Half-Pass to Lope

After my horse has learned to half-pass, I ask him to lope off in the correct lead from a walk. It usually is not difficult if I have done the work on the half-pass. It’s virtually impossible for him to pick up the incorrect lead since, if he is half-passing correctly, his inside hind leg (the one that strikes off into a lope) is well under his body. Because of that, he is also in a collected frame where it is easy to lope. Most of my horses find themselves trying to lope and hardly know why because it so comfortable.

The Exercise

Walk your horse in a large circle. Half-pass to the inside several times, releasing after your horse performs the maneuver and walking a few steps. When you want to lope from a half-pass, keep your weight on the outside seat bone, release the rein pressure and “kiss”. Repeat a few times until your horse understands. Reverse and half-pass to lope in the other direction. Don’t expect too much too soon if your horse is learning. I accept any attempt to lope, then do it again.

Where can it go wrong?

• The horse will not lope or trots a few strides before he lopes. When this happens, your horse is either not collected enough in a half-pass positon or you have not released rein pressure to allow him to move forward. Go back to the half-pass and be sure he is moving forward with his haunches slightly in, then ask again making sure you are releasing rein pressure so he can lope without restriction.
• Horse overbends. If your horse is overbent, he may be drifting to the inside of the circle too. Be sure to apply enough outside direct rein to keep him on the circle and only enough inside rein in a pull-release motion to keep his head in the direction of travel.
• The horse tries to lope before you ask after you have half-passed. This is almost for sure because you have been doing only one half-pass, then loped off. He has learned that you are going to lope after only one half-pass. To correct and to ensure it does not happen, always half-pass a few times in a schooling session so he does not guess when you are going to ask for a lope. Of course at the show, you will only slightly move the haunches in and lope off right away so as to look the prettiest but still not incur a penalty.

Note: Although it’s, very correct to lope off from a standstill in a reining pattern, you are allowed to walk a few steps into the lope and many riders do. I do not want to walk more than four steps, two is better. Since you will be penalized for trotting or, of course, loping off in an incorrect lead, it’s important to prepare your horse for the lead departure. This exercise does that.

The Lope and Leads

There’s no faster way to a low score in a reining class than your horse loping in the incorrect lead. Since you will deducted one point for every quarter circle that you are not in the correct lead, and there are twelve circles in every reining pattern, the penalty points can add up! And before we go any further, if your horse is correct in front and incorrect behind, he is not “half right”!!

The lope and leads are hand-in-hand. When a horse lopes, he will be in the right lead, the left lead, or disunited (not ever desirable!) If you watch a horse loping, it will appear that either the left or right fore and hind legs are carried more forward. He is in the left lead if the left legs are extending forward; he is in the right lead if the right leads are extending more forward. If he is disunited, he will be in the right lead in front and left lead behind or vice-versa.

The “correct” lead for left circles is the left lead; the correct lead for right circles is the right lead.

I expect my horses to learn to lope a lot of circles. After my horse is well warmed up with basic suppling exercises, jogging and trotting, I will usually (always on the youngsters) ask for the lope from a posting trot. On the two-year-olds, if I am trotting, I sit down (but lightly – not hard enough to stop), keep some weight in the outside strirrup, move my hands forward and say “lope”. Then I make a “kissing” sound. This works like a charm on a colt that I have never loped but have asked to lope on the lunge line with a “kiss”. Later, and on my trained reining horses, I school the lead departure in the correct lead from a walk or stop (a future post on Reining Training Tips) so I don’t incur penalty points by starting my circle in the wrong lead. The following video demonstates the lope and leads:

What can go wrong?

Sometimes a horse does not seem comfortable in one lead and always uses the other – even when it is the outside lead e.g. he lopes in the right lead on a left circle. This often happens on a two year old that is just learning to lope. If he picks up the incorrect lead, I do not punish him. If it is the first time we loped, I want to make sure to reward him for loping! But this can’t go on for long, of course. After I know he will lope when I ask, I want the correct lead too. I drop back down to a trot if he picks up the wrong lead and try to feel his natural balance and use that to my advantage. There will usually be one part of the circle where I can feel he is more likely to be correct. If he has missed the lead several times, I make sure to change the place in the circle where I asked because he has “learned” to miss it in that spot. Also, I make sure I keep outside rein pressure on him to keep him on the track and help with the outside leg. So much of this is timing – feeling when the horse is in a position to automatically take the correct lead.

I like a pretty loper. There can be quite a difference in the way horses lope. Some of it is training and the different styles of the trainer – very collected or natural way of going for instance. That is personal preference, but the way a horse lopes – the way he is built and the way he uses his body – cannot be changed. My opinion is: Ride a good loper because a great portion of the time the judge is watching him in the reining pen, he is loping!