Horse Anticipating turns

Courtney wrote to ask,.."What can I do about my horse who sometimes decides which direction to turn on his own. He is very well behaved, but sometimes he will preempt me by turning in a different direction than I am planning on."

Hi Courtney, there are a few things I would look at with your belief that your horse is anticipating you. First, I would make sure I'm riding the horse as opposed to just be a passenger. If the horse perceives a lack of leadership, he'll step up and take over, especially if you are always riding the same pattern and your horse kinda just goes into auto pilot. 

I would look at how you are riding and if your seat and your balance, or even an inadvertent cue may be sending him in the direction it looks like he is anticipating. Not being in rhythm, being off balance or leaning all could affect this.

I would go about making sure your horse isn't always turning towards the gate, as in being barn sour and wanting to go back to his feed bin and the safety of his stall and his buddies. Does he sometimes drift towards the gate? If this is what he is doing, maybe you can try making it work for him to be close to the gate, and give him a rest away from the gate, at the farthest point away from it.

Doubling him or riding circles close to the gate, backing him and such would be work. Giving him a rest, away from the gate, would be giving him a break. Sometimes if I think a horse is getting barn sour, I'll finish the arena work with a bunch of circles or doubling around the gate end of my arena, then ride him to the farthest part of the arena (away form the gate), give him a chance to stand and take a break, maybe even dismount and loosen his cinch, before I walk him out.  He learns to think the gate end is the working end and not necessary where he wants to be of his own volition. 

Make sure you are not inadvertently giving him the wrong cues, even something like looking towards something or looking in a direction can cue him. But if he is anticipating your turns, such as riding in several circles then you are planning on turning into a figure 8 but he is anticipating keeping the circle, then what I might try would be this exercise describe below and in the video.

I saw Craig Cameron demonstrate this exercise, and I believe he called it "North, South, East and West". Eight traffic cones or similar objects (I have seen some people use empty feed buckets) are placed in pairs, about 6 feet apart and in a cross pattern like in the diagram below.

I have this pattern of cones set up year using it for many different patterns, even just trotting and loping circles. The idea is to trot circles around all the cones then enter the circle through a pair of cones, exit through another set of cones then turn in one direction or another.






The idea is keep the trot through the turns, keep your horse between your legs, keep changing the direction of your turns in a random pattern (see the diagram below), but be clear in your cues. I'll lift the inside rein, the rein in the direction of the turn, and use my opposite leg to push the horse in that direction.

This placement of cones allows for many different patterns. Sometimes, I'll stop in the middle then back my horse out though the cones I enter through, then do a trot or lope departure in one direction or another.











Sometimes, I'll stop between the cones when exiting and maybe back the horse in a circle around one of the cones, or a figure 8 around both cones.

It will likely help if you look ahead at where you are going rather than looking at the horses head and ground immediately in front.


The video below is a pattern like I have described above.  If you ride as particularly as you can, ensuring your cues are clear, and keep mixing up the turns, L or R, or even a stop and back then double, this can make it necessary for him to listen closely to you.