Training My Horse, Sugar, for Western Pleasure

~*~UPDATE~*~
I cut her mane short. And she is loping much slower now and will get on the correct lead. She holds her head nice and level for both the walk and the trot with a nice loose reign. At the lope she puts her head right up and swings it constantly so both reigns will go on one side. If I have a tight reign and see-saw while she's loping she will put it down put if I don't do that she swings it. What should I do to correct that?

I'm trying to train my horse for western pleasure. Comment and leave tips, please. Should I cut her mane short? I can't get her to take the correct lead at a lope while going clockwise so please leave a comment telling me how to teach her.
Sugar is a registered paint and her registered name is Zippos Hanky Pank. Yes, she is related to the famous Zippo Pine Bar. In fact, he is Sugar's great-grandfather.
And yes, I know that I have shorts on instead of pants lol

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Training
• Sugar
• for
• Western
• Pleasure
• Zippos
• Hanky
• Pank
• Zippo
• Pine
• Bar
• Becca
• Schwieter

[BarrelRacer955]

My cousin makes me mad. She has the perfect horse, she just has the true grouchy mare tempure. And she wont ride her or go near her, everyone is scared of her, but i would love to go hop on her and show everyone she is a good horse. Its just my friends not forcefull with horses. She lets them get away with things. And she doesnt correct them or get them to do what she wants. Nice vid! Ur horse is coming along great!

[sweeter1900]

Oh I know what your talking about! Doesn't it just drive you insane!!!!!!! It's like Ugh! Correct that horse!!!!!

[splash1splash]

dont keep her at a loose rein if you want her to go slower keep a hold of her and pull left right left right to keep her head down at the lope. what bit are you using/?

[sweeter1900]

Thanks! I'll try that!!! I was using a tomthumb snaffle with rollers but now I'm using a curb bit.

[Artwithapulse]

See-sawing doesn't help jack. A horse tosses its head up when its uncollected. Work on collection exercises, and it will improve her - her jog is short strided, thats not what they do in real pleasure classes. A real pleasure horse is collected. Shortening her stride only strings her back out.

[xXSweetBreezeXx]

I'd love to see an update on her! I'm trying to train my coming 4 year old for pleasure, and i pretty much have no clue what im doing but so far its working lol

[ride4ever1995]

i agree speed her jog up and lengthen her stride for the lope put her on a snaffle and work on contact giving her nose and push her forward "on" the bit great job she is beautiful! dont cut the mane!!!!!

[sweeter1900]

@MorganE8857 I have found that once your horse is comfortable, the low head set will just happen. To start out, use a snaffle bit. I'd say work mostly on trotting. To get your horse to slow down, don't cue her to slow down by pulling on the reins, but instead, turn your horse in a circle. Then straighten back out and once she starts speeding up again, turn her again in another circle. Within a couple of days she will realize that it is a reward to be able to go straight and she will stay slow.

[babicakes10100]

What you can do when you ask her to lope is tilt her head to the right and if she still picks up the wrong leads do i small circle, but not too small that she breaks, to the right:)

[polechamp2008]

i would try training forks on her (with loose reins) to get her collected & her head level w/ her topline

your reins are a little long you dont want them so long that when you need to stop you dont have to put your hands above your head :P

& i noticed she has a 4 beat lope instead of a 3 beat lope make sure you keep her on a 3 beat lope :)

your doing great :)

(placed 2nd for Overall Individual and 2nd for Individual Proformance at the 2010 National Appaloosa Horse Judging Competition)

[zodiakranch]

I'm not sure when you did the update in the info bar but try collecting her a little bit before asking her to go into the lope. Ultimately you want her to hold herself in collection with a loose rein but when you are training don't expect her to do it on her own. Look for some videos showing "self collection". You will probably find mostly english/dressage but the only difference is the tack. It will really help you and your horse.

[BarrelRacer955]

@sweeter1900 I know. lol It makes me mad to watch her ride cause i'm the type that is forcefull and corrects my horse all the time, and she just lets things slip. I'm let like get her to do what u want!!!! lol

[tmustang94]

BECCA!!! she looks good in this vid! cant wait to start showing with ya! and im not cutting hollys or taffys mane off so dont cut sugars again!!!