Let Him Lope!

This ‘passenger exercise’ trains your horse to maintain a relaxed lope as you learn how to trust him and ‘let go.’

- Madison Shambaugh

Do you micromanage your horse, especially at the lope? It’s common, particularly for riders dealing with confidence issues. The lope feels like the most precarious gait, so we want to check our horse often to make sure he’s not going to rush off or do something silly. 

This is the wrong approach. Instead, we should train our horses to maintain their relaxed cadence at the lope without constant interference from us. In other words, we should ask for a nice lope, and our horses should maintain that gait until we cue him otherwise.

This “passenger exercise” will teach your horse to do exactly that. In the process, it also schools you to avoid the urge to micromanage.

Ride this exercise in a secure arena with safe fencing and good footing. Outfit your horse in a snaffe bit or hackamore.

Why It Works