Breaking horses in yourself

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MyLuckyStar

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For those of you that have done it, how much experience did you have?


I have an 18 month old cob filly who I've just started long reining (only once a week and off her headcollar), I was going to send her away to a professional but am now considering breaking her in myself (it won't be till she's at least 4). I am experienced with horses and have ridden lots of young horses, although never broken in a horse myself. I also have a very good instructor on hand if ever I need him to help me out, as well as other experienced horse people.



How did you find the process and what were your breaking in processes/steps?
 
I much prefer starting my own, if you've got professional help available if you need it then I'd say its a great way of forming a relationship with your horse.

My current mare was a largely unhandled rising 5 year old when I bought her, but as her temperament was good she was a doddle to start. I've worked with horses professionally and started quite a few.

I begin by leading out, with a companion horse if necessary for scary things and get them obedient to voice aids and used to tack, then lungeing, introducing a bit and long lining. Once they are comfortable with all that I back them and begin light ridden work.

It really isn't rocket science, just a case of listening to what the horse understands and can cope with. The horse doesn't know if you are doing something 'wrong' as long as he feels secure and not confused you'll be fine.

Reading something like 'From Foal to Five years' would probably be useful.
 
I am a professional horse trainer and have specialised in breaking in. I would always recommend "first timers" not to break their own unassisted; you need someone experienced to help you along the way. I have had to deal with so many messed up horses that would have been straightforward with experienced trainers.
 
I have seen a lot backed and am producing on my own youngster who was only backed and turned away when I bought him. However, I am on a professional yard, I have help, I am experienced enough to know when my horse and I are falling off the bandwagon and need help and I have needed it. My ISH is one bright sharp bunny with a huge character to boot. What has resonated with me, very very strongly, is that there is absolutely no indication of how the horse will react to backing until they are started. I have seen flightly OTT babies who have been so straightforward to back its been like watching an ABC video. I have seen the most chilled out easy horses become a total nightmare and it needs a very experienced person to see the problem quickly. I have also seen how long it takes to back up and repair the issues and it is normally a very very long time. As an example, 2 years ago, one of the staff bought a feral project, knowing it could take 6 months plus to turn him round. He had been backed and something had gone incredibly wrong. He came good and once he had (finally) passed the initial rebacking stage, took to every single new thing with relish and ease suggesting he should have been Mr Straightforward. He has become one of the most reliable horses on the yard and is out at BE100. Not bad for something that could not be touched in his box for 3 weeks when he first arrived! and the only way to turn him out was to put him in a very very small pen..
 
I would add to Cortezs thoughts that I am experianced and when I bred horses I did the lunging , got them used to the tack got on their backs and then sent them away to a friend to have the backing finished and be ridden away , I found that being away from home in a different enviroment did them a great deal of good .
I also do not support waiting to back until older I think they can be too bolsy when older and experainced people can be very focused and get the job done with minimum stress and fuss.
While a three year old ought not be worked hard, backing and rideing away done correctly and with consideration does not IMO do any harm.
 
Goldenstar said:
I would add to Cortezs thoughts that I am experianced and when I bred horses I did the lunging , got them used to the tack got on their backs and then sent them away to a friend to have the backing finished and be ridden away , I found that being away from home in a different enviroment did them a great deal of good .
I also do not support waiting to back until older I think they can be too bolsy when older and experainced people can be very focused and get the job done with minimum stress and fuss.
While a three year old ought not be worked hard, backing and rideing away done correctly and with consideration does not IMO do any harm.
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Absolutely this, agree 100%, hear, hear! ^^^^
 
I had helped several friends break in theirs and had schooled a fair few greenies. If I'd gotten into real trouble, both my dressage trainer and the yard's natural horsemanship trainer were on hand, but it well went very smoothly. The horse was a minimally handled three-year old, but he was the sort of rare horse who wasn't scared of anything. I got him leading and easily moving his feet in response to pressure; I desensitized him to the world using plastic bags, tarps, or anything else on hand; I had him spend a lot of time in the tack, going about our regular groundwork just wearing the saddle and bridle; I ponied him on many a trail ride from my older horse (I recommend this in particular if you have a good older horse, since it gets them out and about and they get the experience of you being above their heads); I lunged and long-reined; I put various objects -- cones, exercise balls, anything -- on his back; I leaned over him; I got on him with a friend at his head and the friend lead us around the arena and when they seemed all right, she turned us loose and we walked around a little bit. From there, the process of learning how to become a riding horse was smooth as anything.
 
Thanks all

She's laid back about everything so far - rugs, traffic, bathing, loading, shows, walking out on the roads. I did lead her off another horse once which she was fine with, I was considering doing this again but I'd have to borrow my boyfriends mare as the gelding I loan can be a pain at times and we usually end up jogging sideways down the road!

She has had a cub saddle on once (so I could put a reflective exercise sheet on) and she was fine, she's also had bags put across her and my boyfriend sat on the partition between the stables once and she came over to stand next to it so he put his leg over her (with all his weight on the partition, nothing on her) and she stood there.

I'm hoping she does stay this laid back when she's ready to be broken in.
 
We will be starting with our 3 year colt this year. He is already used to lunging once a week and has had all the tack on but no real work has been done with him other than getting him used to the basic voice commands. He will be backed later in the year (August/September) and then basically turned away again until next spring. Although he is an absolute darling to work with and loves to try new things he will be sent to a professional yard for the next steps.
We want everything done correctly as he is a very special boy :p
 
Do you know - I had no actual experience at all in breaking in a horse in the technical sense. However, when I bought mine aged 15 mths I had no intention at all in sending him away. Quite frankly I would much rather do it myself than send a horse away and risk someone else causing issues. My friend sent hers away and, in reality I think too much was maybe done with the horse and it blew her mind a bit. She was always a bit unpredictable after that and my friend just didn't gel with her and didn't feel safe so ended up selling her.

I took mine to a couple of in hand shows as a 2 yo and did a little bit of walking out in hand on the roads and general handling. I did have a couple of groundwork training sessions with a professional which I did find useful as taught me the basic 'rules' and what his reactions were telling me essentially.

Other than that we just got on with it, practised leaning over him and then i just sat on board with a saddle on. I lunged him one without tack and once then fuly tacked and then sat on him in a school and toddled about a little practising steerin. I road out with my sister walking with me and then we took him out with another horse for short hacks. He has been fab so far and i am now hacking him out twice a week and we graduated to trot work and getting him balanced. He will be 4 in May and has really come on since I first sat on him in Oct.

I have down things slowly, mainly because I don't have facilities to do stuff with him every day and woerk 9 to 5 five days a week so really can only do stuff with him at weekends. For the rest of the time he's just being a horse and lives out 24/7. I am glad I started him last year as a 3 yo as he's a big boy - will be about 16.2hh now and was definitely ready to work his brain!
 
From start 2 finish iv broken in 2 and helped with countless others.

Iv been riding since I was 4 but as a teenager I probably shouldn't have been breaking in ponies, but they turned out to be the best ponies I ever had!
The 1st went to be a school pony aged 7 and the other became a little girls 1st pony.

Don't get me wrong if I did it again with something I wanted to compete I'd get a lot more professional help, but I'd rather it happen at home, the bond and the trust that is created is worth it.
 
I find if you can do as much random weird stuff with them as youngsters, get them out to see the world, put silly things all over them, dance around, clap your hands, leap off gates next to them, by the time it comes to backing they just see it as another thing these crazy humans do!
Make sure your youngster knows voice commands really well, walk on, stand, etc and then you can incorporate them with leg aids. Have you tried putting your boot on your hand and rubbing the opposite side of the horse with it? I knew a horse that was fine with all the backing process till she turned round and went eek! There's a boot on my side!!
 
ridefast said:
I find if you can do as much random weird stuff with them as youngsters, get them out to see the world, put silly things all over them, dance around, clap your hands, leap off gates next to them, by the time it comes to backing they just see it as another thing these crazy humans do!
Make sure your youngster knows voice commands really well, walk on, stand, etc and then you can incorporate them with leg aids. Have you tried putting your boot on your hand and rubbing the opposite side of the horse with it? I knew a horse that was fine with all the backing process till she turned round and went eek! There's a boot on my side!!
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She's pretty good so far - has her feet trimmed, has been shown, loads, stands for a bath/to have her legs washed, stands for hours tied on the yard whether she has a haynet or not, stables, has had bags and tarpualin on her back/by her head, goes out on the roads (country lanes and busy roads) with and without company, is fed in the field with the others and has been fed out the field and she knows that she has her feed then goes off to graze, not bother the others, she comes to call - thats if you get the chance, she usually clocks you and comes cantering over, she has had a cub saddle on, shes had rugs on and I've put a bridle on her once (with a rubber snaffle) around Xmas time to see how she'd react - well lets just say she fell asleep as soon as it was in her mouth!

She's good with her voice commands to and took to long reining like a pro :)
 
Josephine Knowles wrote a book called ABC of Breaking (or similar) which is very useful.
Make sure the horse is used to seeing you above her - i.e. when she is standing still, get up on something so you will be the same height as when riding, because that can frighten them. Also Kelly Marks and Linda Tellington-Jones have books with a lot of ground work exercises. You want the horse to be accept "things" calmly.

The thing about a professional breaker-in is that a) they know how to avoid potential problems, b) they know what to do if something looks like it might go wrong and have other strategies up their sleeve, c) they are doing a job, so can be consistent and get on with it, d) they usually have other helpers who also know what they are doing and how to react.
 
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