My Warm-Up
Keep in mind, you only have about 10 minutes of quality time to train at the lope. Due to this, I do most of my softening work at the walk.
Collection: A series
Over the course of the next four weeks, I’m going to share with you, the basics of collection. This series will show you where I start, and how I progress.…
Choosing a Horse Trainer
Observation is a key to finding any good colt starter or horse trainer. I would want to watch them handle a multitude of horses: whether that is done via a…
Broke vs. Gentle Horses
Today, I’d like to share with you something that’s been on my mind — Broke vs. Gentle horses. To me a broke horse goes where I want, when I want,…
Curing the Fidgety Horse
The last thing any horse really wants to do is fidget. No, seriously, think about it. If you’ve watched them in the pasture, when they’re not eating, they’re lazing, and if they’re young and full of energy, they’ll play for a bit and go back to eating or lazing. They’d rather be at peace than bothered, and to me, a horse that paws is a horse that’s bothered.
Speed Control
We like our horses to tune into our seat and our body, so we can use the reins and our legs to refine the cues we give them for turnarounds, rollbacks, spins, or gathering up so we can do a canter pirouette (or swap directions quickly to corral an unruly bull come fall). Plus, anyone else can use “whoa” or “ho” and that might mean something to our horse when we don’t need it to.