Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

It's not too unusual for a youngster not to want to move forward the first time a rider gets on his back.   I think it changes his balance.  Imagine walking with a child on your shoulders.  When I was younger I just did whatever it took to get them to move on, usually out in the open, sometimes with exciting results.

 

Now we start them loose in the round pen so that they're used to moving forward, changing directions, stopping - you know the drill.

 

Then (with careful preparation) when a rider is on their back and still in the round pen, someone on the ground cues them to move forward.  Because this is what we've been doing all along, it makes sense to them.  When that is going well, the rider squeezes a little or clucks just before the trainer moves the colt forward.  When the colt has the idea and is relaxed,  walking and maybe trotting around quietly,  we phase out the trainer on the ground.

 

This works well, no rodeos, no stress - they learn fast.

 

Nancy Sturm

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Ed Kilpatrick

To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: 2/9/2005 5:19:24 AM

Subject: [RC] training question

hi cathyrn,  jonni's advice is good on this.   you need to teach these young horses to walk,trot, turn left and right, and stop when you tell them to, on the ground before you do it from the saddle.   when you say round pen work, i dont know if you mean free lunging or not.   i much prefer to work a young horse in a halter and leadline.   teach them the basics on the ground.  since you say that you are inexperienced, i would recommend that you tune in to rfdtv and watch some of those clinton anderson shows about starting young horses.  or better yet, get his dvd series.  then main reason i would recommend him, is that his methods are very simple, easy to understand, easy to learn, and they work very well.       cowboy ed