Making of a hunt horse, re: Look, here comes Festus!

[SLW]

So, a fabulous gal from the hunt who just moved into my area wanted to ride yesterday to school the trails on one her geldings that is being a twit w/ her outside of hunting conditions. I trailered over to give my yearling (the up and coming hunter ) a trailer ride, then pony him over new trails.

Arrived, we saddled up and went down the road onto the Lake land taking in a perfect spring day. My young guy pony’s like a dream- keeps his nose at my toes and stays off me. We encounter our first creek crossing- perfect because he has never done a creek crossing. Yup, he stopped & balked. My friend got behind him and pushed w/ her horse and “varrrroooom”, the youngin’ leapt as far as he could but still landed in the wide creek and banged my right leg in the process. No big deal- he did the creek w/ minimal issues. This repeated at the next 2 crossings and I was thinking “dang I’m glad he’s a short Quarter horse yearling and not something larger.” with each bang as he tried to land as close to my little mare as he could.

By the fourth crossing going out he was doing very well and on the ride back over the same 4 crossings he was walking through the wide creeks like a veteran hunter.

LOL, by nightfall my right leg was trashed out. Those first hits took their toll with bruising on my calf and ankle to the point I’m walking like Festus from Gunsmoke but I’m smiling because Kindergarden Fox Hunter class is going well.

[Delphia]

Sounds like a successful outing and a young’un with a good mind!

Getting miles and hours in control of a young horse is a good thing. If one has a contained setting and a horsey quorum ( more than three ) then one may be able to temporarily remove the lead and have the young’un just come along for some of those first bumpy encounters of the real world. Of course, teaching them to pony on a lead through scary situations is very useful.

A note: Do not try unmounted lead across boggy ground: a horse that doesn’t like the footing will aim for the most solid looking ground. Horse presumes you are standing on the only suitable real estate and you will get horse jumping onto your toes. I have seen folks try to pony or ride a horse across a ditch without success, dismount, cross on foot, and then pull horse on top of themselves. :no: Ugly!

[JSwan]

Bwwaaahahahahaha:D

It rained a lot yesterday and there was a huge puddle in front of the gate. I let the horses out (they’d been in for a few hours eating hay cuz I don’t want them gorging on spring grass)

Every one quietly walked out of the barn through the gate, right through the big puddle - except John Peel. (aka bam bam, aka No John, aka Dammit stop that)

oooo - scary puddle! And he took a giant leap, cleared it, and galumped away.

So walking through water was added to my list of things to do with this horse.

Ain’t young horses fun??? :D:D:D

[Catersun]

big smile

This is why I love reading the hunting board… good stories and big smiles.

[Equibrit]

I had the giant leap problem with my youngster recently, over a 4 foot ditch with a very safe bottom. He wouldn’t follow the horse ahead and I didn’t want to leap on foot and then get trashed by him. The answer was to choke up on the reins whilst leading him and make him follow me down into the ditch and back up the other side. Got wet feet, but didn’t get a horse in my lap!

[Painted_Wings]

My just turned three year old is crossing deep creeks very well. Last summer all of our creeks were dry so no place to school. Now they are all very deep. She’s doing great now and I have no doubt she’ll be ready for a few outings next season. The coming four year old is a champ and has actually already hunted once.

[SLW]

Dephia- your onto something about not leading them through boggy ground because they’ll presume your standing on the solid part and nail you. As I was rubbing Icy Hot on my leg last night (and sipping an ice cold Corona) I told my dear husband it was like the youngin was trying to plant his hooves exactly where my mares hooves were, the effect being to jump into her and so what if I was sqashed in the process.

And I tip my hat to all of us schooling various water crossings w/ our beloved, and the hopeful, foxhunters!!!

[wateryglen]

I’ve cheated!

I’ve cheated kinda…my 2 greenbroke fillies are crossing water all by themselves out on our first trailrides!!! They stop look, snort, put heads down to sniff/eat grass on the bank, walk across etc. No big deal…MAYBE its because we have a stream running thru a corner of our property that they play in sometimes!! :winkgrin: On hot summer days they’ll come in with wet legs & splash marks all over them from pawing in the stream.
You can hate me now!!!

[Delphia]

wateryglen, you never know. Our born on the property foal would not cross a 2 foot wide seasonal stream found there. After 7 years, he got over it. Now at 13 he crosses creeks without too much fuss.

[tbmorgan]

I can still remember when my mare, Fire, was 3 and just backed and I took her out into the neighbor’s cow pasture for her first “trail ride.” My buddy came with me on her gelding, who was 2 years older and hence had 2 yrs. of riding mileage on my filly, fwiw. We came to the little creek that ran through the pasture and my girl splashed on through. My friend couldn’t get her boy to go, so Fire and I went back and forth several times across the creek to give him a lead. Finally, he looked like he was giving it some serious consideration so we stood on the opposite bank and waited for him to come along. He gave a huge heave-ho and leaped across…and landed riding pillion right behind me on Fire! Bless her sweet bones, my “bombproof” barely broke 3 yr old TB filly just stood there, going “what the #*%$!!” but she never moved a muscle while we got the big goober off of us! After that, for a short time, she was a little squirrely about horses coming up suddenly behind her but she did completely get over that pretty quickly…she’s just such a sane girl! That episode sure scared the bejeezers outta me though, I can tell you! The gelding was literally right behind me, with his front legs over my thighs, in the “doing the deed” position! Lucky for me I didn’t get squashed! I know that both Fire and I were very lucky not to be hurt that day (outside of just some minor bruises!) Oh yeah, there were at least 15 ft. of clear bank on either side of us…he just decided that we were standing on the only “good” patch of ground!
Fire just turned 25 last Sunday and to this day, she’s my best “point-and-go” trailriding buddy! Nothing fazes her. God, I love that mare!

Katja

[SLW]

Wateryglen- I’m pea green w/ envy about you having Pond Broke horses!!

Katja- what a wonderful story about your mare and having her all these years.

[Delphia]

Interesting that when one becomes a cropper how hard horse tries to not step on you, but given suspicious ground how willing they are to jump in your lap.

My 9 year old OTTB went nuts when requested to walk on a road shoulder past a small mark painted on pavement by a bicycling club, preferring the middle of the road instead. Of course with oncoming traffic.

Those of us who survive training our horses will just keep on doing it untill we can’t.

[wateryglen]

I digress here…

Speaking of pavement…I rode a fieldhunter in a 4th of July parade in Washington DC in a riding club I was in at the time. We rode in a paired formation down Constitution Avenue. NONE of the horses would step on the yellow lines! We had to ride between the lines on the black asphalt. Big brave hunter snorted and wouldn’t step on manhole covers, sewer drain openings and…painted lines!!! :lol:

[SLW]

Oh Wateryglen- done that, the “first time on pavement during a parade” thing and lived to tell about it.

I was driving one of my mini’s in an all horse Christamas parade. There were 100 horse pulled vehicles and 20 mounted units gathered at the large county fairgrounds. We were given a police escort for the 3 mile drive over to the parade start in downtown Lawrence, KS. Up to this point in my amauter owner horse career I considered myself not a risk taker…then my mini met the towering Mule Team with their heavy, loud wagon which was only slightly less overwhelming than all the bells on the horse’s harness. The bells I had used for proofing my guy were nothing like the beautiful bells we heard that day. The advantage of driving a mini is you mostly concern yourself with things that can be seen from 36"-40" high and lower. The disadvantage of driving a mini is they could conceiveably go “under” some big carraiges.

To the point, with oncoming auto traffic my guy got proofed on 1. On coming auto traffic 2. Painted street lines 3. Storm drains 4. Curbs 5. Mailboxes 6. Mailboxes with dangling Christmas garland 7. Black bags of trash set out curbside and 8. those dang Christmas “blow up” Yard figures that weeble and wabble in the wind.

My guy was a saint, only put his ear on odd things but never took a sideways step. Whew!

[Elegante_E]

Yeah, those babies love to be safely planted where mommy is. LOL. Remember that one when teaching trailering - catch me mommy!

I have a gelding who I’ve seen splashing playfully, knee deep in water from snow run off, but heaven forbid he step through a muddy creek - or even a puddle.

Lucky now as the mare I ride is great with water crossing and all sorts of stuff. My only worry was in a big stream when she pawed at the water. I know she was thinking it’s bath time!

[SLW]

Gotta love those creek crossings on the warm, late spring hunts when the big hairy horses linger to drink, then start pawing…Yikes!

And at the one week mark, post Kindergardener Foxhunting Class, the side of my right foot is perfectly blue. No sandels for me anytime soon.

Another COTH’er who came and hunted last w/ me once fall has a youngin and we plan on hooking up to pony the young stock together. At least I’ll be good for something at a creek crossing and be able to say “don’t do as I did”.

[TwoArabs]

The trail I rode every week had an irrragation ditch that fior some reason ibby hated. It was a constant battle. One day, I had the brilliabnt idea to lead him across. You guessed it. He did not even hesitated to jump into me, knocking me flat. Net time we enountered that ditch, he jumped it without a problem, but I ache just remembering.