Everything Horses and Livestock® Magazine Sept 2018 Vol 3 Issue 3

Everything Horses and Livestock Magazine ®

The Stick Theory by Matthew Jobe

I believe anything we do from our horse can be done smoother and faster if we would just help them become softer. We need to get the resistance out. We need our horses to say yes ma’am/sir every time we pick up the reins. We have all grabbed our horses face in a competition and

horse. The whip end (my left hand) is the horses face. The handle end (my right hand) is the hind end of the horse. In the first picture I have used my left hand to pull on my horse’s face, notice the curvature of my stick, it is all in the front of my “horse.” Too many times we

treat the symptoms and only try to make the face better instead of treating the whole body and curing the problem. Notice the stick in picture #2. My left hand

created a high head, gapping mouth effect, often with her

nose pointed the opposite direction we want to turn. No matter our speed,

is holding the horse’s face, while my right hand pushes the hind end towards the front. See a difference in the curvature now? The whole body of our “horse” has a nice bend end to end. Not only do we have the

this will cost us valuable time! Imagine this dressage whip I’m holding is a

Everything Horses and Livestock® | August 2018 | EHALmagazine.com 16