Rearing, Bucking, or Lazy Horses Need to be Taught to “Think Forward”

Rearing, bucking, nappiness as well as needing “a lot of leg” are all symptoms of your horse not going forward. Many people think that forward only means going forward over the ground. That’s the physical expression of forward. That is, going forward is a direction in the same way that going sideways is a direction.

But having your horse “think forward” is even more important if you want a horse that’s safe and not exhausting to ride. There are 2 aspects to this concept of “thinking forward.”

1. Your horse needs to maintain the energy of his gait on his own so you don’t wear yourself out just keeping him going. So, in this case, if he stalls out, don’t give a driving aid first. Just correct him by tapping with the whip or bumping him a couple of times with your legs. When he goes on his own (even if it’s only for a few strides in the beginning), be sure to praise him a lot. If he stalls out after a couple of strides, correct him again, and then praise him as long as he’s maintaining his own energy. Repeat this process as often as you need to until he understands you’re not going to “help” him by nagging with your driving aids.

2. If you give a driving aid (leg, seat, or voice), and he ignores you, correct him as described above. Then go back to what you were doing, and RETEST with the same light aid. If you don’t “retest”, you’ve only taught him to go forward to the correction—not in reaction to the light aid.

Once you’ve taught a lazy horse to “think forward”, you can whisper with your aids to get him to “shout” his answer. Not the other way around.

Then you have a way to tell your lazy horse to go forward if he wants to rear or buck. Click on Whoa and Go for more info on teaching your horse to think forward.

Does Your Dressage Horse Alternate Between Coming Above the Bit and Dropping Behind the Bit?

Some dressage horses are very quick to alternate between coming above the bit and dropping behind the bit. If that sounds like your horse, you need to be quick to switch your aids as follows:

When your horse comes above the bit, use your “connecting aids”.

1. Close both legs to send him forward toward a lengthening.

2. When you feel the “surge” of power coming from behind, close your outside hand in a fist to capture, contain, and recycle that power back to the hind legs.

3. If your horse starts to bend his neck to the outside, vibrate the inside rein to keep his neck straight.

As soon as he ducks behind the bit, send him “forward through his body”.

Here’s what I mean by that. Go on a circle in rising trot, close both legs and ask for a trot lengthening for 6 or 7 strides. Do this several times until it becomes a knee jerk reaction for him to go “forward over the ground” when you close your calves.

Then close your legs as if you’re going to lengthen, but don’t let him lengthen. This time you want your horse to go “ through his body” rather than “forward over the ground”. As you feel him go forward though his body and start to take a contact with your hand rather than curling behind the bit, praise him.

You might have to alternate a trot lengthening with asking him to take a contact with your hand several times. But once he understands, you’ll have a tool to use when he curls behind the bit.

If he’s curled behind the bit really badly (not just going with the poll too low), in addition to sending him forward through his body, you might have to raise your hands to place the bit out in front of him so he can step toward it.

The feeling is like putting a sheet on your bed. You lift the sheet up, and then let if softly drift onto the bed.

You can also think of it like doing “the wave” at a football game.

If you do have to raise your hands because your horse has dropped behind the bit, keep the following things in mind:

1. Always use your legs BEFORE you raise your hands.

2. Raise both hands evenly.

3. To the degree that you raise your hands, ALSO put them forward toward his mouth without losing contact. That is, if you lift your hands 2 inches, they must go forward 2 inches. If you lift them 4 inches, they must go forward 4 inches.

How To Make Your Lazy Horse More Energetic

Are you sick and tired of doing all the work while your lazy horse plods along without energy? Remember that a horse can feel a fly on his side, so logically there’s no reason for him to be dull to your legs.

Here are the steps to put the lazy horse in front of your legs:

1. Give a light leg aid

2. No response, half-hearted response, or delayed response

3. Correct him by sending him forward

4. RETEST

5. 100% response (99.9% isn’t good enough!)

6. Praise

Let me explain those steps in a little more detail.

1. Give one feather light squeeze with both calves. A horse can feel a fly on his side so it’s logical that he can feel a light aid.

2. Your horse must react instantly and eagerly. If he doesn’t, DON’T adjust your aid by repeating it or making it stronger. If you do, you’re letting your horse train you!

3. Instead, correct him by chasing him forward. Before you actually correct your horse for a dull or non-existent reaction to your leg, consider his temperament. The easy-going, lazy horse might need a few taps with the whip or a few bumps from your legs to send him forward.

But the sensitive soul might only need a brush with the whip to get the same reaction. The point is to get a clearly forward, “hot-off-the-leg” answer– not to terrorize him.

Also, if your horse is the type that bucks when you use the whip, it’s better to bump him with your legs instead. First of all, you don’t want to get bucked off!

In addition, if he’s bucking, he’s obviously not going forward, so he’s missed the whole point of why you corrected him.

So, close both of your legs very lightly on his sides to ask for his version of a lengthening. If your lazy horse doesn’t respond (and he probably won’t if you’re used to giving him strong leg aids), send him forward for eight or ten strides by tapping with the whip or giving him a couple of bumps with your legs.

Keep in mind that at this point, all you’re looking for is some type of forward reaction. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a “pretty” answer. It’s fine if he puts his head up in the air and rushes off. None of those reactions matter in the beginning.

Your only goal when you start this process is to get some kind of enthusiastic answer that shows your horse is paying attention to you.

While you’re sending him forward, maintain a light contact with his mouth, but don’t give any rein aids. There’s no point in using the reins to put him on the bit if he’s not “thinking” forward.

4. Once you’ve chased him forward, go back to a normal working trot. Ask for the lengthening again by RETESTING with a light leg aid.

Retesting by closing both calves lightly is the most important step in the entire process. If you don’t retest, your horse only becomes duller. That’s because you’ve only taught him to go forward when he feels the whip or kicking. You haven’t taught him anything about reacting to a light leg aid unless you retest.

5. Accept nothing less than a 100% response. If his reaction to your legs is “better” or “pretty good” but not wholeheartedly forward, repeat the whole process from the beginning until he makes a 100% effort.

6. When you RETEST, if your lazy horse responds by immediately going forward energetically, praise generously. At this point it’s still okay if he breaks into the canter when you do the retest–later on, through repetition and reward, you can explain to him that you just want a lengthening in the trot. But for the moment, ANY forward reaction deserves to be rewarded.

Click here for more on making a lazy horse more energetic.

Why are the Lateral Movements in Dressage like Leg Yields and Shoulder-in Easier in One Direction?

Since very few horses, are ambidextrous, it’s inevitable that the lateral dressage movements like leg yields, shoulder-in, haunches-in, renvers, and half passes will be easier in one direction than the other.

Your goal for lateral movements in dressage (and everything else you do with your dressage horse!) is to strengthen his weaker hind leg, make his stiff side more “bendable”, and his hollow side less “soft”.

So, for now, let’s just talk about making the weak hind leg stronger.Your dressage horse’s weaker hind leg is the hind leg on his soft side. There’s nothing wrong with your horse! Almost every horse has a weaker hind leg because few horses are ambidextrous. The weak hind leg is the hind leg on your horse’s “soft”or hollow side. His strong hind leg is on his stiff side.

The weak hind leg doesn’t step directly underneath your horse’s body. Your horse displaces this leg slightly to the side to avoid carrying weight with it. On the other hand, the hind leg on the stiff side carries more weight. The issue here goes back to that old saying “use makes the muscle”. If you don’t work on strengthening the weaker leg, the weak hind leg gets weaker, and the strong hind leg gets stronger.

This can lead to all kinds of problems with dressage movements down the road like having an uneven contact with the bit, uneven lengthenings, and difficulty doing lateral work in one direction.

Avoiding carrying weight with the weaker hind leg can be very subtle. Often your dressage horse will put his hind leg only an inch or so to the side. An observant ground person can tell you which hind leg your horse is “unloading”. Walk and trot straight away from her. Then change direction and do the same.

If your dressage horse’s left hind leg is weaker than his right hind leg, he’ll carry it slightly to the left regardless of which direction you’re going. Since this evasion can be subtle, your correction can be subtle as well.

The solution is to ask your horse’s left hind leg to do a little “weight-lifting”. Do this by moving his hindquarters an inch or so to the right so his left hind leg has to step under his body. Ask for this position in both directions on all lines and curves. This will give his weaker hind leg an opportunity to get stronger. One word of caution here. Since you know this leg is weaker, be sure you give your dressage horse lots of walk breaks so he can relax his muscles. There’s a fine line between strengthening muscles and making them sore.

If your horse is a bit more educated, you can do the same sort of exercise by always placing him in a very slight shoulder-fore or renvers position when you track to the left. When you track to the right, put him in a very slight haunches-in position. Every position should place his left hind leg a hair to the inside of his left front leg. Once again, moving the hind leg over an inch or two is more than enough to do the job.

If you do these “hind leg strengthening” exercises thoughtfully, over time your horse will be able to do the dressage movements like leg yields, shoulder-in, haunches-in, renvers, and half pass equally easily in both directions.

Click here for more info on leg yields shoulder-in.

How To Do A Good Free Walk For Dressage

Dressage riders often struggle doing a good free walk with their horses. What follows are some tips to help you with the free walk as well as the transitions in and out of the it.

1. What is the free walk?
In dressage, the free walk is a gait of relaxation.

2. What should it look like?

* Your horse should lengthen his frame and lower his head and neck so he looks like he’s going to graze. His poll is lower than his withers.
* He should open the angle at his throatlatch so his nose points a bit forward, and he looks like he’s stretching toward the bit.
* His strides become longer so he overtracks to a greater degree.

3. How should you do the transition at the beginning of the free walk?

PREPARATION is the key to getting a good free walk in dressage. You should prepare for it the same way you prepare for the “stretchy” circle in the trot.

* Use “connecting aids” for 3-4 seconds on the short side while you’re still in medium walk.
* To give “connecting aids”, create energy by closing both calves as if you’re asking for a lengthening. But don’t let your horse lengthen.
* Instead, close your outside hand in a fist to capture, contain, and recycle that energy back to the hind legs.
* Keep your legs and outside hand closed for 3-4 seconds.
* While closing your legs and outside hand, vibrate or squeeze and release on your inside rein so your horse doesn’t bend his neck to the outside.
* As you turn onto the diagonal, relax your legs, and open your fingers so your horse can chew the reins out of your hands.

4. How should you do the transition back to the medium walk?

* Use the same “connecting aids” you used to prepare for the free walk.
* While the reins are still long, press lightly with your calves.
* As you shorten the reins, keep your new outside hand closed in a fist and squeeze and release with your new inside hand.

5. What if your horse is lazy?
If your horse doesn’t march with good energy, “breathe” your legs during the free walk. To “breathe” your legs:

* Take your legs off of his sides.
* Move them an inch or two back, and place them on lightly again.

“Breathing” your legs does two things. If you’ve been gripping, your horse is probably numb to your legs. Taking your legs off allows you to put them on again lightly so he feels them. Moving your legs back puts them closer to your horse’s “engine” and reminds him to use his hind legs actively.

6. What if your dressage horse wants to jig during the free walk?

* If your horse wants to jig, do several transitions to the halt.
* Praise your horse after each halt.
* Soon he’ll learn to anticipate stopping or slowing down.
* Then you can use just a little bit of your “stopping aids” to remind him to stay in a four-beat flat-footed walk as you make your way across the diagonal.
* If he tends to jig in the free walk when you pick up the reins at the end of the diagonal, halt first. Then, pick up the reins in the halt. Doing so will train him to stay slow when you do the transition for real.