Teach Yourself 4 – The Speed Merchant

Introduction

If your horse is forward going it doesn’t mean he’s an easy ride. There are many

problems that come with an over enthusiastic equine and some of them are covered in

the next few exercises.

Exercise 1 – a sharp horse finds change exciting. Limiting the number of changes

you make when you’re schooling can make a big difference to his ability to learn.

Exercise 2 – if your horse pulls it can be easy to take your leg off and pull but

don’t do it! Teach him to slow himself down with fewer aids from you.

Exercise 3 – sometimes the harder you try to slow your horse down the more

wound up he seems to get. Teach yourself to switch off with this simple exercise.

Exercise 4 – there’s more to life than circles. Put the lessons you’ve learned in 1,

2 and 3 to the test using serpentines.

Exercise 5 – canter is guaranteed to liven your horse up. Try this exercise which

will give him something to think about other than speed.