Exercises
Just a few things I’ve come to like to do when working a horse.
Fencing - Reiners always talk about fencing their horses to work on stops and rollbacks. I do that some too but I like to use the fence to get their attention and respect. Doesn’t even have to be a fence…sometimes I use the border of my property to the corn field next door, anything to use as a reference. Simple enough - just ride along the fence and when the horse drifts move him pretty abruptly in the opposite direction. The fence gives both you and your horse a reference to keep him from cheating or you from nitpicking. When I get to a corner I like to keep em guessing…sometimes turn the corner, sometimes rollback, sometimes just stop and wait. Also helps to work on alignment and some with speed control through the gaits.
Rounding - Pretty much same as fencing but I use the outside of our round pen. Probably works better than fencing for gaining respect because as they come around they get closer to the barn and really think they’re gonna get to go that way. Also gives a young horse a little aid in making nice circles and the pen helps keep them from leaning too much to the inside.
90’s - Riding squares. Just ride a straight line and when you want to turn make it a sharp 90 degree turn not a round corner. Helps horses get used to keeping forward motion in their spins.
Gates - Working on lateral movements is kind of a challenge for me. So I kinda came up with the idea of having the horse wanna do it. At the end of session I’ll take them over to a gate to the lot and make them work it…sidepass, forehand turn, back up. They seem to get pretty good at it pretty quick when they know that gate leads to being unsaddled.
Trail Backing - You’ll see this in the trail classes at a show. Lay down some timbers or something and have the horse back through them. I use landscape timbers cause they kind of make noise and move around when a horse steps on them….they don’t like that and pay attention more to what they’re doing. I like to make a cross pattern so I can back a horse straight or turn the corners left or right. Gets em really thinking about their footwork and working their back ends.Can start out with the alleyways pretty wide and narrow them up as they get better. Real good exercises for hip control. Can also do some turnaround work in the middle of the cross.
Some of these things I do sometimes just to keep me or the horses from getting bored. Some horses seem to need a reason to do things and work better with some references to work around or through.