How Well Does Your Horse Stop???

[TexasShepherdess]

^^^More nervous perhaps? nerves or boredom can cause a horse to "play" with their bit.

 

[LauraM]

I would rate the mare I ride on as a 4.... Sometimes, since I'm a beginner, she just won't respond to my cues.

Here's a pic of me stopping her
http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/uploads/2213_me_stopping_dreamer_artsy.jpg

I hope you don't mind some suggestions here.........

Your mare seems quite confused in this photo, so I can see why there would be times she does not stop as well. Try to remember that a horse does not stop well once you start pulling back on the reins and putting pressure on it's mouth. Particularly if it seems to have "come out of the blue" so far as she can tell. If that happens, by the time you get to that point, she will be far more concerned about the "pulling" on her mouth and the action of the bit (out of instinct, not because she wants to ignore you), and will not be able to get it all together to stop correctly.

Before I go any further, I want to point out a couple of things that I see in this photo.

Your back is very stiff and tense and tight........while you want to "stop" your back motion by sitting deep in the saddle, tensing up will cause so much "static" that your mare won't be able to decipher what you want. Plus, any time your back is tense and braced like that, you automatically cause your horse's back to be tense and braced and that destroys a soft, balanced stop. Your tenseness is aggravated by holding onto the saddle horn. I know you probably want to, but it makes things worse to grab it......really. Try to keep your free hand down near your leg.

You're rein hand is very high.......anytime your rein hand comes above your own belt buckle area, you encourage the horse to raise it's head......The higher a horse raises it's head, the more hollow it's back gets.......the more hollow the back, the less it can keep it's rear legs under it and THAT'S where the brakes are. So by raising your hand high, you've effectively caused the horse to lose it's brakes. Try to keep your hand low and in front of the horn.......this may mean you may want to keep the loose end of your reins in your free hand so you can take up any extra slack just before you ask for a halt. Most people, especially beginners, tend to raise the hand higher, towards their own face, to take up the slack from a too long rein, rather than sliding the rein through the hand to shorten it.

You're looking at the horse........don't. Looking at the horse makes you lose your balance because you lose sight of the horizon and that's a large part of your balancing mechanism when on something that is moving. Keep your eyes on something in the distance, not the back of the horse's head.

So.......soften the back.......look up.......keep your hand low.......don't grab the saddle horn.

Now, when you are ready to halt, you want to ask first with your body, by shifting your weight towards the rear of the horse with your back relaxed and look at something in the distance. Think of really sitting on your tailbone. As soon as you do that, mentally tell yourself, "I'm already standing still" and hold that thought. This will help you make it it physically clear to your horse what your back aid means. Then, gently make a fist with your rein hand......if the horse does not stop, you can make contact with the bit by moving your hand and wrist. Try to avoid moving your entire arm.....if you can't make contact by just moving your wrist, then take the slack up by grabbing the loose end of the reins with your free hand to pull and slide the reins through your rein hand a few inches. Once you make contact (if needed, though you may find you don't need to if she's well trained at the stop), really REALLY try to refrain from actually pulling. The more you pull back, the more your horse will be focused on it's mouth and not it's job (which is to stop). Just make contact and hold the pressure there and wait.

Practice all this at the walk until you and her are communicating well and you are confident you have all the signals and the movements correct, then try about 6-7 trot/jog steps and halt. Don't let her trot far.......it will be easier for you to stop if you aren't concentrating on sitting a trot. Plus, the slower she goes the easier it will be and the less confusing it will be. When that is going really well, then ask for a longer trot.

Good luck.

 

[LauraM]

One thing that is strange is he only plays with the bit when we are on the field. If we are on a trail he leaves it alone. Aside from tying his tongue, does anyone have any ideas how to get him to quit playing with his bit. A harsher bit does not work. A friend was trying to ride him with a harsher bit and ended up pulling him over on herself when he reared.

He's just a baby. Babies mouth things. Think of him as a giant puppy.

When he's out on a trail there SO MUCH to see and do that he's distracted from his mouthing.......but when he's not got all that going on, then he's back to mouthing.

Don't worry about it. Really. He'll grow out of it if you DON'T make it an issue. But in all honesty, I would rather have a horse mouth and play with the bit.......this helps keep the horse's mouth moist and the jaw soft. Better than a dry, tense, braced mouth and jaw.

He's perfectly normal for a three year old. Making an issue of it will only cause problems.......putting a harsher bit on him at this age and experience is a catastrophic mistake, as your friend found out. Hope she is okay.........

 

[TexasShepherdess]

I still may not discount nerves on the above horse..JMO of course..

Hard to make an accurate assesment over a forum post..could be something to let it work it self out or something to look further into..

 

[Teeah3612]

Thanks for the advice. My friend is just fine. She is alot younger than me and other than some serious bruises was fine.

Jasper is just a knucklehead and likes to be a pain sometimes. I don't know that he will ever grow out of the playing with the bit thing. I think it is his personality. He gets into everything. He can open the stall door if we don't padlock it. He unties the other horses when it is feeding time and he is finished. He can get his halter off his head anytime he wants. I climb through the fence instead of using the gate, because I don't want him to see how it works. I tell everyone he has ADD. Even with all the pain in the butt things he does, he doesn't have a mean bone in his body and I wouldn't trade him for anything.

 

[Sheepdog]

I teach from very early after I start my horses under saddle, that stopping and backing are extremely important... I am sure that they are almost convinced that their life depends on stopping and backing up.... by the time they are ready to compete as 3 rising 4 year olds, they are trying to get back whilst still stopping... I want that back implanted in their brain so that they think the as they are stopping they are wanting to be reversing. So my competion horses would have a 5 stop. A couple have pretty cute sliding stops, one has a good 20 foot sliding stop, but he is not a super natural stopper...but he was athletic enough, trainable enough and had the right bloodlines to be taught to stop... Out in the pasture, he stops on his front end, every time, even in the arena and turned out, with sliders on, he still stops on his front.

My young colt that has had 4 months of riding... from her first ride til now, and not consitently because I have been sick... she would have a 4 stop. She is just natural. She isn't bred in the purple like my other horse, but she can just do everything so balanced and so well. Obviously she isn't doing anything fancy, no sliding stops at this stage of course and not stopping from anything but a decent lope, but she just plants her butt... Right from the first time I stopped her from a trot when I first started her under saddle, she just wanted to stop. And out in the pasture, she usually always stops with her hindquarter under herself and hardly ever stops on her front. When she rolls back, she rounds herself, she is just so naturally balanced and has been one of the easiest horses I have ever started under saddle... in fact I think she IS the easiest.... whether she will reach her peak early and never get to the top is anyones guess, because I have had a couple of those before in the past... very advanced for their age but then they peak early and end up good horses but not as good as one would have thought... (and I dont' rush them.... if they are not physically or mentally capable to handle the pressure of training, I don't mind that they miss their futurity year or even derby year... I would rather have a solid horse for many years than blow one's legs or mind in trying to push them for aged events)

In past experience some horses are just more natural stoppers than others, some of it depends on bloodlines, some of it depends on conformation (yet I have seen some horses defy gravity and be able to stop as good as any and yet they have been U necked, post hocked and short hipped...though as a rule this doesn't happen, these horses I think just had a lot of heart), a lot of it depends on training, a lot of it depends on how trainable the horse is. So there can also be a lot of variables, but all horses can be taught to stop, just like all horses can change leads, how they execute these manouvers is the difference....

I have one mare, my old cutting horse and she can stop, but she has always been a little heavy in her stops, yes she buries her butt, but she also jars your back in the process.... it is just the way she stops....

 

[TexasShepherdess]

I have one mare, my old cutting horse and she can stop, but she has always been a little heavy in her stops, yes she buries her butt, but she also jars your back in the process.... it is just the way she stops....

We call that a cutting horse stop..I have one like that too..she is bred to be a cutter..she stops hard and deep..

 

[Sheepdog]

I have one mare, my old cutting horse and she can stop, but she has always been a little heavy in her stops, yes she buries her butt, but she also jars your back in the process.... it is just the way she stops....

We call that a cutting horse stop..I have one like that too..she is bred to be a cutter..she stops hard and deep..

Yes that is exactly right.... we don't care how our cutters stop as long as it is on their hind quarter and they are stopping the cow, so smoothness doesn't really count so much. My reiner is also doesn't stop as smooth as other straight reining bred horses that I have had in the past, but he in my opinion is more cutting bred.... he is by Rooster (Gallo De Ciello) who is throwing more reiners than cutters though he is cow bred. My gelding's dam is by Freckles Playboy and she is out of a Shorty Lena mare... so cutting bred. And he does tend to stop more like a working cowhorse stop than the reiners of today... still will pull out a 2 foot slide, but not as pretty to watch as the top reiners... He should have been a cutter... when I first put him on a cow, his belly almost hit the dirt and he shows so much expression.

Of my cutters I had in Australia, 3/4 sisters... bred to be cutters... Docs Spinifex (Docs Oak X Docs Lynx mare) and Pine Olena (Doc Olena) ... one had a huge stop... I used to wear a glove on my horn hand because i would come out of an event with skin off my thumb and bleeding Push down on the horn into a stop and pull back on the horn coming out of the stop... she was powerful and really threw you around.

The 3/4 sister, was not as good on tough cattle and not as huge stopper, but much prettier to watch work because she would work on top of the ground more (if that makes sense) rather than so deep. Her stops weren't so deep, so she didn't have to work as hard getting back the other direction, hence she had more time to show expression on the cow and make things look real pretty, plus she was much easier and smoother to ride... but on the down side, she was softer, and she was softer on cattle and wasn't particuarly good if we went to a show where there were tough cattle or brahman cattle. Whereas the other mare loved tough cattle and rarely lost one... she made up for her lack of flair, with guts and determination... and both were trained by me... so had nothing to do with different training methods... just individual horses that have a different style. Makes things more interesting that way

But, give me the smoother ride these days I am getting too old to get jarred around