Al Ragusin's Dancing Horse Show

Dear Al,

I made a set of double reins exactly like yours and followed your instructions on the adjustment of them as exactly on your video. My eleven year old gelding did collect like you said I have him in a collected walk and trot. When I start to canter with him he pulls on the bit at times and wants to stop. I put pressure as you indicated he will make the circle in a collected canter once or twice and then he stops or wants to stop. I am not sure what is happening. Do I continue to put pressure on the outside leg and tap him with the crop? I have made a 42’ round pen and he seems to do it on each lead. When he stops suddenly I have a tendency to go forward in the saddle which makes me give him slack on the reins. What am I doing wrong? Need your help.

Ron

Hi Ron,

You didn’t mention if the bottom rein “the bungee cord” is being used because you need to keep it on him for at least 30 days or until he makes each movement correctly and does not do any of what you just described. You need to know when you change the running habits of a horse and make him run collected he is running against the pressure of his head down this might happen. You may be moving your hands in the gallop and he may think you are asking him for a stop. And you going forward in the saddle may be because your feet are in the wrong position. So let me break it down for you this way. In a left lead you need 80% of your weight in the saddle and 20% in the stirrups. So when you are loping in a left lead you are leaning in the left stirrup which means you must now have around 15% of your weight in that left stirrup which leaves you approximately 5% in the right leg. Your right foot should be slightly behind the girth with slight pressure against his right rib cage and you should be able to see your left boot and your left stirrup. That way if he decides to stop your left leg will keep you from moving forward and you must put immediate pressure on your right calf and your crop should be on the right ready to reinforce your cue when your right calf puts pressure to keep him in a lope. He may pull his head up during the loping but the rubber rein will bring it back into position until he learns to run collected. Once he is in a slow collected lope on the outside circle of your pen make the circle 3’ smaller for a couple of turns then take him back out to the outside circle. Keep doing this until he has both circles down pat. Then you might take 3 more feet and make a smaller circle in other words you have an outside circle, a medium circle and then a small circle. Always start at the outside circle then to the medium circle and then to the smaller circle and then repeat back to the medium then to the outside before you stop the movement. You don’t want to do more than 10 circles to start with then increase it to 15 or 20, no more. Now when he starts the smaller circle he will have a tendency to really slow down because in order for him to make a smaller circle his hind legs will have to make a shorter stride than his front legs. So be ready to reinforce the cue but be patient with him and go slow. You are asking for him to have a lot of confidence to put his left hind leg so far under him, only do this once to begin with. If you find that he changes leads in the back legs in that smaller circle it is to defend himself as he feels like he may fall or slip with his left rear leg under him. In this case bring him back to a trot and lope him in the bigger circle because he is not ready for the smaller circle. Do it a little bit at a time and you will be surprised on how fast he will pick it u p if you do it slowly. Then go to the right lead and do the same. If you find that he does one lead better than the other that is just natural all horse have a favorite side or one that he is more use to. If this happens just to the side that he is not so good at twice as much as the side he is good at. He will soon do each side as good. If you have any more questions just call me or send me a video but either way let me know. You are doing just fine it takes a little time for you and your horse to make this adjustment and sometimes an older horse takes more time because he is use to doing it another way. Once you show him walk, trot, and lope collected he will enjoy it more because it is more comfortable for him as it is for you.

Al

PS: Due to the length of the explanation of this question this is all the room I have for your questions and answer for this month.