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From our Quarter Horse Facts Series:
"What Not To Do When Your Horse Bucks Or Rears," Issue 12, part 1 of our FREE monthly newsletter
You want to stop a buck, bolt or rear before it ever happens. You stop it before it happens by gaining control. You gain control by practicing exercises that give you finer control of the hindquarters, better back ups, stops or turns to the left or to the right. Every day keep expecting more and keep after your horse to improve. Work to a point where you know that if he "messes up," (he startles or jumps or bucks) that you will have built in enough control that it's now something you can handle.
Your job right now, today, is to start making sure that you have that control.
Begin seeing the exercises you do not as an end in themselves, but as tests. Can your horse stop exactly there at that rock or turn precisely at the second cone? It's not (you) knowing a lot of exercises that's important – it's having exact control over your horse's body parts throughout the exercises. If you're doing an exercise that calls for a halt at a certain point, and your horse misses by three steps, then it's telling you that you don't have the control you need of a certain body part. Practice until you can stop when and how you say. Passing that test is your proof that you have control – and that's what staying safe later (when things get hairy) is all about.…
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