Page 34 midwest horse digest February 09
Dealing with a
Chargy Horse
still give us maximum performance. One quiet. Once I have him loping off quiet and soft
of the most common problems we can for a couple of strides, to show him where or
have is our horse getting chargey; what speed I want him to stay, I will put him on
pushing on our hands and trying to go a looser rein and trust him to stay at that speed
faster with out us asking them to. We call unless I ask him to speed up. I will not hang
that "leaving without us", and it is a on his mouth holding him back with the reins
common problem with about every because if I do I make him stay slow instead of
Performance Horse at some point. teaching him to be slow. By holding this
pressure it makes a horse feel trapped and
One of the biggest problems I see with most of the time a horse feels like he will push
people when they have a chargey horse harder, compounding the problem.
by Monty Bruce
(a horse that wants to leave without them)
is, they become a crutch for the horse. So instead of holding him back I will give him
When a horse wants to speed up and a loose rein even though I know he will
When we are training performance horses we
leave without us asking them to and they hold probably speed up. When he speeds up I will
are asking a lot out of them, and pushing them
back on the reins and make them stay slow. pick up on the reins, taking the slack out and
to get performance.We must spend a great
They are not teaching the horse to stay with let him know I'm going to take hold of him. I
deal of time working and training our horse
you and slow down. They are making him don't want to jerk on the reins fast. If we jerk on
slowly and quietly to give them a solid
slow down and become a crutch. I don't want their mouths it makes the horse scared of your
foundation to work from. It is very difficult for a
to make my horse do anything. I want to teach hands. Once I have the slack taken out of the
horse to learn maneuvers, collection or
him how to do it, have him think it's a good reins then I want to draw him in to the ground,
balance at fast speeds, so we again must
idea, and do it. which means I am pulling slowly but very hard,
spend lots of time keeping them relaxed and
to get them to stop. Then I will back them up
slow. However, there comes a time when we
To teach a horse something we have to let very rigorously several steps, then let them set
have to increase speed, whether it's a rope
them make mistakes, then correct them over quietly for 5-10 seconds, then lope them off
horse, gamer, barrel, reiner, or cowhorse. We
and over before they get solid. Let's say we again. You may have to do this process 50
have to teach our horses to handle speed and
are working on circles or run-downs for sliding times on one training session but it will work if
stops and our you stay at it. About every 3rd time I have to
horse is get- stop and back them off. I will put them into a
ting too fast series of softening exercises again, bending,
and pushy. flexing then I will ride them in a small circle
First, we need pulling their head to the inside and pushing
to make sure with my outside leg bending the ribcage out
our departures and two tracking them to the out side of the
are quiet and circle to loosen up their whole body.
relaxed
because if the By doing these bending and softening
lope is tense exercises (stopping, backing) I am getting two
and pushy things accomplished.
they are likely
to continue in 1. I am obviously softening and relaxing the
that mode. So horseís body and muscles, which is partly why
if my horse they are pushy.
tries to lope off
fast and pushy 2. I am interrupting his pattern of thinking
I will stop him, immediately to speed up.
back him up,
then go into a It ís a lot harder and less fun to back and do
series of soft- softening exercises than to lope slow. Until my
ening exercis- horse thinks it ís a good idea to lope slow and
es to loosen slow down I will always be battling with him.
him and soften But in all the training we do we need to keep in
him up. Then I mind, I’m not going to fight with my horse, I am
will lope him off going to teach him, let him make the mistakes
again. If he then correct it and as may times as it may take
gets pushy or till he gets solid
fast again I will
repeat the Good luck and God bless,
process as Monty Bruce
many times as
it may take Visit our website at www.montybruce.com or if
until he lopes you have questions or need help feel free to
off soft and email us at mbtc02@msn.com
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44