To Spur or Not to Spur
March 3, 2009
Learn these guidelines to get your horse to respect your signals.
Martin Black offers tips on spur use and more.
By Martin Black, former America’s Horse columnist
People often ask about spurs – when or if they should use them. That depends on the person and “when or if” he can control the spurs and “when or if” he is aware of when he is using them.
Spurs should not be used as the primary signal.
First, if we are asking the horse to move off one leg, we can start by putting some life in that leg. Then, if the horse does not respond to the leg or legs, reinforcement can come with the spur.
There should be enough respect, or even intimidation, caused by the spurs that we rarely need to use them. When the horse gets too comfortable with or desensitized to the spur, we can have numerous problems. Besides the obvious problem that the horse ignores the request made with the spur, he can also get resentful to the point of switching his tail, or even kicking or bucking.
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We must be sure that the horse first understands our request. He has to understand where we want him to go. It doesn’t do any good to hurry if we are headed in the wrong direction; we will just get to the wrong place faster.
The principle of maintaining respect with your spurs is simple: Don’t say it if you don’t mean it.
You can relate it to a child disregarding your warning of something being “hot” in order to touch it for themselves until they feel the burning sensation. A squeeze with our leg or legs is the warning “Hot!” and the contact with the spur is the burning sensation.
The spur should come last, and it should be the last thing you say to the horse. Regardless of what we do to cue the horse, if we ask for something in the same way more than about four times, the horse usually starts getting desensitized.
- The first signal calls his attention.
- The second signal lets us measure whether more, less or the same aid is needed.
- The third signal should err on the side of being too strong so the horse does not ignore it and become desensitized.
Do what it takes with the spur. Too much can cause the horse to panic; too little can lead to resentment rather than respect.
Thirsty for more training tips? Whatever the problem between horse and rider, Martin has practical solutions that he shares in AQHA’s Horse Training Techniques with Martin Black downloadable report. Get your copy today!
Comments
4 Comments on “To Spur or Not to Spur”
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March 11th, 2009 at 10:12 am
What an awesome opportunity to learn some “common sense” training. Thank you very much and especially thank you to Martin Black who is willing to share this information.
Frances N. Smith
AQHA Member
Yuma, Arizona
March 13th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
I have a 4 year old filly that I have trained from a yearling. She responds easily off of my leg laterally and moves forward well enough. She has a very laid back personally and is, well quite frankly, lazy by nature. When I need to ‘turn it up a notch’, leg alone will not do the job, but when I try using my western spurs on her, she hates it. She gets very agitated and will even rear if I even slightly touch her. I then tried wearing my English spurs and this seemed to work much better. I am wondering if ‘bumper western spurs’ would be similiar and do the job. She will respond to a crop, but I would prefer not to have to carry one. I like to ride with the ‘less is more’ philosophy – I use a bitless bridle and a treeless western saddle, so I am looking for the most natural solution.
March 18th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
She’s 4, not a baby, and long ago needed to accept whatever is needed to “turn it up a notch”-she needs a bit-snaffle-and lots of forward riding to make her accepting of the aids. I would get a bit on this horse and use the crop with more force than I suspect you’re using-when she gets lazy with that, especially if she backs her ears or makes any show of resenting it, start wearing English spurs and then go to the Western spur, as some horses find the English spurs annoying if they really do need a spur.I have ridden lots of young horses, and find the “lazy” ones the most likely to “sit” on you and create bigger problems.If she’s rearing, she’s sulling and using this attitude to make you back off.
March 24th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I have a 8 year old QH that I have had since he was 8 months old I broke him out and have spur trained him well enough to ride with out a briddle. If you have spurs on he will change leads, pivot, and drop his head. If you don’t have spurs on he will do the same thing your heel just gets tired of putting it in his ribs he is trained off of his first 3 ribs and when you put your heel there he does what he is supposed to. I Belive that a good trainer teaches a horse so respond off there legs before they ever put spurs on so the “bucking or swishing of there tail” doesnt’ happen. Spurs for my gelding just make it easier to respond such in a pleasure class.. so my tip would be if you want to spur train your horse train with your legs first & off the first 3 ribs behind your cinch then put spurs on.