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Need some horsey advice? Well Bonfire is here to answer all of your horsie questions. So feel free to to send him your questions and I'm sure he'll do his best to answer them.
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| Dear Bonfire, |
| This is not completely a horse inquired problem but rather a problem that I have when riding. My position, although as aware as I am about it, always tends to become "slouched" at the canter. My shoulders become flat (instead of "chest out") and my feet become flat as well, eventually slipping out of the stirrups. I don't know how to fix my "position" problem because it effects the horse as well, his framing becomes messed up due to my lack of posture. Any advice? |
| Kaleigh |
| Dear Kaleigh, |
|
I'm going to guess that the reason your position
changes at the canter is that your horse is not going forward, and you are
trying to squeeze him harder to keep him going, however, a lot of the time when
our horses don't listen to us, especially at the canter, we end up trying to
pump at them with our seat. This is was causes the slouching or hunching of the
back. In order to fix this problem you have to deal with a few different
components. First, you need to get your horse more responsive to your leg. If your comfortable using a crop, go with that, the less you have to worry about squeezing your horse with your leg, the more you can focus on your position. Second, keeping your leg stretched down and through your ankle will help you posture a lot. If you have a weak leg position to begin with, work at the trot in your two-point (jumping position), and concentrate on sinking down into your ankle, with the light left-right of your horses gait. This easy exercise will help developed your leg position more. Third, concentrate on how your body is positioned at the canter. It is wonderful that you know when you are slouching, and knowing when you are slouching will help you correct your problem much more easily. When you start to feel yourself slouch, think about sitting up nice and tall, and just rotated your shoulders like you were doing the back stroke swimming, one shoulder at a time. (Don't actually do the back stroke though, lol. ;-) ) rolling your shoulder back will help you sit taller in the saddle. I hoped that helped. Good Luck! |
| Bonfire |
| Dear Bonfire, |
| I take riding lessons on an 8 year old paint QH named Zack and every time I ask him to trot he'll go almost to a canter and when I check release he goes to a walk, and my trainer asks for a light jog, how can I get him to go to a trot jog without going to fast or walking? |
| Lily |
| Dear Lily, |
|
The key thing here is to make sure you always
have pressure on the reins. You should always feel like your rein is an elastic
band between your hand and your horses mouth. More than likely what is
happening is you do not have a feel of your horses mouth before you ask him to
trot, and that lets him set the guidelines for his trot. Then when you check
release he is saying "it's easier for me to walk then to slow down and gather
myself together." Make sure before you ask him for a trot you have a good feel
of you outside and inside rein, then ask him to trot. From there, as long as
you keep a feel of his mouth you can just wiggle your fingers that are holding
your inside rein (play with the rein) which will just ask him to focus a little
bit. Remember that your seat also plays a huge roll in how your horse moves, and take into consideration how your body is moving, and try slowing it down. This will take a lot of concentration and discipline, which means it will also take time. Good luck! I hope that was of some help. |
| Bonfire |
| Dear Bonfire, |
| I sometimes have to ride a Thoroughbred X QH 16 or so year old mare named Melody, but she doesn't want to trot a lot, you have to make her and that means kicking her and I want to just have to squeeze my legs and she'll trot, but she won't how can I get her to trot without kicking? |
| Lily |
| Dear Lily, |
| If you feel comfortable a crop is the best way to go. Ask your horse to trot using a light leg, then tap tap with the crop on her shoulder. This will take time, repetition and patience. You have to practice light leg at every transition though, halt-walk, walk-trot, trot-canter, and all of your other leg yieldings. if you're horse isn't light to leg all the time she's not going to understand why she has to be light to leg when trotting is involved. So start at the walk and practice light leg with moving over and things like that first, then move onto the trot. Good Luck! |
| Bonfire |
| Dear Bonfire, |
|
I have a 5 year old American Saddlebred gelding names
Scottie. I just got him a month ago and he has a really bad problem of lipping
everyone and I know that one day that will turn to nipping so how do I stop him
because popping him in the mouth does not work. He also chews on everything!
That is the thing that I really need to break. I am going to try join-up but
he does not know how to lung or free school and is not afraid of whips, so how
do I get him out to the the rail? I know this is a lot to ask but I have one
more thing Scottie has a very hard mouth so it is sometimes very hard to stop
him and I do not like to pull to hard because I am trying to soften his mouth.
Any advice at all will be great! |
| Kels |
| Dear Kels, |
|
Lipping doesn't always have to turn into nipping.
Lipping (from my experience) seems to just be a personality trait type of
thing. The key to no nipping is not giving him the opportunity. Basically if
you don't want him to nip don't let him lip. Your right, popping him the mouth
probably only makes him fling his head up and nervous and jerky. If he tries to
lip just push him away and say "no" in a big voice. As well, don't hand feed
him, or play with/tickle the area around his mouth. By playing with his
mouth/hand feeding him your inviting this behavior, and by telling him he can
lip but not nip may be a confusing concept to him. (If you horse is biting
viciously it is a different problem.) Chewing: If your horse doesn't have regular dentist visits you might want to have a dentist come out. If there is nothing physically wrong with him, and chewing is just a habit, when you see him chewing on something again, say "no" in a big voice, if he's chewing on stuff like you reins, just keep an eye on him and don't give him the chance to chew on them. If your horse is cribbing, biting wood arching his neck and inhaling, you might want to invest in a cribbing strap. Join-up: when you do join -up you want to use a round pen, or if you don't have a round pen, block off a twenty meter area of the ring with jumps. You don't want your horse to have so much room he can run completely away from you. Not being afraid of whips shouldn't hurt your effort, you could use a lead rope or even just you hands to move him out on the circle, just get him walking and walk toward him waving your arms or gently flinging the lead rope toward him. He doesn't have to be completely against the rail, just as long as you keep him circling you. Getting a Soft Mouth: to get your horse to have a soft mouth you first have to have your horse going round, and strong from behind, and going very well off you leg. It is a very long process. If you are having a hard time getting your horse to stop you a) need to practice it a lot, he is only 5 and my not be perfectly well trained b) be firm if you have to scissor the reins (Tugging left, right quickly) a few times it's okay. Ask him nicely once and then if he doesn't stop immediately scissor the reins, if you do that a few times he'll realize that lot will be a lot easier for him to just stop nicely when you first ask. I hope a least some of that helps, Good Luck, remember to be patient with him, these things will take some time. |
| Bonfire |
| Dear Bonfire, |
| I just recently realized that I sometimes have problems with my reins. I've always had a very light hand (too light, at times) and so recently I've been noticing that my problem is that my ring finger (on each hand) becomes somewhat 'limp', which causes my other fingers to open as well, which gives me less contact with my horse's mouth. I brought this up with my trainer and they basically just told me to 'close my fingers', but I always find myself going back to my loose hand. Is there anything else you think I can do to try and tighten my fingers (but not too tight) or should I just try and stay aware of my fingers and try to fix the problem by occasionally checking myself? |
| Jill |
| Dear Jill, |
| Let me start by saying Anne has just over come the same exact problem you are having. All you need to do, is like you said, just keep concentrating on keeping your fingers closed, you'll be surprised how quickly it will become a habit if you just really concentrate on it while you ride. If you think your hands are weak, try squeezing a tennis ball to build up your hand muscles. Part of Anne's problem was that her finger nails were digging into her hand when she kept a tighter fist, so keeping your finger nails short for a little while, just while your trying to build the habit might help. Good Luck, I'm sure you'll be getting a better hand in no time flat. |
| Bonfire |