Relaxing in the circles

If the horse wants to continually speed up in circles, teach them to relax by breaking down to the trot, then walk, then stop and back or walk a quiet circle. Humble, our five year old derby horse, we hope, quit being so nervous in his circles when he learned to neck rein into a smaller circle, then break down into a jog, then a lope, with light contact, until he learned to do it on his own- then when I'd neck rein him in and he wanted to slow down, all I have to do is ad a little leg or a chirp and he keeps going. This is much better than having to pull on them all the time.

Pulling them in the ground helps sometimes but if you do it too abruptly you can scare or sting them and they get wound up again. So stopping them by removing your legs or saying whoa, or quietly breaking them down to the trot, then walk, stop, back up- whatever, just dont scare them.

Also, taking a little time and refreshing them in backing off when you remove the slack from the reins, ie rock back, remove your legs from their slides and slap the shoulders without scaring them will remind them to go slower in their circles.