Alright, so I recently bought a 4 y/o Arabian mare. She is very sweet and knows her basic cues when riding and her leads. Just she can’t seem to slow it down..I barely tap her to trot and she rushes into a trot….with alot of rein wiggling and sitting back, etc..she will lightly slow down..but it seems to take alot of effort. And then when you tell her to canter, it’s basically the same situation..
So what can be done to help her learning and help her become more collected and slower…relaxed?(:
She rides in a snaffle if anyone’s wondering. aha.
And lately she’s been like…..pulling her head really far down and not keeping it still..? How can we fix this too? thankkyou.(:
Okay for rushing, what you want to do is first start on slowing her trot. Pick points at even intervals (every 30 to 40 feet) along your fence line. Ask her to trot but when you get to the first point stop her and back her up 3 steps or so. Wait a few moments and make her stand, then ask her to trot again, repeating the same thing at each point. When you notice that she begins to trot slower between points, increase the distance between each point repeating the same procedure over and over. Eventually you won’t even need points anymore and you should be abe to get her to trot slowly for more than one circuit. If you notice her beginning to rush again, stop her, back her up again and make her wait before continuing on. You can use the same training technique when you want to teach her to canter slower. By stopping and going, she’ll begin to anticipate you stopping her so she’ll go slower, because she won’t know when you’re going to ask her to stop. Just a little side-note, this also will make her stop quickly when you ask her to without hesitation-if you ever have any problems with that at all.
To answer you based on my own experience, I would just suggest a lot of practice for the things you are wanting to achieve. Patience always wins, in the end. But I don’t have a lot of expertise beyond teaching a horse the basics. So I googled some of the problems you’re having and found some links with REALLY good info, I think:
Slowing down her canter and getting her in a frame and collected:
http://lfrazer.com/fastcanter.html
http://www.todayshorse.com/Experts/LauraPhelps-Bell/AskLauraPhelps-Bell34.htm
http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.com/horse-forums/slowing-down-in-canter-195071.html
As far as her pulling her head down really far, that’s an easier problem to deal with than if she were holding it too high. I like the fact that you’re in a snaffle bit, I think you should continue with it and just work on not letting her take her head too low, or bobbing, or whatever she’s doing. Evaluate when she does this, is it in response to something you’re asking her to do or something you have just done? Is it when you are simply "coasting" or letting her do her thing, and she may need to be kept busy to keep her headset correct? Watching her and seeing how you’re riding her might help evaluate why she does this and if there’s something to try to stop it. If there’s a trainer or knowledgeable horse person who could watch you ride and give advice in person, that would be the way to go.
Good luck with your mare. Hope some of this is beneficial to you.
It seems to me you are using a bit too much ‘umph’ to make her go into her upward transitions. Instead of using a lot of rein to slow her down, try sitting deep and heavy in the saddle, lightly half-halt and close your thigh. When you are trotting, use your posting to slow your horse down – do tiny and heavy posting – get her listening to you and your aids rather than the rein. Also switch up what you are doing…so switch up the direction often, circling, serpentines, figure 8′s, change of direction through the middle, figure 8′s using the short diagonal, etc.
If at any point, when you ask her to do a downward transition or anything, and she does not listen, make her listen and I usually make it sudden by a MAJOR half halt and using my body as leverage by sitting really far back and deep in the saddle. Many think that this way of doing things is a bit ‘harsh’, but it really gets their attention when they are jerking off. As much as you want to be as gentle as possible, sometimes they need to refocus their attention onto you properly.
As for the canter…your horse is young and may not have the balance so all she really knows how to do is whip around the arena. Try gentle half-halts, sit deep and tall in the saddle, close the inner thigh, but keep the leg on to encourage your horse to still move forward. When you get to near a corner of the arena, half halt a bit to get your horse’s attention and to help balance them. Eventually they will learn how to do a collected canter (working on this exact same thing with an ottb gelding right now). It is a lot of work…but make sure that you are moving your pelvis WITH your horse’s movement to try and encourage the movement of the canter.
I would highly suggest doing A LOT of transitional work with her to get her used to listening properly. She is very young yet and still has a baby brain so patience is key. I would suggest doing a lot of walk to trot and back to walk transitions until she gets the hang of it that you don’t want her to be jumping into the trot and rushing it. You can eventually do the same with the canter.
As for the pulling….is she reaching down to the ground with her nose or is she pulling by being on the forehand and trying to balance on you?
If she is reaching down to the ground with her nose, she is most likely trying to look for a little bit of contact with you. When she reaches her nose down to the ground, try a little half-halt with both reins by opening and closing your fingers to encourage her to bring her head up along with a little bit of leg pressure.
If she is on the forehand and trying to balance on you, you need to sit up and massively half-halt on her to try and balance her onto her hindquarters. It also helps if everytime she pulls on you, raise your hands to break the connection between you and your horse’s mouth. It will force her to bring her head up. You may have to ride like this for a little while and may feel like a complete idiot, but it eventually does work well! Another (and quite opposite) way of trying to stop her from pulling on you is to literally drop her on her nose. When she pulls, let go of your reins entirely and/or shoot your hands forward so that she has nothing to pull on. Sometimes this will work well too.
oh gosh i wish my TB was like her haha
he REFUSES TO GO and when i make him trot he will throw the BIGGEST fit ever… but then after a while he will relax and trot nicely
i think she just needs more time and training
do you use spurs on her??
since she is sp responsive to her basic cues i’m sure she will be easy to teach the slowd down signals
i think she just needs more time
= )
but of course i’m no expert
if she’s trained to lunge or round pen maybe exercise her in all gaits before riding??
just work one gait at a time
when you ask her to walk does she take off walking fast? or slow and relaxed??
you need to train her in a relaxed calm walk before you work on the trot, and then you can teach her to stay relaxed and calm in the trot and then in the canter as well
do you use a chin strap?? those really helped my neighbors fast going horse… then you tug the rein back it puts pressure on the chin and her horse responds speed wise a lot better!
so yeah just start from the beggining
work on perfect her walk and walk trot transitions
To slow the tempo of the trot, you must slow your posting. Pretend you have peanut butter on your saddle that keeps you from rising too fast. Also, circling will help as she must balance to make a circle. Circling will help at the canter, too. You can also try posting canter to set the tempo if you know how to do that. The fact that you can slow her down is good, even if it takes a lot of effort. As she becomes more attuned to what you are asking, it will not be so hard.
Keeping her in the snaffle is probably best.
What you must not do is to let her buffalo you into taking you legs off. That is what a hot horse is usually trying to do, but you must not or your horse will begin to reject contact with the leg altogether.
For the trot, keep your legs away, and only use verbal commands. I am currently training a young Arab mare also, so eventually she will go into a slow jog. For the canter/lope, try the same thing. As for her mouth, try being more gentle at first, then go harder if you need to. Good Luck!!
Hi,
Have you ever considered getting it good on the ground before you went to the saddle, does she do the same thing on the lunge?
If so you want to perfect the trot on the ground with out a saddle first. When that is going well put on the saddle and then see how she goes, if that is going well put on the bridle. Then if she has slowed down and you feel good enough to get on go for it! As for the putting the head down thing, pull up on 1 rein if you pull on both that is a pulling match between your little arm and all the muscles in her neck! If she still won’t get her head up move her on a little faster maybe. If she is still speedy when you get on maybe have a friend to lunge her. Maybe tapping her is too much asking her to trot, maybe try just bringing your energy up, being and Arab she would be pretty sensitive she sould be able to feel that.
Get it going well on the ground before you try and deal with it on her back. When she goes too fast, go back to a slower gait and then try again make your cues more suttle. Happy riding
Love horses, love life and may the horse be with you
Savvy Sista
Well a good way to slow it down a bit and teach her to pick up her feet which makes it easier to collect and slow is to place poles around the rail of the arena that she has to step over while at a trot. Also really focus on sitting deep in your seat because the deeper you sit the more pressure on her hind end which will slow her down a bit as well. Eventually she will learn to keep it slow. Another way to increase the sensitivity to the bit and giving to it is to lunge with side reins so that they are tight enough that she has to give to the bit but loose enough that she can have relief if she carries herself properly and keeps it at a certain pace.
Sounds like my horse. And you sounds like me (riding wise). Sit light and use a light hand, if you hand on the reins, or sit too hard on her back she won’t carry herself, It is a hard habit to break, but you have to feel like you are letting go with your hands and steer with your legs. This will make her slow down. It should fix the head problem too. If the head problem continues try this…
This is one of those weird old solutions that works really well! You ride with an egg in your hand, holding it over her head. when her head starts bobbing, crack it as it comes up, right over her head. This should stop it right away! The horse thinks that they have hit their head and are bleeding, she won’t do it again after that!
Good Luck!
-Nov
warshar yega meyoren
She just needs more training. An Arab will not mature mentally until they are around 8, and at 4 she is very early in her training. You will not get a good canter until you have a solid trot. Really work that trot a lot. If she rushes, circle or try putting up cones for weaving so she has to slow down. When she slows down and gives you a good trot, praise her. It just takes time for them to understand what you want and be able to give it to you. Once her trot is good, then you can start on the canter. As for her head, if you are introducing her to bending and such she might just be trying to figure it out. Keep your seat calm and relaxed. Start small. If she gives you good movement and good head carriage for a couple of 20m circles, walk her and praise her. Time and work will bring her around.
First, when you say snaffle, do you mean a true snaffle, with no shanks? That is the bit she needs for retraining. She isn’t collected, since she isn’t working correctly to be able to collect. I would work her in an arena, at a trot. Let her have her head and stretch out her neck, and only engage the reins to keep her in a trot. Then, just work on legging her forward…let her go as fast as she wants to without breaking into a canter. give her room to move out. Gradually, give a bit of rein resistance as you leg her forward, and add some tightening of your seat muscles in a forward almost thrusting movement with your pelvis. You want a very deep seat, but allow your pelvis to support her forward movement. When you feel any drop in the hindquarter as it reaches under her, and her back coming up, contain her forward movement with the reins, but keep legging her more to get her reaching farther under her with her hind legs. You’ll begin to feel her forehand lift, as if you are riding uphill. Her neck will lower and her head will come down into the natural position for her to be put on the bit. Then, you capture the foward energy by resisting it with rein cues on the bit, and bringing her onto the bit. You are collecting her energy when this happens. As you bring her into collection, you’ll be keeping her moving with her hingquarter engaged under her, and her forward movement contained by the reins. The deeper you sit as you give genle squeezes on the alternating reins, the more she will slow her forward movement, and you’ll feel her more up and down movement. Practice this every day until you can collect her at the trot at will. Then she will be ready for training to go into a controlled canter. This won’t happen in a day….it will take many sessions to develop her muscle and ligaments as she becomes capable of elevating her back.