Getting a horse to stand still is all about getting its attention. Heeding teaches you to keep your attention on the horse so that the horse will keep his attention on you. Once you have the horse's attention, you use your body position to create pressures or shapes that, in turn, create a feeling in the horse that he should move forward or left or right or stop. You can also direct him to stand still in one spot while you work around him or the farrier works around him or you want to put on his saddle.

The first place this giving and receiving of attention starts is in grooming. So that's where standing still also starts. You must pay attention to the horse while grooming. This is very important in terms of horse logic. The horse allows itself to be groomed and you honor the horse by grooming him. In the horse's mind, grooming is about a whole lot more than brushing off dirt.

You start building a relationship with the horse through scratching or brushing the places the horse loves to be groomed. If you give him the freedom to move, he'll move around and change his posture to show you exactly where he wants you to scratch. The horse's secondary or neutral line runs through his shoulders so, horse logically, that's the most comfortable place to start. You're not putting any pressure on him when you're standing at his shoulder facing him. Work out gradually from this comfortable spot towards places that are instinctively uncomfortable for the horse like scratching from his withers up his neck, down his front legs or around his back legs. Never surprise the horse about where you're going.

In the beginning, the horse may need to be tied. But the best way to groom is to have the horse loose in a big enough place that he can move around to show you were he wants to be scratched or he can leave you if he wants. Let the lead rope trail on the ground and, if he wants to leave, let him go. When he steps on the lead rope, he'll interrupt his leaving and think about whether that was a comfortable thing to do.

If he starts to leave, just calmly back up out of his kicking range so he can go by quietly. Don't chase him. Keep his attention on you with just enough sound or movement, just enough fuss, that his ears swivel towards you. You want an intense level of attention not an intense level of activity. Eventually the horse will turn around and face you to see what the fuss is all about. Then you stop fussing, walk up quietly to his shoulder on that neutral line through his withers and start grooming again. You want to create the feeling in the horse that standing there quietly with you is the most comfortable place to be.

Your goal is to make standing next to him and grooming him so comfortable that the horse wants to groom you back. If you are working with a baby horse that has a tendency to bite or nip, stabilize his lower jaw with a dropped noseband. You don't want to have to slap him when he reaches around to groom you. In the horse's mind, grooming you in return for your favor of scratching him is a proper, horse-logical thing to do. A slap would spoil the feeling of quiet and trust you are trying to build. Instead, when the horse reaches around to groom you, just quietly slide your hand up his neck and push gently against the back of his jowl. This reinforces the feeling that the thing you want him to do is just stand there quietly.

As you groom, move your primary line around the horse in a circle. That means when you're alongside the horse facing him, all of your motion is sideways. When you want to leave the horse and have him stand, return sideways to that neutral line running through his withers and back straight out. When you are far enough away that the horse looks to see what you're doing, turn halfway around so your back is to him. Now walk away.

In the beginning, the horse is going to think, "Hey, he's gone." Then the horse feels free to wander off while you're going to get the brush or the blanket or whatever. So you go back to making that little fuss, getting his attention back on you, getting him facing you, then you just calmly go back to whatever it was you were doing.

Wherever the horse stops and says, "I'm listening again," you go over and work with him there. Don't move him back to the original spot you were working because this changes the issue for the baby horse. Your intention to keep the horse paying attention is the secret to creating the feeling that he should just stand there when you leave.

Over a period of time, the horse comes to understand that he should just stand there when you are alongside him, he should stand there when you're doing things out away from him, and he should just stand there when other people like the farrier or the vet or a judge are walking around him. You are teaching him a pattern that you want to become a habit.

This habit also gives you a safe way to leave a horse you're turning out without getting kicked or run over. When you're leaving the horse in a spot he doesn't have to stay until you return, you leave by a slightly different route. Back out far enough on the horse's neutral line to be out of kicking range, then turn so your primary line is parallel to the horse's and leave to the rear. If the horse doesn't move off, you can swing your primary line behind him to create a feeling that you are following or chasing to communicate that he can move off now.

In the training sequence, keeping the horse's attention on you at every moment is not critical once you and the horse have developed a bigger relationship. But in the beginning, keep the horse's attention on you is the basis of everything else.

When you are trying to get a horse's attention, the first thing you go for is his ears. Once an ear swivels in your direction, you've got his attention. It may take a little longer before he turns and faces you or before he walks up to you. But those bigger movements start with that little tiny movement of his ear.

The same principle applies to teaching your horse to back up. A lot of people make the mistake of going after the big moves before they've gotten the smaller ones. All it takes to back a horse is just the beginning of a movement backwards. That tiny bit of motion gets a little momentum started that eventually builds to the bigger movement you're after.

Backing is an illogical movement for horses. It is not a natural defense or play maneuver. The horse backs by moving its legs in diagonal pairs, just like it does at the trot. So it has to shift its weight from side to side in order to back. The horse that is backing properly does not squat on his hindquarters or get dragged backwards by the pressure of the halter or the bit. The rider must apply alternate side-to-side pressures to ask the horse to shift its weight from side to side in order to back.

The horse's front legs support its head and neck. The head acts like a weight at the end of a lever. When the weight of the head shifts sideways, that movement gets transferred to the front legs. As the head shifts just a little to one side, the horse shifts more weight to the front foot on that side to maintain his balance. If the head shifts a little farther to that side, the horse continues to shift his balance a little more and and you begin to get the feeling of wanting to move the foot that's not carrying very much weight anymore. Now you've got a tiny bit of momentum started that you can build on.

So the first step in getting a horse moving backwards is to move his head to one side or the other. Pulling straight ahead or pushing straight back doesn't create the need to shift his weight from one foot to the other, doesn't create any feeling of movement, and doesn't get any momentum going.

Use a corridor of aids to help the horse get a feel of the direction that's open for him to move. Heed the horse along a wall or fence up into a corner where it's horse logical to stop. Turn your primary line onto his secondary or neutral line to ask him to stop. Scratch and groom a little to show him he responded correctly. Now turn so you're standing at the horse's shoulder facing backwards.

Check to see which of the horse's front feet is a little farther forward and which one is a little farther behind. The foot that's a little farther forward is the first one you are going to ask him to move back because he already has less weight on it to start with.

Shift the horse's head toward the foot that's farther behind with a little tug. Don't hold the horse's head there, just ask him to shift a little more of his weight onto that foot. At the same time, reach over with the butt of your whip and put pressure on the shoulder above the foot that's a little farther forward. Hold the pressure until the horse moves back. Shift his head a little farther if you need to but don't increase the pressure on his shoulder. Just leave it there until the horse moves and then allow him to move away from the pressure. That front foot moving back puts pressure on the diagonal hind and the horse will eventually move it back, too. Now shift the horse's head to the other side and apply pressure to the other shoulder in the same sequence to move the other diagonal pair of legs.

In the beginning, it's not important how far the horse backs. Just ask for one step, one foot at a time. Remember, this is not a logical movement to the horse. So just ask for a small piece at first. If the horse is really having a problem with stepping backwards, just quietly return to heeding him forward and in circles and then go back to the fence or the wall and try another single step backwards. Eventually, the horse's understanding will increase.

Everything you do with a horse should start with a command or pressure that says "prepare" or get ready to do something followed by a pressure that says "execute" or now's the correct time to do it. Bringing the horse's head to the side is the command of preparation to back. Putting pressure on his shoulder is the command of execution to move a foot. Later, under saddle, you will use bit pressures to shift the horse's head and your weight and leg pressures will replace the shoulder pressures.

As the horse's understanding of what the pressure mean increases, then the speed with which he responds to them will increase. You will be able to keep the pressure up longer so he takes more steps and backs a greater distance. You will be able to switch the pressures from side to side more quickly to influence the cadence of his steps. And you will be able to influence the length of the horse's strides by how long you keep the pressure on before releasing it.

When you first start teaching a horse to heed, you use a corridor of aids or pressures to create a feeling in the horse of where you want him to move. As the horse's understanding increases, the handler can not only change the direction of the horse's strides but also their length, speed, and cadence.

Longeing in a circle falls into the category of advanced heeding for several reasons. First, the horse and the handler are working in a corridor at a distance from one another. Second, the handler is no longer doing simple, basic heeding with his or her primary line running parallel or perpendicular to the horse's primary line. The horse no longer just mirrors the direction and speed the handler is moving. And third, it is difficult to create a full corridor of aids that create the exact feeling of a circle.

Before you start teaching your horse to longe, he should understand that when your primary line (an imaginary line running in front and in back of you and parallel to your spine if you were on all fours) is behind him, you are following or chasing and want him to move forward away from you. He should understand that when you put your primary line on or in front of his secondary line (a neutral line running through his withers and perpendicular to his spine), that is a block of his forward movement which means "stop." He should be comfortable heeding at the walk and trot in both directions while being handled from either side. He should understand that when you swing your primary line out away from him or in towards him you are indicating that you want him to turn in the direction you are opening up or closing in.

Once he understands all that, you are ready for longeing. You first establish the feel of a circle by heeding him in a circle, continually opening your primary line to the inside to keep him turning. In the beginning, you can use the walls near the corner of the arena to help you create this feeling. You can also use a round pen. Round pens make teaching longeing easier because they help create a circular corridor of pressures.

When the horse develops a strong feeling of a circle, you can start heeding a little farther out from him. As you move out away from the horse, begin gradually dropping back toward his hip in a following motion. As you approach the center of the circle, swing your primary line so that it is behind the horse's withers. This continues giving the horse a feeling that you are following and want him to move forward. You can fuss a little with the longe whip to move the horse forward but the most important driving aid or pressure is the position of your primary line. Exactly where you put your primary line behind the horse's withers and how quickly the horse understands the direction and speed you want him to move is going to vary from horse to horse and handler to handler.

It is important to set right mood and establish rhythm and relaxation in the horse before you start moving away from him. Then maintain that rhythm as you move into the center of the circle. Briefly position the horse's head with your longe line then soften, position and soften, position and soften. This prepares the horse later for the feeling when he's ridden that the inside rein indicates where you want him to position his head.

You want to establish a circle and then create a steady rhythm that mesmerizes the horse. Anytime you use an aid or a pressure that doesn't match the rhythm, you interrupt the rhythm. It's the steady rhythm that maintains the circle, not a steady pull on the longe line. Don't hold his head and pull him toward you to keep him on a circle. A constant pressure on his head masks the feeling of where you are and spoils the corridor of pressures you want to create. When you are working in a round pen, be especially aware of maintaining the horse's rhythm. Don't put so much pressure on him that he begins bicycling around the perimeter of the pen. You want rhythm and relaxation, not speed.

Some horses have a problem positioning their head to the inside, especially in one direction, because there is no full corridor of pressures directing them on the circle or because they may be stiff or weak on one side or the other. A round pen can help create a corridor of aids but it won't necessary correct the horse's head position if he has physical problems.

When you are heeding alongside a wall or fence and you want the horse to trot, you indicate this by taking bigger steps and making a little fuss behind you with your whip. Then when you want your horse to trot on the longe, use those bigger steps and a little fuss with the whip to help him understand you want him to change gaits. Similarly, prepare the horse for stopping on the longe by adding vocalizations to your stops while you are heeding along a wall or fence. Then when you are longeing, you can use a little "ho, ho, ho" along with moving your primary line ahead of his withers to ask him to stop.

If the horse stops on the circle and stays standing in the direction he was traveling, just walk up his neutral line, scratch a groom a little, then turn and start him off with a little heeding in the other direction before you drop back to the center of the circle again. The horse may stop and turn to face you, especially if you are using a round pen. Then just walk up his primary line, scratch and groom, then heed him in the new direction you want him to move off.

1997-2004 Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre. All rights reserved. Instructor and trainer <a href="http://www.meredithmanor.com/about/staff.asp#ron"> Ron Meredith</a> has refined his "horse logical" methods for communicating with equines for over 30 years as president of <a href="http://www.meredithmanor.com/"> Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre</a>, an ACCET accredited equestrian educational institution.
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