Ask The Horse Trainer!
 
Email training questions to David at dave@practicalequinetraining and each Galloping Grape Newsletter he will select from submissions and provide an answer.  Please use the subject line of “Galloping Grape Training Question.”
 
Question:  When I am on the trail with my horse, I have to keep pulling on the reins and keep tension on them or my horse keeps going faster, or breaks into a trot or a canter, from a walk, without my input.  My arms and hands get very tired and I don’t enjoy this.  What do I do?  Also, it does not stop very well.
 
David’s Answer:  First I need to say that there are many training methods and techniques, and multiple solutions to any specific problem.  What the right solution is for you and your horse is what works for you.  Not all solutions, and maybe only one, will work best for you and your horse.  When you train your horse, which is whenever you are in sensory range of it, sometimes you need to be like a mechanic with a set of tools.  Sometimes you can spot the problem and select a specific size wrench to fit.  Sometimes you have to use trial and error, pick a wrench, try different sizes, and see if one fits—and if one doesn’t fit, try using some pliers instead. 
 
That being said, this is what I recommend for the scenario above.  First the training should be done in a controlled area with good footing, and the horse needs to be in relatively good condition—there can be some strain to the hocks in the latter stage of this exercise.  Also, you need to be able to show your horse that you can vary your rein presence, as in be on the reins with contact, or completely release the reins and let go, or be present on the reins but with little to no tension on the reins.  Why does a horse do anything for us?  Release from pressure.  In almost ALL cases, they perform for us because we give them a release.  We teach them our promise—“if you will do this for me, I will give you a release from this pressure afterwards.”  Pressure is usually the motivator, but the release is what your horse lives for and what increases the likelihood they will repeat the desired behavior.  Applying this concept to our scenario, YOUR HORSE DOES NOT STOP OR SLOW DOWN BECAUSE YOU PUT TENSION ON THE REINS—IT DOES SO BECAUSE YOU RELEASE THE TENSION WHEN IT STOPS.  If you never release the tension on the reins, your horse will ignore the tension, and you will have a fairly “hard-mouthed” horse.  In many scenarios, this leads to you putting a harsher bit in your horses mouth, in fact blaming your horse, when it is your own hands and riding technique that teaches your horse to ignore the rein and bit tension.
 
Here is the exercise you should use to correct this problem.  I always recommend a full cheek snaffle bit, but this can be done with whatever bit you use.  After mounting your horse, ask it to go forward at the walk.  Count 3-5 steps.  Simultaneously change your seat to ask for a stop while saying WHOA/HO, and within half a second of that ask it to stop with steady tension on the reins.  Hold steady tension until it stops.  How much tension?  As little as possible but as much as it takes.  Once your horse stops, pause a couple of seconds, and ask it to go forward at the walk again.  Count 3-5 steps.  Repeat the above until your horse stops easily and lightly.  If you keep repeating the seat change and verbal command, and slowly increase the delay between that and the onset of rein tension, your horse will begin slowing and stopping BEFORE you apply reins.  Now you have a horse that stops with no reins!
 
Now you can go to the next phase—from a stand still, ask your horse to go right to a trot.  Apply as little energy as possible but as much as required to go from a dead stop to a trot.  After 5-7 steps at the trot, repeat your same request to stop from the trot as you did from the walk—change your seat to ask for a stop while saying WHOA/HO, and within half a second of that ask it to stop with steady tension on the reins.  Hold steady tension until it stops.  Repeat over and over, slowly increasing the delay from when you ask to stop with seat & verbal to when the rein pressure comes on.  Once you have a nice soft stop from the trot, repeat at the canter.  Again, canter from a standstill.  Count 7-9 steps at the canter, repeat your request to stop as before.
 
When you are done with this exercise, you should have a horse that not only stops with light rein tension from any gait, but one that will stop from either a seat change or a verbal request.  Now you carry this to the trail environment, but start over.  Within the first 50 feet of the trail beginning, ask your horse to stop from the walk.  Repeat every 3-5 steps.  When you’re happy with that, trot.  Every 5-7 steps, ask for a stop, pause for a few seconds, right back to the trot.  Then on to the canter, where the footing permits.  From a stop to a canter, 7-9 steps, stop.
 
Soon you’ll be going down the trail on a loose rein, YIPPEE! 
 
As I started out saying, there are other methods and techniques.  The above should work for 95% of people and their horses, but if it doesn’t for you and your horse, email me or call me.
 
David Yauch
Practical Equine Training
dave@practicalequinetraining.com
540-229-4255
www.practicalequinetraining.com