TRAIN A REINER
Todd and Taumi Martin
Copyright©2009
Lesson 6
Stopping
The first thing we are going to teach
when training for the stop is the word, “Whoa”.
“Whoa” to most horsemen means stop, or stand
still. Someone has his horse tied up, or
wants the horse to stop doing something, the person says, “Whoa”. But a horse does not understand English and
verbal cues can be very confusing. If
you think about it, the word “whoa” sounds a lot like, “no”, “go”, “Joe”. So we want to avoid using a
lot of verbal cues--the less we use, the better.
In reining we only use two verbal
cues; one is the word “Whoa”, and the other is a clucking noise. Clucking means nothing more than encouraging,
meaning I want it bigger or faster. I will reserve a clucking cue for those two
things only.
For my horses, the word “whoa” does
not mean stop!!
It means: back up!!
I want the word “whoa” to mean back up
because I want to give the horse more information than just the communication,
“stop.” I want the horse to keep his
body soft and fluid, so I need to have more of an explanation to the word
“whoa”. By using the word “whoa” to
mean back up, I am telling the horse in which body position I want him to stop.
If I just use the word whoa to mean
“halt what you are doing”, then I am not able to communicate the additional
information of “body position.” But by
teaching the horse that I mean to “back up,” then I can actually tell him
“whoa”, and while he is stopping I am helping him find the correct body
position for the back-up.
What we need in a correct back-up are
the hips down into the ground, a rolled back and lightness on the front feet
without getting heavy on the bit.
We want the horse to actually be digging
in and starting to get his hind feet to begin moving him backward.
We start with the body position going
forward. When going forward we want
elevated shoulders, driving forward by the hindquarters and the horse soft on
the face.
As you are walking, you can close your
legs around the horse, drop your toe and elevate the back by lifting up with
your spurs and applying spur pressure near the cinch, rather than the middle of
the belly. Keep your pressure at the
cinch and that will not impede forward motion.
Pressure there also elevates the shoulder and lifts the horse’s back,
helping the horse to drive into the bridle.
When you are driving the horse into
the bridle, you are applying five pounds of pressure with your hands, and 10
pounds of pressure with your legs with a rocking rhythm. At a walk I am rocking my legs to encourage
more forward motion.
When I remove my leg pressure, I have
taken away the 10 pounds of pressure pushing the horse forward. Now I want to allow my horse to figure out how
to get out of the bridle or get his body behind the bridle.
I am not going to pull when I ask for
the stop.
I am just going to stop moving my
legs, which stops the request for forward motion.
I have driven the horse into the
bridle by driving his hindquarters under his body. Then I remove the 10 pounds of leg pressure
driving the hindquarters, and all that is left is the five pounds of pressure
that I have with my hands.
To get away from the pressure of my
hands, the horse will try to straighten his neck and stick his nose out. Whenever the horse tries to do that, I want
to change his thinking; I want the horse to want to keep his body behind the
bit, rather than try to push through it.
I allow the horse to get behind the
bit. Once they get behind the bit and start to take a step backwards, I remove
the rein pressure and drop my hands. Of
course, I want the horse’s body to be in proper position--keeping the shoulders
up and using his hind feet well under himself to drive himself
backward.
When the horse starts to respond at a
walk, we have to help him figure out how to make a smooth transition from going
forward to going backward.
The first reaction of the horse will
probably be “stiffness in the face.” We
eliminate this with practice and repetition. The only reason the horse gets
stiff in the face is because you are no longer driving with your legs, ceasing
forward motion. But the horse doesn’t
yet know what comes next.
To teach the horse what comes next, we
go back to what they know…movement based on the rhythmic pressure of my legs.
Here’s the training technique: drive
the horse forward into the bit, remove your legs ceasing a request for forward
motion. When the horse responds by
rounding up his body and starting to take a step backward, you add rhythmic leg
pressure.
We stop the horse’s forward motion by
removing our leg pressure.
When the horse takes a step backward,
we add the rhythmic leg pressure to reinforce the horse’s correct action,
taking the body position for the back-up.
Here
is an important key step: add the word
“whoa” to the sequence of cues just as the horse enters the “dead spot” between
going forward and beginning to take a step backward.
In this early training, once we say
“whoa”, we have to encourage the horse to go backward by adding the rhythmic
leg pressure.
We have to affirm the word “whoa” in
the sequence of training. (Later we'll
use the word “whoa” earlier in the sequence.)
To establish what we want in body
position and action follow this procedure:
say “whoa” in the transition between forward and backward, and encourage
the horse with rhythmic leg pressure.
Now take your legs off again, and say, “Whoa”, and then add the rhythmic
leg pressure, rocking your legs three or four times. Now remove the leg
pressure and say, “Whoa”, then rock your legs three or four times, and then
remove the leg pressure again and add the word, “whoa.”
What you are trying to accomplish is
having the horse maintain his same body position in all three steps through the
transition. The more you work it the softer the face will become and the better
he’ll hold his body position.
The body position for the pre-stop and
post-stop is exactly the same. We want elevation in the shoulders, the feet
picking up and moving and driving the horse forward.
When you take your legs off and say,
“Whoa”, continue to block forward motion with your hands and then add the
rhythm leg pressure again when the horse starts to take a step backward.
Once you have the correct body
position at the walk, the only difference between a stop at the walk and stop
at a trot or lope is more forward motion.
Don’t get in a hurry…allow time for
the horse to figure out figure out the transition and stay soft in the face. You
don’t want get aggressive or fast, you are just going to reinforce what comes
after the removal of the legs--lift and elevate your back, and drive backward
with the rhythm of my legs.
The time frame for learning is
dependent on the horse’s conformation, his willingness and his aptitude. Most horses will take about two weeks of
training to be proficient at the walk.
After about two weeks of training at the walk, you should be fairly
comfortable moving into a trot and performing the same exercise.
Once you have it at a trot, which
takes another week to two, you can try the transition at a slow lope.
What you want to avoid is trying to
find “timing.” There is no timing!
Instead of trying to time the verbal
command, “whoa”, what you want to do is draw the word whoa out to a count of
three. Say the word from your belly, not
your throat. Rather than a quick “whoa”,
it should be “whoooooooa”.
It is not a timing issue. Allow the horse to find his timing in his
rhythm. The faster you go, the faster the rhythm is as the horse picks up and
puts down his legs. You can’t find the
correct time; so let your horse decide on the correct timing. Don’t rush him!
To get the correct body position for
stopping at a lope requires more time.
Moving up from a walk to a trot and from a trot to a lope only takes a
few weeks. But getting the correct
responses at a lope is going to take a lot more time and you do not want to
rush it.
Another thing to avoid while teaching
the stop at a lope is stopping in a straight line. I do the majority of teaching on a circle
rather than a straight line.
You do not want to tell your horse
“whoa” while he is loping in poor form. If his body position is not correct,
there is no sense in stopping. And
don’t practice too much. If you are
stopping over and over while loping, pretty soon the horse is thinking about
stopping and not thinking about loping.
If your horse is actually trying to
stop before you ask him to, then you are most likely giving him cues with your
body. You need to spend more time
loping.
Once I have a horse starting to learn
to stop at a lope, I will be sure I am working on a nice big circle; the bigger
the circle, the less lean, and the easier it for the horse to stand up straight
with his body.
If I am loping, and the horse doesn’t
feel comfortable, I’ll keep loping until I feel his body relax.
I may stop him every circle and back
him up, and change direction loping the other way, then stop and back. I may do that three circles in a row, but
then I need to lope him around three or four circles before I stop him
again. If I don't, he’ll start thinking
more about stopping than loping.
I have to have the proper body form in
my pre-stop before the stop is going to be correct. Do not lose focus on the
quality of the lope when you go to stop. The quality has to be there, and if it
is not, then there is no sense in stopping.
Keep the horse’s front feet and
shoulders light and free in the stop.
ASSIGNMENT:
Load a short
video to YouTube, Photobucket, or another video hosting web
site showing your “training stops” at the walk and trot.
Send video
link to me at: todd@toddmartin.net
Once I approve your progress you can
begin to practice at the lope.