Nervous new horse - help with ideas for ground schooling please!!

[montysmum1]

Hi everyone,

I have just acquired a new boy, a 6year old 16.3hh ex-racehorse. He is not the first ex-racehorse I have taken on, I have plenty of experience of riding/re-training them previously, all with great success. He is not the youngest i have had either, but he is certainly the least confident and 'baby-ish', so I want to spend some time on ground work before I start riding him. He also has a couple of (very minor) health issues i would like to settle down before I put him under any ridden pressure too.

Soooo... my plan is to do some ground work with him, to start to develop a bond between us, and hopefully give him some confidence in me, and in himself. He really is a lovely chap, but i don't think he genuinely realises how long his legs are, and he's frightened of his own shadow

I am not a 'Parelli-person', and i would just appreciate some constructive ideas for some beneficial ground work I can do with him... Thank you!

 

[Hippona]

I'm not a parelli-person either.....I have a young arab who came to me stressed and anxious....with a sore back, so I did a lot of in-hand stuff too. Mainly taking him out for walks and leading over poles and stuff. He was also of the opinion that when you lunge you just belt around at full blast so we are working on voice commands....our circles aren't very circular but as long as he is walking then I'm happy.

I also feed a calmer with typtophan in it.....its really helped.

 

[Booboos]

Use your imagination! Getting him used to different things like pieces of tarpaulin (start with a really tiny one, well secured to the ground and progress until he tolerates a large, flappy one), cones and road works type objects, tyres, poles, etc are all things you can get him used to walking around, walking over (where appropriate!!!) and walking up to. Taking him out in hand or long reining him on hacks might also be a good idea to get him used to traffic and other sights and sounds. Loose jumping and grid work might be fun.

Clicker training includes a lot of exercises of that kind so you may find it interesting. There is a also a new Horse Agility movement that might give you some ideas.

 

[montysmum1]

Thanks guys, this is pretty much what i had in mind, especially the pole work. Was thinking of building up to some 'maze' work, i'm sure i've seen articles about this for developing pro-prioception (excuse the spelling) and self-awareness in the horse...

I think he's a really special horse and he seems really genuine and eager to please, despite his nervousness, so I want to tread carefully so as not to upset him at any point... i'm very excited about it all too... feel very fortunate to have stumbled across him!!

 

[Emily91]

but i don't think he genuinely realises how long his legs are

Lots of pole work for this! walking over and around them, going through sets of parallel poles etc, stopping over, before, between, after them. You get the picture. This will really help his balance and co-ordination.

And as the others have said lots of stuff for him to look at and discover its not so scary after all!

teaching him something new, for example long reining will give him something new to think about too.