Schooling green older horses

tabithakat64

tabithakat64

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My Welsh D is rising 10 and hadn't done any schooling before I had him, he lacks confidence and finds it hard to concentrate but can produce some lovely work in walk and trot, it's just not consistent. (Last night my RI rode him with the floodlights on for the first time and he was very spooky and kept trying to run backwards
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Those of you that have brought on late starters do you have any hints or tips you can give me please?
 
tons of patience and time, tbh. make sure all the usual stuff's 100% before putting on any kind of pressure (teeth, back, tack), and then work on yourself as much as him... i've found, surprise surprise, that the better i ride, the better my horses go... funny, that. seriously though, i do think a lot of the emphasis is on improving the horse, and sometimes when you concentrate on yourself a bit and stop micro-managing, suddenly the horse starts going much better.. hope you know what i mean!
 
Agree with Kerilli I have a cob and we have been schooling him and he is 10 , its very tiring but he is getting better .
But I have torn my Knee ligament getting off train so he has no rider at the moment , so if you live in the Selby area and fancy a challenge I will be happy he is getting ridden as he has no rider while my knee mend s
PM me if anyone can help
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I broke my mare at 7 - it took much longer, more patience and LOTS of tact (of maybe thats just my mare!)

The one thing it have found with schooling up older horses is that you really have to establish 'forward thinking' and freedom of movement before starting to pick up the contact and asking for rounder outline

basically i find babies more submissive and 'quicker' to pick up working round than older horses, who have more set muscles and more set brains! its just a longer, slower process
 
Yes - my mare was 12 when I got her and she had spent most of her life out in a field - the difference between bringing on a youngster and schooling a more mature horse is the younster says "okay I will try" and the older horse says "why?" It takes a lot more convincing!!
 
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