My really fast horse?

Question

ok so im doing schooling shows with my horse and around courses hes really fast and he dosent listne to my rein. Does anyone have advice to get him to slow down?

Answer 1

before you start cantering get him soft in the mouth by doing a lot of bending and flexing. do very small and tight circles.  also make sure to use your body as well as yuor hands. I ride western pleasure and you get docked every time you tighten the reins so I use my body too. starting at a walk take note on how fast your hips are moving (they are probably moving as fast as the horse's stride) if you want him to slow move your hips slower and to move faster move them faster. try to get the horse to slow and go faster without using the reins. also when you want to halt "stop riding" by this I mean sit as deep as you can in the saddle and try to steady your hips and say whoa. If he doesn't stop right away use your rein to stop him and back him and then repeat the exercises. once you get the walk and halt down move to the faster gaits. also work in circles. start at one speed and ask him to slow down if he doesn't slow down keep play ing with his mouth and spiral down into smaller circles (he will automatically slow down) but make sure to give enough leg to keep him in the same gait. then when you have him at the speed you want him make your circles larger and eventually go on the straights and make random turns if he gets faster, ask him to slow by  playing with his mouth again and then use the circles again. do this every day as a warm up and then when you are in the show ring he should slow up when you ask. hope this helps!!!

Answer 2

Check his feed - teh protien content may be too high for the level of work that he is doing

Answer 3

My horse was like that for a while... I used a "Pat Parelli" method to get her to slow down... If you take the rein and pull it straight out to the right or left, and bring their head around so that their nose touches your foot, it forces them to slow down. I dont recommend doing this in the show ring ;-) but it is an exercise that does work.. I hope I helped :-) Good Luck :-)

Answer 4

Keep doing half halts, eventually they will listen, yesterday I hoped on a Racking horse bareback, they dont like to stop but I got him to.  Oh or you seperate the reins and pull them down and back.