John Lyon, Horse Trainer & Clinician

How important is practice? Anyone that works with performance horses can certainly attest to the fact that practice is vital. What some people may not realize, however, is that practice is important no matter what you are doing with your horse. If you ask your horse to perform in a show ring, run on a racetrack, go on a trail ride or just lead to the barn, you expect a certain level of performance to accomplish the task.

In order to do anything with your horse, you must practice certain skills to reach your goals. This includes basic skills such as catching your horse, picking up feet, getting them to stand tied, dropping their head to put the bridle on or even loading into a trailer. There is always something you can teach or improve upon when working with your horse. In order to teach something new or to make improvements, you must be willing to practice enough in order to see the skill performed consistently. It is the prac­tice or repetitions that will greatly aid in the development of a successful performance horse.

Let’s take a look at what I mean by repetitions or practices. A repetition is practicing something one time; be it picking up a foot one time, putting the head down one time, change of gait one time or asking for one step backward. A repetition is one practice of a specific task.

How do you get the horse to do something consistently?

Training or any handling session is nothing more than asking the same question over and over again. Will you do this? Will you do this again? And again? etc. Ask over and over again until you are sure that your horse can give you the correct re­sponse as close to 100% of the time as possible. As we have mentioned in the past, the horse is a “conditioned - response” animal. Essentially, this means he learns by repeating a skill over and over again when the same condition exists. You set up a condition to develop a specific response to a particular cue. This also includes having some type of reward system in place when you see the correct response.

Earlier articles in this sequence have addressed how to get the correct response - how you ask for a specific skill. Previous topics that pertain to getting the correct response were: how to get the correct response by asking four important questions – motivator, spot, direction, reward; what motivates the horse; the use of the bit and the release of pressure; and developing your cues. Once you get the correct response, getting the performance consistently is another matter.

My goal is to get my horse to do what I want 100% of the time, every time. Is this really possible? Although, we know that neither the horse nor I will ever be completely perfect, you must always be thinking in terms of 100% performance because it gives you a goal to shoot for. Realisti­cally, I look for 95% - 100% of correct responses. When nearly 100% correct responses are seen I can then choose to do the following: 1) improve the quality of the performance/skill (lighter, quicker), 2) go on to the next step of the lesson or 3) quit for the day. The key is to see many more correct responses than incorrect responses in order to make the learning stick. If the horse were to pick up the correct lead 190 times out of 200 tries, you know you are heading in the right direction. But if the horse picks up the correct lead 5 times out of 25 tries, you know you have lots more work to do. Some people will think the horse knows the cue if the 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th try done correctly. Although, this may be where you want to stop in the lesson for the day, the horse still has not performed the skill more times correct than incorrect. Be sure to count your repetitions. This will help you see if you are heading toward 95% - 100% performance.

I often get asked, how much is enough practice? I have found that there is no magical number of practices for any particular exercise or horse. This goes for any one training session or repeated training sessions. You will often hear me say - “If he knew it, he would do it.” This is a good rule to live by. This eliminates the guesswork as to whether or not your horse needs more practice on any one skill. Sometimes horses need repeated prac­tice over a long period of time. You can expect to review anything when the performance gets rusty.

Keep in mind that it takes at least 3,000 practices or repetitions to change a habit. It takes 15,000 practices for a new habit to become consistent (these are approximations). When you think of athletes and how much they practice the basics, these numbers become more realistic as they relate to performance from a horse.

Let me give you three considerations before you start to teach something or improve upon a skill. How much you do in any one session will depend on the following:

• Your horse’s mental state - before you begin your practice sessions, have you suc­cessfully taught the horse so that he understands what you are asking. Was your teaching process clear? Your horse must be able to mentally connect the cue to what you want him to do. When you start you may see that he gives you the correct answer only occasionally. If so you must immediately reward him.
  
• Your horse’s physical state - is your horse physically capable of withstanding the workload you are about to put him through? You must work your horse within his physical limitations. Never work a horse until he is sore or overly fatigued. If you are working your horse and are not sure if what you are doing is too much for him, it is time to stop. Never work through a doubt. Some exercises are obviously more strenuous than others. For example, exercises that require collection of the horse are strenuous. It is your respon­sibility to know the difference. Pay particular attention to young stock. They cannot withstand near the workload as an adult horse.
  
• Your horse’s emotional state - is your horse performing consistently in the environ­ment that you have chosen? When your horse consistently gives you the correct re­sponse in an environment with the least amount of distractions, start to increase the distractions, little by little. The goal of the lesson should be that the horse would respond to your cue, regardless of the distractions around him. In order to expect that your horse will respond to your cues with distractions, you must introduce the distractions gradually. Practice the skill over and over again, then gradually increase the distraction again. When you can get a consistent response with distractions, you know that the horse has learned the cue and is responsive under those circumstances.

When saddling your horse for the first time, practice each step with many repetitions. Here it is important that the horse gets lots of opportunities to feel the pressure from the cinch.

When you are teaching or working to improve on something, know the specific per­formance you are looking for and then do not forget to reward appropriately. The reward will communicate, “Yes, that’s it!” and your horse should respond quicker the next time that you ask.