BYEH advice please!

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georgiegirl2

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Hi everyone,

As I've said in previous posts on of my aims with twiggy is to hopefully get involved with the byeh series. Shes three rising 4 and from race training (never raced) so it looks unlikely we will have her ready for the 4yo classes but seeing as we havent been on her yet you never know how things will progress!

I was just wondering on what time scales do people aim to get their youngsters doing things in preparation for these classes? Obviously all youngsters are different with how they progress and you dont want to do too much at such a young age. We went to watch a few earlier this year and to be honest it wasnt the jumping which looked horrendous it was more having them behave in the show atmosphere! Bramham certainly had a lot for them to look at!

I was reading a passage by karen dixon the other night which said she trys to get them to one small sj comp before taking them to bramham - surely this wouldn't be enough? anyway, any thoughts welcome

B xx
 
It totally depends on the horse itself- some will be ready to do BYEH in a trice, and others take far, far longer... with one of my exracers it took him about 2 years to cope with the show atmosphere, as he would literally just freeze into permanent shock! however my other exracer took to the comps like a duck to water and he would have been easily ready for BYEH had he not had his problems....
So just depends on the horse really....! I would just say, dont put a time scale on it, dont rush her, and just see how she goes! If she feels ready for it, great! if not, then it does not matter!
 
As for Karen Dixon taking her young horses to just one comp before BYEH- all I can say is that her horses must have one hell of a super brain on them! Reminds me of when I worked for an event rider in Oz- he would buy 4 year olds- a week after they arrived- he would take them jumping around a 3 star event course- and they had never gone XC before nor jumped many fences...if they jumped all the fences, he kept those horses as they had shown that they had the right brain for eventing....if they were difficult and tempremental and being spooky and funny about ditches/water...then those horses were sent straight back... wierd logic I know and not something I would follow, but everyone of the horses he kept were consistent jumping machines and most were very successfull eventers. It is all in the brain!
 
oh were definately not going to rush! shes only 3 so i have all the time in the world with her to do it properly!

This is however my first one out of training. we were maybe hoping to have a sit on her either tommorrow afternoon or saturday (I'm working the rest of the time and dont fancy it in the dark!) do you have any advice on getting on your ex racer for the first time? shes had the tack on the past two nights for half hour at a time and hasnt batted an eyelid really and i've been advised to be legged on as this is what they are used to. does having longer stirrups tend to bother them much?
 
I just hopped on mine and hoped for the best!! 90% of them will be fine and wont bat an eyelid...I would just give a spin on the lunge first to get the edge off any freshness she might have and then get on as you would any other horse- leg up/mounting block, or short/long stirrups will not matter to them really...
 
Thats what we were planning to do although to be honest we dont know if she has been lunged in the past (not very likely im guessing). Hmmm...maybe give her a lunge tomorrow then and on saturday give her a short lunge before getting on?
 
lunge her Thurs and Fri, then again on Sat before getting on,she most likely hasnt been lunged before so gradually/gently put two lunge lines on( one line as normal and then the other on the outside through a roller and then around her back end, and then you can keep her in a circle and not fall in/fall out...)
 
Hi Becky,
I personally wouldn't bother with the lunging, simply because she'll prob not have been lunged before. I'm not saying I wouldn't lunge her in the future, but you'll not manage to take the edge of her if she's 'racing fit'.
there's two ways you can deal with her, you can either start her from scratch with long reining/lunging etc or you can get on and see what she knows.
The thing is if you plan to ride her by the weekend I don't think she'll have mastered the art of lunging in such a short time. Why not get on and see how she goes? You can then assess how well she's been broken and what exactly she does know. You can then build up a schooling/training program accordingly?
 
Forgot to ask whether you'd had side reins on with her tack? I started mine from day one with side reins on for lunge work and whilst getting her used to tack in the stable. The thing is because of the way they are trained in racing thier head sticks up and outwards. I like to start all my youngsters as I mean to go on thats all.
 
My 4 yr old was backed and turned away last September, then brought in at the end of March. He did his first BYEH at Bramham, which was a bit of an eyeful for him and probably not the best one to choose for his first outing! Prior to that he had been unaffiliated jumping a couple of times. I had planned to take him to Keysoe but that came up a bit soon (3rd week in April) and then I couldn't go to Rutland (he'd pulled a shoe off), so even if you do make plans they can very easily get thwarted. I would see how you're getting on with her by March/April time and then decide which one to enter.
 
Just an update on how it went - we took her in the arena for a walk about tonight (hard hatted, gloves and lunge line of course) with no saddle on and just a plain copper snaffle. Had a lead about which went fine and put her on a circle in walk and had a little trot. Only stayed in there for five minutes really for a first go and she was very good and responds to voice extremely well. will do the same tomorrow, only short little sessions (were not really allowed to lunge in our arena but its much safer than the lunging pen at the moment as the grass is very slippy). As we bought her in the sale ring we havent really had a chance to see her movement properly yet but i have to say she looked absolutely stunning and I'm quite excited about this one - shall have to resist tempatation and take it all very slowly!

On another note we had her back racing plates taken off - not so good. She is a bit kicky when you pick her back feet out and this was certainly no exception. she soon calmed it down when we got her some carrots to take her mind off things and we were lucky to have a very patient farrier. we've left the front ones on to stop her getting sore but for now i dont see there much point of her having anything on behind. she wont be doing any 'work' as such for a while and if she is a bit kicky it wont be as bad if she happens to catch either us or herself whilst doing it. Also keeps the shoeing sessions short which is what she needs until she gets used to it. Next time were aiming for new front ones and a quick rasp behind so hopefully she should be better next time!
 
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