The best selling book by Cherry Hill “What Every Horse Should Know”
has just been released in Italian 2017
To see a complete list of books by Cherry Hill and all of the translations, visit her Chronology page.
Paula
Posted in Books, Bridling, Catching, Check, Cherry Hill, Desensitization, Forward, Free Longeing, Gaits, Ground Driving, Ground Training, Half Halt, Halter Training, Handling, In-Hand Work, Long Lining, Longeing, Loping, Mounting, Personal Space, Respect, Riding, Road Riding, Trailer Loading, Training, What Every Horse Should Know, tagged cherry hill, ground training, Italian, riding, training, what every horse should know on November 1, 2017| Leave a Comment »
The best selling book by Cherry Hill “What Every Horse Should Know”
has just been released in Italian 2017
To see a complete list of books by Cherry Hill and all of the translations, visit her Chronology page.
Paula
Posted in Check, Forward, Gaits, Half Halt, Loping, Riding, tagged equine, forward, forward motion, forward movement, ground training, horse, impulsion, riding, training on May 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Behavior, Check, Forward, Ground Driving, Ground Training, Half Halt, Halter Training, In-Hand Work, Long Lining, Longeing, Riding, Rushing, Training, tagged balance, equine, exercises, ground training, horse, horse pushes into bit, horseback riding, riding, rushing horse, training on May 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Behavior, Forward, Gaits, Riding, Safety, tagged equine, forward movement, horse, horse riding, horse training, horseback riding, riding on May 12, 2011| 2 Comments »
Posted in Bad Habits, Behavior, Desensitization, Forward, Riding, Safety, Spooking, Training, tagged attitude, horse, horse behavior, horseback riding, spooking, trail riding, training on April 8, 2011| 1 Comment »
Posted in Behavior, Exercise, Forward, Ground Training, In-Hand Work, Long Lining, Longeing, Riding, Training, tagged equine, forward motion, forward movement, ground training, horseback riding, impulsion, in hand work, long lining, longeing, riding, training on April 7, 2011| 4 Comments »
Posted in Bad Habits, Behavior, Forward, Riding, Safety, Training, tagged equine, exercises, ground training, horse, horse bad habit, horse rearing, horseback riding, lessons, rearing, riding on October 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Hi, Cherry.
We bought an 8 yr old mare in June for our daughter to show in 4-H. She is a beautiful animal, but has a very dangerous problem. She shows well in showmanship and pleasure, but when trying to use her for patterned work (i.e. horsemanship or reining) she rears, and will even go over backwards, when asked to lope down the center of the arena. We have taken her to a local trainer, and he said he can’t “fix” the problem. She is fine along the rail, but she seems to rebel when it comes to working in the center at a lope. Can you please advise me as to whether she is a “lost cause”, or is there something I can do to master this issue?
Thanks! *****Char
Hi Char,
I wouldn’t say your rearing horse is a lost cause, but I would say that a rearing horse is a candidate for the most experienced of horse handlers. Just the phrase “will even go over backwards” strikes the fear in the heart of any instructor or parent. I’m just picturing it happening with your 4-H daughter astride. It simply isn’t worth the risk.
I’m hesitant to give you any advice to help you work on this because I don’t know the severity of the problem nor your abilities and it sounds like the trainer you have access to is at a loss for how to proceed.
What I would do if the horse were here would be to start with square one on ground training to identify the spot where the horse loses confidence and has a hole in her training. Then I would take the time it takes to work the horse through her issues, which would certainly take weeks and more likely months or even years to completely eliminate the horse’s tendency to rear as avoidance. Then once the horse was solidly over her rearing, your daughter would need supervised instruction on riding the horse so as not to undo what had been done.
Therefore, I must defer to the position that since your daughter’s safety is at stake, she should not ride the horse. Nor should you for that matter. For the horse’s sake, if you can find a competent trainer that is accustomed to working with horses with such problems and you are willing to spend the time and money it will take to have the horse rehabilitated, then that is route you should take.
If that is not an option, then retire the mare to pasture and find your daughter a more suitable mount.
You might also want to read Looking for the Root of the Rearing Problem and other articles on my website.
I’m sure that is not what you wanted to hear but all it takes is knowing one person who has been on the bottom of the pile when a horse has flipped over backwards for me to advise you to take extreme caution.
Best of luck and be safe,
Posted in Check, Forward, Gaits, Half Halt, Riding, tagged balance, check, collection, equilibrium, equine, exercises, half halt, horse, horseback riding, lessons, riding, slow down on September 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Help! My nine year old paint mare Tardee has a very long stride especially at the trot, how do I slow her down and develop a jog? She is very quiet and willing and I don’t want to stress her. Thank you. Deb
Hi Deb,
It is great that you have a quiet and willing horse and even better that you want to keep her that way. There is no reason why your mare won’t stay calm and sweet as you progressively shorter her stride and slow her down a bit. This is a very common goal and a question I’ve answered before on my website Horsekeeping, so I’m going to use those Q&As below here. Let me know if you have more specific questions.
Cherry
© 2010 Cherry Hill www.horsekeeping.com
Dear Cherry,
My horse is usually really good, but a few days ago he just started being really stubborn. He’ll trot way too fast because I ask him for a jog for western pleasure. And his lope which I finally got down perfect 2 weeks ago has turned into a fast canter. I don’t know what it is from. There has been a lot more flies etc. around that go on him and he hates bugs so do you think that maybe this is causing it? Do you think he might not be able to concentrate because he’s thinking about all the flies on him or something? I’m really confused and I have to go to a show this weekend and if he does this there we for sure won’t place!!! Please give me any suggestions that you have.
Mindy from Indiana
Dear Mindy,
I’m going to ask a lot of things quickly at first here so you can go through a list in your mind and so that other readers with the same problem (it is VERY common!) can try to find a reason for the quickness.
This first one won’t pertain to you because in your question, you say “he” so I am assuming your horse is a gelding. However, for those of you riding mares, be aware that a sudden quickness or irritability during breeding season (April to October) could be caused by the mare coming into heat. Heat periods usually last about 5 days. If you have a fussy mare, try to work through it or give her a day or two off during her worst days.
Now for some questions that will pertain to any horse. Are you using fly spray? Do you check your horse’s chest and the area of the belly just ahead of your horse’s sheath (geldings) or udder (mares) where the skin is very thin and a feast for flies? Flies biting in these places can make a horse very tense while he is being ridden.
Could your horse’s back be sore? A poor fitting saddle, dirty pad or cinch or a weak back can all contribute to a horse moving short and quick rather than long and flowing.
Are you tense? If a rider is tense or nervous (in anticipation of a show, for example) the horse will pick this up right away and start moving quickly. You need to take a deep breath, settle deep into the saddle and relax.
Here’s a technique tip. When you want to slow down or “rate” your horse, that is shorten his stride or slow down his tempo, accomplish it with a series of half halts or “checks” applied at the moment of suspension. During the canter or lope, suspension comes right after the leading foreleg lands and the hind legs are reaching forward under the horse’s belly. At the trot or jog, suspension occurs twice during each stride as each diagonal pair lifts. A half halt or check is a momentary “calling to attention” and just like the name implies, it is about half a halt! You want to reorganize your horse by briefly applying your aids for a halt but releasing them before the horse actually halts.
When applying a series of half halts or checks to rate a horse, be sure you release after each successful reaction. Do not be tempted to hold on to what you gain and think you can slow a horse down by constant pressure on the reins. What you eventually want to do is have your horse learn to hold a gait at a certain tempo “on the honor system” (dressage riders call this self-carriage) – that is, on his own without you holding his speed down via the reins.
Take care.
Half Halt
© 2010 Cherry Hill www.horsekeeping.com
Ms. Hill,
Please help. I ride western. I am a professional Cowboy trying to become a horseman. I barrel race. I do not show. I purchased your 101 Arena Exercises to help me help my horses to relax, listen, loosen up, help them learn to use themselves and become more responsive I am not familiar with the term half halt and can’t seem to find a helpful definition in the book. My best guess was that it was a transition to a slower gait but in looking at the exercises this does not make sense to me. I know you are awfully busy but I’m feeling a bit desperate. For the sake of Reuben, Foxy, Sister, Miss Mess, and Hooch, Please help.
Respectfully,
Jodi Campbell
Hi Jodi,
It is great to hear from you and to hear of your goals. Have you read Exercise 14 “Half Halt or Check” in 101 Arena Exercises? It describes in detail what a Half Halt (or Check as it is called in Western riding) is and how to apply it. But it is such a good question and I’m sure there are some readers out there who don’t have 101 Arena Exercises, that I’m going to print an excerpt from that book below.
Before I get to the excerpt, though, here are some other ways to think of a Half Halt……a pause, a moment in suspended animation, a compacting of form, flexing in every joint. Although half halts are traditionally associated with dressage, they are used in all kinds of riding. Western riders “pick up” on the reins and “check” their horses to “rate” them or get them to slow down or get more rhythmic in their gaits. When a horse “falls on his forehand” he is traveling with bad balance and rhythm, so we try to energize him from the hindquarters forward and elevate his forehand somewhat so he can move in balance. When a horse is not in balance (heavy on the forehand) he first has to pick up his forehand and then turn.The more in balance a horse is, the quicker he can change directions (especially important for a barrel horse) and at a moment’s notice – he doesn’t need a lot of advance notice. Half Halts or checks help to balance and energize a horse.
The following is excerpted from 101 Arena Exercises:
A half halt is a preparatory set of aids that simultaneously drives and checks the horse. In essence you are “capturing” your horse momentarily between the aids. A calling to attention and organizer used before all transitions and during all movements as a means of momentarily re-balancing the horse, elevating the forehand, increasing hindquarter engagement, evening an erratic rhythm, slowing a pace, and reminding the horse not to lean on the bit or rush. A momentary holding (a non-allowing in contrast to a pulling or taking), immediately followed by a yielding (within one stride or a few seconds). This results in a moment of energized suspension with a listening and light horse. Once a horse has learned to respect half halts, they serve as a reminder that encourages self-carriage.
HOW TO APPLY A HALF HALT
The sequence, grossly oversimplified, goes something like this
1. Think
2. Seat, legs and hands
3. Yield
1. Mental message: “Hello, is anybody home?” OR “Attention!!” OR “Let’s get organized” OR “Let’s halt. No I changed my mind.”
2. An almost simultaneous application of the following aids with an emphasis on the seat and legs and a de-emphasis on the hands:
- Upper body straight or slightly back with elevated sternum.
- Deep, still contact of seat bones on saddle from flexed abdominals and a flattened lower back which brings seat bones forward.
- Both lower legs on horse’s side at the girth or cinch. Light tap with the whip or spurs if necessary, depending on the horse’s level and response.
- A non-allowing of appropriate intensity with both hands. The following is a list in increasing intensity of that non-allowing. Use only as much as necessary.
- close fingers
- squeeze reins
- roll hands inward
- move arm backward from shoulder
- lean upper body back
3. Yield aids without throwing away what you have gained.
When do you apply the half halt? Long enough (a second or two) ahead of the transition or maneuver to allow the horse to respond but not prolonged (through several strides) or it will result in tension.
How strong a half halt should you use? Tinker Bell or Industrial Strength? Occasionally an industrial strength half halt is necessary to be sure it “goes through”. After using a major half-halt, confidently use light ones or half halts will begin to lose their effect for you.
THE ALL-IMPORTANT YIELD:
Often you should give more than you take. The timing of the yield is often more important than the driving and non-allowing.
Did you feel a positive response…even a hint of compliance? If you wait so long that you can feel the full effects of the half halt, it would be way past time to yield. The yield is what encourages self-carriage. No yield leads to stiffness and tension.
Should you use more than one half halt at a time? Sometimes it takes a series, one each stride, to accomplish the necessary re-balancing.
BENEFIT Balance, collection, essential pieces of the riding puzzle.
Posted in Conformation, Exercise, Forward, Gaits, Riding, Training, tagged balance, behind the vertical, collection, equilibrium, equine, exercises, high head, hollow back, horse, horseback riding, in front of the vertical, training on September 9, 2010| 4 Comments »
Dear Cherry,
I have a 10 year old quarter horse mare who has never been trained by an “excellent” trainer. She is a perfect horse on the ground and out on the trail. But I have noticed she doesn’t travel behind the vertical. She has her head pretty high up. I have no clue where or how to train her so that she is behind the vertical. I know this is causing her to have a very hollow back. It cant be very comfortable for her. I’m wondering if this is also causing some other problems with her, like bucking when I ask her to canter and rushing in the trot. Will a de gouge or Chambon help her? Please help me figure out how I can fix her. I love her so much and she is an amazing horse to ride. I just don’t want her to be uncomfortable. Taylor
Hi Taylor,
When a horse has a high head and a hollow back, that usually means that the horse’s hindquarters are not “engaged”. By that it is meant that there is not enough propulsion or energy coming from “behind” – the horse is trotting or loping out behind himself rather than up under himself with his hind legs, which causes him to be strung out and hollow backed and high headed.
When a horse is engaged and working energetically behind, he rounds his whole topline which raises his back ! Yeah !
So, you want to start working from the back to the front NOT from the front to the back. You want to work on developing more forward movement from the hindquarters.
You mention “she doesn’t travel behind the vertical” – well that is a good thing ! A horse in balance and working energetically forward will hold its head and neck in a nice balanced position with its nose approximately 10 to 15 degrees IN FRONT of the vertical – that’s a nice place for both you and the horse to have a back and forth communication.
So you want to work on forward, long and low exercises to strengthen her back and abdominal muscles and then slowly gather her up and start to collect her – but this will take months of training. Be patient and work for degrees of improvement. A good reference for you would be 101 Arena Exercises.
Look at the frame of the two horses on the cover of my book below – I looked through hundreds of photos to find these two which exemplify balanced working frames and as you can see, both of the horses carry their heads in front of the vertical.
I’m also going to provide you with some links to more articles on my website that talk about the phases of training and collection for your continued reading enjoyment and reference.
Best of luck,
Cherry Hill
The Phases of Training: by Cherry Hill
Your Horses’ Physical Development – The Early Stages: by Cherry Hill
What is Collection?: by Cherry Hill
Posted in Bad Habits, Behavior, Feeding and Nutrition, Forward, Ground Training, In-Hand Work, Pasture, Riding, Training, tagged equine, exercises, grass snatching, grazing while riding, ground training, horse, horseback riding, lessons, riding, training on August 8, 2010| 12 Comments »
I have a mare that just recently decided that she will eat grass and by golly she will eat! She’s my first horse and I’ve owned her for two years now and we just moved her to our own property about a month ago.
I’ve been training her, as she hadn’t been trained very well and I can’t figure out how to make her stop. Every time I go out for a ride she throws her head down and eats. No matter what I do I can’t bring her head up, and if she does, then it goes right back down again. Riding her has become a fight that I can’t really win and she’s no longer a joy to get on. I don’t want to be cruel and tug on her mouth and kick or use severe corrections, because I know those just put fear into the horse.
I would really appreciate it if you could give me a pointer or two if you have time. Thanks for reading this!
Katie
Hi Katie,
You can approach this situation with ground work or when you are riding. In either situation, make sure the horse has just eaten her full feed of hay and any supplements or grain she gets. Or if she is a pastured horse, be sure she has had her usual time on pasture.
For example, our horses are turned out for 12 hours overnight to graze. When we lead them out to pasture in the evening, if I would stop on the way to the pasture in spot with lush grass, it wouldn’t surprise me if my horse would start salivating and looking at that grass with an intent to dive down and grab some. But in the morning, when I jingle the horses, the last thing on their minds is to eat grass on the way back to the barn. They’ve had their fill.
So as soon after your horse finishes eating, begin your training session. You will have better chance for success on a full stomach.
First a few pointers and tips.
If you don’t feel confident doing this yourself, ask for someone to help you. Sometimes just the confidence of having someone nearby will help things go better. And its a good safety precaution.
If you feel unable to perform these exercises in a grassy area, first practice them in the arena or a pen just to get your timing down.
I suggest you review all ground training exercises to see where your horse’s strengths and weaknesses are so you can build on her strong points and work on improving her weak areas. You can see an In-Hand Checklist here.
I’d start out with ground training. I’d outfit the horse in a rope halter and you could consider putting a grazing muzzle on the horse for the early lessons. A grazing muzzle will prevent your horse from eating even if she DOES get her head down. You see, each time your horse even snatches one blade of grass when she dives down, she has rewarded herself for her behavior. Each time she does this, it becomes a more deeply entrenched habit, one that will require more persistence on your part to change. So if you can first eliminate the reward, no grass, even if she does dive down, she won’t get the grass !
Now you have several choices as to how you want to approach this.
1. Establish rules as to when a horse can and can’t eat elsewhere and then here. Like you train dogs to wait until you give them a bowl of food, teach your horse to wait until you give him the signal to approach his grain. You’ll need to develop a clean distinction between when it is fine to eat and not eat. You should be able to dump grain in a dish on the ground and your horse should wait until you give her the signal it is OK to move forward to eat. You should also be able to back your horse away from that dish while she is eating.
2. When the horse is most likely to snatch grass, be ready to give the horse something else to do. When she starts to lower her head, make her move forward right away – if ground training, send the horse out on the longe line. If riding, use your method to get the horse to move forward – use as little as you need to get the job done but as much as it takes from leg pressure to clucking to kicking to a tap with a whip to spanking across the hindquarters with a rope. The object is to get the horse to move her feet forward and raise her head. As soon as she does, stop your cues.
3. Whether you are ground training or riding, when a horse starts to dive down, turn the horse rather than pull straight back on both reins. Pulling back or up doesn’t accomplish much more than isometric arm exercise for you and banging on the horse’s mouth ! Instead turn the horse one way or the other. When riding this is best done in a snaffle bit, a side pull or a bosal using a leading rein. Bend the horse and send him forward at the same time and once you gain control, “bait” him again by giving the horse a slack rein.
4. As with many training situations, when you are riding a grass snatcher, you must always be “on” – always ready to react.
Best of luck and let me know how your horse training program progresses.
Cherry Hill