Getting a green OTTB started over fences

[Mcl1]

@Bristol_Bay Thank you! I figured something like that had to exist. It looks like they don’t allow trials on plastic/rubber but definitely something I will keep in mind for the future.

@beowulf Great advice, I have ridden him in it a few times now and his canter is SO much more settled and open, which makes finding the jumps 1000x easier - but, it definitely has its downsides for him as well so I will keep it in the rotation (with some kind of rigged up strap) but probably keep trying new things as well before buying a different hackamore.

Just for fun - here’s a picture of my first ride on him and him now (I didn’t realize I was wearing the same shirt until I put them together) - he has gone up a girth size .

[ZuzusPetals]

Yeah, let me just take off this bridle WHILE MOUNTED. Your talents amaze me.

[glitterless]

No advice from me, but I have to chime in and add what a fun horse you have! He’s adorable and looks like he could entertain himself all day. Your mustang must have a ton of patience with him lol

[Mcl1]

@glitterless Thank you! They a quite the pair. The mustang is unquestionably the dominant one and it is so funny to see the TB follow his tiny little boss around. I was hoping that the calm, patient demeanor of the mustang would help the TB but instead the TB has brought out the playful side of the mustang….so now I just have two troublemakers .

[Live_Wire]

It is very clear how much you love your horse (rightfully so, he’s a handsome chunk!) so am confident saying you will not mess him up. Based off the videos you’ve shared, you’re doing a bang up job and you look to have a very good feel of him.

I don’t have a one size fits all approach to how I produce my horses but I will rattle off a few things I do that seems to benefit them all one way or another.

*I prefer to start everything in a cross country field - the spooky ones I’ll try to find a lead if I can to give them a little extra confidence. I feel like solid jumps etc are easier for them to digest when they’re green and it’s easier for them to find their rhythm

*I don’t drill small cross rails. Once they understand there is something there to go over, I bump them up to big X’s - it promotes a better shape and keeps them a little straighter

*I love a ground pole two or three strides after the fence. It teaches them how to rate themselves naturally without being overwhelming

*i really like jumping towards a the wall/fence and using that to encourage downward transitions

*if i do grid work, i usually do more ground poles than fences. I try to keep it to a minimum of two fences, never a vertical

*i prefer to encourage them to get the correct lead on landing rather than schooling a change when they’re green. If you have a wide enough arena to get straight before the fence (at a trot), I love setting a big X up parallel to the long side being mindful to weight my new outside heel on landing. If they get the right lead, I let them carry on for a 20m circle or until they’ve really settled into their stride. If they do not, no big deal, I do a slow transition to a halt on the long side letting them have a few steps at the trot, a few at the walk, and really letting my seat do the work. <-- hopefully that makes sense?

*I knot my reins so I’m not inclined to pull on their face and make it miserable for them

The long of the short: I try to do exercises that naturally allow them to pick the right answer.

FWIW - I like a flexible mullen with a D for the greenies. It’s soft, I’ve found most Thoroughbreds like a mullen, and the D helps with steering

[sassy]

Your horse is super cute! He’s a bit of a different type than my OTTB, but I have had great luck with a nathe full check snaffle on mine. I use the Trust Inno Sense flexi soft one in particular. I had been using a plain metal three piece snaffle, but I switched to the Trust bit and he’s been much more willing to come onto contact and not get so stuck behind the bit. So far it’s held up really well to being a pacifier too I am pretty sure they make a Pelham or something with some leverage.

The hunter princes side of me wishes it didn’t have the logo on the outside of the cheek piece but alas…

[Mcl1]

@Live_Wire Thank you for all the great suggestions! I did the landing on the lead exercise last night and it was super helpful! I have a perfect property to set up a cool little cross country course - if only the neighbors feral broodmares would stop running the fence line and inciting chaos when I ride out there.

@sassy Your guy is so handsome! I looked up that bit and they do make a Pelham version (although, fun fact - it costs more than both of my horses did combined ). But it looks like there are some knock off type ones as well that I could try first.

I think I’m going to try some kind of Mullen flexible or happy mouth D and go from there. He has still been going great in the hackamore for now, honestly it is like jumping a totally different horse.

[jvanrens]

A great ride agreed! I’ve done that before, but it’s a lot easier with a western bridle and I used the rein around the horse’s neck as a neck rope.

[dogsbody1]

@EventerAJ

This 15.2 Storm Cat grandson could be a little bit hot, but melted like butter when I trusted him enough to take the bridle off. He had been off the track for a little under a year in this video.

What an incredibly cool video!! Thanks for sharing

[Mcl1]

Update: I really appreciate everyone’s suggestions and have truly incorporated all of them! I greatly increased the amount of canter (and counter canter) work we have been doing and the difference is very evident.

I have left him in the hackamore until yesterday when I tried him back in the happy mouth Pelham (which did NOT go over well) so we immediately returned to the hackamore. I think this is his way of solidifying to me that he is a jumper and has no interest in participating in my hunter derby / equitation dreams .

I built more jumps yesterday so I could finally put a course together. He was SO good tonight (even when the neighbors mares started running which made his brother start running and screaming).

Certainly related to him getting more in shape and balanced at the canter - he has started to throw a clean L to R change pretty reliably (which he started completely on his own).

Here’s a few clips from tonight. He gets sticky in the corner closest to “home” but we are working on it.

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Now the question is when I will be brave enough to venture out to a schooling show .

[Ponyplusaninch]

You know one of the best things we did with my guy was took him to shows where he just sat and watched. Literally just took him out to walk and watch what all the other horses were doing. Didn’t show, but he spent a lot of time in the schooling ring and just getting into a routine. Doing that for 3 or 4 shows let him settle so that by the time we did walk in the ring, it wasn’t as big a deal. He knew the travel routine, the morning school routine, what it meant to walk into the show ring, etc. It took a lot of anxiety out of the situation and let us then focus on the items we’d been focusing on at home (like not getting strung out, lead changes, etc). If you’ve got the time and the budget, maybe start there?

[Trekkie]

@Ponyplusaninch

You know one of the best things we did with my guy was took him to shows where he just sat and watched. Literally just took him out to walk and watch what all the other horses were doing. Didn’t show, but he spent a lot of time in the schooling ring and just getting into a routine. Doing that for 3 or 4 shows let him settle so that by the time we did walk in the ring, it wasn’t as big a deal. He knew the travel routine, the morning school routine, what it meant to walk into the show ring, etc. It took a lot of anxiety out of the situation and let us then focus on the items we’d been focusing on at home (like not getting strung out, lead changes, etc). If you’ve got the time and the budget, maybe start there?

Absolutely this. Bring the baby horses to the environment without the pressure of competing. Let them take it all in and have a positive experience. Observe them and see where their anxiety shows up and then do things to ease their anxiety ie hand graze, hand walk, tack walk in the schooling areas, chill in a stall, etc etc. Break it down into bite size pieces instead of dumping them into a show and expecting them to perform all in one fell swoop. Some can handle that, many can’t.

[RAyers]

Horses are taught lead changes on the track.

One thing to stop doing is treating your horse as some baby who has never done anything. Yes, you are working on them to become a different type of performance horse but you should not discount the years of track training already under his belt.

They may not understand your way of asking for a lead change but they do know it. They also know how to work in crowded, frenetic spaces, how to move in a balanced frame, the natural aids, etc. Too many h/j folks dismiss the skills already ingrained in true OTTBs given to them on the track because they aren’t looking at track training methods.

These horses are “green” to what you want, but they are not green to a horse show environment. A schooling ring is not even close to the insanity of morning exercise/training rides at a track.

[Tha_Ridge]

Hear, hear! These horses are theoretically some of the most broke on the planet and treating them with kid gloves bores most of them to tears.

[nutmeg]

Those forest fires make for beautiful sunsets/sunrises, don’t they? Just love your videos, such perfect pace, light contact in the air and a happy horse. Don’t ever change

[Trekkie]

@RAyers

These horses are “green” to what you want, but they are not green to a horse show environment. A schooling ring is not even close to the insanity of morning exercise/training rides at a track

Some are more broke than others, and some have anxiety related to the track and race performance. Always good to assess for the first time or two I believe at a show environment with no pressure to see how they handle things. I knew a young OTTB who would melt down with anxiety when he heard the PA system. You never know what baggage they have or what the triggers are. Better to go slow than fast, at least at first, so you don’t make things worse unknowingly.

[Ponyplusaninch]

Blockquote These horses are “green” to what you want, but they are not green to a horse show environment. A schooling ring is not even close to the insanity of morning exercise/training rides at a track.

I hear you, but especially if they are primed to think getting off a van means they’re at the race track, it can take a minute (or several) to reprogram they are not at the track; the rules at home still apply to the rules at the show grounds even if there are lots and lots of other horses and various chaos happening.

The first time we took my horse off property to a show–and he’d been off property plenty with two previous owners going to things like clinics and xcountry schooling–he leapt off the trailer, bulldozed the person trying to stop him, and then would not chill. Rearing, prancing, screaming his head off. Acted as if he was about to hear the call to post at any minute whenever we tacked him to go school.

So sure yeah he may know the chaos of what it was like at the track for three years 40+ races but it still took time, better living through chemistry, and repetition for my guy to settle and be more like he was at home. YMMV Still a heck of a lot quicker than working with a green WB, I can vouch for that.

I think one is far better off going in with real low expectations–and some extra help you may or may not need–and then being pleasantly surprised. The last thing I ever want to do is set a horse up for failure.

OP, I don’t share my story to scare you but rather just an example that some TBs may need more time and help than others. There was another TB in our barn who turned up to his first show and was about as perfect as one could hope, just green. It’s a spectrum!

[nutmeg]

I always found that ear stuffies could make a remarkable difference to their highnesses when revisiting a track. Even at Capital Challenge when the tents are inside the track and galloping is going on.

[Grey623]

@Trekkie

You never know what baggage they have or what the triggers are.

Heh. I worked with a lovely OTTB mare some years ago and loved her to bits. Sensible, smart, hard working, athletic. Took her to a dressage show, perfect all the way, until we trotted around the arena to enter for the test, and the judge rang… the bell. I had never realized how much a hand rung bell could sound like a racetrack starting bell, but poor maresy was horrified, she dropped and bolted, was shaking when I got her stopped. I felt so bad for her, never gave it a thought until then.

Grey

[dmveventer]

@Trekkie

Some are more broke than others, and some have anxiety related to the track and race performance.

Yup. A lot of OTTBs are retired because they suck at being racehorses for whatever reason. We’re not all getting the veteran warhorse types. I’m pretty sure mine was moved on because he couldn’t handle the atmosphere on the track. Pretty much everything made him nervous when I first got him and big shows are still a work in progress. Not all of them come off the track in the same physical or mental place as others, you have to look at the horse in front of you and meet them where they are.

@Ponyplusaninch

I think one is far better off going in with real low expectations–and some extra help you may or may not need–and then being pleasantly surprised. The last thing I ever want to do is set a horse up for failure.

Amen to that.