Tag Archives: gaited horse

Video: Cues to a Softer Halt

Cues to a softer halt

Here’s a sequence of cues that produce a soft, round, and relaxed halt without the use of force or pulling back on the reins.

Cues to a Softer Halt

Back in the days before owning horses, I looked forward to the hour-long trail rides each summer. Before our group mounted up, the trail guide would give us these handy instructions: “kick” to go and “pull” on the reins to stop.

Now that I’ve been a horse owner for a few decades, I’ve learned better approaches than “kick” to go and “pull” to stop which produce softer and rounder responses. The cues are a blend of tips I have learned from classical French dressage and natural horsemanship philosophies.

Halt and salute
Each test begins and ends with a halt and salute where the horse stands square and immobile for three seconds.

I ride my naturally gaited and barefoot Tennessee walking horse in a mild snaffle bit and have been competing at schooling dressage shows since 2010. We consistently earn scores of “8” on our center line halt and salute.

Below is a sequence of cues that produce a soft, round, and relaxed halt without the use of force or pulling back on the reins.

How to produce a soft, round and relaxed halt

  1. Well fitting equipment: Beginning with a practical note, an uncomfortable horse is unable to perform a soft, round, and relaxed halt. So, it is important to ride your horse in a well-fitting saddle, bridle and bit. Also have your horse’s teeth checked and floated regularly by an equine dentist or qualified veterinarian.
  2. Following seat: The next thing I do is develop a following seat (versus a driving seat). I encourage my horse forward with my seat, followed up with the use of my voice, a bump and release of my lower calf, and a tap of the dressage whip if needed. Then I follow the motion of my horse’s walk (in a toned sort of way) as if my hip joints walk with my horse’s hind legs. I do not drive my horse forward with my seat (by thrusting my pelvis forward and backward) as I believe this annoys my horse and eventually causes her to tune me out.
  3. Stilling seat: When I am about to come to a halt, I gently squeeze and release the reins with my middle, ring and pinky fingers to soften and round my horse. At the same time, I still my seat and no longer follow the motion of my horse. If the horse is listening to my seat, the horse will stop.
  4. Alternating squeeze and release of the rein: Plan B: If my horse doesn’t halt with the stilling of my seat, then I follow it up with an alternating squeeze and release of each rein in sequence with each hind step. As if to say, “Stop your foot. Now stop your other foot.” I will keep alternating the squeeze and release of each rein with each step combined with a stilled seat until the horse slows to a stop.

    I have found that this approach produces a softer, rounder, more relaxed and square halt than when squeezing both reins at the same time, and definitely better than pulling back on the reins.

  5. Repeat the exercise: If the horse didn’t stop by my seat, I will return to a forward walk and repeat the exercise a few times before moving on to something else. Then I’ll come back to the exercise a couple more times during our riding session.

  6. Practice: I practice this exercise each time I ride. Every horse I ride becomes more and more responsive to my seat, softer, rounder, and more relaxed with the halting, less dependent upon the reins for stopping, less depended upon the voice, legs, and whip to move forward and more responsive to the seat.

Video: Cues to a Softer Halt

A square halt from the medium walk is required in NWHA Intro tests, a square halt from the flat walk is required in NWHA Training Level tests, and a square halt from a canter is required in NWHA Fourth Level.

Video: Soft Halts from the Medium Walk, Flat Walk and Canter

More Exercises for the Gaited Horse to improve smooth gaits.


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Age-defying Dressage with a Smooth Gaited Horse

age defying dressage with a gaited horse

When your body can no longer endure the sitting trot, it’s time to discover dressage with a naturally smooth gaited horse!

Age-Defying Dressage with a Smooth Gaited Horse

By Jennifer Klitzke

H-X-F, extended trot along the diagonal. Oh, dread, my German warmblood Seiltanzer has never been smooth to sit, especially at the extended trot, and over the last twenty years both of us have aged. Each stride has become more dislodging, resulting in back pain, sagging breasts seeming to hit me in the face with each step, and sometimes “splash”—the loss of bladder control! What began as a beautiful dance between horse and rider has now become a losing fight with gravity.

SeilTanzer
Jennifer Klitzke riding her dressage gelding SeilTanzer (1998)

In 2007, I joined other aging baby boomers and retired from showing hard-trotting horses, but I didn’t want to give up riding, especially the beautiful dance of dressage.

This quandary introduced me to the bounceless stride of the Tennessee walking horse, and I have learned that I’m not alone. The naturally gaited horse industry has seen a continual climb in popularity. Tennessee walking horses, Missouri foxtrotters, Rocky Mountain spotted horses, Icelandics, gaited mules, Paso Finos, and Peruvian Pasos are among these naturally smooth-gaited horse breeds. Not only that, I was thrilled to learn that dressage actually improves the gaited horse’s quality of movement. The principles of dressage build balance, forwardness, relaxation, suppleness, and engagement and can actually transform a pacey horse into a smooth four-beat gaiting dance partner.

Below are seven ways  that improve the naturally gaited horses’s quality of movement using the dressage I learned while riding trotting horses. These humane training methods transform an ordinary ride into a beautiful dance—even while on the trail!

1. Equipment: Just as it is no fun to dance with ill-fitting shoes, an uncomfortable horse is an unhappy dance partner. Dressage methods are best applied by riding with a well-fitted snaffle bit that encourages salivation and acceptance of the bit, as opposed to bits that are engineered for pain avoidance. Remember to loosely adjust the noseband so your horse is able to open its mouth. A tight noseband causes undue tension that can show itself throughout all dance expressions. Equally important is a properly fitting saddle that does not pinch the shoulders or touch the wither while you’re in the saddle.

2. Stretching: Begin and end each dance session with 5-10 minutes of a forward moving without rushing walk. Follow your horse’s side-to-side belly sway with your hip joints and encourage your horse to maximize each step deep under its body. Allow the horse to stretch forward, down and out. Stretching helps lengthen the naturally gaited horse’s topline muscles and increase a horse’s stride. Be careful that the horse’s poll doesn’t drop below the wither height, or the gaited horse will begin to fall onto the forehand. It is important that the gaited horse remains balanced over all four feet during the stretching.

Neck extension at a flat walk
This is a great example of a neck extension at a flat walk. My horse is engaged, lifting her back, stretching out, forward, and down at chest level with an even snaffle bit contact.

3. Transitions: Choreograph every ride with changes of direction and tempo to keep it interesting for you and your horse. Walk-canter-walk, halt-rein back-walk, and transitions from walk to gait and back every 5-10 steps are great exercises that will improve the communication between you and your equine dance partner. Transitions can improve your horse’s responsiveness and graciously establish you as the dance leader.

4. Bending: Twenty-meter circles, three-loop serpentines, spiraling in and out of a circle are great exercises to encourage a horse to bend through the neck, shoulders, and rib cage, and teach the horse to step deeper under its body with its hind leg steps. Bending exercises improve a horse’s balance, lighten the forehand to carry itself more poised, and help smooth out a rough gait.

Lateral exercises at a collected walk
Lateral exercises at a slow collected walk help the naturally gaited horse develop balance.

5. Lateral exercises: Zig-zag leg yields, turn on the haunches, turn on the forehand, haunches-in, shoulder-in, and half-pass are great dance moves to bring balance, supple and soften your gaited horse and build trust and communication between you and your dance partner.

6. Canter: It is a popular myth that cantering a gaited horse will ruin its naturally smooth four-beat gait. On the contrary, I have found that cantering actually improves my Walking Horse’s flat walk and running walk. Cantering up hills, in 20-meter circles, over ground rails and small jumps will strengthen your horse, lengthen its stride, and break up a pace.

canter
First level tests require 15 meter canter circles, working canter, canter lengthenings, and one loop counter canter serpentines.

7. Become a dressage student: There are a few gaited horse trainers and nationally known clinicians who I have learned from who use dressage methods to improve the movement of naturally gaited horses. Among them are Jennie Jackson, Larry Whitesell and Jennifer Bauer. Audit their clinics, read their books, and watch their training DVDs or find an open-minded traditional dressage instructor to help you and your gaited horse get started with suppling exercises.

Dressage will help your gaited horse improve its smooth, four-beat gaits, and make your horse a more mentally connected dance partner. Dressage with your smooth gaited horse can transform even a ride on the trail into a beautiful dance you can comfortably enjoy well into your senior years.


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Collected Walk-Canter-Walk Transitions for the Gaited Horse

dressage-as-applied-to-the-gaited-horse-walk-canter-walk-transitions-by-jennifer-klitzke

Here’s a dressage exercise that can improve a gaited horse canter while improving a rider’s balanced position and timing of rein, leg and seat aids.

How to improve a gaited horse canter using dressage

By Jennifer Klitzke

In the short time Jennie Jackson was in Minnesota this year I learned so much. Here’s an effective exercise she taught me and my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse: collected walk-canter-walk transition on a 15-meter circle to improve our gaited horse canter.

This exercise helps the rider organize their rein, leg and seat aids; develop effective use and timing of the aids; maintain a balanced riding position through the transitions; direct the horse into a relaxed, forward balance canter transition; and develop quality canter steps.

Here’s how…

Establish a collected walk on a 15-meter circle:

  • Establish a forward moving collected walk in a shoulder-fore position by applying inside lower leg calf through the ankle at the girth. This helps to bend my mare’s body and step her inside hind leg under her belly toward her outside front leg.
  • My outside indirect rein is held slightly against the neck with more contact than my inside softening rein. The outside rein keeps the outside shoulder from falling out and keeps the neck rather straight.
  • The inside rein massages as needed to soften my mare’s jaw so that she flexes at the atlas (poll) slightly into the circle enough where I see the corner of her eye.
  • It is important that her ears remain level without tilting her head to the side.
  • The energy from her hindquarters travels through her body and into the connection with my hands which feels like her shoulders lift, and she becomes lighter in front while I feel her back puff up under my seat as she engages her abdominal muscles.

Develop collected walk to canter transitions

  • The timing of this transition is important. The outside hind leg is the first step in the canter sequence. When I feel my mare beginning to step her outside hind leg forward, that’s when I need to apply my outside lower leg behind the girth.
  • Maintain the inside lower leg at the girth and the rein connection so that my mare holds the bend through the canter transition.
  • Focus on a still riding position during the upward transition without tipping my upper body forward. This allows my horse to step into a balanced canter.

Teach the gaited horse canter transitions to quality canter steps

  • Bring the horse back to a collected walk before the canter quality falls apart. Over time, the horse will build more and more consecutive quality canter steps.
  • During the downward transition from canter to walk, grow taller in the saddle while applying a slight half halt with the seat, a brief closing of the fingers on the outside rein, and a release as the horse moves into a forward moving collected walk.

Watch: Walk-Canter-Walk Transitions on a 15-meter Circle

Thank you, Jennie Jackson, for coming to Minnesota. I have finally connected with a coach who not only has the applied knowledge and proven experience through the highest levels of dressage with Tennessee walking horses, but someone who communicates gaited horse concepts in ways I understand. My naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse has never moved better!

For more about Jennie Jackson and dressage en gaite, visit Jennie Jackson: Dressage en Gaite.


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Rein Back To Smooth Gait

How to perform a quality rein back for smooth gait:

Develop awareness of feel while riding—the feeling of hollow, the feeling of round, and the impact each have on smooth gait. Here’s an exercise that can help..

Rein Back to Smooth Gait

By Jennifer Klitzke

My naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse Makana has a rather long back for her size, and she has been rather stiff. That’s one of the biggest reasons why I registered for another gaited horse clinic with Larry Whitesell and Jennifer Bauer.

At last year’s gaited horse clinic, Larry and Jennifer showed me ways to unlock tension and set us on a course to balance and relaxation.

The importance of saddle fit

At this clinic, Larry and Jennifer helped me address my horse’s back bracing issues. We began with saddle fit.

Since 2007, I have tried nine different saddles to find one that fits Makana. I’ve ridden in round skirted western saddles, dressage saddles, gaited saddles, and treeless saddles. Most saddles have been too narrow which pinched her shoulders and restricted her movement. The saddle I have been riding in is an all-purpose saddle which seemed to fit.

At closer examination, the saddle fit my horse in the cross ties. It had plenty of clearance over her wither—until I sat in the saddle. Then the saddle sank and rested on her wither. This is likely a big reason Makana was bracing her back.

Larry switched to his saddle with a gaited tree. It fit perfectly (in and out of the cross ties), and we proceeded with the lesson.

The feeling of hollow, the feeling of round and its impact on movement

Larry and Jennifer helped open my riding awareness to the “feel” of my horse’s back. They challenged me to notice when my horse feels hollow and when it feels round and then pay attention to how each impact her movement.

When my horse hollows her back, she loses forwardness, impulsion, and the depth of stride. Cueing her forward while hollow only makes her take short, quick steps. She feels smooth, but she is not producing the smooth quality four-beat flat walk she is capable of.

Larry explained how I needed to improve the bio-mechanics of my horse’s way of going. Instead of driving her forward while hollow, I needed to help Makana engage her abdominal muscles to lift and round her back before encouraging her forward with relaxed deeper steps.

Rein Back and Forth to Smooth Gaits

Larry taught me a great exercise that helped my horse engage her abdominal muscles to lift her back.

Rein Back to Forward Steps

  • Beginning at a soft and round halt, I gently cue my horse three to five steps of slow and steady rein back
  • Then halt and gently cue my horse three to five steps forward and halt
  • Repeat the back and forth sequence three times
  • The exercise is not rushed or forced
  • It is important that the horse remains relaxed and round from nose to tail
  • Once the horse feels lifted in the back during the last sequence of back and forth, then continue to move forward and maintain the feeling of relaxation and engaged abdominal muscles to lift the back
  • When introducing this exercise, I only asked for a step or two of rein back

How to perform a quality rein back for smooth gait:

  1. For the rein back, I close my fingers on the reins without pulling back. This tells the horse don’t go forward. Then I draw my heels slightly behind the girth, hold my weight in my thighs and move my pelvis upward to lighten my seat. If my horse feels hollow, then I hug my horse with my heels to encourage her to engage her abdominal muscles and lift her back.
  2. The forward cues are opening my fingers without giving away the reins, move my pelvis forward and squeezing and release my calves if needed to move forward.
  3. Repeat the back and forth three times until I feel my horse’s back lift the saddle beneath me. Then I proceed forward ending the exercise and maintain the roundness in her back, the connection back to front, and engagement for deeper steps.

So each time I feel my horse’s back begin to sag, I repeat the “Rein Back and Forth to Better Movement” exercise and then resume where we left off before the exercise. This exercise has made a big difference in my horse’s movement and willingness to go forward.

Makana is happy that I am now on saddle number ten that is wide enough for her shoulders and tall enough to clear her withers.

Does anyone want to buy a saddle?

Video: Back and Forth to Better Movements

More Exercises for the Gaited Horse to improve smooth gaits.


I hope this is helpful. Let me know your thoughts by sending a message.

Visit website: NaturallyGaitedHorse.com
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