How To Get A Better Stop, Soften And Relax Your Hard Mouthed, Hot, Strong Horse
How To Get A Better Stop, Soften And Relax Your Hard Mouthed/ Strong/ Hot Horse
Now that we have an understanding of bit function lets talk about related topics. Below you will start to learn to soften your hard mouthed/ strong horse up and how bitting up may not be the solution.
Attached are numbered pictures to go along with my explanations. I apologize for the quality of some pictures as some were video stills. In some, yes I may be in shorts. When it is over 100 degrees, my goal is to stay comfortable.
All too often I see posts where frustrated owners talk about how their horse runs through their bit, how they have tried multiple bits to get their horse to stop and they aren't getting the results you want. The truth is, a bit is not a solution. It is a tool that you can use to teach your horse to respond better to. When you use stronger and stronger bits, the teaching aspect has fallen to the side and you are instead using intimidation.
It's a common thing, after all it's an intimidating thought to use a softer bit on a horse that is already taking off on you. When you use a softer bit, you can not rely on strength. You must instead invest the time to teach your horse to give to pressure, and relax.
I use a side pull or a smooth snaffle when I retrain bolters, hot horses, strong horses etc. I like to use a side pull for simplicity. When I work my horse on the ground, it's in a halter and that pressure on the nose is familiar to the horse. A full cheek helps with direction, so it's a common cheek piece I use
When you are working on softening up your horse, you want to use a non shanked hackamore or bit. You do not want your cues amplified with more pressure, you want your horse to be as soft as possible.
Ground Work Preparation
Lateral Flexion 1.
Here is a mare flexing correctly. She is balanced through her body and soft in the face.
One of the most important things I teach a horse in lateral flexion. Correct lateral flexion is more than a horse simply turning their head when you pick up on the lead/ rein. When you flex your horse you want them to be balanced, in order to achieve this you want your horses head to remain fairly vertical. This will keep the ears level as well. As a horse starts to twist their head when they are over bent or bending incorrectly, they shift weight to the outside front hoof. Remember, lateral flexion is the foundation for steering under saddle and the last thing you want is for your horse to already be on the forehand.
I initially teach lateral flexion in a rope halter on the ground. I bring my hand up and out to put a feel on the halter, just picking it up so my horse feels the weight of the lead rope at first then I will ask with very soft contact until my horse turns their head with their feet still. Initially that is all I want, once the horse gets the concept THEN I worry about refining it to ensure my horse is balanced. I do not pull y horse around or bump on a learning horse. This will just encourage a horse to brace against you instead of calmly figure out the answer.
Under saddle, you want to lift the center of your reins with your outside hand. Then slide your inside hand down and out to the side, avoiding leaning down. Keep your hand to the side to help your horse understand the feel to turn their head to the side.
Disengaging The Hindquarters 2.
Here is a horse correctly disengaging under saddle. Note that the inside hind crosses over the outside hind. Also note that the front end of moving as well, not pivoting.
When your horse flexes well, the next step is teaching them to disengage their hindquarters. A horse correctly disengaging will remain soft through the face, they will walk a small circle with the inside front and step their inside hind up and over the outside hind. You want your horse to walk a small circle to stay balanced. When a horse pivots, their weight is put on the forehand. Imaging trying to bend to a stop from a gallop. Do you want your horse to spiral down softly, or to slam their weight on the forehand and whip their hindquarters around? A horse that steps their inside hind in front of the outside is soft. When a horse steps behind, they are guarding themselves and still prepared to do what they want.
To teach this, start on the ground, first flex your horse, then use a whip on the hindquarters starting softly and building until your horse moves their hip. Initially release for this try then build upon it. At this point you want to only release when the inside hind steps in front of and across the outside hind. After that is working, you want the inside front to untrack. Ask your horse to disengage, then shift your whip to the ribcage and bend your horse less to get a little forward motion, as soon as your horse picks up the inside front to move forward a bit, release. After you ask your horse to move off of the whip, always rub your horse with it so your horse doesn't become frightened.
When both directions work well on the ground, you can try it under saddle. Under saddle you will first bend your horse, then slide your inside leg back and softly press with your calf, then use the whip.
Turn Around On The Ground 3,4 & 5
This is an exercise I do on the ground to further soften a horse through their body. This is a great exercise for stiff horse, a horse that bends but runs their shoulder out, and on green horses to further educate them.
This next exercise gets your horse even softer through the body. You will need a long rope for this, the rope pictured is 14 foot and the mare is 14.2 hands. If your horse is larger or prone to kick, use a longer rope to stay safe. To accomplish this, first drape your lead rope over your horses neck on the opposite side as you, then flip it back until your rope is over the hocks. From there apply soft pressure until your horse flexes, then disengages and turns to face you. Initially your horse may try to go forward when the rope goes over their hocks as its a new sensation, just get your hrose turned around and repeat until your horse is quiet.
Bend To A Stop
Bending to a stop is where everything comes together, it softens a horse to each rein and also teaches a horse to go on a loose rein. After flexing and disengaging under saddle, walk your horse forward on a loose rein without steering. After a few strides OR if your horse speeds up/ gets anxious, bring your hand out to the side and wait for your horse to bend. Then bring your hand to your hip and slide your leg back to ensure the hindquarters disengage. When the hindquarters are moving around, release your leg and let your horse spiral to a stop. Initially it may take some time for your horse to find the stop, just stay patient.
Before you walk off you want your horse relaxed. When your horse is flexed around, look at your horses eye. You want your horse looking at you, if your horse is looking away they aren't mentally with you and will likely walk off when you release. Half release, take your hand from your hip and slowly slide down to your knee. Your horse will start to straighten out their neck, then bring your hand back to your hip. You can also rub on your horses neck with your outside hand to help them relax. When your horse is relaxed, then give them their head. If they are standing still, ask them to walk off, otherwise bend them again.
Stay at a walk until your horse bends to a stop well and is walking on a loose rein, then ask for a trot. Repeat everything you did at the walk. After you bend to a stop from a trot, walk off. If the walk is relaxed, trot. Otherwise you may need to bend to a stop from a walk a few times.
You can use bending to a stop to get relaxation, after a number of repetitions you will notice your horse is relaxed as they are bending from a trot and are relaxed when they bend to a walk before stopping. At this point you can turn loose of your horse and let them walk forward. Then go ahead and ask for the trot again.
When your trot works well, lope. Repeat everything you did from the trot.
Stopping Off Your Seat 6.
This mare is learning to stop off my seat, at this point her stop is NOT wonderful she is hollow through her back, however she is listening. Later on you can refine this like anything else.
You can use bending to a stop to teach your horse to stop off your seat. Starting at a walk, ask for a halt with your seat. I relax my body by taking a deep breath out which lets my weight sink down, I also relax my legs and let them come off my horse and slightly forward.
After a moment, bend to a stop. Keep repeating until your horse understands your seat is a cue to stop. When your horse stops from the walk, trot. Again, it will take a number of repetitions for your horse to understand that your seat should be listened to.
Back Up 7&8
This green mare is demonstrating how to properly back up. She is breaking at the poll, without hiding behind the bit. She has lifted the base of her neck. She is starting to learn how to use her back and as a result her hindquarters. There is good flexion through the hocks as she shifts back to back up.
During the process to soften your horse, the back up should be the first time you pick up on two reins. This eliminates your horse from leaning on you during this process.
The first thing your horse needs to learn is how to break at the poll. You may want to flex your horse both directions before taking up very light contact. From here, wait until your horse breaks at the poll and drops their head then release. Repeat until your horse gives to you every time. Then you are going to hold that pressure. You want your horse to lift the base of the neck and rock back onto their hindquarters before they step backward while remaining soft in the face. When you get one soft step, release. To ensure your horse is thinking about rocking back and not moving forward, don't go straight forward from the back up. Wait a few moments after backing, then turn and go another direction.
Once your horse understands the concept, use opportunities when your horse is standing to perfect the back up so you can get multiple good steps backwards.
Stop Off Your Reins
Once your horse is reeducated in how to respond to two reins, you can begin asking for the stop from the walk. From the walk, pick up on your reins and wait, if your horse doesn't immediately soften, use your seat as a back up aid to get the stop. You want to hold that soft pressure until your horse softens in their face and takes a step backward. Wait a moment, turn and go another direction and repeat until your horse is stopping softly, then ask from the trot, and finally the lope. You want to hold until you get that step backward to ensure your horse thinks about shifting their weight back during the stop.
If your horse really wants to be stiff, you can also bend to a stop while keeping a feel on your horses face, then get a soft step backward.
By using this process, you should notice a big change in how your horse responds.
Stop off Whoa
I also like to use a fence to teach my horses to stop off the word "Whoa".
I will walk along the arena fence say "Whoa" then tip my horse into the fence to do a rollback. By now a horse should have good enough shoulder control that they rock back to their hindquarters and move their shoulders over. If your horse doesn't do this, you can circle instead. Make a circle by the fence. As you get close to the fence, there will be a moment that your horses head is close to the fence while the hindquarters are farther away, creating an almost triangle of open space. At this moment, ask your horse to turn into the fence, the easiest thing for your horse to do in this position is move the shoulder over. To teach "Whoa", simply say whoa right before it.
This works because in order to do a rollback, the horse comes to a stop, rocks weight onto the hindquarters to elevate the shoulders and rolls back. As you only pick up on one rein, the horse doesn't have anything to lean on to get heavy on the forehand. The horse will begin to anticipate stopping and after a few repetitions, stop off Whoa. When this happens, stay at a standstill and really rub on your horse for several moments. From here I may send my horse up into a trot, or back and rollback. It depends on what my horse anticipates doing. If my horse anticipates the turn, I go foreward. You want to go into at least a trot so your horse pushes from behind instead of getting heavy on the forehand.
These exercises should drastically help the horse that needs help with the stop, or a hot horse that needs to learn to rate.