Training the Western Riding Horse The Western Riding horse needs to be trained to do much more than just change leads. The correct movement and position not only in the walk, jog and lope, but also within the lead change, while guiding, and while negotiating the log must all be taught. A straight stop and back is also required. If the rider omits any of these points in the training program the horse is not going to be competitive at the horse show.

When considering the lead change it is important to note that we want a lead change that is acceptable and competitive in a Western Riding Class. This means that if anywhere, before, during or after the change the horse moves his tail unnaturally, opens his mouth, pins his ears, plays with the bit or in any other way shows resentment, then that is not an acceptable lead change. Do not be proud if you can make your horse change leads, this is not a major accomplishment. It is an achievement to lope up to the change relaxed and with rhythm, change where you want to, without changing the rhythm, jumping, tail switching etc., and continue loping on exactly the same line and in the same cadence.

People define the "correct " lead to be the right lead when the horse is circling to the right and to be the left lead when the horse is turning to the left. If you watch a horse without a rider, he will lope in the "correct" lead 99% of the time. So the correct lead must also be more comfortable for the horse. That is why people define it as the correct lead. Within their first few days of life baby horses know the correct lead and do flying lead changes whenever they change direction at the lope. It is the natural thing to do. This makes me wonder why so many people have trouble teaching a horse to do something that he wants to do anyway, that being to change leads at the lope.

When a horse makes a lead departure, he moves his hip in the direction of the lead that he will take. The horse will not lope completely straight forward, he will be at a slight angle with the hip a little in the direction of the lead. To change leads while loping he simply moves his hip laterally into the new direction. So when we ride, we only have to move his hip over and he will naturally change leads. Sounds simple. Is simple. So why does it not work for so many people? The answer is that the hip must move laterally, with respect to the shoulder. Many riders do a shoulder-in exercise or a traverse exercise along an arena wall, thinking that they have success when the horse moves away from their leg. This is not good enough for a lead change. A horse can two-track or traverse along a wall and have no relative motion between the shoulder and hip, they move together. In this case the rider does not have the necessary separate control over the hip and shoulder. The hip must move free and separate from the shoulder in order to execute a lead change. The lead change should be initiated from the hindquarters. The hip moves first and then the shoulder second. Therefore the hip and the shoulder have to move separately from one another, not at the same time.

Many riders teach the horse not to change leads by doing an excess of sidepass type exercises. They are constantly teaching the horse that leg pressure is a command to move the entire body, shoulder and hip together. When they then try a lead change the horse simply lopes sideways away from their leg, but he does not change leads. In order for the hip to move first followed by the shoulder the shoulder must be held in place relative to the hip. Herein lies the problem faced by many riders, that is having enough control over the shoulder to keep it from moving when the hip is pushed over. It is easy to teach the horse to move his hip away from your leg pressure, what is difficult is to hold the shoulder in place while the hip is moving.

In order to judge whether or not the shoulder is being controlled and held in place the rider should compare the position of the shoulders with something else, you must have a fixed reference point. Many riders always think in terms that use the arena walls as this common reference point. The common exercise is to ride along the arena wall, hold the forelegs on the track by the wall, and then push the hindquarters in the direction of the center of the arena, while maintaining forward motion. This is OK, and perhaps a good place to start, but often when the horse is ridden away from the wall the shoulder is no longer under control. The reason that it does not work anymore is that the horse learns to move in the track parallel to the wall. It is very easy for him to follow the wall. That is why beginner riders ride around and around on the rail because the horse easily learns to follow the track and the wall. The horse and rider use the wall as a reference point and follow it. The horse is not being guided by the rider, staying between the reins and legs, he is simply following a track. This is not a good situation for training a Western Riding Horse because the horse must keep his shoulders between the reins, and let the rider control his hindquarters position with his legs. So I do not like to first teach them to follow the rail and then tell them later, no that's wrong, follow my reins and legs. I will teach them from the beginning that they only have to stay between my hands ands legs and everything will be OK. We keep away from the rail so they do not have to think about it and cannot use it as a crutch. For this reason the best place to train is an a big outdoor arena or field.

The trainer should think of the direction of motion as the reference point instead of a wall or track. Keep the shoulders on the line created by the forward motion, and teach the horse to move his hips off this line in response to your leg pressure. It is important to remember that whatever your plan is you are going to train your horse to do something in response to a signal from you. The key word that so many riders forget is "train". This means that you will teach him something. He must learn something new. He is not as smart as you, he is only a horse, so he cannot learn it as fast you might think. As soon as you try to force him to do something, the learning stops and you loose. Whenever you put pressure on him, mental or physical, think first. Think.....can the horse learn something from this? Horses never learn from pressure, they learn from pressure being removed! So first you must create some pressure in order that you can remove it when the horse responds towards the direction or body position that is correct. You remove the pressure and the horse learns that this position is more comfortable than the old position so next time the signal pressure is applied he will attempt to move into this more comfortable position. So think......when you apply pressure, when are you going to release it? The horse will learn from this release. It is important, more important than when or how the pressure was applied.

The Young Horse

Let us consider the young horse that does not yet know how to change leads in response to our signal. First they need to simply become accustomed to changing leads with the weight of a rider on their back. It is natural for a horse to change leads so teaching them to change is not a problem. Do not build it into one. Teach the horse to lope balanced and natural by loping him in straight lines and big circles on a loose rein. Do not make it more complex than it is, do not try and teach him anything extra, keep it simple. Pick one direction and stay with that direction and just lope. If he does not guide as well as you want it is not a problem, he is still young. Ride where there are no other horses so you will not crash into some tough guy, and simply concentrate on teaching the horse to always go in one direction and to find a steady rhythm. It is less work to travel straight than it is to make many turns, it is less work to make a big circle than a small circle. Consequently if you do not fight with the young horse, and simply keep him going forward in a steady rhythm, long enough for him to learn it, he will start loping straight on his own, because it is easier.

What if he does not want to lope? What if he pins his ears and switches his tail whenever you try to make him lope? Watch him out in the field without a rider. Almost every horse will lope without a rider. Put a rider on him and often there is a problem. The problem therefore must come from the rider. Typically the rider makes the lope uncomfortable for the horse by spurring him in the ribs and pulling on his face. The rider wants to lope so he sticks his new silver spurs between his ribs through the lope transition and then when the horse does lope, it is a little too fast for the rider and in the wrong direction so the rider pulls and jerks on the horse mouth. Repeat this a few times and it is no surprise that the horse does not want to lope, it is not fun. So if your beautiful young horse lopes a little too fast at first, remember it is not his fault, the young horse has no way of knowing how fast the person wants to go. Just go with the horse and teach him to enjoy loping. Do not worry about the direction, the horse has to learn to lope before he can learn to guide at the lope, so just go with him.

When the horse can lope both directions resistance free you can let him change leads. Do this in as large an area as possible. Lope big circles one direction and then pick a nice long straight diagonal followed by large circles the other direction. There is a pretty good chance that he will not change leads immediately. It does not matter. Remember the basic assumption concerning leads is that the correct lead is also the more comfortable lead for the horse. The horse will eventually seek the new lead himself. When he does change we need to take some pressure off him by letting him slow down a little. By reducing the pressure the rider teaches the horse that the change is a good thing to do. As simple as this sounds, it will work, however there are a many ways that the rider can mess this up by trying to do too much or by not being a good enough rider. If during this program you are having difficulty staying in the saddle, you are gripping the horse with legs and hands to keep on top, then you should not do this exercise. You should not try to teach him to change leads, the horse is probably better at it that you are. You need a trainer, more time to learn to ride or maybe a bicycle instead of a horse.

It is a basic principle of horsemanship that the horse needs to be trained to move away from leg pressure and this is of course especially true of a western riding horse. Leg pressure controls where the horse hip and ribs are relative to the line of motion while the reins control where the shoulders are. It cannot be emphasized too much that horse need to learn to move away from leg pressure. The natural reaction of a horse is to move into any type of pressure. Older horses that have never learned to move away from pressure and have consequently fought against leg pressure, sometimes for months or even years, sometimes take a very long time to "untrain".

What if the horse seems to prefer one lead? If this is the case, test the horse without a rider. Turn him loose and check if he lopes in both leads when he is in the field, roundpen or arena. In most case all horses will take both leads, it is only when they are ridden that they are one sided. This is often because the rider is stronger with one leg or uses that leg more often and the horse resents, or fights that unfair pressure. Remember that they have to learn to move away from the riders leg, the natural tendency for a horse is to move into the pressure. So if the horse is comfortable with pressure from one leg, and has learned to move away from that pressure, but fights against pressure from the other leg and consequently moves into that leg, then whichever leg is pressed the horse will always initiate a lope departure by moving in one direction and therefore he will always take one lead. The solution is to teach him to move away from both legs equally. Often the horse will move away from the leg pressure at the walk and trot and the rider incorrectly thinks that he moves away from the pressure at the lope too. But if he did move away from the pressure in the first lope stride he would not pick up the wrong lead, there would be no problem. Many time the problem arises in the first place because the rider is too strong with a leg or spur, and then in an attempt to fix the problem they use even more leg. This will generally make the problem worse. This is what started the problem. Use the horses' natural tendency to help the situation. If he moves away from the leg at the walk and trot, then forget about your problem for a while. Lope the other direction so the horse can relax and forget about the bad leg that was aggravating him. Then be smart and know that the horse generally is more comfortable loping in the correct lead than the wrong lead, so ride him in his bad direction but do not leg him strong, maybe not at all. If he picks up the wrong lead just keep loping, keep the horses' body relatively straight and just lope around in the wrong lead until he relaxes. Then let him trot and repeat the drill. Most all young horses will eventually forget about fighting with your leg and pick up the lead that is the most comfortable, that being the correct lead.

The Older More Experienced Horse

Once the horse is trained well enough to lope in both leads and comfortably change leads then it is time to begin to prepare him to move like a western riding horse. In a western riding pattern there are 8 lead changes 4 of which come every 3 to 5 strides apart and between the change you must lope exactly through the markers. This is much more difficult than the lead change. The horse must learn to jog and lope slow and collected very similar to a western pleasure horse. If he lopes too fast there will not be enough time for him to make the changes where they should be. Additionally a horse that is loping fast and especially one who is getting faster throughout the pattern does not appear to be relaxed and under control and will not be scored high. Another reason to teach the horse to travel slow is that it shows a higher degree of difficulty and will be scored higher when a lead change is accomplished at a slow pace. Teaching the correct jog and lope so that they can guide around the pattern is more difficult than teaching the lead change.

Achieving the correct jog and lope is a matter of engaging the hindquarters and elevating the shoulders. This is not difficult if you hold the horse in position with your reins, but in western riding you score higher if the patter is ridden with a relatively loose rein. To travel in a collected frame without the constant support of the reins is much more difficult. The rider must put the horse in a collected position, hold him long enough until he is comfortable and in rhythm and then release him. By releasing him he is given the opportunity to fall out of frame and the rider then has the chance to correct him with enough pressure that the horse tries to stay collected longer without help next time. No horse can learn to lope collected all of the time without support from the reins. The goal is to teach him to stay collected alone long enough to get through the pattern. A certain degree of mental pressure is placed upon the horse during this training, and herein lies the danger of stressing the horse so much that he looses his rhythm or shows signs of nervousness by mouthing the bit or switching his tail. Be careful.

The Log

The log is a common place to incur a penalty or a reduction in maneuver score. Touching the log or loosing the rhythm by jumping or trying to go around it can both start problems than can ruin the remainder of the pattern. One way to start the log is to use two long rails on the ground in a broad V. By jogging or loping into the V the horse cannot easily avoid the log so the rider can avoid pulling on him. Ride over the log with a minimum of stress for the horse. This will avoid creating the problem of having the horse nervous of the log and jumping it or trying to avoid it. Many of the horses that appear afraid of the log behave this way because they are afraid of what the rider is going to do as they approach the log. A lot of pulling on the reins and pushing with the spurs will make any horse unwilling to go over the log.

The contrasting situation is the very relaxed horse that does not care about the log or his feet. He will often tick the log or even step on it. With some of these horses it is better not to practice the log too much. Lope circles over the log making certain that the horse is moving correctly, relaxed and in rhythm. Do this until the horse learns to watch for the log and the rider learns how to approach the loge so that the horse can step over it in stride. Once this is accomplished then quit.

The log can also be used to keep the horse mentally fresh. If the lead change or collection program is building a little too much stress then insert the log in different places in the arena, loping over it to give the horse something else to think about.

Using the Pylons

The pylons are a good test as to how well the horse steers. You should be able to ride around and through the pylons in any order that you wish, without the horse anticipating a turn or a lead change. After you pass a pylon always make certain that you continue for a distance in a straight line. A horse that learns that a direction change follows every pylon will soon be difficult to guide and will be turning too soon in anticipation of the turn and missing or knocking over markers will be the consequence. No score, no prize.

As the training progresses the horses anticipation creates a new problem. Extra lead changes are put in. This is particularly a problem after the log in pattern 2 and just prior to the stop in pattern one. To combat this, a good drill is to lope the pattern often without changing leads. Counter-cantering through half of the pattern will teach the horse to wait for your leg cue, maintain a constant rhythm and be relaxed enough through the shoulders to guide well.

When your program is finished you have a nice relaxed horse that lopes rhythmically guided easily and waits for your signal to change leads. Now all you have to do is go to the show and remember what the judge wants to see. An exact pattern that presents a pretty, happy picture. You and your horse need to be having fun.