Anyone tried horse agility?

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Sophstar

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I have a 12hh very cheeky pony who would be perfect for horse agility. He's confident round most things and is the master houdini at escaping from anywhere so I am pretty sure nothing could worry him in horse agility, plus he could do with the extra exercise and more interesting things to do other than be 'the lead rein pony.' Anyone tried it? I looked at their website and there are no clinics or training within 70 odd miles of us and that is a long drive in the horsebox! Anyone know of yards or people that offer training? I'm in Hampshire/Surrey area near Farnham.
 
I cant afford to go to competitions and got no transport to get to training so we have set up a little club.
had been last year to see a demo ( friend transported us) with vanessa bee and we ended up actually doing the demo :rolleyes:


The little "spook" to the left at the tarpaulin is cos a pone just off camera lunged at her :o)

http://s17.photobucket.com/albums/b...ction=view&current=agilityemwdemojune2010.mp4



this is my friends mini on the beefed up palate


mayagility060.jpg


which then leads onto the bridge we built

mayagility005.jpg





and the see saw

mayagility011.jpg




you can have all sorts of tunnels from

mayagility027.jpg





to

http://s17.photobucket.com/albums/b89/tazzle22/?action=view&current=longtunnelclip.mp4

The overall aim is that your pone does this on a loose rope and is not coerced in any way ... the pone must make its own mind up to go over or throught the obstacle, It can be hard for people used to having a short hold on a short leadrope ;)



There are many other obstacles .....
eg
... jump and stay in calm pace

pones front feet in one hoop, handler about 5 feet way, stand for 10 secs
lead through a trailer in reverse

poduim

do a search on you tube..... loads includint really cool stuff from other countries




Once your horse / pone is realy reliable with it all, very calm and wont pull at all then ones friends in wheelchairs can get involved

tazcurtain.jpg



tazjump.jpg


I have a vid of them doing the course........ will have to look it out after I get back form work as cant find it atm :rolleyes:

I like agility, its great fun ;)
 
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Tazzle, those last two photos are lovely!

Can I come and play? :D I've been talking about building a course to play with my highland and my youngster on, but I haven't got round to it yet :mad: There's a few places do trial sessions sometimes at bigger shows near(ish) me in Suffolk and north Essex, but I have yet to succeed in actually getting to one... I like the guy in Sweden who does it at top speed with his horse totally free range, it's like extreme agility! The jumps and hoops and bridges etc are enormous! It's on youtube somewhere...
 
aww i think i will have to get creative n start building our own mini course...my pony is so curious i dont think anything will be a challenge..he was magically found in with the chickens the other night eating a barrel of chicken feed...no one knows how he got in there as no fence was destroyed this time!

@beyond_birthday..i used to have my 2 ponies at farnham castle riding school where i used to teach which is down the same lane as to old park. now moved down into dogmersfield so they are closer!
 
Sophstar said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqVLY8YfbEo

this guy is amazing!
Click to expand...

yes he is the one that got us going........ we were doing it before it got started with any "official" agility club.

Taz can do it trot off line with me but she is not a canter around gal...... maybe one day :D :D :D

anyone that can get here can come play ;)



just in for a quick check and will try find more ......

our weave poles are stakes set into concrete in large flower pots .... no problem if they get hit yet solid enough to strand but also mobile



we have started a hoop jump


mar10020.jpg





matt takes Taz over the bridge

XL802794.jpg



oh and the flags

mayagility072.jpg


and we do it ridden

oct069.jpg





good use of a tractor tyre

Picture118.jpg



we havea blast doing it :D
 
That is brilliant. I want to make a horse sized tunnel now. Did you just tape a couple of tarps together?
Tazzle, what about getting your horse to push a ball? My friend's pony loves chasing his Parelli ball around which is hilarious. She put a beginner on him a while ago and the ball was in the school and he took off trotting after the ball! My pony isn't scared of it in the least, you can throw it around her and she will kick it or shove it with her nose if she thinks you will give her something for it but she won't bother with it otherwise.
 
I've done it with my mini shetland and it is great fun.

If you google horse agility it brings up the Horse Agility Club and there is a link to the on line horse agility. Basically you download the test ( different one every month) then build the obstacles in your school or field (they include tips and hints on how to build them) then video yourself and pony doing the test and submit it via youtube and you get a score sheet back and a rosette! You have to be a member but its not that expensive to join.

I am lucky enough to live close to one of their trainers and she has open days so we can walk there and have a play and a practise.

I think it is gaining in popularity so hopefully there will be more venues soon.
 
unbalanced said:
That is brilliant. I want to make a horse sized tunnel now. Did you just tape a couple of tarps together?
Tazzle, what about getting your horse to push a ball? My friend's pony loves chasing his Parelli ball around which is hilarious. She put a beginner on him a while ago and the ball was in the school and he took off trotting after the ball! My pony isn't scared of it in the least, you can throw it around her and she will kick it or shove it with her nose if she thinks you will give her something for it but she won't bother with it otherwise.
Click to expand...

the tunnel ............ tarps as such are not long enough to make one like ours ...... well unless you had about 4 -6 of them. It should be do able though :cool: I was lucky enough to aquire about 30 metres of 1 metre wide industrial thickness waterproof fabric. I cut it up into several lengths and a club member sewed three bits together to make the long tunnel :D The other length we are gonna drape over either wood / plastic piping / tyres and let it fill with water to make a water obstacle ( one of the horses has a "thing" about water / puddles so that is her challenge :D )



re the ball

we have several ;)

ball1.jpg



but as she was taught to do this to balloons ( well they do look like balls)

laurarescuedpics1130.jpg





she does tend to use her feet rather than her nose. :D :D :D




I reckon she would push it with her nose if I wanted to figure out a really clearly different cue for her...... but to date have not thought it worthwile for us :D :D :D . .... just glad she ignores it unless I point to a round spherical object ;)

and one day I was glad she is habituated to balls whizzing around ( we encourage kids to play ball here ;)) cos out on a hack on day a lad seeing us approaching deliberately threw a football directly at her :mad:

She flinched as she only saw it coming at the last minute but she did not move sideways at all :) :) :) :)




There are loads things you can make out of stuff that will be spare around most farms or livery yards ;)

oh remembered...

make S bends out of poles

walk over pole then back up over pole ....... can add two or three poles

side pass along a pole

make a square of poles... walk in then turn pone 360 degrees without touchin poles, walk back out.

place three cones / targets then walk to 1, trot to 2, walk to and go round 3 and return in trot, halt ( or any varitaion thereof). Objective that pone keeps pace with handler without slack taken out of rope or pone going in front of handler or lagging behind.



Oh Tiny Pony... you are norty ....... but I like you :D :D :D

and thanks , yes we are trying to get an adapted funbug for Matthew and several other friends in wheelchairs :p
 
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