What Linda has learned lately

Linda is doing a great job on Whiz and getting him more broke daily- he is looking pretty finished although she is still ironing out the small details- I asked her to write down what she has learned lately because the horse is looking so good- I thought I would share it, you know, for posterity.

What I learned on Whiz this week:

1) I have to be right on it when it comes to asking him to stop even if we are just loping during warm ups or while working on other things. No matter what, when I ask him to stop he has to be soft in the face. If he pulls in me even a little or sticks his chin out, I have to have good timing and take hold of his face if he is pulling on me at all. I don't have to jerk or be hard, just firm pulling (or bumping) til he give me his face. That is enough reminder for him to stay soft. Usually the next time I stop him, he stays on his hind end and doesn't slam into the ground on all 4's like he tends to do sometimes. OR, I can fence him a time or two, not necessarily fast, and just soften him at the ends. That works too. The big key here is the timing. If I can catch him right when he starts to pull on the bit, it works better then if I try to do it after the fact.

2) always be ready to correct his guiding. He needs tuned up every day on this.

3) When I counter canter, really ask for that hip. If I use inside leg on him, his hip needs to really swing to the outside, not just a little, a lot, like I saw Craig do on that video.

4) When practicing rollbacks, do a 360 or at least more then a 180. (like Shawn did on the video)

5) Make him move his hip pronto. If he doesn't move his feet try a little pop on his butt with the reins. Not enough to scare him, just a little will do the trick.

6) biggest change Whiz made this week was in his fast loping. I asked for a faster lope which usually means he can get stiff in the legs and even stiff in the face a little. I did the drill where I asked for a faster lope and held onto the horn and the back of the saddle to give me some leverage and then just pushed into him with my spurs. At first, he raised his head and sped up, I just kept my spurs in him till he remembered to put his head down. After he started thinking about putting his head down when I pressed with my spurs I let him stop. We rested awhile and then I tried it again. this time, when I pressed with my spurs, he dropped his head immediately and kept it there even when going pretty fast for him. There was a big change in his loping after that.

7) As far as lead change practice goes, ask for the change, if he raises up or drops the shoulder (which he does especially from right to left) stop him and correct him by moving the shoulder way over to the right. If he gets stiff in the face when I am asking him, stop and soften, don't keep going. Practice setting him up for the change and don't change. just practice the set up til he gets really comfortable with that.

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP WITH WHIZ!!

October 19th a productive day

A nice mare was sent to me recently. For almost a couple of months I have been messing with her now. She has been through a couple trainers and one of those guys had some lead change issues with her. She is good leaded- but if you counter canter her, or, at first, tried to move her hip she would panic. This bled through to all of her training- so, if she got in a pickle, she would rear. Not over backwards. She would just stop and hop, hop, hop. Or rear and lunge forward and try to run off. So if you prepared to ask for a lead change - or any kind of change she would stick her head in the air trot a few steps and swap to the other lead. Nice. I have pushed, pulled, bent, kicked, and done all my usual softening efforts, including bitting her up, driving her, putting the string ie. shambone style. She was the kind that if you stop and try to roll back, she could just not do it and if you tried to make it happen that front end was so bracey she would default into rearing mode which didnt mean she would necessarily rear but she was thinking about it. Appearantly to get out of anything she didnt want to do she would rear and she was good at it.

Sadly, what finally got through to her was doing the things I was doing but I had to get harsh with my hands. When I bumped her face down, I BUMPED it down hard- its the only thing she understands.

So when your training a horse- here is what not to do. If your horse is having lead change issues- do not spur it and jerk on its face while you are galloping forward- stop the horse, soften the resistance- move the hip, shoulder, soften the face, sidepass and then start all over again. Dont fight with them going forward at a gallop- its easy to get baited into - I did that Tuesday with Wades 4 year old who is pretty broke but he pulls on my hands changing leads to the right. It just makes him scared and apprehensive to do very much going forward. His changes got worse, when they had been improving.

So on Wednesday, that productive day, after bitting him up straight on for a while I cooled it on the forward galloping when he anticipated or got stiff or chargy or buzzed, and stopped, softened his face- or pulled him off to the side, moved his shoulder, moved his hip, softened his chin and started over- any time he pulled on me, before, after, during a lead change I would stop and remind him and back him off and soften that chin at a standstill or evern walk driving him forward and softening that chin- made a huge difference in his lead changes and attitude.

Another sidenote is get your horse broke to death before trying to do a lot of formal lead changes on him- if he's not to natural leaded- flying change wize, teach him to guide, do good lead departures, sidepass, two track, turn on the forhand, roll back, back in circles, be collected and MOVE HIS FEET! with no resistance. Then you might start messing with the flying lead change.

Another thing that worked on both of these horses when they wanted to stiffen their chin in the turn around was to used direct rein and OUTSIDE leg pressure until they yielded their chin to the bit and became soft. As opposed to using the outside rein so much. So your teaching them to give the inside chin with the outside leg- takes some effort but gets them even more broke.

Move thy FEET!

Its pretty easy for trainers to get so caught up in driving the horse up into the bridle to keep it round and soft and the shoulders up that we forget the most important thing and that is to keep the feet moving and get them unstuck. Horses have to MOVE and go where they are directed right NOW- when you keep them broke over in the poll its easy for their feet to get stuck (like being stuck in mud)- horses that are constantly spurred and spinned with their face captured or rather over captured- being held onto, driven up, see sawed and otherwise handled in the turn around loose their desire to turn - having said that, a horse that CAN turn in the bridle turns correct and harder than a horse strung out for sure, but moving the feet and spinning is the important part and doing so with the face captured comes with time and in increments.

Same with the stop- a horse stops much better when his feet are ready to go somewhere as he is stopping and after he stops.

Also in the circles and around the ends he needs to be able to follow his nose and run- not just stay curled up in a ball and get sticky when he is told to move off a rein or leg.

dropping the shoulder

Susie emailed me about her reining mare wanting to drop her shoulder in the circles- here is a copy of the emails we exchanged with different ideas on what to do with a horse that wants to cut corners.

Hi Tim,
Just wanted to let you know that I got the magic bit today... Great service from the Tom Balding Bit Co.
Anyway quick question, Chilli is dropping her shoulder when I lope a right hand circle. I have been picking up the inside rein and moving her over, then dropping the rein and going back to center. It is helping a bit. She is mostly doing in coming into the center of the arena.
Anything else that I could do to help that problem? She is really coming around with moving her hip over on the canter departs and keeping her nose in on her turn arounds. We are headed off to a big arena on Friday for some speed control work. Would love to be able to work on this shoulder thing. Hope I am doing the right thing.
Let me know when you get the chance
Thanks
Suzie

Hi Susie- was wondering how you were doing as we count down to the Derby- first off try not to make a huge issue out of the shoulder problem- and dont work on a big fast circle to that side until you can keep that shoulder up at a slower speed- what I might try first is not worrying about the shoulder and just steer her out wider and make the part of the circle where she drops in bigger- you wont be fighting to keep that shoulder up- you will just steer her body out with the neck rein- she may feel like she is two tracking but just keep her steered out- let her gallop around (not fast) like that a few times around and keep things relaxed- sometimes when they know they have to stay way out around in the circle and are not allowed to cut across and you dont try to force them to keep that shoulder up they will self adjust and get a little better. Also- try loping squares- if she wants to drop in just steer up the arena and forget the circle- keep things relaxed go around the ends and try again - point her right back up to the end of the arena when she tries to drop her shoulder again- the idea is to try to get her to quit anticipating the circle - so you could even do some serpentines- so....when she drops in to the right you just point her to the left until she is straight - headed up the arena- then, point her a little to the left (she may try to change leads- no biggy.) then point her strait, then right, then strait, then left- very gradually- Think of it like this Susie, you are going to run poles only instead of a regular pole pattern there are only three poles- and they are evenly spaced in a huge arena- so its a very long slow spread out pattern- very gradual shallow serpentine up the side of the arena- we are just trying to deprogram her mind from thinking circles to thinking "listen to Susie"- this is all with minimal guiding to keep her from getting defensive. Mess around with that at a relaxed pace and see if you can get her a little better and see what she feels like..... Other things to try....Stop her (softly) right where she begins to drop the shoulder- fix the shoulder at the walk, then the jog- you can do this by knocking her head down into that bridle, bumping it down and lift up the shouders by softening that chin- instead of just using the inside rein use both.- After youve corrected her - start the circle over and repeat this correction over and over until you feel a little improvement then move on to other things. If you make a big deal out of it it could backfire and make her more defensive and therefore worse! Also you might try to stop her queitly where she wants to drop in and roll back to the outside then break back to a walk.- repeat the process over and over- all this is to be done smoothly and quietly- not in a rush. You could also stop her and quietley spin her a few times to the outside- or you could stop her, pick up the inside rein to pick up the shoulder and walk her in a circle to the left counterbent to the right. Get her fixed at the walk and jog and solid- then youl have more control when you need to fix her at the lope- do not scare her in any way going into the middle - or really any where in the circle- if you need to tune on her and make a believer out of her do it at a walk Or Jog be extremely judicious with the spurs!!! or dont use them unless absolutely necessary.- You could also use draw reins and bridle her up real good for a few strides in each quarter of the circle and release when she picks up her shoulders and drops off the bit- get so much control of her that you can soften that chin and re-aligne her shoulders in the trouble spot where she wants to drop- as she gets better- over the next couple weeks increase her spead and try to ultimatley build some speed in that circle keeping her soft and bridled up- remember when you get her bridled up good and rattle / bump her down and get that chin soft- her shoulders ARE up . So it may be a matter of stopping her- bumping that chin down HARD (like I know you can) and repetaing that again and again until she respects that bit Lastly- dont be afraid to put her in the draw reins in that new bit with a loose curb strap and letting her know you own her. Remember to release when she gives- and dont try to get to much- but get all you can for a stride or two so you can totally control that shoulder. If you find anything that works better for you than any of the above be sure to use it- its about whatever works- remember, it has to work in the show pen. Try to use this letter as a guideline for ideas and assurance and dont forget to think your way through the process- and follow your gut. Tim

2 things about Hope

Hope- 2 yrs old- does not pull into the ground well but checks into the ground well- as in check release.

Turns around best after multiple sets with multiple reps each way just playing with her face and letting her get soft on her own- over and over and over....

Over reacting

I can easily over-react with my kids and horses. So now if they touch me with their fuzzy noses or lean on me a little here or there when loping circles I dont have a cow. I watched Todd Bergan and Trent Pederson schooling their horses at the show yesterday and if their horses made a mistake they stopped the horse or slowed down, corrected the mistake, and started over. If Todds horse started the turn around all out of whack, he would stop everything, soften the face, start over, and the horse would spin perfect. Same with the circles- if the horse leaned in to the circle he would break down to a walk, or trot, move the shoulder back out- leaving the circle- sometimes counter cantering out for a short time. Then he would start over in the circle- every time, just about, he would break to a walk in the middle, but he wouldnt lope through the part of the circle where the horse wanted to fall in- he repeated the correction time after time at a very slow pace- methodically, without OVERREACTING. I noticed with one horse in particular, he deliberately kept his spurs off of him- the horse looked off right in a left circle and he just pulled the head around with pressure on the neck rein also and kind of just wrestled the horse a little until it softened, the he would repeat the process, taking care to not upset the horse unduly, he repeated this time,and time again.

Trent never let his horse take a step or speed up without authorization. But he never panicked- just stopped and started over. Of course, this is a reining, standard- authorization- but sometimes accompanied by overreaction- and its confusing to the horse and can easily upset a wound up type- and cause him to lose confidence.

This was especially helpful for me to see this and I thank God for allowing me to see these things at just the right time in my journey.

Also these guys helped out other trainers- its amazing how many high profile trainers help their horses too much in the turn around and cant seem to get over it. I guess we all do at times.

Tempo, cadence, drive, rythm

Tempo, cadence, drive, rhythm- the key to rundowns, turnarounds, circles, and lead changes. You have to build it in the rundowns, you cant loose it or change it in the lead changes, its the foundation of the turn around, and it keeps the shoulders up in the circles. You're lower body has to be ALIVE and riding the entire time to guard it!