Training/schooling a green horse - ideas please

[Tayto]

Hello everyone! (also posted this in competing and training but got no replies )

I have had my 8yr old clydesdale x cob mare for 11 weeks now. I have now discovered that she has less experience than I was told she had. Long story short, I managed to contact the people she came from in Ireland who told me more about her history and turns out she was only backed 2 years ago.

I am not too fussed about this - she is fab to hack and has a lovely temperament (although stubborn at times, typical mare!) however her schooling is understandably quite green and she struggles with anything other than going in a straight line. I am still quite novice with my schooling so will be getting regular lessons on her however I can only afford to do this twice a month or so and I wondered if anyone can recommend any good books/websites etc that could help me and her with schooling? I would love to give her as much help as poss to bring on her schooling and hopefully end up with a great allrounder

I have been trying to search the internet for appropriate books but can't seem to find any that fit my requirement

Any tips/advice appreciated.

Thanks

 

[gwniver]

my 5 year old is very green in the school and like your a straight line was all he was comfortable with....the key thing is to take it slowly, go to fast and they learn that schooling is a bad and you will run into a lot of trouble . Try and make it fun for both you and her .
What I found helpful with turning is first get then used to trot poles going in a straight line and once they are confident with make it a slight curve (like a corner of a arena ) and let her walk over then first and then a slow trot ........as I said make it a fun experience and easy for her keep sessions short and sweet if it is a bad day leave or go for a hack
I wouldn't start with going in circles for a while maybe until she is really bending and moving around the arenas corner nicely. it is hard for them to keep a nicely bent and proper circle =) .
good luck !!=)

 

[sandi_84]

Mine was a very green 5yo when I got him, he was even wobbly on straight lines!

I posted weekly updates on a single thread when I started schooling my boy It was mainly a case of slowly slowly catchy monkey for us.

We started out with some really basic schooling i.e:
Walk/halt/walk, trot/walk/trot transitions (whilst attempting to stay on the outside track), 20m circles (read as dodecahedrons!), changes of diagonal in various places in the school (attempting to keep the lines straight) all in walk and trot.

Eventually when we had acheived a measure of balance and fitness we moved on to 3 loop serpentines and from there to 10m circles (starting in walk and then moving to trot) and attempted some trotting poles.

We started with one and after cat leaping it a few times he got the idea that it wasn't going to eat him and started to trot confidently over it, we gradually over a period of schooling sessions added more until he could do 6 in a row.

It was a good few months before we felt he would be balanced enough to canter (and it took a pony club kick to get him to realise he had another gear ) and from there we repeated the entire process minus the serpentines and 10m circles in canter.

I found that lots of variation in our schooling helped, so although I'd keep what we did in one session varied, I would go in with a clear aim of what I felt needed to be worked on (for example straight lines so we'd work on changes of diagonal or bending so we'd work on circles or serpentines) and attempt to get a decent improvement by the end of the session.

We started with short schooling sessions of 15-20mins and broke those up with short hacks so he wasn't getting bored or having his fragile mind blow by all the new info We also practiced our schooling moves on hacking days as the change of scenery made it all seem fresher for us both
Eventually we were doing 30mins-1hr scooling sessions with no bother at all.

By the time I'd left my yard we had moved on to jumping, attempting inside and outside bend (disasterous!), increasing or decreasing on a circle, decreasing and increasing on figure of eights, canter poles and the start of lateral movements to and from the outside track and started with collection and extension (again disasterous ha ha!) all with varying degrees of success

I definitely found my RI invaluable as I'd never schooled a green horse by myself and was terrified to get it wrong! Now we've got the basics I'm a lot more comfortable going it alone but I do wish I had the money for some lessons as I'm afraid to try and progress and do the wrong thing and I'm also very sure I've picked up some bad habits along the way

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do fine but do try and have lessons as much as you can, it's a great safety net having someone knowlegable on the ground

 

[AmiRobertson]

I have a 4yr old who is sooooo wobbly it's ridiculous! We have had to restart her 3 times due to problems with her feet and each time we have to rebalance her from scratch! Today was my first lesson back on her and it was 50mins of walk doing corner lines, quarter lines circles and working on the inside track so she can't use the school wall to balance herself. Unbalanced youngsters like to speed up if they feel unbalanced so it's a case of working from walk slowing them down so they can balance themselves you almost need to place each stride and very slowly they improve. Today I finally got dizzy to stretch down through her back and her stride extended while keeping an even pace. We finished there. Make easy goals and always finish on a good note. Almost make a checklist of things. Mine is slow dizzy down then allow her stretch while maintaining an even contact then I can start to get bend out of her. Ooh and lots of transitions when my horse starts being a plonker I do walk halt transitions it gets her listening and waiting for me. Also a good instructor. Don't over cook it! And ENJOY young horses are so so so rewarding