Anne Chunko

Lead Lines – Handy Retraining Tips

Flexibility, please! The magic word to a well-rounded horse is flexibility.

You have tried and tried to get your Standardbred to canter. Usually, he doesn’t. When he does, it’s uncomfortable, unbalanced and he can’t maintain the gait.

You want to achieve a beautiful, smooth, rounded canter. One you can enjoy on the trail or in the show ring. Saying “please” or “you’ll canter or I’ll %#@* you” hasn’t accomplished that. What can you do?

Before you trying to canter again, think about these aspects of harness racing and Standardbreds:

• Your horse has likely spent hundreds of miles jogging with an overcheck bit in his mouth.
• The overcheck bit helped him maintain his racing gait, either the trot or pace, by holidng his head and neck up.
• From all those miles of jogging with his head up, he has developed the muscles on the underside of his neck (called stag-necked if it’s obviously noticeable).
• The overcheck and now his muscling cause him to hold his head high even when ridden, and to hollow out his back, which prevents him from pushing with his haunches.
• He has learned to travel only in straight lines, not bending his body.
• He has also been strongly discouraged from cantering by his race training, since horses that canter during a race are often out of contention for purse money and/or are disqualified.

In order to get him to canter, you need to accomplish do two physical achievements. One is to teach him flexibility, which is a continuing process. The second feature he needs to develop is lowering his head and neck and bringing his back up and his haunches underneath himself.

There are many exercises that can teach your horse flexibility and bendability. These exercises will loosen his muscles through his neck, back, and haunches. This, in turn, will make it easier to get him to lower his head and neck, bring up his back, and push underneath himself.

I suggest starting out small. First, at a walk, ask him to reach around to the right and touch his tail with his nose. Although he can’t actually do that, it will help stretch the muscles of his neck and ribcage. To encourage him, make your inside rein light, and wiggle it, while at the same time holding it about six inches above his neck and away from your body. Do this for a few minutes. If he stretches out, reward him by releasing contact momentarily. Then do this exercise bending to the left. Make sure the horse remains moving forward around the circle during the exercise.

Circles with visual aids also help. They give you and him a visual center to focus on. Start by placing an object—a pylon, an overturned bucket, a barrel—in the arena. Let your horse check it out in hand first, then astride. If he wants to lower his head and sniff it, that’s great, since you want to encourage him to lower his head anyway.

Once he’s comfortable with it, circle the object at a walk. Get as close to it as possible while maintaining your circle. If he falls in and it becomes non-circular, bump him with your inside heel (the heel that is closest to the object) and take a tighter hold on the outside rein. Gradually make your circle bigger and bigger until the circle is about 20 meters (60 feet) in diameter, with the pylon in the center. At any point during your circling, if he seems to relax his head and neck, reward him with a slight release of pressure on your inside rein. You can help him relax by wiggling the inside rein. Not jerking, just wiggling, or taking up pressure with the inside rein, holding it, then relaxing the pressure momentarily. If he seems to want to pull his head down, let him, and then takes up contact with the reins again. Throughout this process, always be sure to provide him with support with your outside rein by maintaining contact with him mouth through the outside rein.

Change direction and practice the circles traveling the other way as well. If he seems to fall in, or tip to the inside as you’re circling, bump him with the inside heel. If he drops his inside shoulder, you can bump his inside elbow with your inside toe or tap him gently with a crop on his inside shoulder. If he tends to bulge to the outside or fall out of the circle, bump or press your outside heel into him, slightly behind the girth (this position will influence him to not let his haunches drift out).

Once he has the idea, you can try the circles at the trot. Make sure the circle is big enough for him to trot. You may want to use the whole arena first, then gradually move into the circle. All the same aids you used to make sure he didn’t fall in or out on the circle should be used here as well. Lots of trot work will strengthen him and help him learn to balance better, which in turn prepares him for eventually cantering.

You can add different twists to this, such as placing a cavaletti pole in the arena and incorporating it into the circle. You can then add more to the exercise by making the pole by the center of a figure eight, changing the direction of your circle each time you trot over it. You can also do over exercises like making him walk or trot in a straight line parallel to the fence but 10 to 12 feet from it. Gradually ask him to move toward the fence by bumping the inside leg against him, but hold the outside leg steady against his side.

Other devices can be used to encourage him to bring his head down, including a running martingale/ training fork, side reins, German martingale/draw reins, chambon, etc. However, these devices often teach horses to simply carry their heads and necks in a certain way, thus teaching them a headset and not affecting the back or haunches. Plus, they can cause the horse discomfort or pain if used improperly. I would recommend using them only under the advice of a professional trainer or horseperson.

You may need to work for weeks or months on making your horse more flexible. In the longer run, the hard work and patience will pay off. However, this advice should not replace that of a good riding instructor or other equestrian, and should be used as part of a complete riding program.
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This advice should not replace that of a good riding instructor or other equestrian professional, and should be used as part of a complete riding program. If you have any questions about Standardbred retraining, adoption, or pleasure horses, send e-mail to Anne Chunko.