I recently blogged about how to bend your horse. These methods work, but take time and patience. A lot of us just want it done and don’t have time everyday to work with our horse even 30 – 60 minutes daily. But most of us do have a hour or more at least one day a week. Therefore, needing to get this taught in one lesson is more important to us than taking a few minutes daily. This is the catch-22 part of training. So, here are a few techniques you can use while trail riding your horse or practice riding in the ring.
One: Since you already know your horse knows how to bend when it wants to, what are you, as the rider going to do to teach those ques while enjoying the ride without making it seem like a boring lesson? (Personally, I like boring lessons, it gives me a chance to let go and think about nothing except what I am doing and not feel pushed to do a million things at once.) On the trail, ask for your horse to move his nose slightly to the inside of the circle as you are going around a tree. At the same time, use your outside rein to rate his speed and keep him from bending his nose too far to the inside. Also, use your inside leg on the girth and your outside leg behind the girth. Your inside leg gives him a point of reference to bend around and keeps him bent. Your outside legs keeps him from moving his haunches to far to the outside. It is that simple. That is all you really have to do. However, don’t force and if he does not do it the first time, fine. Keep giving him the same aids and cues every time you go around an obstacle and you will be surprised at how fast he picks this up. Be aware that most mares will pick this up quicker than geldings. Especially if the geldings have been cut early in life. So take your time.
Secondly, set up a line of barrels or posts any obstacle that you can wind your horse in and out of in the ring or pasture. You can also use a series of trees to wind through. It is the same as making serpentines in the ring, but it gives your horse a visible obstacle to bend around. Use the same cues but be sure to switch your leg and body position with each turn. Take your time and do this at a slow walk so you can be sure to train yourself to pick up the cues also. We can teach our horse the wrong thing by using the wrong cues, of course. So be sure you have your aids and body language down pat. Don’t expect your horse know what you want. He is totally dependent on you to tell him what, when, how and how fast.
I recently taught a 5 year old green broke mare how to do this just by walking around barrels in the ring every day. Now, every time I ride her all I have to do is ask and she bends perfectly. I use these aids on every turn regardless of how short, small, or long is the circle. Once your horse gets used to this and does it on cue it will be much easier to teach him/her to move off your legs.
Happy Trails