stimulates the horse’s thinking response. You use pressure to help the horse find release. The release is what you teach.

The ultimate goal is when you step in that stall, your horse immediately associates you with the thinking side of its brain.

If you are working your horse on the ground and you are the one moving your feet, they are training you. The objective is to have your horse move around you. This takes time and patience, but it is essential to developing a horse’s foundation.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the “Activating the Thinking Side of the Horse’s Brain” series, releasing in Episode 10 of the Be Your Best Horsemanship podcast.

Working Through Frustrations and Challenges Dec 24, 2019

Show notes

All of us are on a horsemanship journey where we learn a lot about horses and a lot about life. I remember very vividly the day that my journey changed. It was the day when I stopped letting my frustrations dictate my communication with my horse.

If you are experiencing a challenging time in your horsemanship journey, do an evaluation—look at yourself, look at your horse, look at what you’re trying to accomplish, and think about what transitions you are going to need to make to get there. What is the difference in where you are and where you want to be?Sometimes, all it takes is reinforcing a fundamental. But, it’s a process. You have to fix things one at a time.

How to Create Softness in Your Horse's Ribcage Dec 17, 2019

Show notes

If you attend one of my clinics, you’ll hear me talk a lot about keeping your horse soft in the face. While keeping your horse soft in the face is necessary in most disciplines, sometimes we forget about the other body parts that are connected to the horse’s face.

Your horse has five main body parts, and all five of those body parts have to be cohesive. Think about it like a piece of machinery. If one part is stuck, it usually impacts other parts of the equipment as well. The same is true with the anatomy of a horse. If your horse is not responsive to the pressure of your leg, it will get stiff in its head, neck, face, and ribcage.

If your horse tends to hang on your rein and drift down the arena when you’re loping a circle, this is a good indicator that its ribcage is stiff.

Stiffness causes a wide range of issues with a horse’s performance. In barrel racing, for example, a common issue I see at many of my clinics is when horses go by or dive into a barrel. When this happens, the horses’ hind quarters get strung out behind them and their backs become hollowed out. As a result, the only thing they can do to balance back out is to lunge forward.

One particular exercise that I do daily with any horse that I get on, whether it is starting a colt or riding a seasoned horse, is to soften them laterally and vertically before they ever take a step forward. When I step into the saddle, I immediately reach down on my rein and tip my horse’s nose to one side or the other. While its nose is tipped, I keep pressure against its ribcage and squeeze my horse forward so its front feet follow its nose. If I’m going to the right, I will still have some pressure with my right leg, but I will have more pressure with my left leg because that leg is what is keeping my forward motion. I’m going to keep my right leg against that horse because I want my horse to ride around my leg and to flex its ribcage around my leg. I want my horse to learn to balance on its hind inside leg, and my leg is going to become the pivot point. No matter the discipline, achieving that balance is one of the most fundamental motions a horse needs to be able to perform.

How Your Attitude Impacts Your Horse's Performance Dec 10, 2019

Show notes

Early on in my training career, I realized that the success of my day is heavily dependent upon my attitude. So, before I ever went outside to catch a horse, I had to stop myself and consider what I was allowing myself to think about. And, I had to decide if my thoughts were setting me up for a successful day of training.

Enjoying the Journey Dec 03, 2019

Show notes

In life, challenging times are inevitable. This is especially true if you are in the horse training business. You are going to experiences challenges each and every day. These are the little road bumps that can either derail us or empower us.

It is basic human nature be frustrated by a challenge. But, when you start to realize that challenges are what truly teach you the most, you start to view these struggles differently. Over the past 30 years as a horse trainer, I have come to realize that for this to be a rewarding career and for me to have the right mindset, I need to start enjoying the journey.

The journey takes up the majority of your time. The destination is a brief point in time where you reach the pinnacle of success. This point in time does not last very long before you have to reset and start again. In order to continue to grow and improve, it is essential to embrace a few features of the journey.

Investing in Yourself Nov 26, 2019

Show notes

If you are listening or reading along with today’s episode, you’re already making an investment toward improving your knowledge and understanding. You’ve probably heard the saying, “knowledge is power,” but this is true only if you apply that knowledge. When you begin sharing your knowledge and experiences with others, that is when you begin to make an impact. That is the point when you begin to use your knowledge to not only help yourself, but to help others, too. Investing in yourself doesn’t always mean going out and spending money to improve some aspect of your life. Investing in yourself is more about the process of gathering knowledge that you can pass along to others.

Understanding The Animal You Are Training Nov 19, 2019

Show notes

Training your horse's mind to think, and understand, the responses you are asking for, is the first thing you have to be able to do to train a top level horse in any discipline.

The Key to Success is Getting Started Nov 12, 2019

Show notes

Horses have taught me as much, if not more, than I have taught them over the years. When you are working with horses, you start to learn a lot about yourself, and you start to learn a lot about life. Many of the philosophies used to train a horse are applicable to every area of my life. Growth happens when you have an understanding that you are going to have failures and tough days. You have to put one foot in front of the other and keep trying. If you never quit, you’ll never fail.

Being Your Best from Foundation to Finish Nov 05, 2019

Show notes

"Be Your Best" is hosted by professional horse trainer and clinician, Phil Haugen. Inspired by his “1% better everyday" training philosophy, Phil explains the methods, mindset, and performance tips that drive continuous learning and growth in horsemanship, as well as in life. Join us each week as Phil shares his experiences over the past 30 years in the horse training industry, discussing the methods that have helped him bridge the language barrier between horse and rider to enhance understanding and performance from foundation to finish .

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