Ardall - horse breaking in tool - 699 euro! - is it worth it??

I'd rather have a stuffed womble on top - at least if the horse gets down and rolls it will squish the womble, rather than the Ardall (which looks pretty unbreakable, which is good, but not good if the horse ends up on top of it, might it not hurt?) Plus the womble would have comedy value - especially if you took it out on a hack as a 'subsitute rider'! :p

700euros is not much less than I spent on my pony...
 
BronsonNutter said:
Ardall (which looks pretty unbreakable, which is good, but not good if the horse ends up on top of it, might it not hurt?)


Just thought its good to know that the Ardall actually has some spring system in it which folded flat on the ground when my mare tried to roll to remove it.

It has a foam covering so very soft. When the horse stood up, the spring made it go back to the original position( which is one of the better reasons compared to boiler suits with straw as ive seen them fall sideways and can scare the horse).
Click to expand...
 
ArcticFox said:
So its been a wee while since I broke horses in, and now I am probably not brave enough.

When I opened the H&H this morning I saw this and initially thought it was a good idea but the price -:eek: wowzers :eek:- is that not a bit much :confused:


link: http://www.ardall.com/

I do think its a good product but not sure I could afford it!
Click to expand...

Err I know someone that made a 'dummy' out of straw and old clothes and strapped it onto the mare. But all the videos and things I've seen about breaking in horses don't you just get on a horse whose never been sat on before with a sensible handler next to you who is well instructed in what to do and don't you just sit down gently in the saddle and gradually sit up tall??? I thought that was it in a nutshell i.e. the first time its sat on. Obviously its more complicated than that as you have to gradually introduce the paces and turns and aids, etc but all these come days/weeks/months later. Not trying to knock those that break in horses for a living but initially that's what you do isn't it?????? If I had a young 17hh 3 year old I would deffo want to be the first to sit on it, to me it would be a challenge. I'm sure I'd be a bit nervous in case something happened but I know they rarely cause a fuss from what I've heard about things. But I have to admit I don't know that much about breaking in/backing other than what I have heard/read.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
BronsonNutter said:
I'd rather have a stuffed womble on top - at least if the horse gets down and rolls it will squish the womble, rather than the Ardall (which looks pretty unbreakable, which is good, but not good if the horse ends up on top of it, might it not hurt?) Plus the womble would have comedy value - especially if you took it out on a hack as a 'subsitute rider'! :p

700euros is not much less than I spent on my pony...
Click to expand...

Shockingly expensive alright but having had a good look and feel of it at the RDS I have to admit its a good product and the legs on it are super.
" (which looks pretty unbreakable, which is good, but not good if the horse ends up on top of it, might it not hurt?) " I'm not sure that thats not such a bad thing, horse might not try that again :D

The Womble made me laugh as I was in a yard once where they used a huge Golly ( hope thats the PC term) .
It was hilarious watching a young daughter of Cruising turning herself inside out on the lunge with the Golly showing :eek: the massive whites of it's eyes and manic black curls with the rather natty jacket and red striped trews , sitting to the very worst she could throw :D

While the gentle way works very well normally I do think there are a few horses that will be difficult and some professional backer will end up with them to back after someone else or maybe more than one has tried to back them before. That person may be very happy to have the use of such a creature.
 
probably useful in about 0.5% of breaking in jobs?? can't say that I have ever wished such a thing existed - between myself and OH have been involved in breaking 36 youngsters in the last two years and they never needed anything of the sort! You would have to have an unpheasibly difficult one, or be doing a HUGE quantity of breakers to part with that sort of ££ in my opinion.
 
It's a "dumb jockey" so hardly a new idea but I can see how they've perfected the product.

Never say never with horses. Everyone I've worked for - people who have broken hundreds if not thousands (really, one fellow was in his 60s and had gone to Warendorf as a teenager) of horses has used something similar from time to time. Out in the real world, where you're starting horses on a schedule and may not always get to do things exactly the way you'd like, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. ;) Also, there are horses around and about who simply have not read the books. I started three from the same mare who all threw themselves violently on the ground when something upset them, especially with stuff hanging off their sides. Oddly, I wanted an intermediary step between just the stirrups and my legs so they all "wore the pants" (our stuffed jeans) for a bit. :) I had another (out of a mad mare with mad siblings) who absolutely lost the plot the first time I got on - pretty much the only one out of something closing in on 200 horses I've done myself. Okay, she wasn't so sane but she still had to have her chance. At that point I didn't know enough (or have the freedom) to craft an intermediate step but it might have saved some trauma if I had.

Good training is all about breaking each step down into as small a part as the horse (or rider) can cope with.

Not to mention that people who take in horses professionally get a lot of "tried and failed" students - that's what most people will actually pay for! And quite often you don't get the whole/true story so have to be even more cautious.

Also, if you're doing a lot of horses, good person on the ground is invaluable. An excellent horseman who knows the horses and how to keep the rider safe make a huge, huge difference to everyone's safety when thing occasionally get hairy. But not everyone has access to that and if the person who needs to get on is also the most competent person to manage the horse from the ground, it's a bit of a problem! Again, this might be an intermediate step to let the single trainer familiarise the horse most effectively.

The advantage to something like this seems to be that it stays put. I've seen some horses properly freak out when a homemade version slides/flops, which certainly doesn't improve the situation either.

I can't see it being worth it for the average owner but it might be just the ticket for a few horses, so worth it for a big outfit, say a dealer's yard.
 
Hi all,

Most of you reading this will not be involved in the breaking in of young horses but I thought I'd just put some friendly advice out there.

After years of being taught all the common sense in the world by a man who I can only describe as magic when it comes to breaking in and dealing with difficult horses, I went abroad to do some showjumping with an Olympic rider. He ended up asking me to do a breaker, which I was very comfortable with, sack of potatoes and the likes. I'd always been kept safe by my 'on the ground person' in the past.

Turns out Mr. Olympic Showjumper was trying his hand at this and I was guinea pig number 2. By the time I found this out, he had already turned said breaker over on top of me, breaking my back and leaving me partially paralysed. Silly me.

I've since heard about this Ardall 'dummy' and to be honest I could be a poster child for the thing, it really is built to keep us riders safe in a multitude of situations... I cannot say enough good things about it. I just thought I'd spread the word in the hope of keeping fellow equestrians from ending up in my situation (it sucks, believe me). €699 is definitely worth peace of mind when you're dealing with sticky situations, especially when you're stuck looking at a situation in hindsight.

Spare a thought for all the times we riders put ourselves and even our children/clients/friends at risk and how valuable our equestrian careers (not to mention normal life) are to all of us.
 
told my boss bout this as thats what we do and he said 'he doesnt need one of those hes got me' nice, i think it could be cost affective for him though we did nearly 40 breakers last year from yearling tb colts to 3/4yr old eventers and a 7yr old broodmare but his way seems to work!. The only ones we had problems with were the ones that had been spoilt by their owners, so this may have been a good tool for them or the nervous one we had. ours generally come in one day and we sit on them the next day and trot them around the pen. no lunging or long reining. generally day 4/5 we can walk trot and a few canter strides around the pen it works well. as long as its done right and by experienced people the breaking process should be pretty safe i cant see one of these would be needed for every horse. out of 40 we could have done with it for 3 horses we had!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top