Behind the Horse Stable: Willingly guided and better balance

This post is about finding the need, then the creation of the best kept secret in the performance horse industry.
If you have a passion for willingly guided horses, there is an option other than reining. Reining is a great event, but it is not user friendly for the do it yourselfer wanting to learn. Many try and quit each year, that is a shame as there is nothing better than riding a willingly guided, balanced horse.

The Performance Horse Development Association was designed for the

DO IT YOURSELF TRAINER!

Early days and influences

Many year ago when I first became interested in reining, what drew me to it was the willingly guided aspect. As I became more involved over the years I found that not all willingly guided is actually willingly guided..
What I saw in my early introductions to the sport was sometimes in an effort too train a reining horse to perform a pattern, short cuts were used. These short cuts often relied on:

The horses ability to anticipate cues given repeatedly in a certain order
The horses ability to learn from negative stimulus. Get away from pain

These training techniques can train a horse that can be guided with very little apparent cuing from the rider. Everything looked light and quick, but often times a little helter skeltar.

Some common beliefs of the day were:

An open horse can not be rode by an amateur, - most times they couldn't be, the horse would jump out of their skins at the slightest movement from the rider that indicated a response was expected.
There are only so many good runs in your horse so do not over use them, - Again this was true, because the horses were not accepting and responding to the riders, they were always trying to guess what the rider wanted. Then trying to react as quick as possible so they didn't get jerked or spurred. This made for horses who soon learned to anticipate based on where in the pattern they were.
- Horses would run off to the stops as soon as they were pointed straight
- Jump into a rollback as soon as the had stopped
- Change leads on the middle of the pen when not required
Big stoppers are not usually good spinners
Big spinners are not usually good stoppers
- Both of those are somewhat true for the day, because trainers were only trying to train the horses natural talent, they had what worked for a foundation training program of the day but nothing like they have today.
- The good stoppers tended to be horses a little on the lazy sided, and the good spinners were the more fragile minded really light footed horses.
- There were some horses that did both equally as well, but as a rule one or the other was the case.

Fortunately for me I came along right at the end of that time. I was able to use the more softening, accepting type of training I had learned and preferred. This allowed me to handle my horses a little bit more, (use some contact on the reins) and not get hurt by the judges scores to much, because it looked soft and the horse accepted the contact and responded to it. Judge were starting to look for and appreciate the soft working horses.

The trainers I liked to watch back in those days were the few trainers who could get their horses to work softly to a light touch. To me that was, and always has been the difference between a soft response and a light reaction.

This idea of responding softly to a light cue became the norm of most horses winning the contests of willingly guided in the late 90's and into 00's.

The transition from high headed horses with hollowed backs, reacting to light contact, too horses with soft round top-lines responding softly to light contract did not happen over night.

The pictures on the right show what was winning in the 70's and 80's - early 90's and today.

The change still has not completely occurred across the industry. There are many trainers today who still achieve the results of the 70's and think they are doing well.

The Start Of Something New

Many trainers today know how to DEVELOP a soft top line and better balance in all their horses. Those trainers horses perform everything in better balance and respond softly to light cues. Their horses are only limited by their mental and physical ability to perform with speed.

While other trainers are still struggling, looking for the natural horses that will develop that winning type of soft response because they are naturally better balanced.

Breeders will want some credit here as well, and they deserve some, the horses are better minded and their better conformation allows the horse to develop better balance, even if it is not natural to them.

I believe the reason the transition from light and reactive to soft and responsive has not finished yet is the trainers who figured how to develop better balance are still winning and training.
They have not switched to coaching mode in their old age, thus they have not had the time to consider everything they do and why.
I have had the privilege to watch and ride with many of the top trainers today. That is always educational, and if you watch close and understand balance it can be revealing as well.
Many times when I watched a trainer explain what they are doing, I would see slight differences in how they used their legs and hands from what they were explaining.

By studying bio mechanics of the horse, and paying attention to how my horses responded to certain things I was able to learn how to develop that better balance in my horses.

In around 2006 many things seemed to come together at once for me to change my direction in the horse industry. Up until then I had been committed to raising and training Reining Horses, some of the circumstances that changed that were:

My pocket book was not deep enough to be able to afford the level of competitions I enjoyed without winning almost all the time.
One of the last shows my wife and I went to, we took 3 horses showed 5 times, we won 3 classes and placed 2nd and 3rd in the other 2. The weekend showing cost us $400 over our winnings, (without fuel and accommodations being counted.) Those 2 plaques and one little sliding horse trophy cost a lot to win.
The caliber of horse I could afford would not allow me to compete successfully at the larger shows, where the money won could cover a lot of showing.
I was raising my own horses and buying a few young ones, if they did not end up being the top level horse, I could not afford to go buy a different one for that year.
My wife found dog showing, and switched what she was doing on the weekends.
I tried going to a few shows by myself, but it was just not the same.

MY passion was still training and riding willingly guided horses, but without a vehicle to show off and compete I was looking for a different opportunity.

The following deductions and reasoning led to the creation of something new:

If I could not afford to compete in the event I enjoyed, then may others had to be in the same boat.
When I first started reining I decided to give up coaching and training part time, so I could compete as a non pro.
This was probably the worst decision I ever made, I enjoyed teaching, even though it was not my main occupation. It also would have allowed me to make a few bucks and finance my showing later on when I needed a little extra..
Many of the new people I saw entering reining would compete for a few years, have a little success then find they could not compete at the next level they were forced to move up to.
The handicap system being used was not very good at keeping people in a level they could find some success at. Not everyone has the money for a trainer or a new horse in order to move up when the handicap system says they earned to much and must move up to tougher competition.

For my thinking the performance horse industry needed

An event that was similar to dressage, in that it allowed horses and riders of all levels to compete as they learned. Based on the style of willing guided, and the balance that the top trainers of today are developing in their horses.
An event that would allow riders to develop their own horses ability as their riding ability improved. This would allow the do it yourself horse trainers a place to compete and learn at their own pace.
An event that would be affordable to any horse owner. We should offer events online, we would need to develop a different type of judging system that allowed for fair evaluation of a judging criteria off of video. The judging criteria should also make the environment like footing and size of arena irrelevant to the out come of the online horse show. If we judged balance and willing response we could accomplish all of this.
An event that had a handicap system that allowed riders to compete at different levels on different horses. The competition is with a horse and a rider so the handicap system should take both of their abilities into account.

So in 2008 we launched the International Performance Horse Development Association. All of the above issues were addressed. Some better than others at first, but gradually over the last 8 years all of those issues, and more have been addressed. The industry and people in it are just now finding out about the IPHDA difference.

In 2010 I gave up my non pro card so I could start teaching PHD clinics and offer online coaching. I am pleased to say that our program works well and we have many success stories to prove it.
Using the PHD program I trained what I believe to be the first horse to win at reining at the NRHA level and then go on to be a 1d barrel horse.

Here is a video of that mare.

I even attempt a level 4 USDF dressage test on her
This is a long video considering all the things she did.

Using PHD as the platform for coaching here is a video showing the results.

Using just the PHD patterns many riders have improved, the PHD levels require the horse and rider to progress as a team. This approach has proven very successful, if watch some of the exhibitors that show with us regular the improvement is amazing.

If you wish to show off or develop your horses ability to be willingly guided and balanced and there is an affordable option.

It is called IPHDA, we encourage do it yourselfers to show, the handicap system we use allows the horse and riders combined skill to set their level of competition. We offer more awards for dollars spent than any other association.

IPHDA is perfect for coaches and boarding barns, we offer a vehicle for you to offer your students and boarders an international show every month at your facility.

Check out IPHDA at www.iphda.com

Talk to IPHDA members and exhibitors

on the IPHDA face book group.

Using PHD can help a do it yourself trainer become a competent reiner faster than any other method. They guarantee it.

PHD works for developing any equine event skill,

simply because willingly guided and balanced is always going to win.

Thanks for spending time with me.

Rod