All I Got On Stops

I think it’s time to finish emptying my brain on stops.

No matter how you choose to teach your horse to stop, the Balanced Ride way, by saying whoa and pulling, the key to getting a horse to slide is he has to understand being still.

From the first day I’m on a horse, whether it’s a retrain, tune-up or starting a colt, he is rewarded by standing still.

Standing still is never a command, it’s a gift from me to my horse.

When I first ride a colt I get down when he is still by his own choice.

I keep that up for the first few weeks.

When I ride an anxious, moving horse I let him move.

We lope circles, trot diagonals, go through transitions, I’m not mean or angry I just let him move under my control, then I offer to let him be still.

When I ride my broke horses I have to be honest, I’ll get mad and get after them some for fidgeting. But not much. My yellow mare does it just to screw with me, so I can’t pay too much attention.

When I offer a horse a chance to be still I really offer it. I relax my body and loosen my reins.
Since I ride western I really throw out some rein, but you English guys can still give them their head.

If the horse is restless we move out.

I don’t pull on the reins to fix him, the reins have nothing to do with being still. I just kick him forward and regain contact with his face as we move out.

Every time my horse is still I relax. He very quickly figures this one out. This is what I call hunting a stop.

It has nothing to do with me forcing him forward every step. It just means he appreciates the gift and takes it when offered.

Once my horse understands my gift from my body language I add the word Whoa.

I say Whoa as in Woah. Not Ho. I stretch it out like I’d like the stop to be. Whooooooah. I try to say it the same way ever time.

This is the big present. Because if my horse stops as soon as I say Whoa I do absolutely nothing.

No pull, no leg, no spur, nothing. We just hang out for awhile.

I don’t care if he sniffs my boot or the ground. He can shake, snort, look around. It’s a mental and physical rest. He can rebalance himself or cock a hip. But he can’t move around. No pawing.

The second I feel the need for my reins the second he goes back to work.

They pick up on this concept very quickly. Usually.

Oh dear, there’s a Mort story related to this….

So now we have a horse who stands still. Usually my horses are sliding 5 or 6 feet by now, that’s their gift to me.

If the horse doesn’t have at least a few feet of slide by now he probably won’t be a huge stopper.

But I don’t give up because I’ve been wrong too many times. I just don’t worry about it.

Because now I’m going to work on my slide stop. My youngsters used to be late 3-year-olds when I started my long slides, now they’re late 4-year-olds.

I use the arena wall to start. I make sure I have good dirt. My horse has all four legs protected. My horse has ½ inch sliders which come just past the heel bulb.

I ask for a brisk lope along the wall. I get ¾ down the rail and say Whoa.

As soon as my horse stops and rebalances I ask for a roll-back towards the wall and we lope off the other direction.

My horse has been taught to roll back at this time, just not at speed.

I use my hands and legs through the roll back. I’m not being tricky, just getting him through the turn.

I keep this up at a good pace. Not a run, just moving along where we’re both comfortable.

The only time I’m in his mouth is through the turn. I release as soon as we’re headed the other way.

So my horse begins to anticipate my hands.

When I say Whoa he starts to stop quicker in anticipation of me getting in his mouth.

Pretty soon his slide gets longer and deeper.

Once he stops at least 2 feet longer than usual I catch him before he turns and let him rest.

I sit on him for about the time it takes to smoke a cigarette (no, I don’t smoke).

If he really parks it I get down, loosen my cinch and put him up.

I keep this up over several days until I am getting a good, forward slide on my stop.

Then I move off the rail by several feet and work on straightness without help the help of the wall.

Then I work on straightness and stops in the middle of the arena.

I always reward a good stop with a long rest on a lose rein.

This helps my horses not worry about the stop itself.

If I’m not happy we loop around and try again.

There are technical aspects that start coming into play here. This is where I will pull back, or pull one rein, or kick my horse forward or ….now is where a trainer watching you is really handy. Time to hit the clinics!