Training in the Right Way: Repetition and Correction…

 Those words do not mean what you think they mean… at least not in the context of effective training. Here’s why.

Dressage training is supposed to be the process of training ANY horse to be a better riding horse. The more the horse learns, in theory, the easier it is to communicate with and therefore complete more complex tasks with. Although competition dressage training often is more focused on training for the dressage test, that is not what the original intention (and original judging requirements) were for competitive dressage. Initially, it was designed to give riders and trainers a way to determine how their training measured up to the theoretical ideal of the training process. That said, it is critically important to understand the meanings and reasons for some of the terms we use to describe dressage training and what to look for when observing training and competition (and videos and photos), regardless of whether you intend to compete or just train your horse to be a better whatever you do with him. That, ultimately, is the main purpose of my articles. To provide education and knowledge for riders to understand and improve their eye and understanding of what dressage training is supposed to be. While there will always be some differences in practice and theory, good horse training is always recognizable to the educated eye. That said, it absolutely is necessary that we remember and understand that limited knowledge is limited judgment.

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Most dressage riders have put a great deal of time and effort into learning how to ride, especially specific movements and how to put the horse on the bit. What most riders do not often get enough information on is how to train.

Often riders understand that every time we ride in the arena we are training. They may even recognize that every time we handle the horse, we are training it. And generally, when asked to explain what training actually is they often mention something about repetition and corrections.

Often just quietly stopping and standing and rewarding your horse is an extremely powerful training technique. Photo (c) Gwyneth McPherson.

To be fair, training is in fact both of these things, to some degree. The problem is that these concepts are often poorly misunderstood. Training is not about repeatedly correcting the horse. At least not effective training. All continual correction does is allow the horse to become even more proficient at whatever mistake he’s making and whatever his response to the correction is.

For example, if every time you ask for a flying change, your horse grabs the bit, lengthens his stride, and leaps forward, you will not teach him to do otherwise by simply pulling him up and asking for it again the same way. You need to be more creative than that.

For training to be effective, the rider must be in the mindset of thinking about what they are trying to create, instead of what they are trying to correct. Using the philosophy of positive riding means that the rider is always working to help the horse achieve the intended goal. The other approach is negative riding, which is when the rider allows the horse “fail” and then corrects him for doing it wrong. That’s about as useful as hitting your head against a wall thinking the wall is going to move.

When horses are shut down and do not want to go forward, teaching them something that makes them think about going forward, instead of forcing them to go forward, is more successful. Photo (c) Gwyneth McPherson.

Training is indeed a repetitive process. The fact is that the horse gets trained by doing whatever he repeats. The good part about this is if you commit to working your horse every day, he will become very good at what you are doing with him every day. The not-so-good thing about this is whether you can get the horse to repeat what you actually want him to do each day, as opposed to what you just “get” from him each day (this is where the creativity I mentioned earlier comes in).

The old saying of perfect practice makes perfect comes to mind, and usually riders think this is what I mean when I say that. What I actually mean is that the rider has to be able to know how much to ask for when they create the effect they are looking for and know how to help the horse maintain it. They also need to know what the right (useful) mistakes the horse “should” make are when he is not being entirely successful.

A core truth in training is that horses do not intentionally decide that they are not going to do something for random reasons. Most of the time they do not perform the requested movement or way of going because they do not know what they are supposed to do, or maybe they do not know the nuance of how they are supposed to do it. You cannot not want to do something if you do not know what the something is that you are supposed to do.

Horses may be generally disinterested in performing a certain task, or expending a great deal of energy, but they are very rarely intentionally oppositional. Read that last bit again. When this does occur, it is pretty much always due to physical or psychological damage (the horse’s). The damage can be inherent and congenital, or it can also be acquired and not entirely the current rider/ trainer’s fault.

Most horses are inclined to try what their human wants them to do. Most horses are also inhibited by how they are asked to perform. Photo (c) Gwyneth McPherson.

So, back to effective training, you might be wondering, what’s the problem with corrections? Sometimes they’re needed. That’s true, sometimes they are. But— and this is important to understand— if you only train by corrections you train the horse that he does the thing wrong, and then does the correction. Successful repetition in training is repeating what you actually want from the horse, not letting the horse fail and then correcting him. Otherwise, it just makes the horse good at the faults as well as the corrections. This does not mean that you never correct the horse, or that corrections are inherently wrong. It just means that the better choice is to train in a way that prevents the horse from failing to begin with (there’s that creativity again).

Repeating an exercise or transition throughout the ride can be very helpful for the horse (and the rider) to learn how to perform the exercise better. Mixing it into other activities rather than drilling the same thing over and over is usually an absolute necessity. This allows both horse and rider to “reset” their muscles and minds before doing the same thing again.

Often repeating exercises less in each ride, but every day, gives you a better result. Photo (c) Gwyneth McPherson.

Also, knowing what exercises improve the exercise you are trying to train or improve will help the process along greatly. Working halt, reinback, medium trot, and half-pass between attempts at piaffe can help the horse improve the piaffe immensely, for example. When we get into being overly repetitive with an exercise we often (unintentionally) repeat the exercise past the moment of success. In other words, in the effort to perfect the exercise we fail to recognize the success that was already achieved that day and repeat it to the point of failure. Failure occurs either when the rider or horse reach a catastrophic level of frustration and or physical fatigue. There is no training your way out of this situation. It’s best simply to not go there.

So, having covered all that, we do land at the fact that training is indeed repetition over time. But the final analysis is that repetition is a double-edged sword. It is an absolute necessity in the process of teaching horses to do what we want them to do but it can work against us when we either intentionally or inadvertently repeat what we actually do not want the horse to do. It’s imperative for effective training that we ride positively—with a focus on what we are trying to create rather than what we want to correct— and remain creative enough that we not only set the horse up for success but also recognize when he’s making strides towards it.

Remember: limited knowledge is limited judgment.

Gwyneth and Flair in competition at Grand Prix. (c) flatlandsfoto.

Gwyneth McPherson has over 35 years experience competing, training, and teaching dressage.  She began her education in in the late 1970s, riding in her backyard on an 11 hh pony. Her first instructor introduced her to Lendon Gray (1980 and 1988 Olympian). who mentored Gwyneth for a decade during which she achieved her first National Championship in 1984, and her Team and Individual Young Rider Gold Medals in1987.

In 1990 Gwyneth began training with Carol Lavell (1992 Olympian) who further developed Gwyneth as an FEI rider and competitor. Gwyneth achieved a Team Bronze in 1991 and a Team Silver in 1992 in the North American Young Riders Championships, and trained her stallion G’Dur to do all the Grand Prix movements while riding with Carol.

In 2008, while Head Trainer at Pineland Farms, Gwyneth began training with Michael Poulin (Olympian 1992). Michael was trained by Franz Rochowansky (Chief Rider for the Spanish Riding School 1937-1955). Michael has shared much of Rochowansky’s knowledge and wisdom with Gwyneth, completing her education as a Grand Prix rider, trainer, and competitor.

Gwyneth’s teaching and training business, Forward Thinking Dressage,is based in Williston, FL. In addition to teaching riders and training, Gwyneth also loves sharing her knowledge of the sport and art of dressage as well as discussing relevant topics pertaining to the training itself and the current competitive landscape.