Your horse may be trained well today, he may know more than you; however, keeping him trained takes consistency on your part. When you are not training – your are
UNtraining. Your horse always seeks the level of the rider – not all horses are looking for a leader but all horses will follow a good one.

Here’s a sample of inconsistency:
     You say “Whoa” and your horse braces on the bit, throws his head up and dribbles several steps down the trail. You don’t feel like correcting that today. You just taught your horse that he can get away with ignoring the word Whoa and that he can pull on the reins. The next time you ask him to stop he increases the steps he takes before he stops, throws his head until the reins are jerked from your hands and pretty soon he is ignoring you altogether. How most people respond to this is by getting a more severe bit, adding a tie-down to their arsenal of tack and become a bit more heavy handed.

     Its your job to be consistent. You can blame the previous owner for that behavior you are dealing with for about 3 months. That’s it. Three months. After that, the blame lies with you because three months is enough time to change your horse if you are being consistent and working towards fixing the issue at hand. Someone else may have created the problem, but four months later you’ve either allowed it to continue or you don’t know how to fix it.

     Consistency is the key. If you allow him to brace on the bit and fight the stop, then it will take twenty more times of correcting that just to get back to where you were. The more consistent you are, the fewer mistakes you’ll teach your horse – it’s going to take constant maintenance on your part every day forever. The fewer mistakes the horse learns, the quicker you can get onto the trail for the safer trail ride you both have earned.

     Being a fair, consistent leader will give you’re a willing partner. You want your horse to respond to you due to the fact that he understands your request because you’re consistent in asking and releasing when he has guessed right. You are fair by not punishing your horse for not understanding the first time you ask him to respond – you are consistent and continue to ask him patiently until he guesses right at which time he is rewarded immediately by the release. You are becoming the leader he WANTS to follow, not has to follow because of a severe bit or restraints of tack such as tie downs, etc. You ride him where you can to set him up for success – not where you cannot. If your horse is blowing through his stops – I would not take him out on trail, but back in the arena to teach him to stop first. Then out on trail where it is wide and open so that if he falls back in his training – I have plenty of room to keep us both safe while I do some schooling to correct his stop safely.

     So if you would like to know why your horse still has this problem – first take a look at you. Are you consistent in your training, are you fair and giving him the time to understand what you are asking and releasing immediately when he guesses right – are you being the leader your horse is looking for – are you being the rider your horse deserves? Always be willing to back-up in your training and build that strong foundation, ask for help from a professional if you need to and you will be rewarded by having a safer, willing riding partner.