My Horse Anticipates My Commands

Carolyn wrote that when she rides her horse towards the arena fence her horse most often turns before she gives him a cue. "Hi. My horse is very well behaved but he has a tendency, when I am riding towards the fence of the arena, to turn before I ask him to turn. I don't know if it's fear of being ridden into the fence, or poor eyesight, or just a lack of trust in me. It's really aggravating and I'm at a loss to correct this. Any time tested tips you may have would be appreciated. Regards, Carolyn."

Hi Carolyn. The most likely reason your horse turns before you ask him to when heading towards the fence is that he is anticipating the turn. He probably also anticipates in other ways as well. Does he always anticipate a turn toward the gate or towards other horses? A common thing that horses do is to turn towards the gate, sometimes speeding up when heading to or facing the gate, or slowing up at the gate anticipating leaving the arena or signaling their desire to get back to their pen and their buddies. So often, horses seemingly anticipating a cue is herd bound or barn sour behavior.

When riding towards the arena fence, keep your horse between your legs and you may have to have a little more contact with his mouth (riding in a bit) or on his nose (riding with a bosal) to be able to correct him anticipating a turn. Stop your horse before he gets too close to the arena fence where he wants to anticipate a turn. Then I would mix up what you do next. You can back him, turn him away from the gate, ride a circle and approach the arena fence again.

You can stop him, do a roll back, and head towards the opposite arena fence and do the same thing. You may stop him back a ways then have him depart at the trot towards the arena fence again.

I particularly like heading towards the arena fence, stopping, backing then doing a roll back toward the next fence line. Each time you should turn away from the arena barn gate, if this seems to be an issue for your horse, and each time will be turning in a different direction.

Over a short amount of time, you should be able to get closer and closer to the arena fence before he wants to turn on his own. Each time you approach the fence stop him, back him, turn him opposite the gate, do a roll back or double him before he attempts to turn on his own.  Keep him busy doing different things.  

Try doing all these things width wise and length wise in your arena. Pay attention to your horse doing those herd bound, barn sour type behavior. If you keep your horse busy enough, and you are fair about it, a lot of this behavior can be reduced or eliminated. And one more thing you may do when you end your arena training sessions, if to stop furthest away from the gate and either dismount and lead him in hand out of the arena, or from the saddle walk slowly to the gate.

I'm not such a good hand correcting this but what I would do is similar to what you would do for the barn or buddy hour horse.  Don't give him the chance to anticipate - direct him into something else. 

For the barn/gate sour horse it makes sense to make it work for him to be near the gate and give him a rest when he is furthest away from the gate. This is what you hear referred to as "making the wrong thing work and the right thing a release or a rest". Trot him in a oval or a circle near the gate, stop and back, turn away from the gate and take you horse to the far end of the arena and give him a rest.

Hope this helps Carolyn. Safe Journey to you.