[Me-N-Chic]

Hello!

I haven't posted on here much; but I am a 43 year old fairly new rider. Last year I got a 7 year old pleasure horse-bred mare named A GOOD DIVA by MR GOOD AND PLENTY; and I have spent this past year learning her "buttons".

She has had 3 months training by Dale Hamilton out of OHIO when she was a filly. I have never shown before; but I did dapple around in a couple local fun shows last year and progressively got a little better ;-) !!

Could you please view this really short video and (kindly!) let me know how our jog and lope are coming along and what we could be working on? Thanks!

[Lopinslow]

I'll take a look at home tonight, can't view videos at work!! ( Darn IT guy)

and not that it is a big deal, just a pet peeve of many horse people... a horse is "by" a stallion, and "out of" a mare.

[HSRascal]

First: Please move this to the critique board.

She's very cute. I can't see your hand or the rein length but from what I can see she's a little scrunched up through the neck. She'll need to be able to hang that neck out for AQHA.

My guess without being able to see it in person is you are using your hands to hold her movement back. She's still too quick through the legs, but the pressure in the hand needs to be release-able or she'll hang on it and get behind the vertical while laying on your hand.

If she were mine (aka this is not a professional opinion) I would work her on maneuvers. For a horse like this my time would be spent in the middle of the ring doing circles, triangles, serpentines, stops, changes of direction etc. She looks like she needs to be set back off her shoulder and your hand.

Again, jmo. I do think she is incredibly cute and I feel she could do well with a little push in the right direction.

[Me-N-Chic]

Lopinslow - i'd love for you to take a look! Oops--I fixed it, Sony is now BY Mr. Good and Plenty! Thanks-- See,I learned something new already!

HSRascal-I wonder if the reason she is somewhat scrunched it I have a training fork on her. I have had a couple lessons this summer, and although she has a pretty level neck--she tends to stick her nose out a little too far--so my trainer suggested I ride her two-handed with a training fork as a "reminder" for her.

I was trying something different than I usually do there--and I guess maybe I shouldn't have!--I decided to try "holding" the reins steadily at her shoulders; somewhat like side reins instead of riding two-handed and giving little pulls when needed!

I will defeintely try the manuevers because she sometime can tend to keep stopping when I start turn different directions so I definitely need to work on those!

Thanks --I am learning so much already!

[Canadian Sage]

They pretty much covered it, cute mare too btw!

From what I noticed too, looks like your stirrups need to be longer? Hard to tell since its not a crisp video but...

[Lopinslow]

It wasn't very long, and it's hard to tell with you being so far from the camera.

I would like to see a little more cadence at the jog, and a bit slower as well.

I didn't see much of her lope, but she seems to be a cute enough mover, she just needs to get broke.

This is what I would do with a horse at her stage of training.
1. ditch the traning fork
2. spend alot of each ride getting her broke in the body. move every part of her body around. sidepassing, forehand turns, indirect turns, moving shoulders over and around starting at the walk, then to trot and eventually the lope, two-tracking at the walk, then progressing to the trot and lope.

instead of always holding her slow with your hands, do exercises that encourage HER to make the choice to do what you want.
some examples, they keep wanting to speed up at the lope. So, i'll either stop and roll back loping off the other way, OR i'll stop and move their body around, then lope off like nothing happened... staying off their face.

If the horse is speeding up/losing collection on the right lead, then i'll STOP, and move the hips around (forehand turn) around several times to the right, encouraging that right hind to step up deep behind.

If the horse is getting heavy in the front on the right lead, then i'll stop, wiggle the right rein asking them to give slightly, add my right leg and push their shoulders around in an indirect turn to the left, encouraging the horse to reach and lift their shoulders and they step over and around their left front leg.

To get more cadence at the trot, try trotting in small circles, constantly changing direction. This will encourage a bit better cadence AND the horse will slow down on their own without you holding them slow in the face.

also, remember use LOTS of leg. pretty much anytime you take a hold of the face, you also need to add leg to keep the impulsion from behind.

[Me-N-Chic]

CS - Thank you! I will check my stirrups--I also may be taking a lesson this weekend so I'll have her take a look too!

Lopinslow-Thank you for all the great tips! I am looking forward to trying these things. i do try to move her alot --flexing, sidepassing, pivoting on hindquarters, etc. I have read about stopping and rolling back when they spped up--but I have never tried that yet nor have i done alot of circle work--looking forward to working on that!

It appears she has been trained to slow and stop with pressure in the stirrups (is this common in western pleasure?) so it seems I have to be careful because she easily goes down to a walk or then stop when i am trotting--which can be rather annoying--any tips on correcting this?

Thank you all for taking the time to help me!

[Lopinslow]

Originally Posted by Me-N-Chic

CS - Thank you! I will check my stirrups--I also may be taking a lesson this weekend so I'll have her take a look too!

Lopinslow-Thank you for all the great tips! I am looking forward to trying these things. i do try to move her alot --flexing, sidepassing, pivoting on hindquarters, etc. I have read about stopping and rolling back when they spped up--but I have never tried that yet nor have i done alot of circle work--looking forward to working on that!

It appears she has been trained to slow and stop with pressure in the stirrups (is this common in western pleasure?) so it seems I have to be careful because she easily goes down to a walk or then stop when i am trotting--which can be rather annoying--any tips on correcting this?

Thank you all for taking the time to help me!

you are very welcome!
once they have the basics down, I spend most of my ride doing lateral work. A friend that rode my Good Version gelding once said he was like riding playdough... so, a good way to think about it. you want to be able to move every part of their body independantly.

i've never heard of slow and stop by putting pressure in the STIRRUPS? but, "spur training" is very common, and something I put on all my horses.
It allows me to do everything with my legs/spur/seat, without taking a hold of their face at all. I can collect, round, slow down, extend, lift shoulders, etc with just my legs. I just don't use the "spur stop" anymore.

the very basics of "spur training" = squeeze means slow/collect/round up

spur stop = squeeze (harder than your slow/collect squeeze) means stop.