Best way to Teach Baby to trot in hand?

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smirnoff_ice07

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What is the best way to do this? I have a lovely rising 2 gelding, so laid back he's nearly horizontal which is lovely, leads, stands and ties up nicely but it's absolutely impossible to get him out of a walk. Whats the best way to get him trotting nicely?
 
Erm, I just ran like billyo until she trotted then said good girl, patted etc. However I have used the whip on my boot recently to get our transitions a bit neater :) xxx
 
Flamehead's is a good idea. You could carry a schooling whip and flick it behind you at his bum, or get a helper to yell and flap and dance about until he does shift and then give lots of praise.

Obviously please only do the helper thing until he has got the idea that (insert your command here) means trot, otherwise you are sensitising him to spook at scary things ;)
 
I teach all of mine to run/walk in hand by teaching them to follow my feet as it I think it is as important to get them walking next to you as it is in trot.

I start by teaching them to watch for halt.
I start off leading the horse next to me at walk using a schooling whip to encourage horse forward (sometimes with a plastic bag attached to the end for the really docile ones). When I want to halt I stamp my feet noisily to get the horses attention and to start making the connection between my feet and how fast/slow they need to go.
I repeat the walk to halt until I am only tapping the floor with a heel. They normally pick this up very quickly. eventually you can stop and the horse will automatically halt next to you without any pressure on the leadrope.

I would normally stop first session at this point.

At next session repeat/reinforce walk to halt session and then speed up and slow down your walk using schooling whip to help if necessary. This helps the horse to relaise to follow your speed rather than you following theirs! You know they've got in when you can walk one step and the horse will mirror with just ones of his.
Once walk can be speeded up and slowed down start adding some trot strides. Again, I may have to stamp the ground as I run to get horse to realise link between the length of my stride (my feet) and how fast I want to move. Eventually horse will follow your stride pattern and you can run/walk/halt normally.

While I am teaching the above I reinforce the above at every opportunity including coming in and out of field.
The above process works for me and ensures all of my young and older horses can be lead out safely in or out of the ring including my foals when they are old enough to be lead.

Hope this makes sense and good luck.
 
I teach mine by getting them to follow a horse who will do it properly. You need someone to lead the older horse in front of baby, start by giving the commands 'walk on' and 'stand', older horse does as you say, baby copies. Practice a few times (getting further away from the lead horse) then introduce trot, 9 times out of ten baby will 'get it' straight away. Then you can reduce your commands to a tongue click and before you know it youngster will trot just by following your body language. Works every time for me.
 
Plastic bag tied to a schooling whip...

When you want to trot make someone else behind you shake the whip so the bag makes a noise - keep doing this over and over until he knows when he goes to trot a scary noise is behind him.

Once you have cracked this then you hold the schooling whip in your outside had and rustle it when you go to trot - he will then learn that when you move your hand back there is a scary noise to make him go.

After lots and lots of practice he will learn... and you wont need the scary bag
 
Hello,

This week I have been working with a new youngster I have in for training and I have been working on trotting in hand so I should be able to help on this one!

The Key to teaching any horse to trot in hand is to remember that, to move each other around, horses do not pull they push . This is the key to respect and lightness in your in hand training.

Make sure that you are leading from the shoulder and your legs are parellel with your horses front legs. This will put you by the drive-line which will keep you safe and give you control over your horses direction, gait and speed.

I have attached a link to a picture of one of my young students training his pony to walk and trot from the shoulder. Hopefully this will give you a good idea of where to stand. You might notice also notice that, in the picture, the horse has enough length of line to have a free head and neck. This is particularly important in a young horse as they are still developing and any restriction in movement can cause muscle soreness and poor development.

http://flic.kr/p/9uy61f

To ask your horse to trot, use either a hand signal or a voice command but do not step in front of the drive line. Stay in position and reinforce your command with a gentle tap behind your body towards your horses hind-quarters, behind the drive line. As soon as your horse goes into trot, reward him by saying "good boy" and removing your trot signal.

I personally would not use a signal like a plastic bag shaking unless your horse is fully confident with a plastic bag around his hindquarters. If you encourage your young horse to start trotting to get away from something scary, he will be going through his transitions in tension which won't help him to be athletic and supple. It could even encourage him to run away from things that he is afraid of. It is better to motivate him to trot through the discomfort of the signal not from fear of the signal

I hope this helps! If you need any more help at all, just let me know!

Love Lynn x
 
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Sorry to barge in on OP but same subject but from another angle.

My youngster leads nicely in walk and halts well but is a bit "onward" in trot. He has a huge trot which I don't want to spoil. What tends to happen is that my lad tends to push across me when things get quicker. I have started carrying a showing cane to help keep him straight which helps a bit but wondered if anyone had any tips/advice apart from being able to run faster!!
 
wildandwoolly said:
Sorry to barge in on OP but same subject but from another angle.

My youngster leads nicely in walk and halts well but is a bit "onward" in trot. He has a huge trot which I don't want to spoil. What tends to happen is that my lad tends to push across me when things get quicker. I have started carrying a showing cane to help keep him straight which helps a bit but wondered if anyone had any tips/advice apart from being able to run faster!!
Click to expand...

I had this last year! Preparing for our first show and he kept turning his head in front of me as i wasnt running fast enough - we attached a small piece of leather to the outside bit ring (we got a flash nose band made a hole so we could do it up tight to the bit ring) and have the rest of the leather hanging at the side so when i went to trot i could hold this in my hand and keep his head straight! He soon learnt his balance and eventually we could take it off.
 
Hi "Wild and Wooly"

If your youngsters trot is quickening, it may be that he is out of rhythm and is running forward. By doing lots of transitions between walk and trot, you will help him to find his rhythm in trot and he will slow down without losing his good paces. By trotting in rhythm, his trot will improve in cadence and he will be more balanced.

You also need to check that you are leading from the shoulder and not in front of it. When you lead from the shoulder, your legs should be parallel with your horses. From the position, if your young horse tries to push across you, you can easily direct his nose back onto track using either your hand or the stick. Make sure that you give your horse enough rope to freely move his head and neck. This will stop you pulling him across your body and it will also help him to balance and keep rhythm in his movement.

In my opinion, you should avoid using gadgets or anything that restricts your youngsters head and neck. If you are leading correctly from the shoulder, you won't need them and they would only serve to restrict your horses movement which could spoil his lovely paces.

I hope this helps! If you need anymore help, please do let me know!

Lynn x
 
I'm a terrible baby pony owner! I taught mine in a way that will probably get me slated! Once they had leading in walk nicely, we postioned them facing the field and shooed them forward from behind then heaped praise on them when they trotted. We had a fair bit of bounding forward then slowing, but they soon got the idea!

Once they had the basic idea in a controlled environment we moved the lesson to our in hand hacks. The yearlings clocked up miles in hand, I've never been more grateful for keeping them next to a rough council estate! They saw the usual traffic and then some! kids on mini motos speeding all over the place, rubbish dumped, people with rude dogs, lots of kids running up to them patting them all over, they learnt to squeeze through those weird gate things that stop motorbikes getting through, and walk down dark alleys etc, etc

In order to get the trot button properly installed, we would walk them out and then hold one youngster back, then let them trot to catch up, again, heaping praise on them. We then moved to them trotting in front, etc, etc.

I'm a big fan of encouraging them to do the right then then rewarding them.
 
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