|
Question:
I am trying to
show my horse and I am having difficulties getting him ready. It
seems that he is never at a point where I can take him to a show.
What do you suggest?
Answer:
It is good to
set goals for our horses and one of your goals is to take your horse
to a show. There are a lot of steps between setting the goal and
accomplishing it. What I like to do in training a horse is to have
a training program planned before I start. It is good to have a
weekly, three-month, 6-month and yearly road map. I allow as much
time as is needed for each step working with that particular horse.
For example, if I start a horse under saddle, normally in about
three months, the horse will be 75% to 80% finished. After three
months, I can walk, trot and canter, take the horse out on the trail
and have relatively good control of the hind quarters and
shoulders. The horse is starting to move off the outside rein, move
off my leg and has somewhat accepted the bit. The horse is
progressing and I am moving toward meeting my goal. There are a lot
of steps to get the horse to this place.
In our training
program, or any good training program, when a horse comes in there
are certain steps that we begin with. As the horse progresses, we
build on those steps. We start with small steps and when those are
mastered, we build on them to increase learning. When young horses
come in for schooling, they all have to go through our leading
program. They must learn to be civilized, have manners and respect
the trainer’s space. These are some building blocks or steps toward
the goal of having a nice riding horse. All of our horses go
through de-spooking; we work with the emotions so they learn to be
calm. When we go to a show, we know our horses will handle the
stress and pressure.
Another part of
our training program is teaching the horse to respond to a forward
cue, not only on the ground but in the saddle. Another part of our
program is to get the horse to accept the saddle and make sure the
horse is comfortable. This may sound easy but we had a horse come
in not long ago that we worked with over thirty days before the
horse would accept the saddle, be comfortable with it and not buck.
Every day we put the saddle on the horse and it was not comfortable
with it. Each day it got better and better but it was 45 days
before we could saddle that horse and lead it out without the horse
over reacting negatively. Each step takes time and some steps may
take longer than we expect.
Another
building block is to get a horse to accept a bit. This means not
only bridling the horse but getting the horse to accept being
bridled and start learning to give to pressure, to not resist but to
yield to it. We teach the horse to follow its nose. In other
words, when I pick up the right rein I want my horse to yield his
nose and follow the direction I have asked for. The horse also
needs to move off the outside rein; if I put the left rein on the
horse’s neck the horse needs to move off the rein and go right in
the direction I want it to go.
The learning
blocks continue to build until the horse has a basic understanding
and we have a better trained horse. This is true not only
physically but emotionally and mentally, as a well-trained horse
will start checking in with us to see what we want to do next.
Sometimes in training a horse, I think of a pyramid, the top being
my goal and the base in three parts. One is the mental part of the
horse, another is the emotional part and the final part is the
physical control of the horse. Do we have physical control of the
horse? Can we stop and ask the horse to back up, go right or left?
Do we have control when asking the horse to go into a stall, a
trailer or a wash rack to bathe it? That is the physical training.
The emotional training is dealt with when I put pressure on a horse
and the horse doesn’t strike out, kick or rear. Those are all part
of the flight instinct and what we are trying to do is eliminate all
that behavior as much as possible to create a safe horse. Mentally,
I want my horse to start thinking about what is next, what I call
business ears. When I am riding a horse and I have his ears on me
working back and forth, back and forth, he is looking for the next
direction. This means the horse is ready for the next cue telling
him what I would like him to do. This is what we want our horse to
do. When we get into a situation like a horse show, we want the
horse will focus on us and not everything else that is going on.
This question
is about going to show but before we show, we like to take our
horses to a show and just school them. Every horse is different and
you may only need to go to a couple of shows before the horse will
be fine with it and then you can show. Ideally what we like to do
is take the horse the year before so that by the time we are ready
to show, the horse is ready to be shown and is not concerned with
trucks, trailers and the activity at a show. This is part of the
building blocks. A goal is important but it requires a game plan.
Many people have a goal but do not have a training plan. If your
goal is to trail ride, you don’t want the horse bolting, nervous,
jigging back home or barn sour. If you are having those problems,
you have tried to do the goal first, without the building blocks of
the training program.
I mentioned
earlier the horse that was so difficult to get under saddle. This
has been a tough horse. This horse has been here four months and it
could not lunge without pulling out through the shoulders, it was
rude and belligerent, it was difficult getting the horse to accept
shots, and if touched on the side it would strike out. Now the
horse is fine; he is like a totally different horse. It took us
awhile to get through the building blocks to this point. And now,
because we took the time to go through the steps, on the first ride
out of the round pen we went all around the ranch and then into the
arena. The owner’s goal for this horse is to show and participate
in eventing. To do this, the horse must be able to accept
pressures. Now the horse is willing, walks, trots, canters and is
accepting of the rider. If we had pushed this horse too fast, he
might have started baulking, bucking or blowing up in general.
These types of negative experiences cost training time as we have to
go back to deal with the issues.
You need to
consider these things. Set your goal and decide what steps it will
take to get your horse there. You need to think about what you need
from your horse, what he needs to be able to do, in order to
accomplish the goal. If I want a reining horse, the horse has to
learn certain cues and I need to determine the which steps are
needed to get the horse to learn those cues. You can learn some of
these steps from two books I have written, Building Your Dream
Horse and Starting Baby Jaz which is a colt starting book
but it is also a great book for learning how to school your horse.
Some of my DVDs are great for teaching basic commands. I hope this
covers your questions.
God Bless,
Charles Wilhelm
|
