Increase control over size and speed while riding your horse in circles.

Using cones will help train you to feel the difference of your horse's bend between a larger and smaller circle. Journal illustration.

By Patti Carter-Pratt for The American Quarter Horse Journal

Riding circles correctly teaches both horse and rider balance. It’s a good training exercise because it teaches the horse straightness in his self-carriage while on a curve.

There are four main parts to a horse: the head and neck, the shoulders, the rib cage and the hips. To ride a circle correctly, you have to control all four parts. The horse has to give through the poll; he must be straight between the reins and guide through the shoulders; the rib cage connects the front and the back end of the horse, so he has to be correct and straight in the rib cage; and he must be engaged from behind.

The arc of the horse’s body will accommodate the size of the circle. If your circle is large, your horse’s body will have less bend; the smaller the circle gets, the more the bend in his body increases.

Circles require you, as a rider, to have consistently correct aids. The horse must understand and respond to your seat, rein and leg.

You need to keep your shoulders behind the horse’s shoulders and your eyes following the horse’s path. You should have weight on the inside seat bone, but not leaning in.

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Your inside leg should be at the rib cage to create the bend of the circle. The outside leg will be farther behind with enough pressure to keep the hindquarters on the track of the circle.

The inside rein produces a slight bend in the horse’s neck, and your outside rein balances and limits the degree of that bend. The reins should work in unison.

Common Problems

Circles need to be round, not oval or egg-shaped. In a reining pattern and some horsemanship patterns, you start and finish your circles, and change the circles’ sizes at the same spot in the arena. Some mistakes include:

• Overlooking. A common mistake is to overlook the circle, which throws the rider’s position off and the horse’s position off.
• Collapsing to the inside. When you put weight on your inside seat bone, sit tall and make sure you keep your ribcage up or you will collapse to the inside of the circle. This will throw your horse off balance.
• Ahead of the horse. A rider who gets ahead of his horse’s shoulders can’t sit down and engage the seat to encourage forward motion.
• Pointing into the circle. When you go to make a circle smaller, don’t point your horse into the smaller circle; instead, create a tighter bend in his body. If you point him into the circle, he’ll drop his shoulder. If you create the bend in his rib cage, his shoulders will stay up.

What to Do

When you’re working on circles, be sure to master your circle sizes first, big then small, before you do anything with speed. Keep a steady, medium rhythm while you are learning to control the size of your circles.

Your horse should have three rhythms at the jog and the lope: slow, medium and extended. A medium rhythm at the jog would take you through the correct strides over trot poles – two strides in a 6-foot space. Slow would be the pleasure jog; the extended jog would be a lengthening of the medium jog.

I have a great exercise I set up with cones to help riders work on maintaining circle size and rhythm, and then gradually increasing and decreasing speed.

Build a “cross” with cones, as in the diagram. Set the cones 8 to 10 feet apart. You can ride a circle within a circle, following a track between the cones; both circles start and finish in between the two cones at the top of the cross. The center cone is the center of your smaller circle.

When you are riding this exercise, you need to see your cones in your peripheral vision. Do not stare at them or you will throw off your position. Use them as a guideline so you can feel the difference in your circle sizes.

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In this exercise, you’ve got to start and finish in the same spot. You need to practice flattening the circles slightly at that starting/finishing spot, so the circles will be like a capital “D.” Doing that will help make your outside aids more effective and will prepare you to eventually change direction correctly.

Start riding the large circle at your horse’s medium speed and maintain that rhythm and cadence. Once you are consistent in rhythm and shape in the large circle, create the smaller circle, maintaining the same rhythm. You need to prepare your horse before you get to the starting/finishing spot. Increase the bend in your horse’s rib cage through your inside leg and rein and contain it through your outside leg and rein, making that circle come down into a smaller size. Then go back out to the larger circle.

Think about your aids as you change your circle size. Keep the outside leg on and your seat engaged to create and keep the same rhythm. If you lose the forward motion, you’ve lost engagement.

When you increase your speed, you lengthen the horse’s stride; you lighten your seat bones and bring your hand forward. When you decrease the stride, you close all your angles: sitting down, bringing your hand back as your weight comes into your seat without collapsing your upper body. Closing your leg closes the stride.

Practice changing the rhythm first on the large circle, and then add the bend down to the smaller circle along with the decrease in speed. As your horse understands the increase in speed, take away a little more speed in your medium circle to come back to a slower small circle.

Make sure you don’t over-drill your horse with circles or he will anticipate what you’re doing. Balance your circles with practicing straight lines. And work both directions.

Another excellent exercise is to ride your circle with your inside arm straight in the air.

If you’re circling left, put your reins in your right hand. Bring your inside, left arm forward and up until it’s straight up alongside your ear.

Riding that way will stabilize your upper body and will help you control your upper body in the circle. It will help you feel the weight on your inside seat bone without leaning to the inside.

This article from The Journal archives was written in 2009, before AQHA Professional Horsewoman Patti Carter-Pratt accepted her new responsibilities as AQHA’s executive director of shows.

Lainie DeBoer builds on flat work exercises to prepare your horse for a fence course.

This ground pole exercise employs all the skills needed for a balanced jump course. Journal photo.

By AQHA Professional Horsewoman Lainie DeBoer in The American Quarter Horse Journal

In Developing Good Balance and Track Work: Part 1, Lainie DeBoer explained a series of flat exercises to build a balanced foundation. In Part 2, Lainie introduces ground poles in preparation for jumping fences.

Ground-pole work – Once you’ve mastered all the exercises on the flat, put one pole on a 20-meter circle and canter over it, both leads. If your horse gets quicker one way or the other, or wants to cut a corner, that might be his weaker side to jump.

Then add a second pole on the opposite side of the circle. When you do that, your horse might get unbalanced and get quick. You have to keep working on maintaining a rhythm through the circle to get over the poles and help your horse get over them at a certain spot.

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Then add a third pole and a fourth pole on the sides and start to count the strides in between the poles. You can make your circle smaller and do the poles three strides in between or push your circle back out and do four strides.
Read the rest of this entry »

Use these expert tips to calm your young show horse at home and at the show.

Question:

I don’t show personally, but I know a couple of people who show 2-year-olds in halter classes. One particular colt, new to the game, has a really annoying habit of getting hyped up before entering the show ring, and he tries to go into a trot when his handler walks him around. If the handler manages to keep him in a walk, he tosses his head about and tries to pull his head up, trying to get away so he can go gallop around.

How can he be kept calm before his class, and how do we deal with him if he gets jumpy in the show ring? Read the rest of this entry »

These exercises from Lainie DeBoer will perfect your flat work before taking your horse over fences.

Flat work including circles, figure 8s, serpentines and spirals get riders ready for technical horse jumping courses. Journal image.

By AQHA Professional Horseworman Lainie DeBoer in The American Quarter Horse Journal

Balance is important when you’re asking a horse to leave the ground and jump successfully across an obstacle. To jump well, he needs to be straight and in balance from the hind end up to the front end, with enough push from behind to complete the jump.

Your “track” gets you to the jump and prepares you for that take-off. Track work sets up the horse’s balance; it’s what gets him straight and gives him the right approach. And it gives you a destination on the back side of the jump.

Balance and track work enable you to negotiate a course. When they come together as one, the ride over the course should look effortless. To the judge, the transitions over the jumps, stride lengthening and collection, those all become invisible when the balance and track work are on target. Your goal is for your ride to be so smooth it looks like the jumps are just getting in the way as you flow around the ring in a smooth, consistent pace.

Looking for a new hunter under saddle horse? Selecting and Showing Hunter Under Saddle Horses DVD teaches you what to look for in jumping horse prospects. Read the rest of this entry »

Believe it or not, the riders weaving full-tilt through a herd of cattle use extremely technical strategies to slice every second possible off the clock.

Successful team penners need a good horse, good understanding of cattle and a great strategy. Journal photo.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

When Randy Haile was studying at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, he was first and foremost a student of team penning. His research paid off. By his senior year in college, Haile had been the Professional Team Penning Association high-point champion four times in five years.

“I think this game is more mental than physical,” says the team penning guru. “Communication is the key to the whole thing.”

Communication extends beyond getting along with your human partners. You also have to communicate with you horse and an entire group of cattle.

“The best way to learn to read cattle is to work them on foot,” Randy says. “If you’ve got to run 500 yards to get back a mistake, you won’t make that mistake very often.” No matter how well you ride, or how good a horse you have, you are at a distinct disadvantage if you don’t know cattle.

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Randy’s other important strategy gives him a competitive edge.

“We video all our runs, and watch and watch and watch,” he says. “We tape the runs of other people who are winning, and try to figure out why they’re winning. There was a time when I’d watch team penning videos four or five nights a week, two or three hours at a time. It really helped me.” Read the rest of this entry »

Tips for keeping your cow horse honest on the fence.

Todd suggests not always letting your horse turn the cow. Journal photo.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

If you’ve ever competed in working cow horse or reined cow horse events, you know firsthand the excitement of taking a cow to the fence.

It’s even more fun with an experienced horse that knows exactly how to get fence work done correctly. But some older horses need a little schooling to make them more honest when they go down the fence. After working numerous cattle, veteran cow horses often get hooked on the cow and forget about the rider. Read the rest of this entry »

AQHA Professional Horsewoman and National Cowgirl Hall of Famer Sharon Camarillo offers barrel-racing advice.

The cone system for visualizing rate. Journal illustration.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

If you have the basics of barrel racing under your belt, you can pick up the pace and figure out how to rate your horse’s speed as you move into the turn.

The “rate” is your horse’s ability to shorten his stride and prepare for the turn. It is also the most misunderstood part of barrel racing. You are basically asking your horse to lengthen, then shorten a stride, while maintaining collection to create an efficient, powerful turn, all within a second or two. Read the rest of this entry »

You have to know when to use them.

Taking your time is the most important training device there is. Journal photo.

A pleasure horse, either under English or western tack, is supposed to be a pleasure to ride. He’s soft at the trot, flexed at the poll, responsive to the rider, looks straight through the bridle and moves with collection.

A horse that roots his nose, moves trashy, fights the bit, throws his head and is rough in a gait is not a pleasure to ride. Read the rest of this entry »

How the King Ranch trained its foals in the 1950s.

Gentling horses at a young age can greatly increase their likelihood of becoming good riding horses. Journal photo.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal 

Editor’s Note: This article, reprinted from the April 1950 edition of The American Quarter Horse Journal, was originally excerpted from the booklet “Training Riding Horses,” published by the Horse Association of America.  

Training a young foal requires careful handling and skillful training if the animal is to develop into a horse for ranch work. Robert J. Kleberg Jr., manager of the King Ranch says, “It costs less in time, labor and money to train riding horses by starting their handling at an early age and proceeding. Colts handled in this manner make safer and, on the average, more satisfactory mounts. Read the rest of this entry »

Handling a horse scarred by fear and pain.

Dealing with a horse with mental wounds can be stressful and dangerous. Journal photo.

By Dr. Jim and Lynda McCall in The American Quarter Horse Journal

The Problem:
Three weeks ago, I purchased a 5-year-old gelding through an auction. He is very frightened and spooky at any odd noise or object and shows signs of being barn sour. I haven’t taken him more than 200 yards from the barn because he gets very agitated. He once started to rear with someone in the saddle. Read the rest of this entry »

AQHA Professional Horseman Matt Mills walks you through AQHA reining Pattern 11.

AQHA Professional Horseman Matt Mills recommends really pushing down on your heels and keeping your legs out of the horse’s side during your stops. Journal photo.

By AQHA Professional Horseman Matt Mills in The American Quarter Horse Journal

In AQHA reining Pattern 11, which is only for novice amateurs, novice youth and youth 13 and under, you will walk to the center of the arena, similar to some of the other patterns. Read the rest of this entry »

Five basic steps for better barrels and poles.

As seasoned competitors know, a good barrel or pole run is about more than just bursts of speed. It takes a combination of speed and control. Journal photo.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

To the untrained eye, barrel racing and pole bending might look pretty easy.

You just go out there and have your horse run around the obstacles as fast as he can, right?

Well, not really. Read the rest of this entry »