Re: Re: trot, trot, trot

In terms of trotting out, the biggest mistakes I see are 1) turning to look at the horse (which causes him to slow down or stop), 2) asking for the trot by dragging on the head, instead of urging the body, and 3) not teaching the horse to trot in a straight line. To trot out successfully, first you have to have your OWN body posture and body language pointing and commanding "forward". This means eyes forward, shoulders square with the direction that you're going, MIND forward, etc. Then you have to urge the horse's body--this is done initially by using a long prop like a buggy whip, that you can hold in your left hand (if you are on the traditional left side of the horse) and use to touch the horse's rump to get him to move forward. You need to KEEP your body square and forward while you do this--so that it is a little "bite" from the rear that is not associated with your other body language. And, you need to be able to coordinate this movement with starting off yourself, so the horse doesn't jump forward and then lose the momentum of having responded to your cue by immediately being checked at the head and not having you keeping up. Then, to get a straight trot, you may well have to teach the horse to trot from both sides, so that he doesn't associate trotting out with always kinking his body one direction. You also have to give the horse a free head, so that he is not constantly being pulled into you in front. Another thing that helps with chargy horses is to use a crop held in front of the horse to regulate forward movement, so that you are not tugging on his head. If you DO need to slow him down with the lead, do it in a quick snatch-and-release manner, so that you are not lugging him over to be crooked.

When you get that conquered, then you get down to the finer points--when you get to the end of the line, don't slam him around the corner at a trot--stop him, turn around at a walk, and then trot back. Learn to halt squarely. When you have to circle, learn to work him from both sides, so that you can stay on the inside of the circle in BOTH directions, so that HE can trot fast and you are not having to set sprint records on the bigger outside circle to keep up. Make BIG circles.

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