# Why teach/use a one rein stop?



## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

I think it boils down to experience. Many times I think the ORS is taught to new riders to give them some control _on well trained horses_. New riders are not experienced enough to have an arsenal of aids ready to control the horse if something happens. 

The other half of that scenario is teaching horse trainers to teach horses the ORS so they can sell the horses to newbies. 


My horse will spin and crow hop until I am slung off like a slingshot, then continue to get the Heck out of there if I try the ORS. All with his nose cranked to my knee. He is very flexible and athletic :frown_color: 

Unfortunately for me, it is a very hard habit for me to break when a horse spooks & bolts...most horses I can get back under control with a hard spin, but not this one! 


One horse I had that reared I spun so much that if something spooked him and he started to go up he would spin himself :rofl:


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## Sherian (Aug 28, 2012)

not a fan of the one rein stop either


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

Good posts. 
Horses don't have a "kill switch" like a motorcycle where you can just cut the engine. I've heard it described like this: You apply the one rein stop, because of "muscle memory" this disengages the hindquarters so the horse must stop and in this period of time you prevent any bolting, spooking or heading off faster than you wish. 

I agree with @bsms, that if a horse is responding to a trained cue such as a one rein stop, the horse is using his brain and will also respond to any other trained cue such as a two rein stop or change in direction. If you just need to focus the horse from speeding off in a particular direction, you can also just turn the horse. 

I'll say there are a few very couch potato horses that can be flummoxed by having their front and hind end not lined up with each other. Most even mildly athletic horses can continue to travel rapidly in a number of other directions. My TB can have his front and hind end misaligned and continue traipsing rapidly down the side of a steep hill sideways, backwards or in many other directions. Not to mention a horse in a panic always has the option of going up. 

For beginners...yes, they often seem to have difficulty controlling either speed, direction or both. Since using two reins meaningfully is often beyond them, a horse that is taught to stop from a hard pull on one rein can be a very useful beginner horse. 
More ideally, the rider would be taught early on how to manage both reins, cue meaningfully, manage direction, and relax if the speed gets faster while learning to slow the horse.


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## BlindHorseEnthusiast4582 (Apr 11, 2016)

Subbing
@AnitaAnne that last part had me rolling 😂


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

BlindHorseEnthusiast4582 said:


> Subbing
> 
> @AnitaAnne that last part had me rolling 😂


It was a bit crazy the first time he did it!! I about fell off I started laughing so hard :rofl: but realized he rather misinterpreted what I was trying to teach him :rofl: We fixed the rearing part, so then I had to teach him that it was ok _not to spin_ :dance-smiley05::dance-smiley05::dance-smiley05:


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

I like having a one-rein stop on my horse although if I think about it, that is not exactly what I have. What I have is a horse whose direction can be changed with a direct rein. The way I use it is simply to get her facing the direction she doesn't want to go. That stops her, because she doesn't want to go that way. She may shy and try to spin away and bolt from something but I just turn her to face it. Then we deal with it from there. 

I always called it a one rein stop, but I don't think it is. If she is galloping and doesn't feel like stopping (like there are horses galloping ahead of her on the trail), I just half-halt her strongly until she responds ... maybe she just isn't a difficult horse.


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

I have been using the one reign stop before I even knew there was such a thing as a one reign stop. My first horse was a rearer and I put that same idea into motion many times with him. I actually used it a few weeks ago on the urban trail ride. We went under the Rte 1 bridge and when the cars drove over top it made this really loud popping noise. Baby Horse panicked. He bolted and it only took a stride to bring him under control.

We put the one reign stop on baby way in the beginning of his training. He's got a while to go before he's considered anything but green. I like it.


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

I've never seen the one rein stop work on a horse that was bolting. But I have seen a couple horses go over when it was tried. 

I even pulled one over years ago. Before the term was even popular. 

Do I try, and get them, to change direction? Sure. It does reduce the forward momentum. Do I use a dozen tricks all at once to break their focus on bolting? You bet. Can I figure out if it's better with a particular horse to not even try for too big of a change in direction because they just aren't very nimble on challenging ground. Yep. And I'm pretty sure that has saved my spine a few times. 

But, somehow it had become very popular with some clinicians and some people who ride.


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## Boo Walker (Jul 25, 2012)

I think I first learned to use it when I was age 5 or so on a plucky little pony. All of us kids must have had crazy strong arms from trying to pull those short muscular pony necks around. Oh the frustration! 

I think it's just one of those ace in the hole tricks you occasionally have to pull back out and use. I still teach it, but in much the same way as J. Lyons. It's good for softening and disengagement and something every green horse should know. But I don't teach it as an emergency stop exercise, that's just one of the benefits. Priority One is a solid whoa under any circumstance, but not every horse comes to you that way.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

The thing that TRocha is using that you like is that he uses a bump/response, bump/response technique to get the horse responding. And when people use a ORS where they lock up the rein, you get a hrose that just leans into and spins around. Or, falls out through the bend in the base of the neck/wither, and keeps going forward.


The 'bump' is to break into the thought of the hrose; to interrupt that set where it is blanking out on everything but running. So, bumping is more likely to get its attention. That's 1.


Second is that once you put some bend in a horse's body, you are more likely to be able to control it's forward movement. the trick being 'forward' movement. If the horse stops going forward, but is circling, or even spinning on its' back legs, then you're in trouble. I think that's why circling to a stop works well, if space be available to do this; because you maintain forward movement all the time.


In fact, whenever you feel your horse abandoning a 'forward' projection of his thought, even if he's still physically moving forwardyou'd better be ready to do something to get his mind back on you, and your cues to go forward.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I'm not a fan of the one rein stop for a bolting emergency. 

In the arena if a horse bolts I gallop them and make them work because a lot of the time they are thinking about running somewhere safe and standing. This tricks them back into listening and gets you control. 

On the trail though, most of the time I've had a horse take off it hasn't been a safe scenario. On steep ledges, over bridges, into the highway, over slippery asphalt, yeah that's where they decide to be boneheaded. In those scenarios I'm worried if I one rein stop the horse will fall. I opt for a voluntary dismount in the safest area possible when I can if continuing toward danger is the only other option.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

Avna said:


> ...The way I use it is simply to get her facing the direction she doesn't want to go. That stops her, because she doesn't want to go that way. She may shy and try to spin away and bolt from something but I just turn her to face it. Then we deal with it from there...


When I got Bandit, he would walk forward with seeming confidence. Until it was too much. Then he'd spin 180 and start to leap away. So when he'd spin 180, I'd give a firm tug on the rein to keep him going until we were facing the threat again.

*"This will profit you. This will profit you not." - Tom Roberts*​ 
After about a dozen episodes, he decided spinning away 'would profit him not' - and began to look for other answers. Typically, once he held and faced the scary thing, I'd ask him for a 180 and agree we should walk away. Once we got a distance far enough away he didn't feel threatened, I'd turn him back toward the threat, dismount, and SLOWLY lead him - keeping the lead slack and going one step at a time, as he was willing - to the threat. And he would discover it wasn't so scary after all. At first it would take 5-10 minutes to go 50 yards, but then he could do it faster, and then he could do it without my dismounting.

When I was taught to do a one rein stop, I was taught to ALWAYS keep turning until the horse disengaged, crossing the hind leg in front of the other hind leg. I was told that prevented him from trying to bolt again.

Looking back, I think the idea was backwards. I think once the horse no longer felt a need to bolt, he was willing to disengage. But some horses, not all, but horses like Mia, dislike spinning and spin themselves up emotionally, not down.

And in no case have I found it helpful to pull the horse's head all the way around, the way I see some big name trainers doing it. Nor have I seen a need to do it with the harshness I've sometimes seen on video. The first video is kind of how I was taught. Looking back, it just looks so wrong. And I can't help wonder if part of the problems I had with Mia were made worse by having her work this way. She did much better when I got her head connected back to her feet, without what looks like overflexing to me. The second video just seems...well, not for me:


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## mmshiro (May 3, 2017)

I could well be wrong here, but I think the only thing that stops a bolting horse is to get his attention back to you and your aids by taking advantage of the fact that horses don't dwell on things - whether that is by whispering, half-halting, or anything else one may attempt.

Consider this: A horse that bolts must genuinely believe it is about to get killed, and he's ready to do whatever it takes to save himself. In this mind set, you are now attempting to impede his efforts to create distance by pulling his head around. I do not see how that deescalates the situation - unless it succeeds in creating a distraction - it's something new to deal with. It's a pretty drastic distraction, so it may have a faster effect than whispering - if it works - but it probably has a more drastic effect when it fails, too.

If a bolting horse came towards me, I would not rely on his former training to stay out of my personal space. Why should his former training of the one-rein stop be any more reliable when I sit on that horse?


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

The bottom line is knowing what to do to safely and quickly bring a horse under control when you are facing a potentially dangerous situation. WHATEVER technique works and WHATEVER technique the rider can use without thought - is the one you should use. I think that is where things get confused. This isn't a ring exersize or a practice what could happen type of effort. This is a here and now split second response to whatever situation that even the most trained horse can get you into.


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## Dehda01 (Jul 25, 2013)

Grabbing the bit equally with both hands begs for the horse to grab the bit and pull harder in an emergency situation. 

Pulley reins, or ORS are proven to get the horse to slow down and start to work in smaller and smaller circles because they can physically not run as hard and must slow down on a spiral circle. But the rider must be smart about how fast they can work the pulley twin in the terrain, and based on the horses training and education. 

It has saved me numerous times on young horses learning to hunter pace, fox hunt or simply to become a better trail horse. 

On green horses, I NEVER work the bit equally. It is just one side or the other to teach them how to use their body and accept contact. It becomes muscle memory for them- AND ME. I think training young students about how there “can” be an emergency brake is very important to general confidence. Once it becomes second nature, you don’t need to go to the fully overbent horse to get their attention back to you.


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## greentree (Feb 27, 2013)

The closest I come to a ORS is flexing a colt’s head to make sure they understand. My horses are taught that WHOA means “whatever is chasing you stops when YOU do” (from driving training) so they usually stop to avert panic. 
I had a girl riding one of my ponies, and she taught the pony to circle....ACK...now whenever the pony thinks she is doing something wrong, she flings her head around to circle! Annoying doesn’t quite describe it..... 

I also don’t like my horses to back off the bit at any pressure, as this is dangerous in a driving horse,..so I set most NH to ignore.


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## DreamerR (Dec 17, 2017)

I was taught it when I was first learning to ride. Because the 18 year old ex-cow roping horse that I was riding had a bad habit of running me to the barn and through multiple trees on the way there. My toothpick arms weren't strong enough to pull back enough for her to listen. Thats the only time I've had to use it though.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

mmshiro said:


> I could well be wrong here, but I think the only thing that stops a bolting horse is to get his attention back to you...
> 
> Consider this: A horse that bolts must genuinely believe it is about to get killed, and he's ready to do whatever it takes to save himself...





Dehda01 said:


> Grabbing the bit equally with both hands begs for the horse to grab the bit and pull harder in an emergency situation.
> 
> Pulley reins, or ORS are proven to get the horse to slow down and start to work in smaller and smaller circles because they can physically not run as hard...





farmpony84 said:


> The bottom line is knowing what to do to safely and quickly bring a horse under control when you are facing a potentially dangerous situation. WHATEVER technique works and WHATEVER technique the rider can use without thought - is the one you should use...


The rider is likely to do whatever they have been taught, which hopefully matches what the horse has been taught. I'm a backyard rider, not a riding instructor. Thank goodness! The riding world is glad for that! And most people, thankfully, won't experience a fear-based bolt very often. That sort of bolt is rare for most horses, and most horses don't totally lose their minds doing it. I met a lady once who gave up riding as a teen when her horse bolted, ran full speed into a fence, and killed himself. And broke a bunch of her bones and left her with an impressive scar. If a horse has truly lost its mind entirely, the best COA may be to get ready to jump off at speed - then wait to see what follows.

A couple of years ago, Trooper and Cowboy lost it while passing the flapping remains of a trampoline someone had set up in the desert. There was a narrow path around it. It was a much longer ride to turn back and take another route. My DIL & wife are not experienced riders. They were in front with the unflappable Trooper in the lead when Trooper decided it was time to get the heck out of Dodge City. When he sprinted, Cowboy joined him. Bandit wanted to join too, but Bandit & I had a lot of time together and I managed to keep him prancing past it...after a 360 spin.

But Trooper & Cowboy sprinted past. They were afraid, lost it - but lost the nerve to walk by without losing their minds entirely. So...they sprinted. Made a sharp turning climb up a steep 10' rise, got a hundred yards away, and slowed on their own. Their riders hung on, stayed on, didn't do much, and a hundred yards later it was over. Significantly, neither rider clamped down hard, started thrashing, screamed. By the time Bandit & I joined them, they were laughing. Nervously, but laughing.

Bandit is similar. Mia might have dumped 80% of her brain power when afraid, which made it more dangerous. Or did my trying to turn her around by pulling on her head - "taking her head away" is what I was told to do - CAUSE her to dump her situational awareness? *Did trying to do an ORS make it worse instead of better?* When Bandit first arrived, his reaction was to spin and race away. That can be very dangerous. Particularly since most of his spooks took place on paved roads, except for one under a different rider where he went across three people's yards and ended up on another paved road. 

Once he learned spinning violently wasn't a good answer, that I wouldn't try to force him past things, he became a lot more receptive and a lot less frightened. He had OPTIONS. A horse with options, it seems to me, is less likely to lose his mind and more likely to listen to his rider. He hasn't really bolted since learning he had options. He has sometimes moved quickly without being asked, though! When I went to Navigator school in the Air Force an instructor quoted Daniel Boone: "_No, I've never been lost. I've sometimes spent a week exploring someplace I hadn't been before, but was never lost!_" Now that Bandit and I understand each other, we don't bolt. _We sometimes move quickly to a different location where we can reassess things, but we don't bolt!_ :rofl:

If both horse and rider know and understand a ORS, then that is undoubtedly the right option for them. If a rider tried it on my horses, the rider would create a problem. I think most big name types agree that a ORS needs to be taught to a horse before one tries it for real.








​ 
A ORS is different than riding a circle until you spiral to a slower speed. No room for a big turning circle until you can do a smaller turn here. A properly taught ORS might work here, although I'd be nervous the horse might lose his footing. 

I never tell someone to pull hard on both reins and give the horse something to brace against, or incentive to get the bit in his teeth! That is why I use "_Bump, bump, bump_". Or as Larry Trocha puts it, "_Set the wall. Release. Set the wall. Release. Set the wall. Release._" Grabbing both reins and hauling back, then holding them back, is pretty worthless. Worse than worthless. It probably makes a bolt worse and teaches terrible habits.

No one makes a horse stop. Only the horse's mind can tell the horse's feet to stop moving. In like manner, no one makes a horse turn. You can pull on its head, kick with your leg, but only the horse's mind can direct his feet to perform a turn.

We can ask. We can ask forcibly. As I look back on my measly 10 years of riding, I think Denny Emerson is on to something. The more forcibly we ask, the more tension and resistance we create. 

I've often said switching Mia to a curb bit was critical for teaching her not to bolt. But I also first watched the Larry Trocha video at the same time. And I wonder now if what broke Mia of her bolting habit wasn't the bit, but the less demanding approach: "_Set the wall. Release. Set the wall. Release. Set the wall. Release._" *Maybe it was the advice (and mindset) to "Take her head away" that was causing the problem! Maybe I was taking her mind away at the same time!* The advice to punish her - or to "Make the wrong choice harder", which in NH seems a lot like punishing to me - was REALLY wrong. No doubt in my mind about it! The last thing a scared horse needs is for the rider to make her feel worse. Ray Hunt said, "_Admire the horse for the good things he does and just kinda ignore the wrong things. First thing you know, the good things will get better and the bad things will get less._" That has given me a lot to think about.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

I never heard of the term until I came to the US - but I'd also never heard of 'crest release' either. 
I think it has the dangerous potential to give riders (especially newbies) a false sense of security
Most (not all) of the people who claim its worked for them aren't actually being bolted with, their horse has just gotten a little strong and they don't know how to use their own strength to full advantage.
I once saw a woman who rode well, was doing her BHS exams but then sat like a dummy on a horse that got a bit too forward with her at the canter. The horse was regularly ridden, hunted and competed in a normal snaffle bit by a 14 year old who weighed about 100 pounds soaking wet. He never got away from her. The woman claimed that she'd done everything to try to stop him, actually she'd done nothing at all.
If a horse that's trained to slow down and stop to regular cues decides to ignore them then there's a pretty good chance its going to ignore the 1 rein stop too. 
Horses that are truly bolting will lock their neck and their jaw so pulling on one rein isn't going to do much to move it. The best you can hope for is to get enough flexion to gradually bring the horse around into ever decreasing circles. You can't do that on a narrow trail or on a road
Its a useful method to use on a horse that's not got into a run, basically still walking or standing still and thinking about bolting away but you have to be fast and you have to get the head right round and then keep the horse moving around itself in a tight circle. You can defuse a rear in the same way. There's no guarantee that the horse won't try to bolt off or rear the moment you stop doing it.
Trick trainers that provide stunt horses for films use a the same technique as a 1 rein stop to get a horse to fall down on the floor - its way too easy to drop a horse that way for me to consider using it at anything more than a walk.


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## Dehda01 (Jul 25, 2013)

I have always found the pulley rein quite effective, leverage is your friend here and modify as needed on tights trails. The biggest thing is that rider and horse need to be TAUGHT how to safely and properly use it. But I am a rider who rides out of the ring 90% of the time and horses can do anything so I feel it is necessary to be prepared. Thinking about bucking, bolting or even starting to puff up a bit- get the horse “starting” to think about softening and bending.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

It isn't just using one rein, to pull back. And people will say, 'don't pull the rein', but in an emergency, you ARE pulling the rein, I guarantee it.
It's HOW you use that one rein.


If you pull UP with one rein, you will stand a better chance of breaking up the brace of a horse that is bracing, physically and mentally, on both reins. when you pull down, or cross the neck and pull back, you are putting the horse more into a 'knot'. 

If you pull upward, you 'break' the lock in the poll and jaw, and then the horse is less able to lock his neck and bolt. Once he is softer, you can then circle to a stop, or stop straight. sometimes.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

Just to clarify: the pulley rein does not have anything to do with circles or turning so is completely appropriate to use on the tightest trail.

This is not a good example of it. The rider is not using her core and does not have good rein management. If she started with both hands together near the horse's neck, it is impossible she could have pulled the right arm back that far and kept the left one on the horse's neck. If she is starting her pull with her right arm so far back, she is negating most of her leverage.









This is a good example of someone set up to use a pulley rein. It has less to do with major rein action and more to do with using your core to enhance the rein aids so they become very strong. This rider would only need to hold the left hand steady or fix it against the horse's neck, and then pull back (bump, bump, bump) with the right rein. If the horse is running away, the rider can sit deeper, keep his upper arms very close to his body and lean back to make the aids very strong.








This will not turn the horse, but can be used alternating left and right to get the horse to change leads, which can help slow the horse. That is one solution to try to get the horse to unfix the jaw and neck, as @jaydee describes. If you want to turn the horse, you don't want to use a pulley rein because fixing one hand prevents turning cues. Instead, you want to keep the non-turning hand more passive so the horse can turn the front end in response to your rein cue.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

If a beginner rider had gotten into the position shown in Gottatrot's photo example of a 'not good way to do it', not only would the attempt to slow or stop the horse have failed they'd have lost their balance and fallen off - if they were even still in the saddle at that point.
Its the general instability of most beginner riders combined with their inability to think quickly enough that makes me very against teaching anyone to do a 1 rein stop until they're able to ride well enough to stop on and have a solid seat on a horse that suddenly leaps forward or spins around and bolts off.
You simply don't put beginner riders on unreliable horses and expect them to be able to stay calm enough and secure enough to do a 1 rein stop correctly. 
Just pulling back on the rein far enough to make a difference is going to be enough to unbalance a rider and put them on the floor, the rider actually has to grasp the rein on the 'rider side' using their opposite hand and pull it through their hand to shorten it as they bring that hand back. 
That's where the OP is going wrong in her first photograph and a good trainer should have corrected her on that immediately


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## my2geldings (Feb 18, 2008)

AnitaAnne said:


> New riders are not experienced enough to have an arsenal of aids ready to control the horse if something happens.


Amen. For me that's what it comes down to. For experienced riders I don't remember last time I saw anyone use this, but for someone who doesn't have that experience this technique can be a life saver in a moment of panic.


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

Generally speaking, when you are already in trouble it is too late to think. Muscle memory is all that will save you. If the horse is building up to something, or maybe you can see a bad situation could develop if x happened, you may have time to put a plan into place. 

For example when the mail truck blew past us on a one lane road, sending Brooke down the embankment, I surely did not have time to think, okay, what should I do? I know, a one-rein stop! Lets see if I can remember how to do it ... nope, I just automatically spun her around and booted her back up the embankment before I could even gather a clear thought. Muscle memory, nothing else. 

As others have said, if you are riding weakly or off balance or are distracted by the clouds in the sky, doesn't matter what you have been taught, when your horse moves suddenly you're probably coming off.


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## Beling (Nov 3, 2009)

I used to call it the "bronc stop."

I've tried it with a horse that could run with his neck curled back. Not effective.

I tried it once on muddy ground with a rushing horse and we both went down. Very effective. (Every time after that, my horse was particularly careful to slow down at that place where I'd pulled her over.)

But I think it's only truly useful BEFORE anything happens, and with a horse that's been trained to ORS. I've used it several times, in explosive situations when I could feel my horse "losing it" (starting to shake) and, in my maturity (old age) I don't care to meet so many risky challenges. Both my horses know the ORS maneuver, and with her head willingly turned down and back, it not only gets her attention for a moment, it gives me time to hop off, relatively safely.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

Hmmm...maybe I'm a freak. When Mia bolted, my Australian saddle & I stayed on. And then needed to deal with something. Which COULD be dealt with even after it started. The first time I did a Pulley Rein Stop was when she was still racing forward and I needed to do SOMETHING. So...why not try what I had seen in a video?

The first time a horse bucked with me, I was surprised. But I hung on, and then needed to do something. What? Folks said a horse wouldn't buck as hard if his head was up. So...get his head up. UP! And now the bucking was more like hopping.

The USAF assumed you were not going to practice spinning in an F4. But...if you got in a spin, you needed to know how to respond. So we had "Boldface" - emergency procedures written in boldface that we memorized and had to write out, 100% accurate, word for word, weekly in training and monthly after that. If you lost control, what should you do?

*1. Stick - Forward
2. Ailerons and Rudder - neutral
3. If not recovered - Maintain full forward stick and deploy drag chute*

If it continued into a spin, it went on:

*1. Stick - Maintain Full Forward*
*2. Ailerons - Full with spin/turn needle*
*3. Aircraft unloaded - ailerons neutral*
4. If out of control below 10,000' AGL - EJECT

Step 4 wasn't boldface, but sure good to know. My last flight in an F4 was March of 1989. The website I pulled the BF off got it wrong. They put "the" before "drag chute" in step 3. Didn't seem right so I looked it up in the manual to make sure. I remembered it right. Just "*and deploy drag chute*". The website would have flunked!

But the procedures were different for different planes. (I honestly don't remember the boldface for some of my follow-on aircraft!) One's first jet fighter, like one's first breed of horse, tends to remain one's first love. Sigh. Foreign air forces, but I'd LOVE to do this again. Getting old I guess. Glory Days...












​
If I wrote boldface for riding, my first emergency step would probably be: 

*1. Keep riding*

You can do a lot if you just keep riding. Now, if someone responded to Bandit getting excited by "_taking his head away_", they'd find themselves in a worse spot. And if I was on a horse who had been trained in a ORS, my response might not be helpful. Although I'd bet it would work, maybe not as fast though. And my technique wouldn't be very harmful in the worst case. 

But the BEST technique for a horse trained to the ORS would be the ORS! If possible, we should respect the horse's training - at least until we have time to retrain the horse. The right answer is the answer the horse understands. I just don't understand why someone would pick THAT maneuver for training a horse....:think:...not if you could train "_Set the wall. Release. Set the wall. Release. Set the wall. Release._"


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

PS: If you ever see me write, "_Then my horse lit the burners.._.", you will now know what I mean! A "_Turn & Burn_" was when Bandit or Mia would do a 180, light the afterburners and get the heck out of Dodge!


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## horseylover1_1 (Feb 13, 2008)

For me, a better question would be, why not?

My car has an emergency brake in case for whatever reason the main brake doesn't work for whatever reason... that doesn't mean it's my preferred method of stopping, or that I necessarily will ever have to use it. But it's there if I need it.

An awesome cowboy explained to me that horses are more likely to give to lateral pressure than vertical pressure. Especially the greenies. This has been wonderful advice when I work with a green horse, asking them to be soft to the bit and their body in general. I like to flex my horses just about every ride to encourage softness and relaxation. 

And I've used the one rein "stop" not just for stopping. If you got a horse that is wanting to buck or rear or whatever, being able to shut them down with one rein is very important to me. I have only used it on a bolting horse once or twice. But it has saved my rear from being flung from the saddle multiple times on other occasions. Said horses have turned out to be wonderful, forward mounts with more training. 

It is absolutely not a cure all. Some horses are just as likely to ignore the cue for the ORS as they would be to a "normal" stop. Since they're animals with their own minds, there's no "one size fits all" regarding cues for horse or rider.


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

If a horse is locked up and ready to bolt, or starts bucking, you can often shut him down with a one-rein stop. It's much easier to pull the head up and to one side than it is to get the head up pulling straight back.

And yes, part is muscle memory. I teach my colts to wind down with one rein into a stop from the first ride. Not only does it keep them soft and not bracing into the stop, but it helps them learn to balance and stay off the forehand. I'll reach down, tip the nose and bend the colt around with the rein and my leg until he stops, then release and let him stand. I've only really needed it once or twice over the years, but both times it kept us from a wreck, so I'd say it's worth doing. It does require some feel, though, especially when teaching it. Done incorrectly you end up dumping the horse on his forehand and making him brace his jaw and neck and it's not pretty. Done well, the horse tips his nose softly and comes around in a smooth arc winding down to a stop. I teach it from all gaits, too, so if you happen to be galloping along and a deer jumps out and your horse says 'nope' and heads for home, you aren't bending him down from a gallop for the first time. 

One time I did use a variation of it on a ranch horse I was riding that got rank one day, blew the cork, bucked and then bolted for home and was headed for a busy 4-lane highway at a dead run. I grabbed the left rein with both hands and yanked his head around and both of us went down, but neither of us was hurt, which would likely not have been the case had I either bailed (he would have been hit and the driver likely killed) or both of us gone across. True one rein stop? Well, I guess I used one rein and we did stop. But it wasn't the disengaged, soft stop I would consider ideal!


One thing about it is that it will give a novice or timid rider confidence if they have this skill in their arsenal. Will it work? Maybe. But they know how to do it so it gives them more confidence and that often takes away the need to have to use it.


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## jpenguin (Jun 18, 2015)

I take lessons, from two places, the place where they're into Parelli tried to push this, the other has never mentioned it.

Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

horseylover1_1 said:


> For me, a better question would be, why not?...


1 - Lots of horses are not trained to do it. Try it on one of them and you may end up under the horse.

2 - Takes more room than a straight ahead stop, and where I live, there is often cactus on either side.

3 - If your horse is on pavement when he spooks, do you want to twist anything, or focus on a straight line stop?

4 - I'm pretty certain trying to do it on Mia made Mia worse. She got ****ed about someone 'taking her head away'. That was true if I was leading her on a lead line. When she got nervous or upset, backing her in a straight line got her attention. Trying to turn her provoked a fight. 

Not all horses feel that way. But Mia and Bandit both do. And my youngest daughter gave up doing it with Trooper because she had the same result.

5 - Why would my emergency stop be different than my normal stop? Why try to train two types of stop, if they are both learned cues?

"_I grabbed the left rein with both hands and yanked his head around and both of us went down....One thing about it is that it will give a novice or timid rider confidence if they have this skill in their arsenal._" - SilverMaple

Ummmm...yeah, that's a skill I want as a novice! :rofl: Seriously though, the PROMISE that it will work may give them confidence - but is the promise true? Sometime around 1980, I was visiting a farm in Idaho and riding a stock horse in a large pasture. I "knew" the one rein stop. When Sham bolted, I applied it. Then I pulled his nose to my knee, and he was still racing toward a barbed wire fence.

Happily, another old cowboy had told me that if all else failed in turning a horse, try kicking his outside shoulder. So...eyeball to eyeball with Sham, racing along toward a barbed wire fence and nothing to lose, I leaned back and started whacking on his outside shoulder with my boot. Didn't turn him FAST, but turned him FAST ENOUGH. Ended up doing a huge loop around the pasture. Didn't think to release his head until we got slowed down.

Now...suppose I had done what my non-expert wife & DIL did when Trooper and Cowboy decided to get away from the flapping remains of the trampoline in the desert: Hang on, give some rein, and let the horse run 50-100 yards. Sham was a 15 year old ranch horse. Would he have run into a barbed wire fence? Or would he have slowed down once he had sprinted 50-100 yards? I'll never know. But I'd BET I made things worse, not better, by 'taking his head away'. Unlike what is promised, the ORS does not make a horse slow down. And in my experience, a LOT of spooked horses WILL slow down in 50-100 yards if all you do is keep riding them! Mia? OK, not her! The rest of my horses will.

I've concluded trying to 'shut the horse down' can scare him every bit as much as squeezing with the knees, squealing like a teen girl at a rock concert, trying to rip the horse's head off with the reins, etc.

And if they don't slow down after 50-100 yards? "_Set the wall. Release. Set the wall. Release. Set the wall. Release._" Or use a Pulley Rein. Neither of which will panic a horse, and neither will throw the horse off balance. Works well in places that look like this:










---------------------------------------------------------------​PS: My farrier tells the story of working on his grandpa's ranch during the summers. They had a horse there that they used for novice riders. But the horse had a quirk: His first ride, every day, he'd bolt over a mile to a tree, turn around the tree, and bolt home. Then he'd stop on his own. And for the rest of the day, he'd take care of any newbie riders!

The farrier's job, as a teen, was to get that first ride of the day out of the way. He's a BIG guy. Used to do bull riding. But he said he never figured out a way to slow, let alone stop, that horse during those 2+ miles of running. But the rest of the day, the horse was perfect for a beginner...

Horses! :racing:​


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

The pulley rein, turning and 'letting the horse run' is not an option 25 yards from a major highway. It was pull that one rein to give us both a chance even if we went down, or kill us both and likely a motorist, too.

Use a properly-applied one-rein stop if it works for you, don't if it doesn't. And a proper one isn't 'taking the horse's head away' ala Clinton Anderson, either, but teaching the horse to bend around and follow his nose as a conditioned response with a disengagement.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

SilverMaple said:


> And a proper one isn't 'taking the horse's head away' ala Clinton Anderson, either, but teaching the horse to bend around and follow his nose as a conditioned response with a disengagement.


What I concluded over time was that it was far safer to teach the horse to bend and follow his nose with varying degrees of turning based on how far his neck was turned, and to follow that with his body.
"Disengagement" can be what makes it unsafe, if you cause the horse to have less balance by having him not follow his front legs with his hind ones. 

"Why not" to teach it is because very athletic horses can continue moving quite well without their hind legs and front legs tracking behind each other. This creates a situation where the rider has less directional control and the horse is also less likely to stay on his feet. You don't want to teach very hot and athletic horses ways to evade under conditions of stress. If you teach them to disengage their front and hind end from each other, this can crop up at very inconvenient times. 

Let's say the horse heading for the highway did not fall down, the footing was secure and he had been taught to disengage his hind end but also felt safest continuing toward the highway. Now the rider has no opportunity to steer the horse, but will be moving rapidly sideways toward the road with the horse not even looking at the obstacles he is heading toward. 

If you teach the horse to always follow the direction and degree his head and neck are turned at, you can still turn a horse very sharply in a tiny circle (if you can stay on), but he is far less likely to fall because he will continue pushing forward with his hind legs to follow the front ones rather than skewing them off to one side.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

SilverMaple said:


> The pulley rein, turning and 'letting the horse run' is not an option 25 yards from a major highway...


Letting the horse run isn't an option in that situation, but a pulley rein is! So is the Two Rein Stop (TRS)...:lol:

FWIW, one of my bad moments on Mia was doing repeated ORSes on a paved road while a car was coming at us at 60 mph. Happily, the repeated turns drifted just far enough over that the car - who never slowed at all - missed us. And I have no idea how anyone keeps driving at 60 mph toward a horse and rider doing 360 degree spins on the road. People!

But by all means, if you and your horse are good with doing an ORS, that is great! It hasn't worked well for me, but it obviously does for others. And what works is never the wrong answer! My views are obviously shaped by Mia and Bandit, and as long as what I do works for us, it can be the right answer too.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

These videos show what a real one rein stop looks like.
As you can see in the second video, even if the horse knows it, not every situation makes it easy to use right away, and it can't just shut down a horse until they are in the right frame of mind and speed to make it useful.


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

bsms said:


> 1 - Lots of horses are not trained to do it. Try it on one of them and you may end up under the horse.
> 
> [/LEFT]


The horse itself does not have to be trained in the one reign stop for the rider to use it. I don't want to sound argumentative or disrespectful with my response but I honestly believe you don't have enough experience with these types of situations to fully understand all of the different reactive and proactive techniquest that can be used in emergent situations. I think you have a limited amount of experience on a limited number of horses. There is nothing wrong with that but I think it hinders your ability to understand certain methods so you review videos and read articles to educate yourself. There is nothing wrong with that at all but sometimes it feels like you are dowing people that have been in these situations or have really trained hard for certain things.

I don't have any issues with self taught riders or backyard rider. I happen to really enjoy lessons so when I have the time and the money I do take them. I happen to really enjoy showing so when I can, I do. But I also happen to love riding so I do that too... In my backyard without a fancy ring. I will never understand why you feel the need to argue so many things though.

I wish you the best of luck and I am proud of all that you have accomplished with your horses.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

farmpony84 said:


> The horse itself does not have to be trained in the one reign stop for the rider to use it. I don't want to sound argumentative or disrespectful with my response but I honestly believe you don't have enough experience with these types of situations to fully understand all of the different reactive and proactive techniquest that can be used in emergent situations...... In my backyard without a fancy ring. I will never understand why you feel the need to argue so many things though.
> 
> I wish you the best of luck and I am proud of all that you have accomplished with your horses.


To start with, I suspect I've had more experience on a horse bolting in the open than a lot of lifelong riders. I've done multiple bolts on a single ride, which at least gives one a chance to experiment with different techniques. And spent 10 years learning a few things about how nervous horses react. And what helps them versus what makes things worse.

Part of the reason I think it took so long was all the truly horrible advice and training I got from well-meaning people who didn't know what they were talking about. People who said if I was confident, my horse would be confident. Sorry, but I have had a lot of experience on horses freaking out when I was calm as could be, or horses staying utterly calm while my insides were churning. People who told me to control my horse's body, or even to just get a bigger whip!

I was taught by a trainer/instructor to do the ORS. Because it would always work. And that was partially true. If I caught the spook/bolt in time, I cold turn it into a spin instead. But as I've explained, some horses don't "spin down". They "spin up" - and I lived on one for 7 years. But the conventional wisdom was to use the ORS.

I started to see progress when I stopped trying to control my horse and stopped using the ORS to stop her! It was combined with a switch to using curb bits. I've credited the curb bit for being a big part of what helped Mia start getting better. But as I look back, I now think the improvement that started - quickly - was due at least as much to giving up the ORS, and turning her in tight circles, trying to "disengage" her. What Clinton Anderson and John Lyons and the trainer who was certified by John Lyons taught me didn't work. And yes, the professional trainer had worked to teach Mia the ORS, and had spent multiple lessons working on teaching ME the ORS - but it didn't work!

Bandit also had been taught the ORS. Maybe not well. When he arrived, he was much spookier than Mia was in 2015. The difference was that I had the experience on Mia to prevent me from following the conventional wisdom that the ORS was all one needed, that it always worked, that it worked due to the mechanics. 

Although I've quoted Denny Emerson, I'm hardly making an argument ("*a coherent series of reasons, statements, or facts intended to support or establish a point of view*") based on reading! Nor is arguing, in that sense, harmful to anyone. Name-calling is bad, but I haven't called anyone names. No one learns by listening to those who already agree with them! We learn when our ideas are challenged by someone with different ideas or different experiences.

But...let's talk about "books". Anyone who reads a lot of books on riding will find very little written about One Rein Stops. George Morris & Denny Emerson, both very highly experienced riders, don't discuss them. I don't think any book I've read written before 1980, maybe 1990, mentions the ORS. The US, British and French cavalries never mention it, although they had millions of horses and very highly experienced riders. So it COULD be that someone in the 1980s (or maybe slightly earlier) learned something new about stopping horses, largely unknown during the previous 3,000 years. Or maybe not.

Of course, anyone can disagree with me. And I think I've been clear that anyone who is enjoying success using the ORS is obviously doing something right - for them. But farmpony84, I've got more than enough time on the back of scared horses in open terrain to have a right to an opinion, and to share why I've come to my conclusions.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

farmpony84 said:


> The horse itself does not have to be trained in the one reign stop for the rider to use it. .


I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one.
For anything to succeed with horses the key is in the training.
If the horse has no clue how to respond to an extreme direct rein it isn't going to work.
In the videos that @gottatrot put up the horses brought their heads right around with minimum forward movement in the direction of the direct rein so they were able to defuse the situation in a very small area and very quickly.
If the horse resists the pressure of the direct rein it won't bring its head around, it will lock its neck and jaw and completely brace against the pressure or it will follow its nose from the point it comes too that it feels OK with. That would enable a rider to spiral the horse if it had got sufficient space to do that.
When a horse is correctly started they should be trained from the get go to give to pressure on their mouth or nose, even when that pressure is asking them to bring their head right around - you can throw away the '1 rein stop' term altogether because its yet another of those pointless terms that's evolved to make some trainers feel 'special'.


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

IMO the horse must be trained to give to pressure for a ORS to work, otherwise you will be escalating the panic. 


In the videos that @gottatrot posted, neither horse was in a panicked state. The first one the horse was not even in a medium trot, looked completely calm _until the rider began_ the ORS so pretty obvious the rider was teaching and/or practicing the ORS. 


In the second video, the horse was not panicked either, it was MAD and letting the rider know it. The rider got mad right back at the horse and said Nope we are not doing this. My guess is that after the rider dismounted, the horse got a bit of aggressive groundwork, then they remounted and continued on with a bit more willing horse :Angel:

When a horse is truly panicked, they won't stop for a while...a controlled slowing until the horse regains their brain is the best one can hope for. 

I do use a One rein _Slowdown_ for times when my horse is heading into full blown panic. It is very similar to the ORS but the difference is, the horse never actually stops and would get *more panicked* if one continued to try to stop the horse. So what I do is use one rein to slow the horse enough so that I can jump off and try to regain control from the ground. Safer for me, and the horse too.


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

bsms said:


> Letting the horse run isn't an option in that situation, but a pulley rein is! So is the Two Rein Stop (TRS)...:lol:
> 
> FWIW, one of my bad moments on Mia was doing repeated ORSes on a paved road while a car was coming at us at 60 mph. Happily, the repeated turns drifted just far enough over that the car - who never slowed at all - missed us. And I have no idea how anyone keeps driving at 60 mph toward a horse and rider doing 360 degree spins on the road. People!
> 
> But by all means, if you and your horse are good with doing an ORS, that is great! It hasn't worked well for me, but it obviously does for others. And what works is never the wrong answer! My views are obviously shaped by Mia and Bandit, and as long as what I do works for us, it can be the right answer too.


 Tried the pulley rein and the TRS first, I assure you. Neither worked in this instance. That big plug had his jaw set and was tanking off toward home and it was pull him over or die, so yeah.... I teach it to my colts because it works for me, and I have used it successfully to get a horse's mind back on me before he gets a chance to spook or react to something that worries him and have good success with it. Had Ol' Paint the ranch plug been properly trained rather than cowboyed from the start, I suspect he would have responded better to other means of shutting him down or not pulled his trick in the first place. I do add the caveat that the properly-trained ORS seems to work best on smaller, catty horses that can turn on a dime over the hind end if they need to- stock horses, etc. Bending down into a stop seems very easy for them. My Paso came to me stiff as a board and I haven't even tried it with him as he still has a meltdown when asked to do much bending at all, so he's a work in progress. Arabs are hit or miss. TBs a complete fail... they tend to get angry and fight it rather than settle. Draft crosses either do it well, or are total disasters, depending on how they're built and balanced. 

The little paint mare I started for a friend was stiff and jumpy whens she came to us, and had been ridden a little but basically saddled and sent down the trail. She had no clue what a bend was, and has since relaxed and suppled and the ORS has benefitted her a lot. Her future rider has a disibility resulting in her right side being very weak, so we're really working on a 'shut it down' cue with a ORS to the left as that's what worked best for this woman's previous gelding. I've started cueing her with a press on the neck ahead of the saddle when I want her to stop and drop her head and relax; if she doesn't, we do the ORS until she settles. It's really working well and I think this mare will turn out to be a nice, safe, level-headed ride for my friend. She's certainly becoming a nice little horse.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

@Silvermaple makes some good points. The result you get from using different types of stops can vary greatly depending on the type of horse you are riding, not just mentally but also physically. Some horses are naturally very flexible, some are "leg movers," and some are very inflexible. What may be most effective for a certain horse can be different based on this.

I've also experienced this, which some horses can do while quite bent through the neck, which is why I also don't care to teach a horse to bend the neck without following it. I teach horses early on that they must move forward following their head and neck, no matter what. 






My personal philosophy is try to never disengage. If the horse is disengaged, I have lost control over direction, which is far more important than speed. You can go quite slowly over a cliff or onto a highway and it is still dangerous.

I've often been amazed at how quickly I can move on a "disengaged" horse in all kinds of crazy directions. If a horse is very panicky and hot, they can offer you all types of suggestions for movement. You might think "I'll bend them to the right," and either a very bendy horse or an extreme leg mover can now take you rapidly to to the left in response, because they absolutely don't want to head toward that scary thing to the right. I've had horses in the space of a few seconds take me in four different directions.

It is far easier to affect the balance and cause the horse to move the hind end over if the horse has a certain amount of stiffness/inflexibility. This does not have to do with whether the horse can move the neck, but rather if the horse gets off balance does he feel the need to step over in the hind. Very flexible horses or horses that can remain very straight through the shoulder and hips but still move their legs very high and with a lot of hock motion can avoid stepping over with the hind legs if they wish. 

My friend has a horse that can stay perfectly straight in the body and do a complete 360 turn in a very small space because she can move her legs very high and rapidly.


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## Faithinhorses (Jan 8, 2018)

This is an interesting discussion. I've had an OTTB for 2 yrs who scared the bejusus out of me in the 1st 1-1 1/2 years I had him with bolting. I did get control of him with the ORS each time it happened, but it took a lot of strength even with the "bump, bump, bump" needed on that one rein to get his attention and unlock his jaw. All of our bolts occurred on flat ground, and I think that makes a difference too (ie, if we were on a trail or on a hill, doing that could land us in a messy heap!). The issue of teaching a horse the ORS boils down to teaching him to give to pressure. Over this past spring/summer I did a lot of groundwork with my said OTTB using Clinton Anderson as well as Buck Brannaman techniques. The latter encourages teaching the horse not only to "stop his feet" as one correct response to sliding a hand down one rein to a stop, but also to teach him to "roll his hindquarters over behind" as a second correct answer to the sliding of the hand down one rein. I think it is beneficial to teach a horse both of these things, not only as a means to his understanding giving to pressure and for safety, but also to get the horse thinking versus reacting to what set off the bolt.  Anyway, my 2 cents. Last bolt with my guy was last July, which quickly aborted as soon as one hand slid down a rein to cue him, so I'm feeling pretty happy about teaching him the groundwork, filling in holes in his education. Maybe the horses that end up spinning would do better with getting them to keep moving and "roll those hindquarters over behind" and then take them the other way on one rein, rolling them over the other way, etc. Keeping them moving like that with all those jobs to do might get them thinking and stop the spinning.


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

That is a half-pass at canter! Feels so fabulous to ride, but I do believe that one was initiated by the horse, not the rider :wink: 

I had a horse do that once in a first level test. We went down the entire long side then turned up the center line to halt/salute in half pass at canter. It was supposed to be a working trot :rofl: I couldn't get him moving straight, but was able to aim him in the right direction! 

My horses only use a direct rein for a short time, then the rein is used for bend mostly. So my horses are trained to go in the direction of travel, even if bent to the inside or outside.


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

I got a spectacular half-pass at the canter when we were loping down the road past a neighbor's house and they had just unloaded an alpaca they bought.... it was pretty funny. My mare wasn't worried, she just wanted to see what it was, and kept cantering while she gawked.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Slight difference: Half Pass at the Canter has the horse bent toward the direction of travel. So they are in the ever so slight shape of a 'C", going toward the open side of the C.


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## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

AnitaAnne said:


> I had a horse do that once in a first level test. We went down the entire long side then turned up the center line to halt/salute in half pass at canter. It was supposed to be a working trot :rofl: I couldn't get him moving straight, but was able to aim him in the right direction!
> .



Note on test sheet

Movement not required at this level!


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

Golden Horse said:


> Note on test sheet
> 
> Movement not required at this level!



"Lovely animation and presence"


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## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

Maybe a tactfully ridden, Fergie and I got one of those.


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

Golden Horse said:


> Note on test sheet
> 
> Movement not required at this level!


I actually got a lecture from the judge after this test! I was told my horse was dangerous and I needed professional help (not sure if he meant profession help for me or the horse :rofl: ) 

Did I mention there were a few airs above the ground performed in warmup and during the test?? Since we didn't actually go off course (pattern) there was no actual error, but did get a few "not performed" :rofl:


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

tinyliny said:


> Slight difference: Half Pass at the Canter has the horse bent toward the direction of travel. So they are in the ever so slight shape of a 'C", going toward the open side of the C.


You are of course correct. Shall we then mark the horse and rider down for an incorrect bend? Or do we call it an over bent leg yield at canter? Or how about shoulders in at canter? The horse did seem to be on three tracts...

Or the western term maybe, side pass at canter? Still a little over bent though, I believe side pass is to be performed with a straight horse, but I'm no expert on western :wink: 

The impulsion was fabulous however, and they did not go off course!! :smile:


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

My friend's diva of a TB mare decided she was cold at her last show and wanted to go back to her trailer and blanket which she could see behind the judge, did a lovely piaffe when she halted at X after her last 2nd level test . Judge commented "beautiful suspension and impulsion before halt" Ha!


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## Rawhide (Nov 11, 2011)

Awesome thread been enjoying it , somehow reminds me of this :


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