Rail Showmanship
How to teach a haunch turn?
My 5 year old can do all of the rail work for Western Pleasure and Hunter Under Saddle but he cannot haunch turn. Before I bought him, he was fully trained in Western Pleasure. I have taught him HUS, Halter, and Showmanship. He can do haunch turns on the ground if we go slow. However, he cannot do them in the saddle. I have always ridden horses who have been trained to haunch turn and all I had to do was ask. But my current horse is still new to this. I would like to take him into horsemanship and equitation classes at the shows, but he cant turn. He can do a 180 haunch turn but only if we are doing it on the rail for a change of direction. When i take him to the center of the ring and ask him to turn he just wont do it. I ask with my leg and reins but he throws his head up, backs up, and just flat out refuses to turn. Is there anything I can do to teach him to turn? Have any of you ever trained a horse to haunch turn?
Sorry it’s long 
If he’ll do a turn on the haunches on the rail, then he is physically capable. You and he are just relying on the crutch of the rail in your turns. You don’t fully understand how to do a haunch turn – you’re relying on the horse – and he doesn’t understand what you’re now axking for.
You can replace that crutch slowly. Put a cavaletti or a rail in the center of the ring, and see if he’ll turn on the haunches beside that (using that as the crutch). If so, gradually move your haunch turn away from the cavaletti/rail until he learns the maneuver without any barrier beside him.
Instead of just providing the cue, your leg must provide the barrier of the wall. I suggest bridging your reins and carefully bringing him to a halt in the center of the arena. Then, use your legs. The “outside” leg should be at the cinch to push him away from the imaginary wall. Your “inside” leg should be behind the girth, to hold his haunches in place. Your seat should be deep, and you should also be using it to cue. Your hands are the last resort, not the first – that MAY be why he’s flinging his head. Rather than trying to keep him from going forward with your hands (which results in flinging and backing), use an opening rein to encourage him to start the turn. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect at first, this will take some practice. Also don’t try to do a complete 180 right away – even a few degrees correctly turned should be rewarded with a “good boy” and the immediate permission to walk forward in the new direction.
Over time, you and he will learn how to lose the crutch and turn on the haunches without the wall.
If I misunderstood and you CAN do a haunch turn away from the rail, it’s a little easier.
Walk him towards the center of ring and cue the turn on the haunches. When he’s done the 180, walk a few steps on, and turn him again the same direction. He’ll have done a 360 with 3 or 4 steps between the two 180s. Then, when he’s calm with that, shorten the distance between until it’s gone.
Another method. Cue the turn on the haunches in the center, but don’t stop cuing until he’s done more than 180, perhaps 190. Then walk on in that direction. Next time, cue him for 200. And so on. If he won’t do more than 180, teach him to do what you cue him for by doing LESS than 180 – try a 100. Try a 90. Do everything in between, then when you try to do the 190, he’ll be more likely to keep going until you tell him “enough.”
Every time he does what you want, reward him by letting him walk on. If he does something MUCH better than before, then reward him by walking on and patting and “Good Boy!”, but these are baby steps to a goal and I don’t know that I’d reward every single one of them. It really depends on the horse.
Good Luck!
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