Training a horse to go western

[leoquine]

Well, I have a 6 YO mare named May. She's sort of green, seeing that for about half of her life she was turned out in a very large pasture. May was basically feral out in that pasture, so she kinda forgot about riding for two or three years :rolleyes: Anyway, I've been riding and training her since January, so she's improved a lot, though she's still a bit green. For example, she goes fast when she comes out of the corners of a ring and sometimes won't respond to cues correctly, etc.
But this summer, I want to train May western. I know how to train her to neckrein, but what about training her to properly jog and lope?

Thanks.

[Just.Jump]

You don't really need to train this into a horse- it's a speed, not a skill.
You need to get to a point where she has consistent speed, and to where you know what to DO when she rushes.
By my standards, a job is the speed of a relaxed walk with two beats instead of four. We use the term lope instead of canter, so pick your speed.


I HIGHLY advise that you leave neck reining as one of your final stages in training. Reining moves are easier to teach with direct and indirect reining before you go over to neck reining- the directions are clear- whereas with neck reining, anything lateral relies on YOUR leg, weight, and especially seat aids.

Western isn't nearly as simple as trail riders make it seem. Unless that's what you want, anyway.

[Cannae]

Don't try to run before you can walk...:D

Start from the beginning - look up Larry Trocha's website and join his email training group. No charge and if you need some extra really good instruction, he also does videos...