Training with Bobby Avila in Rogersville, MO
Training with Bobby Avila for a week we focused on how to work with an older horse. We spent our time on circles, rollbacks, turn arounds and lead changes. Bobby’s method of working with an older horse that knows how to do the maneuvers is to correct the horse when they make a bad decision and then leave them alone. You also want to teach the horse that when they make a good decision there is a reward. That reward can come in the form of getting to rest after they do what you have asked correctly. If you discipline and older horse over and over it creates a horse that will become frustrated and angry.
Circles
Our horses are trained to be responsive to our body cues. That being said, if you ride too far ahead of your horse it becomes difficult to maintain a consistent circle. Bobby likes to spot the circle 1/8 at a time so it is easier to keep your horse on the path of the circle. An older horse knows how to stay under your hands and follow the circle, however if they make the bad decision and lean in or out of the circle Bobby likes to correct this by turning the horse sharply across the circle by picking up your hands increase forward motion and riding the horse between your hands to get back on the path of the circle. These two techniques helped my circles a great deal. It also helps reduce the need to continually pick up my hands to guide the horse to do what he already knows. The more we did this the better he stayed between my hands and on the path of the circle.
Fast Circle to Slow Circle Transitions
The transition from a fast circle to a slow circle requires rhythm. The approach was to ask the horse to increase his speed until he and I were in a comfortable rhythm and to maintain that. Once I had the rhythm, it became a matter of transitioning down by putting weight into my feet and sinking down into my saddle and maintaining the rhythm to create a smooth transition to a slow circle. The end result was a much smoother looking transition in which I was in rhythm with my horse at each speed.
Rollback
The object of the rollback is for the horse to turn inside out and lope off in the opposite direction. You must move your hands so they are creating the alley way toward the direction you want to go. For the rollback that alley way is back over the horse’s hip to complete the rollback. At the same time, you want to move your inside leg forward to create more forward motion so the horse can extend their stride. The extended stride creates a better lead departure out of the rollback.
When Bobby is teaching a horse to rollback he lopes it across the narrow part of the pen, stops and turns around and lopes off over and over until the horse understands what is expected is a stops and turn. This will condition the horse to think, stop, and turn. Bobby then makes the horse stop stand square and back up and then turn and lope off. At the end of the practice session he will stop and stand and then walk off. By doing this final step it will take the rollback out of the stop and communicates to the horse that they are only to turn when you ask.
Turn around
My horse likes to hang his right shoulder out in the left turn around. I have used many different exercises to improve his reach in the left turn around, but have found that he improves for a while but then he goes back to hanging his shoulder out again. Bobby’s approach was to allow the horse to correct himself. The way we did this was by placing my right leg forward so when he hangs his shoulder out he would hit my spur. The advantage of this is the horse learns to reach with his shoulder because he wants to avoid hitting the spur not because you are spurring him. Again, teaching the horse what is right and giving him the ability to make the right decision
Lead Changes in the Center
All reining patterns require a lead change in the center. We all need to practice changing leads in the center especially before a show. So how do you do this and prevent the horse from anticipating the lead change in the center. What Bobby does is to practice the lead changes in the center of the circle until he is happy with the maneuver. Then he finishes the practice with circles and no lead changes so the horse does not think circling always means change leads.