# Common cues and "jogging" questions



## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

What are some common cues for things? Like lately when I've been neck reining Lacey I've discovered that she'll turn on her haunches (or whatever that's called when the horse just spins on it's rear to turn around) if I heavily neck rein her in one direction while putting my leg on on the left if I want to go right, etc. So I was wondering what are some common cues that one might use to side pass (I've tried left leg for right motion etc along with tight reins and that works somewhat, I can tell she knows it just she's not sure what I'm asking), and all those other things that I can't think of right now. >.<

I'm pretty positive she probably knows how to do most of the stuff people like their western type horses to do I'm just not sure of the cues and since I can't contact her previous owner... Yeah.

How to I keep each cue different for her so I don't confuse her?
For instance, she's having some difficulty with the cue to canter and the cue for side passing. I just randomly tried to side pass the other day since she had a super hard time with that in the english saddle but she seemed to have less difficulty in the western saddle. But anyway, I tried having the reins kinda tighter while kinda pushing her over with my left leg since I wanted to go right and she immediately started trying to break into a jog. Since that is the same aid I use to tell her to canter I can see why she was confused. I did get her to side pass eventually but I don't want to confuse her.

Other question (I would have made a new thread but I felt kinda silly making two new threads in the same section): How do you teach your horse to jog? 
I know it has to do with the horses' conformation but I know Lacey can, I mean she's done it before when I'm riding her and she's tired and she'll do it on the lunge line sometimes but she won't do it consistently.
I've tried doing tons of circles with her but doing circles is scary because I'm not very good at judging how big the circle needs to be and she has a pretty big stride so she ends up racing around at a full extended trot instead of being calm because I'm not there for her and then to make matters worse she starts tripping over herself because she's going too fast and it's just bad news all around. I've been trying to do lots of serpentines and I've been having her jog slowly then walk when she starts to speed up, rinse and repeat and that has made it better but it's not as nice as I know she can be. I know she's not going to ever be super smooth or slow, I just want something nicer than a back breaking Superwoman trot, yknow?

Any ideas?

Sorry for how long this is... I'm too chatty, me' thinks.


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## HorseOfCourse (Jul 20, 2009)

I use my voice a lot. And legs are key! For me, it depends what bit I'm using beacuse to turn in the snaffle, I don't pull the rein, I lift one and leave the other one stil, and she goes off of that. To walk, if she doesn't do it when I make a light clicking noise, I give her a gentle nudge. She usually moves out after that. To trot I do the same thing. To canter, I bring my outside foot back and kiss to her. I click for walk trot and kiss for canter so she knows exactly what I'm asking. Also, to turn her I just use my legs, which is SO helpful when the judge is watching you in the arena.

About jogging..I took my mare from a CRAZY extended trotter to a soft jogger in a little over a week. I ride western, and was training her for western pleasure. I started off posting for long amounts of time until she slowed down where I wanted her. After doing that for a couple of days, we worked on keeping her head vertical. Once she learned that if she leaves her head down, I will leave it alone, I worked on really sitting back in my seat because she is sooo sensitive to your body position. Then, I did lots of serpentine and figure 8 patterns until I was pleased with her neck/head level and speed. Then we just practiced for hours and hours. She didn't really mind, thoguh, because She always got hosed off [which she loves] and then hand grazed or I would sit in her pasture with her.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Um, with the sidepassing, you may want to start over as if she doesn't know it. One thing that you may try is facing a fence when you ask for the sidepass to stop her forward motion. If I am trying to sidepass right, I tighten the reins a bit (to keep forward motion stopped), use the left rein and left leg. Since she is not really comfortable with it, I would stop and praise whenever she takes even 1 lateral step with both front and back.

As for getting a horse to jog, you can either adjust the size of the circle to control her speed (bigger = faster, smaller = slower) or you can teach her to trot "with her brakes on". Let me find it in that other post so that I don't have to retype it all........



> One thing that I absolutely love doing on young horses is about the last half a mile or so home, I will urge them up into a little jog and if they start to get fast or if thier head comes up, I will ask for the stop and a couple of steps backward. Even if they are traveling nice, I will do this about every 5 or 6 strides. It really helps them to travel "with their brakes on" and makes for a nice easy ride when they figure it out. Plus, it makes their stop just uber hard and responsive.


Tons of that is how I got Dobe to do his nice little flat smooth jog.


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## RadHenry09 (Mar 22, 2009)

Great thread..I am having the same problem with my paint. His trot is so big strided that I am having a hard time getting him to slow down. My daughter wants to do walk/trot with him in 4H so this is something that we are trying to work on.
I know what you mean about the jog on the lunge line, my paint will on the lunge line as well when he is tired or being lazy.
I know that he will never be a WP horse but if I could get his head down at least level with his body at the jog that would be great.
I will def. be following this thread and hope to get some more training tips . : )


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## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

Right now I'm totally not expecting her to side pass more than one step. I think if I even tried to get her to take two steps, well, people would be buying tickets to the rodeo starring myself and my pretty pony. =P 

So I should just continue using the same cue for side passing? 

Smrobs do you think that that "traveling with the brakes on" method would work just as well in an arena? Lacey is kinda a spooky trail horse (at least on the road where we currently "trail ride" in the actual forest she's fine >.<) and she already has an issue wanting to speed up coming home (not bad but she does an "extended walk" that leaves all the other horses in her dust and it doesn't even feel fast! Haha


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

^^ Yep, works well in the arena too. You can also do that while you are doing circles. You know, start them small and work your way bigger and on the bigger circles, stop about every quarter of the way around and ask for the back up. Or you can do it on the rail or doing figure 8's.  There is no real set way to do them, just kinda fool around a bit and have some fun while working with her.


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## ChevyPrincess (Aug 27, 2009)

This is a very informational thread. I am lucky for now, my mare is gaited XD but i have a colt that i will start training, his dam is gaited, but his sire is not. I don't know if he will be or not. But I am watching this thread =]


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## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

I'll try that then! She should do well with that because I have been having her trot a few steps then walk when she speeds up and when I rode her english last Saturday I could tell that her trot was definitely softer and if trot to walk is working well I can only imagine how nice trot to backing up is gonna make her! Haha

Maybe there aren't really usual cues for those spins and stuff?

I'm glad I created a thread that helps other people other than me! =D


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## Appyt (Oct 14, 2007)

Yes there are cues for spins and stuff.  I'm not good at any of them nor can I describe them well. I suspect someone who is good at it can explain soon.


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