When you ride...

[geebs]

No agenda today...Horse coming off colick..Happy just to be a passenger.

 

[welsummerchicks]

I wouldn't allow a horse to say one day,'I don't feel like turning left' and just say 'oh WELL THEN, we won't turn left, perish the thought you should turn left when you simply don't feel like it'. The LAST thing I would do is just not turn left.

But the way we work the horses not wanting to turn in one direction, it's just not something that much happens. Say I was out hacking around the property, though, and say the horse refused to turn and go across the field away from the barn, or didn't want to go left because there was a stump there it was spooking at.

He'd be turning left real nice before I went on to do something else. BUT...if it looked like it was a losing battle, say, I spent quite a bit of time trying to get past that stump, and he was rearing, throwing himself down on the ground, and I was losing the battle, I would say, 'look, wc, it ain't happnin' today, give it up'. I would blame myself, though, that perhaps I wasn't being firm enough or was trying to go at the problem the wrong way. Maybe using too much rein, or not enough leg, or maybe there is a hole in my basic training where when I use my leg, the horse just isn't reacting enough. Most people, when they have a problem, they go to their rein too much, and in our kind of riding we're always told 'solve your problem on the forward', which means get the horse moving or as the old saying goes, 'forward and out of trouble' (use your leg, if there is no reaction use the whip, get the horse moving forward and most problems are fixable).

You see the basic difference there? We just train the horse differently than western. Where in western the solution is often to stop or turn, in our type of riding, the solution is most always, to use the leg, get the horse moving and that will be the basis of the solution.

Or let's say that I didn't ride for a few days, and my horse was acting up largely just because he was too fresh and I hadn't been working him. My horse is very fit and usually on a five day program. I have to ride him five days a week or he is so fit he is going to be VERY fresh. He's going to pull, buck, take off - in other words, act like a very fit horse. I WANT him that fit. I worked my tail off for four years to get him that fit. He can canter and trot for 45 minutes without breaking a sweat. And I have to deal with him differently because he IS so fit. Well, I would just say that is my fault, and now I am paying for my mistake. I would not take that out on the horse.

But in the way we ride, to me, not wanting to stand still when the horse is restless and hasn't been ridden in a while, is different. For me, if he don't want to halt and stand still, I'm like, 'well of course not. You're about as fit as a race horse and I didn't work you yesterday, my bad, let's have a nice forward canter'.

See? It's just such a different type of riding. The horses are worked very differently - the expectations are different. I expect my horse to stand still long enough for me to get on and settle my reins, and that's about it. I won't even work on halts til he's had a chance to blow out the cobwebs a bit. He comes out of the barn very, very fresh and even ONE day off I have a pretty hard horse to ride - so we don't DO days off. If we have to, if I get sick, say, I make sure I get him moving right away rather than start out working on halts. I'll do that AFTER he's had a chance to blow out a bit of that silliness.

I think though, you may be able to borrow something from it, which is, on a day when the horse can barely stand still, take him for a good gallop, get the sillies out of him, THEN work on the halts. It's not like you give up on halting, it's just that you set up things so that you are going to be successful.

I think of it the same way as Pat describes - instead of fighting with him, just let him move out, let him get the silliness out THEN do the halts.

 

[Haviris]

I don't just not do what I want, if she's giving me trouble w/ something, we'll work on that, but like you I may make her move and work, it makes standing still so much more appealing to her!

I have to wonder if the reason they don't use mares is because it makes the geldings nuts.

 

[Campine Lover]

Just lettem run off some steam! lol

Or jump

This is LJ, my quarter Horse Tobiano

Its great you finnally have Max back!!!

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

Quote:
I'm guessing we are coming from opposite planets, maybe. I think of us as a team, equal partners because it takes both of us to get the job done. I really don't like to "drill" a horse. I think the whole process should be as much fun as it possibly can be. And I don't start out with a young horse thinking he's gonna be a cutter or a roper or a pleasure horse. I let him tell me what he's gonna be-- let him show me which discipline sparks his interest, which one he's good at.

Also, the more intelligent the horse, the quicker he gets bored with routine. Endless hours of nothing but rail work will absolutely kill a horse's spirit. I aim for no more than 30 minutes in the arena and then head out for the trails. If he's really fresh, I'll reverse that and do the trails first and then the arena work. And once in the arena I really try to mix it up so that he finds it all interesting. Once we move on to cow work, people sometimes think I'm crazy 'cause I'll come right out and ask him if he wants to go again or if he's had enough.

We are absolutely not adversarial. We are a team. So if he's having a problem with something, I'll show him once or twice and then move on. I'll do this for 3-4 days and then take a day or 2 off. Usually when we come back, he'll do the problem thing so easily you'd think he'd been doing it forever.

Now I do have to add that pretty much all the horses that I have started or finished have been homebred, so I have had my hands on them from day one. Which means that we have long ago worked through the basic "testing" that all youngsters do to their elders. They know what to expect from me, know their basic manners, have done all the ground work, and we have already resolved any "issues", so that we really CAN work on building a partnership.

HTH


Rusty

 

[welsummerchicks]

"I have to wonder if the reason they don't use mares is because it makes the geldings nuts."

A mare shouldn't be driving a gelding nuts, or he needs a little 'tough love' from his handler to stop doing that.


"they don't use mares"

I don't know who doesn't use mares. The shows I went to had plenty of mares being shown, as well as stallions.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Quote:
I'd love to get out on the trails, but as far as I know, there are no "open" trails. Only pastures where the instructor is allowed to take her pupils on a one-on-one ride. Otherwise, you have to stay on the street. There are no trails where I board, only pastures. You have to put up one or two horses each time you go to the pasture to work on something.

As for the arena, all he can do in there is walk and trot as well as work on turns and stopping. I won't make him canter in there. He's just too big to work on that in that small arena.

I don't know how he'd do with cows...to my knowledge, he's only ever been pastured with them, not worked with them. But I do know that I know nothing about cows. I know nothing of their temperaments, of their mannerisms...nothing. So, I'm not going to put both of us in danger.

I don't know how to do barrels either, but we're just working on the pattern at a walk. It helps with his circles and bending.

One day, when I have my own land, I'm going to go on trails and have fun, but in the meantime I feel as though he needs to understand that we both need each other in order to make it work. I keep him safe on the trails, whereas he would like to plow through the deepest brush he can find. He keeps my butt in the saddle and stops if he feels me uncertain about something.

I think we mostly have a good working relationship, it's just that we like to test each other now and then.

 

[FarmGirl01]

When I take one of my mules out, I usually have a destination. A mule wants to travel and thats what we do.

Head down and ears floppy. A great sign of a good ride.

 

[Haviris]

Quote:
True. And if it's one of our geldings he gets it! Can't do much about them them banging each other up in the pasture though.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

There are no trails where I board, only pastures. You have to put up one or two horses each time you go to the pasture to work on something.

I spent the first half of my life boarding my horses. Pastures were usually 25-50 acres with 15-20 head. That is where I rode. With the loose horses. It's actually good for you both. Helps him learn to pay attention to you and ignore distractions. Helps you overcome any nervousness about unexpected events that always pop up when you ride. Back in those days, we regularly threw a couple up in the trailer and headed for the local arena. There was a small fee to use the facilities ($5 back then) but you got to use a full size arena along with a bunch of other people--kinda like a show but without the classes going on in the background. Also really, really good experience. And breaks up the boredom.

About working cattle: I started on a really good, finished cowhorse and SHE taught me. I rode her for about 2 years before I ever tried starting my own, and I really do believe that is the only way to do it. Remember green horse + green rider = disaster.

Bottom line is that it can be hard to find boarding barns that have the facilities that you need, that fit with what you are working on at that moment. Sometimes you just have to move around. But don't let yourself get locked into a place that doesn't allow you to work the way YOU need to work. It's expensive keeping horses. Make sure you get everything you possibly can from every buck you have to spend. If you are hoping that you've got a pleasure horse or a reining horse, make sure you've got the arena that you need and access when YOU need it. If what you want is to pleasure ride over the trails, make sure the trails are available...or go looking until you find the facilities that fit you and what you are trying to accomplish.

Otherwise it's kinda like being the only reiner in a dressage barn. No matter how nice the stalls are or how friendly the people are, the facilities just ain't gonna work for you!

Rusty​