Training Tip: Practice Impulsion Exercises and Transitions With a Lazy Horse

If your horse has a naturally laidback attitude, it can be difficult to put energy in his feet. In fact, getting him to go anywhere may be downright frustrating at times. You’ll ask him to canter, and he’ll pick up the gait for a stride or two and then break down to a slow trot. It’s what I call “sticky feet.” If the issue isn’t addressed, it’ll only get worse.

If your horse tends to be lazy, work on establishing a good “go” button with transition-type exercises, where you get to practice a lot of go, then transition, then go, then transition, to get the horse good at taking your cue to move his feet seriously. Exercises to practice are One Rein Stops, Yield to a Stop, and Bending Transitions—all from the Fundamentals Series.

You’re looking for your horse to respect your leg cues so that when you gently squeeze his sides and ask him to speed up, he does so without a fuss. Not only that, he should maintain that gait and pace unless you tell him otherwise.

If you find yourself constantly pecking at him to keep him in a gait, it’s a dead giveaway that your basics aren’t good enough. You need to spend some quality time working on impulsion exercises from the Fundamentals, such as the Cruising Lesson, Follow the Fence, and Diagonals, and then you can work on the same type of exercises on the trail, such as Controlled Cruising and Confused Loping.

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