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[RC] Training the Hot Horse - DreamweaverAt 12:49 PM 5/19/2005, Ridecamp Digest wrote:When she started jigging and jumping and wanting to go fast, I just calmly turned her away from home. She would have the most surprised expression - like, we're going the wrong way! Just kept doing this - it would turn 2 hour rides into 3 hour rides sometimes, but it worked. She finally got the idea. That, and lots of riding. At first she couldn't ride with another horse without wanting to get in front and go, so I just rode by myself. great advice, I did that too when Rocky used to jig, sometimes I'd get so mad at him that I would bounce opposite the jig on his back, trying to make him sore but I don't think I was heavy enough and only succeeded in making myself sore. :P We too have done lots of turning around and going back out, often not making it back home until well after dark. Sometimes I think training their brains takes the most time, and most effort, and you do definitely learn patience! I should probably also point out, in case anybody doesn't know, I ride a lot more miles than most people so the way I do things probably is not going to be suitable for a lot of people. If I were riding less miles/rides on my main competition horses then I would probably be riding them faster. And it isn't really so much faster as just taking out some of the walking and goofing off times that we already have and increasing the distance between trots, or else working on cantering a bit more often. There is a difference between riding slow because you choose to (for whatever goal or reason the rider has), versus riding slow because the horse isn't really prepared -- we shouldn't be out there doing this (fast slow whatever) if they aren't prepared. It's no less safe for a halfway conditioned horse to be going fast than for an almost not at all conditioned horse to be going slow. You may be able to get away with more by going slow, but you can still do damage. There are a lot of knowledgeable and experienced riders out there who are more than capable of preparing a horse properly to start out top tenning from the first ride that horse ever does. There ain't nothing wrong with that. The problems we see generally come from new to the sport riders and/or new riders with new horses that start out riding with Dabney or some of the other competitive and experienced riders that know what they are doing. Karen in NV =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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