Softness and using spurs to help

I'm guilty of doing too e much bumping and now I'm beginning to realize its getting in the way of making my horses soft. Tony Garcia was big on getting them soft and I really learned about it from him but I got away from it in favor of to much bumping andI training and forcing.

I watched a Clinton Anderson show on tv in which he talked about softness and gave an illustration about peoples concern with getting heads "past vertical" (run for your lives he said) And how Ian Francis explained that a horse cant get on his front end from being to soft in the face if he is being driven by his hind end by using the riders legs. The show was rescue horse Givaway part 12. I recommend it.

Also he talks about using the feet to help the horse to get soft ie. direct rein and inside spur to get the horse off the bit while just standing and softening. I kind of used to do this a bit after working with Tony but got away from it Because Craig Johnson brought it to my attention how criticle it is they look away from the spur especially in the spin.

But I tinkered with my horses Friday, just at the walk and standing, softening laterally, using my spur a tad, just to bump a little , keeping my hand soft, bending, counter bending, backing in circles, moving hips, kicking the hind end out of gear. Mainly softening the sides and bending, keeping my hands still instead of bumping and giving the horse time to relax. I did some vertical flexing also and just kept it quiet for a long time. It was a little sloppy and I didnt lope the two year old. But after I spent so much time softening the 3 year old quietly and keeping my hands SOFT and STILL He loped off quietly with his head down, neck soft and when he wanted to lift up it was easy to put it back down because he was relaxed. It was way less work and confrontation than what I had been doing and I'm gonna go back to doing way more of this. It will really help to do it daily when I dont want to put a hard ride on the horses and it will be really good for the two year olds to get them soft and broke to sell as furutity prospects.