Learning to Ride a Horse

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"Speed Up Your Slow Horse," Issue 5, part 3 of our FREE monthly newsletter

From our How to Break a Horse Series:

"The fix for the lazy horse can be done while doing any riding exercise. The first thing that makes a horse responsive or lighter is having a clear cue. A cue is something that you ask the horse and can get the horse to do. That means a cue to stop will be picking up the reins. That would be a cue to stop. A pre-cue is something you do before the cue. A pre-cue is "ho." If I go forward and I say "ho," and he doesn't stop, I'm going to say "ho" and pick up the reins to say "That meant stop." So pretty soon, when I go forward and I say "ho" the horse stops. So a pre-cue is something you do before a cue that makes a horse lighter and more responsive. It's the same thing with your legs. What do you do before you use your legs? You sit forward, pick up the reins, kiss to them. But what's the first that you do before you squeeze or kick your horse? You take your legs out. You take your legs out, then you bring them together. So practice that. Practice taking your legs off and if he doesn't move, then tell the horse "Hey, that meant move" with a kick. And when you bring them together, be prepared to kick them until something happens. So practice that and pretty soon, when you take your legs away from the horse's side (as if to kick), that'll mean "move forward." So I'm not using my legs to keep kicking my horse. Practice this and remember, when you bring them together, bring them together hard enough to get a change of leg speed. If you kick him and you just kick him to keep him going, then…"

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Lyons Training 101 Issue Number:  Seven Stopping And Backing written by Josh Lyons & Keith Hosman

Issue Seven, Part 2 of 2

Get Your Back Up

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When you're teaching your horse to back up, remember that the farther you back up, the worse your back up gets. Think of it this way: If you want your horse to quiet down at a lope, you lope him, right? The longer you lope, the quieter the horse gets. And, yes, if you do this a lot, they'll get stronger and be able to go longer – but they will have learned to relax as long as you leave them alone as you ride. As long as you leave them alone and don't give them a reason to get more nervous, they'll relax. Just sit up there and relax, maybe sing a song.

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If I were to back up long enough, the horse would relax – and get lazy – in their back up. If I wanted to make his back up or spin faster, then what I have to do is quit while they're speeding up, not when they're slowing down. So when I'm working on backing up, I may not care about the proper frame, I may just be concentrating on the energy, on backing quickly. I'll get the impulsion quick – and then quit. Maybe the horse was in the correct frame, maybe it wasn't. The bottom line is that if I quit when the horse is showing the energy, he'll get faster and faster. But if I quit otherwise, he'll get lazier and lazier. He may be quieter and calmer, but I'll lose his performance in the movement.

End of Issue Seven, Part 2
 
 

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