Bailarina had a day off yesterday as she'd had quite a workout for a baby on Monday, and to keep me occupied I'd arranged to meet up with my friend to go out for a hack on one of hers. I hadn't been to her new yard or seen her horses for nearly six months, so long overdue
Well I rode out on hunky Hercules - a 15.2 cob / friesian / trotter cross. Not the handsomest chap, but sensitive, willing and honest - a real sweetheart. She'd got him in to sell on and wanted to know what I thought of him
We walked and trotted round lanes, jumped a couple of fallen logs and a ditch, went over the dual carriageway, under the dual carriageway, had a gallop across a stubble field, went into the river for a paddle, down through one of the villages where Hercules had to give the other two horses a lead past a skip with tape flapping around out of it. - He was a dream to ride, completely sensible but responsive off the leg, stopped on a seat aid..just a delight.
I was singing his praises when we got back to the yard and was completely floored to be told he had only been backed three WEEKS before.
They just got him in, popped a saddle on him, her son worked him in the field to get a bit of steering and brakes then took him straight out hacking. He'd had his first set of shoes just before I turned up!!
They're not cruel or heavy handed - their horses are happy - living out most of the year, their own two boys come to call and walk on to the yard like puppies - no lead ropes required, it's just that they work on the premise that the horse is in to learn a job and he'll learn the job whilst doing it, so get on and get on with it!
It really made me think about the way I'm doing things, the slow, steady approach building everything up gradually...am I just faffing about uneccesarily?? I like to think not - the horses temperament has to be considered and this chap is a saint in horse fur, nothing like a hot headed little Luso lol!
I can't see that I'll change my way of doing things or speed things up - Once B's brought back into work in the Spring she will be learning to cope with more being asked of her - but She will aslo continue to be worked in hand etc and do things at a steady pace with new stuff introduced gradually. This is the way I was taught and it's worked tremendously well on all the babies I've been lucky enough to be involved with.
Yesterday did make me see that there is another way.....another way that certainly effective but it's not a path I chose to follow.
Interesting!
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I suspect he could handle the speed of their progress due to his temperament, whereas another horse might not. There's no harm in going slowly, and great harm can be done by going too fast for the horse. Also, I think if we're matter-of-fact in how we approach things, and pay attention to what the horse is saying, things will come along at the proper pace. But there's no such thing as going too slowly, particularly as a horse is growing and maturing mentally and physically.
ReplyDeletedoesn't it depend on the horse?
ReplyDeleteand you've talked about B as a hot headed luso, but is she? not from anything you've said...
anyway, glad you've had a good ride and hope hercules finds a good owner
Lol Claire, hot headed she most certainly can be.... remember the tap dancing panic, barging me over, stir crazy in the trailer, leaping, snorting and a spooking when the mood takes her...all interspersed with lots of lovely sweet angelic moments :-), but after working on a couple of studs including a Luso one dealing with stallions and even hotter young colts I'm adept at dealing with it....patience is most definitely a virtue, and it was tested this evening I can tell you..will blog later and tell you all about it :-)
ReplyDeleteSome horses take well to "flooding," and others don't. But a brave and fearless rider can make a big difference in how fast the training progresses.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young and fearless, I moved my young horse along a lot faster than I do now. And I never thought twice about riding him just about anywhere there was to ride. Not now! But when I sent my current guy off to a John Lyons trainer for some hacking training, they just took him out and rode him up and down the mountains for hours. After and initial hysterical blowup, he took to it like anything and was an absolute star.
They had the nerve and skill to simply work him through it.