Can you ask for sliding/hard stops without sliding plates?

A curiosity question more than anything...


I know reiners have special back shoes to help them slide to a stop. But do you have to have plates to do sliding stops or even hard stops?

I know it helps, but is it required?

Sure you can. You won't get much of a slide but your horse might end up with bone spavin as mine did from me enjoying the slide without the proper footwear. No my horse is not sickle hocked at all, been 2 years since I asked for a sliding stop and the bone spavin set and is fine now.

Can you? Yes you CAN. Should you? NO. I do not ask any of my reining horses to slide with out sliders on. At the end of the day sliders do more then just make a big stop.

Okay, thanks!


How do you ask for a sliding stop vs just a regular canter to halt transition? I've never understood how those reining cues worked for transitions...

That is something a person trained in the discipline of reining will have to show you. It is a series of steps and not something that should be learned on the internet through written instruction.

Sliders not only enhance the length and 'prettyness' of a stop, they keep the horse from getting sore hocks, stifles and other hind leg lamnesses. Many calf ropers and heelers are now using a smaller slider than a reining trainers, but they have found that the extra 'give' and 'float' that a 7/8" or even 1" slider affords the horse is enough to help keep them sound.

The 'hard' stop where a horse is bracing with straight, stiff hocks to help him get stopped is so much harder on a horse than the stop where a horse's hocks are flexed and close to the ground and the front end is free and elevated enough for the horse to take a step or two even he is a calf roping horse.

Once again-well said Cherie.

OP-the fact that you are talking about canter-halt transitions tells me you really need to learn more about reining. Canter-halt, and doing it nicely, means not allowing the horse to "collapse" in the front. A sliding stop is WAY more than that, and, in western, it is not called canter, and what we do in reining-really not a "transition" in the same sense of the word at all.

I can't confidently comment on anything to do with reining, as I haven't gotten around to doing any of that yet, but I can comment on hard stops/sliding in general. Lucky had an amazing hard stop even though I rarely used it. I could afford an extra 2-3 strides to a halt for the most part, but it was there if it was needed for whatever reason. If it was "softer" footing, she'd slide maybe 10 feet, if not it was from canter to stop in about 3 feet. Since she has no shoes at all (let alone sliders), I didn't do it often, but every few weeks I'd do a couple in the arena to make sure she didn't "forget" she could, in fact, do it. I don't believe that once or twice a month will cause much damage if your horse is using his/herself correctly, but I agree with the others about it being hard on their hocks and such without the sliders.

I do have to disagree on it not being called a canter in western riding though..I, personally, have -never- used the word lope to describe any of the horses I've ridden. I've never even touched an english saddle, let alone rode in one or rode with english riders. Canter and lope are interchangeable, they both mean the same damn thing, IMO.
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Canter is english, lope is western. Won me a command class of over 20 riders, they asked for a canter, anyone in western tack that loped was d'qed, western riders don't canter, they lope.

Tell me then, what exactly is the difference between a canter and a lope?
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