Tag: Horse training exercises

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Sliding Stop on a Reining Horse

American Quarter Horse doing sliding stop

Sliding Stop on a Reining Horse

Brandy and Terri Murphy

Rundown

To have a good stop you must have a good run down. Start your lead departure by walking the horse forward with their head straight and in the bridle. After your first strides, you will be able to tell if the horse is soft and collected or if you need to work to get them that way. When you are working the rundown, forget the stop. Use the length of the arena, even if they break down, trot them up into the bridle to the end of the arena. Once the horse is straight you can start to ask for an increase in speed during the rundown. Only after the horse is going straight and you can rate their increase in speed should you say whoa and ask for the stop. Doing this teaches the horse to hunt the stop with their head down and their body round, as well as travel straight and wait for your cue to increase in speed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkfi0_67Q7E

Stopping Exercise

Using two hands start out on the left lead across the pen on the diagonal. As you go, build speed while maintaining collection. Once you get to the half way point break down into a trot. Continue to the corner and counter bend a circle in the direction of the right lead at the trot. Now lope off in the right lead and do another diagonal breaking down to the trot to the corner and counter bend a circle in the direction of the left lead at the trot. As you are building down the diagonal you want to pick up your reins and hold them to maintain collection. Doing this helps teach the horse to pick up their back and stay collected as you drive to the stop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUChKea5TFA

Jay Dee Anderson

Run Down and Stop

Jay Dee likes to work on the run down and stop by doing a rectangle around the arena. The first step is to lope around the arena and make a small to medium size circle at the end of the arena. After doing that a few times he starts to build speed for the rundown and maintains that speed into the circle at the end of the arena. Once he has done this and the horse is straight and building well he will ask for the stop by saying whoa. The goal of the is exercise to prevent the horse from anticipating the stop and slowing down before you tell them to whoa. A good stop requires an increase in speed on a straight line with the last stride being your fastest.

Mack Weaver

Run Down and Stop

This exercise for the run down and stop helps keep the horse from running off after you turn the corner at the top of the pen. It also allows you to practice the maneuver without having to lope as much.  Start by walking half way across the top of the pen and loping off. Once you turn the corner for the run down you want to see if the horse is waiting on you to go to the stop. If not turn the horse into a small circle and stay there until you feel the horse is listening to you. Once the horse is, go to the top of the pen and walk across half way and lope off and try it again. If the horse is waiting on you for the run down go ahead and continue down the pen and stop. Wait at the end of the pen for a minute or so and walk across the pen half way and lope of and repeat the exercise. https://youtu.be/V6iMIxrpyq4

Rein length is very important when it comes to getting a good stop. If your reins are too short the horse will not be able to drop their head and move as well in the stop. Short reins can cause you to pull on the horse’s face causing a jarring of bit in their mouth as well as stopping their forward motion. Mack likes to have a shorter rein around the top of the pen, but when he turns the corner for the run down he will shake out some rein so that the horse is on loose rein for the run down and stop.

Sean Johnson

The Run Down and Stop.

When you are running down to the stop you want to have your inside leg forward and your outside leg is used to bump for more speed if the horse does not respond to the kiss.  You also want to be driving down into your heels and sit down and back in the saddle. The idea is to have your body already in the stop position and be behind the motion. Being in the stop position as you are running down allows your horse to go to the ground with their hind end and you to stay seated during the stop. When you are stopping a horse you also want to be aware of your reins. You can use them to moderate the speed if you need to but when you ask for the stop you really don’t want to pull back on the reins. Pulling back on the reins will stop the forward movement and result in a shorter stop that can be heavy on the front end.

As with everything in reining maneuver the approach to the stop is just as important as the stop itself. What we did was use the entire length of the arena as well as going around the ends. The advantage to this is you can practice speed control at the ends as well as squaring off your corners in preparation of the run down. Sean likes to practice the stop this way because it allows you to build for the stop but you are not always stopping every time. He feels that when you are sitting in stop position and squared your corner and building incrementally you are able to surprise the horse with the stop there by training the horse to stop only when asked.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and will share it with your friends.

All images were provided by Maria Hurd and show case her daughters Amanda and Elena Hurd competing.

For more reining horse training blogs go to the post page at https://horsetaillegacy.com/jgjs

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Lead Change Maneuver on a Reining Horse

American Quarter Horse and rider

Lead Change Maneuver on a Reining Horse

The lead change maneuver on a reining horse has always been one of the things that I didn’t practice a great deal so it made me nervous to do them. Working with these professional reining horse trainers help me look at the lead change differently. I was able to incorporate their techniques into my practice routine, which made doing lead changes just another maneuver instead of something I was uncomfortable practicing and doing. The bottom line is that we practice every other maneuver until we can do it in our sleep and the lead change shouldn’t be any different. Changing leads is a nature thing for a horse to do, all we are asking is for them to do it on cue.

Ashley Villmow

Lead Change

For this exercise, I made a figure eight shape around the arena. Starting on the correct lead I loped around one end and then turned to cut across the center of the arena on a diagonal into the other circle on the counter canter at the opposite end of the arena. I would then continue around and across the center maintaining the counter canter. Once at the opposite side of the arena I would be back on the correct lead. As I turned to cross the arena again I would ask for the lead change on the straight line just before or after I passed center. Once the lead change was done I continued around the circle and stopped as I started the next diagonal line across center. This exercise allows you to work on lead changes without the horse starting to anticipate the change. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btt6swO5Xec

Bobby Avila

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 practice the lead changes in the center of the circle until he is happy with the maneuver. Than he finishes the practice with circles and no lead changes, there by taking the lead change out of the circle at the end so the horse is not thinking circle always means change leads in the center.

Brandy Murphy

Lead Changes

When doing a lead change, you want the cues to be very simple. This exercise is done in a counter canter circle. As you circle you want the keep your outside leg off the horse and your inside leg is used to push the horse’s hip over and maintain the counter canter. Continue to lope around like this until the horse is following the circle well. When you are ready to change leads simply close your outside leg on the horse and open your inside leg to ask for the lead change. Doing the lead change this way sends a clear message to change leads when your legs change position. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aOyNxd-ots

Bruce Barber

Lead change

Counter cantering a circle is a great exercise to work on the lead change. Normally a horse wants to be in the correct lead on the circle so it becomes a natural movement for them to change to the correct lead when asked. It is important to stay in rhythm with the horse and to ask for the lead change by softening the horse’s chin and changing your weight into your outside hip and step through the change by placing your outside leg on and releasing the inside leg and clucking. This allows the horse to change into the correct lead for that circle while allowing you to practice the lead change.

Dallas Cunningham

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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfAEdOtqTHY

Jay Dee Anderson

Lead Changes

For a horse to do a lead change easily they need to be straight, collected and moving forward. This simple counter canter exercise helps you achieve all three. Jay Dee likes to counter canter a square at one end of the arena. Doing a square gives you four straight lines to use to change leads. The corners also allow you to practice squaring off your straight lines which you need to do to get a good rundown for the stop. Once he has done a number of squares he will ask the horse to lead change. Because you are riding in a square it also helps teach the horse to change leads and stay straight.https://youtu.be/2ZTneQSUrOc

Linda Hitt

Lead Changes

The lead change exercise was a new one for me. We counter cantered around the outside of the arena being sure to stay away from the walls. After multiple times around the arena I would ask for the lead change by laying my outside leg on and releasing my inside leg and kissing for the lead change. This was done on the long straight line of the arena. I have to say I was not good at this exercise. Every time I took my inside leg off my horse thought I wanted him to stop.

Mack Weaver

Lead Changes

Mack believes that you have to practice lead changes to be able to feel comfortable doing them. The way he does this is by making the center line anywhere down the length of the arena that crosses the middle of the pen. Making the center a different place allows you to work on the lead change in such a way that the horse will not anticipate the lead change. He likes to set the horse up as he comes through center by picking up on the reins and getting the horse straight through center. Doing this on the correct lead and the counter canter over and over until the horse is relaxed with coming through center and has their body straight. Once they are relaxed he will ask for the lead change but he will continue in the same circle on the counter canter. Staying in the same circle helps prevent the horse from dropping into the opposite circle after the lead change. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEua8RgiToU

Mike Davis

Lead Change

Before loping off pick up on the reins to let the horse know that they are about to do something. Than lope a few circles picking up on the horse through center to get them to straighten up. Once the horse is picking up well than move on to the main exercise. The exercise is started by loping a straight line down the length of the arena. At the top make a counter canter circle and cross the arena picking up as you cross the middle. Continue around on the counter canter to the top of the arena and turn to go on a straight line to the opposite end of the arena. Repeat this pattern a few times picking up on the horse when on the straight lines down the center and across the middle of the arena. Once the horse is picking up and moving smoothly change legs and ask for the lead change. This exercise works well because the horse does not anticipate the lead change and all the time spent picking them up allow them to change leads smoothly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKWK7YOA_E4

Nathan Kent

Lead Changes

This exercise is done by making your circle into an oval shape. You want to lope off and start making your oval. As you come through the center of the arena on both of the long sides of the oval you want to pick up your reins and keep your outside leg on. This is how you set the horse for the lead change. You don’t want to do the lead change until the horse is relaxed and straight as you set up for the lead change. Once you have the horse soft and straight, go ahead and change leads. Once you change leads you want to remain in a counter canter circle. Doing the counter canter circle helps keeps the horse picked up and prevents the horse from dropping into the other circle. You can counter canter a few circles and then move into the circle onto the correct lead and repeat the exercise. This exercise helps teach the horse to relax through the center and not anticipate the lead change. It also allows the rider to practice the lead change in the center without the horse getting sour in the middle. Click this link to watch the video explaining the lead change exercise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_56fsgvjMk

Steve and Dori Schwartzenberger

Lead Changes

We started the lead change exercise by counter cantering the circle. The advantage to the counter canter is that it helps the horse to frame up and stay in shape themselves. Once in the counter canter circle you want to have the horse’s head and body following the circle as if they are in the correct lead. By doing this it helps keep the horse’s shoulder picked up before you ask for the lead change. Having the horse following the circle as if they are the correct lead keeps the lead change simple for the horse. Their body is already following the circle so all they have to do is change their feet and they are in the correct lead.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and will share it with your friends.

All images were provided by Maria Hurd and show case her daughter Elena Hurd competing.

For more reining horse training blogs go to the post page at https://horsetaillegacy.com/jgjs

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Turnaround Maneuver on a Reining Horse

American Quarter Horse and women

Turnaround Maneuver on a Reining Horse

Bobby Avila

Turnaround

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

Brandy and Terri Murphy

Turnaround

There are two exercises that we worked on for the turnaround. For the first exercise, you start by walking the horse in a small circle. While you are doing that you lay the outside rein on the horse’s neck and bump the inside rein out and slightly back to get the horse to point their nose to the inside. This helps get the horse back on the inside rear foot as well. Once the horse is responding to the outside neck rein you can ask for the turnaround. When you are working the turnaround, you want to walk or trot out of the maneuver to make the horse work harder outside the turnaround. This helps get the horse to hunt the turnaround since it is less work.

The second exercise is designed to keep the horse in the correct frame during the turnaround. With one hand on the reins start trotting a circle. Than take your free hand and close it over the reins at the level of the horse’s neck. Using both legs bump the horse’s belly to get them collected up and straight. Once the horse is collected ask for the turnaround by bumping only with your outside leg. Be sure to maintain the same hand position so the horse remains in the collected frame. This helps teach the horse not to throw their head up or turn their nose out when they are asked for the turnaround. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUmwszMd5EU

Dallas Cunningham

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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7GQlJD1Kek

Jay Dee Anderson

Turnaround

Before you ask the horse to turnaround you need to work on collection. Jay Dee does this by walking a small circle. He pushes the horse’s hip into the circle with his outside leg. With two hands, he picks the reins up in a “V” shape and bends the horse’s neck to the inside of the circle. He uses his inside leg to prevent the horse from dropping into the circle or turning. This exercise helps pick the horse’s front end up and teaches them to turn without sticking their nose out. The more collected the horse is in the turnaround the easier it is for them to cross their legs over and turn smoothly.

Starting the turnaround. Jay Dee trains his horses to turnaround as soon as he lays the outside rein on their neck and kiss. He does this so that when anyone gets on the horse they don’t need to think about the turnaround, they just need to lay the outside neck rein and kiss and the horse will turn. In addition, he feels using your outside leg to start the turnaround often causes the horse to look in that direction instead of keeping their head looking in the direction of the turnaround. He keeps his outside leg next to the horse’s body but does not squeeze with it. If he needs more speed he will bump with the outside leg and kiss. To stop the turnaround, he says whoa and puts his hand down. He does not like to stop every turnaround, but likes to walk out into a small circle, this help keeps the horse from anticipating the shut off of the turnaround and work on collection. https://youtu.be/qtFdCeZz_6g

American Quarter Horse and man

Mack Weaver

Turnaround

On an older horse, Mack works a lot on their start. He wants the horse to move off the neck rein as soon as he lays it on their neck. If they don’t move than he will pull them around and stop and ask again until they start to respond to the neck rein as soon as they are asked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIiWVo-81lA

Mike Davis

Turnaround

Irish tends to tip his nose to the outside during his turnaround which makes it harder for him to cross over in the front. Mike feels that the reason he does that is because he is trying to move off the pressure from the outside leg and the more pressure the more he tips his nose out. To fix this he works on lifting the horses front end up as they are trotting around in a small circle by picking up with the reins. At first you will need to exert a good deal of pressure to get the horse to lift their front end but as you lift and release over time the amount of pressure needed will decrease until the horse is lifted enough in the front end to be able to cross over smoothly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCm4ens9B1M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDAk5fZ72JQ     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wshSMpp7exc

Nathan Kent

Turnaround

Nathan likes to trot a small circle in a counter bend to work on the turnaround. To do this you pick up your outside rein and bring it across and above the saddle horn. This bends the horse’s neck to the outside of the circle. The inside rein is back and just above your hip to help balance the horse’s face. Using your outside leg, push the horse’s hip to the inside of the circle. Doing this gets the horse’s front and back legs to cross over. After the horse has crossed over a few times release their head and let them turn in the direction they were crossing over to. So, if the horse was crossing to the right you want to turn right. This exercise helps get the horse to drive from behind for the turnaround. You don’t want the horse to only pull from the front on the turnaround. When you ask for the turnaround this exercise has conditioned the horse to use their whole body to execute the maneuver. Click this link to watch the video explaining the turnaround exercise. https://youtu.be/buFxHccptQ0

Patti Cusker

The Turnaround

Patti’s approach to the turnaround it to ue the horse by turning your head in the direction she wants to turn, as well as opening her inside leg and putting pressure on the horse with her outside leg. She uses very light contact with the outside rein to start the turn and prefers to say whoa to stop the turn. The goal for teaching the horse to turn using more body and leg pressure is to be able to turnaround without pulling on the horse’s mouth. The overall result is a responsive horse with a very soft face.

For my turnaround, we worked on keeping my horse head position correct. He likes to turn his nose to the outside of the turn. When he does this, it hinders his ability to cross his front legs over in a smooth cadence. In keeping with Patti’s soft hand approach to training I would use my free hand to lightly pick up the inside rein and drop it to get his nose to straighten up. This is a soft movement just like tapping someone on the arm to get their attention. The end result was a smooth turnaround with more natural speed.

Sean Johnson

Turnaround

The turnaround requires the horse to cross their front outside leg over in front of the inside leg.  The outside shoulder cannot be pushing to the outside or the horse will not cross over well. To work on this start trotting your horse in a small circle and guide their nose by pulling your inside rein out and holding it there. Continue to trot like this until you feel your horse’s shoulder and neck commit to the circle. Once they commit to the circle open your inside leg and lay your outside rein and turnaround. While turning pull your inside rein out and kiss and release. The horse should increase in speed every time you kiss. If the horse does not increase its speed bump them in the outside shoulder and pull your inside rein out and kiss all at the same time. Do this for multiple revolutions and then trot out into the small circle and repeat the exercise. After doing this exercise in both directions and you feel the horse is crossing over well and is committed to the turnaround you can go ahead and do the turnaround maneuver in both directions.

Sean likes to start the turnaround by opening the inside leg and rein and laying the outside rein on the neck and outside leg on the body. He does not like to kiss to start the turnaround because he feels it can create a more abrupt start. Once the horse has taken three steps he kisses once for more speed and then again for each increase in speed. If the horse does not increase in speed he will bump the horse with the outside leg or both legs as well as kissing. If they speed up with every kiss, reward the effort by stopping the turnaround and let them rest. If you would like to see my video recording of Sean explaining turnaround exercise check out my you tube link. https://youtu.be/ouDRj7xYR3g

Steve and Dori Schwartzenberger

Turnaround

For this exercise, we trotted a small circle with the horse’s front end squared up. Once the horse is collected up and lock into the circle ask for one or two turns and trot out into the small circle again. Continue to do this exercise and ask for more turns each time. Soon the horse will be hunting the turn around and crossing over correctly in the front and planting the pivot foot behind.

The interesting thing about the turnaround that I learned was that the inside front leg needs to step laterally to allow the outside front leg to cross over. To help teach the horse to step laterally with their inside leg you want to bring your inside rein over your inside knee and lay the outside rein on the horse’s neck. This will cause the horse’s inside leg to follow the inside rein. The result will be a clean cross over with the outside front leg.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and will share it with your friends.

Feature image was provided by Maria Hurd and show cases her daughter Amanda  Hurd competing.

For more reining horse training blogs go to the post page at https://horsetaillegacy.com/jgjs

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Rollback Maneuver on a Reining Horse

man on American Quarter Horse

Rollback Maneuver on a Reining Horse

This blog presents exercises used by professional reining horse trainers to teach and perfect the rollback maneuver. As with every aspect of reining the rollback is a finesse maneuver. I feel it tests the communication the rider has with the horse. The horse is running to a sliding stop which really gets the adrenaline pumping and then the horse has to come back to the rider and rollback precisely and quietly lope off in the opposite direction.

The National Reining Horse Association definition of the rollback. “Rollbacks are the 180-degree reversal of forward motion completed by running to a stop, rolling (turning) the shoulders back to the opposite direction over the hocks and departing in a lope, as one continuous motion. The NRHA Handbook states no hesitation; however, a slight pause to regain footing or balance should not be deemed hesitation. The horse should not step ahead or backup prior to rolling back.”

Ashley Villmow

Rollback

Taking a page from Ashley’s cutting horse background she used her horse Augie to incentivize Irish to depart out of the rollback faster. We lined both horses up parallel to each other, then backed them up so they had their weight on their back end. Ashley would than roll Augie back toward me and lope off down the straight line. I would have to shadow her by rolling Irish back toward her and chase them down the straight line and stop. Doing this exercise really helped get Irish to snap out of his rollback and depart more quickly in the opposite direction.

Bobby Avila

Rollback

When a horse rolls back you want their inside leg to reach forward when they lope off. Moving your inside leg forward to creates more forward motion allows the horse to extend their stride. The extend stride creates a better lead departure out of the 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.

When Bobby is teaching a horse to rollback he lopes it across the narrow part of the pen stops and turns and lopes off over and over until the horse understands what is expected of him when he stops. This condition the horse to think stop and turn.  Bobby than makes the horse stop stay square and back up and 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 the rollback is taken out of the stop and communicates to the horse that they are only to turn when you ask.

Brandy and Terri Murphy

Rollback

This exercise is designed to work on the rollback without having to do the rundown and stop. Start by walking your horse forward a few steps and then open your legs to stop them. Back the horse up a few steps than put your hand down. Start the rollback by looking in the direction you want to go. Next, pick your hand up and back towards the new direction. Wait a few seconds to let them figure out what you want then squeeze with your outside leg to get them to follow through with the rollback. If they continue to lag, make them turnaround a few times and start again. You can also trot them around in a small circle, pushing them into the bridle. Once you have built up the energy, stop, back the horse up and ask for the rollback. Continue to do this until the horse starts to snap through the rollback.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t7gyBAG448

Dallas Cunningham

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S9mm9M7lKw

Jay Dee Anderson

Rollback

We did two exercises to help improve the rollback and departure. The first was to back the horse up in a small circle. With the outside leg, we pushed the horse’s hip into the circle. At the same time, we pick up the reins with both hands and bend the horse’s head slightly to the outside. This exercise helps clear the hips and the shoulder in preparation for the rollback. Once you have done this and the horse is moving well ask the horse to rollback to the outside of the circle.

The next exercise for the rollback is done in the circle. Jay Dee lopes around in a circle and stops and rolls the horse back. This teaches the horse to roll completely around into their tracks and drive out in the other direction.  https://youtu.be/CpgzCaQLp2o

Mack Weaver

Rollback

There are four steps to think about when doing a rollback.

  1. The run down
  2. The stop
  3. The release – is after the stop and you allow the horse to stand up briefly and you release their face.
  4. The rollback – is when your hand, shoulders, and head all turn in the direction you want the horse to go.

As you turn around in the rollback you want to use your new outside leg to push the horse through the maneuver and lope off in the opposite direction. If the horse lays on your outside leg you want to turn them around a few times and then lope off in the opposite direction.

If your horse is slow departing after the rollback you can try this exercise to help your horse to move through the rollback and depart. Have someone pretend to be a cow. When you do this your horse’s head needs to stay even with the person as you travel up and down a parallel line to the person. The idea is to have your horse shadow the movements of the person. So, if the person backs up or turns or runs off you need to do the same thing with your horse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm2Ayg34OOo

Mike Davis

Rollback

We worked on two exercises to improve the rollback. The first was done on the circle. Start by loping off in a circle and then stop, wait, backup, look in the direction you want to go, bring your hand to your outside hip, open your outside leg, and follow through with the lead departure with your new outside leg. If you want to work on the rollback in one direction, stop in the middle then you can rollback in the same direction over and over as you circle around the pen. This exercise also helps with speed control in the middle of the pen and teaches the horse to relax in the middle as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6rqRQn1G5Q

Nathan Kent

Rollback

To do a roll back you want to bring your outside leg back and away from the horse’s body to open the door for the horse to move through. You want your reins to come up and across the horse’s neck in the direction you want to turn. Your hand should point in the direction you want the horse to lope off in once they have rolled back. In order to get the horse to snap out into the lope after the roll back kick with both legs in the belly. The goal is to have the horse rollback on their hocks. To do that you need to be soft with your hands during the rollback and firm with your legs to get the horse to snap out into the lead departure. Once you have done this over and over the horse will learn to speed up on their own during the rollback in order to depart fast after the rollback.

Something we have never done before to get that snap out of the roll back was working with a cow flag. A few of the trainers have suggested trying it but we never had time to do it until we got to Nathan’s. The flag is shaped like a cow and is attached to a pulley system that runs back and forth along the wall. The idea is to give the horse something to follow in the rollback.  By working the flag, you are able to sharpen the stop, the rollback, and the depart in the opposite direction faster. My horse wasn’t sure of the cow flag at first but once he got the hang of it he started following that cow like a cutting horse. This was really fun for both of us and it also helped our rollback in the process.

Patti Cusker

The Rollback

We started the rollback exercise by trotting a small circle next to the fence. Once you have done a few circles you want to stop your horse at about a 45-degree angle to the fence. The fence helps to direct the horse in the opposite direction. You ask for the rollback by looking in the direction you want to go and laying your inside rein on the horse’s neck. At the same time, you open your outside leg and push the horse through the rollback with your inside leg.

Patti likes to sit deep in the saddle and drive the rollback with her legs. She feels that if you pull too much with the reins it causes the horse to drag in the rollback. So, she likes to get light contact with the horse’s mouth when she asks for the rollback. The drive for the rollback comes from her seat and her inside leg. When you do a rollback, you need the horse to move their shoulders as well as their hips in the direction of the rollback. By maintaining a deep seat, you can stay balanced through the rollback and feel if the horse is engaging their hips to drive out of the rollback. If your horse doesn’t engage their hips you want to stop the forward motion and pick the horse up in the front end to move their shoulders and move their hips with your leg into a two-track until their shoulders and hips are moving together. Than go back to the exercise and ask for the rollback again.

Sean Johnson

Rollback Exercise

I like to call this exercise the mental gymnastics exercise. This exercise is designed to help load the outside hock in preparation for the rollback and lead departure in the opposite direction. To do this exercise for the left rollback, start backing in a circle to the right.  Pick up your left hand and keep right hand slightly lower. The hand position is the same as when asking for the rollback. Your left leg should be on the cinch and your right leg is behind. As you are backing up look slightly over to the left. Once the horse starts to soften in the backing up, start to lower your hand and keep backing up. Then ask for the rollback by bringing your hand to your left shoulder and turning your head and shoulders in the direction you want to lope off. To do a right rollback reverse the backup direction and the hand and leg position. The way I think of the leg position is to place them where they would be if I was doing a simple rollback but adding in backing circle as a windup before the release. These videos will demonstrate how to do the exercise. https://youtu.be/fDDcU5aC6Xk     https://youtu.be/nxqXJcQKkXU

A few other thoughts about the rollback.

In practice it is good to ask for the lope off a step or two past your line. This helps teach your horse not to anticipate loping off down the line since they are not conditioned to only rolling back to a set spot every time.

Think of the rollback as a quick movement, that needs the rider to move slowly to achieve a smooth maneuver.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and will share it with your friends.

For more reining horse training blogs go to the post page at https://horsetaillegacy.com/jgjs

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Reining Horse Circle Maneuvers

American Quarter Horse Loping

Circle Maneuver On a Reining Horse

Circling a horse sounds easy enough, but it takes training and practice to achieve the perfect circle. The information here outlines how professional reining horse trainers teach their horses to circle.

National Reining Horse Association Handbook definition of circles

“Circles are maneuvers at the lope, of designated size and speed, which demonstrate control, willingness to guide, and degree of difficulty in speed and speed changes. Circles must at all times be run in the geographical area of the arena specified in the pattern description and must have a common center point. There must be a clearly defined difference in the speed and size of a small, slow circle, and a large, fast circle; also, the speed and size of small, slow right circles should be similar to the small, slow left circles; and the speed and size of the large, fast right circles should be similar to the large, fast left circles”

Bobby Avila

American Quarter Horse LopingOur horses are trained to be responsive to our body ques. When you ride a circle, you want to ride spotting 1/8 of the circle at a time. If you ride too far ahead of your horse it becomes difficult to maintain a consistent circle. An older horse knows how to stay under your hands and follow the circle however, if they make the back decision to lean in or out of the circle Bobby likes to correct this by turning the horse sharply across the circle and then get back on the circles’ path. These two techniques helped my circles a great deal. It also helps reduce the need to continually pick up my hands to guild him to do what he already knows my horse throughout my circle. 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 wait 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.

Brandy Murphy

Fast to Slow Circles

American Quarter Horse LopingWhen transitioning from fast to slow circles you need to build in the cues that signal the horse to make the change in speed. Start by loping a circle and when you want to slow down start to hum, pick up your hand as they start to come back to you drop your hand. Use your outside leg to push the hip into the circle. Then once they come back, you want to stop them. This conditions the horse that when they hear the hum they think stop. Once they understand the cues, then move on to the transitioning from fast to slow circles. Be consistent and your horse will learn how to transition smoothly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNNLjj1js88

Bruce Barber

As you circle you will feel when the horse is leaning as soon as you feel it stop the horse, back them up and rollback and depart. Timing the work to happen as soon as the lean occurs is important so the horse connects the work with the leaning.

This exercise helps the horse learn how to stay on the circle willingly. The exercise can be done at the trot and the lope. The goal is to make the horse work when they lean. Once they understand that it is less work to stay on the circle you have taught them to be more willingly guided.

Jay Dee Anderson

Lead Departure and Building Speed in the Circle

For the lead departure Jay Dee picks up the reins and applies light pressure to the bit and asks the horse to lope off. After a few strides, he breaks the horse down to a walk and repeats the process. This teaches the horse to allow you to pick up on the reins and to keep their head down in the lead departure. The next step is pick up on the reins and increase the speed by kissing and bumping with your legs. This technique allows you to pick on the horse in the show pen to increase speed while remaining collected. Once he has the speed he wants he puts his hand down and bumps with his legs and kisses to speed the horse up if they start to slow down. https://youtu.be/yK2rGjiH84M

Linda Hitt

Transitioning from a large fast to a small slow first

Linda likes to think of the circle having spotting points in the shape of STOP sign. Thinking this way gives you the visual of the center of the circle being a straight line. Linda placed two traffic cones on each side of the center line. This created an alley way to guide through as you go from your large fast circle to your small slow. This added visual really helped me to stay straight through center and to time my transition to the small slow.

Mack Weaver

How to keep your horse on the circle when riding one handed. Start by keeping your hand in line with the center of the horse’s mane and keep your shoulders square. Look in the direction you want your horse to go. Your horse should stay on the path you are looking toward. If the horse leaves the circle to the outside you want to stop the horse and turn the horse around to the inside of the circle. Lope off, then cut the circle in half so that you get back to the spot the horse left the circle faster. Frequent repetition allows you to correct the horse in the trouble spot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UGWl3dW5TY

Nathan Kent

Nathan likes to warm up for circles by trotting in a small circle.  From a small circle, you ask the horse to follow the path you chose for that circle. If the horse leaves that path, lay the outside rein, and move them back on the path of the circle. This is also done at the lope. Doing this exercise gets the horse sensitive to the neck rein, which teaches them to guide with very little pressure.

If a horse does not want to stay on the circle the other exercise you can do is to stop the horse and turn them around a few times and lope off. You want to turn them into the circle to teach them to follow it. You want to keep doing this exercise until the horse is soft in the face and following the circle with very stride.

Large Fast Circle

When running a large fast circle your hand position needs to be close to the horse’s neck and forward.  To guide the horse in the circle from that position Nathan likes to have his hand lined up with the horse’s inside ear. This position allows you to direct the horse without lifting up or pulling back on the reins. It also gives the horse a clear direction to follow because your reins are contacting a sensitive part of their neck.

Sean Johnson

Sean explains that it takes another half circle before the error becomes evident. So, if your horse is not coming through center on a straight line, the error occurred half way back on the circle, not at the center. Thinking this way was a great insight into where the mistake really started and that the correction should be made back when the mistake was created and that would prevent the mistake that became evident halfway around the other side of the circle.

The goal of the reining circle is to have the horse willingly guided and if you are helping them all the time they are not willingly guided. You want the horse to do more work than you. If you want to teach the horse to lock into the circle, only correct them when they make the mistake. If they leave the circle guide their nose to the inside with your inside rein at the same time bump with your outside leg. Once they are following the circle bring your hands back to center and let the horse follow the circle. If the horse is dropping into the circle guide them to move out by opening your outside rein and bumping with your inside leg. After working on this my horse started to move more freely and was locking into the circle on his own.

Circling can become monotonous for both you and your horse. You really want them to be waiting for what comes next. A great way to do that is to add a stop and a turnaround to the outside and loping off in the opposite direction. This one exercise helps sharpen up the circles, the turnaround, the roll back, the stop, and the lead departure.

Steve  Schwartzenberger

What to do if your horse is looking out of the circle.

If a horse is looking out of the circle you want to use your inside rein and bend the horse at the pole by bring your inside rein back and up to your hip. Keep your forward motion as you ask for this bend and continue to ride half way around the circle and release the rein so the horse is following the arch of the circle. Continue to do this until the horse understand that they are to follow the circle without looking out.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and will share it with your friends.

All images were provided by Maria Hurd and show case her daughters Amanda and Elena Hurd competing.

For more reining horse training blogs go to the post page at https://horsetaillegacy.com/jgjs

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How to Ride Your Reining Horse Better with Sean Johnson Professional Reining Horse Trainer, Glenpool, OK

American Quarter Horse, Reining Horse, Cluck Cluck Lena

Sean Johnson Professional Reining Horse Trainer, Glenpool, OKAmerican Quarter Horse, Reining Horse, Cluck Cluck Lena

This post will concentrate on exercises for rollbacks, turnarounds and the counter canter on a finished reining horse.

This was my second trip to ride with Sean Johnson. After losing my trainer at home, I contacted Sean to see if it would be possible to come back to Oklahoma to ride with him a few times a year. Sean put me on a nice gelding named Cluck Cluck Lena. He is so much like my horse Irish I was able to concentrate on improving my riding without having to deal with the big learning curve that comes with riding a different horse. While I was there we worked on all the reining maneuvers. I have outlined some of the main exercise we focused on below.

Rollback Exercise

I like to call this exercise the mental gymnastics exercise. This exercise is designed to help load the outside hock in preparation for the rollback and lead departure in the opposite direction. To do this exercise for the left rollback, start backing in a circle to the right.  Pick up your left hand and keep right hand slightly lower. The hand position is the same as when asking for the rollback. Your left leg should be on the cinch and your right leg is behind. As you are backing up look slightly over to the left. Once the horse starts to soften in the backing up, start to lower your hand and keep backing up. Than ask for the rollback by bringing your hand to your left shoulder and turning your head and shoulders in the direction you want to lope off. To do a right rollback reverse the backup direction and the hand and leg position. The way I think of the leg position is to place them where they would be if I was doing a simple rollback but adding in backing circle as a windup before the release. These videos will demonstrate how to do the exercise.https://youtu.be/nxqXJcQKkXU

A few other thoughts about the rollback.

In practice it is good to ask for the lope off a step or two past your line. This helps teach your horse not to anticipate loping off down the line since they are not conditioned to only rolling back a set spot every time.

Think of the rollback as a quick movement, that needs the rider to move slowly to achieve a smooth maneuver.

Turnaround Exercise

The purpose of this exercise is to get the rear inside pivot foot to drive deeper under the horses’ body. Start by trotting a circle. Pick your outside hand up and place it on the horses’ neck and keep your inside hand down and out. Using your inside leg, push the inside hip toward the outside of the circle. Keep your outside leg up near the cinch.  Once you feel the horse is crossing over/under well, then stop and ask them to turn in the direction you were trotting. If you were trotting right then turn right. The tendency is for the horse to start moving their front end faster. To block this from happening you can pick your outside hand up and tip the horses’ face to the outside of the circle.  Check out these videos to see how the exercise is done. https://youtu.be/05BWL50GT9M      https://youtu.be/05BWL50GT9M

Counter Canter Exercise

This exercise helps you use your legs and seat to feel when your horse starts to push or lean on you. Start by looping in the counter canter around the length of the arena. As you go down the long side of the arena start to lengthen the horse’s stride. About 3 – 4 strides before the corner slow down, then make a 90 degree turn and stay parallel to the short side of the square and make another 90 degrees turn, once you are pointing straight, drive down the long side. During these turns the horse will have a tendency to drop to the inside. You will need to use your inside leg to keep the horse stood up. This exercise also helps develop your ability to rate the horses’ speed. This will also help you use your body position to maintain a straight line, which is needed when doing a sliding stop. This video explains the exercise.

https://youtu.be/L7HfNaL0Ftw

I was fortunate to be able to spend eight days riding with Sean. The ability to repeat the exercise multiple days in a row makes it easier to learn the feel of the horse’s movement. Now that I have the feel, I can take the information home and practice on my own horse.

After working at home for a few days Irish and I really started to click with these exercises. I am looking forward to some even snappier rollbacks and smoother turnarounds.

While riding with Sean Johnson I logged 20 hours toward the AQHA Horseback Riding Program. I also earned my 2000 hours reward gift. A Professional Choice Saddle Pad Case. Go to the AQHA website to find out more about the Horseback Riding Program and AQHA. https://www.aqha.com/trail-riding/programs/aqha-horseback-riding-program

For more information about Sean Johnson Professional Reining Horse Trainer go to: http://johnsonreining.com/

I hope you have enjoyed this post and will share it with your friends.

For more reining horse training blogs go to the post page at https://horsetaillegacy.com/jgjs

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Improve Your Horseback Riding with These Tips From Buffalo Ridge Arena with Bruce Barber in Georgetown, Kentucky

Training at Buffalo Ridge Arena with Bruce Barber in Georgetown, Kentucky

child on an American Quarter HorseThis week of training was all about speed control and freeing up my horse’s movement. Taking a week and focusing on communicating with Irish in a way that he understands and responds to without picking his face up and poking him with my spur made for one happy horse. My horse Irish is a 13-year-old American Quarter Horse gelding that knows how to do all the maneuvers in a Reining pattern. He does not need to keep repeating the maneuvers, he needs to do them in a way that he is more willingly guided. Bruce believes that the best way to teach a horse is through work.  Evaluate each maneuver and see what isn’t working and break it down and work on that part. He does not believe in doing the maneuver over and over and spurring a horse that already knows his job.  Below are the exercises that we did during our week with Bruce Barber.

Speed Control

Speed control is like a dance according to Bruce.  The way to communicate with your horse to slow down, speed up or stop is with your feet and your body. To develop the speed control, we made a diamond shape pattern instead of a circle. Begin by trotting to the first point once there loping off to the next point. Once you are at that point push down in your feet and stay behind the motion to tell the horse to slow down to the trot. To get the horse to speed up in the lope move your feet front and back with the motion of the horses back feet. Doing the diamond exercise also helps straighten up a horse that is over bent in or out of the circle. Once the horse is listening to your body do the same exercise in a circle. Bruce feels that putting pressure down into your feet and staying off the horse’s back allows the horse to drop his neck and round up his back ultimately freeing up the horse to move out.

Working the poles

Bruce placed three wooden poles about five feet apart horizontally on the ground. The goal of this exercise is get the horse to move out and pick his feet up. The added benefit is to see that when the rider is sitting down on the horse’s back it blocks the horses motion. We started at the walk and walked over the poles with me sitting down. Irish hit most of the poles with his feet. We tried it again and this time I put pressure in my feet and stood up out of the saddle and gave him a loose rein and he didn’t hit a pole. For the trot, we circled around the poles and turned perpendicular to the poles and trotted over them maintaining pressure in my feet and standing up out of the saddle. Irish loved this exercise by the end he was looking at his feet and the poles and you could feel him relax.

The “U” shape pole exercise is used to see if you have control of the horse body. This was set up so you had to trot into the inside of a “U” that was about 6 x 6 feet and circle around and trot back out. Doing this will help determine if your horse pushing in or out with their head, shoulder or hip. For me, Irish was pushing out with his shoulder. Determining that he was pushing out with his shoulder led to the reverse arch exercise.

The reverse arch exercise

The goal of this exercise is to get rid of any stiffness in the shoulder by pulling the horse’s head and neck to the outside of the circle. Trot and loop circles and pull your outside rein back to arch the horse’s head to the outside of the circle. This work helps to free up the shoulder so that the horse is able stay in the tight arch needed to complete a circle in the “U” shape pole exercise.

The “X” exercise

This exercise benefits the horse’s core, lead departure, lead changes, and roll backs. In this exercise, you make two diagonal lines across the pen to form an “X”.  Starting at the trot push the horse hip over in the direction of the opposite corner you are heading to. Essentially the hip is leading while keeping the horse’s head in line with his body to form a diagonal line.  Once you reach the opposite corner release the hip and trot around the top of the pen to the next corner and trot the diagonal line pushing the horse’s hip again to the opposite corner. Once you have it at the trot do the same maneuver at the lope. At the top of the pen push down into your feet and break into the trot to the next corner and pick up the lope pushing the hip over to the opposite corner. After a few “X” patterns at the lope instead of breaking into the trot ask for the lead change at the top of the pen and proceed to the next corner.

Counter canter lead change exercise

Counter cantering a circle is a great exercise to work on the lead change. Normally a horse wants to be in the correct lead on the circle so it becomes a natural movement for them to change to the correct lead when asked. It is important to stay in rhythm with the horse and to ask for the lead change by softening the horse’s chin and changing your weight into your outside hip and step through the change by placing your outside leg on and releasing the inside leg and clucking. This allows the horse to change into the correct lead for that circle while allowing you to practice the lead change.

Leaning in or out on the circle exercise.

This exercise helps the horse learn how to stay on the circle willingly. The exercise can be done at the trot and the lope. The goal is to make the horse work when they lean. Once they understand that it is less work to stay on the circle you have taught them to be more willingly guided. As you circle you will feel when the horse is leaning as soon as you feel it stop the horse, back them up and rollback and depart. Timing the work to happen as soon as the lean occurs is important so the horse connects the work with the leaning.

While in Georgetown, KY I logged 9 hours of riding time toward the AQHA riding program. https://www.aqha.com/trail-riding/programs/aqha-horseback-riding-program

I hope you can use these exercises to make your horse more willingly guided and happy just like Irish.

For more information about Buffalo Ridge Arena by clicking this link: http://buffaloridgearena.weebly.com/

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