How do you make a horse become responsive without much touch?

Question

My horse is difficult to stop, I have to yank her mouth to stop her, and to make her lope, she has to trot first. What should I do?

Answer 1

Only a few things need to be done-

1. Change the bit, the bit may not be a good choice for the horse. If she is in snaffle or a mild bit up it a tad. I had the same problem with my filly. A rubber/happy mouth pelham that is not jointed may be a good alternative.

2. The trot to canter transition is just lack of training. make sure the horse has good forward motion, not dragging her feet. Asking in the corner/turning tends to work better. Remember to ask for the canter the correct way. ie- to canter on the left lead use your inside leg against the girth, outside leg behind the girth, open your left rein and keep contact with the right.  If you are merely squeezing or kicking the horse she will never go into the canter without trotting. also adding a vocal cue can help. Sharp quick words are better than soft longer words. (German works good) Also remember to have quite hands and to sit deep in the saddle, she will feel your weight shift and know her job before you tell her (eventually)

hope y'all have fun riding

Answer 2

You're making her go faster and then pulling on the rein. Loosen up your legs on her. Look into Pat Parelli and yes he's my answer for every horse problem. There's a reason for that. Just the level one stuff has helped me sooo much u have no idea! ^^

Answer 3

To get her to have a better stop on her - the best thing you can do is to stop and back her - EVERY TIME except when in the show ring in front of the judge.  You need to help you horse learn to stop by using your seat to stop her.

To teach her to lope off - you just expect it from her.  Push with your seat, give a smooch, then bump her with your leg.  If she takes a few trotting steps - you stop her and back her.   You can try carrying a crop when you're at home - and give her a tap with the crop - but if she trots off - you have to stop her and back her.

Best wishes!

Answer 4

First of all - make sure she is not in pain. Does she throw her head up when you ask her to go faster or stop? Or put her ears back? It's a possibility that her back or feet are sore, so make sure she's healthy and her tack fits before moving on.

If pain is not the case, then the main problem we're looking at here is that your horse does not give to pressure.  Before we can even think about stopping or loping, we need to be able to control where her feet go, right? I would start from the ground and get her used to moving away from pressure. Teach her how to longe, sidepass, disengage her hindquarters, bend at the poll, etc. by pushing her with your thumb.  The more she gets used to it, all you will have to do is use body language to get her feet to go where you want them to go. For example, you should eventually be able to walk towards her butt and she will move it away for you.  

Make sure you can do the same thing in the saddle.  She should yield to your leg pressure.  If you put that right leg on her, she better be goin left.  You can practice with rein in the beginning, but eventually you won't even need it except for subtle cueing.  

Once you've trained her in this way, you can teach her to give to the bit.  From a stand still, put pressure on the bit and back her up until she backs nicely with her head down.  Eventually all you'll have to do is slightly pull back on the reins and she will drop her head and back up.  Once this is established, ask her to walk.  When you want her to stop, say "Whoa" and sit deep in your saddle WITHOUT pulling back on the reins.  If she doesn't stop, then stop and back her up.  After awhile, she will realize that when you say whoa, it means stop.  Repeat at the jog and lope.  

Ask for making her lope from a walk, i would work on your transitions from stop to walk, walk to trot, and trot to canter first.  Remember - the simpler things must be PERFECT before you go onto more complicated things.  I would assign different cues for different transitions.  For example, when I ask my horse to walk, I nudge him with my legs; for a trot, I squeeze w/ my legs and cluck; for a lope, I squeeze w/ my legs and kiss.  Your horse should perform each transition immediately when you ask for it. That doesn't mean an extra couple strides before entering the next gait; that means immediately.  She should also maintain that gait without breaking from it at all times until you ask her to slow down or speed up.  Once she is trained for all of this, it shouldn't be too hard to kiss and get her into that lope.

It is very important that you understand that this all takes place over a long period of time.  Don't expect her to do everything by the end of the day.  It takes lots of time, patience, and knowledge.  I highly suggest you get a professional trainer to help you.  Or better yet, why don't you take lessons on her? (if you're not already) No one is perfect when it comes to horse training, not even the professionals.  Because of that, we always need to be learning as much as we can for the sake of our own horses.

Good luck with it, hope this helps!

Answer 5

Let him play some Xbox 360 (preferably Halo 3).