How to Stop a Horse

Stopping a horse involves a combination of a physical and a verbal command. Pull back on the reins with help from a riding instructor in this series on horseback riding.

My name is McKenna Smith. I'm an Instructor at Enterprise Farms. This is Dylan and this is how to stop a horse. So, I'm going to be doing is we're going to be walking and then, I want to lean back a little bit in my seat; I'm going to push down in my heels so I have pressure and I'm going to pull my rein and say, "Woah", and he should totally stop. Okay, so I cued him to walk, then, lean back in my heels, lean back in my upper body, pulling my reins, "Woah", he feels the pressure and he stops. A couple of tips for beginners would be just go ahead and have your horse walk on the rail and if you have a, a lettering or cone, just work on stopping at a cone or at a letter precision stopping. For beginners, it's definitely something you need to make sure you can do at the walk and at the trow and more advanced riders at the canter. It's one of the basic fundamental things of riding is being able to stop your horse on a dime no matter what happens. A couple of things just to review is your body positioning. If you lean forward, there's no power here; you won't be able to stop your horse, you're off-balance and have more chance of falling off. So, you just want to make sure that you really lean back, your grounded in your seat, you push your heels down and wrap your legs around for balance. And then, just, another review, just, reins, if you have a softer horse, you can just pull back and make sure reins are short. If it's a, a harder mount horse or a horse that doesn't particularly want to stop, you can just kind of wiggle your fingers a little bit and that'll get the horse to not pull on the bit as much and hopefully stop. My name is McKenna and that's how to stop on a horse.