Do you have lazy horse?
I actually think that if you have a lazy horse you are quite lucky. And I know that maybe you are thinking that I am out of my mind for saying that. But hold on a minute and let me explain.
The fact that your horse is lazy does not mean that you can’t teach him to react quickly, on low amounts of pressure.
The only real problem is having a spoiled lazy horse. What I mean by spoiled lazy horse, is a horse that someone was riding on, not really caring about how well he reacts, and instead of training him to react better and better, the rider was just using more and more pressure while being OK with worse and worse execution.
This way the horse basically learned to react worse and worse on bigger and bigger amounts of pressure. So, in the end, he learned to ignore the rider even when he uses quite a lot of pressure.
The laziest horse I have ever ridden
I used to do pentathlon and one of the horses we had was exactly like what I just described. His name was Artus, he was 2 meters tall (19 and a half hands) to his withers and riding on him was awful.
When he didn’t feel like canter, there was no canter… It was Artus who always seemed to have the last word.
It was frustrating! And don’t think that I didn’t try.
Even when I did my max to try to get him to canter, I spanked him with my whip as hard I could, all Artus did was that instead of canter, he just stopped. And he kept standing still while I continued to hit him with my whip. He didn’t even move his head while I was hitting him. He completely ignored it and just waited for me to get tired of it.
So what should you do to not end up like this?
If your horse tends to be lazy, always work with him in faster paces. So for example ride in faster trot more often, do a lot of canter work. Often switch between fast and slower canter.
Another important thing is to always be consistent with requiring your horse to react even on low amounts of pressure. Especially when you ask him to speed up.
The 3x method
If you ask your horse to speed up using low pressure and he doesn’t react, use more pressure to ask again. If he still doesn’t react, you should use what’s necessary to really make sure he will listen the third time around. You can use spurs or a whip to really make sure that the third time around your horse listens and realizes that it is better for him to listen when you ask the first time.
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1
Ask using low pressure
Use low pressure, that you want your horse to reliably react on.
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2
Increase the pressure
If that doesn't work, use more pressure to make sure your horse can feel your aid and what you are asking.
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3
Do what is necessary to get an exaggerated reaction
If it didn't work the first two times. The third time you have to go significantly harder. Use enough pressure to get your horse to do what you asked and get an exaggerated reaction. You want your horse to be uncomfortable on this level and realize something was wrong and needs to be different next time.
When I am asking for the third time I don’t even want my horse to change the gait nicely. For example, I don’t need him to change nicely from trot to canter, if I am asking for the third time the reaction I want is super quick and a bit exaggerated. I don’t mind if he goes to canter and is faster than I wanted.
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If you stay consistent and always use low pressure the first time, then a bit more pressure the second time, but the third time you always make sure that your horse does what you wanted. Even if it’s a bit exaggerated, you can get even a lazy horse to react nicely on low pressure. And of course, you avoid your horse from becoming like Artus , the horse I talked about earlier.
I use the “third level” of pressure when I really need my horse to move. I try not to do it more than two times per riding session. If you do it consistently, in just a few days, you will not be using it two times a day, but most likely just once a month.
Remember this while riding on a lazy horse
With a lazy horse, it’s always to better to be really direct the third time other than just increasing the pressure gradually and trying to ask him to do something five times. That way the horse can just learn to adapt on the rider gradually hitting him more and more, and then ending up like Artus.
