Put an End to Tug-of-War

Rather than get into a game of tug-of-war with the black horse, John decides to establish the basics of giving to the bit from the ground first. The horse immediately starts to respond.

You distinctly remember buying those reins. You're sure of it. Yes, you pondered about the length, how they'd feel in your hands, and how they'd look with your bridle. Yet, every ride, you find yourself arguing with your horse over who owns them-him or you.

We want to reverse that situation. It's the classic tug-of-war game, and it's getting old.

There are two facts that are good to face up front. First, your horse may always have a tendency to lean on the bit. Horses seem born to pull. Second, training or retraining the horse won't permanently solve the problem unless you condition yourself not to let the reins slip through your fingers.

Here's how it works. Your horse reaches the end of the rein and he leans on the bit slightly. You open your fingers, allowing about an inch of the rein to slip through. You may have done it inadvertently, or perhaps you were concerned about hurting your horse's mouth. Either way, the horse learned that by pulling, he can get you to ease the rein tension.giving to the pressure. It's not a complicated lesson, but it does require a lot of concentration on the part of the rider.

A Post Doesn't Give
There's an exercise I use when I'm doing symposiums, and it's quite effective in teaching about pulling and giving. I blindfold a volunteer, and give him one end of a lariat rope. Then I tie the other end around a stationary object, like a post holding up the covered arena. I tell the person that he's the horse and his mission is to get the "rider" to release the pressure. He doesn't know whether the "rider" is a person holding the other end of the rope or if it's tied to something.

At first, the volunteer will go to the end of the rope and put light tension on it, just feeling it out. When it doesn't give, he'll lean against it, sometimes even laying his whole body weight against it. When that doesn't work, he'll use a series of jerks, trying to snap the rope free. Then he'll try a combination of pulling and jerking, resting a moment, then launching his whole being into getting that post to move. The audience is always amazed.

Some volunteers give up right away. They test it, determine they can't get the rope released, and they quit. But others work at it for a long time, sure they can move the object that the rope is attached to. In fact, when I ask them if they're ready to quit, they often say they think it moved a little, so they want to keep at it. Eventually, when they reach the conclusion that the post won't give, they quit pulling. When I remove the blindfold, we all have a good laugh about the post they thought they moved.

The moral of the story is that when the volunteer became convinced that pulling didn't release the rope, they quit pulling. And that's what will happen with your horse, too. When he learns that despite his various efforts, you're not releasing that rein, he'll quit pulling and try something else.

One of the options he'll try is "giving" toward the source of the pull, and magically, the rein will release. Your job will be to convince the horse that your end of the rein is attached to an immovable post, so he's the one who has to give.

This is the same theory that some trainers use when they tie horses to a snubbing post. The horses pull and pull, and eventually quit pulling when they can't get free. The theory helps us, but we do not recommend that method of teaching a horse to stand tied, because many horses hurt themselves before they give up.