Trouble with "Whoa!"

[Greentchr]

I am haveing a problem with a new horse (western discipline) I just bought. Her "stop" leaves something to be desired: She "Whoas" for a split second, then walks through it without really coming to a balanced halt. What I have been doing is keeping with it until she comes to a complete, balanced stop, and then lots of praise. I pull on the reins, releasing as soon as she comes to a halt, but she aparently looks at that as her right to keep moving- she does not like to stand still very long (we have been working on that too by stopping and just sitting for several moments- lots of movement, however, thouigh I ask for standing still).

She is a 13 yo Arabian, formally a rodeo horse but she has had very little riding in the past two years. She is kind, well trained for the most part and seems like an excellent fit in our family, but this stopping issue needs some experienced advice!

(I posted a similar thread on mature riders, but then realized that this is probably the more correct forum)

[shirley]

Why not start to address this from the ground. Doing lots of lead rein work i.e. walk on then halt. Have a word for stand / halt / whoa, whatever you want. Get her to stand for a couple of seconds and then walk on with her. Then gradually increase this time until you get her to stand still for however long you want her too. Then back on board, use your voice command to halt her, along with weight, rein aid as well, then gradually drop the voice aid until just responding to your aids all the time.
Hope it helps.

[entreat]

Echo Shirley.

Also make sure she understands the reins at all gaits. OH's horse has a habbit of unless the reins are applied at all speeds, he's allowed to speed up, and is only just learning that's not the case. The aid given is not just a "do it once, then go back to what you wanted", it's a "do it until I say otherwise". So a drop of the reins should not mean hoss can speed up (or keep walking out of halt).

With a combination of ground work & what you've been doing, she should get it fairly quickly. Best of luck!

[Just.Jump]

For a western stop there are three steps, and they all happen within two strides.

1. Sink down, move your thighs forward and squeeze. Stop riding.
2. emmediatly after, "Whooooooaaaaah.."
3. halt with the reins

I had to work on my stops for two years now, and their still not there, but almost. If the horse moves of, you have to do a get back- ask with almost no pressure at first, and then swing them back for just a step. Continue this until the horse no longer moves forward, then provide emmediate slack in the reins- no pressure at all. This gives the horse the reward right away so that it's very obvious, as well as making them realize that it's nicer for their mouths to listen to the lighter signal to get back. This in turn will teach them that they need to respond to a lighter rein, and then if they stop, they get the reward for standing still. A reward for not working would sound great to me too

Another help is to just let her stand there on a loose rein for a minute or so, to let the reward sink in. Rollback, do some loping/cantering, and repeat.

[vancouverbc]

Ground work.

[Yann]

What sort?

Not tried it myself but Mark Rashid suggests a method of improving halt in one of his books. It involves teaching the horse to halt and then immediately back up a few strides, once this is established the halt will be greatly improved as the horse will be anticipating the back up.

Another thing to try is to breathe out when you halt, I'd never tried it before and found my horse stopped every time

[Just.Jump]

I breath out when I halt, and often close my eyes for some reason, because it helps me just to halt myself. To get a more responsive horse you should be doing general roundpen working.

[bonesinmypocket]

i'm not a western rider, and i think this would be slightly more difficult because of the rigidity of the saddle, but try to not use your hands so much. use the mentality 'my horse is moving forward because my seat allows it'. squeeze your thighs and halt him with your seat. i believe the halt command for any discipline should come very very little from the hands. use your voice. or try ground work first, but don't pull on his mouth to make him stop, just stop walking and say 'woa'. when he keeps walking then use a little pressure in the mouth, but only what you must. when he realizes 'woa' means stop moving, get in the saddle and transfer that voice command to a seat command. another take on this could be to make him work more- if he wants to go, make him go, then he'll be more inclined to want to relaxe and teaching the halt with the seat could be a littler easier then. good luck.
m

[Greentchr]

Thank you for all the supurb advice! I have the opportunity to take the horses to an arena tomorrow (we normally just ride in the mountains around us- scary at times), and I will put several of the suggestions to work there first. I will also increase my groundwork with her (we have only had her for a week, and left her to get used to her new lodgings until just this past Monday), and teach her voice cues- something I have been lax on, though I certainly see the advisability especially when faced with problems.

At least I know there are advances in adjusting to her new surroundings- instead of hightailing it to the other end of the corral as she has been doing, she walked up and waited to be be petted this morning! Perhaps the trust that is building will help sith the stop issue also. Thank you all again!

[Just.Jump]

I'm my experience, going from a canter or lope directly to a stop is always way better in a western saddle. English saddle posture is different, you really can't sink like you need to if you want the western stop (I've found that english is killing my western posture, because of how oddly forward everything is.) sitting in an english saddle is almost like standing until I realize my legs are all crunched up Makes me totally useless at stopping.