I just bought a horse that is really well started, however she is dull! With and without spurs. She moves forward no problem, but when I ask for a sidepass for example she will just kind of "arc" into my leg cue and stand there, and I really have to get after her to move even a few steps.
Is there a way I can "reverse" that? A way that I can make her responsive to just my leg cues and make her "sensitive" again?
She's been started reining and I want to continue with that training but she's just really dull
What Amber said ... I call it the "three strikes rule." First "ask," at the level you wish the horse would respond to, if no response to that, then "tell" with a firm kick or push, then if no response, "demand" with the rein ends or spur. You are not trying to hurt your horse, but if you have to go to "demand," make it uncomfortable enough that she will wish you hadn't had to do that. You are not abusing your horse, actually your horse has control over what level of pressure you use. When she starts responding to the correct pressure, she never gets the demand level pressure. Always remember to "ask" first.
I think you're probably going to have to give her some more variation. A lot of horses turn dull after being worked in the arena for years - school horses, for instance. Take her out on trail rides or on stub fields, and let her flow. Give her some time off from arena work and be unconventional. That's worked for me on several occasions . And I'd also recommend taking a break from the spurs, getting her used to being "natural" again. Perhaps she's far too used to being worked with spurs and it just doesn't have an effect any more.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com Do you take lessons with her? If not, I'd recommend taking one or two now in the beginning to get an assessment on how the two of you work together, and perhaps some tips on how to work more with each other and not against each other in instances like that.
Good luck!
One way to fix this is to gently squeeze with your lower leg, if she doesn't respond give her a tight squeeze with your heel (you can wear spurs or not) and if she doesn't move off at a forward pace (no lazy jogging away with resistance) immediately get after her either with the end of your reins or a dressage whip. As soon as she starts moving off, stop and just go with her. If she slows do it over again . squeeze, heel, whip. Eventually she'll understand that when you go to squeeze, it'll be a lot easier for her to move off. Once you have her really responsive moving forward, try doing shoulder-ins and haunches in while moving forward. Again, if she doesn't move off get after her, move her haunches in a circle until she does so enthusiastically. Hopefully this should help with her sidepassing. Good luck:)
No such thing as a dull horse , just not well trained, lacking in communication from rider. She obviously doesn't know what you want. The fact that you "get after her" indicates a lack a knowledge and ability on your part. Horses compete at world champion levels that are not even broke, you can't lead them or catch them. Just think how performance would excel if horses were actually trained with a decent foundation on them. No living, feeling creature will be dull to a metal spike gouging her flesh. Try some "real" quality training methods, it works, I've seen it.
I worked with a horse that was extremely dead to the leg. I think they thought her to be that way with her western pleasure training. I ride english and we were able to reverse this. It actually turned out better than I expected. We could hardly make her move when my client bought her and now she's nice and forward! We just would give her sharp leg cues when she didn't respond, she began to figure out that we're serious when we *** leg we want GO.
I didint get any of that at all!
Dense is dense! I do not think that some of them can ever be lightened up so that they will feel and respond to a light squeeze or movement. I have ridden a lot of reining horses and all of them I have ridden are so light that you just almost have to think what you want and they respond.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com
Your horse may not be destined to be a reining horse, maybe he may be better suited to drag along with his head down like the AQHA WP horses.
Did you even try him out before you bought him or did the seller just give you a big snow job?? I would think he was represented to you wrongly if they knew you wanted him for reining. Dead bellied horses do not work out as reining horses.
A rich fellow my daughter knows paid big bucks for a beautiful chocolate palomino that had lots of WP points he was a stallion when he got him. He had him gelded and sent him to my daughter to wake him up and undumb him from all the pleasure training.
I was helping her ride because she was getting some horses ready for a sale and she had me ride him. I was so dissapointed that such a beautiful horse could be so nothing. I could not get him to even trot out no matter how hard I kicked him. I went to the barn and got my spurs with sharp rowels and that hardly made him move. (I did not tap lightly like most of you would have me do), I really let him have it and got very little reaction even with spurs on.
