Re: help with "race brain"

[Tara Wheeler <harpy@io.com>]

<big sigh>

Been there, done that.  My recommendation is dressage training, lots of dead
slow trail rides with lots of people (two or three others generally doesn't
get my guy revved up, but get five to ten people together and he's at a
race) between competition rides and a Linda Tellington-Jones curb bit with
double reins.

My ex-race horse desperately wants contact with the bit in his mouth.  But
constant contact with a curb is torture.  The LTJ bit (and several others)
allow you to keep some contact on the snaffle rein and still have the rip
cord to pull if he (or she) takes off.

You need lots and lots of wet saddle blankets to get this problem under
control.

I'm still working it out of my boy.

At rides, what works for me is to be the first out after the speed demons.
We do a fast trot for around five miles and then try a slow trot or even a
walk.  The whole time, I'm asking for flexion and calm (and you need to
start singing or chanting some mantra yourself, because if you tense up,
he'll never calm down).

If we get stuck behind a slow group in those first five miles, there's gonna
be a fight.

And heaven help us if there's a logjam in the woods or on a cliffside.

I'm afraid I would have yelled forward too, rather than take a few people
down the cliff with me.