Exercises to Enhance Priority Skills
One-Rein Stop
The one-rein stop is your key to being safe on a horse. To perform a one-rein stop, pick up one rein and bring the horse's head around to your knee. At the same time, concentrate on pushing the horse's hips over in the opposite direction from his head. This prevents the horse from going forward. The horse may continue to move his hindquarters in a circle for a few moments. Just hold your position and he will stop moving his feet.
Calm-Down Cue
To teach the calm-down cue, have your horse walking. Pick up one rein, taking the slack out of the rein slowly until you feel the weight of the horse's head on the rein. Hold that pressure until the horse takes his head down. Instantly drop the rein. Repeat this exercise until the horse begins to lower his head as you reach for the rein. Be sure to train this exercise with each rein separately.
Serpentine Exercise
To perform the serpentine exercise, ask your horse to go straight. After a few steps, ask him to make a half circle to the right. Go straight a few steps. Then make a half circle to the left. Go straight, then make a half circle to the right, etc. Only use one rein when making the turn and be sure the horse's haunches are moving underneath him on the half circle. This is the best exercise for slowing down a horse's feet and relaxing a tense horse.
Priority 3: Control the Foot Speed
Once you can move the feet and control the direction, the next priority is to control the speed of the feet. In our example, your horse wants to trot when you want him to walk, and he tosses his head when you ask him to slow down.
For the moment, ignore the head-tossing and work on controlling the speed of the feet. The best exercise for this is the serpentine. The constant turning and changing of direction will cause the horse to slow down naturally with you lightly controlling the snake-like pattern of travel.
Even on a narrow trail, you can do mini-serpentines by making the horse walk three steps to the left, then three steps to the right. Always use one rein to control the horse's direction. You will be amazed at how quickly he will slow his feet when he discovers he isn't making quicker progress down the trail.
Using one rein to control the horse's direction will also reduce the likelihood that he will toss his head when you touch the rein.
Priority 4: Control the Elevation of the Head
You should be able to control the elevation of your horse's head, whether you want it low, like a western pleasure horse, or high, like a gaited or dressage horse-no matter what breed or type of horse it is. Even horses that are shown with elevated head positions can learn to walk down the trail with their heads low and relaxed.
To accomplish this, you'll teach your horse the head-down cue, otherwise known as the calm-down cue. (Remarkably, when horses lower their head, they naturally become calmer.) It's a training basic. You and your horse should practice this so much at home that touching the rein will cause the horse to lower his head, always.
This first set of priorities covers the basics you need to keep your horse under control in order to have a safe, enjoyable ride, no matter where you are. Next month, we'll work on establishing priorities when you run into problems while working on more advanced levels of training.
