4 beat lope

Ok that makes sense. Yes he is (was) borderline toooooo fast. When I moved him to the new barn for a few weeks ago he was just hell on wheels! Everything was fast....everything! When I did have good moments with collection I got that nice soft 'up' feeling because he was using his back and driving his hocks under him - also had no four beat 'moments'.

Do you recommend any balancing exercises? I do believe I don't help his balance at all....I just posted a thread in horse training about hand position....a dwarf riding an elephant!

When you say 'an open hand' do you mean just letting him stretch out and lope long? I'm assuming that's what you mean....

Forgot to mention, I've been working on loping long and picking him up with my legs and my hands for about five strides (it's almost always soft) and then releasing, and so forth.

I can't give you anything terribly specific as I suspect you ride Western?
But one that can be used cross discipline, is to ride leg yield on a circle in trot and canter. I start by trotting in a forward, relaxed trot (depending on horse's training, this may be more towards collection, or very open in a long frame) on a 20m circle. Leg yield the horse in off your outside leg, onto a 15m circle, then leg yield back out off your inside leg. As you get back to the 20m circle, ask for canter. Get your canter going forward and relaxed, and then repeat the leg yielding exercise in canter - leg yield off the outside leg onto a 15m circle, then off the inside leg back to a 20m cirle. Trot when you get back to the large circle, and repeat on both reins until your horse is getting perfect transitions in all cases, and is softly moving off both of your legs.
I've found this excerise immensely helpful in creating a more balanced transition as well as giving the canter more jump and engagement, plus its so easy :)

Perfect! We can do that! I'm fortunate because he does move well of my leg so it won't be too much of a a challenge. Actually I do incorporate a lot of dressage exercises in my warm up work, a lot of half passing, shoulder in and out etc.....I also like spiraling in and out....helps with spins

But it's good to have another tool in ones tool box to work with....plus it beats the boredom

Thanks!

Will give an update tomorrow about how it all went!

Wow! So I decided to put my game face on today and CHOOSE to have a great ride! Everything was pretty much super soft and quiet. Walked slow circles collected, jogged small circles soft and collected, posting trot small circles slow and soft....ask for the lope, WAS AWESOME, no four beating at all, and no sore back for me today! Slow soft and collected! Niiiiiice! However on the other lead the walk,jog and trot were great......the lope was awful! The departure was like a bullet firing from a gun! Head up trotting into it like a lunatic! Ugh!
Will work on That again tomorrow! But I guess I set the tone for todays ride and nearly got to where we neede to be in terms of collection, speed and nice 3 beating. Will update again about the other lead tomorrow night:)