Re: RC: Slowing down canter...help!

[Trishmare7@aol.com]

Hi Kelly,
     Like you, I have a hyper, energetic horse and also can't afford 
"professional" help.  Additionally, I have to do almost all my riding alone.  
It can be done!
     This worked for me: in the ring, I worked on dressage training.  Tried 
John Lyons and other methods like that, but they didn't help very much.  Good 
old fashioned backyard dressage worked better than anything.  I stuck with 
stuff designed to help the backyard and trail horse owner, not "professional" 
dressage competitors.  Biggest helps in dressage . . . work that taught King 
David (my horse) to get "on the bit" on request and half-halts.  ON THE TRAIL 
I did this: . . . whenever darling, dancing David would move out faster than 
I wanted him to, such as, if we were cantering down road or trail and he 
started cantering faster than I wanted him to, I immediatly turned around and 
road AWAY FROM HOME.  Walk, trot, whatever, just headed away from home.  Turn 
back around, and as long as he stayed responsive and did the speed I wanted, 
we went towards home, but when he insisted on going faster, okay, turn around 
and ride away from home.  King David can be stubborn and one day I did this 
for two hours straight.  Covered the same back and forth stretch of road more 
times than I can count.  People who live along that road must've thought I 
was nuts.  But in the end, King David trotted and cantered NICELY back 
towards home.  (It began to rain during that particular episode too, but I 
was determined to be more determined than the horse.)  
    Also in early February of 1999 there was a thread on Ridecamp called 
"Race Brain Training."  It proved invaluable to me and you should be able to 
find it in the archives.
    King David remains an "adventure" to ride, but the stuff above did make 
all the difference in my confidence in riding him. 
    Have faith!  Good luck!  

<< My horse is a mad man in the
 ring. He seems perfectly normal at the walk/trot, but when you ask him to
 canter, whoosh, he's off.. He just wont slow down. My sister (much better
 rider than me) suggested I canter him in circles to try and slow him
 down...he went just as fast, and it was just twice as scary ;p. Then we
 decided to canter in large circles until Slim wanted to slow down...this
 is when i realized what great  shape he's in, and that endurance might be
 great for us..we must have cantered for almost 30 minutes
 straight...buuut, no slowing down, tiring, anything. He wasnt even
 breathing hard.. So even though it's convinced me that my horse can handle
 more then i think he can and really got me interested in finding stuff out
 about endurance...he still tears around..my family cant afford to get a
 professional to help us, so any suggestions/help anyone has would be
 really appreciated. Thanks for listening to me ramble on! -Kelly W >>

Trish Marie & "A King David" 
Grand Blanc, Michigan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The butterflies there in the brush were romancing,
the smell of the grass caught your soul in a trance,
so why be a-fearing the spurs and the traces
O Bronco that would not be broken of dancing?
                -Vachel Lindsay-
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