this lateral flexion excercise is the same motion as the one rein
stop. we just call it a one rein stop, because the difference is, you
do it while your horse is in motion. now, what can you do with the one
rein stop? it has to be one of the best ways to teach speed control
that i have seen. ride in an arena or other open area and ask you
horse to walk on a loose rein. if he does, great, but many horses,
when given a loose rein, will break into a trot or canter. if he does
this, slide your hand down the rein, and do the one rein stop.
doesnt matter which side you do it on, he has been taught to do it on both
sides. when you get him stopped, alternate sides and repeat the
excercise three or four times, on each side. now, ask him to walk
again on a loose rein. the second that he goes faster than a
walk, do the one rein stop. repeat as much as necessary until he
will walk on a loose rein and not go any faster until you tell him
to. i had one of my horses that took 45 minutes of this before
he finally decided to listen to me!
when he has the walk down really well, ask him
to trot on a loose rein. if he does it, and doesnt break into a
canter, then that is good. but if he does decide to canter, do the one
rein stop, flex each side 4 or 5 times, then ask for a trot again. it
may takes lots of repetitions, but eventually your horse will learn that
unless he listens to you for his speed cues, you will make him stop
every time. it is very important to be consistent with this
excercise. just as soon as he decides to go faster than you asked him
to, make him stop, flex and start over. use the same technique
when you are ready to teach him to canter.
another great use for the lateral flexion
excercises and one rein stop is to handle fear issues that your horse
has. if your horse doesnt like to cross water, spooks at objects,
refuses to go forward because of fear, bucks or rears, then these
techniques, used consistently and correctly, will take care of those
problems. the timing is very important when working through fear
issues. lets use an example like this: your horse sees a
garbage barrel, stops, and refuses to move. here is what you do.
repeat the lateral flexion, one rein stop excercise 5 or 6 times on each
side. this will cause your horse to relax his head and neck.
when he is afraid, the head and neck gets tense, and he will either refuse
to move or try to wheel around and run! so, by flexing and releasing,
you get the tension out of his head and neck. now, after doing 5
or 6 one rein stops/flexes on each side, ask your horse to move
forward again. if he doesnt, flex him some more. if he does move
forward some but stops again, do another 5 or 6 flexes on each side and keep
repeating this procedure, asking him to move forward after you flex
him. this works with water crossings just as well. i use this
same technique to teach barn sour/buddy sour horses to leave the barn or the
buddy. if your horse acts like he wants to rear or buck because he
doesnt want to go forward, pass a scary object, be left alone, or whatever,
at the very first sign of bad behavior, do the one rein stop, flex him 5 or
6 times (more if you need to) on each side to get him relaxed, then ask him
to go forward again.
this really, really works. i train lots of horses, (about 80 in
the last seven years) horses that have never been ridden, horses with
problems like i described and it works with all of them. doesnt matter what
breed or what type. i am currently working with a 4 year old arab
gelding, a 5 year old grade horse, and a 5 year old mustang, using
these techniques with them all. all three are doing very
well. it takes time and patience, but stick with it and you will see
results immediately.
i know this is a lot, and hopefully it is easy
to understand. but i dont mind if you have questions. let
me know how it goes.
