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Re: [RC] Fear - Karen Sullivan----- Original Message ----- From: <rides2far@xxxxxxxx> I think it's a matter of percentages. You start keeping score the day you get hurt. As of that day 100% of the time you ride, you get hurt. After one "non injury" ride it drops to 50%, then 33, then 25, then 20... When it gets down to about 3% or so you relax again. :-) Angie *Interesting; since I am a nit-picky score keeper and log keeper. I log every ride. I can tell you the current 4 year old has 121 rides this year so far between my daugher and me...some of those include very brief jaunts like off the property bareback alone.... But I have always operated under the delusion that with the young ones, they learn by habit and repitition; therefore, if you get something like 100-200 rides with no wrecks or upsets, you are fairly safe along the way to a steady horse. This has more or less served me fairly truly; although you certainly have to take the disposition into consideration. But also remember, and this is the reason I want no more green horses <g>!, is that someone has to do those initial miles and cues, and be the one on the horses back when the hiker appears on the horizon with inflatable turtles on his back (happened to my friend). So I also look to as many things to do with the young horses to expose them to the world BEFORE I have to crawl on their backs (pony out wiht saddles and flapping stuff on, etc) I am 48, with a family, and have no desire to get tossed off, therefore, spins, bucks and bounces are fairly unacceptable. I guess my approach at this point is to do a lot of boring, calm trail rides where the obedience to the rider becomes automatic or as close to it as you can get....before dealing with groups, fast horses, or moving out.....BUT, BUT, my eventual goal is to develop a horse that is pretty much bombproof and independent of what anyone else does.... This ties into the problem one poster was having with the 4 year old bucking at the canter or when starting to move out. I know with my current 4 year old, I have to back WAY up to undo all the fast stuff the trainer did (before I bought her)....and do all these low key, boring, controlled rides. I DO believe some horses need to do a year or so of just plain trail riding (mostly walk, some trot and only canter in safe places).....to develop the confidence. In other words, forget the conditioning program and moving out until you have a steady horse that is both physically and mentally ready. But this is coming from a perspective of being much less gutsy than I used to be....so maybe some folks enjoy 4 year olds that buck a the canter; just beware that some of that stuff can become a pattern...and you might end up " creating" a horse that always does some litle bucks it's whole life in exciting situations. Easier to prevent it initially than cure it!!! Again, thats stuff that, at my age, just not acceptable. If it takes me another year of dull trail rides, so be it........anyway, my current 4 year old is not going on those group rides with moving out....just with another friend or two....but my 5 year old, after this sort of start, is now pretty steady in groups. Anyone want to know how many rides I have on her??? Karen (always an opinion!). =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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