RE: [RC] New Horse Training Questoins - Rae Callaway
I just started with my 4 year old this year. We saddle broke him
shortly around 3 1/2. I've got a great trainer that will do this for me in
30 days and give me back a horse with just the bare basics, but is not afraid of
anyone climbing aboard. For the next couple of months, until he turned 4, I
did mostly arena work with him - 2 times a week and we worked on turns, stops,
walk & trot and a little on flexing and moving off my legs. Once a
week, I would take him on a mini trail ride - usually less than an hour and
always at a walk, but we'd go through puddles, over logs, under bridges and past
lovely garbage piles. When we got to the point where 30 minutes of trot
work in the arena didn't tire him out, I started upping the trail work. We
kept the arena lessons to once a week (with a trainer), and upped the trail work
to 2 times a week. One time out was short and easy - like before.
The second time we would take him to our conditioning trails. We started
with hour rides, about half n half walk/trot, but breaking it up a lot (walk a
bit, trot a bit, etc). The trail was an optional 7 miles, depending on
which loops you took, so we started with just going 4 miles, then over two
months, worked up to 7 miles, same speeds. When he was comfortable with
the 7 miles at half & half, we started increasing the amount of time at the
trot. When we got up to about 2/3's of the time trotting - mostly in one
block of trot - we added some distance. It took about 2 months to get to
this point. Next step was to add some distance, so we changed trail to a
12 mile loop and went back to half & half walk/trot for about 4-6 weeks and
slowly increased trotting distance. Occasionally, during all these months,
I would give him an entire week off. I figured the rest would do him
good.
I entered him in his first LD at 4 1/2. We only did the
first loop, but not because he was getting tired or stressed in anyway - I had
hurt myself that morning and couldn't face a second loop with the pain.
:o( He did fantastic. What really helped to convince me that he was
ready was two weeks before, we got lost on a trail and did close to 20 miles in
about 4 hours. He was tired after that, but nowhere near exhausted and
still pretty perky when we got back to the trailer. His second LD was two
weeks from the first and we completed in 5:06 (just 9 minutes to spare) and he
was great. The slow pace was very similar to our conditioning rides and he
had his buddies traveling with him, so there was minimal stressing out for
him. I was very pleased. Our next ride isn't until the end of
December, but even though he's getting in better shape, I still plan to keep a
similar pace. My plan is to do 4 - 5 hour LD's until he's 5, then plan
from there.
Hope this helps some. :o)
Rae
Tall C Arabians - Central Region
-----Original Message----- From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of
MARDEBLINE@xxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2003 9:32
PM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] New Horse
Training Questoins
I am about to purchase a 3 1/2 year old Arab. I have always
purchased conditioned horses to ride, but now I want to train and condition my
very own. I know this is a big undertaking but it is something I have
always wanted to do!
I will use the John Lyons breaking system (I have used this
before on cutting horses and it works great) so this is not my
question.
My question for those of you that have done this before is after the
breaking process which could take 90 days in the round pen and arena -- what
next?
How many days a week on trail?
How long?
At what speed?
When should a very slow 25 be tried? (a big questions that I will be
the only one that can answer.)
I hope to have most of the de-spooking done in the arena -- but I also
know that even with my seasoned horse we still find bears in the woods.
I want this horse to be all it can be -- so fast, top 10 or
winning is NOT in the near future. Just solid good horse that
loves what he does and what I am asking him to do!
