Slowing Down

[mydakota]

What you are doing with the stopping and backing is good. Do it from all gates, and with energy. The rollbacks are also VERY good. Anything that gets her weight transferred onto the back end and lightens up the front. I will also spend some time backing the horse up hills. (don't overdo this one, as it can make them sore if they are not very fit). I will also practice rating the trot a LOT. For some reason that seems to be an easier concept for them to grasp. Push them up into a long trot, then ease them back to a jog. Do this a couple of times in one revolution of the arena. They need to make the connection between the speed at which they are traveling, and the energy with which you are riding. It will eventually transfer to the canter. In the lope, the transitions are very important. If they are not smooth, or if she leaps into them, you will spend your time fixing that instead of rate. How are her transitions? How are her leads? The big thing here is to make sure she is working with her hocks underneath her. Drive her up underneath herself. It will help her to round, and will help lighten her up.

 

[Paintingpheonix]

Yep, she usually gets her leads right and if she doesn't i take her back to a jog and make her do it right. I will certainly try the trotting and see how that works out. Thankyou

 

[Sheepdog]

Also, as well as what you are already doing, do a lot of slow work, pushing her hip over with your leg, softening her rib cage etc... in conjunction with softening through the pole and bottom jaw.

You need control of the hindquarters and the shoulders which will also help you when you start to teach her to rate speed. You need to be able to move the hind quarters as well as keep the ribcage soft... which will also help soften the back ups and also the stops. You want that ribcage lifted and back rounded... a horse cannot stop well with a hollow back... they can't perform any movement well with a hollow back.

I get my babies to start lifting ribcage at an early age, before I start any exercise or movement. Start off slowly with leg pressure and if she doesn't respond to leg, I always use spur and if she gives you one step or even half a step moving her hip when you ask, then ride her forward and out of it (that is her reward), keep repeating and then again and eventually you will be able to push her hip where ever you want it, at any speed. I use this exercise then to progress to controled flying lead changes, especially at a slow lope (it is usually easier for a horse to do a lot of movements such as a flying lead change with speed, than it is at a slow controlled pace).I always concentrate on one side a repeat it a number of times before I go to swapping to the other side and doing the same thing... same with shoulders, don't alternate from side to side until the horse is giving softly and freely... If you have control of the hind quarters, the shoulders, the rib cage is soft and the horse is soft through the pole and the bottom jaw, you can teach them any movement.

The first thing I do when I get on any of my horses is put some leg pressure and ask for them to lift their ribcage... my reining horse grows half a hand I can really feel him lift... the younger ones don't lift their ribcage as much but they are still trying...one of my colts is extraordinarily soft and I only need put leg pressure on her... my older number sided reining horse (and it also has a lot to do with bloodlines, why some are softer than others... as well as how they are started under saddle etc) he needs a bit of spur in his ribcage to make him lift and soften.... but its like anything, its an exercise that they have to develop the muscles for and also understand the cue from the rider. Don't be fooled if a horse just drops his head as soon as you do this because most of mine go through this cheating phase and think they can just drop their head down and soften through the face and pole and that is good enough.... you want the lift to come through the rib cage, belly and back and then the neck and head softens. And of course they will all try and find an easy way around things. So don't let them give you the illusion of lifting when they are indeed not. It will take a while but eventually you will feel them lift themselves as soon as you give them the cue.... leg pressure, heel pressure or spur... depending on how sensitive your horse is and depending on how advanced the horse is and how much the horse understands.

A lot of people have their horses flexed at the pole and think they are soft, but they are still not soft through the belly and the ribcage... and if you don't have them soft through this area, your everything will be much stiffer, including transistions, lead changes, stops, spins, etc. I don't teach a lope departure from a halt or a walk until I have control of the above mentioned things. Then it is so very simple to have a nice, soft and slow lope depature on the correct lead.