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Hi, I'm Larry Trocha: We're going to go through some techniques here for stopping
your horse that work really well for me. It's not the only way to do it but it's a good
way, and it works well for me. When we ask our horse to stop, I want you to visualize
a brick wall, 10 foot tall, two foot wide. It's a solid brick wall. If we were riding
that horse straight to the brick wall at a walk, when his nose touched that brick wall
straight on, he would instantly stop. Because as he touched it, he can feel that it was
a solid immovable object, he knows that instantly. If we continued to urge him to go forward,
while pointing him at the brick wall, he can drop his nose and take another step forward,
and have his forehead flat against that brick wall.
If we continued to urge him forward with our feet, he really can't go forward. The brick
wall is there. About the only thing he can really do is back up. I really want you to
have this concept etched in your mind because it's critical. We want to use our bit in most
cases, when we're stopping. The same way we would use that brick wall. The bit needs to
feel immovable to the horse. It has to feel solid. To get that to happen
the way we use our hands and our body, is critical. If I want to stop and I'm sitting
in this position here, my pelvis underneath me, my shoulders directly over my hips. Notice
how my forearms are pretty much in line with the horse's mouth. My hands are in front of
the saddle. When it's time to stop the horse, the reins
are anchored between my thumb and forefinger, so I can take the slack out of the reins with
my little finger, as my elbow comes back, to make contact with the horse's mouth. Once
I make contact, I close my fingers and set the bit solid.
I'm not pulling the horse, the bit's just set solid. He's backing off of it, because
he can feel that it's solid. If I need to take up more slack, say I take hold of the
horse, set the bit solid, and he drops his nose, and keeps going forward, if I need to
apply more pressure, I'll move my elbows back to apply that pressure, and then set the bit
solid. I may initially apply maybe two pounds of
pressure and set the bit solid. If he stops, I give him slack. If he doesn't stop with
two pounds of pressure, my elbows come back as my forearms stay in line with his mouth,
and I might apply four pounds of pressure. Whatever it takes to get the job done. I'm
setting the bit solid. I want to make it clear, I'm not pulling on his mouth. I'm taking several
pounds of pressure and holding it there, holding it solid.
If he pulls on me...A lot of you are going to have horses that aren't very well trained,
and they're going to pull on you, try to pull you out of the saddle. Try to pull your arms
loose so they can get slack. It's important that you have your butt tucked
underneath you, and your shoulders over your hips, and your hands and arms in this position.
In this position, if that horse pulls on you, all's he's going to do is pull you deeper
into the saddle, and you'll be able to maintain your brick wall.
If your back is arched and your butt out behind you, if he pulls on you, he's just going to
pull you forward out of the saddle. By the same token, if you're trying to set the brick
wall with your hands down here with a straight arm, it's very easy for him to just pull your
hands forward. You've got no leverage here. Same thing if
you're holding the reins up here by your throat or using your forearms to stop your horse.
It's real easy for the horse to pull you off balance right there, and then he's not going
to learn how to stop. This body position of sitting down, setting
the brick wall, is critical. When we're riding our horse, depending on the speed that we're
going, we may stop the horse by setting the brick wall, giving him slack, setting the
brick wall, giving him slack, in a set, set, set, type of motion.
Just like when we were turning our horse around, we were doing the rein release, rein release.
We'll untie and stop the horse the same way by using a series of set release, set release,
set release. When I say set, I'm talking about set the
bit solid, set the bit solid, set the brick wall, set the brick wall, set the brick wall.
OK? This horse is resisting me a little bit. You
see his mouth open up? Whenever your horse opens his mouth, he's not relaxing his jaw.
He's not as supple as he needs to be. He needs to be suppled up a little bit more.
Cavison isn't necessary to tie his mouth shut. As soon as your horse is supple and giving,
he'll no longer open his mouth. If we're walking along, if I want my horse to bridle up or
flex at the pole, I can use my hands passively. With a little seesaw, I'm setting the bit
left right, left right with a little seesaw, and I'm keeping him going with my feet.
When it's time to stop, I quit using my feet, set the bit solid, give him slack. If I want
to back up, I set the bit solid again. I ask for motion with my feet. The bit, the brick
wall set solid in front of him, the only place he can go is backwards.
I'm not pulling him back. I'm simply setting the brick wall in front of him, by setting
the bit and then asking for motion with my feet. If that brick wall is set, he's forced
to go back. Let's trot our horse. Ask him forward with
our feet. Whoa, good. I just said, "Whoa," let my legs relax, set my brick wall. He hit
the bricks. I give him slack. If he didn't stop, I would take hold of him again and back
him up, bump him with my feet. Let him know that he should have stopped a
little quicker. Drive forward. Whoa! Good. Again, I set the brick wall. As soon as he
hit the brakes, I move my hands forward to give him slack. That's his reward for stopping.
That's what gives him the incentive to get light and continue to stop well. If he didn't
stop, again, I would shake his head down, left right, left right, set the brick wall
solid, bump him with my feet to back him up quick. I might even give him a little pull
right there just to say, "Hey, you should have responded to that bit a little bit better."
Ride him forward. Whoa! Good. That's basically how we get our horse to stop. If we were going
at a faster speed, which we're going to do a little later, I would go set release, set
release. I used three sets and releases right there.
[silence] Larry: Boom, boom, boom. Right there I used
three sets and releases to stop him. I turn with rein release, rein release, ask for the
lope. Whoa! Good. Again, I used several sets and releases.
I went, "Whoa! Set release, set release, set release." The multiple sets and releases is
what keeps their head position good. If I use just one big set and release or pulled,
it would cause their head to go up.