I have the pleasure of working with a beautiful Arabian mare. She's talented and smart, cranky and lazy, but an all around good girl. She's been stared several times, but never finished or really left in consistent training, so we have started from almost scratch....
Her lope to the left is really coming along nicely, her lope to the right is a bit harder for her go into and instead of running her into it, I am going backwards... Well, sort of. We are working on TONS of trot to halt to back to trot transitions. TONS of them before I ask her for the canter. Why is that??? To rock her back on her haunches. And it works beautifully!! I make sure she goes from a nice working trot to a smooth halt, then 2 or 3 steps of backing, then a halt, then she needs to trot off. This exercise really gets the horse thinking light on the forehand and has them more rocked back on their haunches. Sooooo after several of these I then ask the mare for a lope going to the right and BAM! She picks it up like gold!!!!
A lot of people forget simple exercises that really can fine tune a horses gaits and transitions. I even showed the owner a before and after. Before was me just asking for the lope with zero preparation. The mare had a rough time in the canter departure. Then I did my exercise for about 7-10 minutes and then asked her to lope, pretty soon she was departing from a walk. Once I had her brain thinking light on the forehand, the rest was a breeze.... It was a fabulous ride tonight....
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Living the Dark Truth through the eyes of a horse trainer. Uncensored, uninhibited and far from sugar-coated. Exposing the insanity that is the world of horses, their owners, the breeders, and of course the wacked out wannabes...Welcome to my life...This is what I get the joy of dealing with.
5 comments:
This post is helpful, and sort of along the same vein as what I'm doing with my mare... she just got done with 30 days training, so she is now lighter and more willing... we are working on the turn on the haunches... it seems hard for her to remember to rock back, so we practice (from a jog) whoa, back a few steps, turn off the leg (with lite rein pressure to remind her to not go forward), then jog off again. We still need to work on our departures, there is usually one or two walk steps, but basically, I am happy with her progress, considering a month ago if I asked her to do this she would have turned to try and bite me...
The important lesson that took me so long to learn... green horse, and green rider... take the time to find a good trainer, and pay for their expertise... so much frustration has simply evaporated, leaving me and my mare with a great relationship!
"if I asked her to do this she would have turned to try and bite me"
whoah.
why?
Try to vary what you do, no matter what.
"it seems hard for her to remember to rock back,"
It IS hard for her to rock back, period. Takes time to build those muscles.
Be careful with what you teach her early.
Kudos that you and your mare have found a great trainer!
On the line of biting... my mare doesn't bite, but she sometimes reminds me that she does not want to go where I point her or do what I ask her by bumping my foot (in the stirrup) with her nose... she can comfortably do it on both sides and she does! She is very flexible and sometimes, when we stop and I dismount, I find her nibbling on the stirrup, on either side... I've worked on her flexibility from the ground, she does give to pressure well.
There is also another thing she does that makes me angry: whenever we are working, she tends to be distracted, especially since we've brought the foal home (my sister bought a foal) and Dandy thinks it is HER foal. She tends to ride looking back and if she really does not want to work, she still does what I ask, but locks her neck and head to one side, trying to evade pressure I guess... How could I solve this!? It's not really big issues, but I would like her to concentrate more on me, pay attention to me all the time. Thanks!
She would turn and try to bite because she figured out I didn't know how to deal with itand she could get out of working. She has been broke for 2 years, this is stuff she knows but has been able to get out of by throwing temper tantrums. Hence the trainer. Ever sice she realized she can't get away with it anymore, she's been great.
You posted this several month ago but I just found your site. You've got some good common sense (rare!) :-). I too have an Arabian mare, and this post about trot to halt to back up sounds like good advice. I'm going to try it on my mare who rushes into the canter.
Post a Comment