Teaching my horse to be a reining horse?

IAnyone can train a reinhorse. Yep, they can do a good stop(bouncing off the front legs and jarring to a stop) doing a spin(which consists of walking in a circle with their whole body) doing rollbacks(turning on the forehand) doing impressive circles(run as fast as you can both ways and don't forget the beautiful lead changes in the middle)and of course the long sliding stop(with the mouth hanging open and the head thrown up to get away from the pain in the mouth from the yanking bit)
No, the truth is, a true reining horse is a sight to behold. The beauty and grace of the movements are intricate and cues are unseen. The horse just seems to float through everything and their head is tucked and soft and supple. An awesome sliding stop of 10 or more feet with the horses head dropped, the front legs moving with the slide and the back legs still and supporting the body is something to watch if done correctly.
A book will not show you how to teach your horse to rein. You need an experienced trainer to help you and expect to spend hours teaching your horse to be soft and supple to be able to even start making the flowing motions of reining. If your horse is freezing up, then he had no clue what you are asking of him. To just expect to make a horse spin or slide to a stop without the proper training is not going to happen, instead it will make your horse fight the cues.
My mare has had reining training and I had someone help me work her. Nothing fancy, but she does beautiful stops,rollbacks and does nice spins, but I did not have a clue how to ask her for them. Now I do and we have fun playing
But by no means are we past "having fun". But I guarantee she does not freeze up or open her mouth when asked to do these things.
A well trained reining horse is as beautiful to watch as a well trained dressage horse. It is a partnership between horse and rider, not a contest of wills.

I agree with everyone in here, reining is very complex, and don't get me wrong, I've actually asked the same question on here as you did and I got basically the same answers. I thought I'd have no problem training my horse for reining. My horse is just a green broke trailhorse as I see it. As I've said though, reining is very complex and is a show of a finished western horse. Their maneuverers show everything the perfect western horse can do. My approach at this point being that I can't afford a trainer is just starting in the basics...teaching a nice jog and lope, getting her soft to the bit, getting used to transitions such as walk to canter, trot to gallop, etc. I work her in circles, I work on neck reining, I work on backing her up everytime I stop and then turning her back. I watch hours and hours of youtube videos a week, I soak up as much information as I possibly can everyday! I have found a local trainer that is willing to help me once a week free of charge but I don't have a trailer, so no can do as of right now...but as others have said, you can start the basics, but you don't sound like you even know the basics if you expect to just start teaching the spin and sliding stops.

I have been reining for over 12 years show. Have owned some great horses ones that have won several year end NRHA titles finished in the top 30 in the world and so on.

I still do not train my own horses. I tried back when I first started to train my stallion Te. Lets just say to this day I am still correcting what he learned some 10 years ago. Granted he was 10-11 when I started trying to train him and he was already a very well trained horse. He has beautiful circles and lead changes. I can move every inch of his body he will side pass and do a great rollback. However his stops and turns still to this day need work. Even after he spent several months with a reining trainer. Granted not the best reining trainer but still a reining trainer. Even now that I actually do know who to train all these maneuvers. I still use a trainer. You can ask to this day with my finished horses I still call him up and ask questions when I am having problems with something. Some times it is things that I have plused in a show but for what ever reason I am now having problems.

At this point your best bet would be to get your horse moving its body. If you can not side pass (my horses side-pass faster then W/P horses lope) and move your horses body every inch at all 3 gaits you are not ready to start doing the maneuvers. When I send a horse to the trainers the first 60 days or so are spent doing just that. Side passing move their body's giving to the bit flexing braking at the pole getting them as supple as possible.

No one is trying to discourage you just giving you the truth. Also keep in mind that you CAN REALLY INJURE your horse if you do not know what you are doing. They need special shoes to stop. They need to be conditioned properly to have the correct muscling to do the job. It is not just doing the maneuvers.

Also with out seeing what is going on I would say your horse is locking up in the turns b/c you are not teaching them as a forward movement. The turn is just that a forward maneuver. They MUST keep forward momentum.

^^^

Listen to her if not anyone else!!

Oh and congrats on your 2000th post nhra reiner :P

I would have to agree, your horse is losing it's forward momentum. I watched a great video on this yesterday teaching how to do this. It consisted of a 180 degree spin and trot, 180 degree spin and trot, etc. etc. etc...it gets in their mind when they spin they're going to move out of it...but again, as we've said, to teach a reining horse you must teach the basics first. The last thing you teach are things such as the reining spin and sliding stops...I've been training my mare for 3 months now and will not ask either of these maneuvers probably until next spring...but at that time she should be about 1045342598347245x easier to teach these maneuvers.

Based on all this I'm convinced you don't truly know what reining is.

I'm not trying to discourage you like others have said but you can do some serious damage to your horse if you don't ask for the manuvers correctly.

You NEED a trainer IMO to learn how to rein.

Short & Stocky do not equate reiner, his actual conformation is more important.
Galloping isn't always a good thing. Can he go slow? Because that's just important. You don't go all out in reining unless you're going for big money. At most shows you run easier until you get to the big show you are trying to peak for.
And what do you mean stops like no other horse? Because you said you can't get him to slide, and a horse that is properly engaged and using himself and stopping very well can actually do a small slide. Plates are required for sliding, which requires a very good farrier who has experience putting plates on.
If he's locking up in a turn around he's not using his body correctly, getting stuck and uncomfortable and thus his reaction is to lock up.

Also in my opinion you can't "teach" a horse to be a reiner, they either can do it or they can't do it. You can definitely put reining basics on any horse, but it takes a special kind of horse to be a reiner. To do the reining manuvers it has to be pretty natural to a horse and they really have to have the "want" to do it.

Do you have any videos of you and your horse? That would be much more helpful.

From you original post it sounds like you need to do a lot more basic stuff before you are even ready to tackle the reining manuvers. Do a lots of loosening exercises such as stopping backing, sidepassing, half passing, turns on the haunches/forehands, move their shoulders around. Basically you need a horse that's extremely loose and supple, and if you're having locking up problems then you don't have a loose and supple horse.

I hope you don't take my post in a rude way. I've just seen far to many horses ruined because people have no idea what they are doing with regards to reining.