This article is for those out there who get leg cramps from holding leg pressure, or arm, hand, and finger cramps from pulling too hard on the reins and still don't get great results from their horse.

To start the conversation, I want to expose one of the biggest lies ever told in the horse training world. That's a big statement, I know, and very few people understand the depth of it, but it's true.

Here's the lie: "Your horse must maintain gait until asked not to."

In other words, if you ask your horse to trot and you feel him wanting to walk, you can't let him. Not until it's your idea. You can't let the horse think that transitioning without asking is okay.

And it's a massive problem.

It's a huge issue I face every weekend at my clinics.

Let me ask you this. If you're in my class and I ask you to canter your horse, but your horse tries to drop out after just a few strides, would you try to hold him in the canter?

Most say yes.

Most believe, from some previous trainer, that the horse should know better and never break gait until asked.

"Lie" is a strong word. The problem is more accurately described as ignorance. People often just don't know what's realistic and how to grow something rather than assume it should already be there.

Canter endurance can be developed gracefully without any kind of punishment for breaking gait. The same is true for the trot, the walk, and everything else.

Breaking gait is, in fact, a balancing act, often necessary on the horse's part to preserve joints, maintain balance, or catch their breath. How would punishment serve you once you know that?

What's better is to allow the gait change and simply ask again.

Advancing riders know the value of transitions. They know you can't get to the next level unless your transitions up and down are elegant and smooth.

What smart riders do is use the horse's natural desire to transition as an opportunity rather than a problem, creating better results with half the work.

Here's what I mean.

If I ask my horse to canter but he falls back to the trot, I can breathe calmly and keep my legs loose because a moment later I will ask for another canter.

By the time we make it around the ring, we will have done six to twelve transitions, whereas the average rider will have done only one and ended the circuit with cramping legs trying to hold up a canter that isn't very good anyway.

Can you follow me?

Do less work by allowing them to do half the transitions.

It works both ways. A hot horse will choose to go up. I just ask down.

By the end of the circuit around the ring, we've done a dozen transitions elegantly, naturally, and without fuss.

The plus side is threefold.

One, you get more transitions, which build better sensitivity and strength.

Two, you get a healthier horse that never suffers from unbalanced, repetitive stress on their joints.

And three, they love you more because you don't fight them so much. It's a nice give-and-take balance.

Sure, when it's show time, you have to do your best to hold all your practice together. And in safety situations, you may need to push ahead or hold back.

But in normal practice, the best trainers use the horse's natural inclination to rebalance through transitions as a way to get twice as much done in half the time.

Work smart, stay safe, and strive for elegance and excellence.

That's the mastery path. Thanks Don 

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