Stopping (Chapter 1)

Stopping your horse covers a broad area.  You can get your horse to cease all forward motion and simply get stopped in any form.  You can ride your collected horse to a stop in which it maintains its collection and stops squarely and completely in one stride.  Perhaps you want a cutter or rope horse to stop balanced on the hindquarters NOW or maybe you’d rather grease your reiner into a long fluid slide.  These are not the same maneuver and need to be taught and ridden differently.
 
Merely getting stopped is the basis of all types of stop.  This is a combination of the horse’s energy coming down, like flicking off a light switch and the horse understanding that contact from the bit means stop.  This seems obvious but there are things that confuse the issue. 
 
One is that the horse must stop when you ask whether he wants to stop or not.  If the horse wants to continue chasing a cow or if he’s nervous and scared he is not going to simply want to stop and relax.  So he must learn that when you pull he has to stop no matter what he thinks about it.  Repetition is the key to mastering this basic maneuver.  Begin at the walk on a loose rein, walk for a moment then gently take the slack out of the rein.  When the horse stops, release the pressure.  Repeat this until you are so bored you can’t stand it.  If you aren’t bored sick of it you haven’t done it enough.  When the horse stops on contact at the walk every time do it at the trot then finally on to the gallop.  (You won’t accomplish this in one lesson.) 
 
After your horse knows contact means stop or perhaps as you are teaching the stop, the horse will challenge you.  Contact may not be enough to get him to stop or keep him stopped.  When this happens, put the horse to work when he is not stopped.  For example, you might trot circles until he is tired, then ask him to stop.  He will begin to associate stopping with physical and mental rest and ignoring the stop with work.  You will be aligning his desire with the simple cue to stop and he will not only learn to stop but he will be enthusiastic about it.  
 
The second thing that causes a problem is collection.  If the horse learns that contact means stop and then you drive him forward while pulling he finds that confusing.  What a quagmire this is!  In order to stop really well you must have collection but nothing messes up a stop like misunderstood collection. This is the point where some help and education can really pay off. 
 
The horse should soften at the poll and jaw when you take the slack out of the rein but this isn’t collection, it’s softening at the poll and jaw.  When you take the slack out and stop your hand he should soften at the poll and then stop.  Collection comes when you squeeze or bump with your legs and get the result of the horse driving its hindquarters further forward without appreciably gaining speed.  If you are not doing it with your leg it is not collection.  If you have contact with your hand and move your horse into collection with your legs then remove your leg pressure while maintaining contact with your hand, your horse must stop.  Conversely, if you have contact with your legs and remove hand pressure the horse should surge forward.  This is the foundation of collection. 
 
When you want to “collect” you can be asking your horse numerous things including: lift the front, soften the topline, soften the jaw and poll, set the hindquarter underneath or build up energy and contain it.  These should be seen as separate goals, not lumped together as "collection'.  It's confusing for both the horse and rider.  It is silly to throw several maneuvers into a bag, shake it up with confusion and call the whole thing collection.  Collection can be accomplished in different ways but is always about directing the hind legs forward with your legs.  If you can’t do this or understand it or don’t want to bother with it, don’t try to collect you’ll only aggravate your horse.
 
These ideas are just the beginning of what your horse needs to know to be able to accomplish an advanced stop.  Each kind of stop requires additional details and we will continue to discuss these steps individually in subsequent articles.