Hi. Hope it's not too late to respond to this.hope you are checking back
and doing some learning!
Sounds like you are writing about me and my first distance horse, Star.
he was a 10YO when I got him. jig jig jig, sideways, up and down, just about
every direction but forward. haha, Central Region riders still ask me if I'm
ok on trail with him and it's been 8 years now that we've done this,
LOL.
Even though your horse is 10, my guess is endurance riding is too much
too soon for what he knows or what he's ready for mentally or
emotionally.
I took Star out on his first ride 3 months after I got him. We still were
getting to know each other. I spent the first two years just trying to get him
to settle down and remember that he had a rider on board. Sometimes it took 20
miles to get his brain engaged.
If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't have been in such a hurry to
start competition. I would have ridden him on trails more alone and with
groups. i would have camped out with him. i would have put him in lots of
situations to help him learn to handle things. But hindsight is 20/20.
Now I have a young mare that eveyrone has asked, when will we see her on
trail? She is 5 and just did her first little CTR last weekend and did
beautifully. None of the jigging and acting up i got from Star on his first
dozen or so rides. I took my time with her. She learned to campout. She's been
on group trail rides. We've logged hundreds of miles alone. She's been in a
parade and to horse shows. I'm not a show person at all, but figured the
trailers, horses, people and activity would be a good learning experience for
her.
I'm glad i took time to develop her mind as well as her body before
asking her to start competing.
My advice would be to slow down, and take some time to develop your horse
and YOUR riding. I had ridden horses for 30 some years, but I took time off to
take dressage lessons. It helped us immensely. When I was a better rider, Star
was a better horse! Imagine that!
Please
Reply to: Marie mdl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or
ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ==========================================
Hi,
I have a very eager 10 year old grey arab gelding in his first endurance
season. We just completed a 40 miles ride. The problem is that he gets very
excited, and although will respond to my seat, legs and reins, he does so by
side-passing, "tiggering", jogging... being a complete pain, and
furthermore, not doing any favour for his final heart rate...
Has
anyone dealt with this, and does it get better the more rides he'll do? - He
has so far only done 5 rides: one 20 miles, followed by two 25 miles and a
30 miles and finally the 40 miles. He is ridden in a KK Ultra training
bit.
Thanks for your
imput.
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