Stops

Question
QUESTION: Hi Jennifer,

I own a six year old quarter horse stallion who is soon to be gelded because of behavior issues, but my question is how do I teach him the sliding stop?

Right now, he will roll back and do a very slow and lazy spin to the left, completing one circle.  Going to the right he is exceptionally slow and will complete only a half circle, but must be reminded to shift his weight to the hindquarters with a leg cue and rein aid signalling the reverse.

When I ask him for his lope, he has no problem adjusting speeds as he knows fast and faster :), not funny I know, but when it comes time to stop, he will give one of two responses...he will either stop slowly resisting my cues, downshifting through each gait (this is the response I get by controlling the position of his head with draw reins or a martingale) or he will will bounce stop in one stride with his head coming skyward (with no training aid or with the martingale).  When I began his training, he was working on a simple o ring snaffle and has since been moved to a slow twisted wire snaffle (again, due to behavior issues).  He can execute all movements bridleless, indicating I have not overworked his mouth, but he gives me the same lazy result everytime.  

He is in training full time as a western pleasure horse, but I do believe in diversity and can see no reason why he cant a plethora of things.  I have owned him since he was a yearling and currently have 22 years experience and several accomplished horses under my belt.  Any advice?

ANSWER: Hi,

It sounds like you have a very nice horse, and gelding him will only make him better :)

My first suggestion is to go back to a snaffle, even if it means going back to round pen work and line driving to get him more repsonsive to the bit. I don't ever suggest teaching horses new things in a twisted.

My suggestion for both the spins and the stop are actually the same exercise. It sounds like he isn't lifting his shoulders in either activity. In the spins, he needs to lift his barrel and shoulder up, freeing his front end to pivot around his backend. In the slide stop, if he's "jamming" his front end, only stopping for one stride and bouncing, it's because he isn't breaking in the loins and lifting his front end freely. For both of these situations, I'd do a bunch of lateral movements and backing exercises. For the lateral movements, do alot of two tracking, side passing, shoulder ins and haunches in. You want to be able to do them, without pulling his head off center and with just the touch of your calf on his side and seat bone pressure. That will free up his shoulder. Start by doing them at the walk, then proceed up in gaits and of course practice both directions. Praise him often and start with little steps and short time spans to start with. The other exercises I suggest are backing exercises. This will not only give you control of all parts of his body, so you can move each one independently, but it will help strengthen his loins and hind end. One caution with these exercises, he'll be using muscles he normally doesn't use, so start with short sessions and build up the time slowly. For the backing exercises, I suggest several. First start with setting up 3 cones in a straight line about 12 feet apart, practice backing him through them, stopping to re-position him as needed. When you can back through those, put the cones in a barrel race shaped cloverleaf and do the exercise around those. You final backing exercise will be to back him in a figure eight (two circles either direction), with solid,fulid, consistent motion. This sounds much easier than it is, lol. So be patient and reward him often.

With your experience and patience, I think you both are off to a great start. Keep me updated.

Happy Trails,

Jen

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you first of all, for the fast response and secondly, here is the funny thing about Chance.  He will back fluidly in any shape or pattern I ask with no resistance.  He is backing solely from leg pressure with no pressure from the reins or bit (if there is, its a one time reminder that we are going backwards now).  I agree with you on the lateral, he is very weak on side passing in that he moves his front end correctly, but side steps on his rear end.  I will work on more two tracking and side passing.  Can you explain shoulder and haunches in and what kind of excersises I can do to make it successful?  Thanks for the hint on the bit as well, I will switch him back next time I ride him.

Answer
You are very welcome. When you are doing the backing exercises, be sure he is "on the bit", not with lose reins so he has to pick up his shoulder and round his back. Sounds like you've put some great basics on thim. As far as the shoulder in, I am going to cheat, lol, and give you a great link that has photos, which makes it even better. Basically the key with the shoulders in, is you want his haunces to track straight and his front end to track to the inside, kind of like half a two track. The key is the forward motion of the hips staying straight, gives you the upmost in body control and basically mimicks the "theory" of the spin (where the hind end stays the same and only the front end moves) except with forward motion. Here is my favorite website for that exercise:http://www.artofriding.com/articles/shoulder-in.html

(if that link doesn't work you can go to the home page and scroll down http://www.artofriding.com/school.html)

Warning it's more of a dressage term and exercise than it is a western one, but to me it's a foundation exercsise for all horses. And since your stallions is so versitile, this will likely improve his performance in more than one event.

I hope that helps.

Happy Trails,

Jen