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EC “How To” Drill- Rate Your Gait

November 28, 2022 | Filed under: Current Articles,Education,Health & Training | Posted by:     

Amber Jaasma and Skip To The Jet practicing rating their gait.

AQHA Professional Horseman Stacy Minkler, Trainer at Rusty Spur Ranch, recently relocated to Texas from Alaska!  She’s now becoming the student in her new location, but she has been posting some practice drills for fun for her Alaska clients and friends back home in AK, knowing they get stuck and bored with bad footing in the winter months.

Below is her recent drill called “Rate Your Gait,” a valuable exercise for any horseman and equine, whether they show or not.

(By the way, if you’d like to see what show life is like in Alaska, where Stacy trained for many years, read our past article with Stacy as one of our sources in “Alaska – Horse Show Life in the Land Of The Midnight Sun:  http://www.equinechronicle.com/horse-show-life-in-the-land-of-the-midnight-sun/)

Rate Your Gait– this is a fun exercise to keep your horse’s attention and be with you. Improves connection and ground manners. Can help when you need them to step carefully or quickly without getting into a higher mental state.
In hand:
  • Start walking with your normal walk to feel what the comfort zone is for you and your horse.
  • Shorten your stride and slow down keeping your horse with you. How slow can you go before they stop? (break of gait) Do this for a long stretch and then go back to your normal step – repeat.
  • Lengthen your stride and speed up. How fast can you go before they step up to a jog/trot? Hold this for a long stretch and back to normal step – repeat.
Level 1 – Walk
Level 2 – Jog/trot
Level 3 – Walk & J/T circles (your pace changes when you are handling on the inside or the outside of the circles)
Level 4 – (mastery) – Level 3 with no leadline attached
Tips:
– Your position matters; try to stay between the poll and in front of the point of the shoulder – it’s a fairly tight zone.  You should be able to see your horse’s face with peripheral vision; behind the point of the shoulder is not a safe zone.
– Shorten or lengthen your step first, get them to read your body language
– Use markers, end of aisle/arena to end of aisle/arena for straightness
– Pick a rhythm, think of a song or metronome
-Time it, see if you can lengthen or shorten your time
– Match your steps with your horse
– FAIL!!! I know that sounds crazy. To know what our limits are is to check them. The break of gait, stopping or trotting is because they’re trying!  Don’t punish them for it. Learn from it and have fun!
The same exercise can be applied under saddle! Mastery level would be bridleless!

“I have 5 horses in the barn and all of them will present with different abilities and challenges to this exercise. They’re all in different places of training and personality!” says Stacy.

Stay tuned for more boredom busters and drills from Stacy Minkler at Rusty Spur Ranch AK!

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