How do i get my horse to hold his head like a hunter?

Question

i dont really know how to describe it, i know you all know what i'm talking about. The "collected" neck of a hunter. Is that a way I'm supposed to be holding my reins?

Answer 1

There are special items that you can attach to the bridle and hold onto that make the horse carry their head/neck a particular way. Check it out!

Answer 2

Do you have a picture of his normal headset, or of a horse online with a similar headset?

Answer 3

you can try a bit or bride that encourages the horse to do that and when you lunge her you can use side reins. might help. (:

Answer 4

Collection comes from pushing your horse forward with your leg into your hands. It also requires the horse to flex and soften. The object is to get your horse to carry himself off his butt, not with is front legs. (Pushing himself forward vs pulling himself forward) You can start by lunging your horse in side reins, but if he has never worked in a frame before, keep them loose and long. You don't want to stress him out. As he stretches down, praise him with your voice and move him forward. You don't want him to go faster, you just want him to extend his stride, release his back and work forward. As he gets comfortable with that, you can shorten the side reins a bit more. Some horses do not like the resistance at first, so work slowly. When you are on his back, start a large easy circle (at the walk to the left). Set your right hand by his withers - this is your block (you don't want him to pop his shoulder off the circle) and block his butt with your right leg. The soflty start to massage your left rein back over your left thigh. Keep pushing him forward with both legs. He will resist at first, but don't give up. Hold it and if he softens even a bit, give the rein back and tell him "good boy." Eventually he will learn to give to the pressure and will lower his head and soften through his poll - you want the bend there, not in the middle of his neck. Repeat to the right - block with your left hand and massage with the right over your right thigh. As he gets the idea at the walk, you can start working at the trot. If he is really "sticky" go back to the walk. It takes patience and LOTS of leg. The goal here is to make him carry himself, not by trying to speed up or slow down. But to stretch out his body, use himself and then "collect" the power and propell himself forward. His butt may be a bit weak at first and the whole process is really going to make him work. If you have access to hills, do a lot of trot work up and down to build the muscles and help him carry himself.  Have fun!

Answer 5

you can use things like martingales to force your horse to do this, if you do not care about your horse much, but generally you train your horse to keep their head down as you are speaking of.  My horses were always trained to do this and if they forgot, a slight raise of the reins upward made them immediately drop it down again.

Answer 6

I would use side reins while you lung! However you don't want a hunter to be collected you want him to stretch his neck out and keep his head low and his nose tucked in....Collected is a movement of dressage

Answer 7

Here are some tips I use:)

Collection comes from pushing your horse forward with your leg into your hands. It also requires the horse to flex and soften. The object is to get your horse to carry himself off his butt, not with is front legs. (Pushing himself forward vs pulling himself forward) You can start by lunging your horse in side reins, but if he has never worked in a frame before, keep them loose and long. You don't want to stress him out. As he stretches down, praise him with your voice and move him forward. You don't want him to go faster, you just want him to extend his stride, release his back and work forward. As he gets comfortable with that, you can shorten the side reins a bit more. Some horses do not like the resistance at first, so work slowly. When you are on his back, start a large easy circle (at the walk to the left). Set your right hand by his withers - this is your block (you don't want him to pop his shoulder off the circle) and block his butt with your right leg. The soflty start to massage your left rein back over your left thigh. Keep pushing him forward with both legs. He will resist at first, but don't give up. Hold it and if he softens even a bit, give the rein back and tell him "good boy." Eventually he will learn to give to the pressure and will lower his head and soften through his poll - you want the bend there, not in the middle of his neck. Repeat to the right - block with your left hand and massage with the right over your right thigh. As he gets the idea at the walk, you can start working at the trot. If he is really "sticky" go back to the walk. It takes patience and LOTS of leg. The goal here is to make him carry himself, not by trying to speed up or slow down. But to stretch out his body, use himself and then "collect" the power and propell himself forward. His butt may be a bit weak at first and the whole process is really going to make him work. If you have access to hills, do a lot of trot work up and down to build the muscles and help him carry himself. Have fun!