Like a couple other people who chimed in on the jigging horse article, I wouldn't do many of the things the author recommends. If your horse is jigging and you immediately get off and take him back to the barn, then your horse learns 'if I jig, i get rewarded and don't have to carry this lard butt around and get to go home to my hay!'. I can see getting off in you're in a really bad state and thats the best option for you (like there's no way you can control your horse at that point), but I would opt for a gazillion other things before that point.
I have two horses. One is older and I"ve been riding for many years. She is a solid mellow horse and I feel I will always have control over her in 90% of the situations we come across (being chased by dogs and crossing bridges are our downfalls :)). But as mellow and relaxed as she is, she very often will jig on our home trails when we're ont he 'homebound' part of the trail. It doesn't mean she's about to panic as the author suggested, she's just voicing her opinion - I want to trot home and eat rather than walk! When she does that, things I will do are: circling her until she relaxes, then releasing her to go forward. If she starts up again, we circle again. Other times, if circling isn't correcting it or there isn't room on the trail, I will turn her around and go backwards several yards, turn her around again - if she jigs again, we go backwards again. Eventually she learns that unless she relaxes and walks like I asked, we aren't going home. I also try to pay attention to what i"m doing with my seat - as she jigs, do i start to tighten up and lean forward (sometimes I do) and so I try to make sure I sit deep and relax. Other options I've done is collecting her up (and I wouldn't do this with a horse that doesn't know collection). Another tip my trainer suggested (who rides stallions in endurance) is leg yielding, they stop jigging if you ask them to walk sideways. I haven't achieved that yet on the trail, but have seen it work well with others' horses.
But the first thing I try is circling - its a wonderful thing and relaxes the horse. It was drilled into us in clinics we've had at my barn with Susan Baker and Janiece Johnson Wilson, Monte Foreman trainers. I've seen it work too with hunter horses that are too speedy toward the jump - circling before the jump (in practice of course) until they relax and then take it. Of course, this is what I do on our training rides, don't think I could do it on an endurance ride at this point, just due to my lesser abilities, not because the technique wouldn't work.
With Janiece, she took the circling a little further in our clinics and taught us how to "Bend" the horse, where the horse is circled tight enough that they come to a stop as the hind end is disengaged. An e-mail like this isn't really effective for explaining the technique and nuances of doing this properly, and I would be a poor choice for trying to explain it since I'm still learning to do ti with my 4 yr old horse. But by practicing this at home over and over, the horse becomes light enough that just by tipping their nose to the left or right (and probably some other subtle cues I haven't learned yet...), that relaxes them and they 'downshift' to the pace that you're asking for.
I'm still learning this technique, but my trainer (Sarah Sanders) who has worked closely with Susan and Janiece has it down and her assistant trainers are doing it as well. My horse has learned that the full bend means stop and she relaxes and I put into use on the trail recently. we were practicing separating from a buddy on the trail, but when she got a little panicky when they got out of sight (and I started to panic :)), I put her into a full bend, regained control and all was well.
It's a very effective tool that lightens the horse and then can be used for other skills, such as preparing them for a change of direction and lead changes, etc.
Again, as a fairly uncoordinated and inept rider, I'm a poor spokesperson to describe the technique hehe. But if anyone has questions on it, Sarah is on the My Endurance pages.
