Keep in mind when starting to work with this program that the days may be warming up but
the nights are still going to be cold or chilly. Don’t sweat your horse up and then turn them out, they can get very sick.
Also, realize that you are not going to get your horse ready or conditioned in a couple of
days. In all actuality, it is going to take at least two weeks of consistent long trotting every day to get them in really good shape. You start off slow and work up the mileage and it takes a good, consistent program to get your horse to get his air back, build his stamina up and get the soreness out of his muscles.
We’ll start this program off on the ground doing a couple of days of long lining (longeing).
Your horse is going to be feeling good and be fresh and you need to do the ground work to
get the respect level back up. Our goal is to get the horse paying attention to
us before we ever even think of putting a saddle on his back. We
want to make sure that as we work through the exercises over the next
few weeks that we are getting that attention and focus.
Your ground work is going to consist of longeing to move the horse forward, reinforcing the whoa, reversing the horse and controlling the shoulder (this is where you are reversing the
horse, having it roll back and move it’s shoulder away from us). If you don’t understand the terms I am using or what I am asking for here it would be in your best interest to seek professional help to learn the longeing techniques I am referring to.
As we work with our horse we want to test that we are gaining his attention, respect and
focusing. We test this by doing the following: walk off, stop, back up. When you do this is your horse mirroring you? Does he walk off with you, stop when you stop and back up when you back up? We are not talking about whether he kind of does it right but I have to tug a little on his lead line to get him started, or he only takes a few steps more when I stop, or as I back I end up backing into him before he notices he needs to move. We are talking about our horse mirroring every move we make and doing it immediately. If you are not getting that type of response you are asking for trouble sooner or later. You do not have his attention or his respect.
We will do the ground work for two to four days before we even think about saddling our
horse. When we are finally ready to saddle the horse remember to use care. If they haven’t had a saddle on all winter don’t over tighten the cinch. The girth area is going to be more sensitive and you run the risk of galling them. If you use a back cinch be very careful when you snug that up. If anything will set off a horse it will be the back cinch. On the other hand, if your horse has a tendency to buck in the spring, if that rear cinch is to loose, and hanging down with a bunch of slop, that can make things worse too. If he starts bucking that cinch will come up and slap him in the belly, causing even more bucking. The key here is for the back cinch to fit just right, snug but not tight is the key.
We are going to do the same exercises we did without the saddle with the saddle, and also incorporate some desensitizing at this point. Just because he was fine last fall and never spooked once on that last trail ride does not mean he will be fine this spring. When we start desensitizing we start at a distance, with our flag. As the horse’s reaction goes down we start coming closer to the horse and start making body contact. Desensitizing is a whole different article, so we are not going to go over it here. If this topic is new for you there are lots of articles, videos and clinics that you can read, watch or attend to learn desensitizing techniques and it really is an important factor in preparing your horse for spring riding. We offer clinics, as do many other fine clinicians, that cover these exact techniques and truthfully, many accidents will be avoided by attending even one clinic with a reputable, professional clinician.
The time frame for working with your horse, to get them prepared for spring riding, is going to fluctuate with each individual horse. For some it make take more time, for others it may take
less time. Again, if you are not comfortable or experienced with this process utilize a qualified trainer to do the spring tune up.
With the winter we have had this year not everyone is going to have the luxury of dry ground to lunge your horse on. If you don’t have that luxury and are not able to trailer to an arena or a place where there is some good ground, then start taking your horse out for walks. Be aware of the footing, making sure it is safe. Here you can kill two birds with one stone, walking is good conditioning for both the horse and for us. One of the best exercises for a horse, believe it or not, is walking. When they walk they apply all their weight on the supporting foot. As they are stepping down it requires that they use all the muscles in the limb they are putting their weight on, so it is an excellent exercise to build strength in the muscle groups. Again, if you are going to take them out for a walk make sure you have you have to know that you have their attention and respect or there will be trouble.
If you have gotten through the “getting them ready” process and are ready to ride you need to be careful as you venture out. Roads and trails may still have icy patches. Whenever we are riding we are not going to ask our horse to do anything more than a walk. The first ride
will be a simple ride. Don’t do a lot of turning or aggressive maneuvers. There are still numerous muscles that need to be stretched out, so just do a nice walk. At the end of the walk, if things have gone well you can do a little easy trotting. Again remember, if the horse has sweated up do not kick it outside in the snow and cold. Make sure
he is dried off first.
If any of you have any questions on something in this article or an article subject you
would like to see us write about please send us an email.
Don’t miss our spring clinics here at Redwood Stables or if you would like to host
one contact us. We look forward to seeing you at the Horse Fairs and Expos around the Midwest, come look us up!
We will be doing a really wonderful clinic with Mari Monda Zdunic and I together at The Natural Gait, which is near Marquette, IA. It is a beautiful facility with camping, log cabins and bunkrooms and miles of scenic trails. This clinic is May 6-8, 2011. Visit our webpage for contact info or go to www.thenaturalgait.com
 | |
| View PDF |
0 comments:
Post a Comment