we TROTTED today!

[georgiegirl2]

We now have twiggy walking on the lunge properly with me riding and doing most of the steering and walk /halt transitions so today we had a trot!

hvaing been in training i doubt she will have ever experienced rising trot! we gave it a shot today and in the end were doing 3 or 4 large circles (if you can call them that they were probably more egg shaped!) at a time in a nice free trot and very sensibly too! I think it may soon be time that we are let off the lunge - we've tried to do it so that its me directing her rather than my mum at the end of the lunge line and she is only attached to the headcollar anyway as we didnt want the lunge pulling on her mouth.

Next thing to sort out is keeping an even contact and moving straight as it is all still a bit snakey at the moment although thats babies i guess!

ooooo so proud of my baby!

 

[meandmyself]

Sounds like you're making progress! Well done!

 

[Forget_Me_Not]

 

[SummerStorm]

awww, well done!

 

[GTs]

Miss Cleo says:

OH GIRLFRIEND - you have to be careful, although this lifestyle is new to your horse, and you want to take it slow, race horses have seen A LOT - if things are done correctly they adapt very quickly, and with very little fuss. Your horse is used to doing a lot of fast work, you need to provide it with the opportunity to stretch it's legs and burn off some energy - otherwise your horse is going to get bored, have too much energy and misbehave.

It would be like taking a Math/Science A level student and wanting to change them to an English A Level student - you do not have to start back at the alphabet - with nap time, and supervise their tiolet visits.

 

[georgiegirl2]

i totally agree with you on that one - an active mind needs stimulation. However I do also think that the aids used in race training are totally different to those used in normal riding and as she is only 3 she needs things which are easy and things in which progress can be made.

From talking to the jockey who backed her she had done very little in the racing yard and was simply sold as she was not fast enough so at the moment I'm trying to forget about her past in training and treat her as any other young horse.

that said, she is my first youngster out of training so any advice would be gratefully appreciated as to what we should be doings with her / how her training should progress

 

[GTs]

I would not forget her past training and try and start over - unless you can convince her to forget it too - you need to use this to understand her better; what gives her confidence, what has she done before, why might she be confused etc. You need to go in with the attitude of transitioning her from a race horse to what you want her to be, rather than 'starting over'.

 

[vicijp]

GG, if the lad said that he probably meant she hasnt done a lot of fast work, but has been kept ticking over by doing steady work.
To say she 'hasnt seen a lot of rising trot' is absurd. Shes probably never got to the stage where shes doing enough for the lad to pull his stirrups up(i dont know what you mean by 'different aids'). She is probably well used to a lot of things, steady canters, traffic etc(she may even have never been in a proper gallop, and kept to the indoor ride and hacking). It does seem a bit silly to take things so slowly, she is bound to get bored.

 

[georgiegirl2]

i see what your saying here and we are progressing fairly quickly and giving her things to think about. the thing is she is novicey (as you would expect her to be) and i personally would prefer getting them listening to and accepting the leg before going on to do further things. I've brought on a few youngsters before and this plan has worked everytime. to be honest i dont know much about the system of breaking racehorses but from talking to a jockey friend of mine he said she will have literally been got on and taught to go, nothing more. the lad said she had had a racing pad on and that was it so i thought it was being sensible to get her used to riders having a longer leg. the aim to tommorrow is to be riding off the lunge in the school in large circles. and aim to get her walking down the lane further on in the week.

 

[annaellie]

I think you are doing exact right thing my op in young horses is to take it slow and steady just vary work and there is lots of basic flat work that can be done to make it different and prevent your horse getting bored. I learnt the horses that are highly strung and clever do not benefit from fast work in the early training stages As I said above there are so many basic things to do. Do you have a good instructor to help you out. I found mine invaluable for the second op

 

[GTs]

Go from sitting on, to trotting a broke horse is 6 days is not moving fairly quickly. I have a good friend who buys them off the track and in 6 days is swinging a mallet off them - that is moving fairly fast.

 

[vicijp]

I think your freind is talking complete crap.

 

[rcm_73]

Sounds like it's going well but just because she was in training doesn't mean she won't have experienced rising trot. In training some a lot of the 'lads' ride longer or some even long and do rise to the trot whilst doing roadwork and also going onto or coming off the gallops. Also if you ever watch/go to the races jockey's still manage to rise to the trot at times. I have owned ex-racers and still own one, was brought up round TBs mum and dad were in racing so although she will have been ridden short if she raced, she won't have neccessarily been ridden short at home.

 

[georgiegirl2]

well considering he is actualy quite a famous jockey with over a 100 over the last season i thought at the time i would trust what he was saying. maybe he was wrong who knows?

as for that not being much progress in six day i must admit i have only had the chance to go on her twice! I work shifts in a busy hospital so she is not getting the work daily at the moment which to me isnt necessarily a bad thing at the moment and of course she will be doing more as the nights come lighter

 

[magic104]

georgiegirl2 take as long as you like, she is your horse & at 3yrs she has time on her side. It wont hurt her to have the time taken now. Dealers rush their horses because they make a bigger profit turning them round as quickly as possible, you don't need to do that. Good luck with her she looks a nice sort.

 

[GTs]

It really is not a case of what dealers do, but keeping your horse entertained. Once your horse starts to misbehave it is 10 times harder to get anything decent out of it - that is why some people are always struggling while others have an easy ride.