Hi all,
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about a young (6 y.o.) green-broke mare I have been conditioning for a friend. Well, after some major spooks on some narrow trails (with trees close by on each side), I quickly realized that she did not have any experience on the trails - I had been told she did. So I took some of your suggestions and spent the last weeks working with her in a field, teaching her things like giving to the bit, and working on her "brakes" that she did not have. I am so pleased with her progress I just had to share.
She was always trying to rush and plow through the aids to stop and she was very nervous of things on her flanks (such as a branch bumping her or long grass, etc.). I worked on desensitizing her to things on her flanks and she now stands quite still when I move around in the saddle, swinging my legs, even putting my foot back against her flank. She is still a little jumpy if I do it when she is gaiting along (she reacts as if it is a signal to go faster), but she has improved a great deal from the day she bolted in the woods only two and a half weeks ago. She might never have a slow walk the way some horses do, but hey, her walk sure covers a lot of ground quickly. And she may always be trying to go faster, but she now knows what stopping and slowing down is all about. She still tries to cut corners and doesn't always go in a straight line down the field, but she is so much more controllable - she is not bolting or trying to take off in a gallop. You can't really relax on her the way you might with an older horse, but she n
ow responds to light pulls and releases on the bit. She chomps on the bit a hundred miles an hour, but she has an ear back listening...I am amazed at how quickly she has progressed and so we are still aiming at a 25 mile novice ctr at the end of September. I took her back out on some trails for the past two days, but stuck to trails that were wide and not too demanding and she has done very well. A dog jumped out at us very suddenly, barking, as we passed someone's house and i was soooo proud of her - she spooked, but not uncontrollably, she just jumped a little, eyeballed the dog, and after about three lengths was back to doing her very fast but QUIET walk. Yahoooo!!!!! I took her out for a three hour ride today (mostly walking, some gaiting) and she had as much spunk when we got back as when we left. And she is not in top condition. So she seems to have good potential.
Lysane
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