Doing the same thing over and over, day after day. It could get boring yes. And sometimes it does, but that is how you are going to get a good reliable horse trained. Really well trained horses have been there, done that. But it just isn’t once, twice, or even three times. It is over and over that they have been down MANY trails. It is over and over again the person stopped the horse a certain way so that they will stop that way for anyone at any time.

Sliding stops/Stopping by your seat

You’ll see it in a reining competition, where they will gallop the horse down the arena, sit deep in the seat and the horse just buries their hindquarters in the dirt. That is by stopping off the rider’s seat. Let’s break this down and show you how much repetition is required for something like that.

First you have to be able to stop the horse by some other way like a one rein stop. That is pulling the horses head and neck around to stop the horse. Then when you are wanting to stop the horse from just your seat, you have to first move the horse off then sit down in the saddle like they will stop. You have to give the horse a chance to stop, but obviously they won’t in the beginning. Once you have given the horse a chance to stop by listening to your seat, then you have to stop the horse.

So you sit down, let the horse have a chance to stop by your seat, and when they don’t, stop them yourself. Soon enough they will say to themselves, “Well, when they sit down in the seat, after that they just stop me, I wonder what will happen if I stop when they sit in the saddle.” And one time when you sit down in the saddle, they will stop on their own.

However, it might take 2, 3, 4 days for that to happen, and even then they might not stop on a dime, but slowly come down to a stop. It takes doing the same thing over and over for the horse to get it. And it can sometimes be boring. But I know that I have a great feeling when I have been working on something and the horse just isn’t getting it, then that one day comes along and BOOM. Things click and it all falls into place. It is like a partition has been moved and things go smoothly for the exercise from then on.

Although it can be boring I love seeing the horse’s progress. Little by little they get better and better. They aren’t as spooky, they ride just a little bit better, stop a little bit sooner.