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Dear Friend and
Horseman,
In my opinion nothing is more
important to a horse's performance than a good smooth stop on the
hindquarters. Without it, you just don't have a trained horse.
Unfortunately, this is also the
maneuver that gives riders the most trouble. One of the "keys" to
a hindquarter stop is the "timing" of the stopping cue.
In other words, you have to ask
the the stop when the horse is in position where he "can" stop on
his hindquarters. If you ask for the stop at the wrong part of the
horse's stride, you'll force him to do a jarring stop on his
front end.
Be sure to listen to
the audio instructions. The audio contains additional
instructions that are not listed in print. Well worth listening to.
(If your computer has a slow internet
connection, it may take a couple minutes for the audio to start. Click
the arrow button to start the audio. Then, read the text below while the
audio is loading)
Timing the Stride for a Stop
on the Hindquarters
Here is the leg sequence of a horse going
from a standstill into a lope and then coming to a stop on the
hindquarters. The important thing to remember is that there is a lapse
of time between when you give the horse a cue and when he recognizes the
cue and responds to it.
In other words, when you say "whoa" it's going
to take the horse a split second of reaction time to respond.
That's why you need to give the cue just
"before" the horse's legs are in position to execute the hindquarter
stop.
The ideal situation is to ask for the stop when the horse's hind
feet are in the air and on their way forward.
Saying "whoa" at this part of the stride,
allows the horse to shoot his hind legs way under his body for the stop
on the hindquarters. Below I explain the parts of the stride in relation
to stopping on the hindquarters.
C. Unfortunately, this is the part
of the stride where most riders say whoa and expect the horse to stop.
You can see that the hind feet are on the ground pushing the horse
forward. If the rider asks for the stop at this part of the stride the
horse is literally forced to do a jarring stop with his front legs.
D. This isn't too bad. If the
rider said whoa here, at least the horse has one hind leg free to stop
with. He would stop with the left hind and the right front. The horse
wouldn't do a good stop but it wouldn't jar your eye-teeth out either.
E. Ideally, this is the part of
the stride to say whoa. Both hind feet are in the air, free to shoot
forward for a smooth, hindquarter stop. On some horses, you could set
the bit and give the horse a quick squeeze with your legs to shoot the
hind feet farther under the horse's body.
F. Here, all four feet are in
mid-air. On some horses that listen real close and don't require much
reaction time, this is where you should say whoa.
G. The horse's hind feet have
landed, it's time to set the bit.
H. The hind legs are way under the
horse's body, stopping hard. Slack the reins. Quickly reset the bit if
the horse hasn't come to a complete stop. Then slack again. Reset and
slack until the horse is completely stopped.
As you can see, it's critical to ask for
the stop at "exactly" the right part of the horse's stride. If your
timing is a split second off, you'll cause the horse to jam his front
feet in the ground.
In my video,
Teach Your Horse to Stop Light & Collected
(Volume 1.5), I show you how to time
the horse's stride perfectly. It's really not that hard to do...
... If you
know the secret.
If you want to put a really good stop on
your horse, here are the videos that will show you how:
Special Offer!
Teach Your Horse to Stop Light &
Collected
Volume 1.5 and Volume 2
Until next time, have
fun training your horse.
Larry Trocha
www.HorseTrainingVideos.com
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