Before your horse should even be ridden, they must be easily flexed to either side and give to pressure on the ground. A horse should immediately give his nose to the pressure by lowering and bringing his head onto the vertical when pressure across the nose or from the bit is given. The horse must first master this on the ground before attempted under saddle. By teaching your horse to flex to either side will prepare the horse to disengage the hindquarters making an emergency one rein stop in the saddle much easier. From the ground, when asked, the horse should be easily backed with minimal pressure on the nose or in the mouth.
Practice flexing the horse to either side and also ask them to give to backward pressure. When pulling back, they should drop their head and bring the nose onto the vertical. The lighter the cue for these to happen will help you when you are ready to stop the horse.
The key to a good stop is a great back. One exercise I recommend when a horse is becoming difficult to stop, is to immediately back them up after every stop. This also works well for a horse that stops heavy on the forehand. The horse will begin to anticipate that after every stop they should immediately be ready to back. The outcome is that the horse will stop deeper with the power of the hindquarters rather than bracing on the forehand.
Collection is a major component of stopping. Without collection, a horse's stop can be bouncy and rough. One way to help them collect themselves and really use their hindend is to do roll backs into the fence. It teaches them to listen to your cues and lower their hips to turn and stop. By sitting deeper in the saddle before you cue for the roll back should be the first indication for the maneuver. The better the horse gets at listening and understanding the cues, the less you will use to cue him for the roll back. This will translate into stopping any where in the arena. When you sit deeper in the saddle, your horse should stop under neath himself, squarely.
****A rollback on the fence does not involve you jerking the horse around into the fence.******
Other great ways to sharpen your horse's stop is to implement the half halt. By squeezing and releasing the reins to slow them before the cue to stop. Using this instead of one continuing pressure on the mouth can save your horse's mouth.
***For experience riders**
You can use a martingale or training fork to help enforce the giving to pressure and rounding the frame of the horse. This helps teach them to collect themselves and stop more squarely and smoothly.
Changing to a more severe bit should always be the last resort. A good thing is to gradually go up in severity. A great step up bit from the snaffle would be a Jr. Cowhorse bit or something similar.
Everyone should know the emergency one-rein stop. This is when all else fails and your horse is running away from you, pull your rein all the way around. This disengages the hindquarters (the engine of the horse) and makes them follow their nose. The one-rein stop is most effective if you have adequately taught them to flex and disengage their hindquarters. Don't think some horses can't run straight even with their head turned around the other way!
Blog requested by A Cowgirl's Ambition. Twitter: @CowgirlAmbition
Written By: C
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