Trail Courses
Here's a simple example of contextual training- Instead of asking your horse to step his hindquarters over in the middle of an arena, have your horse stand facing the inside of a corner. When you ask him to step his hindquarters over, the cue will make sense because he'll see that he has to step his HQ over to be able to to turn around. If you can teach a horse a cue in the context of a situation, when you ask him to do it in the middle of the arena, or anywhere, he'll have a much better memory of what the cue means.
Our favorite contextual training exercises is backing a horse through a narrow passageway. Many forward-moving horses have a difficult time transitioning from circling to backing, but they can learn to like backing and be good at it if they think of backing as a movement, rather than anti-movement. For many horses, backing is terribly uncomfortable because their bodies are braced against it, constantly thinking of forward. If you set things up so they can "find" the back-up, then even the most forward-moving horse can learn to take put his forward impulsion in reverse.
To practice contextual backing, lead your horse up to the exit-end of a narrow passageway. Practice backing out after just the horse's nose comes into the passageway, then after his shoulders have come in, then after his barrel has come in. When you get to 3/4's of the horse being in the passageway, he's going to want to come forward out of it rather than go back. So long as you know this, you can be prepared and start transitioning him to back almost before he's got 3/4's of himself in the chute. After your horse can back out with 3/4's of his body in the chute, being having him back all the way through. Line his tail up to the front of the chute and ask him to go through the passageway in reverse. The key is to let him find it.
Ask him to go back and watch his face. When he looks back and goes, "Are you nuts, that's way too small!" Reward that thought, because at least he's seen the chute and is thinking about it. As soon as he can look behind him and take responsibility for navigating the obstacle, you've got it made. Standing in front of your horse, use rhythmic pressure to ask him to go back, but instead of softening when he takes a step, soften when he looks back at the chute and thinks about backing up. You don't want him looking over his shoulder, but keeping his head straight forward and using his peripheral vision. As soon as he realizes he's getting rewarded for "finding" the obstacle and showing initiative, he'll just up and take himself back. Resist the urge to help him. Let him bump his rump on the side. He can start over. It's not the backing that's important, it's "finding and navigating the obstacle."
The principle of allowing the horse to take responsibility for navigating obstacles will carry over to all other areas of your training. As Ray Hunt used to say, "Set it up and let him find it." Or as Parelli says, "Reward him for thinking like a partner." At PonyPros we like to say, "You set 'em up and she'll knock 'em down!" like her first strike without the bumpers in bowling.
Contextual training is about giving your horse the opportunity to show you how smart he is. When he has the opportunity to use his brain, he will take ownership of the skills. They'll become things he knows how to do and offers to you enthusiastically. He will be excited to have the answers.
Trail Obstacles
- Ground poles or logs
- Brush pile
- Bale/barrel jumps
- Box/bridge
- Tarps
- Wishing box
- Big puddle
- Water crossing
- Weaving cones
- Flag
- Teeter Totter
- Pedestal/Tire pedestal
- Railroad tie maze
- Downstep
- Tire maze
- Mattress crossing
- Barrel pattern
- Car wash
- Wagon wheel
- Sand mounds
- Bank or table
- Ditch
