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hello everyone so today we're talking about how to speed up a slow horse let me know in the comments
if you have a slow horse that's kind of lazy and i'm going to give you some tips to help you wake
up your lazy horse um be sure to check out in the description i have a free mini course on
rider position because of course it's really always important that you're in the correct
position so that you're able to give effective aids if you want your horse to get a little bit
more awake and also give this video a thumbs up be sure to subscribe and click the box so that you
get notified because i post a new dressage video every wednesday so this is kensington he is my
seven-year-old and sometimes he can be a little bit like asleep and lazy and i have to work on
waking him up so we're gonna give you guys a few exercises that you can do to wake your horses up
the first thing that's important to do is that when when you want your horse to go you use your
driving aids your driving aids are your legs are the primary driving aids and your whip so your
whip is what we call an axillary aid which should only be used to reinforce your primary driving aid
which is your legs so one thing that i do a lot if i have a horse that can be a little bit lazy the
first thing that you have to really think about with a lazier horse is that you actually want to
take keep your legs off of your horse more so with a hot horse you want to keep your legs near with
a lazy horse you want to take your leg more off so that when you put it on you can get a reaction now
a game that i like to play with lazy horses is just basically what i call a leg and whip
resensitizing exercise so i'm just going to walk around here on a loose rain i'm going to close
my leg kick kick get him to trot and then just slowly let him come back to the walk and pet him
good boy so i'm not really even worried right now that he's on the bit or anything i'm just
gonna close my leg okay he trots good boy i let him go for a little bit reassure him and then
let him come back to the walk no you don't get to stop my heels are down close my leg trot good boy
good boy and then slowly let him come back to the walk good boy close my leg good good boy so
i'm really just focusing on that simple reaction to my leg that okay i'm walking my legs are long
you always want to start with your calf so i'm closing my calf he didn't listen kick with my heel
notice how quick i was with my leg there like i closed my calf i gave him about one mississippi
to react and then when i came with my spur it was like bump up so it was calf bump bump good boy
and then slowly let him come back to the walk so that's a really good way to work on the leg
resensitizing it's also really important that like here when i'm walking and just kind of testing
okay i'm going to push my heels down i'm going to take my leg away he has to stay walking on his own
now what you can also do in addition to the leg re-sensitizing is you can
work on re-sensitizing your horse to the whip because what i see a lot of times is people like
they're hitting their horse so hard that you can hear the whip on the other side of the arena
and the horse isn't doing anything so remember that horses can feel a fly on their back so
what you're gonna do is similar to what we just did with our legs
you're not going to really worry about their head or anything you're just going to start with your
whip tickle tickle tickle tickle tickle tickle be trotted the second that your horse trots on
you just stop hitting them with a width and then let them come gradually back to the walk
so you want to start with your whip with like a really light tickle like a lot of times people
they go to use their whip and they just like hack their horse like so hard so you need to use your
whip in different tones so i'm just going to start with like a little lightest like whisper
like a fly good boy think about just the pressure of a fly with your whip and you want to get your
horse to respond to that so i'm going to start again just like a little fly whisper whisper
whisper trot good boy good boy so you can see how in just repeating that a few times kensington has
gotten like way more sensitive where like i just tickle tickle with a whip tickle tickle good boy
good boy and in this instance when i'm doing this with a whip i'm not really using my leg at all
i'm just working on okay teaching him like tickle tickle whip means go the second he goes good boy
it's really important when you have a horse that's lazy that you remember to release the pressure and
reward them because sometimes with a lazy horse we get so like focused on trying to get them to
go that we're just like driving and driving and going and driving and going and we forget to ever
take the pressure off so you always want to like ask for an aid release ask for an aid release
so once you've done the leg and whip resensitizing exercise the next thing you're going to do is walk
trot walk transitions transitions are the best way to get a horse more sensitive and a little bit
hotter the more that you just like go around and around the arena the lazier and slower your horse
is going to get you're going to end up working harder than your horse let me know if you ever
feel like you're working harder breathing harder sweatier than your horse at the end of the ride so
with these walk trot transitions what i want is i want the upward transition like the walk to trot
transition to be really abrupt and like kind of an explosion up and then that you go really gradually
in the downward transition so i'm walking here i'm gonna think about closing my leg and i want
my horse to go quick big forward trot so i want that upward transition to be very quick i'm going
to take my time to establish a nice trot here and now i'm going to go gradually think about keeping
my horse forward forward don't want him to stop see i gave him a little tickle there don't stop
good boy get a nice walk going now come on trot good boy the second he trots on
make sure to get your heels down and take your leg off because if your horse goes and your leg
stays kicking then your horse never got rewarded for going
so gradual downward now come on go quick upward that's a good boy
that's a good boy
and again very gradually in the downward transition good boy
close my leg quick in the upward transition
boy remember to take your legs off and reward your horse
so again with the lazy horse you've got to really remember to take your legs off
so gradually in the downward keep him walking and go quick in that upward transition
that's a good boy
good taking my lower leg off gradually think about him stepping forward and going slowly to the walk
keep walking active in the walk and quick upward good boy good boy good boy so those are just a
couple of exercises that you can do to help speed up a horse that's a little bit on the slower side
also remember that and like i'm sure that you noticed in the video is that when i whenever i
was using my legs and my driving aids i was really careful not to block him in front so you always
want to make sure that when you ask your horse to go that you go with your horse and that you don't
accidentally stop them right away that there's no confusion there so make sure to allow your
horse to go when they do go because when you have a horse that's kind of lazy it's it's
probably our fault horses are not by nature lazy so it's something that we kind of make them lazy
by trying to stay safe trying to get them safe for us to ride
so then we just have to work on re-sensitizing them so i really hope this video gave you a few
little exercises that you can work on to get your horse a little hotter and more reactive
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