Training Tip: Time Yourself Loping

If you want your horse to get good at loping, actually get a stopwatch and time yourself or have someone else time how long you are loping. This will help because loping for a minute can seem like an hour, especially when you’re first learning.

I proved this point at one of my 10-day Fundamentals Clinics. After several days of the clinic, participants were whining and complaining about having to lope so much, so the next day I took everyone outside to the tree area and told them to lope. As soon as their horses were loping, I started my stopwatch. Six minutes later, I had to tell them to stop because I was afraid that a mutiny would erupt if I made them go any longer.

When I told the participants how long they had been loping, everyone’s jaw dropped; they couldn’t believe it had only been six minutes. At that point, the horses were just starting to settle into a cadence and get relaxed. In reality, they needed to lope for another six minutes before stopping. If you want your horse to lope slowly with cadence to his feet, you have to lope…and lope…and lope him. And when the horse starts to settle into the pace, you should lope him some more. And when the horse is begging to stop, you should lope him a little bit more.

My point is that unless you actually time yourself, you’re probably going to underestimate how long you’re actually loping your horse.