Spins

Spins The ideal spin happens when the horse plants a hind foot and rotates in a flat, steppy rhythm around that hind foot.
In reality, the hind foot doesn't have to be stationary. It simply needs to stay in one area. There should be a smooth steady rhythm. No hopping. No loping, it is to remain flat. Speed added to this type of turn adds the degree of difficulty and polish.
To teach the maneuver, I use anticipation to my advantage. To accomplish that, I map out an imaginary circle 10 to 12 feet in diameter. On that circle, I'll make an imaginary "X". I walk my colt around the circle. Each time we get to the "X", we turn around once, then move out into the circle. As I walk a colt in a left hand circle, I lay an outside rein against the colt's neck, turn a tight circle to the left, release pressure from the outside rein and let the colt drift into the large circle to the left. Never, never allow the colt to leave the "X" by turning to the right. Always leave the circle going in the direction in which you entered. In the beginning, I'm not looking for tight turnarounds. Instead, the movement will resemble a smaller circle. The important thing is to teach the horse to walk into the spin, turn around by laying an outside rein against the colt's neck. If necessary, use Plan B, the outside leg to bump the rib cage. After completing a single turn around on the "X", walk out into the larger circle. For 15 or 20 minutes I work a colt on this maneuver, both directions. Always, we walk the same path. Always, we turn around on the "X" at precisely the same spot. Soon, the colt anticipates the maneuver and begins stepping into the "X" with little prompting from me. As the colt's mind and body jell, both will be turning the same direction. As he turns right physically, his mind will turn right mentally. If the colt's body turns one direction, and his mind turns the other, resistance happens, and you're getting only 50 percent of your circle. I recognize this in a horse when his body turns to the left, for example, and he is looking off to the right. In reality he's thinking about heading right even though his body is turns left. Our goal: to get both mind and body turning the same direction. You'll be amazed. Within a couple of weeks of working on this maneuver for 15 to 20 minutes each day, a colt will begin turning cute turn arounds and he will be doing it on his own. Once the colt steps through my pattern with confidence and style, I add speed by urging the colt into a trot. The circle remains the same. The "X" remains the same. Only speed has changed. One cue to increase speed is to cluck. Or I'll bump the rib cage with an outside leg. That increased the snap to the maneuver. I've found that this drill creates in the horse a desire to stay in one spot. Horses tend to want to do the opposite of what a rider wants them to do. With this drill, I turn the colt around, chase him out, turn him around, chase him out. Pretty soon, he doesn't want to go out. He wants to stay on the "X". However the rider that holds a horse's head to keep him in a spin discovers that the colt wants to do the opposite too, and that is to leave the spin. By restraining or holding the colt back, the rider actually forces the horse out of position to negotiate the spin properly. Another fault I see is the rider who asks for more speed than the horse is capable of giving. Speed with poor form looks worse and certainly scores worse than good form performed at a slower, more articulate speed. Certainly speed is taken into a judge's consideration when you get into the higher scoring within a reining horse pattern. However, my primary concern, is form.