Getting the Heart Going

Horses First; The Rest Later

Perfecting the Stop

There is only one other thing in riding that is important for a safe and enjoyable ride and that is to effectively stop your horse. Without an effective and reliable stop, you are often putting yourself and your horse in danger.

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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Product Review: Hoof Wraps Brand™

Recently after a trail ride, my young mare started showing signs of stone bruise. I was searching for something that could give her a little cushion and protection as the sole of her hoof healed. I found the Hoof Wraps Brand™ at my local Tractor Supply. It was a great alternative to keeping my mare in a stall and buying diapers and duct tape.

The Hoof Wraps Brand™ hoof wrap features a foam pad that is held on to the foot with a strong nylon wrap that secures with heavy duty Velcro. The Hoof Wrap states that their wrap is a one-size-fits-most, fitting everything from a horse that wears a 00 to a size 2 shoe. The hoof wrap is specially designed to be tough enough for a horse on turn out. Since my mare in on 24/7 pasture access, it sounded like a perfect solution to give her some comfort and speed up the healing without her having to be stalled.

Nylon outer of the Hoof Wrap Brand™ hoof wrap

Instructions are printed on the inside of the wrap.

I was surprised how easy it was to use. The nylon was very strong and was difficult to pull apart once stuck together; this gave me some ease of mind knowing she wouldn't be able to pull the Velcro apart. Although one person can put this on their horse, my mare only wanted her toe to touch the ground so I needed someone to hold my mare's foot flush to the ground to ensure that I was getting the wrap tight and secure.

What I liked most about the product was that as soon as I put it on my mare, she showed reduced limping instantly. The Hoof Wrap Brand™ hoof wrap effectively protected her feet from the hard ground and the foam provided cushion to the foot making it more comfortable for my mare to walk.

I left the hoof wrap on over night and checked her the next morning and she still had it on. It had stood up to a night of walking around a 40 acre pasture.

Wearing the hoof wrap gave my mare enough cushion and protection for her to heal more quickly from the stone bruise while still maintaining turn out.

What I did not like was that the wrap was "one-size-fits-most." My mare wears a 00 size shoe. She is on the small end of their suggested fit sizes. The wrap slightly gapped at the front of the foot.  The wrap is supposed to fit like the picture below.

Properly fitted Hoof Wrap Brand™ Hoof Wrap

To make sure the wrap was secure, I wrapped it with Vet wrap.

The wrap had slightly rotated around the foot over night, but nothing too major. I put the wrap on for her to wear over night another night without the vet wrap and she came back the next morning without it, somewhere lost in my pasture.

I would recommend this product to any horse owner that has a horse that is dealing with an abscess, stone bruise, tender footed after throwing a shoe, or anything that might require your horse needing some extra cushion and protection. The nylon outer is very tough, but the cushion would need to be changed every other day because it does get compacted. If your horse is like mine and wears a 00 shoe, I would recommend wrapping it as I did.

You can find more information on this product and other products offered by Hoof Wraps Brand™ on their website, http://hoofwraps.com/.



Pictures 1-3: are from the Hoof Wrap Brand™ website hoofwraps.com
Picture 4: SmartPak Website
Picture5:taken by C