Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Hi Mike,

Having more "Whoa" has very little to do with your bit and a heck of a lot 
to do with training.  If I understand your situation correctly, Molly is 
new to you, new to Endurance and what we used to call green broke, ie, she 
knows most of the basics but whether she will actually perform them when 
asked is often open to question.

The more Whoa will come with time IF you use your conditioning rides for 
training as well as conditioning.  When you are walking, collect her, then 
let her relax.  Collect her, ask for the trot for 5 or 10 strides and then 
ask for the walk again, do side passes, stop and back, ask for a trot from 
a halt, ask for a halt from a trot.  Teach her to take up the canter on the 
lead you ASK for, not the one she just happens into.  Canter from the trot, 
walk from the canter, canter from a walk.  The more you play with her, the 
more she will pay attention to you.

If you can, find a riding partner with a well-matched horse and when you go 
out together, play leap frog.  If you are lucky enough to live where you 
have trails that split apart and rejoin down the way a bit, the two of you 
take the different forks.  If there is a riding group in your area that 
goes on trail rides once a month, join and go too.  That will expose her to 
being in a group of horses but without competition being a factor.  At 
first, she'll jig for hours but eventually she'll figure out that a bunch 
of horses ahead of her doesn't mean it's time to put the pedal to the 
metal.  AND you'll have ample opportunity to teach her to lengthen her 
stride and shorten her stride at the walk.  That particular lesson can then 
be applied on your conditioning rides.  Longer strided trot, then shorter, 
canter, hand gallop, canter.

After a year of this (yeah year... in training you get back what you put 
in), she'll be as well schooled as if you'd sent her to a professional 
trainer for 3 or 4 months and while you won't have changed her degree of 
"HOT", you will have added tremendous dimension to her understanding of 
what being out on the trail is all about.  She may never be an easy going 
trail pony but she can become a horse that doesn't need so much more Whoa 
that you feel have to put her into a sharper bit to control her.

Good luck :)

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