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Leading

- by Shane Ransley

Leading is  an area  it's easy for people  to become  unconscious of the horse’s body language and develop many of the good or bad habits  that will show  up in riding.  When you have your halter on the horse, you may have the physical horse but have you got the non-physical part?  The part that can over-rule the physical qualities of a horse.

  Often people will  walk  in front of a horse,  dragging its weight  onto the forehand,  even if there is no actual physical  pressure on  the lead rope. Just as bending down to beckon a dog will draw the dog, so too will walking unconsciously in front of the  horse’s shoulder tend  to encourage  them to lean on that shoulder, which  when it comes to riding is  an undesirable habit,  one that needs to be avoided.

  Before any horse has a halter put on, you should be able to move them backwards then forward from behind the wither, either by waving your arm or tapping them and be able to turn left and right at the walk and  trot with a  rope  loosely  around  the base of their neck.   Young horses  have no need for a halter at all except to learn to  brace against humans!   With halters and bridles, if you rely on them as your only form of  control then you  shouldn’t have  them on at all  and should get onto the  Quantum Savvy programme  as soon as possible.  We’ll help  you get  your skills up.   If you are skillful  enough to teach  a young  horse to lead  properly with  a halter on,  you will be skillful  enough to teach them to lead with  a neck rope  first. (For those of you  in our program  the neck  rope is  covered in  Level 2.)

  Although it is important when leading with a halter that the horse yields to the halter, it should not to
be used  to pull on the  horse's head.  Just as it is often confused  that rein positions are to do with the
reins,  (rein positions are more  about your body  position than the  actual use of the rein)  so to is the
use of the halter confused when leading the horse.

  When leading, the  horse should be learning to be  influenced by your body  movements in much the same as you would  develop light  reins when riding.  Not by merely pulling  on the halter or walking in front of the shoulder  (causing the horse to develop  negative muscle memory  by drawing the horse's shoulder toward the handler).  Proper leading  should develop  softness and  self-carriage throughout the horse's movement.   It is common practice  in many good training  facilities to drive  young horses from behind before their first ride and this would benefit all horses if this practice is continued throughout their education as good leading is a great opportunity to develop this skill.

This Article was written by Shane Ransley for Quantum Savvy