Horse Speeds Up After Picking Up the Lead

If you cannot lope your horse on a loose rein without him speeding up or breaking gait, I guarantee you’re going to have this problem when asking your horse to change leads. If your horse is wanting to charge off when you put him on a loose rein, when you bridle him up and start asking him to pick up the correct lead, he’s only going to get hotter and more nervous.

So the first fix is to step back and assess the situation. Did you do your homework? If the horse is consistently running off, you need to go back and revisit the Fundamentals exercises. There’s no shame in going back a couple of steps if your horse needs help. Horses talk to us all the time; we just have to be smart enough to listen.   

Sometimes, especially if you’re working with a hotter horse, you’ll have a great foundation in place, but every once in a while the horse will get worked up and you’ll have to remind him to take a deep breath and relax.

If the horse speeds up after picking up the lead because he’s getting anxious during a training session rather than not having a foundation in place, rock the reins back and forth and wait for him to slow down and get soft. As soon as he does, drop him down to a walk. Make sure he’s soft in your hands and then turn him loose and put him on a loose rein.

If a horse is getting anxious during a training session, I’ll keep repeating this drill—lead departure and slow down—until he relaxes. That’s the opposite of lead departure and run off. With enough repetition, he’ll learn to think, “Lead departure and relax.”