(southwestern country music)
- G'day, I'm Warrick Schiller
and welcome back to another installment
of only asking your horse yes questions.
And the query I had from someone when I was talkin'
about that a while ago was, "Well, how do you get your horse
"to stop from a canter if
"you only ask him yes questions?"
I mean, no horse knows how to stop from canter
off two reins.
And so in the previous two videos,
I've talked about how the lateral flexion is very important,
how the bend to a stop's very important,
and familiarity with the ground
right before you start ridin' him,
it's important for that lateral flexion,
how your bend to a stop is important,
and then having a nice, soft backup is important.
Now once your horse can backup
off just that much pressure,
now we start workin' on the stop.
And what I'll do is I'll walk this horse
towards the fence, and about three seconds from the fence,
like one Mississippi, two Mississippi,
three Mississippi,
I will do that, okay?
I'll just close my fingers, like that.
Now, on a green horse that doesn't know anything,
they're not gonna stop when you close your fingers,
but three seconds later, there's a fence
right in front of 'em, the fence causes 'em to stop
and when they get stopped,
this little bit of pressure's right there
and they go, "Oh, I know what to do with that."
And they step backwards.
So we've now gone from a walk to a halt
to a backup transition, the first time I've asked
because of the way I've gone about it.
So Bundy's not going to not stop,
so I won't actually pick up on the reins.
But I would, until I get to the fence,
but right here, I'd close my fingers.
One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three
and the fence would stop him.
And right here, I would have about this much pressure
on the reins and he would do that, and I would let go.
And then I would turn,
and I wouldn't do that sorta turn,
because the horse would be too green,
but I'd wander off, and wander to another fence.
And when I come up to another fence,
I would walk along,
close my fingers about here,
one Mississippi, two,
and the fence would stop 'em and I had
this amount of pressure, and then he
stops and back up.
And I'm gonna repeat that as much as I have to
until what'll happen is, I'm walkin' along
and I'm walkin' towards this fence.
And about three seconds out,
I close my fingers and err,
he comes to a stop and backs up.
Now I didn't force him to do it.
All those were yes answers when I did that.
So then the next step after that was good,
if he stops,
if he stops without the fence every single time,
like three seconds out,
'cause after while, he'll stop one second out,
and then he'll stop two seconds out,
but when he get to where he stops
three seconds out from the fence every time,
as soon as I pick up,
then what I will start doing is I would start
stopping him off to around here to walk.
I'll walk along,
close my fingers,
stop and have him walk back, and let go.
I always want him to take a step backwards
after they stop so that they shift their weight
to their hind end.
It's just like drivin' a car.
If you drive a car up to a stop sign,
and you put your foot on the brake,
at some point in time, that car comes to a stop
but it's rocked slightly forward,
and if you take your foot off the brake,
it'll roll forward.
You wanna wait till it rocks back on its shocks.
So with horses, in order to make your stop better,
I don't want him to stop leaning forward.
So when I ask him to stop, I'm gonna stop,
wait till he rocks back, then I'll let go.
And you know, I have people go, "How'd he get
"that horse to stop really well, like that?"
And it's this slow process.
I'm not in a hurry.
I don't start ridin' and then go ahead,
"I'm gonna go for a trail ride," and pull on the head.
I mean, I'm pretty particular about all these things
and I think initially, you've gotta be really particular
about how you go about stuff, so that you end up
with a good result.
So then the next step is I'll do it,
once they can stop out here every time,
then I'll do it in the trot
and about three seconds out, like right here,
I'll close my fingers,
one Mississippi, two Mississippi,
three Mississippi, and no, I haven't closed my fingers yet
but then the fence stops 'em and I've got this
little bit of pressure, like that,
and I'll take a step backwards and I'll let go.
And they'll start to associate me closing my fingers
with coming to a stop and rocking backwards.
And then, you know,
you keep doin' it and after a while,
what'll happen is you'll trot along here
and three seconds out from the fence,
you close your fingers and they just come to a stop
and rock back.
And once they can do that every single time,
without me needing the fence,
only then, okay?
So I know he's gonna stop,
so I know I'm gonna get a yes answer,
only then will I pick up on two reins to stop, out here.
I'll be trottin' along,
I'll close my fingers,
and he just comes to a stop and rocks back.
But I'm not gonna do that until I know
it's gonna happen, which means I use that fence
as a safety any time I need it.
Now, some people are gonna say, "Well, you shouldn't
"stop him off two reins, you should stop a horse
"off your seat."
That's true, but when you teach a horse to stop
off your seat, you don't just ride along
on a completely loose rein and sit,
and have 'em stop.
You gotta have, what you do is you sit,
and then pick up on the reins.
Well the thing is, if you've never taught the horse
how to stop off the reins,
you sit and he doesn't stop and you pull on the reins
and now you've got, you're askin' a no question.
So before I teach 'em to stop off my seat,
because the reins are what I'm gonna need
if he doesn't stop off my seat,
I'm gonna teach him to stop off the reins, first,
before I do that.
(southwestern country music)