Teaching a horse to do a touch stop is a backup system for when the horse doesn't stop from the number one option. Use repetition to teach a horse to do a touch stop with helpful advice from a reining horse trainer in this video on the touch stop in horse riding.
Now the next thing I'm going to do to get him to stop, because that is my backup system, and I get that good first, to make sure that that goes on. Don't avoid that one, that is number one. Don't try to skip anything. Make sure you can pull on your horse to stop. Now the next thing I'm going to do is just touch stop. Now the touch stop is a very minor brief touch to the horse's mouth. Remember the first one I pulled and held on, this time I'm just going to touch and let go. He's still supposed to stop and get backwards. Touch stop. Ok. Now, obviously this horse understands but the process of repetition still applies. If I touched him and he didn't stop what should I do. Pull, ok now he understands that. If I touch him and he doesn't stop then I pull and hold on till he backs up alright. You'll see the process develop and lots of repetition. Now I can just touch stop and now he backs up because he understood. I had that one correction where I just held on to him. The next thing I'm going to do is just let go of my feet. These are all independent of each other. Watch my feet. I just let go. Alright, now I didn't pull, I didn't touch stop, I didn't do anything. Again this horse knows what he is doing. But think about it, if I walk up here and very subtly let go of my feet and he doesn't stop, what should I do? Pull alright, he knows that one. Again that's the thing we are going to go to, that's our backup system. If I walk forward and let go of my feet and he doesn't stop, I'm going to pull and hold on till he gets backwards. Then he's just going to figure out how it works. Let go with your feet, now I ride backwards he doesn't need me to pull any more. Alright so now I got three ways to stop him. I can pull stop him, I can touch stop him or I can just let go with my feet. Here's another one, it's the word whoa. And you wonder why I haven't said whoa yet, that seems standard. Horses aren't born knowing what whoa means, you have to teach them how to stop first and then show them a word that connects to it. So I've shown him how to stop first. Now I'm going to use a word that he can associate to it. Now that he knows how to stop I can just walk up here, the same process. Whoa. Ok now If I'd said whoa and he didn't stop what should I do, pull ok. It's just the same process over and over again. But don't babysit him, don't let go with your feet when you say the word. Whoa. He's supposed to listen for that. Alright, if he doesn't stop, pick up your hands, ride backwards alright until you can walk forward on a very loose rein just like this, whoa, and every time he stops and he hears that word whoa he gets backwards. So now we've got all those great ways to stop. Boy talk about an emergency stop. What if I were to throw a combination in. What if I were to pick up my hands and let go with my feet and say whoa at the same time, I bet I'd get him stopped.
on October 9, 2009, 2:33 pm