# Leg Dead Horse, Spurs??



## verona1016 (Jul 3, 2011)

This may be more of a dressage mentality, but I've always been taught that spurs are for helping in lateral movements- not for "go." My horse is pretty lazy, too, and it's hard to resist the urge to go to stronger aids to get the desired reaction.

Do you have a trainer (or even a very experienced friend)? It might be worth having him/her help you re-train your horse by backing up your cues from the ground with a lunge whip, but I'd only have someone very experienced help you with this as having good timing is critical!


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## Phly (Nov 14, 2012)

Our daughters pony is iron sided, kinda, she actually stubborn. 

While this may or may not pertain to your situation, I'll tell the story anyways. 

We bought said pony, ground manners SUCKED, but she ride all day. A few weeks of our daughter teaching ground manners, they were way better. 
Manners=check, calm ride= check, control at speed=kinda. 
Many many hours of riding, by both my daughter and I got her right, spurs, crops, and what we recently found that helped the most was proper feeding. 

We took quite a few pounds off the ole gal and she's almost another pony. She's more responsive, more active, and more willing.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

IMHO, no normal horse is immune to the whip if the handler is using it in earnest in the way it should be used. Most handlers are much too tentative with their whip for fear of "hurting" the horse. Being tentative is one of the reasons that horses become dead to the aids.

Ask, tell, demand

Give a gentle squeeze with your leg to ask for forward or increase in speed, if he doesn't respond, give a smooch and lightly bump his sides with your heels, if he still doesn't respond, give him the whip with all your strength. MAKE him move forward, even if it means making his butt sting. When he moves forward, remove all pressure and let him coast along. If he starts slowing down, start all over with the gentle squeeze and build up again.

BE PREPARED FOR THE FORWARD JUMP WHEN YOU APPLY THE WHIP SO THAT YOU DON'T JERK HIM IN THE MOUTH ACCIDENTALLY. 

I've never rode a horse that didn't start responding to the gentle squeeze using this method, even the laziest, most dead-headed horse.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

another thing is that a horse that is ridden slow all the time forgets about going fast and might need a good race or something to perk up the ol' competitive spirit. could you go out for a ride where you literally raced with, or chased someone else? get your horse to cut loose and GO!


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## NoExplanation (Aug 20, 2013)

smrobs said:


> IMHO, no normal horse is immune to the whip if the handler is using it in earnest in the way it should be used. Most handlers are much too tentative with their whip for fear of "hurting" the horse. Being tentative is one of the reasons that horses become dead to the aids.
> 
> Ask, tell, demand
> 
> ...


Thanks for the excellent info! I will definitely try this before going to the extreme and buying spurs. This sounds like it will work well and if I do it right I'm hoping I won't have to prod him with spurs and crops. Thank you everyone for all the great suggestions also! They all help  
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## NoExplanation (Aug 20, 2013)

tinyliny said:


> another thing is that a horse that is ridden slow all the time forgets about going fast and might need a good race or something to perk up the ol' competitive spirit. could you go out for a ride where you literally raced with, or chased someone else? get your horse to cut loose and GO!


This may actually be part of my horse's situation, He was ridden western pleasure before I bought him and now I'm riding him English hunter. He might just be used to the slow short strides gaits used for western pleasure. Thank you for bringing this possibility to my attention!
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## Hoofprints in the Sand (Nov 23, 2008)

What smrobs said! This actually happened to my girl, and it was all my fault for constantly NAGGING her with my legs. I swear it got to the point where every stride I had to squeeze JUST to keep going! It was exhausting and I was using LONG spurs at that point too.

I moved barns and switched trainers, and my new trainer (who is also still my current trainer), took away my long spurs and taught me that if I asked (nicely) for her to move forward off my leg and give her 3 seconds and if she didn't respond, I was to KICK her hard, then once she responded STOP NAGGING! If she dropped down from the current gait before I asked, same thing BIG KICK and once I get the response leave her be with just a normal supporting leg, not a SQUEEZING leg. After about a week she was a different horse and MUCH more responsive, forward, stayed in front of my leg. 

I hadn't realized how much of the problem was from me and my constant nagging. No more nagging now and surprise surprise, I don't get NEARLY as tired riding her these days


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## Zexious (Aug 2, 2013)

I would suggest a crop first, as well. Both spurs and crops are effective aids if they're used properly.

I ride an older H/J that I ride with a crop and spurs (not always both). Many times I have them, but do not need to use them. That's an important thing to remember/differentiate between. Having it and using it.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

NoExplanation said:


> This may actually be part of my horse's situation, He was ridden western pleasure before I bought him and now I'm riding him English hunter. He might just be used to the slow short strides gaits used for western pleasure. Thank you for bringing this possibility to my attention!
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


Okay, this brings up another question. Do you know how this horse was trained for WP? If he was trained to have a "spur-stop" then, to him, more leg actually tells him to slow down.

If that's the case, then the re-training is basically the same as I posted earlier, but I wouldn't get after him quite so harshly at first. Learning a whole new set of cues that is so contradictory to what he's been taught before is terribly confusing.

If the spur stop is his problem, he would likely respond to a brush or a tap with the whip instead of an all-out wallop.


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## Hoofprints in the Sand (Nov 23, 2008)

smrobs said:


> Okay, this brings up another question. Do you know how this horse was trained for WP? If he was trained to have a "spur-stop" then, to him, more leg actually tells him to slow down.
> 
> If that's the case, then the re-training is basically the same as I posted earlier, but I wouldn't get after him quite so harshly at first. Learning a whole new set of cues that is so contradictory to what he's been taught before is terribly confusing.
> 
> If the spur stop is his problem, he would likely respond to a brush or a tap with the whip instead of an all-out wallop.


^^Good point!! Mine was green broke when I got her, so she was always trained English...so bit of a different situation sounds like!


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## NoExplanation (Aug 20, 2013)

I'd like to say that lately I have been using the "Ask, tell, MAKE" method and he is almost another horse. The transformation is wonderful and I will continue to use this as long as he progresses with it.


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