We are going to briefly describe an important exercise that you can use to gain your horse's undivided attention and trust. We call it magic eyes because the goal of the exercise is to get your horse to focus her attention on you at all times-which helps solidify your relationship with your horse. If you master this exercise she will trust you and follow your lead, making her safer to ride.

All you need for this exercise is a halter and lead line. Begin the exercise by facing the horse. The first step is to learn to open and close doors telling the horse which direction to move.

    Opening a Door

To open a door for the horse, you lift the rope up and out in the direction you are asking the horse to move. This is best illustrated in a picture, which is shown below.





In this image, Eric is opening the door to his right, or to the left of the horse. He does this by moving the rope to his right and lifting up and out. You may want to point out to the right with your finger, although this is not strictly necessary. Notice also how he is shifting his body weight. When you open the door in a particular direction, you will get the horse to point her nose in that direction. This is shown below in a shot taken a split second after the shot shown above:





After opening the door for the horse, which is indicated by the horse looking in the direction you are asking her to go, you want to close the door in the opposite direction. This is done by putting pressure on the opposite side. In the example shown here, Eric will use his left hand to put pressure on the right side of the horse. Closing the door on the opposite side not only tells the horse which direction to move, it actually impels her to start doing so.




Closing the door on the right side of the horse gets her to move to her left. Notice that the trainer is looking to his right, the direction in which he is asking the horse to move.

    Three Body Zones of a Horse

Think of a horse as having three different zones. We will specify what those zones are in a moment, but you can get a horse to move in different ways by applying energy to the different zones. Think of throwing darts at your horse (this is just an analogy...). What you are doing is throwing darts of energy. By projecting energy at different zones of the horse, you can ask her to move in different ways.

The first zone is from the nose to the withers.




 By projecting energy to the zone between the nose and the withers, we can get the nose and front end of the horse to move in a given direction. To move the front end of the horse, think of projecting a beam of energy to his withers. There are actually two different kinds of energy, one to open the door and one to close the door. Again, open the door by lifting and pointing (but this time by projecting energy outward as well). Then close the door by putting pressure on the opposite side, at the withers. You can do this by swinging your lead rope, as shown in the next figure.



Here, we are opening the door to Eric's left side (the right side of the horse) and closing the door on the right side for Eric ( and the left side for the horse). Notice Eric is swinging the rope in a clockwise direction from our vantage point across the withers on the left side of the horse.

    Exercise

Practice repeatedly opening and closing the door for the front end of your horse. Start by asking her to move to your left. When she moves one or two steps, then stop. Next, ask her to move in the opposite direction, to your right. Again, when she moves one or two steps, stop and let her rest for a second. Then repeat, asking her to move to your left again. Carry out this exercise for 10 minutes.

The second zone, which we are going to ignore for the moment, is the middle section of the horse, or what you might basically think of as her gut. This is the area between her front legs and her hind. We are going to ignore that for now and move on to the hindquarters. Here is a rule to remember:

•     Putting pressure on the hind end swings the hip around and causes the face of the horse to come around towards you. If you put pressure on the left hip, the horse will swing its rear end to her right and face you.

•     Putting pressure on the right hip does the opposite.

    Aside: Backing Up

The previous two observations about putting pressure on the front end and the hind taken together tell us how to back up the horse. The halter has two knots on each side of the nose. When you wiggle the rope from side to side, it is equivalent to putting pressure on the front and hind ends simultaneously. The result is that the horse backs up.





              Wiggling the rope is equivalent to putting simultaneous pressure on the front and hind ends,which causes the horse to back up.




                         Putting pressure on the hind end will cause the nose to swing toward you.

    The Magic Eyes Exercise

The magic eyes exercise is a natural horsemanship technique designed to do several things. These include:

•     Having you move your horse around to establish leadership.

•     Teaching you to direct energy toward your horse in different ways.

•     Getting your horse to pay attention to you.

We have already learned that a horse which pays attention to you is one that has both eyes focused on you. How did we do this? Think back to the lessons on catching and leading your horse. You get your horse to focus her attention on you by bumping the rope. We are going to combine moving the front end, moving the hind, and bumping to get attention into a single exercise.

    Step One: Move the front end to your left

Apply what you have learned so far to move the front end of your horse to your left side. This is the first step.

    Step Two: Move the hind end

Now move the hindquarters. We want to move the hind on the same side where we move the front end. This means moving to your right to put pressure on the left hip of the horse. So after you have moved the front end of the horse to your left, lean in and look at her left hip. Then swing the rope once or twice at her left hip. The ship should swing around so that her nose is facing you.

    Step Three: Bump and Kiss

Next, we want to ask for the attention of the horse. You may already have it, you may not. Regardless, bump the rope towards you once and kiss or click. Make sure that as you do so the horse focuses both eyes on you. If not, ask again. This is the crucial step of this exercise.

    Step Four: Repeat for the opposite side

Now change up your rope so that you are in position to ask the horse to move in the opposite direction. Move the front end of your horse to your right side. Put pressure on the right hip of the horse so that she swings her nose toward you, then bump and kiss.

After you have done this for both sides, repeat again. Keep doing this exercise for a period of ten minutes. This is one of the best exercises you can do with your horse on the ground.
 


This article is an exerpt from Teach Yourself Natural Horsemanship in 14 days, which is free with the purchase of Eric Bravo's Natural Horsemanship Video Software.

• © 2009 Gentle Natural Horsemanship Productions Incorporated. 
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