training question

Okay, so Rachel has ridden Clete a ton in the past two weeks. When she rides two handed, he looks awesome. His headset is great and he is slower than I have ever seen him. When she switches back to one handed, he tends to get strung out and speed up and bring his head up. It's not terrible, but it's not as good as when she 2 hands him. Is this because he's out of shape? Or are we doing something wrong? Is there something we need to change?

MORE PRACTICE ONE HANDED.. Horses get programed and you just need to re program...

Watch her body postion, she may be changing it when riding one handed, watch to see if she draws up, She may feel more comfortable, 2 handed and when changing to 1 hand she is sending a differant signal to him, ever so slight. When he strings out one handed have her lift her hand high up and forward over his neck, holding it ever so lightly, as he drops his head, have her drop her hand, not all at once but slowly. have her push his hip to the inside of the arena as she does this. when he collects and slows, she can give him slack. just as soon as he starts to string out again, she either needs to resume the same over again or stop, turn and lope off again, she may have to repeat this over and over, until he gets the idea, he will do this. sometimes you dont get 20 ft and have to turn around. Hope this makes sense and helps.

thanks guys! we'll keep working.