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In the past, when I've thought about "jigging", I think of rental string horses on the way back to the barn after a miserable afternoon with non-riders. That goes back almost forty years. Perhaps and hopefully, those situations don't exist any longer. Fast forward to my first/second level mare who is being asked to do more and as a result, has become somewhat tense. This is new - just in the past few weeks, but is becoming a pattern. The tension displays as jigging. My wonderful FEI level trainer, who I work with weekly, has suggested dead stopping her every time she jigs. (It is only from walk to trot/jig.) I understand the reason for just stopping her, but that in itself seems to create more tension. An old "remedy" used to be to turn them in a tight circle and then stop them (and stand), but I'm not sure that is what I want to do either. Every horse/rider/trainer is different, so I'm very interested in your experiences and solutions. The mare seems to just be anticipating what is next (starts jigging when I pick up the reins) and then it carries over into the rest of the walk/trot work. Many thanks in advance for your ideas!

I was literally working on exactly this yesterday in a demo ride with Laura Graves (see "is this you Gwen") - she said it is hard to put leg on in the walk when the horse is tense because you feel like it will make tension/jigging worse, but she says that putting leg on in that moment is the way to go. She had me put leg on and do turn on the haunches to give me something to do with my legs, and to put purpose into the movement. I also found putting my leg on with steady pressure on a straight line helped my mare relax without thinking she needed to take off or swing her haunches around.

In a less high pressure situation, I have also had success with remembering that the jigging instead of walking is often a way of avoiding moving forward into contact (LG said this as well), so I've also had success with keeping contact, and giving a tap with the whip to back up "forward" - if she takes off into trot, bring her back, ask for forward walk, rinse repeat until she gets it.

I think it's confusing for them when they learn that asking for forward doesn't automatically mean go up a gait, and they get a bit stressed about it until they figure out the new way of things.

Hope that is helpful!

Thank you, Gwen! I'll try this tomorrow!

You need to figure out why your horse is jigging. Are you giving conflicting directions? Is there some fear or discomfort? Anxiety? Behavioral problem?

My old mare was a jigger. She was also fearful of any contact, and absolutely did not want to move forward into contact. I have very light, forgiving hands, but she didn't trust me.

Once I figured out a safe contact space (rubber eggbutt), pushing her forward into contact put a halt to the jigging.

She still tended to jig while we were waiting in the start box, or nearly any time we went on a trail. But pushing her forward stopped the nervous habit.

Correction - she had me do turn on the haunches, not haunches in.

My gelding is a jigger. After he's done some work, he anticipates that he'll be asked to trot as soon as I pick up the reins. If I hold my core super tight and very slowly pick up each rein with a slight bend as I pick up each side (does that make sense? kind of bending back and forth), I can break the pattern. But it's hard! I did go to a cowboy clinic recently and he had me try to loosen the reins as slow as I could and pick them up as slow as I could. I was told that I was going to have to do it 10000 times to break the habit. But my horse is smarter and more stubborn than me
I notice that I am keeping my leg off when shortening the reins thinking that I'll inadvertently cue him for trot. So I'm going to try the suggestion of leg on. And then if that doesn't work, I'm going to go back to the old "make 'em work". That is, if he wants to break into the trot, then god damn, he better trot his little hiney off until he regrets doing it.

Most people, when their horse is "just" walking, are just sitting and not offering the horse any input. It helps to continue to ride. I do that by using my legs very lightly in the rhythm of the walk, dictating the tempo and stride length that I want. Usually it is no more than following the swing of the barrel from side to side, but on a tense or jiggy horse I amp it up so it is very hard to ignore.

I like walking a ten meter circles asking the horse to accept inside flexion and outside contact. I add leg each time there is a jig, either leg yield, turn on forehand, or shoulder in or half pass depending on degree of understanding of horse. As soon as relaxed stride is offered, I resume elastic stride on circle, if horse jigs again, I work laterally again until the horse gives medium walk any time leg is applied into contact.

Kiwi is hot and finds relaxation in movement. These traits tend to lend themselves to jigging.

What works:
- Going sideways. Leg yield or halfpass, whichever gives you the best connection to the rein at the time you need it. Kiwi does best with walking halfpass. Probably due to the fact that she has to soften to the inside rein and fill out the outside rein.
- Measured and planned changes of direction. Ribbon-candy serpentines, 10m serpentines, 10m counter-bent serpentines, and so on. Keep the horse centered between the two reins and under the seat (no leaning/diving/etc.). Repeat until the walk is under the seatbones instead of rushing ahead and jigging.
- "Counted walk" can help _some_ horses-- not all. Use sparingly.
- Shoulder-in, haunches-in, and renvers can help take out the diagonalization (or lateralization, if that's a problem you're having) in the walk. Encourage the neck to stretch out and forward in all lateral work.
- Rider tips: Breathe. Make sure your lower legs are touching the horse's barrel. Breathe out all tension in your hips and lower back-- can exacerbate jigging tendencies by reinforcing that there's something to be tense about. Make sure that your hands and body are sending the same message: legs saying go but reins saying stop will cause jigging. Similarly, legs saying go but hips saying stop will also cause the jigs.

If your horse is jigging in anticipation of an upwards transition, I recommend long walk stretches in the above exercises and only ask for the upward transition once the walk is clearly 4 beat and flat-footed.

I agree with Ponichiwa's list. When I bought my mare, the seller said, "Oh, she doesn't walk; she prances." Well, with me that is not an option.

It took about 6 months of very attentive work to assure that every walk was a walk and not a prance (her version of a jig)! It is now fairly rare that she prances but lots of leg on and lateral work are the key to us returning to a clear walk.

My mare is also fairly hot and reactive--patterned movement with my leg and seat support provide relaxation for her.

If you want to see the section where LG discusses jigging in particular, which will likely be clearer than my attempts at explanation, it's at 1:11:14 of the "Olympic training session" video here:

https://www.usef.org/network/coverage/DuttaFOC2017/

In addition to all the great advice here, I found that keeping my hips swinging in the rhythm of the walk helped clarify to the horse what gait i am looking for. It is very easy to get tense or stiff in your seat/hip when your horse tightens his back and begins to jig.

One of my trainers that is chock full of good sayings has one for this - lateral suppleness will fix longitudinal disobedience. For a horse that jigs, do some lateral work. Start with a circle and scale back to just displacing the shoulders or hips and then both legs to go forward. Eventually you and the horse will get so used to adding leg in the walk when she jigs, it'll be second nature and you'll be able to stay straight.

I rode a horse that loved to go up and down in all three gaits when she was anticipating or thought she knew the right answer and you told her no. It's hard to add leg when riding a pogo stick, but sit up, shoulders back, legs on.

Thank you everyone! Terrific replies and I am encouraged that there is an answer in there somewhere! I greatly appreciate the input!

Let us know how it goes!

Quick question: Is this mostly in the transition from free walk to working walk? (as you pick up the reins?) then from walk to trot work.

Quick answer: Jigging is caused by the horse lifting her head and tightening her back (think free walk to working walk). Often the horse raises her head and the rider shortens the reins going from walk to trot. Anticipation occurs in riders too. Make sure your seat bones are following the walk rhythm as you pick up the reins.

Keeping the legs on the horse engages the abs, which keeps the back relaxed.
Doing lateral work bends the horse laterally which relaxes the back.

I do a thousand free walk to working walk transitions warming up and cooling down. If the horse jigs, release the reins, free walk and begin again, over and over. When you pick up the reins in either transition, fw to ww or w to t, be sure to keep the elastic connection. Also, I might also do that in the w to t transition, repeating the transition. Just think of it as a chance to practice two more transitions, be patient and keep repeating.

I use any combination of all the methods above that work. Geldings are often better about the stopping approach. Mares tend to get pissy about it, and there goes the relaxed back

goldhorse wrote:And then if that doesn't work, I'm going to go back to the old "make 'em work". That is, if he wants to break into the trot, then god damn, he better trot his little hiney off until he regrets doing it.

The reason that doesn't generally work the way many thinks it does, is that so much time elapses between when a horse starts jigging and when they get tired enough to feel punished, that they don't connect the two. So the reason it likely "works" when we think it works is because they become calmer over time, rather than because we punished them with excessive work.

Excessive work causes excessive pain, which over time shuts horses down and makes them dull (their behaviors become suppressed), which is why IMO, finding ways to keep them calm makes a lot more sense than trying to punish them for expressing their anxiety.

Lots of gradual, gentle exposure to the things, or situations that stress them IMO, works a lot better, because it's not connected with punishment.

And yes, I know, many don't think of working horses as punishment, but sustained work can become extremely punishing, as anyone who has ever pushed themselves beyond tired knows.

tlkidding wrote:One of my trainers that is chock full of good sayings has one for this - lateral suppleness will fix longitudinal disobedience. For a horse that jigs, do some lateral work. Start with a circle and scale back to just displacing the shoulders or hips and then both legs to go forward. Eventually you and the horse will get so used to adding leg in the walk when she jigs, it'll be second nature and you'll be able to stay straight.

I rode a horse that loved to go up and down in all three gaits when she was anticipating or thought she knew the right answer and you told her no. It's hard to add leg when riding a pogo stick, but sit up, shoulders back, legs on.

Love that quote as longitudinal reflects lateral. . . .

I was taught that jigging is actually a forward resistance, not a horse wanting to go.