Curly Zeke, Part II Questions on Lateral Flexion

Just a couple days after I published the article on working on lateral flexion on starting Curly Zeke, my coming 4 year old QH gelding, I received a call from Laura who asked me some great questions concerning Zeke and my improvement/non-improvement and issues with him understanding a soft ask for lateral flexion. These question made me think on how I was approaching the whole thing as I had to explain it. While I really don't care what other people think of me,......wait,.....the FBI. I do care what the FBI thinks of me. Or the IRS for that matter. Anyway, I do care what my horses think of me and if I can do something better for them, I need to find that way. Here are her questions, my thoughts and answers to her, and some self reflection on what I could have done different.

How much do you accept? Meaning when I am asking a horse, in this case Zeke, for a soft give to an ask for lateral flexion, how much bend in his head and neck, giving to the ask, do I need from him before I stop that lesson to resume another day, and how much lateral flexion do I need before I can ride him?

I should only ask what he can give at the moment. Going into working with him, I should not have precoceived ideas on how much I watn that day from him. But I'm guilty on not following that. I went back to just asking for a few degrees or inches of flexion, then buildig on that, slowly. Its actually a faster way, but more importantly its more accepting to the horse. WHat also is so important, is the pause givbene between asks. Again guilty of getting in a hurry, so I have to cognizantly recognize that trait in myself.

Laura said she understood the idea of letting the horse find the release when giving to the rider asking for lateral flexion, meaning waiting on the horse to give and find the release, but is there a point when you demand a give such as with bumping?

Demand is a big word. Not really a good word or thought to use with horses. Maybe insisting on a try, but even the thought to try is sufficient. I think poor or fristrated horsemen have an instinct to pull hard. Evne worsea a jerk. While bumping has it's place it's best used sparlingly and differenty on horse to horse. When Zeke braces for an ask for lateral flexion to the left, he like other horses has a tendancy to fade to the right. Sometimes I'll switch to an ask for right flexion and use my right leg to get him back on his line. Sometimes, I'll bump just a bit on that left rein and sometimes I change the angle of the rein slighlty higher as to lift his shoulder and ask for the left leg to step out and forward and use my right leg to reinforce the ask for flexion. You'll just have to experiment with your horse, and even on another horse, do something different. Helping the horse untrack in his hind end as shown in the video below is good for both getting a horse to follow a feel for lateral flexion and to help him untrack his hand end.