When people begin, usually their horse falls into one of two categories.

1. The normal horse.

The normal horse, would be a horse with no immediate ‘problem’. He doesn’t buck or bolt, nap or rear, and does his daily tasks and riding to an acceptable standard. But there is room for improvement.

Do you lead your horse or does he lead you?

When you ride, is everything easy and soft, and you’re working together as a team or is there some confusion?

Can he stop or backup from the lightest pressure on the reins or do you pull each other around the arena?

Do your ideas become your horses ideas?

Can your horse perform the basic lateral yields (hindquarter, forequarter, sidepass) needed to soften his body & ribs and allow him to work correctly and stay balanced on a circle?

Can he work ‘on the bit’ without necessarily having a bit, and only a light contact on the reins or have you given up on ever doing some impressive flatwork?

Do you know whats going on in your horses head, and why he does things you don't want him to do?

Are you and your horse having fun together? Riding is meant to be fun! :)

Can he stay balanced over and in between showjumping and cross country fences?

Do you understand your horse well enough to work with him at liberty – (with no halter on him) only through body language?

For the normal horse, we always start at the very beginning. It's not so much what you do, as how you do it. You always have to bear in mind your horses perspective on everything. There’s a lot of watching, analysing and thinking involved, which really helps you to see and understand more about your horse, and to become a better horseperson.

2. The horse with a problem.

It’s not uncommon to have a horse with a behavioural problem. If the problem is serious enough, then the horse is known as a problem horse – maybe he bucks, bolts, rears, naps, or is aggressive to handle, etc. Often times, the logic when dealing with such as horse might be ‘make sure you’re the boss’. This can be dangerous as if you pick a fight with a horse its quite easy to end up in hospital. Also, you might need a different approach to solve the problem.

For the horse with a problem, solving the problem usualy involves more than using a whip. It involves figuring out what’s causing the problem, and addressing the cause, not the symptom. A horse can buck for lots of reasons. Maybe it has a sore back, sore teeth, had a sore back in the past and has now learnt to do this even though the cause is now gone, is ridden on a tight rein and so has a braced front end (think of riding a bicycle and using the brakes on the front wheel. Where does the back wheel go?), has an uncomfortable saddle, or has behavioural & respect issues. There are potentially lots of reasons, and so there are potentially many solutions, from veterinary, to saddle fitting, to retraining and psychological work.

Queensland Program.

The Queensland Program is a nice way to start for normal horses. There are a list of about 15 ground and ridden tasks, which will introduce to some of the basic horsemanship concepts, improve your understanding of equine behaviour & psychology, and improve your effectiveness as a teacher from being quick to reward a try to knowing when to be patient and help your horse when you need to. Also, each task in level 1 is a performance related task. As well as changing the way your horse thinks about you, you’re also putting into practise the basic manoeuvres which the foundations of all performance related activities (dressage, western, polo, hacking, etc) are built upon. In other systems, sidepassing and lateral work might be seen as advanced moves. These are regarded as the basic building blocks which performance is built upon. The emphasis through is on softness, trust, respect, clear communication, fun, flexion & teamwork.

QNH Level 1 or a PhD?

There is a huge amount to learn with horses, and you will never know it all. But the enjoyment you get from seeing your horse improve before your eyes, and the sense of achievement you get from challenging yourself to become a better horseperson is something hard to describe. When I was over in Australia in January, I was chatting to one lady who had a PhD in science and had just passed her Queensland level 1 exam.

Guess which certificate she hung up on her wall?