Knowing Your Horse riding, you’ll want your horse to collect, so you start to teach him this from the ground. You are teaching him to move away from the pressure (from the bat in your right hand). When my arms are opened up and i’m asking him to go around, that’s kind of like my gas pedal—i’m asking him to go forward. Then i will tell him “whoa” to stop. i give him three chances (i call it three strikes and you’re out), saying “whoa” at about two- or three-second intervals. if he hasn’t stopped by the third whoa, i’ll jerk down on the halter and say “whoa” again. most of the time, at this point, the horse is going to jump around and throw his head up, kind of half-stopped. When they do that, i always take my hands to my belt buckle and stop in that area. Anytime my hands are in that area, the horse is usually looking at me. He learns that that is his time to rest and stand still and not move. i should add—it’s important to remember that when you are telling him “whoa,” you need to give him
314AA | A r A bi A n Hor se T i mes
a decent interval between whoas. You have to give him a chance to respond to your command, and you need to see if he is going to try to stop. if i get to the second whoa and see that he’s trying to stop, i don’t jerk down on the third. You’ll find that after doing eight to 10 reps, covering 10 laps on the longe line, horses generally start getting the idea of it. To really get it perfected, it might take you two or three weeks of longing, but you get to where you’ll say “whoa” and they just stop and look at you. What they learn is that when your arms are opened up, they’re going one direction or the other, and when your hands are to the middle, they can stand. it’s like a switch. When my arms are open, the switch is on and let’s do something. When my hands drop, the switch is off, and that means just stand there and relax. You’ll repeat this procedure to the left numerous times—say, maybe 20 times—until the horse starts getting the idea of it. once he gets the idea of going