Dallas Cunningham Professional Reining Horse Trainer, Mitchell, SD
Dallas Cunningham Performance Horses is located in Mitchell, SD. At the age of 12 Dallas started training horses and continued on to the college rodeo. After sending time working for Jim McCutcheon, Dallas and his wife Chelsie opened their own training facility. They specialize in reining, working cow, reined cow, roping, and barrel racing. While I was at Dallas’ I worked on guiding, framing up, lead changes, turnaround, and the rollback.
Guiding
Dallas starts everyday by making sure the horse is guiding well. We would start by trotting a small circle and expect the horse to remain in the circle we set out. Once the horse is following the circle well we would ask them to cross the circle by laying the outside rein on the neck. If the horse doesn’t move off the rein, then we would turn them in a tight circle a few times before going back out on the main circle. Once the horse was guiding well in both direction at the trot we would repeat it at the lope. Dallas believe that a horse has to be guiding well before working on any other maneuvers. Click this link to see video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yp7Zjw9MeY
Once the horse is guiding well, we went out to a larger circle and ask the horse to follow the circle while keeping our hand down in the center of the horse neck. The horse should go in the direction you are looking without having to pick up your hand to steer. If the horse doesn’t maintain the circle we have chosen, we would use the rein to direct the horse across the circle. If the horse resists the rein, then turn them in a tight circle and lope off. Allowing the horse to make the mistake of going off the circle and then correcting the mistake, helps teach the horse what is expected of them. Click this link to see video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdcDHRFziZU
Lead Changes
For the lead change Dallas prefers to keep it as simple as possible. He feels that the horse should be able to change leads whenever they are asked. In keeping with that philosophy, he does not do much in the way of setting the horse up. He leaves his hand down and asks for the lead change by changing legs. To practice this, we loped a counter canter circle and maintain light leg pressure to maintain the counter canter. Once the horse was moving well we simply changed legs to get the horse to change to the correct lead. Dallas feels this method helps take the anticipation out of the lead change because the horse never knows when it is coming. Click this link to see video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfAEdOtqTHY
Turnaround
This turnaround exercise helps develop a snappier turn by teaching the horse to move their inside front leg back and their outside front leg to push off and cross over. Start the exercise by trotting a small circle with your inside rein up and slightly forward and your outside rein on the horses’ neck. If the horse is leaning to the outside with their shoulder, you want to bump your outside leg to get their shoulder to commit and then ask for the turnaround. Once they are turning well, trot out to a small circle again and repeat the exercise until the horse will commit to the turn as soon as you lay the outside rein on their neck. Click this link to see video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7GQlJD1Kek
Rollback
The key to a good rollback is to stop squarely, wait, look in the direction you want to go while drawing your rein back at the level of your hip and follow through by asking for the lead departure in the opposite direction with your new outside leg. To practice this Dallas, like to lope around the arena and ask for the rollback at any time. He believes the horse needs to be able to rollback when ask as if they are chasing a cow. Click this link to see video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S9mm9M7lKw
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While I was with Dallas Cunningham I logged 20 hours toward my AQHA Riding Program Hours
https://www.aqha.com/trail-riding/programs/aqha-horseback-riding-program
For more information about Dallas Cunningham Performance Horses click on this link http://www.dcperformancehorses.com/