A horse that hurries into lope departures can tank your placing in the arena or ruin your ride at home. Here’s how to prevent it and fix it.

Almost every problem you encounter with your horse goes back to the foundation—your horse’s and yours. If your horse wasn’t taught correctly from the beginning, then he doesn’t know how to execute your requests—this includes something as basic as a lope departure. And if you don’t use correct positioning (e.g., you lean forward and overreact with your spurs into a lope), your horse might not know what you want and/or develop a negative response to it.

Here, I’ll cover why a controlled lope departure matters, my tips for achieving smooth departures, and how to fix a chargey horse.

Why Does It Matter?

If you’re not a competitor, you might wonder why it matters if your horse gets excited going into the lope. The biggest issues this behavior creates are dropping the inside shoulder into the lope, which puts his body into a reverse arc, and tossing his head. Additionally, that pushiness can bleed into other parts of his training. If you compete, you know this behavior can dock points from your scores.

Start With Good Habits

The best way to prevent a problem from developing is to do things correctly from the start. Before you attempt a lope departure, be sure your basics are on track—your walk and jog departures and steering should be solid and reliable. Additionally, always use as small a cue as you can. This helps you control your reactions so you don’t overreact and scare your horse.

If you’re riding one-handed when you work on your departures, start by walking your horse’s shoulders to the rail. By that, I mean lift your rein hand toward the rail. If you’re traveling to the left, lifting toward the outside elevates that inside/left shoulder, tips the nose slightly to the left, and keeps his hips in line. Add as much leg as necessary to lope off and use a cluck rather than too much leg. This leg pressure moves your horse’s hips to the inside, which allows him to reach up underneath himself with his inside back leg without elevating his head.

When riding two-handed to practice your departure, you’ll use what I call the triangle hand position. Going to the left, lift your left hand slightly to tip your horse’s nose to the inside. Use slight tension on your right rein, holding it lower than your left, to walk your horse’s shoulders toward the rail. Add right-leg pressure and a cluck, and lope off in a controlled manner.

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Fix the Charge

Before you begin, set your mind to remain calm and be patient. Getting overly aggressive, pulling your horse into the ground, and letting your emotions get the best of you only leads to frustration.

When your horse rushes into a lope, he’s most likely pulling from the front instead of driving from behind, which means on top of everything else, he lacks collection. Your goal is to get him working off his hind end to propel himself forward in a quiet and controlled manner.

Start by trotting down the rail, fairly close to the fence, riding with two hands on the reins. Quietly stop your horse and back a couple steps. While you’re still backing, pull his nose toward the rail with your rail-side rein, and add your inside rein to support that cue. This will bend his shoulders toward the fence. Put your leg on him, and then cluck to roll him back over his outside hind leg into the fence. Then use the cues described above to lope off on the correct lead.

Go back to this drill anytime your horse thinks about rushing into his departure. It’s a great core exercise to keep him tuned up, smooth, and responsive to your cues.