From: Suzette
Dear Jessica, I own a beautiful five year old Quarter Horse mare. She is just wonderful. My problem with her is that she was trained Western Pleasure and that is not the way I ride. I ride her only English and she is very good and quiet and accepts the English saddle and bridle very well, but she will not trot, she continues to do the Western jog. My trainer says she is very lazy. I don't know what to think. I called the trainer who started her and he says that it took her some time to learn the jog because her natural trot was much more English-looking, with a long stride and some bounce to it. Of course, that was almost four years ago, so he might be remembering another horse, but he says he is sure that it was her. He seems very pround that he taught her to stop using her back and to take smaller steps! So do you think she has forgotten how to trot, or is she just lazy? If she could learn to trot again, what can I do and my trainer to make her swing her legs more? There was a horse at a riding school that I loved, he looked so beautiful when his front legs reached very far forward in the trot. Do you think my mare could ever trot like that horse?
Suzette
If your mare did well in Western Pleasure, and was taught to take short steps and move with a stiff back as her trainer told you she was, it will take some time to help her learn to move in another way. The important thing for you to remember is that you are asking her to change her way of going - she's been moving like THIS, now you want her to move like THAT. Change is difficult. I expect you will trimuph in the end, because you aren't trying to impose some artifical way of going on the mare, but even though good movement came naturally to her when she was very young, the process of retrieving that movement won't be easy or quick.
The way you want her to move is probably much closer to her own natural way of going, but because she has learned to move with slow, short strides and no suspension, her body has developed in ways that promote this movement. If she is sound, you can probably teach her to move freely again with a longer stride and some suspension in her trot, but you'll need to take your time.
It would be best if you began again from the very beginning, using exercises on the ground to help your mare learn to use her belly muscles and stretch her back muscles. This will be uncomfortable for her at first, so be patient and don't ask for or expect much. As she becomes stronger, she will be able to do more.
Keep in mind that the horse's front and hind legs work together at the trot. When you see and admire the forward-reaching FRONT legs, teach yourself to look at the hind legs as well. Since the horse's engine is in the rear, your first focus should be on helping your mare begin to work with the hind legs - not the forelegs. But there's more to a good trot than just leg action.
The energetic, reaching trot you want her to perform requires that she use her belly and back, not just her legs. Right now, she probably has stiff back muscles that need to be stretched, and loose, weak, unused belly muscles that need to be strengthened so that she can tighten her belly and use her hind legs more effectively.
If there is someone in your area who can teach you how to longe a horse properly, this would be the best way to begin helping your mare learn to use her belly, stretch her back, and use her hind legs more actively at the trot. It's easier for a horse if it doesn't need to carry the rider's weight whilst it's doing this. But if you work in an arena that is less than 66' across, or if you plan to work her in a round pen, don't longe - the small circle will cause more damage than good.
If longeing isn't an option, you can work your mare under saddle.
Start with the walk, and ask her to move forward in a steady rhythm, stretching into your hand. Don't drop your reins entirely, and DO encourage her to step out. Instead of holding her back stiffly and letting her head and neck hang from her withers, you're going to be asking her to remain connected, reach forward with her neck, and move with a little more energy than usual. THIS IS STRESSFUL for her at first, so go very gently. For the first month or two, you'll need to do transitions within the walk, from an ordinary walk to a longer-strided walk and back again to the ordinary walk, changing after every six or eight strides. There should be no change in the rhythm or the tempo of the walk - just in the length of the stride.
When she's got the basic idea, which will probably take a week or two if not longer, you can begin walking her over a series of ground poles (or, if you have them, cavalletti on their lowest setting), set so that she has to reach just a little to walk over them smoothly and with a steady rhythm and unchanging tempo. Use your legs to ask her to take longer steps, and sit lightly so that she can lift her back.
When she's reliably rhythmic and energetic through the ground poles at the walk, you'll be able to begin again at the trot. Don't try to SIT - she doesn't have a sitting trot yet, and won't for a long time. What she knows how to do now is jog - a sort of walk on diagonal pairs of legs, with no moment of suspension. She'll need to learn to trot whilst using her belly and stretching her back. As with the walk, be patient, and ask for only a little at a time. When she's trotting out with enough energy that there's a discernable moment of suspension, you can set up the ground poles again. The poles will help her maintain her rhythm and use her legs a little more actively; you will help her maintain her tempo and remind her to use her belly and lift her back.
Your mare is still quite young. If she moved well when she was first started, and she hasn't been injured in training, she should be able to re-learn how to move in the way that she was bred and born to move - freely and with energy. Take your time. Remember that she was probably all of fifteen months old when the trainer began working with her - it will take time for her to remember how to move freely, and time for her to develop her muscles in a way that will make it easy for her to move the way you want her to move. If it takes a year or longer, don't worry, it will be time well spent.
A big-moving, athletic Quarter Horse can be a very impressive mover, and remember, your mare's movement was once large enough that her trainer still remembers how difficult it was to change it! As for laziness, no, I don't think this is an issue. She's moving the way she was trained to move, and the way she thinks you want her to move. That's not laziness, that's obedience. Give her a lot of encouragement and praise while you're retraining her. She may never use her front legs forward in an extravagant way like the school horse you remember, but if you can restore her original way of going, I think you'll be very pleased at the results.
Jessica
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