By Lindsay Grice, Equestrian Canada coach and judge

The popularity of obstacle disciplines is growing. These include Working Equitation, Mountain Trail, Show Trail, Ranch Trail, and Extreme Cowboy. Riders tell me the appeal of obstacles is a change and challenge from dressage circles or the Western pleasure rail. Others are opting out of jumping for a less risky challenge. An eventing coach friend calls Working Equitation her “Senior Eventing” — the three-phase format with the precision of obstacles in place of jumps, and yet with the fun of a speed phase. Many obstacle events offer in-hand options so folks can get out with younger horses not yet ready for ridden obstacles.

In working equitation, judges reward the balanced horse with legs crossing rhythmically.  Photo: Teresa Finnerty Photography

As a judge, I evaluate horses and riders backing through corridors and sidepassing over rails and logs in various configurations. The common denominator across the disciplines is style — finesse, flow, and efficiency, often plus or minus a menu of penalties.

Related: Winning Tips for Flat Classes

Navigating Obstacles: The Merits of Focussing on Footwork 

Control the feet and you control the horse advised the founders of the natural horse training movement. I’ve found this to be true. The key to the horse’s mind is, in a manner of speaking, through his feet.

I include some obstacle work in most lessons I teach. My students reap the benefits of guiding their horses’ steps sideways, backward, and forward, using these skills in other activities such as positioning for lead departures or opening a gate from horseback.

When my horse chooses the “step sideways” answer, I relax my cues and sit still for a few seconds before asking for another step. Photo courtesy of Lindsay Grice

Horses learn to wait for instructions. For a prey animal to have his feet restricted is to be vulnerable. Tension rises when a horse feels trapped, making him inclined to rush. Initially, your horse will be wary about having a sidepass pole between his front and hind legs, or when being sandwiched between backing rails on either side. 

Initially, your horse will be wary when sandwiched between backing rails. Standing and relaxing between steps will convince him that it’s a happy place to be. Photo courtesy of Lindsay Grice

Given that the horse’s eyes are situated on the sides of his head, he can’t see the poles he’s navigating. He’s obliged to trust in his navigator (rider) and wait for each instruction. The patience and listening skills your horse will develop are bound to spill over into other dimensions of his training.

Riders learn to school systematically. The value of teaching your horse to work obstacles by means of logical steps is comparable to the benefit of phonics in learning to read. 

My approach to coaching is to help my students become good teachers. We introduce any skill to our horses using science-based principles of equine learning: 

1. Build a skill with the simplest concepts first. 
2. Teach one response per signal.
3. Keep signals separate and distinct. 

Students who’ve learned to read by phonics can tackle more complex words by stringing together their pieces. 

In the same way, backing and sidepass obstacles, when set in more complex configurations, are less overwhelming when tackled one movement at a time.

Riders learn to communicate with clarity. Vague cues will only add to your horse’s feeling of vulnerability. Don’t make your horse guess what you want him to do with his feet. Fair horse training is making a clear distinction between your leg positions and rein signals, particularly in the learning phase. These aids can become more understated as your horse grasps the idea.

Riders feel the footsteps. I’ve seen it over and over — obstacles help my students become conscious of their horses’ footfalls. Stepping over and backing around and through ground rails opens a new awareness of the movement of their horse’s hooves.

Related: Keep Your Horse Fit During Time Off

Obstacles provide a “commercial break” in training. I use obstacle training as a transition in the rhythm of a schooling session. For example, after canter work, a slower manoeuvring task such as a sidepass or backing obstacle provides an intermission in the lesson plan, and if done well, a place of rest versus stress. 

My horse is crossing her legs, soft in the contact, and waiting for instructions. Photo: Peter Bruce

Are You Prepared for the Obstacle Exam?

The test of adding obstacles to your training program assesses the skills you already have in place and may surface some missing links. Before manoeuvring through ground rails, make sure you have:

1. Patience. Obstacles, step by step, may not appeal to thrill-seekers. Riders tend to find manoeuvring obstacles boring as they require slow training, patience, and pausing between steps. Consequently, many riders don’t practice them (until they get to the horse shows). Before you enter an obstacle, how would you rate your own patience? Emotions can muddle the clarity of our aids or magnify them like a megaphone. A rider’s emotion stirs up her horse’s emotions.

Have you trained your horse to be patient and to wait well? Do you have control of his feet? Are you able to manipulate his steps?

Horses are inclined to want to get manoeuvring obstacles over with — not because they’re boring, but because they’re scary. Behaviours learned in the presence of fear are not soon forgotten. Keep your own emotional temperature cool. If a horse rushes out of the backing corridor, resist the impulse to kick him back in. Don’t ever let your horse associate tension with an obstacle. I ask plenty of horses to stand in, over, and beside obstacles, convincing them that this is a happy place to be.

2. A neutral gear. Wait between each step until your horse is completely neutral and not anticipating what comes next. Pause and give him a chance to process each cue. Gradually, you can shorten the wait time until it’s no longer visible — the steps become steady, but the pause is still understood. For me, the key to backing and sidepass obstacles is that the horse never initiates a step, but instead waits to be asked.

The methodical method, albeit tedious to many riders, is how we avoid creating a horse that performs the sidepass on autopilot or backs through the corridor on his own. If you try to interrupt a trick-trained horse, it’ll upset his applecart.

3. Control of the horse’s feet. Have your rein-back and sidepass well established before you involve poles. Don’t think of backing through or sidestepping across the obstacle as a whole, but as a sum of the multiple pieces involved. Before my students approach any obstacle, we have these five pieces firmly in place: turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches, sidepass, step backward, and step forward. These are your tools to persuade your horse’s feet to go where his preference tells him not to.

With these three skills in hand, you’re ready to enter the obstacle challenge.

Related: How to Ride Your Horse in Circles

Before involving poles, is your rein-back and leg yielding well established? In response to the rider’s leg pressure, this horse is “stuck.” Photo courtesy of Lindsay Grice

Backing Obstacles

As a judge, I assess horses and their riders backing between rails, logs, and chutes. English or Western, the method is the same. The main difference between backing through an obstacle and reining back in dressage or horsemanship patterns is the degree of impulsion and energy. Reversing through chutes requires caution; the horse waits for his rider’s cue versus presuming the next step. Efficiency earns credits, but not at the expense of accuracy and willingness. Once lightness is mastered and your horse is waiting between steps, go ahead and increase momentum.

How to start: 

Your horse should be thoroughly comfortable with the elementary back up in response to a light aid, without going through a routine of wrong answers and resistances.

What goes wrong:

Resistance — Your horse opens his mouth, lugging on your hand. He may even root or pull on the reins. He may evade bit pressure by raising his head above the bit, or hide from it, curling behind the bit.

• The fix: Begin with a light touch to test the waters. I often see riders overenthusiastic to tackle the backing challenge, or competitors triggered by competition butterflies “pull the trigger” on the reins. Abrupt aids put your horse on the defensive and he may push back or “spill” out in a multitude of ways.

Related: The Best Cavalletti Exercises for Walk, Trot, and Canter

Tension — You may not experience the push back mentioned above, but if your horse is not relaxed, he’ll try to get the experience over with as quickly as possible. He’ll rush to the end or crash through the side of the chute. At the very least, he’ll get the footwork done but the tension will be evident with ears back or tail swishing. 

• The fix: First, check your own tension metre. As my riding students would testify, my favourite word is “melt.” There is no need to perform the entire task. Catch the few seconds when your horse settles and take that moment to walk out forward. Review the earlier section on waiting.

Crooked — Your horse backs diagonally or curls his body out of alignment.

• The fix: As with backing a horse trailer, correcting the first tiny misalignment prevents a larger jackknife mess. Over-using your leg behind the girth to realign the haunches can stir up annoyed tail-swishing.

Because the horse’s head is bent to his left, his hind end steps out of alignment to his right. Photo courtesy of Lindsay Grice 

Related: Turning Around: Pirouettes, Cow Turns and Reining Spins

The Sidepass

The sidepass is a handy tool to edge your horse closer to a gate, or to shift away from the horse beside you that’s giving off bad vibes in the class lineup. It’s a necessary skill in competitive trail and working equitation disciplines. Moreover, the basic sidepass is a foundational brick in training your horse. 

How to start: 

Before straddling a ground pole, does your horse yield away from light pressure applied to his side? The idea is to create just enough pressure to motivate your horse to move. Use your leg at the girth. Leg pressure placed behind the girth would indicate turn-on-the-forehand to your horse. When he chooses the “step sideways” answer, relax your cues and sit still for a few seconds before asking for another step. 

The role of your hands is to keep your horse’s neck and head straight (perpendicular to the pole) and ready to block any forward step. Keep your hands neutral until you need them. If he walks forward, block his exit briefly with both reins. Or, you may need to straighten his forehand, to keep it in line with his haunches, with an opening rein. 

What goes wrong:

Confusion — Sidepassing is not a natural movement, so your horse may try answers more obvious before stepping to the side. These may include stepping forward, turning, or backing. 

• The fix: For all wrong answers, simply keep your sidepass aid in place. Sometimes the right try happens by accident, as if the horse is guessing. Reward the try — some semblance of sideways — with release (termed negative reinforcement).

Tension — The horse rushes, steps on and over the pole, and tries to escape the whole situation.

• The fix: As with the backing obstacle, don’t graduate to traversing a ground rail until your horse is calmly and consistently stepping sideways from a light cue. Rushing the process will overwhelm your horse. Horses feel vulnerable with anything around their feet, and this is not an ideal frame of mind to process a new skill. I stop and rest along the pole in various places. Too many horses learn the routine of whizzing down to the end of the pole and walking away from the obstacle.

Slow and steady wins the race with introducing obstacles. Efficiency, elegance, and speed in some disciplines, wins the class in competition!

Related: Leverage Bits 101 and the Art of Neck Reining

Related: Navigating the Gate with Your Horse

Related: Resolving Bit Resistance in Your Horse

More by Lindsay Grice

Main Photo: iStock/Vicvaz