How to motivate a horse?

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m.baker94

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Hi everyone,


I've recently just got back from Uni and started getting my Welsh Section D back into work.

As with most horses the fitter he gets the better he is, but I'm finding him really hard work when we start our rides for the first 20 minutes or so. I find myself working really hard with my legs, but I am really wary of 'over using' them so he becomes 'dead to the leg'.

Within 30 minutes he's walking out nicely and becomes generally much easier and more responsive to ride.

Does anyone have any tips in order to make the first 20 minutes less hard work and get him responding from the leg from the onset of our ride?

All help is much appreciated (:

Thanks!
 
m.baker94 said:
I find myself working really hard with my legs, but I am really wary of 'over using' them so he becomes 'dead to the leg'.
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Have you tried using your leg in different positions? Swap from quite far forward of the girth, to behind the girth, to on the girth, so he doesn't anticipate your aids?
I have found what I call an "active seat" useful.. Very small movements in your seat that correspond with your leg aids.. It might give your pony the impression of you being more energetic than he is & encourage him to join in.. You can stop this when he picks up his energy levels ;)
 
Pasture Mix said:
Have you tried using your leg in different positions? Swap from quite far forward of the girth, to behind the girth, to on the girth, so he doesn't anticipate your aids?
I have found what I call an "active seat" useful.. Very small movements in your seat that correspond with your leg aids.. It might give your pony the impression of you being more energetic than he is & encourage him to join in.. You can stop this when he picks up his energy levels ;)
Click to expand...

Thank you will definitely give this a try! I've tried the 'active seat' but find he only really responds well to this when he's already half awake - haha!

But will give positioning my legs differently a go (:
 
I have a TB who is so horribly not forward going from the leg (or anything really) but is superb on pleasure rides / hunting (and was a winning racehorse) that I would almost think that investing in a horse walker to get him fit for those events he enjoys, would be great (but need to win the lottery first)
From time to time I ride him in spurs - just to sharpen him up a bit. But can only get away with that about once every couple of months - nightmare, really!
 
My cob is similer, just start with loads of transitions to get him listening, big aids to start with, but mine starts listening quite quick and responding to much lighter aids pretty quickly, works for me :)
 
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Transitions have made a huge difference to the cob that I ride. Our trick is to straight away do about 5 walk paces, 1 halt, 3 walk paces, 4 trot paces, 1 halt etc etc. Frequent changes of rein and upwards transitions out of 10/20m circles as well. Show him that you mean business! Went from not even being able to get him to trot 5 months ago to now being able to do a number of walk to canter transitions :)
 
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