The word of the year is “flow.”

Let's say you ask your horse to travel forward into the trot. If it’s a young colt, learning transitions for the first time, you’re going to reward the small try. You’ll allow for many mistakes, you’ll encourage just a few steps at a time. But if your horse is beyond the first weeks of the learning curve, you can begin, and should begin, a new game. A game called flow.

What is flow?

Imagine trotting along without resistance, without leaning, without quitting, without charging anxiously ahead. Flow is rhythmic and soft and reliable. I want to see my horse flow in the trot and stop hunting the halt, or the center of the ring, or the favorite entrance gate. I want to feel a freedom of movement, free of constant corrections.

At first, training flow takes a few minutes just to get just a few seconds. Think of it like maple syrup. Did you know it takes forty gallons of sap to get one gallon of syrup? That’s the best analogy for training flow.

After a few minutes of constant aids and supports, you will finally get a few seconds of free-flowing energy. Stop and reward it. Then become the architect for growing those seconds into minutes over many months.

I used trotting as our model to help make sense of the game, and you can probably guess it’s only one model. Flow is your next goal for every task, including sideways, backward, walking, cantering, haunches in, shoulders in, half pass, even the halt. A horse that flows freely, without resistance, distraction, or excitement, is worth its weight in gold.

A few important points...

Flow is NOT a “don’t break gait” game. It seems similar, but it’s not the same. “Don’t break gait” is a punishment style of training with ambiguous end goals. (Don’t stop cantering or I’ll whip you.)

Whereas flow is a passive support style that encourages calculated improvements of effort with massive rewards. You can start super small, as small as you want, and reward often, gradually holding the gaits and maneuvers for longer rather than forcing them and punishing failure.

Remember the maple syrup analogy. You don’t have to make a gallon your first time. You can make a cup at a time.

Every technique or training principle has its value. Games like point to point, figure eight, corners, cloverleaf patterns, or you name it, all have unique benefits that help with steering, cue sensitivity, straightness training, collection, etc.

Flow training is one of a hundred focal points for any horse owner. And if you master it, you’ll experience something few people feel. A truly powerful, connected, smooth, and professional-feeling ride like nothing else, lending to advanced maneuvers and exercises you couldn’t get without flow.

I hope I’ve inspired you today. Go start your flow training program. Pick a task and begin refining that delicious maple syrup.

To your success, ​Don