Yes, Faye, even for 5 seconds the reins should be put around the neck and secured. Reins get costly.
PF the people running your competition would fail their EA Level I Instructor Exam. How many people in your shoes have tried to do what you did? and you said it was his first time, so he has been trained by someone else. How many reins have been broken? How many horses pulled in the teeth with breaking the rein attached to the bit. They don’t have to disappear or be naughty, but just lower their head to rub an itch or graze.
Sorry but I will call them irresponsible. Just another thing that makes me shake my head while reading it.
We had 65 Mls of rain yesterday. So no riding today.
Hubby went to pick up a new quad for us, so won’t be home until tomorrow. I mean new for us. Ours is 17 years old and was a cheap brand to start with. It is taking too long to start as in days with hubby being a mechanic.
This one hasn’t done much work and everything works. Just that the seat needs to be recovered and hubby said he knows someone who can do that.
Suzie, I’m not sure what you mean. My horse was on the track, and then my trainer bought him. I’m sure he’s never even been on the trails, but he has extensive jumping training. I’ll ask my trainer next time I see him. But I do think some horses are just generally well trained, and act accordingly. Tay is generally laid back, so I think he was just feeling rewarded by standing still.
Well, I got my results back from my most recent dressage show. I only did T3. We did win the class, but my score as good as I wanted. But I do realize Tay has been off for a bit and we need to get back into training. Probably won’t be able to get good work in till March. There were only four riders in T3.
Our weather has been quite nice lately, the week before we had some crazy rain/wind and that was an interesting lesson, but this past week was perfect and we had some really nice rides!
I was reading another thread about refusals, and got me pondered a little. My boy has a bit of a stopping problem, but i wouldn’t put him in the dirty stopper category. Has he ever slammed on the brakes right before the jumps? Yes, but i felt like those are very few and far in between and was likely due to riders error. Most of you are aware, i rode a ton of saints in the past, I did very very rarely experience stops. Even TSH, super green and he has never stopped, scary jumps, liverpools, water, bushes, cross country obstacles, never stopped. My current cutie though, stops every other lesson, but come to think of it, maybe it’s my fault. He does require his rider to be confident and tell him what to do, and needed legs on for sure. If for whatever reason, distraction from the arena, track approaching jump was not right, and our pace and distance was not great, there is a high possibility of him stopping. I don’t feel scared, or get unseated (knock on wood) under these circumstances, partly because i know he can/will pull something like this, so I always stay tall and “let the pony jump first!”, the one time i got off before an oxer was because I saw the distance, and he didn’t and I jumped first, brakes slammed and I rolled off his shoulder. Am i frustrated with this? Yes. I am pondering my saints in the pasts, be it the Toffman, Bobster, or TSH, i don’t use anymore leg than i am with my cute boy now, perhaps some horse just needed more leg, and others doesn’t care.
Sorry for the long essay, but last week I had a fantastic lesson on him, we were jumping a left over course from the previous group, and the first round was done at 2ft, so everything was smooth sailing. Once it got back up to 2’6-2’9, we started to have some stops, once was because, not enough leg to the one stride line, from 2’9 to a cross rail (the other direction no problem lol), and the other time, totally my fault, bending line and as i was approaching the first jump, i looked at the 2nd jump like a good girl, and noticed the jump was knocked down and i was like uh oh, and he stopped, totally legit. I don’t even know why i’m typing all this but would love to hear from you to see if your horse needed a ton of leg support to jump, and I am just super lucky with the other boys in my life!
PF this training is done from the get go at our place. They stand still to be groomed, to be tacked, to be untacked, to be permoxined and to be medicated. They stay there while you go in and out of the tack shed and in the old days when I had to go down to the house to answer the house phone.
If I say halt on the lunge, Stars will stay halted until I leave to get the manure fork from the other side of the arena, remove the manure and put the fork back. They stay still if I am anywhere from leading with them walking next to me with no lead as the reins are around their neck from the tack shed to the arena and I have to go back because I have forgotten something like my phone or whatever. They will stand still to have their hooves, oiled or trimmed or shod.
A halter and lead rope is just not necessary. They come when they are called. They stand still where told. I can control them with a look.
The coming when called they come whether they want to or not. I hopped off Andy one day out in the paddock to deal with a calf.
Andy was a 16.3hh black/brown TB off the track and raced 5 weeks before I bought him. I, as you know, ride dressage.
When I finished I turned around and Andy was gone. I had put the reins around the neck as I said, previously.
He was about 50 meters away having a grand old time running backwards and forwards up and down the fence line with next doors stallion.
ANDY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
Andy innocently. Whhaaat?
Come away from there.
Whhhhyyyy? This is fun.
Right now.
But Mum this is fun.
ANDY.
Oh okay %$$@%/^&. If you insist but I want you to know that I was having great fun and I would rather be over there playing with him than over here playing with you.
He walks to me.
GOOD BOY
Hubby 10 years of me saying he is letting Sim getting away with moving. Sim would take half a step and Hubby wouldn’t notice it. Within 5 minutes Sim is nowhere near where he started.
Me saying he moved. He moved. He moved again didn’t work. I gave up.
This is a horse I taught to stand still and hubby untrained him. I would come down on it when I worked with Sim but it was not often. He knows he can get away with it with hubby.
Until the day that hubby took it seriously and put him back every time he took a half step. Sim started standing still like a rock again, even when hubby left him to go down to the house to get permoxin.
This is our day to day handling. Our horses are not tied on a day to day basis of being ridden.
Stars when he arrived if you had the halter and put the lead rope to the ground seemed to be a signal for him to leave! Immediately and fast. We nipped that in the bud on day 1.
It doesn’t matter if the horse is a dressage horse, a trail ride horse, a racing horse, a reiner, a showjumper, a cutter, a showhorse or an eventer. It doesnt matter if the horse is trained western, English or PH. It is basic good horsemanship that starts with a horse leading when you click and not leading by following your feet because you have walked forward.
It shows that Tay was taught with good horsemanship. The competition telling you to just leave your reins on the neck is an example of bad horsemanship with a lot of repercussions, from people in the big wide world that they don’t even know.
You either put the reins secured around the neck as I said, or if the right length, you can leave the reins over the head and put them around one of the stirrups. Both of course should be run up.
I don’t think you ran up your stirrups when you got off to walk around him. If he had run off as Faye’s horse had done, both stirrups would have been banging his sides. If he goes past a gate and it flies out and catches the gate post, I will leave that to your imagination. If it is a person standing there instead, they can be hit in the head by a flying stirrup.
If he goes nowhere and stands still and gets an itch and turns around to scratch it with his teeth, they can get their teeth caught on the stirrup. When that happens they spin. As they spin the other stirrup is flying around at head height. You have to wait for the horse to fall over to get in there and try and get the stirrup out of their mouth.
So if you leave a horse, you leave it with no tack on so as it can not go and roll in your very expensive saddle! and break the tree. Or you leave what is on the horse so it is secured and the horse is not able to get caught in the reins or the stirrups. That still does not stop him rolling in your expensive saddle!
That is Good Horsemanship and another term for it is Common Sense. You can’t have one without the other.
Faye a lovely post from you as usual with you showing an open mind and wanting to learn. You have been like this from your first post on this thread. I said it out loud back then, and said you would go far with that attitude, and you have.
You give us enough information to see it in our heads.
This is one of two things basically. It is either a horse in pain and the higher height means taking off or landing is painful.
Or it is a confidence in jumping which is not quite there yet. Or confidence in his rider which is not quite there yet.
If the first one it can be costly to find the reason. Lowering the height will help.
If the second, lowering the height will help as well. You do not go back up in height, and then it is only gradually, only when he and you can do full courses, grids, patterns and exercises at the lower height blind folded with one hoof tied behind his back. There is a big jump from 2’ to 2’6" and 2’9" inches. Master all the mm in between gradually. You are not just training his body. You are training his mind as well.
@SuzieQNutter I adore your posts and descriptions of your horses (and husband!). If you ever write a book, I will buy it.
I have no real news, just a lovely lesson this morning after a really tough month professionally and personally. I walked thr horse down the road a bit afterwards and felt all my problems get a little lighter. Horses are amazing.
Awww thank you Sadie. I came in to hubby chortling one day. What was so funny?
A friend had sent me an email. How are you? How is hubby? How is the farm? How are the horses?
Hubby said it would take me 3 pages to respond!
You are right, being with the horses do make me happy.
The app for my work on the weekend glitched. I am experienced at the job, however it has gone to a new company who I now work for. So a new app.
Being experienced I was able to ditch the app and just go around 2 stores and take photos.
My phone ran out of battery and when recharged the app was working again so in the future I know to restart the phone.
I started putting the reports in when I got home so I did not ride and I did not help hubby with the fence.
I did not get to bed until after 10 pm. I had been up since 4am.
Sunday night we received 65 MLS which means we have to wait for the arena to dry out.
Monday morning I felt mentally and physically wrecked. I went and put the bread up in the local Supermarket and I came home and fell asleep on the lounge room floor for a couple of hours.
Tuesday I felt a bit better but a bit of a headache going up the stairs. This was a bit worrying, as I never get headaches.
Hubby brought the new quad home. It is bigger than our old quad. It is a Honda. Hubby said the Silvan sprayer on the back is worth $500.00
He put it in his locked shed. I guess I won’t get it until the seat has been recovered and also the front panel is frosted over so you can’t see your speed, gear etc. He thinks he can get that fixed as well.
This morning I felt a lot better and I am home, so I might get to play with Stars this afternoon.
Another thought I had at work. My chiropractor said that horses hurt themselves when they fall at speed. If they are cast and pulled around with ropes, etc it is slow and although seems awful, doesn’t seem to hurt their backs.
Falling over at canter is what does it. So them getting their teeth caught and spinning until they fall down is probably going to end up with a horse with their jaw out, their poll out and their back out. Not to mention to whether they hit their legs and step on themselves.
Put your stirrups up whenever you dismount. It takes less than a second. It cost nothing. Not doing it could cost a lot.
I just popped in to say hi! I think leaving dressage place was good for me. I LOVE my new H/J place and both the instructors I’ve learned from so far are excellent. So so aware of body mechanics, horse and rider, AND know how to teach it. Plus the longer lessons (about 45 min for a private vs my 30 at dressage place) is giving me more time, and with time comes comfort. I’ve been going to the other H/J place that does drop-in adult beginner classes, and those have been a really good addition too. Those classes are about 60 minutes (though we tend to run longer), and while the instruction isn’t as technical, I feel like it gives me time to practice and feel what I learned from my more technical instructors. Plus I’m with 3-4 other adult riders, who are all ahead of me though not by a crazy amount, so I’m learning a lot watching them!
I’ve done a couple privates now where I’ve finally started feeling rising trot to be comfortable, and have moved onto sitting trot AND canter! This after over a month, at 3 lessons a week, at 20m circles on a longe unsuccessfully doing rising trot…
Anyway, I’ve loved the horses I’ve ridden so far too. All in all, feeling positive and excited!
LOL AQ. Lessons on the lunge are so beneficial and the way to learn.
I can tell you 2 lunge stories.
When Franz Mairinger was invited to the SRS he had been very successful riding and winning to be invited.
They put him on a stallion on the lunge.
After ages they called for another stallion as he was still not right.
My anecdote is that as an instructor you can tell from one glance if someone can ride. This girl turned up and wanted a lunge lesson. She was riding 3 horses a day and OMG could she sit. All I could think was why did she want a lunge lesson?
So I gave her a lesson. I tried to keep it interesting. I threw every exercise I knew and could think of at her. She nailed them all.
I was not surprised when she did not turn up the next week.
The week after I saw her as I was walking past working, and she was mot booked in with me but the Grand Prix rider instructor.
I just said jovially Oh you’re back.
YES AND EVERY WEEK FROM NOW ON.
The emphasis she put on the words wheeled me around and I asked Why?
Because after that lesson you gave me, I could not get out of bed for 3 days.
Aerial, glad you found the best riding situation for yourself. Sounds like you’re doing well. Yay! Riding three times a week will help you progress faster than those on the one-a-week track.
Well, sadly I dropped out of the RRP TB Makeover. Not that I wanted to, but – and I know this is going to sound really odd to most of you – but they had a waiver/release that I couldn’t sign in good consciousness. Sigh.
I am thinking of opening up a topic on the FAL about waivers/releases just to see what others think. Do most folks read them and understand them? I know some folks don’t care, and that is fine. I just am picky on which shows I go to based on the release. Bummed I won’t be taking Surgey to the Makeover.
Oh absolutely, and I might have forgotten to mention: new H/J place has had me on the longe too! But at H/J place, they took away my reins (which dressage place didn’t do) and honestly, I kind of love it. It’s helping me isolate and work on my legs and seat so much more, even though it’s kind of nervewracking (psychological I know). I love both horses they have me riding: one is a big 17h boy and another is smaller, like 15h? Both are lovely. I did feel more confident on the smaller guy though, and that’s who I rode for cantering on longe, no reins (but I gripped the saddle–I am not that good…ha!). I’m a shorty so being that high up on 17h boy is a little…daunting.
@SuzieQNutter lol to that story!! But kudos to you for challenging her, and for her for rising to it, despite not being able to get out of bed!!
@ParadoxFarm Ahh such a bummer about RRP. I’d like to applaud you, however, on 1. reading through the waiver (the number of people that do not, not just in riding but in any other legal situation); and 2. walking away when uncomfortable. I have a legal background and it drives me nuts to see people who just blindly sign. You don’t have to sign…good on you, though I am sad for you and Surgey!
Well I have managed to get out and work with Stars for 3 days.
He has had time off as he was lifting his head and neck in the walk trot transitions and then the rain and my work.
I have spoken about work with my employer so the app should work better and nothing to put in afterwards. I told him about being up until 10.30pm putting them in after getting home. I did not ride. I did not help hubby with fencing. I am a morning person and it knocked me about mentally and physically the next day.
He said I can put them in the next morning as long as it is by the start of the business day. YAY.
I will have to finish and tell you how Stars is going later as I have run out of time.
PF I didn’t go to the local show when EI was here. You had to sign to say if an outbreak happened that the horse would stay there for a certain period at such and such expense.
My answer was a firm NO and I actually have never been to that show and we have been here about 17 years now.
AQ lunging is done with a rider with a horse in side reins. So the rider cannot have reins. If I do give them reins they are attached to the rings on the side of the cavesson and not to the bit.
*Jump = 12” crossrail. But it was my first time over anything in eleventy-hundred years, so it was the perfect size. My horse was so funny — we’ve been doing cavaletti lines and ground pole exercises for quite a while, and he had clearly set his expectations for more of the same. But when we started down the line and he saw there was a “fence” (to use the term very loosely) at the end, his ears pricked right up and he went over with the most delighted attitude. We both felt very bold and proud of ourselves.
I was pleased to learn that I still love to jump, but that I’ve developed a bit more caution and reflectiveness since I last went tear-assing around a cross-country course. LOTS of things that used to be automatic are still not, but I’m patient and happy for the journey to take as long as it needs to take.
AtC, great that you enjoyed your lesson and found your love for jumping again!!! We do tend to get more cautious when we get older! For sure. But enjoy it. I am looking forward to spring when I can start jumping again. The winter arena is really quite messy, so I don’t often jump much.
@SuzieQNutter Thank you as always for your compliment and your thoughtful response. I think sometimes i let my emotions get in the way, and what you wrote makes total sense. I do think the answer is confidence, both him and myself. He is lacking confidence because he’s still green, and I’m lacking confidence because he’s still green LOL. Good thing is unless we are over faced, the stops are 100% correctly on second try. We had a stop at a rollback to liverpool the other day, it was his first time jumping a liverpool so we gave him another try and it was a success.
@ParadoxFarm. I am super supportive of you dropping out of RRP even though it sucks so bad. Fully respect on the waiver language, I’m curious if you are willing to share what broke the deal?
@AerialEQ. Haha, Aerial and I go way back when we met each other doing our other sports (skiing and snowboarding!) Let me reassure you how amazing you are doing with the short time you’ve been riding!
This weekend, we had some really good but mentally tough lessons. Home boy was freshly clipped, and the wind decide to pick up and he was feeling a bit fresh. I was talking with my friend who ridden him before and she shared her sentiment with me (she’s way more advanced). The thing with riding home boy is that he can do two things when he the jump is questionable to him 1. Stop, so make sure you are shoulders back so you don’t roll down his shoulder 2. Way over jumps it. So you either have to be ready to give him his head so you don’t catch him in his mouth and really be prepared to fly.
Faye when you clip a horse you should leave the saddle area unclipped. This cannot be seen when the saddle is on and if not done the very short hairs are uncomfortable to the horse as they rub the wrong way under the saddle, adding to the fresh clipped attitude.
You will find the saddle area starts shedding pretty quick.
I’ve always always seen horses with saddle area unclipped , but this barn didn’t leave it which is weird
And I’m also not used to clipping done this late either
But it was my first time over anything in eleventy-hundred years, so it was the perfect size. My horse was so funny — we’ve been doing cavaletti lines and ground pole exercises for quite a while, and he had clearly set his expectations for 
more of the same. But when we started down the line and he saw there was a “fence” (to use the term very loosely) at the end, his ears pricked right up and he went over with the most delighted attitude. We both felt very bold and proud of ourselves. 
