Posted 2014-10-13 3:38 PM Subject: Switching Do and Don'ts
Veteran
Posts: 233
When switching horses directions what are the things you focus on early? Do you have a plan of action on what to do when and how long it takes the process to be done correctly? This horse has been ran to the right for almost two years (he is 5) but occasionally will duck the second. He is STRONG and I don't want to fight him every time I run him trying to make him move over when he does so perfectly in practice. He was trained by the woman I purchased him from to the right and his brothers run left so I'm wondering if he would do better the same. I can't give up on him, he's too nice. He is bred Dr Nick Bar and Martha Six Moons.
Posted 2014-10-13 5:01 PM Subject: RE: Switching Do and Don'ts
I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387 Location: Pacific Northwest
I just start doing slow work in the other direction. 2 of my horses don't need any practice in order to switch directions, I can literally take them any way I want on any given run. Those are two that I patterned myself and I tend to do a lot of barrel work that isn't necessarily the barrel PATTERN, so I think that helped. My other horse can basically only go one direction and I think she'd be confused and struggle more if I had to switch her.
Posted 2014-10-14 11:27 AM Subject: RE: Switching Do and Don'ts
Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181 Location: Kansas
In my experience, it doesn't take very long to switch a horse that's been running. I walk through the pattern a couple of times then if I'm on decent ground I might lope through once, but all I really worry about after that is making sure I get the correct lead coming in the alley. My gray can run either direction and I've changed my plan going down the alley because of what lead he picked that day. In general, horses are smart enough to figure it out a lot faster than we sometimes give them credit for.
Switching Do and Don'ts
