What can I start working on?

My mare is 3. She's been show since she was 2 and is very mellow and started very nicely. I've had a few offers on her, but she isn't for sale. I did her training myself. I'm pretty proud of that. Anywho, I'm planning to send her to my riding coach for 60 days of reining training next spring. I'm trying to think of what I can teach her in the mean time. She already collects up well, stays in frame, slides to a stop (She actually slid 2 feet without sliders yesterday) and she moves off leg pressure like a really broke horse. I've also been doing corkscrewing with her- smaller and smaller circles until we get a crossover, and continue on. She's up to 2 cross overs and then we move on. I've also been doing a ton of work with getting her to move off of her shoulders to each side and doing a cross over that way. My riding coach says that'll teach her to stay in frame for her spins. I feel like she's got a fair start in her very very basics of the maneuvers. What else can I work on or teach her in the mean time?

Sounds like you have a good start. Work a lot on side passing also. This will come in handy when you really start working on turns. I know my horses will side pass faster then a WP horse lopes. Also make sure that what you horse is doing is correct. This is the MOST important thing. More then speed.

Also work on making sure that your horse can walk trot and lope between your reins/leg. Can do it in a straight line. I have found that a lot of people do not pay enough attention to this.

Also work on "Boxing" your horse. This will get her light on the rein and to cues and also a good way to get good speed control of your horse. Will also help work on those straight lines and staying between your reins

Thanks nrhareiner! She does sidepass, but it is a fairly new maneuver for her, so it is still slow and somewhat clumsy. I'll work on that. She does stay between the reins, but there's always room for improvement. Thanks again. :)

Subscibed...

You can also work on spiral ins and outs. This will get the horse to brake at the pole and have a soft mouth and also get them responsive to the bit and moving over.

Basically trot or even walk in a circle. Tip the horses nose to the inside and put your hand on your leg to keep the hand steady. You do not want to move your side hand. Them as you circle use your out side rein to move the horse out and make the circle bigger with out changing the bend of the horse then move your out side rein back to where it was and let the horse spiral back in. Also make sure that when you are working a circle that you make them perfect each time. Meaning that once you set a circle your tracks should be in the same place every time. IF the horse bulges out in one area cut the circle then put them back on the circle.

All this will help your horse guide better.

Thank you so much nrha! I'm going to work on sprial outs- great idea. Thank you!!! You always give such great advice.

I think I might have my riding coach video me a bit working on my mare at our next lesson so I can show you guys what she's doing now, and how it looks. She is reining bred- not as great as my colt, but she's my "intro" reiner. I'm using her as my "guinea pig" and plan to do open shows with her to get my feet in the door to reining. My colt will be better I think, but who knows. She might surprise me. She's super responsive and her work ethic is the best of any horse I've ever owned. My coach shows NRHA and was telling me that their green rider/non-pro classes would be good for me. That'll be my goal later on, but as I've said before, I've always wanted to do reining- since late in highschool. Now I'm somewhat of an adult I'm going for it. Although I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Went to school for english and journalism... also animal sciences at another college, and I'm in radio now. It is funny where life takes you.

Subscribe :]