Circles and Guiding

For me circles and guiding take the most work of all the reining maneuvers. When you add the fact that you have to have speed thrown in the mix it makes it all the more difficult.

Today on Whiz 4, who is a huge stopper, cute turner, and very stylish to boot I worked on circles at a slow speed for a long time before adding speed. He is a crappy mover for as nice as he is otherwise so I have to work extra diligently on keeping him soft, because besides being a average mover he can get really stiff. What worked best was to be very thorough and clear and repetitive. He stays more relaxed that way and therefore soft and trainable. I like to count repetitions so I will remember not to be to aggressive to early and get carried away. So when we are turning the corner by the barn where I would loose his attention yesterday and lean out and forget about me and speed up and get worried I took a firm hold of him, turned him toward the middle with his shoulders up and his face soft, using the neck rein but helping with the direct to keep his shoulders up. I'd turn him in toward the middle - we'd be at 2:00 and I'd go back through the middle and head for 7:00. Of course once we got turned and headed for 7:00 I'd release and leave him alone. So instead of round circles we made D's and I planned on doing 50 repetitions but by the time I'd done a dozen he was relaxed and not defensive and he started guiding much better through that part- But... once we made the turn he wanted to drop his shoulder in and not stay straight, so I had to soften his face and body, we repeated this over and over and over until I was satisfied with the improvement.

Going to the right I had the same problem but he wanted to be a little faster. I decided I needed to be really specific and clear- I did not do near the repetitions, I thought he was pretty good to the right but adding a little speed revealed that he wanted to quit guiding on the side of the track near the horse pasture. He wanted to lean out. So I took hold, steered him in. But I also decided that if I was trying to turn him and he wasnt paying attention I would stop him and back him up a looooong ways or remind him how to walk a circle, or bump his nose in and walk his hind end around, or turn around to the inside, then try again and see how he was guiding when we went by his bad spot. This also works good, when you get them pretty broke. Every mistake he makes gets confronted, firmly but keeping him soft and giving, not leaving anything to chance, directing and supporting and showing him exactly how I want it done. Over and over and over, being very specific.

Another thing I realized is it might be time to inject his hocks. Chillie- a mare Ive been riding for a few months was just injected and now, after 10 days off Ive ridden her three times and she is moving very nice, deep, springy, - Whiz is just not moving as deep as he can so its time to think about injections.- I made progress on her circle to the right- she wants to look to the left- I kept her pretty straight and bumped the reins up until she really turned loose and gave that chin, I kept her pretty straight but the head tipped, like, two degrees, just so she wasnt looking out- and the light started to go on for her- took a while but that may be her recipe for success, at least today. I turned her out after her ride and she rolled and bucked and kicked and ran around and snorted like she was still pretty fresh-

The other thing that helps me in the circles is to do some roll back training- that way if they want to drop in you can stop nicely- not punishment- even just saying whoa is fine, ask for a rollback to the outside- if they get out of shape, maybe turn them around a time or two or three nicely and lope off the other way and keep repeating. You just dont wanna make a big deal out of it- where your getting mad, pulling them in the ground, backing, kicking etc. I just make a game out of it so they quit worrying about the circle and the guiding- I roll them back both ways- picking a spot where they might be leaning and rolling back the other way.

Anyway, I'm leaving less to chance- less for them to fill in on their own. Some horses will fill in quite a bit for you but not the ones I'm riding presently, so I show them very clearly, direct and support them enough to give them confidence- and sloooowwwlly bleed off the contact until they stay put. IF they make a mistake I show them firmly, softly,- keeping them soft, stopping them if I must and redirecting them leaving no stone un-turned, and it takes a long time, but it has to be done.