Mastering the Foundations of Stockman’s Challenge: Essential Groundwork Techniques

with Lynda and Wayne Field

The foundation of all riding comes from the groundwork you do before you are in the saddle. The horse must understand pressure and release while staying soft, and we, as the rider, want to be able to control the shoulders, rib cage and hindquarters, in all disciplines but especially in stockman’s challenge.

“We don’t ever tell them; we show them,” so building an understanding of these fundamental basics helps. This will, in turn, help with your leg-hand coordination and what each means, and eventually you will be able to ask for these exercises with no pressure and very minimal aids in a soft and calm manner.

In this article Wayne is demonstrating foundational exercises with his horse Calypso, an 11yo Australian Stock Horse gelding, who Lynda and Wayne have trained. “Calypso came with no prior training, but he is now considered an established challenge horse with 5-6 years of success,” says Lynda.

Reminder: Think slow! Make your actions slow, don’t rush. We don’t want to be pulling at our horse’s mouth or jamming them up. We want everything to flow with rhythm and softness.

1. Flexion

The above image demonstrates asking the horse to flex to the left. Stand facing the horse with your right hip approximately where your leg would sit. With your left hand (the hand closest to the horse’s head), pick up the rein and pull it gently up towards the pommel of the saddle; here, it is best to rest your right hand on the wither of the horse so you can stay close. Once flexed, soften the contact, and ideally your horse should stay flexed around towards their shoulder - you should not have to hold them in this position. Repeat this to the right, with your left hip at the girth and asking them to bend with your right hand.

Here we aim to have the horse soften their head to the contact without moving. If they do move, then just hold the contact to the direction you are flexing until they stop, then release once they soften.

2. Moving The Hindquarters

Once you have the flexion down pat, you then progress to moving the hindquarters. Start by flexing your horse; once flexed and soft, gently ask your horse to move his hindquarters away by putting pressure on his side where your heel would be if you were riding. Once your horse moves away from the pressure, immediately release the pressure to reward them.

With this exercise, we want the inside hind leg (the one closest to you) to step across and in front of the outside hind. But remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day, so don’t ask for a lot of steps; ask for one step and then work your way up to moving the hindquartes 90 degrees. It is most important for the horse to stay bent and soft while stepping across.

TIP: You can use the butt of a whip on his side if you require more direct pressure, but the aim would be for the horse to move off a slight touch with your hand.

3. Following The Direction

Face the same direction as your horse, and with your left hand and thumb facing down, grab the left rein close to the bit. Lead and walk with your horse in a small circle, with your body facing the direction you are going and your left arm guiding the horse around. If required, you can use a whip in your right hand to encourage the horse forward, as again, we don’t want to be dragging the horse around. Once you have walked half a circle or more, stop moving your feet and let the horse continue to follow your left hand around the circle until it is out to the left side of your body. From here, disengage the hindquarters by twisting your wrist so your thumb is now facing upward, and with this, your horse should flex in and move his hindquarters away so he is now facing you. Once the horse is facing you, ask the horse to step back a couple of steps by keeping your hand in the same position with your thumb up and pushing the rein closer to the horse. Again, these are all done with the least amount of pressure possible.

4. Flexion Under Saddle

The same principle applies under saddle as it does on the ground. You want the horse to stand still and be able to flex his head around to your boot. Ensure you do not have any leg pressure on, and that your outside rein is loose with no contact; otherwise you will block the horse from being able to flex. The only rein that should have a connection is the rein that you are asking the horse to soften to. For flexion to the left. Sit centre in the saddle, loosen your connection in the right rein, open your left rein and pull your shoulder back so your hand goes down towards the back of your leg. Once the horse is flexed and standing still, we want to soften the left rein; ideally the horse will stay in the flexed position and not move. Repeat this on both reins.

TIP: It is very important that you do all these exercises an equal amount of times on both reins. The horse must be equally soft and responsive.

5. Moving The Hindquarters Under Saddle

As per disengaging the hindquarters on the ground, start by asking your horse to flex, and ensure your horse is soft in this contact and not moving. Once this is achieved, apply pressure with your leg on the side that you are asking the horse to flex, while still holding flexion; this leg should be back just behind the girth on the rib. As soon as the horse moves away from your leg, take the pressure away and release the movement. Just like before, we want the inside hindleg to cross over and in front of the outside hindleg. The idea with this exercise is that the horse only moves his hind legs. Therefore if the horse begins to bulge through the outside shoulder (the opposite side to the pressure), you need more bend. If the horse continues bulging, you may require some outside rein to stop this movement. If this doesn’t improve, return to disengaging the hindquarters on the ground. Tip: If the horse doesn’t move initially, keep applying the pressure until they do. Ensure you don’t pull your hand across your body.

6. Standing

Standing still is an important tool, but one we all forget to train. We want to be able to stand quietly on a long rein, with our horse calm and soft.

To practise this, think of putting your horse in a box. Put your horse in the box and relax your connection and allow your horse to stand. Start small though, only ask your horse to stand approximately 30 seconds - 1 minute at a time then slowly increase. If, within this time, they move any part of their body ouside the box, correct this movement and ask them to stand, don’t panic if it isn’t in the exact same position as before. Create a new box and start again. Once they have stood quietly for a short amount of time, ensure you reward them by taking them for a walk. We want the horse to realise that standing still is their time to relax.

7. The Backup

Think of your horse in the same box as above, but this time think of the walls of your box being gates. When we ask the horse to back up, we will open the back gate and leave all the others shut.

To do this, pick up both reins until you have a connection and ask the horse to step back. You may need to apply a little bit of leg to encourage them to move their feet. If they walk forward, gather more connection in a way to shut the front gate. The second the horse steps, soften your hands and remove all pressure and just let the horse stand for 10 seconds before asking again. Work on one step at a time.

If the horse goes above the verticle, ask them to flex to the left and right a little to help them find softness and drop their head. But remember, any sign of release give them a pat, tell them they are amazing. Horses feed off rewards, but your timing must be right.

If the horse is fading to the right, ask for a little bit of right flexion to counteract the crookedness, and if this doesn’t straighten him, use your right leg to move the hindquarters over. If you’re still having trouble going backwards in a straight line, get out two poles and back up between them.

8. Moving The Shoulders

Moving the shoulders can be a little tricky, so be patient. Pick up, and open the rein to tip the horse’s nose towards the direction you are wanting to head (for this we will call it the inside rein), take your inside leg off and put the outside rein against the horse’s neck as a block rein. Drop your outside hip, which in turn will open your inside hip to allow the horse somewhere to go. Gently apply your outside leg, asking the horse to move away from the pressure. Ideally we are looking for the hindlegs to stay in place, while the outside front leg crosses in front of the inside front leg.

If the horse is having trouble understanding this motion, ask the horse to step backwards one step and immediately apply the above aids to move their shoulders over, which will also stop them from bulging forward into the shoulder. As we have mentioned before, ensure you start small and only ask for one step at a time.

TIP: Make sure you don’t cross the outside rein across your body.

9. Moving Off The Leg - Leg Yielding

The beginnings of a leg yield are best done on a large circle. Start by walking a large circle, then spiral in by closing your outside rein and outside leg to push the horse onto a smaller circle while continuing a forward motion. Similar to moving the shoulder, open your inside rein and leg to give them somewhere to go, but don’t lose your inside flexion! Once you have spiraled onto a small circle, ask your horse to spiral back out by closing your inside leg and inside rein. However, with this, keep the inside flexion. We want to make it clear that leg-on doesn’t mean going faster.

Once you have mastered the spiralling in and out, ask your horse to spiral out with less forward motion and more sideways; think about shutting the front gate by taking up more contact.

Now ask your horse to leg yeild in a straight line. Go along a fence and ask your horse to flex towards it, then yield two strides off the fence, then two strides back. Ensure you open the rein in which you are travelling and close your outside leg to ask them to move across. Once they do this, release the pressure and travel in a straight line. Don’t keep chasing them with hard leg pressure, as they will become dead to the aid.

To begin with, we ask our horse’s leg yield with flexion as it stops the horse from putting its head up. Once you have completed the above exercise a few times, try to leg yield with your horse straight (with very little flexion); think about it being just the tip of their nose. Remember, the perfect leg yield is when the outside leg crosses over and in front of the inside leg. TIP: Think about the gate analogy as used in step 7. Close all gates, but the side and front, and ask them to step outside the box. Remember to keep your hands wide; don’t cross them over the wither.

10. Backing Up Between Poles

Once you have the previous fundamentals down pat, you can begin using obstacles as seen at a stockman’s challenge.

The first we will talk about here is backing up between two poles. Firstly, start with the poles wide apart and simply walk through them in a straight line. Then stop, stand and settle. Once you can do this confidently and straight, walk into the poles by two strides, stop and then ask the horse to back up two steps out. Repeat this process by slowly increasing the distance you are asking them to back out, until eventually you can back the whole length.

Once you have mastered this, bring the poles closer together and repeat the same exercise. The aim is to be as straight as possible and not to touch the poles.

11. Side Passing Over A Pole

Same principle as what we have done with our leg yield, except it is almost easier as we have the pole in front of us as a block. To begin with, stand with the pole in front of you. Start approximately two strides in from the edge. Pick up and open the rein closest to the edge of the pole, close your opposite leg and rein and ask the horse to half pass towards the opening. Ask for one step at a time and reward by releasing the pressure and giving the horse a pat. Slowly build this up until, eventually, you can half pass the whole length of the pole with it in front of you (see exercises 1a, b and c below). Once accomplished, step it up a notch by stepping the horse’s front legs over the pole. Again, start just inside the end of the pole (exercise 2a.) and ask the horse to half pass so it is no longer over the pole. Increase the difficulty by asking for more half-pass steps until, eventually, you can half-pass across the whole length. The last and final step, which is seen in Open competitions, is where you park next to the pole and then half pass the whole length, removing the ability to step over it in the first place requires a lot of care, precision and control of your horse (exercise 2c.).

Wayne and Lynda Field, from Glencoe in the Lower South East of South Australia, specialise in Stockman’s Challenges and have won numerous challenges over the years. With a background in showing, polocrosse, clerking at trotting meets and starting young horses, the couple takes Challenges seriously, with dedicated training and education at the forefront of their success. Horse Deals is fortunate to share some of their challenge wisdom with our readers this month.

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