COWBOY WAY
PART 2 OF SIX
HORSE TRAINING
Starting Your Next Great Horse Part 2: Building Trust Now that our filly has made it her decision to trust her environment and her handler, she is ready for the next step in developing her full potential under saddle — suppleness and moving the limbs. A horse’s ability to move her limbs freely and respond in an athletic manner is directly related to the amount of suppleness in her body. A horse that is stiff and braces against the hand and leg aids cannot respond in a fluid manner to the commands a rider gives her. But a supple horse is limber and able to respond in an athletic and timely fashion. It is because of this fact that our next exercise is an essential part of my colt starting program. The goal of this exercise is to have the filly move her front quarters and hindquarters around freely while her body is bent and while she maintains a loose lead rope. 28
DIAGRAM: To lay a foundation for ultimate suppleness, hold the lead rope short with your elbow close to your ribs. Face the rear of the filly and walk toward her hip. In response to pressure from the halter on her head the filly will bend and move around you. As she moves, continue to walk toward her hip until she steps laterally with all four limbs in a fluid, free manner from a light contact of the lead rope.
Here we are not speaking of bending only the neck of the horse but actually developing the ability for the horse to bend her ribcage and back in response to the tug on the halter. This is important, as a horse which bends in the neck only is not sufficiently supple to perform to the best of her ability.
Simple tools such as a rope halter and an ordinary lead rope are all you need to execute this exercise. To perform this exercise, stand by the filly’s shoulder, facing her rear. Bend your arm at the elbow and hold the rope in your hand which is the closest to the shoulder/ ribcage of the horse. With the lead rope adjusted at such a length as to let you walk to about the middle of her ribcage, walk towards the filly’s hip. The filly will pull on Canadian Cowboy Country February/March 2018
DIAGRAM COURTESY J.P. FORGET; PHOTOS COURTESY J.P. FORGET/TARA MCKENZIE
By J.P. FORGET
