Taking my tb hunting.

[MYD93]

Hi All,

hoping to take my tb hunting eventually, he last raced 7years ago after a not very successful career.

We’ve done lots of hacking & have started to go on fun rides. After initial excitement & jogging sideways he’s well behaved & isn’t dangerous or silly (touch wood)!

I’m hoping to go on hound exercise soon, to see what he’s like with hounds & a group of riders, rather than just myself & one other.

I’m not in any major rush to go out this season if it doesn’t look like it’ll be a good idea. But any tips or advice from anyone who has introduced hunting to a green horse or ex racer/tb?

Thanks!

 

[Fred66]

Contact secretary/kennels first and go out on a non “hunting” morning to just exercise with the hounds. Gives horse a chance to meet hounds at your pace.

 

[SOS]

Don’t go on the group hound exercise. It winds even an experienced hunter up with the walking, trotting and in between paces, surrounded by lots of horses.

Go autumn hunting. Go as often as possible (atleast 2/3 times a week) and stay out for a few hours until the horse is relaxed and settled.

When proper hunting starts, don’t go to the big days the first season. When you do go pootle at the back, shut gates and make it boring.

A proper education is very important to making a nice hunter. A nice hunter is important as it’s already risky enough without having a horse that messes around or pulls your arms out into and rushes fences.

 

[MYD93]

Don’t go on the group hound exercise. It winds even an experienced hunter up with the walking, trotting and in between paces, surrounded by lots of horses.

Go autumn hunting. Go as often as possible (atleast 2/3 times a week) and stay out for a few hours until the horse is relaxed and settled.

When proper hunting starts, don’t go to the big days the first season. When you do go pootle at the back, shut gates and make it boring.

A proper education is very important to making a nice hunter. A nice hunter is important as it’s already risky enough without having a horse that messes around or pulls your arms out into and rushes fences.

Thanks, really good advice.

 

[Fred66]

Contact secretary/kennels first and go out on a non “hunting” morning to just exercise with the hounds. Gives horse a chance to meet hounds at your pace.

Don’t go on the group hound exercise. It winds even an experienced hunter up with the walking, trotting and in between paces, surrounded by lots of horses.

This is what I meant in my post, just bad phrasing !

Hounds go out exercising every day but most hunts normally do organised exercise with the followers on 3-4 days. If you speak to the huntsman you might be able to go on one of the off days so that your horse literally meets hounds with no other horses (or possibly one or two dependent upon whether the huntsman exercises on horseback or not)

 

[leflynn]

I did bigger group hacks, busy fun rides (in groups), rides in all paces in the field (solo and groups) before I contemplated taking mine out hunting. I also bypassed autumn hunting and went straight in for a full day as he finds the standing around of autumn hunting difficult. We were also lucky in that we had hound puppies on the yard so he got used to having dogs around and staying away from them (also plenty of dogs loose on hacks and so learnt to keep out the way/stand still ish).

I went on a quietish wednesday with two experienced nannies (human and horse) and he took to it really well, standing still at the meet was a bit tricky but we kept our distance and once we got going he settled. 3rd time out he got the hang of it and still loves it now, good luck!