Shoulder Control & Pivots

Shoulder Control & Pivots

Welcome to your next issue of "Horse Class," your how-to source for equine tips, tricks and solid foundational training brought to you by horsemanship101.com and John Lyons Certified Trainer Keith Hosman.

Want easy steps to teach neck reining? How about learning the first steps to a reining spin?

Does your young horse struggle with its balance, tipping into turns like the proverbial drunken sailor? Or does he stay fluid, upright and confident, turning from left to right like a tuned sports car?

This issue's featured article "How to Teach a Horse to Pivot on Its Hindquarters" is a step-by-step guide to the "Reverse Arc Circle," the starting point for neck reining, spins and greatly improved balance.

You'll find the article sampled below. To read it in its entirety, simply follow the link provided or visit Horsemanship101.com/Articles.

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How are you going to train your new baby? We don't train babies the same as we do adults. It's very similar - you go through similar motions - but babies are fragile and have their own set of rules.

Check out the following books and videos:

- Early Learning (imprinting, DVD)
- Foal Handling (ground manners, DVD)
- Bringing Up Baby (20-lesson workbook, a classic)
- Foaling Fundamentals (prep for the novice, DVD)
- Foaling Primer (birth to weaning, book)

Want my recommendations? "Bringing Up Baby" and the "Foaling Primer" are the books you'll refer to time and time again - usually at 3am when nobody else can tell you why your horse is doing this, when to expect that - and what the heck it all means. You waited 11 months for the baby - you'll want good advice when it arrives!

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Remember, previous issues can be found 24/7 at Horsemanship101.com/Articles. Most can be printed out and saved for reference later.

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Jump directly to the full article: "How to Teach a Horse to Pivot on Its Hindquarters"

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Trainers: Get listed here!

Teaching "Pivots on the Rear"

Questions answered in this article: How do I teach my horse to pivot or turn on its rear legs? How do I teach my horse to do a reverse-arc circle? How do I (begin teaching) neck reining? How do I (begin teaching) a reining spin? How do I improve my horse's steering and balance? How do I (begin teaching) a horse to move its shoulders?

You teach your horse to pivot (turn) on it's hindquarters one (or both) of two ways: by concentrating on moving a foot or by concentrating on moving a shoulder. The mechanics are simple for both, really: focus on a body part, make it move. Both methods have the same challenge: The horse must stay soft (relaxed) and moving forward. You'll pay more attention to the shoulders when teaching movements like a reining spin; you'll focus more on the feet when teaching "steps," such as sidepassing. In a general sense, it really doesn't matter which route you take to teach your horse to pivot on its rear legs - and in the real world, you'll undoubtedly use "a little bit of everything" by the time you're horse is finished. We'll discuss primarily shoulders in this article. To learn how to place feet onto specific spots, study and practice the Clockwork Exercise. (The Clockwork Exercise is also excellent to teach the back up, backing at an angle, diagonals, sidepassing and the like.)

As you read this, be thinking of how you would use the steps to teach related movements: neck reining, spins, shoulder control in general or how to improve things like your steering. Becoming a better horse trainer is simply a matter of building (and carrying in your head) a more robust set of horse-training tools. Think of each simple concept as a "widget." Collect enough widgets and assemble them into whatever suits your fancy: a horse that spins, a horse that steers more easily, a horse that moves away from a fence before crushing your knee and so on....

keep reading this article