Promote Precision in Yourself
• Put your hands forward as you cover the distance between each barrel or pole.
• Use the inside rein to tip the horse's nose into the arc of the turn.
• Pick your hands up to encourage collection.
• Keep weight in your outside stirrup so you don't lean into the turn.
• Pick the rein and allow the horse to straighten his head, neck and body as he exits the turn.
Eyes Up
Throughout the turn, look where you are going-not at the barrel or pole. Think of driving a car. When you turn a corner, you don't look off to the side of the road. You keep your eyes on the road ahead. Do the same thing when you ride and it will give your horse a lot more confidence and security.
You also want the horse to be in position-in a frame that allows him to work the best. We're often asked how much the horse should be "bent" or shaped in any part of the pattern, and the answer is that his body should fit right on the line of where you are going.
You can check to see if you are correct by imagining that your path is a train track and your horse is the train. If you stay on the track, he's correct. If he runs off the track to the outside, he's not bent enough. If he runs off the track to the inside, he's bent too much.
So, no matter where we are in the pattern, we need good horse position and shape, and the rider should be correctly positioned as we go on an exact path. At this point, the most common question is, "When can I go faster?"
The answer comes from the horse you're riding. He will always give you a simple answer because the time to increase speed is when he's consistently perfect at the current speed you're working.
Add speed sparingly. Once a horse is perfect at a walk, we'll progress to trotting to the turn and then walking around the barrel or pole. After the horse becomes perfect at a standard trot, we'll progress to trotting a little faster to the barrel or pole and then, we'll slow the trot down as we go around it. If we add speed, and the horse makes mistakes, we go back to a slower speed. Then after he's been perfect for a couple of days at the "easy" speed, we ask for acceleration again.
There's always a comfort zone, a speed at which the horse can be error-free. In the beginning, that speed will be a walk, then a trot, and so on. Anytime he begins to make mistakes, we go down a notch in speed to his comfort zone speed until he's consistently perfect. We'll keep him at that pace to regain his confidence, and then ask for the speed increase later.
Correct Leads
Once we get to a lope, not only do all the previous factors have to be correct, the horse will also have to be in the correct lead-the right lead for approaching and making right turns and the left lead for those left-hand turns.
That starts to be an issue when we get to the step of loping to and trotting around turns. On a barrel pattern, for example, we'll cue for a right lead, then lope to the transition or "rating" area, where we break down to a trot and turn the barrel. With the barrel turned, we'll cue for a left lead and lope to the transition area before going back to a trot, then do the same for the third barrel.
Eventually, it will only feel natural to a horse to approach a turn in the correct lead, so when we finally start loping through the whole pattern, it's easy for a horse to leave the first barrel and change leads for the second. Of course, when we take that step, if the horse takes a wrong lead, we simply break down to a trot on the turn so he never learns to go around a barrel on an incorrect lead. Once the turn is made, we cue for the lope and the correct lead.
Once the horse has progressed to consistently loping to the turn and loping slightly slower around the turn and is maintaining the correct lead, position and posture, and the rider is consistent in cues and body position, it's time to smooch for a little more speed. Let your horse get used to that speed for awhile before moving up another notch.
At that point, you're riding a horse that has learned the basics and the pattern and mastered that pattern to the point that he can lope through it.
Now, it's time to season your horse-which is just a way of saying you're going to help him learn to do all those things consistently in different arenas, on different ground, and in unfamiliar surroundings.
Next month, we'll address that process and the steps that teach the horse to learn to focus on his job in spite of all the distractions and inconsistencies he encounters.
