Lorien Stable: Trainer's Notes

[blackhorsiegirl]

hi

i've been riding for 2 years,but fell off head first on the ground.i want to get back on the saddle,but i get shakey every time!and i want to ride this big black an arabian or morgan(sorry,i don't know which is the breed).anywho,the horse's heart needs to be won.any ideas?by the way.the horse rears when ever youget on him. (he's a 1 year old.give him a break!)

[jersey]

he's too young to be ridden! Wait until he's at least 2 or 3.

[galadriel]

Wow. There's a lot to approach in this post.

First of all, no horse is mature at one year of age. Putting weight on an immature horse can cause him a lot of skeletal damage. A horse's body is not up for carrying extra weight (a rider, or even just too much fat) until he's at least 3.

A horse who's ridden too young often will either protest (as in rearing) or simply not move, as the riding stresses his body too much. So horses ridden too young often end up labeled "problem horses" or "lazy"--and then either hurt a lot of people, or cost a lot of time/money in getting them retrained.

It's ever so much easier, and much more practical, just to wait until a horse is old enough to be ridden.

Now, you say that you've been riding for 2 years. Have you ever ridden a young or untrained horse? It is usually best to let an experienced trainer do all the early work on a horse. So when this year-old horse has gotten a little older, you may wish to let a professional trainer do his backing and training.

A horse is not born knowing how to cope with a rider. He does not know how to respond to leg or rein aids. He does not know "whoa" or "walk" or "trot" or "canter." He does not know how to carry someone on his back calmly. He does not know how to carry himself, such that the rider's weight is well distributed. He must be taught how to cope with all of these, and a professional trainer can do that. That's WHAT they do. A trainer has studied how to teach these things to a horse, and has years of experience in teaching a horse how to handle being ridden.

Just jumping on an untrained horse's back will often make him frightened, and he will try to get the person off his back. He doesn't *know* you want to ride--all he knows is that there is a weight on his back and he is frightened. If he's very young, then having a rider on his back also feels very uncomfortable, because his body is not strong enough to carry a person.

I strongly recommend that you find trained horses to ride, and wait for this yearling to grow up.

By the way: I hope you were wearing a helmet! A fall can happen any time, any circumstancs, no matter how good a rider you are, or how well-trained the horse. A fall, even at a standstill, can cause you a lot of injury. Wearing a helmet can help you avoid too much injury even if you do happen to fall.

[blackhorsiegirl]

thanks so muth.i guess i should tell the owner that hes too young.but u 2 didn't give me advice on the ''winning his heart part''.

[blackhorsiegirl]

oops.instead of muth,it was ''much''.

[jersey]

Lots of carrots and pats. Take him out, brush him and hang out with him. Be his friend. It might take a while for him to trust you again but it will happen. Lots of patience.

[galadriel]

To make a horse comfortable with you, you must go out of your way to make your interactions pleasant for HIM. Things that you like, he may not like. So you have to spend a while learning about the horse, learning what he likes. Once you figure that out, you then need to spend some time doing (whatever it is that he likes) any time you handle him.

The first part of this article has a little more discussion of this topic:
http://lorienstable.com/articles/handling/100-catch/

[Guest]

I know uve already discussed this issue but I just wanted 2 let u know that my horse was ridden way 2 young 2, and now shes got a slayed back, which is when the horse's back is really curved, and it can never cure.Ok thats all I had 2 say