Teach Your Horse to Collect

Collection

What is collection?

Collection is when a horse carries most 

of its weight on its hind end, but it’s much more than that. Collection happens when a horse rounds its back upwards, lowers it neck, lifts its shoulders, and drives its hind legs deeper underneath itself. This puts the horse in a position to perform maneuvers faster, and more efficiently, with greater strength and agility.

Why is it important?

Do you want your horse to neck rein perfectly? Turn on a dime? Lope smooth? Travel at a consistent speed, not too fast, not to slow? We all say we want a horse with a great hip, or big butt. Collection is the only way to allow the horse to use this awesome asset.

How do I teach my horse collection?

Prerequisites

-Your horse needs to back off of bit pressure, and be soft in the face.

-Your horse needs to understand the stop and back, and do it with little to no resistance. (see previous post)

The Process

To use another car analogy, think of collection as pushing the gas pedal and the brakes in your car at the same time. Doing this will drive the horses legs underneath itself, lift its back, and maximize all of your horses power and agility.

At a walk, as the horse is moving forward, gently lift the reins and make direct contact with the horses mouth, the horse should want to stop and back off the bit (see previous post about Stops).  

But we don't want the horse to stop, we simply want it to slow down and collect itself. 

So to keep the horse from stopping and backing, simultaneously apply enough leg pressure to keep the horse moving forward. This will cause the horse to drop its nose, slow down, and lift its back. Once it does all three of those things with little to no resistance to the bit, release your legs, and drop the reins. 

One Step at a Time

At first, ask for the horse to hold its collected frame for a step or two, and as it gets more and more comfortable, increase the length of time you ask your horse to hold this frame.

You repeat this drill at a walk until the horse responds correctly with little to no resistance consistently.

Then ask the horse to do the same thing at a trot, then at a lope.

Notes: 

- The amount of bit pressure and leg pressure varies from horse to horse, most horses are faster and generally require more bit pressure, while the slower horse requires more encouragement from our legs.

- Be careful not to let the horse "hang" on the bit during collection, the more you pull on the brakes the faster they will run out. 

If a horse begins to build some resistance on the bit, take your leg pressure away and ask your horse to stop and back up repeatedly until the softness returns. 

Once it does return, begin asking for collection again paying special attention to giving your horse a release of the pressure when it responds correctly. 

Does my horse need to learn collection?

The answer is . . . it’s up to you. What collection creates is: speed control, better neck reining, deeper stops, tighter turns, more athletic movement, and a more agile, athletic horse. If any of those things are skills you want your horse to perform at its highest potential, then yes. If not, then it’s probably not that big of a deal.

Is it hard to accomplish? Depends, horses are born naturally collected or not. But no matter where your horse falls on the talent scale, it can definitely be improved on.

Collection is not something to be messed with until your horse has an awesome set of brakes. This doesn’t mean it needs to drag its tail in the dirt, it just means it needs to back off the bit soft and willingly. For details on how to teach your horse to stop, please check out the previous post.

Get your Horse to Stop by Backing Up

Think of stopping your horse as if you are driving your car. Instead of pushing the car into park to get a great stop, you want put the car into reverse. Of course this would ruin a cars transmission, but it'll get your horse to stop harder, deeper, and do it with much less resistance. Horses that stop hard do it because they are preparing themselves to have to back up.

Possibly the most important part of teaching the stop, and most overlooked, is teaching our horses to back up. 

Why? When a horse backs up correctly, it drops its butt, rounds its back, and drives its hind legs underneath itself. The same body position of a great stop.

To get a great stop you must first get a great back up.

A great back up goes like this:

1 - Rider lifts the reins and makes light direct contact with the horses mouth.

2 - Horse drops his nose towards its chest to relieve the pressure from the bit, causing the back to round.

3 - Horse backs off the bit by backing up.

Use the back up to teach your horse to stop by:

1 - As you walk, ensuring the reins are hanging loose with no pressure on the bit.

2 - Gently lift the reins, say whoa, release any leg pressure, and ask the horse to back up(reapply leg pressure to help back up). 

3 - Once the horse is backing up and soft in the bit, let go.

4 - Repeat this drill until the horse responds quickly and correctly 90% of the time.

5 - Once the horse can do this at a walk, repeat this drill at a trot, then at a lope.

Pay attention to:

- You'll notice a hesitancy between the horse waking forward and backing up, the key to a great stop is to make that hesitancy disappear. This will happen through repetition of the drill, as the horse gets more comfortable and understands better the cue.

- Your horse may have stiffness to the bridle, this may dissipate as the horse gains more understanding of the cues, or the horse may need softening drills and exercises, or it may have physical ailments causing it pain, such as wolf teeth or an ill fitting bit.

-   Horses are born great, average, or poor stoppers. Great stoppers have God given talents and abilities that make them so, the same as some of us run faster, jump higher, or sing better than others. Some horses simply are born for stopping, and others are not.

Our job as trainers and riders is to give our horses the tools and skills they need to stop at their highest potential, whether that be high or low. No matter how well the horse is going to stop, the skills needed to perform it are the same. 

These drills aren't guaranteed to make your horse slide 30 feet, or drag the base of its tail in the dirt, but they are guaranteed to get your horse stopping as hard as it can.

Be sure to subscribe to this weekly blog. Enter a question, or submit a subject in the comments below, and be sure to read next weeks entry discussing "collection".

Thanks,

Randy White

How to Fix a Cold Backed Horse

Have you ever been bucked off by a supposed to be "broke" horse?

Wanted to go on a nice easy ride, and wham, your body slammed into the dirt, or grass, or even the manure?

Some horse are labeled as cold backed horses. Meaning they have the tendency to buck or get a big hump in their back when you first saddled them, or first climbed on them to ride. 

I bring this up because of a horse we have had in training recently. This horse is a nice, easy going, slow walking half draft, but he is a cold backed horse. Not at all convenient for a ranch horse.

Why do they do it? I don't know exactly, could be a wide range of reasons, bad saddle, soreness, pain, or other physical ailments. But a lot of the time, that's just the way they are. That's right certain breeds, and bloodlines carry this tendency and its as much a part of their personality as narcissism is a part of Charlie Sheen's.

So how do you fix one of these horses?  You can't. But you can still have a working relationship with them if you show a little respect and understanding for their quirks and imperfections.

Generally a "cold backed" horse is only that way at the beginning or the start of a ride. Once they warm up, or get moving they free up and relax a little bit. So the key to keeping them from bucking when you get on is making sure that they are adequately warmed up. That doesn't mean run them around the round pen 3 times. You have to really get them warmed up, with a sweat breaking, without scaring them or working them up while you do it. You can do this in a number of ways:

- Put them on a walker for 30 minutes or so(preferably saddled).

- Lunge them on a line or in the round pen for 20 minutes or more.
- Pony them with an older, more experienced horse for first 20 minutes of a ride.

Are any of these methods easy or convenient, or even a sure solution? Not really, but they are much better alternatives than starting every ride with a rodeo. Horses are animals with personalities and their own fears and quirks. They don't come custom built like a vehicle can. Can a "cold backed" horse get better, or even completely get over it? You bet, but until that happens we have to respect that part of their personality and make the adjustments for any success to be possible.

A good training program isn't made for convenience, its made for results. We can't force horses through a cookie cutter training program, we have to adjust and customize the program to fit the skills, talents, and personalities of each individual horse, giving them the specific tools they need to be successful.

Remember ... Whether cold backed or not, most times the best horses are tired horse.