Timing to Teach a Horse the Sliding Stop

   The sliding stop depends primarily upon the horse's ability to relax and sit down on his hocks through the stop, while still keeping his front feet lively, or "peddling."
   
   One of the things that I have personally found useful for teaching this concept to a  horse is to be sure to only ask the inexperienced horse to stop at an exact moment in his loping stride. For the first few months (or longer depending on the horse) I'll ask them to stop, at a lope, just at the moment their hind feet hit the
ground.  The very moment I feel the hind feet tough the ground, I put my feet a little further forward and  say, "Whoa." Asking for the sliding stop at the moment the hind feet touch the ground  gives the inexperienced horse an entire stride to first hit with his front feet, then come in under himself with a good sliding stop on his hocks. This timing also allows the horse to grow in his confidence in the stop since, even though we are asking for him to stop when we tell him to, he still has an extra half a stride in which to prepare himself. This reduces anxiety and allows him to use more power through that stop. The idea of using such timing is something I learned from Arnold Rojas in his book, "These were the Vaqueros."  

   This exact timing of asking for the stop when the hind feet touch the ground, however, is only a good idea for a short time. Once the horse has learned to confidently use his hocks during the stop every time you ask him to, you will want to do the exact opposite and ask him to stop the moment his FRONT feet hit the ground, and that is the timing you will use for the rest of the horse's life. If you continue for too long to stop with the HIND feet on the ground, you will likely teach the horse to lunge into his stop more than you want and he will likely get into the habit of bracing with his front feet like a calf roping horse would do, rather than staying light on his front feet through the stop. Once the horse is confident in stopping on his hocks, asking him to stop at the moment his FRONT feet hit the ground will take away that half-stride of preparation and cause the horse to learn to melt into his stop immediately, which in turn works well to keep the horse light on his front end.  

   This is Klay Klemic and I hope you enjoyed this little article. If you are ever near Zion National Park, I hope you will drop by for a visit at Rising K Ranch!