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RE: [RC] [RC] Thinkin' about trail training - Laurie Durgin

Good thinking. Even John Lyons says a Trail horse has to be better trained than a horse you ride in an arena.
I learned with my 'spooky mare" that one or two new things ok.
But windy treebranch dropping days with loose horses coming out of shadows, with flapping tarps on the bales, then Neighbors cannon being shot under her nose all add up to a good fall on the ground with the saddle slipping in the spin and bolt, sitrrups flying off,etc.
You then have a horse who is jumpy for several attempts to ride her. You get to go back to flopping the stirrups till she gets calm,You get to stand on a rock and jump off it all round her till she calms down, and thinks you are stupid. (and you get a sore hip again, remember the fall 3 months ago?)Then you have to go back to having her tied or held while you mount as she decides she doesn't want to stand still for mounting any more and goes back to her early behavior.
No one can make you feel stupid without your permission.(I think E. Rossevelt said somehting like that) Laurie


From: Chris Paus <paus@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [RC]   Thinkin' about trail training
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 08:34:03 -0800 (PST)

My experience this weekend got me to thinking, a lot.
The clinicians I don't think were inherently bad
people but they were completely clueless about what is
appropriate training for real trail horses vs trail
class show horses!

I'm sure they are in the group of people who use the
phrase "just a trail horse" as if that requires less
skill, conformation and brains than a show horse.

Maybe for the new riders and for those of us who need
gentle reminders from time to time, what are qualities
you value in a good trail horse. How do you train that
horse. What's important to you?

This weekend, I learned a lot about my own gut
instincts and what not to do with horses, LOL! I feel
bad about asking my mare to do something that was
foolish and unwise. She and I both will be OK. I'm
glad she got through to her thick headed human before
we had a wreck.

She is the third horse of my own I've had under
training for distance riding and the first I've
started from the ground up all by myself. In the past,
I've taken horses who already are schooled to the
saddle and teach them about trails and competition.

Here's what's important to me:

1. Lessons I've learned from my mentor.. never ask
anything of your horse that is foolish or unwise AND
your ultimate goal is for your horse to believe that
as long as you are on it or near it, nothing bad will
happen.

2. One must know when to urge and when to listen to
the horse. I don't want BLIND obedience from a horse
and that seems to be what so many trainers are
striving for. I want a horse who can THINK on the
trail and solve problems.  I need to be able to trust
a horse to tell me when something is wrong. And the
horse needs to be able to trust me when i tell it that
this is OK, go forward.

As goofy as my gelding Star can be, he has saved our
hides more than once by recognizing danger that I
didn't see and refusing to go where I was pointing
him. When I figured out what was wrong, I thanked him.
Ali proved herself by stepping over and around the
christmas lights obstacle instead of stepping into the
middle of them as we were instructed to do. I don't
want a horse who will blindly go into a hornet's nest
or rattlesnake den just because I tell him to go
there!

3. It takes years to develop a good competition trail
horse whether you do endurance or CTR or ride and tie
or CMO.. You need to take the time to let the horse
learn and understand what is expected of it, to gain
confidence in its own abilities and to develop and
strengthen bone, muscle, cardio and ligament and
tendon tissue. That doesn't happen overnight. It
happens through careful training.

We don't take our horses out on a long trail ride in
the woods if they've never done such a thing before in
their lives. We usually get another experienced horse
and rider to go with us and show the greenie how it's
done. We do it in small increments, building up the
horse's stamina and confidence. If we are smart, we
don't throw everything at the horse at once.

I figure one or two new experiences in a lesson is
PLENTY.

4. Asking too much too soon causes trouble in any
horse activity. I've seen bad wrecks at endurance
rides when people take a horse they don't know and ask
it to do things it doesn't know. Bad combo. Take time
to get to know the horse and introduce the horse to
the things it will need to know, if you just bought a
new horse. It is different if you purchased a seasoned
campaigner or are riding one for someone else and you
already have some experience of your own. But if
you've never done this and your horse has never done
it, take some time to learn before you expose the
horse and yourself to a real competition.

I asked too much of my horse on Saturday and nearly
had a meltdown. I should have quit after she quietly
walked into the barn and stood there watching the
demo. At that point, she did something very well that
she had never done before in her life, and that was
enough for that day.

5. If your gut instinct tells you something is wrong,
despite what an "expert" tells you, then go with your
own feelings. you'll never be sorry for saying no, but
you might really regret contininuing on. I lost a
horse to a broken leg because I listened to someone
who I thought knew more than me in a situation. My gut
told me no, but this person told me it would be fine.
My gut was right. My horse died.

Anyway, what are your thoughts?

chris





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"A good horse makes short miles," George Eliot

Chris and Star

BayRab Acres
http://pages.prodigy.net/paus
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The two best drugs to have in your kit are Tincture of Time and a Dose of
Common Sense. These two will carry you through 99.999% of the problems
associated with horses and endurance competition.
~ Robert Morris

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