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Re: [RC] Training new horse----don't get too cocky!!! - Karen SullivanI agree with Penny that I would never have the nerve (or guts-call me big chicken) to take a very green horse out on the trail, for the same reasons she states. At age 47, I am still occasionally questioning why I bought a weanling 4 years ago, and am going through the green-horse phase right now.... However, we already have all the trail experience you could hope for, as mine has been out on the trail, hauled everywhere, BEFORE we started riding her. She has seen wildlife, dogs running loose on the rides, tons of strange vehicles, helecopters landing, bikes, carried saddle, bags of cans, jingle bells and whatever weird stuff I could think of, PLUS has learned how to carry herself of rough terrain, BEFORE asking her to do it with a rider....and ALWAYS accepted things very calmly, without panic. Her training has consisted of very short backing and cues when she was 2 (under 10 mn), basically on and off to get her used to the whole idea early, but still probably not more than 15m during age 3.....mostly in arena or round pen, although occasinally we would slip on her back towards the END of a ponied ride, when she had the ya ya's out.... This year (age 4) was more of the same in the spring, with me alternatly hand walking on the trail and riding maybe less than 45min totaa....starting LESSONS once a week. with a good training to introduce more giving to the bit, bending, backing, and now starting leg yielding. I try to also do short trail ride twice a week with friends on calm horses; still pony her on longer rides to keep up some conditioning on hills, LSD, etc. As this is a pretty calm horse, I also ventured out alone with folding saw and clippers to do trail trimming, which requires a lot of stop and go, voice commands, etc. So....all is going so smooth and easy, progressing step by step me feeling totally confident on this 4 year old out alone....she is more ploddy than hot, not at all spooky, very cooperative, etc. So.....I head out one fine fall day, on a wide dirt road that goes for miles and miles along a creek, lovely fall foliage. We are alone (she doesn't care), with a storm front coming in with brisk breeze and leaves blowing. We lead out, relaxed and easy, good attitude. Stop after about a mile to chat with some friends in a truck; about 10minutes, (I tell them how wonderful my young horse is!!) Fawn goes to sleep....they leave, we walk another mile and then I start her very nice smooth jog. Well, I am bursting with good cheer and song as we jog another mile........suddenly I am over air and very hard road as horse spins to the right-out under me so fast I had no chance of staying on....hard roads hurt at age 47. Fortunately, she stops, looks at me, and come to me when I call as I have trained her to do this. After determining I think nothing is broken, I get back on, and jog rest of way to the creek as I had planned.....all I can remember is maybe some birds flying up out of the creek (things she has seen a million times!!!) good wake up call for me, I was getting TOO COCKY!! No matter how well prepared, or trained, or calm disposition, young and green horses are still going to be UNPREDICTABLE!!! And this is probably the most laid-back 4 year old I could want, or have ever seen!!! If this mare could benefit from anything, at this point, it would certainly be more arena schooling (dressage type), as I have done all the trail exposure in the world. If I had a horse that really lacked trail experience, and I didn't want to take the time to pony them out for a year or so, I would personally send a young horse to Fred Emigh over in Georgetown area, as he is terrific with young horses and getting trail experience, and put two months on my daughers Arab, 5 years ago.... Original Message ----- From: "sharp penny" <penelope_75647@xxxxxxxxx> To: "Carol Stiles" <cstiles@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2003 6:50 AM Subject: Re: [RC] Training new horse For a young horse there are just too many distractions out on the trail to try to teach them any new things there. I have found that trying to do this makes teaching the skill harder and takes them longer to *catch on*. Why set you or your horse up for failure? Once they have that *skill* firmly intact then, I'll up the difficulty level and ask for that skill on the trail. I agree once my horse has a pretty good knowledge of that skill then using the trail to work on and refine it is great. Regards, Penny --- Carol Stiles <cstiles@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:I still think everything one does in an arena, teaching flexibilty, suppleness, lateral moves, jumping, etc.. can be done just as easily out on the trail in a more natural environment. But if you don't feel confident enough about this then by all means use an arena. It's far better to be in a controlled fenced in area if you're unsure about how your horse is going to react. Carol__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now http://companion.yahoo.com/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. 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