John Lyon, Horse Trainer & Clinician

When you are asking your horse to change what he is doing, you are asking for a transition. A transition means to change something. That includes any change that you may ask your horse to make. Whether you are asking the horse to go from a walk to a trot, a trot to a stop, a walk to a canter, you are asking the horse to make an adjustment to what his body is doing.

Many people think that transition work pertains only when you are involved in the more advanced stages of training and specifically with gaits. This is not the case. You are always asking your horse change what he is doing, even when leading him. Transitions should be considered in all areas of handling and training. They occur when you ask your horse to make an outside turn in the round pen, load in a trailer, put his head down to put the bridle on or shift his weight to pick up a foot. You should expect your horse to make all of his transitions properly – smooth and light (not pulling or resistant) – when you ask, every time you ask. When you do this you will improve your horse's performance not only in what you are specifically asking for, but you will see overall improved responsiveness. You will develop a pattern of asking and then getting a consistent response from your horse.

There is a progression that you should consider when teaching your horse to give you proper transitions. Let's look at what is needed:

1. Get the transition correctly. What is it that you are asking the horse to do? Here are a few examples of common transitions. The horse will make an outside turn in the round pen, turn on the haunches on a lead rope, go from a stop to a walk when ridden, go from a walk to a trot when ridden, go from backing up to canter when ridden, etc. Each transition that you want from your horse must be taught if you want the transition to be done properly.
   
   You have to go through a teaching process to get the horse to respond to your request to do that particular request. When you are teaching your horse a cue or doing something else, you want to pick a method that does not cause negative side effects, nor unwanted behaviors. You are looking for the horse not to wring his tail, pin his ears or act jumpy. If you are getting unwanted side effects, think about what you are doing and try to ask your horse to respond using the least irritating or resistant methods. It is best not to add lots of training aids when you are first trying to teach your horse, because that is where side effects come in. If you are bumping or kicking his sides with spurs and using a crop all at the same time to get him to go forward, you are eventually going to irritate your horse. Your horse will become confused as to what you are asking him, because he has not had a chance to learn what light bumping of your legs means before you started to use spurs or a crop.
   
   When first teaching your horse to speed up, apply pressure by lightly bumping the horse's sides. As soon as there is any change of leg speed, stop the cue and reward the horse. Your goal may be to get the horse to do an extended trot, but you cannot get there until you have taught the horse that your leg cue means to increase speed – even if it is only a little faster than a jog. When the horse shows an increase in leg speed from your leg cue you know your signal is a logical one. Give the horse a reasonable amount of time to respond to your cue to go faster.
   
2. Get the transition consistently. Once your horse starts to get the idea of what you are asking him to do, you need to get the transition consistently and closer to the time you asked him for it. When you cue your horse, he will start to respond to your cue more often. This does not mean that the transition has to be exactly when you ask; just that he will do it in a more timely fashion. This step is extremely important because the horse needs this time to learn what your cue means. So many times handlers and trainers will skip this step and expect perfection immediately from the horse. The horse needs time to learn. Many practices and not rushing the horse will help him to learn. This step will also keep unwanted side effects down to a minimum because you are giving the horse a chance to think without frustrating him.
   
3. Get the transition where you want it to happen. How do you get the transition to happen where you want it to happen? Again you need to go through a teaching process. When you start to work on "where you want it" do not expect your horse to step off into the left lead at the third post the very first time or even the first few times you ask. It would be natural for the horse to take 25 steps before he departs into a canter. If this is the case then you need to start to ask 25 steps before the third post. Before you pick the spot where you want the transition to happen, experiment to see how long it takes your horse to do the transition. Once you know how long it takes, you can pick your spot for the transition (the third post) and pick your starting point of where you start asking (25 steps before the third post). What you will probably see, with practice, is that the horse will take less and less steps to do the transition until he is doing the transition where you ask for it. As you get closer and closer to the spot, your horse is showing you that he is becoming more responsive to your cue to do what is asked. He starts to understand the cue. A word of caution here - if you are not getting your horse to respond as quickly as you like, do not add pressure to your cue. If you start to add pressure, you will most likely get unwanted side effects. Rather, spend more time on the cue. An example of this is asking for the feet to go faster. Go back to the place in the lesson where all you want is an increase in speed – any increase. Continue to work on this until the horse will give you the change in speed a little quicker. When he does he is becoming more responsive to the cue.

The formula is to get the transition correctly, get it consistently, and get it where you want it. These three steps are good for any change you want your horse to make whether you are handling your horse from the ground, doing round pen work or working on changing gaits. Look for transitions to happen smoothly and in a controlled manner, no matter where you are doing them.