Horse-Training Basics
October 2, 2012
Whoa: Learn how to stop your horse correctly.
AQHA Professional Horsewoman Andy Moorman explains the power stop. Illustration by Jean Abernethy.
By AQHA Professional Horsewoman Andy Moorman in The American Horse Journal
I teach my riders a fail-safe way to stop a horse of any kind. I call it the “power position stop.” I teach it because everybody needs to know how to stop a horse correctly.
The goal behind it is to get the horse to come to an absolute beginner. It’s really for someone with at least a minimum of basic riding skills at the point of beginning to understand feel.
I do teach it to anyone having trouble learning how to confidently take control of a horse, not out of fear or frustration, including advanced riders. It teaches you how to balance the horse, pick his back up and have him in your hand for a correct stop.
It also gives a rider confidence. A lot of people fear not being able to stop a horse, and when they get stiff and clutchy with the reins, it makes the horse worse. This gives riders a better alternative.
And it works if you do it right.
Common Problem
When someone can’t get a horse to stop, for whatever reason, the first thing most people do is pull. Most riders want to pull back, lean back and shove their feet out in front of them and try to manhandle the horse.
It won’t work.
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When you pull, the horse drops his back, raises his neck, gets stiff in the poll and resists. Because the horse is so much more powerful, you can’t make him stop that way. It teaches the horse to evade your hands and the bit, and it can make him fearful.
What to Do
We used to play a game when we were kids: draw a line in the dirt, lock one hand with a person on the other side of the dirt line, and try to push or pull the other person over the line. Whoever gets the other person across the line first wins.
You find out pretty quick that if you get your weight down low and your arm in by your body, you’ve got good strength and can pull the other person across, especially if you can get her to let her arm go out straight.
That’s the same idea with the power position stop. It allows you to stop the horse just by taking a feel and letting your body weight control the horse.
Here’s what you do (you need someone on the ground to make sure your position and rein length are correct):
- Use a mild bit, like a ring snaffle, and two hands. Don’t use draw reins or martingales with this exercise- they interfere with the contact you want for this to work.
- You must have correct horsemanship: Sit straight up and down – d
on’t lean back or forward. There should be a straight line from your ear to the middle of your shoulder through the middle of your hip (where your jeans seam is) down to the back of your heel.
- Sit down in the middle of your horse and feel your seat bones on the horse’s back.
- Put your arms down by your side. Pick up your hands so there is a straight line from the elbows, down your forearms and the reins to the horse’s mouth.
- Have your rein length so you have a decent feel on the horse’s mouth with your arms and hands in that position. It’s not tight or slack, just a feel. Close your fingers on the rein so you have a grip on the rein.
- Now, when you’re ready to stop, just close your upper arms by your side and steady your hands, DO NOT give or take on the reins. At the same time, sit deep and close your legs, not hard, just a little. Closing your leg through the stop keeps the horse’s hind legs coming under him.
- As you sit deep and steady your hands, when he feels he can’t pull you, he’ll usually give to you in the poll and stop. Often, he will even take a step back with a soft poll. Immediately release him and pet him; reward him.
The power position stop uses your own body weight to balance you and the horse into the stop. If your horse pulls on you, when you sit deep and centered and stay steady with your feel on the reins, it is as if he’s pulling you down through his back, and he can’t do that.
If your arms are straight and you’re not sitting down and long through the leg, he’ll pull you right over forward.
When you get it right, you’ll feel the horse respond, especially after you do it a few times. He’ll step under with his hind legs, raise his back and give at the poll, soft into the stop. He won’t hang on you on his forehand. It doesn’t hurt him; it’s not hard on him; it’s just a simple way to put you in control.
Once you learn the technique and your horse understands it, just apply it very lightly, and he’ll respond.
You absolutely cannot pull on the reins. Just hold the rein, steady your arm and don’t let him take it away from you. On the other hand, you cannot throw the reins away, either – you have to have a feel.
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That’s why it’s really important for the rein length to be correct. You have to go through this process several times to adjust your rein length for the right feel. Usually people tend to have their reins too long, but you can also get them too tight.
Practice first from a walk, then at the jog, then a bigger trot and, finally, at the lope and canter. You need to be secure with it at each gait before you move up. And be patient – some horses pick it up quickly; some don’t.
Always use two hands for this exercise. When you ride one-handed, you ride with your hand in front to keep an even feel on the bit, and your arm is not where it needs to be for the power position stop to work. Once you have learned to stop properly – your horse responds lightly when you deepen your seat and steady your hands – then go to one hand.
It teaches you to ride with feel on the reins to control the horse, not pulling and not throwing the reins away. And it teaches you to get the horse to step up to your seat and leg. It’s one method for learning a good, proper stop.
Comments
14 Comments on “Horse-Training Basics”
October 2nd, 2012 at 10:13 am
After reading this, it seems like a good idea, but a little confusing. What doesn’t make sense to me is the tension in your body. When you stiffen your arms, your shoulders involuntarily stiffen which stiffens your back and so on and so forth. Your horse goes off of your body, when you stiffen, your horse will stiffen, hollow out his back and neck and stiffen his neck and jaw. Once that happens, he’ll be completely resistant to any pressure on the bit. Maybe I’m not reading it right it understanding the concept.
October 2nd, 2012 at 10:24 am
This makes no sense to me; what do you mean by ‘close your upper arms by your side’? Am I bringing my hands together? You say not to pull on the reins so I am a bit confused. When I close my legs on my horse that is a cue for him to move forward so I am not sure how that will also tell him to stop. Please clarify, thanks.
October 2nd, 2012 at 10:39 am
In this I think you are pushing he horse into the bit which is not pulling bu at the same time not giving way.
October 2nd, 2012 at 10:41 am
This explanation of how to stop a riding horse is not clear!
October 2nd, 2012 at 10:52 am
I teach a lot of beginners to ride and stopping a horse is one skill that they usually have some problems learning. Most of them ride with too-long reins, so when they go to slow down or stop, they think they have to pull on the reins and they end up with their hands somewhere underneath their chins! WRONG!! I teach them to have some contact (we ride English over here) so there is no loop in the rein….one thing a horse hates is to have a loose-tight-loose-tight tug of war going on with their rider. Either have contact all the time or loose all the time (as with Western Pleasure riding). When we ask for the halt (or to down transition from trot to walk), we sit deeper by lowering the heels, tilting the pelvis a bit (sitting on your back pockets), exhaling, allowing our weight to go downward and lastly, closing the fingers around the reins if it’s needed. My horses are trained to listen to the rider’s weight and legs and most will stop when they feel the rider sit and deepen but some need a bit of rein back-up. It takes a while for new riders to develop the feel of deepening their seat but it comes eventually…and the horses are much happier when they do!
October 2nd, 2012 at 11:41 am
When you close your arms, its between your shoulder and elbow. When you close your legs, its between your hip and knee. You don’t put your hands together and you don’t squeeze with your lower legs. It really is a much nicer stop and once you learn it, it feels so much more correct than just pulling on the reins.
October 2nd, 2012 at 1:08 pm
So important a skill. Hoping my granddaughter can understand so she can use it on the stubborn pony she rides.
October 2nd, 2012 at 1:50 pm
I have to agree with the majority of the comments that this explanation is very confusing. If a horse is trained to remain soft-mouthed and give to light bit pressure, there will be no issue with stopping at any gait. A “one rein stop” can be used in an emergency situation. It would be interesting for you to post a video demonstating the method you suggest. Thank you
October 2nd, 2012 at 3:23 pm
Hi all,
I’m so sorry that this post was confusing. Bill, you’re right … a video would be very helpful! We’ll work on that. In the meantime, let me see if I can clarify a little. This stop is exactly the same technique I’ve learned from my dressage instructors (proving the theory that good horsemanship is good horsemanship, no matter the type of saddle)!
Here’s how I’ve learned it:
In the stop, you do keep your legs lightly on the horse. That, essentially, asks him to keep his back rounded and keep his hind legs up underneath him. If his body is rounded and collected, he won’t dump onto his front end in the stops.
As you ask for the stop, you’ll take a deep breath and sit deeper in the saddle. Some people think of it as rolling backwards a little bit on their seatbones or weighting their seatbones. You won’t want to lean backward, so that you’re off balance, though.
At the same time, you’ll close your fingers lightly on the reins. Just a light closing … not a pull backwards. I think when Andy mentioned closing your arms against your sides, she meant to just steady yourself by placing your elbows/forearms next to your sides, so that they’re not flopping loosely. Think about how it would feel if your arms were held out away from your body and your horse tried to pull on the reins. He’d tip you forward. But if your arms were steadied next to your sides, he’d just pull you deeper into the saddle.
It might help if you got a mental picture of what it was supposed to look like … think about your legs and seat aids driving the horse forward and asking him to bring his hind end up underneath him. And then your hands simply “catch” that forward movement and ask for a nice, soft halt.
October 2nd, 2012 at 3:56 pm
This example might help. This is John Lyons, and he is actually using very different terminology to explain the same thing. Funny how some people can say the same thing so differently … but this way might make more sense to some!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm12KbKmny4&feature=related
October 2nd, 2012 at 6:49 pm
Gosh… seemed pretty clear to me. Thanks for the article. I hope to give it a try soon.
October 6th, 2012 at 6:56 am
Great article, have been riding for 40yrs, and this is the way I was taught by an American trainer that long ago, and have shown Western and English and this trainers most used word was “relax”, and this is the way I teach students and my horses,successfully.
October 6th, 2012 at 6:56 am
PS Im aussie
October 10th, 2012 at 6:35 am
Great explanation and exercises for t he downward transitions! We spend a lifetime learning not to pull! Your horse will tell on you when you pull! Horses hate pulling like Andy said!!