Here to help tamp down your horse’s jig, American Paint Horse Association and American Quarter Horse Association Professional Sandy Jirkovsky shares her advice.

Why Does My Horse Get Antsy?

There are several reasons why horses don’t settle while working a pattern and get antsy, and some of them are rider-related.

Rider tension: “If a horse can feel a fly on their skin, they can feel you tensing up,” says Jirkovsky. “Whether you tense up through your seat, through your legs, or even in your mind, they feel that, and the first thing they go back to is their natural instinct of flight because they feel apprehension on their back.”

Over-practicing: Repetition is helpful for riders wanting to learn their pattern, but it’s not so good for a broke horse, says Jirkovsky. Completing entire patterns during practice can backfire when you go show.

“The horse learns the pattern faster than you do, and he’s going to anticipate,” she says.

Too fresh: Just like children in school, a horse with too much energy is not going to be able to focus on what you’re asking of him, according to Jirkovsky.

How to Handle It

Get mentally prepared: Jirkovsky suggests checking your mind and body for any tension.

“Make sure that you’re relaxed, taking deep breaths, thinking about what you’re going to do, and not transferring negative energy over to your horse,” she says.

Consider working with a friend or a trainer or having someone videotape your performance to see if you’re tensing up while riding, Jirkovsky advises.

Practice pieces: Choose maneuvers or portions of your pattern to practice. To learn your pattern as a whole, Jirkovsky suggests walking it on foot or even using another horse.

“We’ll practice maneuvers in a different order and make sure we have them all down,” she says.

School a Class Correctly

Jirkovsky says you can’t ride every class like you want to win first place. Working on sticky spots with your horse, even at the expense of a placing due to using two hands or breaking pattern, can make way for more successful performances in the future if you do it right.

“Sometimes you have to go to a smaller or open show to school and correct those issues, so that when you go to a show that counts, they’ve been fixed,” she says. “You’ll see many of the top trainers school through their patterns at a show, not being rough, but just keeping the horse focused on them.”

Avoid scaring your horse while schooling, Jirkovsky stresses.

“There’s two types of schooling,” she says. “There is good schooling, which is educational for the horse, and there is schooling to punish the horse. All that does is build apprehension for the next time he goes into the pen. Your schooling has to be proper and patient refocusing and redirecting, otherwise you’re just going to add to your problem.”

Don’t punish: Even if your horse acts up on the pattern, don’t discipline him—instead, recapture his focus.

“The worst thing you can do is punish your horse when he gets upset,” Jirkovsky says. “You just have to redirect his attention.”

Prevention Anticipation in Pattern Classes

Take a walk: Many riders skip walking in favor of other gaits and maneuvers. But Jirkovsky says the slowest gait is key to encouraging a calm and focused performance.

“Walking is a great patience builder, and seems to be a lost art,” she says.

Take some time to warm up, asking your horse to softly bend, flex and respond to your cues before moving on to pattern work.

Cross-train: Working your horse in other disciplines can help his mindset toward your chosen class, Jirkovsky says.

“Take a horse that you always do reining on and go do ranch riding with him,” she says. “Take your horsemanship horse into a trail course and let him refocus a bit on the poles. Adding different classes instead of just that same class where he tends to get upset can help.”

Make the cone a happy place: Jirkovsky leaves cones out in the arena at home and does pattern maneuvers away from the cones, leaving the marker as a resting spot.

“After working our horses around the arena, if we’re going to stand and talk for a while, we’ll do it at the cone,” she says. “The horses really anticipate, and once they see a cone, they think they’re going to have to do something. But we make the cone their resting place.”

For a showmanship horse, Jirkovsky will leave a bucket of grain at each cone, which encourages the horse to have his ears forward, looking forward to being at the cone.

Start with focus: Before you start your pattern, cue your horse with your legs to encourage him to take a breath and focus. This is a move you teach your horse at home after working hard, so do the same thing when you’re about to compete to remind him.

“I’ll roll my legs on the horse’s sides as support, and he’ll lower his head and take a breath,” Jirkovsky says. “At home, I’ll reward him and rub his neck and let him relax as a reward.”

This article about how to avoid an antsy horse and anticipation in a pattern class appeared in the January/February 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Antsy Horse? Here’s How to Avoid Anticipation in Pattern Classes appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Marked by fluid lead changes around a cone-marked course, western riding is a challenging class for all-around competitors. But with skill, preparation and careful navigation, you can guide your horse to a penalty-free score. Here, trainer Bruce Vickery shares his advice to confidently tackle the western riding class.

The Goal

Vickery says focus should be on fluidity of flying lead changes, followed by precision in the pattern.

“Scoring is based on quality of movement, the quality of the change, smooth transitions, timing, the placement of your transitions and the placement of your lead changes,” says Vickery. “You want to do everything you can to stay out of the penalty zone.”

Penalties occur mainly when you fail to change leads within the designated change box written on the pattern. Whether it’s changing leads too early or too late, each stride outside the invisible box incurs point penalties.

The Pattern Unpacked

Western riding patterns are posted at the show and are also printed in association rule books. For example, the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) has nine regular patterns. Each AQHA pattern starts out with a walk-in. Vickery suggests establishing a nice, cadenced walk without checking your horse’s stride as you approach your first cone.

“Once you’re at the cone and the judge nods to you to start the pattern, you’ll want to walk with your hand down and let your horse walk in a cadenced fashion,” he says. “The next transition for each of the patterns is going to be the jog. It’s really important to plan where you begin your jog.”

You’ll be jogging over a single pole on the ground as one of your maneuvers. Vickery says to make sure you approach the log straight on, with cadence.

“You want to practice so that the rhythm and speed remain the same before, over and after the pole,” says Vickery. “You don’t want to start out slow, jog over the pole, and then be moving faster.”

Depending on the pattern, you’ll ask your horse for a lope, and you’ll either start coming around to go down the line of cones, or you’ll go across the center of the arena for those lead changes.

If you’re going down the line first, Vickery says you’ll want to avoid making the corner on to the line too wide, which can throw off your sequence of lead changes down the line.

“You almost want to square the corner off so you can be straight heading down the line,” he says. “You’ll begin counting strides toward your first lead change after the first cone.”

Also read – How to Tack Up for Western Riding

After each change, Vickery suggests not dwelling on the lead change until it’s time for your next one—this reduces your involuntary anticipation of the change, which can trigger your horse’s anticipation.

After changing leads several times, some patterns will have you loping across the arena and changing in the center before turning to the left or right around the cones at the opposite side of the arena.

All patterns will include a lope-over log—the same log you jogged over earlier in the pattern. You’ll either cross it as you are going back and forth across the arena, or at the end of that series of changes. Either way, Vickery suggests counting your strides to the pole to make sure you hit it after your horse has touched down his last front leg and gathered himself up to reach out with his back legs.

“Remember, you want to maintain the same rhythm up to the pole and afterward without changing,” he says.

Your pattern will include a stop and backup. Your horse should stop on his hind end with his head level, not thrown into the air. You will then ask him to back with cadence.

“Your backup doesn’t have to be fast, but it needs to show your horse is willing to do it,” Vickery says.

At the conclusion of the pattern, you will exit the arena.

Challenges

Because the western riding pattern and course contains so many elements—all three gaits, jog and lope-over poles, and between seven and eight lead changes—Vickery says timing can be a challenge.

“Many riders struggle with figuring out where they need to execute the [lead] changes,” he says. “More times than not, I think people anticipate those changes, and that transmits to the horse, causing him to want to change.”

To combat anticipation, Vickery reminds you to stay patient, quiet and wait until you’re in position to start thinking about your change. Going down the line, where you’re serpentining between cones that are 30 to 50 feet apart, Vickery advises counting your strides. But first, it’s a good idea to find out how far apart they are on the day of the show. You can ask show management or a trainer at the show.

“As you approach the point between two cones, start counting [strides]: ‘1, 2, 3, change,’” Vickery says. “If you’ve got a long line, like 50 feet in between each cone, it’s probably going to be a little bit more—maybe ‘1, 2, 3, 4, change.’”

On the path across the arena, you’ll change leads in the middle between the cones. To see the approximate spot in which you should make your lead change, you’ll need to gauge the middle of the arena. For many of the patterns, you’ll see the pole lined up in the middle, which aligns with where you need to change. If not, pick a marker on the arena wall to line up with. Vickery suggests preparing for your change only a couple of strides before that point to avoid anticipation, rather than thinking about it from the time you turn to go across the arena.

Before entering your first western riding class, Vickery advises practicing the entire pattern a few times at home.

“For a novice, it’s a good idea to practice the whole pattern a little bit, just so that you get your feet wet, you get a feel for the spacing and where you need to go,” he says. “But after you’ve done it a few times, you want to do bits and pieces, otherwise your horse will be thinking exactly where to go all the time.”

Focusing on one part of the pattern at a time will help increase your skill level without your horse anticipating the pattern.

This article about acing your western riding pattern appeared in the November/December 2021 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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