Should You Ride Your Gaited Horse With Two Hands or One?
By Gaye DeRusso
The quick answer is two. Riding gaited horses and having them gait well with one hand is much harder, but maybe you are lucky, and you have one that was bred and trained well and will stay in gait with two hands or one.
The gaited horse has more gears than the normal trotting horse. To keep them in their gait, we use a fair amount of half halts or what some people call checking their horse back. As the terrain changes on the trails affect their gait, we use the half halt to help the horse rebalance and stay in the present gait. We also use lateral movements to help them get ready to gait and to stay in gait. At times we also need to put their body in a certain frame in order to get a specific gait. All these things can be more difficult with one hand.
I recommend all newbies to gaited horses ride with 2 hands, it is just easier to keep the horse in gait and half halt with 2 hands. Keep the rein short enough the horse will feel the half halt as soon as you do it. Make sure to use a rein that has some weight to it or add clips as it will help the horse feel the half halt and release better and quicker, compared to a light english rein.
I also recommend that you teach your horse steering exercises, (lateral movements) moving his shoulders and his hindquarters and leg yielding with the rider using two hands. Being able to do these movements, can help get your horse back into a nice gait when he starts changing his gait.
Once you can ride the horse, be able to do the movements listed above and he stays in gait well, you want to start working on self-carriage. Start trying to half halt less and encourage your horse to keep his gait without as much help from you. Try to only apply contact when you feel him starting to go toward the pace or trot. When he is gaiting well, start giving him some slack in the rein. Make sure he can do this really well before moving on.
Now and only now would be the time to start trying to ride him one handed. You will have to teach him to neck rein first, using two hands. But by the horse already understanding how to move sideways off your leg, it will be much easier to teach. You will guide him with your rein, pressing one rein against his neck, then opening the other rein in the direction you want to go, while also pressing with one leg to move him in that direction. Over time when done correctly, your horse will understand when he feels the rein against his neck that he should move away from it, but your leg should always be there to push him over, in case he gets confused.
Now you can start putting both the reins in one hand. Try the maneuvers I discussed above at the walk first. Once you can do this well, you are ready to start gaiting using one hand. Keep the rein short enough that the horse will feel a half halt as soon as you apply it with one hand and use a bit that will help your horse to feel the half halt with one hand. These are the shank bits or what some call the curb bit. A snaffle is not made to ride one handed and you will have to apply more pressure than if you use a curb bit.
Anytime the horse starts to go out of gait, you will use one hand to half halt and help him to stay in gait. If he still is going out of gait, and getting pacey you can use the leg yield, shoulder in or haunches in, to try to help him get back in gait and try to bring his head down and relax his neck and back.
Do not be afraid to go back to two hands at any time the horse is not getting the message. In time he will learn, and it will get easier, but in the beginning, you may have to help him a lot and keep going from one hand back to two.
If the horse is getting trotty, you need to help him get some tension in his neck and back, which can be harder to do with one hand. So, you may need to switch to two hands, elevate his neck and head and half halt to get him back in gait, then go back to one hand.
Now you may understand, riding a gaited horse with one hand is not so easy. This might be why your horse is having issues.
To ride the gaited horse well one handed, the horse has to be well trained, understand cues, and gait well with some self-carriage. If they do not, they will usually keep going out of gait, because there is not as much support with one hand vs two hands and your horse is not ready.
Remember when you start driving a car, you always had 2 hands on the wheel. Then as you got better, you probably switched from two hands to one hand at different times. Now you probably use one hand and are texting with the other hand. Not safe but impressive all the same.
Riding the gaited horse is similar, get them good with 2 hands first, then going to 1 hand will not be so hard.
Bits
Snaffle bit https://amzn.to/3WPY1Qh
Short Shank Bit https://amzn.to/3Z0TbRl
Longer Shank Bit https://amzn.to/3vsMcDq
Longer Shank with Port for more tongue relief https://amzn.to/3vtCVLc
Wonder Bit https://amzn.to/3jGSqgj
Wonder Bit with Twist https://amzn.to/3WTCndn
Bit Guards https://amzn.to/3Cd3EQ4
Curb Chain https://amzn.to/3voPGqy
Correction Bit https://amzn.to/3jEOGfj
Reins with colors to help hand placement https://amzn.to/3VyMlzU
Rubber reins to help grip https://amzn.to/3jBub34
Clip for easy attachment and added weight https://amzn.to/3Q1ited
How to use your hands with gaited horses https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDIfbdCzbdtRr1geDTygOjetBmhpukIWc
Free Training Page https://www.facebook.com/groups/1018259835184485/
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