Lesson 5 – Game # 4 – The Yo Yo Game
Now we are going to move into the purpose games, which means putting the ingredients of Games 1, 2 and 3 together so you can start doing more productive and active things with your horse. In this lesson we are going to learn Game #4 The Yo Yo Game.
The Yo Yo Game teaches your horses to go straight, to back up as easily as they go forwards, to transfer weight to the hindquarters, to increase suspension, to stop, and ultimately to slide stop. It can also help solve pull-back problems.
Game #4 – The Yo Yo Game
We call it the Yo Yo Game because it involves two motions, forward and backwards and they need to be equal. We need to teach the horse to go backwards and come forwards easily and on a straight line. Some horses will go backwards with difficulty but come forward easily. Others will go backwards easily but have trouble coming forwards. Some horses have trouble with both!
PURPOSE. To teach a horse to be straight, to balance forwards and backwards, to get the horse more comfortable about using backwards motion in all kinds of situations, to transfer weight carriage more to the handquater, to form the foundation of good stops and slide stops. It also teaches horses the principle of tying up, to understand and yield to pressure felt behind the head. It combines Game#2 (Porcupine) especially for coming forward and Game #3 (Driving) especially for going backwards.
There are four phases and four hinges to use for asking a horse to back up in the Yo Yo Game.
There are four phases to asking a horse to back up using your rope and they involve three “hinges” along your arm: at the finger, the wrist, the elbow and the shoulder. Refer back to Lesson #1 to the simulations you did.
Drive your horse backwards until he is about 7ft away from you and lay belly of the rope on the ground. Now start asking for your horse to back up and be prepared to utilise four phases if he resists or doesn’t understand the more subtile lower phases. You are putting pressure in front of the horse, in zone 1, from which he will learn to yield.
TO BACK UP….
PHASE 1 – Finger hinge: Look at the horse sternly with the Schwiegermutter look (that means mother -in-law in German!) Wiggle your finger toward your horse and think “back up!” Do this while holding the end of the lead rope and without the rope moving and affecting the horse. (One day you’ll do this with no rope at all).
If your horse does not move (he’s probably not even looking at you!) progress to phase 2 to get his attention and response.
PHASE 2 – Wrist hinge, transfer your finger into an upright first and move it from side to side. You’ll see it start to affect the middle of the rope and the horse may start to feel something. If the horse still does not respond, progress to phase 3.
PHASE 3 – Elbow hinge: Bend your arm from the elbow, sweeping side to side in front of your body. This will be very obvious to your horse and he’ll feel the motion and pressure of the wiggling rope all the way to the snap of the lead rope.
If the horse still does not respond, progress to phase 4.
PHASE 4 – Shoulder hinge: Straighten your elbow so your whole arm can move from he shoulder. In this position you can send big sweeping waves down the lead rope and it creates quite some pressure in zone 1. The horse will want to move backwards away form it.
If you remember the section on Equine Psychology that discusses comfort and discomfort being primary motivators for the horse, you’ll realise the importance of rewarding the slightest try no matter what phase your are at. By stopping the stimulus instantly and smiling (yes, smiling!) you will show the horse that to achieve comfort all he has to do is step back. Work on yourself to develop good timing.
When the horse tries to move away form discomfort, offer instant comfort by relaxing all stimulus and smiling. Help the horse to known he is right.
The first slightest try can be identified as a weight shift. The next try will be half a step, then a full step. If you can patiently acknowledge and build on those first few tries your horse will fell like a winner and will try harder for you. This is because the horse becomes confident in knowing how to gain comfort and will look for it sooner and sooner, especially if you are consistent and accurate with your phases. You are aiming for it to take no more than the wiggle of your finger.
You are aiming to be able to back your horse with just a wiggle of your finger.
To Bring your horse forward to you, again use four phases…..
Phase 1 – smile, bend towards your horse and comb the rope with open hands (hand over hand) in an inviting, smooth and rhythmic way.
Phase 2 – put a little drag into it by closing your fingers a little, but keep the rhythm.
Phase 3 – put more drag into it so it feels insisted, still keep the rhythm.
Phase 4 – lock on as if your horse is pulling away from a fence (you are the fence). Hold, don’t pull, and wait until the horse gives.
The instant he gives and tries to come forward, OPEN your hands and SMILE, no matter what phase you are at! The horse has to learn that it is his responsibility to give and yield to the pressure.
You are aiming to be able to bring your horse to you simply by the beckoning motion of your hands and no pressure on the rope at all. One day you’ll not even need the rope!
Once you can get the horse to go backwards and come forwards, put more emphases on straightness. Don’t be too critical at first but steadily get more particular.
This exercise is particularly important for preparing horse to learn to be tied up as they learn not to pull back against pressure but to yield to it.
Pitfalls
- Moving your feet! In horse-ville, he who moves feet is subordinate. Horses will dominate each other by causing movement. You need to keep your feet still and use savvy, it will better develop your timing and reflexes and your horse’s respect for you. To help you keep your feet in one place, draw a little ring around you on the ground, step on a frisbee or stand inside a tire or hula hoop. Until you give yourself this guideline you probably won’t realise how much you do drift!
- Shaking the leather of the rope at the horse. You need to hold the end of the rope so that it looks like an extension of your finger and the leather popper falls out the back of your hand away from the horse. You want to convince your horse that you have a very long finger that can touch him if he doesn’t respond
- Game # 2 and Game # 3 not being good enough will affect how well your horse plays and learns Game # 4
- Starting at Phase 4! Be very conscious about always starting with phase 1 and progressing from there as needed.
- Not allowing the horse to “arrive”. Give him a short spell when he’s backed out, and rub him for a while when you reel him back in. This will give the horse some incentive.
- Not being particular about straightness, ask you horse for 2 eyes.
Troubleshooting
Your horse will not go backwards
If you are certain you used four phases and still did not get a result, go back to Game #3, the Driving Game, in zone 1. Make sure your horse can go backwards easily when you tap on the rope with your Carrot Stick (see lesson 3) and when you drive with rhythmic pushing of the air with your hands. Once again reward the slightest try.
Once your horse finally backs out to the end of the rope, leave him there for at least half a minute. This will reinforce his reason for backing up, he is going to a place of comfort. In the future he won’t need quite so much time out there (unless that’s what you want ) but he will need a little.
Your horse will not come forward and actually drags backwards when you get to phase 4
Reward even the slightest try.. like a shift of weight
If your horse starts to go backwards when you are holding phase 4, drag with him but keep the pressure the same. By keeping the pressure the same and dragging your feet you will teach the horse that this response is unsuccessful and he should try something else. As soon as he tries to come forward, even just a weight shift, stop, smile, wait a moment then begin again with phase 1.
Find a way to increase discomfort when the horse is tuning out.
If he just stays there, you’ll need to keep the holding pressure constant and find an additional way to increase the discomfort so it affects the horse’s decision to stay there, for example: swing the end of your rope alongside (not in front): use a Carrot Stick and Horseman’s String and flick the ground with rhythm getting closer and closer until it lightly touches the horse. Your intention is not to whip the horse but just to bother him, asking for a yield in zone 2 that influences the feet. See if you can hold just the base of the halter and ask him to step forward and follow the feel toward you. Repeat until the horse understands that pressure from the back of zone 2 means move you feet forward to follow the feel towards release.
The message has got to get down to the horse’s feet.
The horse rears up
When a horse rears up, its because he thinks that’s his only choice. The hindquarters are engaged and he cant’t go backwards.
This can happen when asking the resistant horse to go backwards, or even when asking forwards.
If the horse rears when asked to go backwards its because he is confused. When a horse gets confused they want to run, that’s their first instinct. Therefore, the hind legs become engaged for flight while they meet pressure in zone 1. The only gate open to them is up.
Don’t stop when he’s in the air. Stop when he does something desirable, like come back down.
Don’t worry about this and don’t make the horse feel wrong. What’s important is that you maintain that phase (don’t get stronger, you are already causing enough discomfort) even while he is in the air. Whatever you do, don’t stop! Its when you give the horse comfort that he learns he’s done the right thing so only stop when the front feet touch the ground again. Then calmly begin again with phase 1. If backwards is still difficult, refer to the first post in this troubleshooting section.
Pulling without “feel” can cause a horse to flip over. Learn to play him like a fish.
If the horse rears when asked to come forward, he is probably reacting against the pressure behind his ears. The horse probably also has a tendency to pull back.
There are two things to be mindful of:
- that you don’t pull so hard against the horse that you cause him to flip over backwards:
- that you are teaching the horse to understand not to force him
Be sure that you are ready to open your hands if the horse goes up, then just begin again when he is on the ground. Be prepared to take a little longer with this and use your phases for longer and time your releases to be very quick.
When a horse goes crooked, determines whether this is a zone 1 or a zone 4 problem. Then your corrections will be effective.
The horse keeps going crooked when backing up
This is a common one! There are two reasons your horse will go crooked:
- he turns his head away a bit, looks at you with one eye (usually the left) and then goes crooked as a result:
- he move his zone 4 out to one side (usually the left side again)
Horses feel more comfortable with people on their left side so they’ll often block their right side.
The reason its usually the left side is that horses feel more comfortable looking at people out of their left eye because from the early years of handling and leading to the later years of saddling and bridling, horses are handled predominantly from the left side. They are defensive of their right side and if you become more observant you’ll see that many horses will place themselves in such a way that they present their left side and left eye to you. Getting your horse more even sided with the 7 Games will help a lot so don’t just try to fix the problem by repeating the Yo Yo Game, use the first three games even more so.
Keep two eyes you.
To correct the problem with it in zone 1 you need to make sure the horse is presenting two eyes equally. It’s a question of move and counter move. If the horse moves his nose right, lift the lead rope high and give him three little bumps to the left (your right). They should be brief bumps, not tugs or pulls and keep your feet still. Pretty some he will keep his nose straight and you can continue with asking for the back up. Any time the nose start to poke out, stop backing and reinforce straightness with the bumps. (Note: don’t get too particular about the straightness until the horse has learned the basics principle of backing up).
Make counter moves to correct straightness when the horse is coming in to you.
The horse goes crooked when coming forward to you
This is easier to correct then the crooked backwards problem! Once again it usually the horse trying to keep you on his left side. The best solution is to reel the horse in faster, get your hand moving faster and make the counter moves by positioning your hands on the opposite side of his deviation as you reel him in. If you stay consistent about this it won’t take many times before the horse is straight.
