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Expert
Posts: 1477
  
Location: In the land of peanuts and cotton | My gelding was having some problems so we swapped him over to running left and he turns so much better and it's a lot smoother. How do I need to bring in a lefty when I can't come from the left holding pen or left of the alley? Or after he gets used to running left should he pick up his lead on his own? He's not starting on his left lead right now so I'm having to stop him and make him pick it up but he hasn't been worked but 3 times to the left and ran him today. | |
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 Expert
Posts: 2276
Location: ohio-in my own little world with pretty ponies :) | I switched my mare from the right as well...it just took time for her to learn to start in her left. I would circle her in the alley if I could to get her to do it but even if she didn't start in it, she would switch on her own a couple strides before we got to the first. At home I would always make a circle and pick up the left and then go until she picked it up. | |
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 I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
Location: MD | if you cant come from the left, we always do a little tiny circle in the alley as straight as can be. and getting him to pick up the left lead first. when I bought him he was running both directions and I kept him committed to the left. I had a lot of trouble with him fighting picking up his left first, and then switching last minute causing us to fuzz up our 1st. I changed up his whole routine, everything we did was to the left first. trot circles, loping, poles etc. he got with the program pretty quickly and now we keep up with it and it's great and I don't have to worry about crazy alley entrances anymore because it's second nature to him.
and he's an appaloosa and telling him he was wrong was earth shattering to him :) | |
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 Ms. Elvis
Posts: 9606
Location: Running barrels or watching nascar | Both horses I switched, you couldn't get them to pick up the lead before the right barrel. Went to the left and they liked that lead a whole lot better. Had another that was vice versa. | |
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  Fact Checker
Posts: 16575
Location: Displaced Iowegian | PRACTICE....PRACTICE....PRACTICE..... taking the left lead from a STAND STILL........Here is an article to explain how........
Teaching your horse to lope off on the correct lead can be achieved in three simple steps: the set-up, the cue and the release. World-champion reining trainer Casey Deary, of Deary Performance Horses in Weatherford, Texas, explains how.
Step 1: The Set-Up
The key to getting the correct lead every time is to set the horse up properly for the lope departure before asking for a particular lead. The horse’s outside hind leg is his driving leg. Therefore, if that leg is underneath the horse when he is cued to lope, there is a better chance that he will lope off correctly.
“If I am going to lope off to the left, I want the horse’s right rear leg to be forward and underneath him, or on the way forward and underneath him, before I ask him to lope,” Deary says.
When loping off from a standstill, Deary will allow his horse to take two or three steps to make sure the horse is in a good frame to lope off correctly. “However, by the time I’m ready to show, my horses will lope off from a standstill,” he says.
Step 2: The Cue
When Deary teaches a young horse to lope for the first time, he works in a large circle and uses his outside leg to push the horse into the lope. “If I want to lope off to the left, I will trot the horse in a circle to the left and push with my outside leg until the horse picks up the correct lead,” Deary explains. “If he picks up the incorrect lead, then I will break him down to the trot and try again.”
Step 3: The Release
Once the horse understands how to lope and which lead to pick up, Deary will refine the cue. “I will put my outside leg on the horse to ask for the lope, but when he tries to lope off, I will hold him back. Then, when I am ready to lope, I will cluck, release the horse, and let him lope off.”
The horse learns that, when Deary pushes with his outside leg, he is to move his hip away from Deary’s leg but wait for the verbal cue to lope off. “The cue to lope is me clucking,” he says.
Loping Don’ts
Don’t turn your horse’s nose to the outside. “I will only do that on a young horse the first two or three times I ask him to lope, until he understands what I am asking,” Deary says. “But I sure don’t want to make a habit out of it. I want the horse looking to the inside when I lope off.”
Don’t lean in to influence your horse to pick up a particular lead. “On a younger horse, I may lean forward a little bit, but on a broke horse I expect the horse to do all the work,” Deary says. “When I put my leg on the horse and cluck, I expect him to pick up the correct lead without me having to push or lean. | |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I push the hip to the inside and bump the inside rein before I let them break and run. It shouldn't matter which direction you come into the alley. | |
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 Expert
Posts: 1343
Location: Oklahoma | The horse in my avatar was a lefty when I bought him. I had probably only run to the left a couple of times before in my life. The advice you have gotten about teaching them to break into a left lead from a standstill is priceless. In the rare older rodeo arenas I ran at that had a right side gate, you have to go in and set up. If your horse is trained to take off in the left lead, you are soooo much better off. | |
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 Expert
Posts: 1718
Location: Southeast Louisiana | Three 4 Luck - 2014-08-10 10:38 AM
I push the hip to the inside and bump the inside rein before I let them break and run. It shouldn't matter which direction you come into the alley.
This is what I do. I practiced it at home, in an open area, and I can get him to do it in the alley no problem. | |
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 Off the Wall Wacky
Posts: 2981
Location: Louisiana | Three 4 Luck - 2014-08-10 10:38 AM I push the hip to the inside and bump the inside rein before I let them break and run. It shouldn't matter which direction you come into the alley.
THIS!! At least 50% of the time I come from the left of the alley on my righty. I just find a good out of the way spot to chill and sometimes it's on the left, sometimes on the right. | |
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 Crazy Chicken Chick
Posts: 36132
| NJJ - 2014-08-10 9:38 AM PRACTICE....PRACTICE....PRACTICE..... taking the left lead from a STAND STILL........Here is an article to explain how........
Teaching your horse to lope off on the correct lead can be achieved in three simple steps: the set-up, the cue and the release. World-champion reining trainer Casey Deary, of Deary Performance Horses in Weatherford, Texas, explains how.
Step 1: The Set-Up
The key to getting the correct lead every time is to set the horse up properly for the lope departure before asking for a particular lead. The horse’s outside hind leg is his driving leg. Therefore, if that leg is underneath the horse when he is cued to lope, there is a better chance that he will lope off correctly.
“If I am going to lope off to the left, I want the horse’s right rear leg to be forward and underneath him, or on the way forward and underneath him, before I ask him to lope,” Deary says.
When loping off from a standstill, Deary will allow his horse to take two or three steps to make sure the horse is in a good frame to lope off correctly. “However, by the time I’m ready to show, my horses will lope off from a standstill,” he says.
Step 2: The Cue
When Deary teaches a young horse to lope for the first time, he works in a large circle and uses his outside leg to push the horse into the lope. “If I want to lope off to the left, I will trot the horse in a circle to the left and push with my outside leg until the horse picks up the correct lead,” Deary explains. “If he picks up the incorrect lead, then I will break him down to the trot and try again.”
Step 3: The Release
Once the horse understands how to lope and which lead to pick up, Deary will refine the cue. “I will put my outside leg on the horse to ask for the lope, but when he tries to lope off, I will hold him back. Then, when I am ready to lope, I will cluck, release the horse, and let him lope off.”
The horse learns that, when Deary pushes with his outside leg, he is to move his hip away from Deary’s leg but wait for the verbal cue to lope off. “The cue to lope is me clucking,” he says.
Loping Don’ts
Don’t turn your horse’s nose to the outside. “I will only do that on a young horse the first two or three times I ask him to lope, until he understands what I am asking,” Deary says. “But I sure don’t want to make a habit out of it. I want the horse looking to the inside when I lope off.”
Don’t lean in to influence your horse to pick up a particular lead. “On a younger horse, I may lean forward a little bit, but on a broke horse I expect the horse to do all the work,” Deary says. “When I put my leg on the horse and cluck, I expect him to pick up the correct lead without me having to push or lean.
Excellent info! | |
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