training for endurance

[Lucy Chaplin Trumbull <elsie@calweb.com>]

Pat Fredrickson wrote:
> PLEASE DO NOT use my rope halter by itself on the first endurance ride your
> horse does.  You should try it along with your usual gear so you can be sure
> that you can control your horse.  I always advise using two sets of reins
> until you know for sure that your horse will respond to the rope ride
> halter.

No Pat! Don't worry - I wouldn't even *consider* the idea of just
hopping onto the horse in a rope halter and expecting her to 
behave herself.

I'm mostly curious about different training methods. At the moment,
we don't have "usual gear" to fall back to. Her "usual gear" *is*
a rope halter.

But I have a clean slate with this horse, and don't want to 
automatically just follow standard practises because "that's 
just the way it's done". 

(like something I heard recently on TV: "we start our horses in
bosals, by the time they're four we're riding them in a snaffle,
and then they graduate to a curb..."   ...Why??)

If I was thinking about dressage, then that would be a different 
thing. I don't necessarily need to teach her some of the subtleties 
that would necessitate using a bit (although maybe one day... ,g>). 
In this case, I want to train my mare to have good manners, 
but also be a good endurance horse. 

I suspect that sometimes there is a tendency for people just to 
let their horses go down the trail at an "active pace" - afterall, 
you want the horse to "move out" down the trail with little fuss.  
But I wonder how many of them are doing this because they don't 
have much choice in the matter? Because it's easier to "let them
go" than be in charge of what speed the horse travels at.

> A lot of riders, including me, love riding in them, but please use
> caution.

Always. I'm the wimpiest person alive when it comes to caution.

That's why I've had this horse since April, but only just started 
riding her, and haven't ever ridden her outside the confines of an 
arena. She's not ready and I'm not ready.

When we *are* ready, we'll be out there on the trails, hand-walking
in full tack, to gauge how she's going to react. Then, once we can
doing some trail riding, we'll be at rides as observers. I don't
believe in stuffing her into something without her being mentally
prepared for it (of course, all this would help if I actually
had a trailer to take her out for "jaunts" in... <grin>)

And always keeping in mind, as Linda writes:
> "Unasked for speed is unacceptable" gets lost in "But the herd went
> thata way!"-- 
**************************************************************
Lucy Chaplin Trumbull - elsie@calweb.com
Displaced English person in Sacramento, CA 

http://www.calweb.com/~elsie
http://www.calweb.com/~trouble
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