But the crop comes last-after you’ve gotten no response from your seat or leg. You want to sensitize your horse to your seat and leg cues, so you will likely need a riding crop to support or back up your aids. Start by practicing halt-to-walk transitions then build up all the way to the lope/canter. You can do good straight lines even if you don’t have a large pasture-just go between the two farthest points in your arena. For sluggish horses, traveling on long, straight lines is better than tight turns and circles. When training turns into too many repetitions and drudgery, you lose purpose-a clear beginning, middle and end. To me a “purpose” is something you can describe: It starts here, you do “this,” then you’re done. This doesn’t require a grand plan but can be something simple like doing a long trot across a pasture, then resting for a moment or two and trotting back across. First, get the horse out of the arena and go somewhere to stimulate his mind and find purpose.Here are some things that can help you get your horse moving forward again: If you don’t, a horse who is quieter by nature will quickly dull to the leg because the motivation to move out seeking a release in pressure is gone. Think of it this way: If you squeeze your legs to get your horse going, then you need to release that cue once he responds. The key is to sensitize the horse and at the same time learn to avoid micromanaging, which ultimately means letting the horse take responsibility for going forward. To which, the rider might reply, “If I don’t use my aids, you stop moving!” There is the dilemma. If the horse could speak he would likely tell his rider, “No matter how much I speed up, you keep grinding your leg aid leg against me. That’s because from the horse’s point of view, this rider is irritating and unrelenting. Unfortunately, this only makes these horses duller, less motivated and less willing to go forward. Many people make the mistake of working too hard to get these sluggish horses to pick up the pace: kicking, squeezing and swatting them to try to get them going. For most horses, being locked into the same daily routine for weeks and months on end is like staying in kindergarten forever! Have you ever seen a path worn into an arena surface by horses going round and round, day in and day out? Even if you don’t see that sort of evidence, the horses feel the effects of excessive repetition. The first is mostly caused by boring, repetitive activity in an arena. Maybe some are-and sluggishness can also be a sign of illness or another physical problem-but in most cases, horses lose the “go button” because of two issues. Have you ever felt more tired than your horse at the end of a ride? Horses who have lost forward impulsion are typically seen as lazy and dull.
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