Horse Training – One Rein and Two Rein Cavalry Stop for a Bolting Horse

How many times have you heard the phrase,..”if he gets away from you, then just pull on one rein and bend his head…..hell, that’ll bring him to a stop”.

Yeah, probably will stop if he doesn’t get the bit between his teeth and if he’s in a full gallop you probably also have a wreck.

I watch a teen age hunter jumper in training, riding too much horse that suddenly spooked and took off. I watched the horse jump the arena fence, land side ways on a very hard dirt road breaking the girl’s upper arm bone (think they cal it a humerus – however nothing humerous about the accident) and she separated her shoulder as well. She was very lucky she did not kill her self. As remarkable as it seems, the horse was fine and the girl was mucking stalls two weeks later, one handed because one arm was in a cast and a sling.

I have another story that in no way deserved to turn out good as it did when a large cargo helicopter hovered over me and two of my partners just shy of a narrow steep canyon trail. I talk about this in the video, but one of my partners, the least experienced horseman, had his horse bolt and take off back across some rough, rocky ground inter mixed with small arroyos (dry river beds). The horse finally stopped running and my partner explained he knew enough not to jerk her head around at speed and cause a wreck. It ruined out pretty damn funny as he lost his hat early on and we saw his bald head popping up now and then and the horse came out of the arroyos.

The one rein stop can be dangerous if you are not an experienced rider. Twisting the horse head around can cause him to cross his front legs, trip and roll –often with the rider on bottom.

When I’m working with novice riders I always teach them the two rein Cavalry stop. I check them out on this before I ever let them on the open trail.

The Cavalry stop is basically one rein held lower than the other. The lower rein consistent with the normal stop and the upper rein keeping the horse’s head more or less straight. I find this works better for a bolting or panicking horse more so than the normal two rein stop where both reins are held even.

Hope the video helps. Safe Journey.