Showing Inhand showing,teaching them how to trot Inhand

[DPDOT]

Hi all, I have a yearling Welsh sec d gelding whom I am taking to his first show at the end of the month (very local only being held at another yard near us) and I was hoping to get some tips for teaching him how to trot up inhand. He has the most beautiful movements but I literally have to drag him everywhere if he is attached to a leadrope ?

any tips or tricks would be great fully received

 

[LegOn]

Haha my poor horse didnt know how to trot up inhand either - our vetting was interesting as he took off around the place without having a clue what was going on!!!

When I started running beside him, he thought I was insane!!! I used a long lead rope that I could flip a bit behind me to whoosh him on myself and also a handful of treats/carrot or something else yummy, and even if he shot forward I would reward but because I had the food he would happily stay a bit closer to me - plenty of praise and encouragement & he got it! I would recommend short sessions, trying a few times and even if it doesnt work, give them a chance to work it out. I found he got very stressed about it quite quickly early on so would just try again another evening and eventually he copped on to what was being asked!

I use 'Good Boy' with rewards for good behaviour, so when picking up feet etc so when I said 'Good Boy' when he did attempt to trot on - then he understood its what I wanted, I think they dont think its what we want but once they understand they happily trot along beside you!

I avoided using a 'whoosher ' - someone who will stand behind you and whoosh them on because I wanted to be able to competently do it in the show ring myself & have control of him in a high stress situation! Some inhand trots were very expressive!!! LOL!

 

[daydreamer]

I have a youngster and I have taught him to trot in hand using techniques from Jason Webb's Your Horsemanship website. You pay a subscription and there are over 250 videos to watch, many of which are about training young horses. I really do recommend it as being a very useful resource and for me it has been well worth the money.

We started working alongside a fence to help keep him straight. A schooling whip is held pointing straight up for neutral, rotated to act near the girth area plus hand with leadrope forwards to signal faster, rotated to the front and across the leadrope for slow down. It is a bit difficult to describe but fitted in with the other training I had done with him so it only took a few weeks to build up trotting. We built up through walk-halt- walk transitions, some backwards, then slow walk fast walk then me walking fast him trotting then me running him trotting.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

Give him 5 buckets of molassed oats the night before, keep him in a box for a week and then you will be flying a kite and get a Welsh trot!

Sadly I do know people who do much worse.

Is he naturally energetic or a bit of a slow poke? Natural energy helps no end!

 

[J&S]

Give him 5 buckets of molassed oats the night before, keep him in a box for a week and then you will be flying a kite and get a Welsh trot!

I have heard that the do/did far worse with the hackneys!

 

[southerncomfort]

Sorry to hijack, but once you've perfected going forwards how do you encourage them to move nicely and not like a llama??

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

I have heard that the do/did far worse with the hackneys!

And Welsh. Some of the things that go on is completely barbaric.

Some of the less harsh ones I have heard of is lathering vix vaporub under their tails to give them lift and oomph.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Give him 5 buckets of molassed oats the night before, keep him in a box for a week and then you will be flying a kite and get a Welsh trot!

Sadly I do know people who do much worse.

Is he naturally energetic or a bit of a slow poke? Natural energy helps no end!

Some Arab show people do very similar to the in hand horses, I think it just makes them look frantic.

 

[katastrophykat]

Sorry to hijack, but once you've perfected going forwards how do you encourage them to move nicely and not like a llama??

You teach them to go on into a contact- haltered or bitted- working on giving impulsion from behind and going forwards into your hand- same as riding.

I never let the babies amble in from the field or around the yard when teaching them to show- we march everywhere with me at the shoulder and the pony ‘going’ as it would in the ring. Once they have the idea, I can let them wander about at home and they ‘pick up’ out showing.

 

[scats]

I had a very embarrassing moment at a local show with Diva. I took her for experience in getting out and about in the wagon and decided to do a couple of inhand classes. She wouldn’t trot up in hand at home, but she was quite buzzy to take out so I hoped the adrenaline would take her!
Turns out, it didn’t. She put her best donkey face on and refused to move out of a walk. I just raised my hand to the judge and laughed! We propped up the end of the line, quite rightly!