Impulsion
What is it? What is it not? How do you get it?
Ask 10 different people what impulsion is and you will probably get 10 different answers. Probably many of them will be very vague. In dressage terms, it often refers to the driving and unlimited power of the hindquarters. Many riders don’t seem to think about it at all. Reiners know it about responsive forwardness with enough desire to stop, so you don’t have to real a horse back, like taking your foot off the gas pedal and your car decelerating.
What it is and what its not!
As an example: if you car kept getting faster and faster even after you’ve taken your foot off the accelerator, you’d say it was impulsive. While there was a lot of power or speed, you’d have to put your foot on the brakes to slow it down. If you pushed the accelerator to the floor and very little happened, you would say it lacked impulsion or was non-responsive. Impulsion is when you can press on the accelerator and the car responds by moving forward at the appropriate speed yet when you take your foot off, the speed backs off gradually.
Impulsion, therefore, is controlled forward energy.
A horse that has more go than whoa is impulsive. A horse that has no go, all whoa, is non-responsive. A horse who has go and whoa equal has impulsion. This means it takes less than four ounces to go, at whatever speed you ask… and less than four ounces to stop, from whatever speed you are going.
Dont be too shocked! You’ve got until level 3(4) to get this really right, but Level 2(3) will explore impulsion as one of the major ingredients in obtaining harmony between horse and human. If you are always having to hold your horse back from going a bit (or a lot!), or have to urge him to keep going, you can never have harmony.
How to get it!
First of all, you have to get it. This might sound a little strange, but a lot has to do with your ability to control the life in your own body. Some people have a body that is always relaxed, if you imagined the “molecules” vibrating, you’d say that it was low vibration. Other people have a very high energy, you can almost feel the energy buzzing out of them. Interestingly, these people are often attracted to horses with similar energy. People who have a lot of life seem to always be riding excitable horses, and those with fairly low energy are riding horses that don’t want to go! Strange coincidence!
Now, it may be true that the horse innately has a lot of a little life (you can often select it by breed), but the “life” of the rider will have a great effect on inflaming this or balancing it out. This is why a horseman can get on a fizzed up horse and just through his seat and energy level communicated be able to calm the horse down; and conversely on a seemingly lazy horse, have him pepped up and responding respectfully in no time. As a student of the horse and great horsemanship, it is you responsibility to develop the right energy or “life” levels for the horse and for the responses you are wanting.
An Experiment
During a live-in course, we asked a student (who was having some frustrations managing her flighty horse) to walk, jog, run, jog, stop, walk, run fast, etc. to experience the different levels of “life up” and “life down” required to produce these in herself, just on the ground. Not only did she see the regulation she did naturally when focusing on the speed she wanted, but we all saw that when she stopped, her molecules were not stopped! it was fascinating. Suddenly she became conscious of it and began to ride with more consciousness too. Needless to say, the horses behaviour also changed.
Before we can master horses, we much first master ourselves.
As an experiment to teach yourself, do the same. While standing on the ground, notice how much energy it takes to go from a stop to a walk, to a fast walk, to a slow jog, to a medium run, to a fast run, and back down to a stop. And really stop! Stop you molecules. Completely relax. Then bring your life up again. If you are a person with a lot of life and energy, your great challenge will be in learning how to turn it off. To rally stop, and how to go slow. If you are the opposite, where you tend to be more calm and easy going, your challenge will be to be able to bring up enough life! To be able to go from a stop to a dead run, just on you own two feet!
Long horses and short horses
Simply put, a long hole is one that wants to run. He has more go than whoa. And a short horse has more whoa than go.
The truly wild horse is neither long nor short. He has a much go as whoa. The way this is measured is by something called “flight distance”. the distance a horse will run before he turns to look a his pursuant. It is approximately 440 yards, just a bit further than lion’s who are able to run up to 400 yards at full speed. When the horse is fleeing, he is not thinking but using the instinctive right side of the brain. As soon as he turns, he disengages his hindquarters and the left side kicks in so the horse can reconsider his actions, relax or take off again. When he does this he is said to have crossed the flight “line”. (You need to absorb this fact about the right brain -left brain transition with respect to hindquarter disengagement as it will really make sense to you when you learn some of the impulsion exercise!)
Over the centuries the natural horse has been genetically altered for man’s purpose. For example, the flight line in thoroughbred race horses has been altered up to 2 miles. In Arabians, up to 100 miles! Draft horses and their breed counterparts such as Fjords, Haflingers, etc. have been bread over centuries to be less sensitive and unlikely to run off, and if they did, to run for only a very short distance. You might exclude the Clydesdale here, who has more life than the average draft, being bred to pull carts for long distances. Ponies are descendants of the pit pony draft breed. The warmblood sought to combine the stamina of the thoroughbred and the cool temperament of the lighter drafts. The quarter horse was a stroke of genius combing the willingness to run fast for a short distance and bury its hindquarters to stop and relax with barely a yawn.
Where does your horse fit?
Long
- Thoroughbred
- Arabian
- Anglo-arab
- Appendix QH
- Morgan
- Walking Horses
- Saddle Bred
- Paso Fino
- Peruvian Paso
- Standard Bred
- Most trotting horses
- Clydesdale
Medium
- Quarter horse
- Warmblood
- POA
- Mustang
- Fresian
- Adalusian
- Lusitano
- Lippizaner
Short
- Appaloosa
- Belgian
- Percheron
- Norw. Fjord
- Haflinger
- Sheltland
- Miniatures
This is not to say that every example of the breed fits neatly into these categories, especially since fad and fashion continue to alter genetics within the breeds, often adding more hot blood for a flasher model. For example, in the quarter horse breed you will find those bred more for racing, for barrel racing, for roping, for reining, for cutting and for pleasure, going from long, through medium to Short. Also, Paints and Appaloosas are more quarter horse types and run the gamut according to the amount of through bred in their breeding. Keep this and cross breeding in mid as you peruse the list.
Spirit
There is one other element that can affect the nature of your horse and that is spirit. Spirit is innate, it’s what they are born with. Some horses are high spirited, others medium spirited and yet others are low spirited. This is like a long lasting fuse. It links strongly with adrenalin capability, for example a horse that gets on adrenaline quick and stays on it long would be considered a hot or high spirited horse. They have amazing endurance and are the kind who fight ’til the last. Other get on it slow but stay on it long. Still other horses get on it quick and come off it quick. And then there’s the horse that hardly gets on it at all and clams down quick, the low spirited horse.
Spirit often goes hand in hand with the long and short horse categorisation however is not dictated by it. Long horses are usually hot blooded as the adrenaline – right brain connection causes them to run and run and run without thinking. This is why sometimes people cannot understand why their horse is not tired after jigging and prancing or trotting full pelt for miles on end. The horse is so high on adrenaline it doesn’t know its tired. Short horses are usually cold blooded. But you can find long horses with medium spirit.
The 7 Games is a good way to analyse the spirit of a horse. You can see just what it takes to rev a horse up and how quickly it comes down, just watch how much time it takes to lower it head and lick its lips when you take the pressure off. On the other end of the scale, you might find a cool, short, low spirited horse quite difficult to motivate or even complete one circle on the Circling Game on its own initiative! By knowing the extremes, you will more easily be able to identify the middle . Then you have to choose what’s best for you, or if you already have it, think about what counterbalances you will need in order to regulate the horse’s impulsion. You never want to change his spirit.
Counter balances
Straight lines lengthen, Circles shorten. This is something to imprint on your brain, so that even when you are feeling a little right brained yourself in a situation with a difficult horse, you’ll know the right thing to do!
Where most people get into trouble is by doing the exact wrong thing at the right time. For instance, a horse that is always prancing and raring to go should not be taken on long trail rides at a brisk pace, nor galloped until they are “tired”. It never works. The horse seems to get more het up, you more tired and frustrated, and he’s even worse the next day! The opposite is true for the short horse. Confined to arenas and round corrals going around and around and around does nothing to motivate the horse into more movement or expression! This same horse could jig home form a trail ride out of laziness, he can’t wait to get back to the barn and do nothing.
Use reverse psychology to get the best results
A long horse therefore needs circles.
The infinity takes away the motivation for running and the consistency help the horse to go long enough, the same enough, to begin to think again.
Short horse needs straight lines.
It gives them a place to go, and sometimes you can add in incentive at the end of it. Some example follow.
Get to know the impulsion Program and which ones to use to solve the relevant problem.
Impulsion Programs
LONG HORSES
- Backwards and Sideways On Line
- Liberty sessions in the round corral
- Find the Center (Bulls eye)
- The Clover Leaf Pattern
- The Corners Game
- Canter-trot transitions, FreeStyle
SHORT HORSES
- Point to Point
- The Clover Leaf Pattern
Summary
Impulsion is one of the most misunderstood concepts when it comes to horse power.
Impulsion is controlled forward energy.
More go than whoa = impulsive. More whoa than go = non responsive.
Go and whoa being equal = impulsion
Before your horse can have impulsion, you have to get it.
The “life” or energy in a rider will have a great effect on the horse. Develop the right energy for the horse you are riding.
Experience the amount of life you need in your body for different speeds and a stop by yourself on the ground.
Get control of your molecules!
A long horse is one that wants to run, has more go than whoa. A short horse has more whoa than go.
Horse ‘length’ is measured by the flight distance.
When a horse crosses the flight line he crosses from right brain to left brain.
Horses have been genetically altered for man’s purpose.
Not every breed fits neatly into these categories, especially when hot blood is added for more performance.
Spirit is wha a horse is born with. It influences the nature of your horse and links strongly with adrenalin capability.
Long horses are usually hot blooded.
Short horses are usually cold blooded.
The 7 Games is a good way to analyse the spirit of a horse.
Counter balance; straight line lengthen, circles shorten.
Most people do the exact wrong thing for an impulsive horse or a non-responsive horse.
Reverse psychology is the key.
The infinity of circles takes the motivation out of running off.
Straight lines gives unmotivated horses a place to go.
Get to know the Impulsion Programs.
