When Will He Slow Down?

When Will He Slow Down?
By Gaye DeRusso
 
Many gaited horses have high endurance, and many have been ridden very forward. When you watch videos on gaited horses you will see most the time, they are not slow walking, but they are moving out pretty fast. So, you get the horse, and it’s very forward. So, you do all the arena work, and one rein stops, to teach him to slow down.  Now he is great in the arena and around the barn but on the trail, he is still stuck on go. What do you do? You think and you think, and you think more, about what would make the connection for this horse to slow down. 
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So here is a story of a horse I trained, occasionally. He was never in full training. So, I only had short training sessions to try and fix him. He was an ex- show horse, TWH, flat shod, very pacey. Went with his head sky high and the owner knew nothing about gaited horses when she bought him. So that’s how she rode him, and he looked like a giraffe. He was long and lanky. She said he never wore out. So, we proceeded to fix his gait and work on his canter in the arena and then start to try and fix the  trail. He was always anxious but not spooky. 

She didn't complain much but everyone who rode with her said, he acted a fool and was always on go. So, I said can you pay for a couple of hours of training and let me see what I can do to get him to walk on a loose rein. She said yes, do what you have to do. So, I came up with a plan. 

Where we were, we had some pretty steep trails, but there is one that is super steep, we call it the roller coaster trail. Most horses when they go up it once quit about 100 feet from the top, because it is so hard, and they just stop and stand to rest. I have taken forward horses up it before and usually they calm down and want to go slow after a couple of times of doing it. I leave the barn knowing my plan and riding alone so there are no distractions. I gait out usually at a flat walk and then running walk or saddle gait or fox trot depending on the horse. I head straight toward roller coaster. This isn’t a trail ride; this is a training session.

When I get there, many horses want to run up the hill because it makes it easier to get up and many clients like to gallop up it. No not today, today is about getting this horse to think instead of reacting. Galloping just brings up more adrenaline. So, I go up the hill at a gait, keeping the horse's head down and I make them drive with their backend to get up the steep hill. When you get to the top, it goes down for a while and then back up another steep hill. So, he tries to pull me down the hill and I serpentine down the entire hill or leg yield, so the horse is not out of control.

When I get to the bottom, I slow down to make sure they are doing a good gait, then I go up the next hill keeping their head down and making them drive with their back end. When I get to the top I turn around toward home and ask the horse if it wants to rest, by dropping the rein. If it wants to go, I go and just keep repeating. Every time I get to the top of the steep hill, I offer the horse a rest and a loose rein but if it wants to go, I go. 

The whole point is the horse is not thinking, it is running on adrenaline and thinking it has to go, go, go. So, I have to help the horse figure out that it doesn't need to go. I know this is going to take a while, since I have never seen this horse tired. So that is what I did, every time at the top, dropping the rein and every uphill I gait and every downhill, I give it jobs. 

Did it work? Yes, it worked very well. But it took longer than any other horse I had to do it with. He was so sure if he just kept going, I would take him home because that is what always happened. His bad behavior was always rewarded with the barn and food and friends.

 But to his surprise I just kept turning around and letting him do it again. It took over 20 times, and I can't remember exactly, but an hour to two hours of non-stop hard work. He was fast and I had to hold him back, but always released if he stayed the speed I asked or slowed down. Asking him each time to rest at the top, but no he wanted to go.

About the 15 time, I knew he was getting it. He was still fast but not as fast as before. At the 18 time, I had to start pushing him up the hills. At 19 he started to pause at the top to rest, but still was anxious and on the 20th time, half way up the last hill, I dropped the rein and took off my leg and he stopped. 

He was exhausted and out of air. I rested some time there and walked to  the top, on a loose rein and rested again, but not very long, just a couple minutes, then told him how good he was and walked home on a completely loose rein. He had no desire to go faster because he had done hard work and no longer had the strength or energy to keep going. For once in his life, he made the decision to  walk, and it was a smart decision. When we got home, I left him tacked up and tied him up for an hour then untacked him. No grain just hay for dinner. 

I repeated it the next day, and it took half the time, and he walked home on a loose rein. I told the owner she needed to do it the beginning of each week and days in a row, so we made sure he understood walking was a better decision for him. If she did it right in a couple weeks, he would be able to walk and walk home on a loose rein when she asked.

Did it stick? No and this is why training here and there usually doesn't work very well. It needs to be consistent for the horse to understand and for the training to stick. 

It would have but the owner did not keep it up. It only works if you repeat it until the horse is sure, this is the new way and that can take many weeks or months especially when you’re not a trainer. 
See you have to show them there is no reward in going fast but you have to get to their brain. Using steep hills or the beach with deep sand is a great way to teach them they can walk. But if you don't repeat it and you don’t do it when they start going fast again, it won't stick because you reward the wrong behavior each time instead of rewarding the right behavior. If you go on the trail and only do a couple hills, that will not work, you have to plan the ride to help the horse make the connection. 
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Usually no one ties up when they get home. That's why so many horses are barn sour. Ever notice ranch horses are not? Ranch horses never rush home, because they get tied up and just get more work, there is always more work, so no rush to go anywhere for more work. That’s also why trail stable horses never rush home, because they get home get tied up then go out on another trail ride. 
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Another thing you can do is go on the trail with a friend, go out and work. Gait etc., then ride home and go back out with another friend and keep repeating until the horse goes home slow. If they understand there is more work anytime, they go home fast, they do not want to go home fast. 

The reason most people cannot fix it, is because you feel bad, or you don’t want to make the effort, you would rather be dragged home or run away with then teach the horse the lesson. But if you make the time and teach it well, you will only have to remind the horse here and there to keep them good. 

Most horses do not want to be ridden 5 times in a row on trail with no rest, but if they don't know that’s the consequence, they will want to run home each time or run on the trail because they think that is what you want. So, rest and reward when they are slow and give them more work when they are too fast or go home too fast. You can come up with your own plan, but it must be hard work and only reward when they go slow and are calm. If it's not working, you are not doing it hard enough or long enough to get the point across. And don't forget you have to be able to do it alone or just with one horse and do it well first before you add in more horses. That's just the way the horse world works.