Pleasure Ride advice.

[xoxellaxox]

Hey, so last year and the beginning of this year I had quite a bit of trouble with my horse . To put a long story short he was a nightmare and I was too scared to ride him. I got tones of different advice and we have both come out of the other side more confident and a lot better partnership. Because of how silly he was I could not take him anywhere or long hacks. I have been building him up and we managed a 6 mile hack into the next village the other week with only one minor problem. (large cows) . He is great in horse box so my friend asked me if I wanted to book a pleasure ride with her in July. So I have gone and booked it. I have now started to worry about things and I am scared I am going to talk myself out of it. Hes never been around a lot of horses at once, nor has he had them coming past him at speed. The ride is all in woodland so no cars or anything . I am planing on just walking and a bit of trotting. Has anyone got any advice of what I can do to get him ready over the next 3 weeks. Hes does not have feed but my friend said to get him on some calmer or feed that will keep fizz down. I am not sure what tack to put him in either. I ride him in a snaffle. I have been told to put him in his martingale, flash and 3 ring gag just in case!! I want both of us to enjoy this and really don't want to ruin the work we have done.

 

[paulineh]

What kind of Pleasure ride is it. Is it a Sponsored one where people will be jumping as well of is if just what I would call "Roads and Tracks" like an Endurance ride. What is the distance you will be doing and where will this ride be.

 

[JulesRules]

I would stop worrying and relax and enjoy it.

All the pleasure rides I have been on people have been very considerate to each other walking most of the way and letting those nearby know if they are going to trot or canter and asking to come past if they are going faster. Jumps have always been optional.

The first one we went on my girl was very on her toes at the start but soon relaxed and enjoyed it as much as i did.

If you are going to use a different bit and martingale maybe start hacking in it now to "normalise" it. No harm in being prepared. Also, if you are using a calmer try it beforehand as some can have the opposite effect!

If you are really worried I would consider trying to be one of the last to start when the route is quieter.

Good luck and enjoy.

 

[Myhorseeatsmoney]

If you believe your horse will hot up with other horses charging past definitely be one of the last to start. If you only have a couple of weeks before the day start feeding a calmer now as they all take time to get any results. I would definitely have a neck strap or something to hang on to which will give you more confidence in the saddle. If you decide to try a different bit do it before the ride and at home just in case he really objects to it. My last bit of advice is stop worrying and start looking forward to it they usually cover some beautiful scenery and the less you worry the better it will be. Have a lovely time

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

If you can, you could do some prep in the school (safe place) by asking your friends/yardmates to bring their horses in and start off by walking around and then letting other horses trot past yours, overtaking, and then up the pace to trot, and letting them canter past. Aiming to keep yours at the pace you want and be polite and not tank off.

You could vary this by doing circles (other horses trotting past in the other direction), trotting across the school on the diagonal, etc etc. Also your horse walking and others trotting/cantering on ahead and coming to the rear of the "ride" etc etc.

Do this and keep repeating it till you are confident your horse is OK. THEN go out on a hack together and repeat!!!

Personally I'd hesitate to go on a pleasure ride till I was 101% sure that my horse was OK with people coming up on the outside, overtaking and going ahead. Ditto people going on fast ahead. Sorry not trying to frighten you, just being realistic. If you're going with a friend: is her horse a nice steady horse who could give yours an idea of how to be chilled? Coz that would help.

Ditto being the last to start if you're concerned yours can't deal with people hooning past. You can then take your time and enjoy the ride without feeling pressured/anxious.

PS: who has "told you" to put your horse in a three-ring gag & martingale??? That's a pretty strong combination TBH........ and might not suit your horse one jot which might well make him very stressy in his mouth and a lot more difficult to control Gags have a particular action, which if horses aren't used to it can make a situation a whole lot worse. Personally I'd be inclined to perhaps book a lesson with a professional and explain your concerns to them, and see what they advise you re. bitting.

 

[catkin]

You really need to introduce your horse to each of the new elements (lots of horses, passing at speed etc) individually and in a controlled environment so that you both understand what it's about and how the other will react. This can take some time or the horse may take it all in his stride - you really don't know until you start training.

Your idea of going at the end is a good one, but don't rely on feeding to calm your horse, as long as your basic diet is 'horse-friendly' you'll get further with training. Tack changes don't always have the effect we think they do either - most horses have their own ideas on what they want, and they don't read the books!!! Get some help and work out a full training programme.

You may not wish to hear this but you may not be ready in a month - it may need to be a goal for either the end of the summer or next year.

Sounds like you've come a long way so far with your horse, think about all the little things you need to do and maybe be prepared to go to the ride, let him see the sights and just bring him home again if necessary - many people do that as a 'first outing', let the horse get used to the atmosphere, not necessarily participate.

 

[Brightbay]

It sounds as though you've made lots of progress

Pleasure rides are very enjoyable, provided you can work to keep your horse relaxed and unstressed. Lots of good advice above. I can add some from my own experience too

First of all, change of bit. As suggested above, a stronger bit won't necessarily help. What you want is for your horse to be able to deal with quite an exciting situation. In a new situation, each new and slightly scary thing adds up on top of other things to bump up the horse's adrenalin levels until they get to (technical term ) "flip out level". Obviously, you want to make sure they don't get to there, and ideally that they don't get anywhere near there. A stronger bit that the horse is not used to/does not like will actually add to the adrenalin level before you even try to do anything with it, so you can find it makes the horse harder to deal with rather than easier.

Myself and my friend took our young horses to their first pleasure ride together - so (a) they were with a familiar horse which helped to bring down the adrenalin levels, and (b) we both gave each other confidence and had a helper to e.g. hold horses for tacking up etc.

My horse was used to getting a polo mint when e.g. I mounted up, or when he needed to stand quietly at a junction etc., so he understood a tap on the neck meant he should bend around to get a reward. We used this when we had other horses passing - we would stop, stand in out of the way and offer the horse a reward. This meant the horses both (a) were focussed more on getting their polo than on the horses passing and (b) learned that when they stood quietly to allow other horses to pass and trot off, something nice happened. This has paid off - at the most recent pleasure ride, it was a "there and back" along a long beach, and not only did the proper endurance horses pass us on the way out, they also passed us in the opposite direction heading home. Because our horses had learned at earlier rides that this happened and it was nothing to worry about, they were absolutely fine, whereas some other new to it horses were spinning and trying to follow.

In terms of speed - at the first one, my friend was quite nervous of trotting or cantering downhill. So we ended up going pretty slowly - lots of walk and some trot. This meant that although we started about the middle of the field, we were last back... and this meant we held up the nice people organising who had to wait until everybody was counted in. We apologised profusely and felt quite bad even though we were only 15 mins behind. So it's better to check with the organisers in advance if you think you will be quite slow, and make sure they're OK with this Again, most recent one we're now old hands and finish well within the time - but this does mean the pace is cantering on straight level stretches and uphill, and trotting most of the rest.

Apart from all that, just work out how you can best keep your horse feeling calm and unstressed throughout the ride, including arrival. If the pleasure ride is part of a longer official endurance ride, your horse may have to trot up at the beginning, stand quietly to have heart rate checked, and do the same at the end - it's worth practising this at home Most horses also settle better if you can start at a steady but quite fast pace - they burn off any adrenalin quite quickly. If you are feeling nervous and holding your horse back to a slow pace, you may actually make them feel even more stressed, so that's another thing to work on at home.