This open connection we initiate feels like ‘higher bandwidth’ access to our horse. With this comes the second key: the opportunity for closer communication and to refine our use of our tools.
Conventionally a carefully timed release of pressure marks and highlights the desired response to reward the horse. Much can be achieved this way.
Let's take a simple example. Most of us learned to ask a horse to yield the hind-quarters by directing pressure towards the hip using a flag, or the end of the lead-rope – and the horse steps over.
How could that be a problem?
It's not, in the sense that the horse did what was asked. And horses are excellent at noticing the pattern of pressure and learning to step over to the tiniest suggestion.
All good skills have value. The quandry is about the feel of the request and how the horse experiences it and records it for the future.
Chase taught me to ask this key question:
- Did the horse follow the person's Feel?
- or anticipate and get ahead?
- or make a guess to avoid a promise of pressure?
- or "fill in" for the person around a lack of clarity in the presentation?
Why would it matter, you might be wondering, if the horse did as requested? It turns out, if we'd like to keep close communication flowing, it matters quite a bit. Anticipating, guessing and "filling in" all carry a feel and timing that aren't actually with that person.
There's a glitch in the connection - like static on a cell phone call. A small adjustment might restore close communication between you, or voices get louder as hearing gets harder - and often the connection drops.
That reminds me of a related question Chase nudged me towards, in the context of our simple stepping-over example:
- What does the horse experience as the reward?
We aim to reward by carefully dropping the pressure, like a hot potato, intending to mark clearly a correct response, the moment the horse steps over.
Now imagine you're the horse. You're probably aware of doing what was asked. The question is, how does the connection with the person releasing the pressure now feel - closer or more distant? Is the release of pressure felt as the reward, or does it feel more like a dropped connection?
It will be different at different times of course. Chase was responsive, yet particularly sensitive to this - he seemed to feel "pushed" away. Maybe it's like a person being what we might affectionately call a "literalist". How he seemed to feel about this had to be in the presentation. This was confirmed when I learned to make requests through release, without the preceding pressure, so it just felt like release. It was a major turning point for us. The quintessential pressure-release construct seemed to have felt to him more like a series of “connection hang-ups”.
I've met student horses that seek to be out of connection as if that's the goal - as though they've experienced that connection drop-off, linked to the release of pressure, and recorded for the future that the feel of that dropped connection is what is wanted.
Don’t Hang Up on Me!
When we add finer brushes to our art we find closer communication.
For example, we use a feel and timing on the rope that releases the horse forward or into a turn, without the dependence on preceding escalating pressure to release. It's a bit like holding a door open and ushering someone through, instead of pushing them!
This allows our Feel to go through the horse’s body to his feet, instead of at the body and at his feet.
