I recommend stopping and listening to your horse when your horse says “No.” Try and figure out why the horse is acting this way. Is he confused, frustrated, scared, or in pain? Often when horses don’t “obey” it is only because they don’t understand what the trainer is asking. If so, it’s best to ask in a different way or keep working on training that behavior. Also, forcing a horse who is scared or in pain can really backfire on you in the long run.

However, sometimes things “have to” get done. Your horse has to cross that creek so that you can get back to the barn. Or, he has to get on that trailer so that you can get him to the vet clinic. And so on. We’ve been discussing how to deal with “have to” situations recently on one of the horse clicker lists.

My friend Jane, over at Bookends Farm, wrote a really nice blog post summarizing her own views on this topic. I highly recommend that you check it out. Here’s the link: Do I Have to?

I’ve been thinking about this for the past week and want to share just a few thoughts on this topic.

1. Don’t Wait Until You Get to “Have To”

Sometimes, for medical or safety reasons, we must get something done. The trail horse must stop at the busy intersection so that neither of you gets hit by oncoming traffic. The sick horse must get on the trailer so that you can go to the vet. Don’t wait until you get into these situations to start teaching trailer loading or a reliable woah! Plan, prepare, and anticipate. Spend time practicing and training skills that you know are going to be important later.

2. Assess Your Own Motivations

Jane talks about this in the post I linked to above. Why does the horse “have to” to this? Does the horse have to get on the trailer this afternoon because he’s hurt and needs to go see the vet or because you need to go impress your friends at the local horse show?

When you find yourself saying “must,” or “have to,” or “right now,” think about your own motivations. Do you have the horse’s safety and best interest in mind? What personal motivations are influencing your decision? Understanding your own behavior and motivations will ultimately help you become better a better trainer.

3. Even during “have to,” you still have options

Even when something has to get done, you can still choose how to go about doing it. We had a new foster family come last weekend to pick up two of the mares at our rescue. The mares needed to get on the trailer, but were pretty skeptical about the family’s metal stock trailer, which was very different from the rescue’s trailer. One mare, as well, has a history of bad trailer loading experiences.

We could have used ropes and whips and gotten both horses on the trailer fairly quickly. Instead, we spent about an hour and a half working with both horses with the trailer. The foster family helped some and was incredibly patient about letting us take the time to work with the horses. We had to get the horses loaded, but we chose to go about it slowly and calmly, rather than pushing and forcing.

When “No” is really “Yes”

Here’s one final thought and example about why this topic is so important. Horses are often trying to do right and trying to please us. When a horse says “no” or disobeys, this is often because of miscommunication or lack of communication, rather than the horse purposefully trying to be disobedient.

Here’s a great example from a gal I recently met on facebook named Tamsin.

“The other day on our way home from a hack, my pony stopped and refused to walk on when I asked. Eventually, I worked out that he was telling me to climb aboard. We’re doing a lot of in hand work at the moment as he’s coming back to full fitness. He had stopped next to the post I’d used to mount up as we went out on our hack! If I’d seen that just as him being disobedient, I would have missed a really important moment. That was the first time he’s ever asked me to get on!!”

Cheyenne is a young paint mare at our rescue who I have recently started riding. She had about three rides last fall and a handful more during my winter break. Just recently we’ve had two short, but great, rides working on backing up with a rider.

Up to now, Cheyenne and I have worked on going forward and stopping. We’ve also worked a bit on steering and circles. I don’t force or even ask a horse to go forward during the first few rides—I like forward motion to be the horse’s idea.

Many people associate bucking and other bad behaviors with starting young horses under saddle. These “bad” behaviors often start because people are pushing or prodding the horse to move forward before the horse feels comfortable and ready. For a young horse, having a person on his back is a totally strange experience! It can take a horse a few rides before they really start to feel balanced moving forward with a rider.

I let the horse stand around as much as they want on the first few rides and click for any signs of forward motion. Soon, we’re usually taking a few small baby steps and then pretty soon afterward the horse is usually wandering all over the round pen! Then it’s time to work on woahs and make sure the horse understand that stopping will earn a reward too. (Some of this process is illustrated in this video of Tex’s second ride.)

Cheyenne figured out how to go forward pretty quickly. Then, however, she got a bit impatient because she always wanted to keep walking! So, I had to make sure stopping was highly rewarded so that she would learn that this was a good behavior too. Now that we have forward and woah balanced, it’s a good time to start working on a bit of backing.

I started on the ground. Cheyenne has had some groundwork and ground driving, so we did just a bit of review. I stood on the ground at her shoulder and asked her to take a step or two back. Then, I stood by her withers with my hands in approximately the position they would be while I was riding and ask her to take a step or two backward. We practiced this a bit and then I got on.

It’s always good to make sure a horse can do a behavior on the ground first. If the horse doesn’t have the understanding or confidence to do the behavior from the ground, there’s no way the horse is going to do the behavior with a rider! Also, by standing at Cheyenne’s withers, I was able to practice giving very similar rein cues to what I would give when I was on her. This helped make the transition from backing on the ground to backing with a rider much easier.

After we practiced some on the ground, I hopped on her back. I started by giving the same rein cue I had given from the ground, plus the seat and leg cues I wanted her to associate with backing. Pretty soon, she took one step back. I immediately clicked and gave her a treat. We kept doing this and she caught on super fast!

I’ve been watching Alexandra Kurland’s Loopy Training DVD. Much of the DVD discusses creating small, clean, tight loops of behavior. She also discusses how good it can be to use known behaviors to reinforce newer behaviors. (More info HERE about loopy training.)

So, Cheyenne and I started a nice little pattern. We started by the mounting block, which was about 15 feet away from one of her favorite cones. Cheyenne loves to target cones. This distance was far enough away that she was interested in the cone, but not completely drawn to it. I would ask her to back and as soon as she took one step back, I would click and treat. We would do this about 3 times, then I would release her forward and let her go walk forward and target the cone (for a click and treat, of course). She loves targeting the cone, so this was a great reward for several good steps backward.

Then, we’d either circle around back to the mounting block, or I would get off and lead her back to the mounting block. And we’d repeat the pattern. This pattern worked well because I could use the opportunity to walk to the cone to reinforcer her best efforts at backing up.

We made sure to take it slowly, just one or two steps backward each time. People often get into trouble when training horses to back up because they rush and ask for way too much at the beginning. A trainer might ask (and then demand) for a horse to take 10 steps backward, when the horse doesn’t even yet understand that the trainer wants 2 steps backward.

I am continuing to build this behavior slowly with Cheyenne. We’ll move on to asking for two steps back, then three, then four, and so on, until she has no problem backing all the way across the round pen. This is good shaping and good splitting and is the best way to create horses who back willingly without resisting or bracing against the pressure. Going in small steps at the beginning actually makes training go much faster later on!

This past weekend, we had our second session working on backing up. We kept building the behavior slowly, and by the end of this second, short session, she easily and willingly would take about half a dozen steps backward from a soft rein cue. I am really proud of Cheyenne’s progress so far! We’ll keep working on this over the coming weeks and I’ll try to get some video to share on the blog.

These are some pictures from last summer that I just ran across. I know they are old, but I’m still posting them because I LOVE them! Most horses are naturally VERY curious. Especially if they are given the time and space to explore something new. Horses get scared when we force them to interact with new things, instead of allowing the horse the time to investigate at his own pace.

Temple Grandin says that what animals are often afraid of is “forced novelty”—when we push the horse into new situations that he does not understand. Confidence increases when the animal feels like he has control over his environment and surroundings. (More about this here).

The following pictures show Luna checking out the new hay ring the rescue got last summer. (Luna’s the pony I wrote about in this post about a week ago. She made SO much progress last year.) Luna can be very skeptical about new things. However, given time to investigate and explore, she approached and retreated from the hay ring, even approaching close enough to smell it. Then, after a few more approaches, she walked all the way through the hay ring! After that, she turned around and walked back through it the other way. What a brave little pony.

If you are working with a horse who is scared of something, DO NOT try to force the horse to approach the scary object! Instead, use other strategies to help the horse build his confidence. For instance, make the scary thing smaller or less intense, if possible. You can turn down the pressure on a scary water hose or fold up a scary plastic bag to make it smaller. Find a place to start working where the horse can remain comfortable and relaxed.

Let the horse choose when to approach and honor the horse’s requests to move away. If the horse needs to take a step or two backward, let him, rather than trying to pull on the lead to keep the horse in one spot. You can practice approaching and retreating from the scary thing, gradually getting closer.

That’s what I did with Autumn when we found a crinkly balloon in the yard (pictures here). With a clicker trained horse, this quickly becomes a fun game for the horse because the horse learns that she will get a click and a treat for approaching and touching new objects. Novel objects then become something fun to investigate, rather than something scary to run away from.

Want a few suggestions?  

Learning Games: by Kay Laurence. I love this book. Kay Laurence is one of my favorite dog trainers. This book has a ton of great ideas for behaviors to train, from the very simple to the extremely complex. The book is written with dogs in mind. However, I’ve also used this book to come up with ideas for behaviors to train to other species. There are many shaping exercises in the book that will really improve your training skills!

Reaching the Animal Mind: This is Karen Pryor’s newest book, published in 2010. The book includes stories and information about how our knowledge of animal training continues to grow and evolve. One reason why I like this book is that it includes a lot about recent science and research related to animal training, including some of the studies that have been done by my advisor, Jesus Rosales Ruiz, and his students at the University of North Texas.

Horse Books and DVDs: The clicker training store has a great collection of books and DVDs related to clicker training horses, including all of Alexandra Kurland’s books and DVDs.

Many of their best sellers are also currently on sale. As well, there are some special year end sales products that are still available at a discounted price.

So, be sure to check out the clicker training store, either by clicking on this LINK or by clicking on the banner image above. I am not sure how long the coupons will be good, but I’ve e-mailed the store to ask. I will let you know what I find out!

Also, if you purchase something, I’d LOVE to hear what you buy as well as your review, once you get a chance to read, view or use the product. I’m always looking for suggestions for new books, DVDs, and products to try.

I’ve known Luna for awhile now. She’s an adorable little fuzzy pony, almost entirely black, except for a small star (which is usually completely covered by her bushy forelock). She’s what people picture when they call the rescue, looking for a horse for their kids or grandkids.

However, while she’s as cute as a button, Luna has serious trust issues with people. Luna had very little handling before coming to the rescue, but the handling she did have was probably not very pleasant. When I met her she wanted to have nothing to do with people. Luna would sometimes approach you in the pasture and lean her nose way out toward you, trying to sniff for a treat, while at the same time trying not to get too close. She knew about a few things, including leading, standing tied, and loading into a trailer, but you had to catch her first, and she most definitely did not want to be caught!

However, during 2011, several volunteers at the rescue and I spent quite a lot of time with Luna. We’ve been working with her at her own pace, making sure that things are her choice, and making sure we don’t do things that would worry, upset, or stress her. She has gradually learned that people might not be half as bad as she previously thought! In particular, a few of our high school volunteers this summer did a great job spending lots of time just hanging out with Luna. They would spend time grooming her, leading her around the property, and talking to her.

Luna even got to play on our horse obstacle course this summer. Our obstacle course is great for horses like Luna because the obstacles give the horse a purpose to work toward. Also, because we use clicker training and train in small steps, each obstacle becomes a fun game for the horse. Luna now loves climbing up on the bridge to earn a treat.

One of Luna’s most deepest fears has been having her feet handled. When I met Luna, she did not want to be touched anywhere past her shoulder and would not hesitate to kick or bite if you tried to touch her legs, belly or hind quarters. This has required slow, careful training. We did not want her to feel stressed and we definitely did not want anyone to get hurt. For teaching her to pick up her back feet, I used this method.

Luna and I worked a ton on picking up her feet last spring and then at the beginning of the summer. By the beginning of the summer, she even got to the point where I could trim all four of her feet. I trimmed her several times last year, always making sure to go slowly and making sure that she was calm and relaxed throughout the process.

Our farrier came out to the rescue this past Thursday to trim all of the horses. During the fall he had trimmed Luna’s front feet several times. However, this was the first time that he has trimmed all four of her feet in one trim. I wasn’t there to see it, but Dawn told me that she did great for him! I am completely proud of our little black pony. She has made SO much progress in the past year.

One of the hardest parts of training for shy and fearful animals can be generalization. The animal learns how to do the behavior for one person, but then is still scared or hesitant if someone else tries to get the animal to do the same behavior. Allowing someone else to trim all four of her feet is a major milestone for Luna in her journey toward trusting people.

Good training often takes a lot of time. Progress can be slow, especially when animals have had previous bad experiences. I often find that horse people (as well as other animal people) are looking for a quick fix—that one magic cure that will solve their horse’s problems. However, building a relationship with an animal based on trust and friendship takes time, there’s no quick trick that works overnight.

Luna is still far from a perfect pony or even a pony that would be safe for kids or inexperienced horse people to be around. She still has plenty of rough spots and areas where she needs much more training. She gets scared easily when things are new or different and is terrified of people carrying saddles or other large objects.

However, Luna has made a ton of progress over the past year. Even better, we have someone who is potentially interested in adopting her. Hopefully, we can find an adopter for Luna who will help her to have more good experiences so that she can continue to build her trust and confidence in people.

This is a question that I often hear people ask. How long does it take to train a horse? Or, how long should it take a horse to learn a certain skill? Or, how much should a colt know after 30 days with a trainer? The following post is something that I wrote earlier in the summer for a list I am on. We were discussing the difference between retraining horses and training horses who have had no previous training. I had several people tell me they liked the post, so I’ve decided to repost it on the blog.

Over the past 2 years we’ve had over 50 horses come through the rescue I work with. I have found that the blank canvas horses who know next to nothing are usually much, much easier to work with than horses who have had previous training.

We have a 7 year old gelding right now who we took in almost exactly a month ago. He had been a pasture pet his whole life and had almost zero previous training. (He did know the basics about leading and had been trained to pick up his feet, but that was about it). So far he’s learned targeting, trailer loading, how to wear a saddle, gotten better about picking up his feet, lunging/circling, and other ground work type stuff. He’s had 8 rides and just on the past couple of rides I’ve started doing a bit of trotting and also riding him outside of the round pen. He’s taken to training like a fish to water–this has all been in about 20 sessions, each 30-45 minutes.

There was another gelding we adopted out this spring who had been rushed and started badly and had developed a habit of big bucks if he got even a bit confused or frustrated. It took about a year and a half of work to get him to approximately the same point as the first horse. (And he still didn’t have the same sort of confidence that the first horse had.)

The most important thing that I’ve learned from the rescue horses is that every horse is an individual. I have to watch the horse and listen to what the horse is trying to tell me. I can’t have preconceived ideas about how long training a certain skill “should” take or how a horse “should” react to something new. The horses are all individuals. Although I often have a notion of how things will play out, the horses all respond slightly differently.

Two years ago we took in about two dozen horses from a paint breeder (mostly yearlings and two year olds), most who had zero previous handling and weren’t even halter broke or accepting of being touched. Here’s a video of one filly from that group working on trailer loading. At that point, she had about 30 minutes total of work on haltering, leading and loading.

Although the horses in that group were all pretty easy to work with, every single horse in that group of two dozen was different. Some were happy-go-lucky about everything, like the buckskin filly in the video above. Others need more time to learn certain skills, sometimes much more time. One colt was extremely fearful of having his ears touched–it took well over a month of daily work to get him to the point where he was comfortable with being haltered and having his ears handled.

I’d much rather have a horse that knew nothing (or very little) than a horse who had quite a bit of training, but who had holes in his training or poisoned cues. But with any horse, I still have to treat the horse as an individual.

With the horses who have had previous training, but do have issues, I’ve found the best and quickest way to make progress is to start completely over. I follow the advice that I have heard Alexandra Kurland say many times: “Don’t train on top of someone else’s bad training.”

I treat the horse like he knows absolutely nothing and build a good, solid foundation that I can feel safe continuing to build on. Sometimes this means starting at the very beginning, retraining the horse how to put his head into a halter. (Quite a few traditionally trained horses are actually quite uncomfortable being haltered, you’ll see the horse brace through the head and neck as the person puts the halter on, rather than relax and drop his nose into the halter.)

As for starting horses under saddle using clicker training, I really, really like something that my friend Jane posted. She said: “I am very comfortable with what I am doing. But I do not think that those who have backed horses with any method and at any age, should tell others, that they “should” be able to back a horse themselves if they just use clicker training and do it “right”.

I’ve found that clicker trained horses are very forgiving. Still, they are horses and horses can be dangerous. If a person doesn’t feel comfortable, confident or experienced enough to start their horse, then get help for some or all of the process. Same with re-starting a horse. Or working with a horse who has poisoned cues or other negative histories. There are many very good instructors and trainers out there, even if their methods don’t agree 100% with your methods. The trick is finding the right one and then working closely with them as your horse learns.

The first several horses I started completely myself were very lovely, kind horses who helped me out as I fumbled through figuring out what I was doing. Could I have used more help and guidance? Of course. I’ve picked up a lot over the past couple of years that I didn’t know then.

It might take one person a month to train something that a professional trainer might be able to train the same horse to do in a day. Still, by working with your own horse, you’ll learn a lot more and build your relationship with the horse. When considering whether someone should start or train her own horse, I think it’s important to consider all of the dynamics involved–the physical condition, past history, previous training and knowledge of both the person and the horse, as well as the resources and facilities available to the person.

So, how long does it take to train a horse?

It depends on the horse.

“If you think you don’t need a helmet then you should look your son, daughter, spouse, or friend in the eye and tell them: I don’t need a helmet, but if I am wrong it will be your job to care for me.”

Now, here’s a very powerful video that Kate, of A Year with Horses, posted on her blog recently. I think that everyone who rides horses or who has friends or family who ride horses should watch this video.

In the video, Courtney King Dye, a USDF Gold Medalist dressage rider and horse trainer discusses riding helmets. As she says in the video, safety has nothing to do with skill level.

Courtney was in a riding accident in 2010. Purely an accident. The show horse she was riding tripped and fell. She had been in a hurry that day and was not wearing a helmet. I urge you to watch the video and hear Courtney tell the rest of the her story.

On Youtube: Courtney King Dye discusses her riding accident and helmet use.
Embedding is disabled for this video, so you’ll have to click on the link and hop over to youtube to watch it. Come back after you watch it and let me know your reaction to the video.

Cricket and I spent quite a bit of time working on ground driving last week. We had a session nearly every day and he made some great progress! Cricket is three. And, while I’ve sat on him a few times, he really doesn’t know a whole lot about being ridden.

With our young horses, I spend more or less time on ground work, depending on the horse. With some of the friendly, laid back ones who are clicker-savvy, it can actually be pretty easy to teach them the basics during the first handful of rides.

I had sat on Cricket several times and he did okay wandering around a bit in our round pen. However, he clearly didn’t understand most of what I was asking and I could tell that he would really benefit from some additional time spent on ground work and, particularly, on ground driving. This is another case of what I talked about yesterday, listening to your horse.

Ground driving is a great way to work on riding skills from the ground. We spent last week working on two main sets of skills: go/woah transitions and improved steering. Both are important behaviors for him to have a solid understanding of for riding!

For my version of ground driving, I like to stay at the horse’s withers as I walk with the horse. In this position, I can hold my reins in approximately the same position as I will when I ride. I find if I work on ground driving like this, then the cues transfer over to riding pretty easily. Also, by standing near the horse’s shoulder, I can use a regular set of reins and I don’t have to get tangled up in a pair of long lines.

Before starting ground driving, Cricket had done some work with circling / lunging. So, he understood almost immediately that a little cluck meant to move forward at a walk. At first, he only wanted to move forward a few steps. That was okay. I rewarded his efforts to move a few steps and we gradually built up from there.

Ground work, if done right, progresses in layers. So, teaching a move forward cue on a circle transferred over easily to ground driving. And the cues we work on during ground driving will be used later under saddle. Each skill I teach should help make future skills easier to teach. If I get stuck somewhere, I often find I’ve missed an earlier step.

We’ve been using cones tied to the fence to work on steering, circles and changes of direction. Cricket’s done a lot of targeting, so he likes to find the next cone to touch. Moving from cone to cone helps him understand the purpose for the cues he is currently learning.

Overall, our week of ground driving practice paid off big time. When I rode Cricket on Monday, he did awesome! He moved forward nicely from a cluck and a little squeeze, was halting pretty well from a verbal woah and a light rein cue, and even did a few nice circles off of the rail. He’s a bit stiff for steering on one side, but this is something we’ll continue to work on, both on the ground and under saddle.

I rode Cricket, one of our little paint ponies, yesterday morning. It was a short, fun bareback ride. It’s really too hot to do any really intensive riding. When I went to get on him, he lined up perfectly for the mounting block. However, as I sat down on him, he took off walking. Oops!!!

That wasn’t good. Cricket has only had a handful of rides and he’s done really well so far. However, walking off while someone is mounting is definitely not a habit I want him to develop! It can be incredibly unsafe for a horse to get into the habit of walking off while the rider is still trying to get their position and balance.

So, we stopped, I got off, and we spent five or ten minutes practice mounting. Actually, we went a step backward and first just practiced standing quietly by the mounting block while I climbed up and down the block. By the end of this short session, he was standing quietly and waiting patiently as I climbed up the mounting block and swung over his back. Success! We will probably continue to spend time practicing this during the next few rides, until he is a pro at standing for mounting.

When I work with each of our horses, I try to have a plan for several things to focus on during the session. However, I’ve also learned that it is good to pay close attention to the horse’s reaction, every step of the way. The horse will usually tell me if we’re moving too fast, if he’s bored, or if there are extra things he needs to work on today that I’ve not thought about. In this case, Cricket was telling me that we definitely needed to spend some more time working on mounting.

Now, I was able to get on him fine the first time, even though he walked off. So, I could have brushed the incident aside and made a mental note to work on it some other time. It can be so easy to do this with training, especially when the horse can do the skill kind of good enough to get the job done.

I’ve met many horses who are hard to catch, won’t stand to be saddled, hard to bridle, walk off while mounting, dance around while being fly sprayed, and so on. It might be a struggle to get the task done, but it can be done. People often rush through the problem areas to get to the fun stuff or keep putting seemingly little things off until tomorrow.

But why struggle and fight with your horse? Or let your horse practice any behavior that could escalate into a larger problem or something dangerous? If your horse is telling you he needs to work on something, then set aside some time and work specifically on that. Spending some dedicated time on the problem area now will make both of your lives more pleasant later!

While I was riding Blossom in the yard yesterday afternoon, she got a bit anxious in one of the back corners behind our shop building. She definitely needs to spend some more time back there to become braver and more confident about some of the tools and equipment. However, since it was near the end of our ride and she had done great so far, I didn’t push it. We rode back to an area where she was more comfortable and finished our ride there. However, I definitely made a mental note about her reaction. The next time I work with her, we’ll spend some extra time back there doing ground work and, eventually, some more riding back there.

So, are you taking time to listen to your horse? Think back to the last time your rode your horse or worked with your horse. Were there any little things that your horse was trying to tell you that she needs to spend more time working on?

So, I’m just wondering, who else has given google+ a try? I’m finding it fun to play with so far. Let me know if you are also on google+, and I’ll add you to one of my circles. (Circles are how you organize your friends on google+.)

Also, if you are interested in giving google+ a try, but are not on it yet, let me know and I can send you an invite. If you don’t want to post your e-mail address publicly in the comments, just shoot me an e-mail at cheeriotrainer AT gmail DOT com.

Do you wear a riding helmet?

I tore a ligament in my shoulder about a week and a half ago. I came off of one of the colts I’ve been starting when he spooked at something and took off bucking. Big bucks! I landed mainly on my shoulder and hip, but my head hit the ground too. And it was HARD ground–we’ve had a drought all summer here in Texas.

Luckily, my head was just fine because of my riding helmet.

Don’t worry, I’m on the mend, but I’m limited in what I can do outside with the horses. No riding for a couple of weeks and no heavy lifting.

Less than a week after I fell, a gal I know at a friend’s barn got dumped off of her horse when the horse spooked and bucked. She landed on her head and ended up with a mild concussion and a big crack on the inside of her helmet.

She’s lucky, she likely would have been killed if she hadn’t been wearing a helmet.

Actually, I take that back. She’s not lucky, she’s smart. She is smart enough to wear a helmet when she rides to protect her brains. Modern medicine can fix most injuries, but when it comes to head injuries, it’s not worth taking the risk and riding without a helmet.

This is a good article I found on about.com the other day about reasons why people don’t wear helmets and why they should reconsider some of those reasons. Even the best bomb-proof, been-there-done-that trail horse can get stung by a bee and spook. Or trip on a rock and fall to his knees, throwing you from the saddle. Accidents do happen. That’s why they are called accidents!

Here’s my favorite quote from the article:

“If you think you don’t need a helmet then you should look your son, daughter, spouse, or friend in the eye and tell them: I don’t need a helmet, but if I am wrong it will be your job to care for me.”

So, what do you think? Do you wear a helmet when you ride?