It isn’t easy training a pony to be the best mount. I am aware of a manual published by the US Cavalry that goes into great depth about absolutely everything to do with horses: what to do, what not to, and how to do or not do it. That book, if I recollect, has something like 1,500 pages. Even though it was meant for the cavalry, I’m not sure if anyone ever read it cover to cover.

But you don’t need a 1500 page manual to tell you how to train your horse. You can make it a lot less complex. Which is not to say it is less complicated. You still need to work conscientiously at it.

Ever paid close attention to a riding event at a horse show, or maybe a dressage event? It looks so extremely simple, doesn’t? That is, until you start trying it out yourself.

When you’re doing some casual riding, you can simply turn your horse’s head at corners and get him pointed in the right direction. You may be fairly sure the horse will not crunch into the rail. But all that’s fine for casual riding.

It is not going to work for show riding. You are going to upset the judges terribly, to the extent they may get you thrown out after your first event. There isn’t any turning corners at these events. There are only quarter circles that involve about 12 cues. It is going to take you some considerable time to memorize all the cues, and even longer to get your horse to perfectly respond to each.

I have come up with a technique that makes things somewhat easier. I mean, the way to set about the quarter circle. I based my strategy on the simple theory that horses are literally capable of just 11 movements. These movements are:

1. Moving forward using various gaits; 2. The vital skill of stopping; 3. The vital ability of backing up; 4 and 5. Left and right movements of the neck and the head; 6 and 7. Left and right movements of the shoulders; 8 and 9. Left and right movements of the rump; 10 and 11. Left and right movements of the hindquarters.

Trust me, that pretty much covers it.

You need to conquer the cues for every one of these movements, and you need to get your horse to respond like a robot to your cues for each of these movements. You go thru all of it step by step: master each cue and response, move on to the next. Just remember: you Don’t Try and move your horse’s neck or head by pulling at the reins. You get this done with the reins draped loosely around your thumb.

The ideal to reach for, of course, is to attain top coordination with your pony, so that each cue you send to your horse produces the right response instantaneously. That implies the cues become part of your subconscious, and the responses become part of your horse’s.

When you and your pony have realized that level of coordination, you’ll be capable of achieving the quarter circle to perfection.

Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about horse show cloths