Obstacle work for a reiner? You bet! I believe such work is good for any horse. Cross-training opportunities help you avoid the common rider error of too much drilling in one specialized event.
horse too much room for mistakes. Whether it’s throwing rein slack at a horse that’s only been ridden 10 times and hoping he doesn’t run off, or loping in a huge arena with f ngers crossed that he’ll slow down on his own, you can get in trouble that way. My rule of thumb: Never ask a question of a horse when you don’t know what the answer will be. When you ask your horse to do something or attempt to teach him something new, make sure that you know the desired response. Start with close contact and don’t give your horse a lot of room at f rst. T is gives you the opportunity to correct him right away if he makes the wrong choice, and also gives him the chance to succeed. Don’t give him so much room, whether in rein length or arena size, that he’s likely to fail.
Throwing “Whoa” Around
Te word “whoa” means “stop,” and is a cue that must be taught. Too ofen, I see riders who use the verbal cue on horses that don’t have a clue what it means.
Typically, the rider hauls back on the reins because he thinks the response should have been automatic; as a result, the horse can get a negative association with the word. He hears it, and suddenly the rider starts pulling and picking at him for a reason he doesn’t understand.
If this is your situation, you want to work on what I call manual and automatic transitions. T ink in terms of manual and automatic transmissions on a car or truck. Make sure that manual works frst, meaning your horse understands the obvious cues before relying only on subtle cues. For stopping, “manual” means that you begin by pulling on the reins to stop. You do this again and again. When the horse has the manual cue down, then you start working on the cue association that leads to “automatic.” “Whoa” without rein contact is the very last piece, not the f rst.
On that note, “whoa” doesn’t mean slow down. It doesn’t mean quit prancing. It means halt. Use it only when you want the horse to stop. Once your horse understands the verbal cue and it’s used correctly, the word “whoa” is actually a reward because he gets to stop working. By all means, it’s a command and it’s not to be ignored, which is why we only add it later when the horse already knows how to stop. You don’t ever want your horse to ignore that word once you start to use it.
Steering Just the Face
When you want to direct a horse, it’s a mistake to guide only its head with the reins. Instead, you want to steer what’s under the saddle horn—the feet—by guiding from the outside to the inside with outside leg and rein. For example, if I want to steer to the right, I use my lef leg and rein to push my horse the direction I want to go. I use my inside rein to teach him shape and position, but it’s the outside rein and leg that establish direction.
Te nose is the hood ornament, not the steering wheel. A horse can still keep going forward, without turning, even afer you’ve pulled the inside rein clear around to your knee. Tat’s why you need to visualize the front feet beneath the horn as the steering mechanism and the back feet as the brake and the motor. If the saddle horn is pointed east and you want to go north, you need to push the front feet in that direction. When you can change the direction in which the saddle horn is pointing, you can change the direction of the horse.
Inconsistent Riding Schedule
Here’s another common error. Someone buys a nice, f nished horse. Te horse has been in a training program
with a routine, much like a university student who goes to class every day and does his studies. Te student might get the weekends off or an occasional holiday, but it’s only a day or two off at a time.
Te new owner thinks the horse will be f ne with just one or two rides a week, ofen because that’s as much time as the rider has free to devote. It might go well for a while, but eventually the horse is going to get out of performing at its best. It’s like summer vacation to kids in school—the horse ends up losing discipline.
Horses need that discipline, whether it’s groundwork or something small. Try to be as consistent as you can. I know we all have work and situations where we can’t get out there every day. I do, too. I’m ofen away doing clinics. But as much as possible, your horse needs to get that daily lesson, just like he’s in school. When he’s in that groove, things will go so much better. Your horse will be focused, in learning mode, and in training.
Taking purposeful time off is different than what I’m talking about here. In my program, there are times when we’ll turn horses out and leave them alone for a month or so— sometimes even longer. But once they’re back to being ridden, they’re back in school.
Whether your school is three days a week, or fve or six, or even two days a week, make sure your horse knows he’s in school by making sure he learns something that day. One thing I’ve learned over all these years: If you aren’t teaching the horse the right thing, he’s learning the wrong thing. Tat’s just how it works.
Overtraining on One Discipline
T is mistake isn’t quite as common as the others, but still happens. It occurs when someone gets a horse that’s trained in a specifc discipline, and that one discipline is all the rider works on with the horse. Horses get stale doing that. Oddly enough, you’ll maximize your specialty if you do some cross training.
Cross training is fnding other things for the horse to do. I go on trail rides with my reiners. I work cattle with them, teach them ground games and obstacle work, and all kinds of other skills. I ride each horse fve or six days a week, but only work on his main discipline for a couple of those days. I’ve found that horses progress so much faster this way, and that we get along better as well. For example, if the horse is off his confdence for sliding stops, I’ll go hit the obstacle course and help him get his confdence back before working on stops again. It makes a tremendous difference.