7 Games -- Descriptions Flashcards
What is the purpose of the Friendly Game?
The Friendly Game proves to your horse that you can be trusted and that you will not hurt him. Remember that horses are the ultimate prey animals, and humans are the ultimate predators. In order to overcome that fundamental barrier, you need to prove to your horse that you are safe to be around.
You also provide positive reinforcement for your horse by offering safety and comfort when he is confused, rather than pushing him or disciplining him for not immediately understanding. That’s what a strong, effective, fair leader does.
What is the purpose of the Porcupine game?
The Porcupine game teaches your horse how to properly respond to steady pressure. Horses naturally push into steady pressure, it’s part of their programming for survival. Horsemanship on the other hand, requires that horses yield to steady pressure.
In the Porcupine Game, your horse will learn how to follow a feel and work through phases to get appropriate responses.
What is the purpose of the Driving game?
The Driving Game teaches your horse to follow a feeling with no physical touching involved. This is the game that develops into subtle communication that people will think your horse is reading your mind!
What is the purpose of the Yo-Yo game?
The Yo-Yo Game teaches your horse to respect your space while leading. By developing the skills you need to effectively move horses out of your immediate space, you become a much safer human.
By playing the Yo-Yo Game, you improve your horses straightens, stops and slides, transitions, suspension, and self carriage. At the same time, you improve your draw - the ability to get your horse to willingly come to you.
What is the purpose of the Circling game?
The Circling Game engages the horse mentally, emotionally and physically. It teaches the horse to stay connected, and allows him to develop strong self-carriage and bend, At the same time it teaches you to have independent feet and gain a better understanding of what “Neutral” body language truly entails.
The Circling Game introduces the Four Responsibilities of the horse.
What are the Four responsibilities of the horse?
~Act like a partner, not a prey animal
~Maintain gait
~Maintain direction
~Look where you are going
What is the purpose of the Sideways Game?
As Pat says, “The better your horse goes backwards and sideways, the better he’ll do everything else.” This is because, by moving sideways, he develops suspension and balance while also learning to respond to multiple cues from you at the same time (Porcupine Game on his forequarters and Driving Game on his hindquarters).
The Sideways Game also develops counter-balance for “forward-aholic” horses. This is an important developmental step, as it sets horses up for the increased physicality necessary for performance maneuvers like the half pass, leg yield, side pass, shoulders in, haunches in, and more.
What is the purpose of the Squeeze game?
The Squeeze Game encourages the horse to be brave. It also teaches them to overcome his innate claustrophobia by learning to squeeze under, over and between obstacles without concern. The Squeeze Game has countless practical uses, including: ~Jumping obstacles ~Trailering willingly ~Being calm in wash bays ~Navigating water crossings
What are the 10 qualities of a horseman?
1—Heart and Desire
Watch a mare and foal together and you’ll see the strongest example of heart and desire. That’s how strong the bond could be and should be between horse and human. But people can have too many goals and put their heart and desire into winning or performing rather than with the horse. It’s okay to have a strong desire for competition as long as it doesn’t get ahead of the relationship with the horse.
2—Respect
We have to teach the horse to respect us. Respect from the horse is measured by appropriate response and quality and length of attention span. As humans, we ultimately need to respect the pure nature inside of the horse. Respect from both, in the end, is mental collection.
3—Impulsion
I think of impulsion foremost as emotional collection. The goal is to get the horse to want to synchronize with your energy and emotion. We need to have absolute control over our emotions so that we are calm, cool and collected for the horse even when things get going fast, or when we want things to go fast.
4—Flexion
For me, flexion is the shaping of the whole horse mentally and physically, and learning to be very fluid and flexible in our own bodies so horses match and mirror us. Every movement we ask of the horse has a certain dynamic shape the horse’s body should be in to optimize its performance, from walking to piaffe.
5—Attitude and Focus—Positive, Progressive and Natural
Your attitude needs to be positive, progressive and natural, and people who focus on bringing all three together really make great leaders for their horses. I see people who are kind to their horses, but they’re not going anywhere, and most horses are not happy doing the same things over and over again. Other people are very mechanical and use whatever bits and gadgets it takes. And there are people who are progressive and natural, but not really positive.
6—Feel
Horses have to go by feel in order to understand us, especially when we’re riding. So the feel we give them, whether we’re fluid or stiff, is how they are going to respond. But what gives you feel? In any sport or endeavor, there is usually something you need to focus on to become more natural. People who are training to jump hurdles are taught to look at a spot on the horizon, not the hurdle, and feel going over the hurdles. For us, it’s being positive, progressive and natural that will give you feel.
7—Timing
Timing is really important because horses are very rhythmic animals. You feel for the timing through your attitude and focus, and if you make even a suggestion at the right time, everything becomes easy. For example, when we ask a horse to turn but we use our legs too soon, we’ve pushed the horse like a caterpillar, and the front and middle haven’t started that way yet.
8—Balance
From birth, a horse learns to do everything in balance. The thought of movement starts in the horse’s mind. He shapes his body, gets his weight right and then moves his feet. For us, the only way for balance to be second nature is to have focus, feel and timing. When we’re on a horse we should not have any negative effect on its movement.
9—Savvy
When you combine these ingredients and start getting repeatable results, that’s Savvy. Savvy is second nature to me now, but I rode horses thousands of hours and still didn’t have any real Savvy. But we often have to have that kind of experience to get real Savvy, and once you have it, it feels dysfunctional if you do something without it, like driving a car with a loose wheel.
10—Experience
If your heart and desire are to get to a certain savvy level, and you start putting huge effort into real mastery, this is the point where it becomes addictive. That’s when it’s way beyond a physical thing—way more than riding. Your experience after you get to a certain level will reveal productive results ten times faster than all the hours you put in before that, making hoof prints in the sand and wearing out riding pants and saddles.
What 3 words make up the Friendly Game?
Rhythm, relaxation and retreat. Also called “Approach and Retreat.”
