I have a gelding that I'm working with that I would like to eventually participatie in reining with. He doesn't have to be perfect, just something that I can go and have fun with because I just think reining looks like a fun time. I don't have the cash to buy an already trained horse, but I have a reining bred stocky 2 year old with a nice calm attitude and good movement. I don't want to win, just go places and participate and do something slower. I'm looking for some tips on little exercises we can do to improve our stops and start teaching him to pivot. He lunges well both ways, walks/trots circles and figure 8s great in the pasture, and stops ok. He is learning to turn off my heels a little. I haven't asked him to lope yet and don't have a round pen. He is very quiet and relaxed when riding and lopes happily with the saddle when lunging. He is starting to neckrein and will flex for me. He has only been ridden in an O ring so far. I have trained my barrel horses from the ground up, but their focus is geared more towards being able to turn suddenly and really dig in to turn. I want him to be more slow and smooth. I'd just like a couple tips teaching him to stop and starting the pivot. He does dip his nose when I ask him to stop and back, and he will move his front end for me, but sliding stops are a thing foreign to me. There aren't any facilities within 2 hours of my house that train reining horses, so I can't go work under a trainer to get insider tips and experience. There are some roping people I know, but they do some things that are less than ethical and I would rather not do anything that they do to one of my horses. Any little things I can do with my boy to practice stopping and get a pivot started are appreciated.

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Making sure I'm being specific that I have trained my own horses for years and have been riding for many years, and my mom was a certified trainer 30 years ago so I do have a trainer to work with, but I'm just looking to do something a little different from what I usually do. I'm not trying to be competitive. I just want to do it for fun, but I want to be able to complete a pattern without any major mess ups, and I mainly train them to work cattle and go fast.

I think you're doing plenty for a horse of that age. For the next year or two I would focus on basics, basics, and more basics! A little walk, jog, halt (no sliding stop yet), and steering as a 2 year old. Slowly introduce the lope and increase the length of your rides as a 3 year old. I wouldn't introduce anything too technical until he is 4. Although Quarter Horses are often precocious and appear to be mature at a young age, I always prefer the more conservative approach to work on those young bones. And anyway, don't we want our horses to have a rock solid foundation?

However, this doesn't mean that you can't introduce some groundwork that will build to these more complex movements! You can begin to teach your 2 year old that pressure on his side (where your leg will be) means to move away from that pressure. Refine this over time, perhaps in conjuction with a rein signal, to indicate that he should pivot. Make sure the horse only moves a couple steps at a time to make sure he is thinking about it and not getting frantic. Everything should be slow and deliberate for months, building up to more steps of pivoting and then faster steps. Later you can add your own weight into the equation.

Sliding stops I do not have any experience with. But solidify the aid at slower gaits (walk to halt then trot to halt). It takes a lot of core strength for the horse to halt from faster gaits, and you'll need to allow time for the horse not just to learn the signal, but to be strong enough to do what you ask.

Good luck!

Emerald Hills has great advice for you there. Doing haunch turns on the ground can really help him learn how to stay on that foot during a turn, which will make them neater in the end. After that, it's really just teaching him circles, and making them get smaller until he stops moving that hind end. Sliding stops I would wait on for a while. You want him to be able to hold himself well when he stops before you try any kind of slide. These horses are practically sitting down because of how far under then their haunches are during these stops. When you're looking for sliding stops, you start by teaching them to halt when you ask and not to try to evade the stop. If he can carry himself properly and isn't evading the stop, you will start to see the beginning of that haunch tuck. When you get to that point, make sure you video yourself and experiment with your seat, because how you sit for that stop can make all the difference.

Thank you guys! He does tend to put his butt down a little when I ask him to stop when lunging, and he pivots a half turn when changing directions, so I know he knows what to do with his feet to start with. I want to ride him for my county 4h horse show, which has adult classes, next September. He would compete in showmanship, western pleasure, horsemanship, trail, barrels, stakes, and possibly poles. He doesn't have to go fast on the speed events, but everyone has to do everything, so even trotting the pattern will be alright. I think I'll focus on showmanship with him in addition to short weekly rides for the next few months. That should help start the pivot and do a little for his stops and just keep him comfortable with the saddle and jogging around. Among the horses I have that are already broke, his mom rides bridleless, his sister side passes and opens gates, a different mare spins, and his dad will sliding stop despite the fact that I don't know how I taught it to him, so I have a reference for how everything I want to do should feel. I've done a little bit of showmanship training with all of them and can get everyone to trot, halt, set up, and start a pivot. It honestly sounds like a lot of fun. I plan to get a surringal and caveson (hope I spelled that right) this spring so I can do a lot of ground driving and work on his head set if he needs it. I'm not going to be able to do consistent enough work with him this fall thanks to the cold and rain, but I'm hoping to be able to ride him around like a trail horse in February before we do the the technical parts. My pasture has this huge depression that we put round bales in durring the summer so they can eat in the shade, and with the trees, gentle and steep slopes, and tiny pond, it makes the perfect trail ride simulater.

I tried Emerald's suggestion to start him pivoting on the ground. I had him lunge a little first, then used my cattle show stick to touch him where a heel or spur would. I got him crossing his front feet on the ground and sticking ok on his first lesson. I rode him yesterday and tried adding my heel to a turn when stopped, and he pivoted 90° before stepping forward, so I call that a win. I asked him to lope, which he didn't hesitate to do, and we did a circle on each lead. We also stood at the end of the driveway a few minutes so he could watch cars go by, and he didn't seem to care about them at all. He's already pivoting up to 180° at a time on the ground, trotting with me, and halting ok, and I'm excited to see how he turns out. I might just have to make a thread detailing him and what he's doing, complete with pictures, but I might not have the motivation for that.

Sounds great! Glad to see he's responding so well!