TRAIN A REINER

Todd and Taumi Martin

Copyright©2009

Lesson 3

Circles and Lead Departures

The first maneuver we must have is the lead departure.

When teaching your horse a lead departure, it is important to understand that a good lead departure is more than just picking up the correct lead. You must be able to take a lead departure from a walk or a standstill, and drive into that lead. In order to do this we have to have an understanding of a correct lead.

(In this lesson everything will apply to lead departures and circles to the right. Leads or circles to the left simply require opposite leg and rein cues.)

What is a correct lead? A correct lead does not depend on which direction the horse is traveling; it depends on his foot fall sequence--which legs are driving and which legs are leading. It depends on what you have asked for.

In a right lead, the right front foot and right hind foot are traveling in a more forward position than the left feet. The horse is driving with the left hind foot and reaching with the right feet.

When we are side passing to the right, it is a reach with the front right foot and step or catch up with the left. When we are spinning and applying left leg pressure, the horses are reaching with the inside (right) foot, and catching up with the left. So when we are teaching them to drive off into a lead, we are using that side pass training as the start to a lead departure. Click here to watch video.

When I teach a horse to side pass (remember this applies to side passing to the right) it helps if I tip the horse’s nose to the left. If I turn his nose to the left, I am opening up and freeing his right shoulder making it easier for him to reach to the right.

When teaching the lead departure, you can help yourself in picking up the correct lead by tipping the horse’s nose slightly toward the outside or to the left in order to obtain a right lead. Now applying the left spur in the same fashion as you would to get a side pass…you do not want him to side pass--you want him to lift his back and raise his shoulders and drive off his left hind foot. Click here to watch video.

Your spur needs to be lifted and pressed in the same motion. It is not just poke and push him to the right. You apply calf pressure with your toe up so your spur is down, then gradually drop your toe and elevate your spur, creating a lifting motion into his belly and lift him up into the lead departure. You are getting the drive off the rear end and you are also getting the same action that you would if you were side passing and getting that front right foot to lead and reach to the right. Click here to watch video.

That is how I teach picking up the correct lead and the lead departure. That way I get the horse driving with his shoulder forward, leading with the shoulder and driving off the hindquarters.

You can get the horse to take the right lead by lifting the right front shoulder by using the direct rein or right rein. But in doing so, I believe you disengage the hind end and do not get the drive.

You can create elevation with that right shoulder by driving his hindquarters up underneath him. If I teach a horse to drive off of his hocks and push forward and drive into the bridle, then I can create the elevation in a straight shoulder, rather than pulling his nose to the inside and pulling his right shoulder out.

The right lead can be obtained that way, but later it will work against you when you start running circles. If you pull the nose too much to the inside you teach the horse to hide that right shoulder. The horse might lift it up, but he will hide the shoulder from you and then you lose the drive off the hind end. You can still get the hind end driving into the circle, but it is not driving forward and creating the elevation in the shoulders. You are hiding the shoulders and kicking the hip in and driving more sideways than actually creating the elevation on the front end. Where this really hurts you is when you ride one handed and you have to use your indirect rein. When using your indirect rein, if a horse falls and drops his shoulder to the inside, you have to cheat up with your inside rein and pull his nose over in order to get his shoulder up.

But if you have him driving off that outside rein when you lift and drive with your legs the horse’s hindquarters get underneath and create the elevation in the shoulders. You can create the elevation in the shoulders and remain straight in your lope by creating drive from the hindquarters.

Another reason to teach the lead this way is to simplify training. Horses learn from the release of pressure (which you are going to hear over and over). If I am loping in a right circle and I pull his nose to the right in order to lift that right shoulder then I have to pull my rein up. My release of pressure is going to be within the circle, coaxing him into dropping his shoulder.

I can always pick that inside rein up, and elevate that shoulder, but the more I do that the more the release of rein pressure is into my circle which is still coaxing him into dropping that shoulder. Whereas if I use my outside rein to get him to slightly keep his nose to the outside or straight, while encouraging lift with the outside leg (I don’t want to kick the hip) in the direction of the shoulder or toward the cinch, I will create that elevation and lift that shoulder while the horse stays straighter rather than being in the circle.

Tipping the nose in is fine when using a snaffle and a hand on each rein. But tipping the nose out slightly will help you obtain the one handed guide later on. Eventually they all go one handed; it is the requirement of the finished horse.

This method is also going to help you obtain collection at a lope. The correct collection at a lope is not knocking your horse’s face down or pulling it down and running your hands toward your belly. The more you drop your hands down to get his head to go down, the more you are coaxing his shoulders to fall down. We want to obtain collection by drive or impulsion off the hindquarters. We need to get collection by obtaining elevation in the shoulders.

If your horse is built correctly, the conformation we discussed in lesson one, he will drop his head and carry it naturally once his shoulders are elevated and he is driving from the hindquarters.

To obtain the drive and collection we create a rhythm with our legs. This rhythm encourages forward motion. My legs rock with a rhythm as they press against the horse, and they lift and drive the horse forward. I am driving my horse into the bridle rather than pulling him back by pulling back on the reins.

Horses naturally push into pressure. So if they want to push back into pressure and I am pulling back on my reins, then when they are unschooled, their natural reaction is to push through my hands.

When you remove all pressure you are teaching the horse that he responded correctly to the pressure. What I want to do at the beginning is create forward movement before I create pressure with my hands. (If I create pressure with my hands first I am taking away any opportunity for the horse to move forward, making it much harder to obtain the drive with my legs.)

So you drive the horse forward by creating a rocking rhythm with your legs.

Once I have the horse moving forward, his power coming from the hindquarters, I will begin to block the face with my reins. So I will pick up the reins and put five pounds of pressure (an approximation) with my hands. At this point I have to be apply more pressure (say 10 pounds) with my legs to overcome the pressure from my hands.

As you do this, the horse will get stiff and want to push back. But wait; wait the same way you wait when teaching the horse to respond to leg pressure. Wait with your hands until the horse gets soft. When he gets soft, you drop your hands and you give him back his face. Release that pressure with your hands. At that point you are showing him that when you pick up your hands and create that five pounds of pressure he is to get soft in the face. Release your pressure immediately. Eventually I will hold it longer and longer to make him round up more. But at this point I am creating drive with my legs, which creates the impulsion and elevation of the shoulders and pushes them into the bridle rather than pulling back with my hands. Click here to watch video.

I hold the rein position and pressure rather than sawing with my hands back and forth to make the horse soft in the mouth and give me his face. I am not teaching the horse to give me his face without giving me his body. I want the body first. When the horse takes the pressure off his face on his own, then I’m willing to give him release.

The horse’s mouth works the exact same way as his rib cage. The bars of the mouth work the same way as the ribcage. You are going to create pressure with your hands, but whenever they move off or give that face, or break at the pole they are getting the release.

If I am jerking the mouth with my rein, I am teaching the horse that I can punish him with the bit and I’m also teaching him to hide his head. If a horse hides his head, he’ll also hide his body. You do not want him to hide his body; you want him to use his body.

Once I can drive the horse into the bridle, I can rock my legs and push him. As I push him around the pen, while giving him a rhythm and a cadence at a lope, I can pick my hands up and drive harder with my legs and push him deeper into frame. I create more elevation in the shoulders, plus I am telling him not only to lope, but how fast with the rhythm and cadence from my legs.

At a lope I can rock my legs and give him a rhythm so he feels confident. Once he is in that lope I can be quiet with my legs. If the horse falls off the rhythm I can bring the rhythm back by using my legs and I can get the horse back into a desirable cadence. So whenever I am loping I can tell the horse how fast to lope or how strong to lope by increasing or decreasing the rhythm of my legs. I drive…drive…drive…drive.

There is a rock and a rhythm with my legs. It is not backward and forward motion, but an in and out motion. Your legs need to go away from the horse’s side and then back into the horse’s body.

Your legs are not creating pressure when in against the body; you lift your legs and let them fall to create the rhythm. Click here to watch video.

If the horse gets stiffer on your hands, when your legs come in, you need to squeeze with your legs. You don’t kick with your legs. You are going to drop them into the horse, then lift your legs up, then drop again and squeeze. Let your legs drop and squeeze.

When teaching the horse to lope with rhythm and cadence, I can ask the horse to lope faster. I am not going to be any faster with my hands. My hands stay slow.

When you are driving the horse to go faster, you can give him confidence by steadying your hands and keeping your hand movements slow.

Much of the time when a rider goes faster, the rider works his hands faster and his legs faster and both horse and rider get tighter because neither is used to that fast lope. You have to get used to that fast lope, and so does your horse. So as you go faster, work slower with your hands. Do not allow your hands to jerk on the reins; instead get stronger with your legs and stay steadier with your hands and build that horse’s confidence as he lopes.

Once the horse gives you his face (meaning he is softer and not pushing into the bridle) at the lope, and he has that rhythm and cadence, start showing the horse he can do it on his own.

You will not build confidence in the horse at the lope if you are constantly there and holding on to his face. If you hold his face without release, eventually the horse becomes dull because the pressure no longer means anything. If the pressure from the reins is constant, the horse will eventually find another way out of the pressure.

So as you are driving the horse around, drop your hands and allow the horse to make mistakes. Mistakes are what we learn from and it is where your horse learns. The bigger the mistakes the better you get at things. You really know you do not want to go that way again. The same with the horse; he gets corrected and knows he doesn’t want to do that again.

If we micro manage or over control the circle or the guide, the horse is not required to learn to do it on his own; he doesn’t have to as you are there all the time to fix everything little thing.

As you are loping the horse on that circle and they are guiding around that circle, you are micro managing it to a certain point. Drop the reins and find out where they are going to go. If your horse drifts off to the left in your right circle or toward the gate, don’t be quick to fix it. Relax, and let the horse get 10 feet off the circle, and then re-direct them. That way you are not just bumping him and correcting a tiny mistake…you are allowing the mistake to be made so the horse can see it and understand your “fix”.

When I fix I it, I am not quick and hard with it, but I get them put right back on the circle where I want them and then I drop my reins again.

At this point we are teaching release of pressure. If he is off the guide, then I will pick him up and drag him back to the circle, and once he is there, that is where I release him. I drop my hands again and let him work the circle until he makes a mistake. If he drifts off again, pick him and put him back on the circle and release. Repeat until the horse begins to understand that I only pick him up and drag him back on the circle if he is off my guide. Click here to watch video.

This exercise will teach your horse to stay between the reins. It will help you give the horse confidence in what he is doing. But he can only gain confidence in himself if he is not constantly being held and punished in the circle. If you keep a constant pressure the horse is being punished in the circle and he soon figures there may be relief somewhere else.

If you release all pressure when the horse is on the circles and pick him up and create pressure when he is off, he’ll soon start to find the spot where the pressure is released. He can work a circle on his own.

The same technique is applied for speed control. Speed control should not be worked on until you can increase speed once your horse is on a circle, your horse stays on the circle and you can drop the reins. When your horse can do that, it’s time to encourage speed.

Do not try to obtain speed the first day. Gradually begin to build speed and build confidence as you are building the speed. When the horse starts going faster, he’s going to get off the circle or lose his “guide” faster. When the horse is moving faster, he’ll be quicker to react, or in some cases over react. You have to keep your head about you and allow for those bigger mistakes, and then correct them in same smooth manner. If your corrections are smooth and controlled, then you’ll build your horse’s confidence. Allow mistakes to happen. When a mistake is made, fix the mistake and release the horse once they are back on guide.

Let the horse build to a fast speed and then travel five or six circles going fast so he can become comfortable with speed. The horse has to have time to think and relax in that big fast circle.

Once you have taught the faster speed, you’ll be ready to start teaching the “slow down.”

Sit back, remove your leg pressure, leave your reins long, and “hum.”

Do not take the slack from your reins and try to pull the horse back to slow down.

You pushed the horse with your legs to make him go faster. Now release the leg pressure to go slower.

Reining trainers are constantly repeating this adage: “I always look better kicking my horse around the pen or driving my horse around the pen with my legs than I do dragging him around with the reins.”

When my horse is going fast, I do not want to pull him down with my hands. Instead I want to “allow him to go slower.”

If you are correctly pushing the horse to go faster, the speed will become “work” for the horse. Once it becomes work, the horse will enjoy the fact that I’m allowing him to go slower. So I quit driving with my legs, I relax and allow my horse to break down to a walk if I have to.

Allow the horse to slow down or drop down in his gaits. I want him to “come back to me” on his own.

When you are doing your circles, your big fast circles should always be big. But the small circles in the center of the arena should always be relaxed.

Never punish your horse, or get after your horse in the center of the circle. You will make him not want to go to the center of the circle. I want him to want to get into the center of the arena, and I want him to like the center of the circle. I want that center of the circle to be a good, safe place to go.

As you lope around in big fast circles and the horse is getting comfortable and relaxed, quit driving with your legs, sit back and almost quit riding. When you quit riding, you can pick up with your hands and take the slack from the reins. But don’t take the slack out of the reins and try to slow the horse down…the horse should be wanting to come back and quit; he should want to stop going fast. Click here to watch video.

Once the horse has slowed, you can use your legs to give him the rhythm and tell him how fast to go in the small slow circle. All the time you are allowing the horse to slow down, continue to hum. Hum a slow tune. Humming forces you to relax your body. As you are approaching the small slow circle, take a deep breath, and then let it out slowly. Hum as you let your breath out. Your body will relax, and your horse will start to come back to you.

You can aid the horse by lifting your hands during the initial teaching. Eventually, picking your hands up to slow them down will become secondary, not primary.

Slowing a horse down with your reins will cause the horse to get tight in the small slow circle, and he’ll be thinking of going fast again. I want the slow-down to be a reward, not a punishment. You want the horse to want to come back because he can stop working so hard.

Now practice, but practice slowly. Moving slowly means progress will come quickly.

ASSIGNMENT:

1. Write 2 or 3 paragraphs describing your experience with lead departs and working circles.

2. Load a short video to YouTube or Photobucket showing: A right lead depart and a large fast circle and a slow small circle.

Send video link and paragraphs to me at: todd@toddmartin.net