>I tried circling with Magnum with mixed results.
>More often I thought he was just going to explode into little bay fragments and
> take me with him.
>He got VERY upset......
Of couse he got very upset, he is use to getting his way in this area and he is just
throwing a tanturm.
Let me tell you about a spoiled Arabian mare I retrained for some people.
She was very use to getting her way and would walk O.K. from home, but would
fight, jig, prance, and try and bolt all the way home. Well the first thing I did was
worked her in the corral to make sure that she was responsive to the bit. If at this
point she would fight me on the figure eights I would have took her back to the
snaffle bit and started retaining her to drop her nose and respond to the bit. It would do no good to try and teach her to walk by doing circles if she would not respond to my
cues.
After I was sure she would easily go around in circles I took her out into a dirt field.
We walked two miles from home but on the way back she refused to walk. So I
started to put her into circles. I gave her plenty of room so her could do the circles easily.
And believe it or not this stubborn mare did circles for four hours! And in this four hours
we only traveled a mile and a half. That gives you some idea of how little she walked in
this four hour stretch. Well after 4 hours of circles we were both tired and sore and she
exploded. There is no move that little mare did not try to dump me. (that is why I like to
work in a dirt field) She bucked, reared, throwed herself around tried to bolt but I rode out the tantrum. Finally the mare gave up and walked back to the barn. First
time ever this little mare walked back home.
The next day I took her out again and this time it only took 2 hours and another tantrum
(not as bad this time) before she gave up and walked. And by the end of the week she
was walking any where I wanted. By the time she want home she was moving easily
from a walk to a trot and canter and back to a walk, all on my cue. She had learned
that it was far easiler to listen to me and do what I wanted then to fight me. Not all
horses are this bad, she was the worst horse I have done so far.
Any time a horse is use to getting his way when he picks a fight with you he will throw a
fit if he thinks he is losing the battle. And when the fit comes you have to ride it out
and then go back to what you were doing. DO NOT IN ANY WAY GIVE INTO THE HORSE. If you are afraid of what the horse will do then you need to take your horse
to a trainer who understands what you are trying to teach the horse. Take the horse to
a trainer who knows how to work with an Arabain.
You also wrote....
>the best cure for this when the vet told us we could ONLY ride at the walk.
Now wait a minute here. We are talking about horses who will NOT walk! How can
you ONLY ride at a walk if the horse only walks when HE wants to.
I agree what the vet says but that needs to be done when the horse is first being
trained to ride. Remember on my last post where I talked about horses being trained in
30 days and not being taught disipline on the gaits? This is what I was talking about.
Instead of training a horse to walk, trot, and canter in 30 days or less. I train my horses
at their rate instead of mine. When I start out with the horse, we walk everywhere. I
teach the horse about bridges, traffic,water, responding to the bit all at the walk. When
we get to the point where I can take that horse anywhere at a walk and he handles
everything well, (this can take weeks), then we graduate to the trot. Then I start over
teaching everything at the trot including moving easily from the walk to the trot and back
to the walk. Not once at this time or ever do I allow the horse to pick his own gait. He
moves in and out of the gaits when I want him to not when he wants to. Do not think
that the horse knows what gait is best for him. He will get the idea that he can do
what he wants.
Then after he know the walk and trot very well , then I will move to the canter. There is
no way that this can be accomplished in 30 days. Also when I move to the canter I
never go fast then that untill he is older and more mature and is moving through the
gaits in any situaion without fighting me.
Sorry about another long post but I feel this is a subject that should be well covered
Lynette Helgeson
Diamond-H Ranch
North Dakota