A member asked if we could do a discussion on the concept of 'zero brace' as she was having difficulties with her horse and especially grass diving... so hopefully this will give her some answers/direction and also help the rest of us too!
A simple search on the savvy club website box came up with a LOT of Q&A's (type in 'bracing' or 'grass'), so I picked some bits from there, but I also used my notes from an old savvy club dvd, which I will explain more about later. I also used notes I took from the 2011 Celebration in the UK.
Here are notes from SC questions on grass diving:
-when your horse is surrounded by delicious grass, of course he’s going to want to eat it, but then he gets punished for it. That’s like taking a child into a candy store and expecting him to have enough self-control to ignore all that candy. That’s a heck of a lot to ask!
- Allow some grazing time before asking for a horse’s full attention. By doing this now and then – but only when you invite it – you’re being a considerate partner and a firm leader.
- Be sure to give your horse permission rather than just letting him plunge his head down whenever he feels like it. Use porcupine game on his head for this.
- If you never let your horse eat grass while you’re riding, he’ll take every opportunity to lunge at the grass, even unseating a rider to get at it. But if you’ve proved to your horse that you’re not an unreasonable person, and that you’re considerate of his desires, he is less likely to resent you or resist your attempts to shift his behavior.- cause and effect relationships
- Plan of action: When your horse lowers his head, allow him to start eating without even touching the reins or rope, then smooch and lightly begin tapping his hindquarters, becoming firmer and firmer until his head pops up. Stop tapping right away and rub.- At first it may be a surprised reaction and his head may go right down again. Just repeat the smooch and progressively firmer tapping until his head comes up, then rub him again. Very quickly, a quiet smooch is all it will take to ask your horse to lift his head from eating grass.
- He will learn to graze when you invite him to, and to stand respectfully until you do. He’ll stop to think whether he’s been invited to eat before just hauling you off for a snack.
- He will learn to graze when you invite him to, and to stand respectfully until you do. He’ll stop to think whether he’s been invited to eat before just hauling you off for a snack.
- Be prepared to out-persist your horse on this.
- remember that it’s nothing personal. He’s been munching grass much longer than you’ve been asking him to stop.
- remember that it’s nothing personal. He’s been munching grass much longer than you’ve been asking him to stop.
- dont ask your horse to lift his head out of the grass unless you have something for your horse to do instead of eating. If your horse lifts it's head and says, "what?" and you say, "Oh, nothing, I just dont want you to eat grass," your horse will just go back to eating grass.
- To bring the attention away from grass, try setting up some barrels around the field with treats on the top, and play point to point. Once he gets the idea (and treats are usually more interesting than grass), he'll look forward to getting to that barrel, and you can practice your riding in between barrels. as time goes on you can decrease the amount of barrels.
And these are for bracing:
- Combing the rope underhand helps us stay soft and not give our horse anything to brace against.
- Use the '4 ounce' rule with riding as well as on the ground.
- If there is a brace in your horse while you are on the ground, it will not get any better when you are riding so challenge yourself to see how good you can get it from the ground
- There are two main reasons a horse will brace: emotional or physical.
- Emotional = fear and self defense.
- Physical = Struggles to relax muscles.
- Use the '4 ounce' rule with riding as well as on the ground.
- If there is a brace in your horse while you are on the ground, it will not get any better when you are riding so challenge yourself to see how good you can get it from the ground
- There are two main reasons a horse will brace: emotional or physical.
- Emotional = fear and self defense.
- Physical = Struggles to relax muscles.
- Game of 'zero brace' makes you slow right down and feel for the horse more and give the horse the confidence to feel more for you.
These are notes I made from Savvy Club DVD 52 (can be found in vault) on chapters 3 and 4 with Linda. They are not directly made for this particular problem but having used them myself I think they may be quite worthwhile trying (especially chapter 4!). I recommend watching the video as my notes will make more sense that way!
Chapter 3. 'Swing the shoulders'
- Lift suspension rein to bring the horse to the fence.
- The aim is to have him light,
- Don't pull down or back, go up.
- do it in walk, trot and canter, but keep it slow.
- Let him blow out and get loose.
- Suspension rein --> leg --> back to fence --> relax.
- Incorporate it everyday.
Chapter 4. 'Partial disengagement'
- This will help to relieve tension.
- Walk, trot + canter transitions
- Walk forwards --> tip his nose to the fence --> push on zone 3 (walk in an arc) --> hold rein steady. Don't release until he is soft for 20 feet.
- Focus where you are going the whole time (dont look down).
- Listen for the blow out - release of tension.
- Feel for the swing in movement.
- takes 20-30 mins to teach.
- Start making downwards transitions using just partial disengagement.
- Keep the bend after the transition to make sure he is soft.
- If the walk changes, bend again.
- Stay in walk as long as neccessary.
- Try it everyday.
Finally, these are notes I took at the celebration. Linda was playing with a RBI/LBE horse who had real trouble accepting a contact. He would rear and throw his head with any contact on the bit, so Linda set to work on acheiving 'zero brace'.
- Don't ride for today, ride for tomorrow.
- Match his energy.
- Give quick release when he has done good, no continuing pressure.
- Follow his movement, don't brace against it.
- Instead of steady pressure, use rhythmic pressure. So 'flop' around with his movement as if part of him. ket the reins be loose and 'shake' with movement rather than pull, so its uncomfortable for him to run into it, but theres nothing for him to brace against so his easiest option is to be soft.
- Give him a job to do to prevent overthinking and boredom!
And thats all I have. I'm sure there is more out there with some more searches, and maybe chatting to an instructor about the specific issue. I hope this helps though!!
Hope you enjoyed, as always any ideas you have or BFO's please comment or message me! Also, if anyone here has a burning idea for a post and would like to write it themselves just let me know!!
Ideas for future discussions always welcomed.
Do let us know if you got to try this out with your horse how it went!
Bye for now, see you next time!
All together now...
SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVVY!! *clap*
