Teaching a horse to lope requires several steps prior to loping. The horse has to be responsive to your legs, and you need to be able to move his hips to the right and left with your legs.

To start:

1. Walk the horse forward for two or three steps. He'll need forward motion in order to lope, and the walking steps will start that.

2. Hold the horse's left shoulder upright by lifting and holding the left rein against his neck. At the same time, move your right leg about six inches back from the front cinch and press it into the horse's side, cueing him to move his hindquarters to the left.

3. Keep holding the left shoulder up and pushing the hindquarters over until the right hind is on the same track of travel as the left front. (If you don't have enough feel to tell when this occurs, get someone to watch and tell you when it happens.) As the right hind comes off the ground, cue for the lope with increased leg pressure and a kiss.

4. As the right hind comes down and pushes off, your positioning efforts will make it possible for the left hind to swing forward onto the left lead. Because you'll have prevented the left shoulder from dropping, it will be free to follow through. To lope off on the right lead, do the same thing except substitute your left leg where it says right leg.

A few more lope-off pointers before you start teaching the lope-off sequence: you need to get your horse light and responsive to your leg pressure. If he pushes into your leg instead of moving away, he needs more work on lateral exercises. By teaching the lope-off sequence out in the open, instead of alongside a wall or fence, you'll teach the horse to rely on you, not the barrier, for his cue about which lead to take.