Progress, And A Few Thoughts on Thresholds (Part III)

On this blustery, wet, non-Spring-like day, I finally have a moment to post the third and final update on this little series which was supposed to be about using thresholds in training, but has evolved into much more, and has taken far longer to complete than I ever intended. As you can see from the banner photo, Levi is not in fact training for the Grand Prix based on his recent shenanigans, which might come as a bummer to those of you who thought we were finally starting to seem interesting. While we never did find out if he's actually jumping in and out of his paddock (never did get to eat my hat one way or another), our very wise barn staff tackled this escape problem using the art of distraction, adding him to the largest paddock on the property with five other geldings to explore, graze, roughhouse, and canter around mindlessly. It's pretty much everything he's ever wanted.

I have split this post into multiple sections to be a little more manageable. Still, it's the longest post I've written here, so be forewarned in case you would rather not sift through lots of words. There are plenty of videos and photos if that's more your thing.

Updates on Progress

Speaking of cantering around, as you can see in the video below, Levi is taking this seriously while on his own time. He had fully recovered from his hematoma in February and was literally right back in harness when, right on cue, he either slipped or fell on the wet paddock during turnout one day and pulled a muscle in his shoulder, making him pretty lame at a trot for a few weeks. I had him seen right away by his vet, who determined there was no obvious cause of injury such as a hoof abscess, and that the lameness was mild. Putting him in turnout and with only walking in hand for exercise, and pushing back my plans to get him back in shape for driving, was the routine for most of February and the beginning of this month. However, he made a full recovery and is now back to both driving and galavanting around outside, and we are planning to spend the next six weeks gradually building up some muscle strength and fitness in and out of the cart.

I think this long break, although it was frustrating and worrying for me as his owner and trainer, actually dealt Levi a world of good in various ways. I had read that giving young, green horses a nice long winter off can actually slingshot them further ahead in their training vs. keeping them in work during those weeks, and this old school wisdom seemed to hold true for us. He is somehow more mentally mature, even since December, which was when we had our last drive in the cart until recently. The increase in mental maturity seems to make the most difference here. While I still see a very physically young and immature horse in front of me when we are driving (it's really noticeable in these driving videos, isn't it?? I wonder if he will always look just like a two year old plucked from the pasture) I also see a horse who despite his youth is calm and focused and ready to meet the next stages of his training with a good attitude and work ethic.

With the addition of more geldings to his herd, Levi has become much more fluent in horse, and it's fascinating to watch the behavior in establishing who drives each moment, and setting rank of the individual geldings. I really think he is having the time of his life, and I'm here for every moment of it. I've never seen happier horses. Oliver still remains Levi's steadfast mentor and surly uncle extraordinaire; Ollie is always surly uncle #1. Karamo has a softer energy with Levi and tends to rile him up a bit, but surprisingly is a sort of peacemaker among the others, often intervening when horseplay is too rough or there are conflicts. Karamo is surly uncle #2. Mozart (surly uncle #3) is the de facto herd leader yet the geldings sometimes split into two small bands with Oliver seeming to lead one and Mozart the other. Levi bounces around between the groups, not particularly attached to membership in general, as he has no real skin in the game. The others know he is too young to be useful, and so far they let him just eat and play and be cute and not have any true responsibility for anything. To his benefit, Levi has learned from these older males how to interact, how to be soft, how to be moved and move others at a distance without needing to get in other horses' spaces, and how to calm himself when needed.

On occasion, this herd of horses will panic over something in the environment and take flight; Levi joins them of course, as he's a member of the gang, but he never instigates this behavior and his attitude is usually one of perplexity instead of fear:"OK, so... we're all running now. Hey, wait, what are we running from? Guys... listen... this isn't making a whole lot of sense...". I always intervene since he could hurt himself otherwise, but the moments leading up to that are often comical to witness. Levi doesn't like doing too much cardio and would rather face the boogeyman in the woods than run from it. Who knows, the boogeyman might have food, or might know where food could be found! When I have come to collect him and the threat is over, boy does he have a lot to tell me about what happened, through his impressive dance-fighting re-enactment of the 'battle'! It's expected to deal with the aftermath of fight or flight, but he sometimes does both at the same time with the hope that one of them will land, with the end result resembling a hapless teenage victim in a B horror movie who slips and falls down while escaping some terror, grabbing and throwing whatever useless objects are around him in the hope it might be effective. Levi prefers brave displays of kicking, bucking, hopping, striking out, and even suddenly rolling around (maybe to confuse the enemy? I'm not sure) in the midst of the great flight, instead of running around with his head on fire. I actually approve of this because him not being prone to losing his mind, and coming back to Earth right afterward, makes training him a lot easier.

Observing how horses handle this type of stress (as one example), and how they deal with it after the fact, has been a master class in understanding thresholds, which is the next topic below. If you'd rather not read that and prefer to just stay within Levi's world instead, feel free to skip to the last section, "Future Plans".

Working With Thresholds

The longer I work with my horse, and watch excellent trainers working with theirs, the clearer it becomes to me that success in training horses arises from observation and application of a few correct actions performed at the right times. "Correct" could be what's needed in the moment; I consider it to be the softest ask I can give that gets the result that I'm seeking. As time goes on, I feel like I need to do less to achieve results but it has greater impact when I do take action. What interests me is that he is also doing less, somehow. Does it look like we are really doing anything? Sometimes, and yet substantial progress happens even in moments where we aren't even working together. I spend a lot of time that used to be focused on doing now just thinking and focusing on the information presented to me by the horse, and asking myself how I can use this information, firstly to teach, reinforce, or alter behaviors, next to foster greater physical and mental benefit for him, and also to establish trust in human beings and our leadership. The way in which I can accomplish this, through any established realm of training or methodology (and there are probably as many ways as there are horse breeds in the world), doesn't matter to me as much as whether it is appropriate and humane, and if not overtly supported through scientific or medical evidence, then at least yields a historical context or precedent that reflects collective knowledge accrued through centuries with this species. This can be as broad or as narrow as one wants to make it. I do think there is a 'right' and 'wrong' way to go about training, however, but that's personally perspective-driven, from my view, and I wouldn't try to force those perspectives on others. I thoroughly enjoy reading the work of classical dressage trainers for this reason; Étienne Beudant's thoughts on training through the levels comprise one of the most profound and insightful works on horsemanship to date, and this was published nearly a century ago. (He also has some innovative reflections at the end of his book regarding working with untrained horses which proved to be very challenging for the methods of the time, just as such horses exist today, and those stories are truly worth reading!)

As I've been thinking on this topic during the now nearly five (!!) years Levi has blessed my life, I have been routinely confronted with the idea that thresholds are critical elements for making progress with my horse. Although the concept of working with thresholds isn't new and I probably haven't discovered anything that others interested in this haven't already, I might offer a unique perspective as I haven't encountered any views on the topic that are exactly similar. I want to preface that these thoughts are a reflection of my own journey with horsemanship developed over time, working with individual horses who were very special to me. I am not a professional trainer nor do I want to be, but I have tremendous respect for those who do this difficult work so well, and I want to represent my understanding of their hard-earned knowledge authentically. In that light, I am trying to avoid overstating anything, while trying to share any insights or discoveries that have been helpful for me. Hopefully, I'll manage to avoid the tone that screams "Equestrian discovers fire- stay tuned for more breaking news at 11!"

With this in mind, over the next several paragraphs, I want to share my definition of thresholds as I have come to understand them, and describe how I have used this information in training to the benefit of my horse. I want to provide some video evidence of how this manifested with my horse and how I have dealt with it, and discuss how thresholds change over time. Finally, I'll share a couple of easy training exercises I have developed that can help anyone with a basic knowledge of horses to begin working safely with thresholds.

Thresholds Defined

Again, please keep in mind that these are my own opinions developed through working with my horse and thinking about how I can present this information in a way that is insightful and helpful to horse owners. If you read or see anything you disagree with or feel is so ill-informed it makes you spit out your coffee, please use that energy to subscribe and leave a comment. I will probably not go into this level of detail about anything similar here again, thankfully.

What are thresholds in the context of horse behavior and training? We've all heard of exposing horses to triggers and the use of desensitization to reduce the magnitude of stress responses, and similar. These phrases imply that thresholds are situational properties related to the environment, or to a particular scenario causing stress to a horse. That would be a reasonable consideration, and I doubt anyone who works with horses would refute or fail to understand that meaning. I don't think it's incorrect to think about thresholds in that way. However, after working with Levi for some time, and adapting my training accordingly, I have come to see this a little differently. My sentiment is that thresholds are actually innate characteristics of horse itself rather than predicated by the environment. I define a threshold as the tendency to manifest a behavioral response to a stress-inducing stimuli, with a direction and magnitude of effect (value) relative to a unique set point or baseline. A threshold comprises the capacity of the horse for emotional regulation, physical arousal (fight/flight/freeze), learning and recollection, tolerance for novelty, and also takes into account the impact of the environment, age, and social status as a herd animal. It is easiest to quantify this collective measurement, and consider thresholds as representing a range of numerical values relative to a midpoint; if 10 represents the peak in terms of most extreme behavior or response, then 1 would be the least, with the average values falling around 5. For example, if 1 is a state of deep sleep, perhaps 10 is a state of panic in which the horse has completely mentally left the building and probably won't come back to its own natural baseline without a lot of time and space. How each of these values manifests in real time looks unique for, and is relative to, each individual horse. I will describe the elements that can be largely assigned to thresholds categorically, because these elements are areas where we can either work with the horse to help move his threshold up or down, or where we are stuck managing behaviors that are likely fixed.

Just for fun, I've included a little video of Levi below, demonstrating how to use a very low threshold in training; later on, I will show you the other extreme! Once he stopped, planted his feet, and literally fell asleep right in the middle of our warmup, I decided to let him stand there, instead of pushing him up to a higher state of energy and trying to get more from him. There didn't seem to be much benefit to it at the time. Instead, I simply worked on ground tying with him, which has been unusually challenging for him to master, but as he was at such a low threshold it was very easy to use this state to get the behavior I've been trying to accomplish. Sure-he's unconscious, but standing still is standing still. If I had pushed it, we would have had a mediocre session doing other things rather poorly; in working with a low threshold point for what it could give, I was able to allow the horse to do something right, to earn praise for it, and to work on establishing something new as well. And yes... the lesson has stuck!

The Elements of Thresholds

I think that any horse's threshold is driven by four elements that could for the sake of ease be termed Nature, Nurture, Environment, and Time (capitalized for dramatic purposes only). I believe the that most influential element for the threshold is Nature, i.e. the horse's genetic and epigenetic background that it was born with and that is expected to largely dictate its natural behavior or temperament. We know that the genetic heritability of complex traits reflects the degree to which the variability that is observed for that trait can be attributed to genetic (inherited) factors. In horses, the heritability of traits that are best understood are usually health or performance-related, or specific to development of certain breeds, as these are most commonly selected for in breeding programs. Nature also includes the genetic factors related to specific diseases that can contribute to thresholds, but as the impact of environmental risk factors and variation in heritability within and across breeds also greatly contributes, the situation becomes more complex. What makes heritability as a measure of the genetic background or contribution to a particular trait so valuable for our understanding of thresholds is that it can be quantified. In this case, it is the heritable traits governing basic temperament, as well as those driving intelligence, memory, and novelty tolerance, for example, that are most relevant. Through various forms of evidence, it is clear that a horse's basic temperament and the resulting behavioral responses are a relatively stable entity over time and across multiple generations. As a result, in my opinion, it can be considered a major, if not the major, contributing factor underlying a given horse's threshold.

The second most important driver of a horse's threshold is Nurture, or what happens to the horse at any point both outside of, and inclusive of, any given environment. This is mostly related to the horse's interactions with people and the human world, but includes social relationships to other horses and animals, and past situations resulting in alterations in personality or temperament that are unrelated to genetic factors as the direct cause. If Nature is considered fixed, in that the genetic background of the horse cannot be changed (but only the effects of heritable traits managed), Nurture is a step above it in terms of the level of variability. Both Nature and Nurture could be considered retrospective, as they represent things that have either already happened and can't be changed but the effects only managed, or are currently happening and still can't be altered very much, if at all. One example of the impact of Nurture is how the horse responds to its initial schooling and training. If we took a horse that has exemplary temperament and also had favorable conformation and no underlying health issues that would negatively impact training, we could expect that with a trainer of average skill or higher, the horse would respond well and would not display many instances of unwarranted fearfulness such as bolting or rearing. With a bad trainer, the horse might still be resilient to some degree, but it would still likely be adversely affected despite its potential. Another example of Nurture is the early life experience of a foal during the first 6-12 months, notably weaning. How, and at what age the foal was weaned, for example, can cause behavioral changes that persist throughout life, impacting thresholds in multiple ways. The horse's social structure is also accounted for here; the impact of other members of its own species represents one of the largest concerns for them as herd animals. Nurture has the second greatest impact on the threshold.

The two most variable elements, Environment and Time, are also easiest to understand. Environment refers to everything that is physically external to the horse, or that is happening around the horse. Time is the most variable element for obvious reasons and captures an important feature underscoring the threshold, which is the horse's biological age, developmental stages, and even its circadian rhythms. Thresholds will vary with age and across age groups, due to hormones, the regulation and secretion of growth factors, metabolism, health status, and so on, and can vary even at different times of day or night. Horses live in the present, and many owners have often wondered, what horse do I get to ride today?

How are thresholds actually determined? Many of these factors above we cannot actually truly measure, but only estimate based on behavior and prior knowledge about the horse. We might know something about the horse's pedigree, and know its age and gender. We may know the behavioral traits of the horse's breed and any medical issues the horse has that could impact this; we know his environment and perhaps how he reacted to his recent training. We may know some or none of the above. If one has only a short time to establish a horse's threshold at any point in time, observing the horse at commonly known points of both stress (feeding time, getting on a trailer) and relaxation is one way to get a sense of its threshold. You have probably observed good trainers at clinics or other venues doing this with client's horses, through quick assessment performed quietly and non-invasively. If, like me, you are blessed with just one horse, you have plenty of time and opportunity to focus on that horse, understand and appreciate that horse's threshold, and work with it to get the most out of your training time. You can determine his set point and see how that set point changes on a day to day, week to week, month to month basis. You can develop and adapt your existing training program around this information, with benefit to the horse.

The Benefits of Using Thresholds in Training

I believe that the greatest benefit of using thresholds is that it gives you a more impactful result relative to the time that you invested in training. This translates as steady progress. The tradeoff is a greater need for flexibility in training plans, desire and willingness to be more observant than you may have ever been in your life, and being open to and capable of responding to subtle information from the horse. It can also seem frustrating, particularly if you don't feel you're making progress quickly enough, or in comparison to those who aren't doing silly stuff like this, but I've found that this kind of work has an amazing impact on the horse's ability to learn.

I have been working with Levi's thresholds for a few years. If we hadn't had anything to show for it that I could directly relate to this kind of work, I would not be driven to bore you to tears with this. Here is a short list of what we have accomplished using this approach:

• Consistently able to work calmly on a lunge line or in long lines, in indoor and outdoor spaces, and in the presence of stressors (weather, noises, other horses, people, etc.);
• Walking and trotting quietly in hand with lightness and self-carriage;
• The ability to quickly 'come down' or emotionally regulate following a spook or scare, and return to working;
• Working calmly alone, and near or past nightfall (typically a time when Levi is more nervous as he's usually worked in the daytime), and walking to and from the barn calmly in pitch black or during storms;
• Loading/unloading and trailering peacefully, and working around machines of all sizes and shapes;
• Standing quietly to be hitched to cart and not moving unless asked to move out;
• Standing quietly tied or in cross-ties; ground tying;
• Being receptive to redirection: 'don't look at that, focus on me';
• Standing and being relaxed for the vet and farrier;
• Crossing puddles and not reacting to water or diverse kinds of footing;
• Performing well at shows - FYI, Levi was the 2023 Open English In Hand Champion for RRDC;
• All of our work to date under cart - all of our current training and results under cart that I share in this blog are largely due to prior work incorporating thresholds.

The common theme above is working calmly. This is what I most desired for my horse from the start. Being in a state of calmness means that the horse has the mental resources and energy to focus and learn; he is not devoting resources to self-preservation or flight. The ability to carry himself and have some responsibility for his own physical space means that he can more easily regulate himself following a frightening or nerve-wracking experience. All of the above work builds a lot of trust in his human handlers.

This sounds great, but what about when thresholds are pushed rapidly, or when something happens that sends even a calm horse like ours into the stratosphere? What does it look like for a horse like Levi, whose natural set point for temperament or behavior is about a 4, which is a little lower than most horses of his age and breed but still high enough to make room for shenanigans, to shoot up to an 8?

I debated posting the video below because I know it will probably strike terror into the hearts of drivers, but I think it's illustrative not only in seeing firsthand the results of how using thresholds in training of driving horses can help them recover from a sudden fright, but also in realizing how quickly trouble happens and how little time you have to avert a major accident. I've also seen few videos online of spooks or bolting under cart with a successful recovery, so perhaps this one will be educational for drivers. For some context, in this video which was filmed back in late November (at the height of the season for pushing thresholds!), Levi and I were practicing some simple walk-trot transitions in the indoor arena at night when he either visually reacted (which I thought at the time) to something or heard some noise (which was later determined to be the real cause- I still don't know its origin although it sounds electric, like... a cattle prod? Maybe some astute reader can tell me what they think.) that sent him from calmly trotting through the corner right into a bolt down the center line. He's never bolted under cart before, so this was unexpected. Importantly, prior to the drive, he had been trying to tell me that his threshold was rapidly increasing, both during the warmup outside the arena in which he spooked in hand, as well as in his general state of tension working under cart during the workout. It is unforgivable to me that I did not take more seriously the buildup of little clues; I've since apologized to him, and we have had smooth sailing since this day. In the video, watch how he signals his discomfort once we round the corner; he actually turns his entire head and looks in the direction of whatever it was that had bothered him, just before all hell breaks loose. Poor guy! If I had listened to him in the first place beforehand instead of being confident in the exercise instead, we could likely have avoided this entirely.

Spooking and bolting under cart or carriage is incredibly dangerous, and all drivers must learn how to prevent it from happening as well as the skills to getting the horse under control as quickly as possible. Paying attention to creeping threshold levels before you get into the cart is important! Sometimes, like we see in this video, stressors have accumulated to the point it seemingly happens out of nowhere following the final causal event. While the actual spook itself was over and under control in about three or four seconds, you can also see just how quickly Levi made it from one end down to the opposite end of our huge indoor arena, despite my attempts to buy us some real estate by turning. With a bolt in harness, you have only a few seconds to regain control; after that, you are managing a runaway. While I don't like that my beloved horse bolted (right in the direction of my cameraman, no less!) I am glad that I was able to quickly get his mind back, send that extra energy gifted by adrenaline out through a smooth and wide turn at a canter, halt him, and put him right back on the job, within ten to twelve seconds. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug, and I was not actually expecting the situation to be over as soon as it was. I've dealt with horses whose panic re-ignited after an initial calm down from a bolt, simply because all that energy needs somewhere to go. Fortunately, Levi responded differently, and his expression was mostly in line with "WTF just happened??" Despite everything, it is remarkable that he still trusted me, and calmly went right back to that same corner without hesitation. Thank you, threshold work!

As the driver, muscle memory from riding bolters and spooks kicked in; I have never actually dealt with a spook or bolt in harness until now, as every horse I've ever driven has somehow been a total angel. Statistically improbable, but also true. I can't do a one-rein stop in a cart, of course, but I could use everything I had available to me including the space/distance, reins, balance, and my body position. I'm grateful for all those spooky horses in the past, because they taught me to act in crisis mode without thinking about it. Until I met Levi, I thought that nice horses happened to other people.

What is interesting in this video is that afterward neither of us appear to be remotely frightened by what transpired, although we were both incredulous. I just had to chirp at him a little bit afterward ("Not gonna get out of work, bud!" and "I guess we know you can do combined driving, with turns like that!"), but didn't hold it against him as it was truly my own fault in the first place. I didn't feel any fear, or much of anything really, in the moment it was all happening except for this giant balloon of NOT TODAY expanding throughout my entire body. I felt total determination and commitment to getting our turnout safely stopped. I love my horse to the ends of the Earth, and would never forgive myself if he met with any accident as a result of my doing, but if he was not able to listen to me and stop, my next plan was to point him at the arena wall. Fortunately, Levi is intelligent and equipped with self-preservation, and our work has prepared us to overcome this kind of situation, as we discovered. I am happy to report we have not had any further incidents of any kind, and I have continued to be ever vigilant of him signaling his threshold level before we are ever near a difficult place.

So, that is how we came back down from an 8 to a 5. In the next section I will share a little exercise that is far less dramatic to begin to help the horse regulate in stressful situations.

Thresholds in Practice

You really don't need to do all your own stunts. Here is a simple exercise that can help address thresholds as a way to increase the horse's confidence and trust through reminding him to use his body correctly. I mentioned that thresholds evolve over time; the horse that could not walk to the arena in darkness without losing his mind, over time, begins to feel it's no big deal, as he goes from an 9 to a 7 to a 5 over several training sessions to specifically address his concerns. His whole demeanor changes and it seemingly hinges on that one thing, but so much more is happening inside. How much time does it take to return to baseline from a bad situation? You don't need to wait for the spook to find out.

One exercise that just about anyone of any skill level with horses can do to improve focus and move a horse from a difficult space to a more relaxed level also paves the way for emotional regulation. For this exercise, you only need your horse, a halter and lead rope or lunge line, and a safe place to work. The ideal situation in which to use this exercise is if the horse is not too far off from his baseline but is starting to show signs that he is becoming worried or frustrated, in that he is no longer focusing on you, is rigid and tense in his body, staring or snorting at what worries him, and is trying to move his feet around or turn to look at something that disturbs him. One caveat is that if he is already taking flight, rearing, or screaming his head off, he is probably over the threshold for which this simple exercise can reach him, but you can still work on the 'stand still' part, which will help you both. This exercise can also work if the horse is distracted in the cross-ties, squirreling around, or acting like a busybody. The theory behind the exercise is based in part on information from the trainer Amy Skinner, whose work has been mentioned here before. From Amy, we learned that having a posture aligned with straightness (horse's head over his chest, weight balanced across all four feet) contributes to mental and emotional well-being and perceptions of safety. This exercise uses adjusting balance and posture within the context of a stressor to help re-calibrate the horse's emotional state, which is correlated with his perceived level of safety.

As an example of applying this exercise in Levi's case, he has been rather concerned and worried about some questionable farming practices going on in the neighbor's field (hilariously specific, and is too much to go into here by way of context, but he is rightfully concerned considering the situation). I want him to focus on me, of course, and I know that if I allow this behavior to continue unremarked he will escalate his brewing concern into, "Now I'm mad, and I'm going to go over there and give that guy a talking-to, and you aren't going to stop me!" Another horse would probably react differently, but right now this is the energy I have to work with. To use the exercise to help him avoid this point, I simply ask him to whoa and stand, which he knows well how to do, but with his head pointed away from the area of concern and centered over his chest, with his weight balanced on all four feet. After setting him up in a balanced frame, I stand far enough away that there is a nice loop of slack in the lead rope, as he is used to, but still close enough to reach him if he moves; if your horse moves off practice making him stand before trying this exercise, which is a great way to build patience and focus. Now, he is going to do his best to address the threat by turning his head in its direction. The horse may even try to move off or take a step, paw in frustration, or lower or lift his head. Each time he does this, gently but firmly grasp the lead rope just under his chin, and move his head and/or body back so that it is in its balanced frame. If he stands for a moment but still moves, put him right back into the original balanced position. You may need to invoke the patience of all the saints in order to keep doing this, but if you stay calm and consistent in your body and reactions, eventually the horse will relax, lick and chew, and blink his eyes, lower his head, perhaps rest a hind leg, and you will begin to see his concern fade away. Once the horse is in a nice comfortable state (or dead asleep by now, per Levi) try moving him to another spot and repeat, if he continues showing concern. I have done this exercise countless times over many hours with my horse, and I keep returning to it when needed because when he is calm, balanced, and straight in his posture, it's easy to remain below his threshold set point.

How do we work with thresholds under harness? In this video from last week, we had just returned to working under cart after Levi's hiatus. The structure of our training sessions is the same - 30 minute walk in hand, 10 minutes ground driving to make sure all of our buttons are working, a quick hitch, and then a brief walk out followed by walk-trot and walk-halt transitions. Awareness of thresholds is constant throughout the entire process; usually, whatever energy Levi gives in the warmup is what will be repeated throughout the rest of the workout, so I am very attentive during the stages before I get into the cart. Lately, in addition to taking issue with our local gentleman farmer, Levi has been concerned about disembodied voices and ghostly sounds echoing in the indoor arena (hence our conversation in the video about "is that someone singing"), which distorts and vibrates sound like an amphitheater. In the video below, I was working specifically with this in mind: go into the corners with focus, you can listen but don't react, speed isn't important here but keep forward, respond to my aids, relax and halt. If I had all of that below a 5 or 6, I said good job, now let's go outside and drive! And we did! Levi has also learned to disregard the distraction of farming next door, but he did write a farming joke for you:

Q: How can you tell that someone is a gentleman farmer without them telling you they're a gentleman farmer? A: They own a tractor that costs as much as a single family home, but still don't put up their own hay. Good one, Levi!

Congratulations on reading this far, if you were interested in learning about thresholds from my view. I may revisit this idea in the future, just so that I can correct my own current misconceptions! In the meantime, if any of this content was helpful or if you felt some type of way about any of it that you're burning to share, feel free to subscribe so you can leave a comment. Many thanks for reading.

Future Plans

If you're not a member of Overthinkers Anonymous and decided to skip all the stuff about thresholds above, welcome to this last and final section where I get back to Levi's life and share some of our upcoming plans. Levi will be five years old next month. That's incredible to me. Last year at this time I was putting some final finishes on his ground work in preparation for putting to cart for the first time. This year, we are already out driving in our spacious outdoor arena, getting fit and ready for Spring and Summer outings!

My main training focus for this year is to prepare Levi for something very special, which is his very first driving competition - a combined driving event - in October. It takes ~200 days or so for a novice, green horse to be fit enough to compete in this kind of event without injury and I am taking all precautions. For the next six weeks, we will do the kind of slow, steady, boring work you see in the video below. Afterward, I will begin trailering him off property to have various important driving training experiences that are critical for his future success. We are breaking no land speed records here, and I am not putting Levi into any kind of collected frame as he is not yet strong enough for that. We will build up to working every other day or so under cart, and then finally about five days per week with one day consisting of a long walk out or dressage-focused work in hand that will make his transition to work under saddle easier. Regarding that, toward the end of this year I will have Levi fitted for a saddle, and if all goes well, I plan to put his first rides on him in April of 2025, on or around his sixth birthday. He will have built up a good base of fitness and strength from our steady work this year, and will have had virtually all but the kitchen sink thrown at him in terms of preparation for starting work under saddle. I think Levi will make a wonderful driving horse as well as an excellent riding horse, and we are still in early stages of both endeavors. It's truly fun and remarkably rewarding to work with this talented young fellow.

In addition to the driving conditioning work which will take up the majority of our efforts this year, I plan to show Levi extensively in hand. I have carefully reconsidered my thoughts on participating in the Morgan sport horse divisions at the breed shows. This is primarily due to the fact there are very few shows that offer these classes, and so I would have to travel pretty far to compete in them. Another reason is that while yes, there are aspects of showing that I personally don't agree with, I may have been a bit hasty and premature in deciding to boycott them entirely. What if our presence and support actually does help foster positive change in the direction I am seeking? How can I help anyone else who might feel the same way I do, if I stay home; how will that help change anything? A final consideration is Levi himself; every sire on his pedigree competed in harness or under saddle, and in many ways he was born to do this, so how could I deny this legacy? Having said this, I feel the Morgan breed and open shows in Vermont will be the rated shows we would be comfortable focusing on this year, as I have direct experience with several of them as a volunteer. I am particularly interested in the Lippitt show in August; although Levi's not a Lippitt Morgan, this show is open to all Morgan lines, and I am very interested in meeting some of the breeders of these remarkable horses. I think the Lippitt folks are doing a remarkable job and seem to embrace many of my values regarding the breed. It might be worth attending and participating in the show with Levi, if only to listen and learn.

Finally, I mentioned in a past post that increasing my knowledgebase and education is paramount for this year. I have been working steadily in this direction with a driving instructor and her pony, who hopefully will not be opposed to making an appearance in video or photo content here! I also have the help of the local driving network, which I affectionately call "The Fancy Hat Society" because they have great turnouts, who have graciously agreed to help head Levi so we can drive multiple days per week. There are many exciting plans in the making, and I can't wait to share updates with you all as we pursue them!

In my next post, I want to switch gears and address the big green two-wheeled elephant in the room: how in the heck did we ever manage to properly balance Levi's pretty Frey Sprint cart? If you thought this post was detailed, just wait until the next one. At least, it will be based on mechanics and not, well, whatever this was!