How do you train a horse to sidestep when you want her to? Princess does it when she doesnt want to go somewhere, like over ditches until we got that taken care of, but how do I teach her to when I WANT her to? The ditches I knew what to do about, practice, but never taught a horse to sidestep before and have no idea how, but I know she can.
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Hi phantommustang 1,
I suggest you start from the ground, working on front and hind end of your horse one after the other. So you stand next to your horse, stimulate the flank with your fingers, wait until the horse steps away for your pressure and leave your hand there. Now you stimulate the shoulder, with your other hand and wait for your horse to step away from that pressure.
You could even first do the flank a couple of times and later the shoulder a couple of times.
Now slowly you start to combine both excersises, hind/front, hind/front and try to shorten the time between the two of them until you have a fluent movement.
Remember the freestylelessons by Florian on this Uni, they might help you, too.
Don't think this will work in 5 minutes, make it easy for the horse to meet your request.
After the horse feels secure at hand you can take this with you in the saddle, using your leg as a cue for the hind-end, the rein and/or a small dressagestick to touch the shoulder.
Needless to say, that you use the stick for a cue and never to hurt or frighten the horse.
Most important thing is that you go at it in a relaxed way and both you and the horse have fun! Let us know what you achieved.
Miriam
Thanks, Miriam. I have found out that NOTHING works with horses in 5 minutes, so no problem there. It will take as long as it takes. I will try that, I had no clue. I really appreciate it. I love this forum!
Yes, just to agree with Miriam. Teach her to move away from pressure on the ground with your hand. Try it on her chest and ask her to move backwards then on her shoulder on her rump - stand out of the kick zone - and finally on her side where your leg will rest in the saddle. Use Florentines method or just use your hand, sometimes your fingers too. Increase the pressure until she responds then immediately take the pressure off. Once she knows to move away from pressure then teaching her to side step much easier. It is also much easier to handle them on the ground as you can just use a touch of your hand to move them wherever you wish them to go. When you are ready to try it in the saddle have her halt for you - it may be best to have her facing into a fence so she will not be inclined to go forwards - ask her to stand still for a minute or so prior to attempting the sideways request. Let's say you are initially going to ask her to step to the left. Sit tall move your left hand and rein out a little while you maintain contact on the right to keep her from moving forwards and then apply pressure to her side with you right leg - hold it just behind the girth. Any sideways movement at all relax the leg and praise her. It will take awhile until she understands what you wish her to do. When finished turn her away from the fence and ask her to halt for you and make sure she stands still. When just starting the side stepping they can easily get confused and they may think you want them to side step every time you halt so it is important to practice the halt too. Once you have achieved this you may even ask her to turn in a complete circle for you on her front legs. Slightly different aidsfor this. This time hold the right rein out a little and keep the contact on the left rein to stop her moving forwards and place your right leg with pressure a little further back. Don't try a complete circle first up - rewaard any correct movement until she gets the hang of it. These types of excercises are quite advanced so only try them if your horse is fully trained first as they can be confusing for a youngster just starting out.
Since she is so easy to handle and does just about anything I ask of her, I think she will pick this up pretty well too. Thanks, Maggie and Miriam, you have both given me some great ideas and I will be trying them. I can move her away from pressure easily, I just give her a slight push and say move over, and she does. Once she gets an idea, she has it for good. So now with your advice, Im sure we can get this too.
Good luck with it phantommustang - you are very experienced yourself so I am sure it will soon work out. Apologies for going into basics as I did above!
Hey, Maggie, thats what I needed was the basics of this. So please dont apologize. I have never tried to teach a horse to sidestep, never even thought about it until now. And everyone can use a refresher now and then. Princess is giving me a lot of ideas to try that I have never thought of before, and so is the forum. I spent many years learning form the horses because there wasnt anyone else, and now there are a lot of people to learn from. Its all very interesting. And fun. Sometimes I will be having a problem that I just cant figure out, and someone will come up with something that is so simple I should already know it, maybe just didnt think of it, and there it is, problem solved. Sometimes we just need a reminder.