daffy44
Well-Known Member
I agree, standing while you get on, being able to stand while you stop to chat, or do something useful is an essential life skill, but that doesnt mean that every horse has this skill. Its relatively easy to teach a horse to relax when you drop the reins, a lot of horses teach themselves this one, but it doesnt mean that they retain the relaxation once you pick up the contact and your body language says lets go.
I think it comes down to experience and judgement as to when to let the horse look, and when to keep it occupied. For example one of my horses is a very easy, very trainable horse, not spooky at all, but when he first started going to shows he was very excited by it, he was well behaved to travel, get on etc (I was always alone with him and had no issues at all) but the instant his feet hit the warm up he felt like he wanted to explode, and I'm 99.9% sure if I'd insisted on walk or halt at that stage it would have resulted in me eating surface. I used to straight way go into a rising trot on a contact just for five minutes, circles, changes of rein, nothing difficult, but always telling him I was in charge and he had a job to do, after approx 5 mins of this he was relaxed and absolutely fine to walk on along rein etc. After a little while we could start in walk and be absolutely fine, this horse is utterly safe in the busiest of warm ups now, because I never allowed him to have a bad experience. But conversely, at the same stage, with the same horse, when he went in to do a test the best thing to do was drop the reins entirely and let him look all around at the new arena until he felt he had seen everything, and then I would pick up a contact and he would do a lovely nonspooky test. I dont need to do that anymore either. But it just demonstrates how its impossible to say that you must do one thing or another with a horse, they are all individuals and every situation is different.
I think it comes down to experience and judgement as to when to let the horse look, and when to keep it occupied. For example one of my horses is a very easy, very trainable horse, not spooky at all, but when he first started going to shows he was very excited by it, he was well behaved to travel, get on etc (I was always alone with him and had no issues at all) but the instant his feet hit the warm up he felt like he wanted to explode, and I'm 99.9% sure if I'd insisted on walk or halt at that stage it would have resulted in me eating surface. I used to straight way go into a rising trot on a contact just for five minutes, circles, changes of rein, nothing difficult, but always telling him I was in charge and he had a job to do, after approx 5 mins of this he was relaxed and absolutely fine to walk on along rein etc. After a little while we could start in walk and be absolutely fine, this horse is utterly safe in the busiest of warm ups now, because I never allowed him to have a bad experience. But conversely, at the same stage, with the same horse, when he went in to do a test the best thing to do was drop the reins entirely and let him look all around at the new arena until he felt he had seen everything, and then I would pick up a contact and he would do a lovely nonspooky test. I dont need to do that anymore either. But it just demonstrates how its impossible to say that you must do one thing or another with a horse, they are all individuals and every situation is different.