Bless your heart
Donezo! All hail the queen.
I certainly hope the OPâs issues arenât this badâŠbut in all honesty, with some REALLY sour lesson horses who have âdecidedâ that they will only work for a certain period of time/ wonât do more of a lap of a canter before getting back in line (like at a horse camp), wonât trot over poles, or whatever because experienced riders havenât been on them in so longâŠit can be very hard to untrain. Iâve seen a few small ponies that rarely have adults on them, and when the small, experienced adult tries to show them who is bossâŠwell, things get ugly for a bit!
Anyway, OP, I think the consensus is, in an ideal scenario, if you want to continue with this horse, in this order:
- Get at least one lesson on a horse other than Earl. Work on your position.
- Get at least one private lesson on Earl (even a short one, if you donât have a huge budget) when youâre the only horse in the arena, before doing a group lesson again. Work on learning to use your inside and outside reins to keep him in a chute.
- Go back to your regular lessons, with your instructor alerted to your issues and a game plan to fix them.
2 Likes
When you say Earl was ridden quite a bit, do you mean on the day you donât lease him? How many lessons does Earl and other horses at the barn usually do?
Iâm glad you are managing with the new horse, and although not great for Earl, riding many different horses is great at the beginning of your riding career. I hope he works out even if you say he seems sour. Again, with a lesson format of a large group lesson, thatâs not an uncommon thing, especially if there are horses standing in the inside of the ring.
1 Like
Sorry to hear Earl hurt himself; if the injury was after your last lesson, he likely was just being sour and continuing to test you.
Riding other horses at this early stage in your learning will help you so much. When I first started riding, the lesson barn I had was filled with suitable lesson horsesâŠsome that needed more experience of course. I didnât often ride the same horse for many lessons in a row which was fine by me because much of the fun was feeling how a different horse felt to ride. It also gave me a lot of confidence when getting on a new horse and that confidence stayed with me for decades.
I did eventually lease a horse when I started doing 4-H shows, and then was able to buy said leased horse and continued to show her in 4-H and at local circuits through high school. But I also still rode and showed other horses as well in the show string. When I went to college and rode through their equine program, it was the same story. Different horse each lesson for the most part. It was shocking to me that so many seemingly good riders could, as it turned out, only ride their horse well. When they were put on a school horse for lessons (they could only ride their own in privates), the wheels would fall off and sometimes quite quickly.
I would encourage you to ride as many horses as you can, it will only help to build your skills and confidence and will help you learn how to handle a multitude of different quirks and horse feels.
3 Likes
I knew one horse who would go into the middle of the ring during a lesson and stretch out as if to pee but would just stand there. The rider would be sitting up there waiting for him to âfinishâ until the instructor saw him and told her to get him moving.
5 Likes
That is truly next level procrastination @Spudsmyguy. I am in awe!
One barn I rode at got very expensive new footing in the indoorâthe rule was you had to stop and pick up the poop from the indoor immediately. The ponies learned very quickly that pooping meant a ten minute break for the rider to dismount, wait for the traffic to subside, get the bucket and pitchfork, and clean it all up, then remounting.
4 Likes
There has been a lot of philosophical discussion here.
From a tactical perspective, this is what I would do (and NOT dependent on having a perfect position or aids).
Pick up a canter. Go part way around the ring. BEFORE he has a chance to cut in, transition down to trot and walk (still on the rail). Check/reorganize you position, then pick up the canter again, transitioning down before he has a chance to cut in.
When you can do this successfully all the way around the ring multiple times, go a few more strides before the transition. And so on.
15 Likes
UhâŠ
2 Likes
Earl, reading COTH from his sick bed: âCHALLENGE ACCEPTED.â
22 Likes
2 Likes
Pulling the outside rein to make him go out when cantering.
There are 6 gates. 2 reins. 2 legs. 2 seatbones.
If you pull the outside rein, that is one gate. They can still go through the inside gate shoulder and go where you donât want. You need to close more gates to get him to go through the open gate to the outside track.
5 Likes
Just cant get over sone of these threads where beginners pay money to get sketchy to bad instruction and pay to ride totally unsuitable horses that rarely, if ever, get any kind of correction or even initial training in what they are supposed to do. These places just throw novice riders on them and hope novice can get the horse trained up and pay to â trainâ them. Thats how riders get hurt and these poor horses end up at the lower end auctions, or worse.
OP cant even canter around the ring on a horse shes paying to ride in lessons shes paying for. Now that is the real BS.
Oh, donât blame prior owners for letting him â get awayâ with things. Blame them for never teaching him what to doâŠthen again, they may not have known how, vicious circle.
At one time Earl was trained and expected to behave if he was pulling a cart in a big city. But did anybody teach him to go under saddle? Urban Cart horses donât canter. Should not be surprised he is reluctant to do so, especially if nobody ever consistently worked on teaching him how.
Recipe for failure. OP might look to ride elsewhere, this doesnât sound like a fun way to spend money riding willing horses. Sounds more like frustration and confusion for horse and rider.
The better lesson barns routinely put more advanced students on the schoolies to tune up behavior and correct the bad habits novice riders cant deal withâŠand those advanced riders do not pay for the â privilegeâ of tuning up some stinker thatâs been taking advantage of novice riders who are paying to ride them.
12 Likes
The maple syrup cart part of the story doesnât make sense to me. Every cabane Ă sucre Iâve ever been to, if they have horses, has draft horses or draft crosses for pulling, and ponies for petting. I donât see how a fine-boned appendix fits into what a cabane Ă sucre would need, horse-wise.
It feels more like a fun backstory that someone in his life decided to give him somewhere along the way.
8 Likes
i watched a pony in a show yesterday who went three timesâŠwaiting in the shade saddled inbetweenâŠsnort about 10 times in the ring each time. Wondered at the time if this was an evasion. Guess it was. Iâve never witnessed this before. Good to know!
I never discount the possibility previous owners or current trainer just make up stories or flat out lie about a horses history to cover the truth. They donât know and wonât share it came from the auction and will go right back there if they donât work out,
There are many ways a horse can try to evade work, snorting is not one of them. Whoever came up with that?
3 Likes
Oh it absolutely is. Not every time, of course. If theyâre snorting repeatedly and then suddenly it stops when I halfhalt and put my leg onâŠguess there wasnât a nose bother after all. Or same situation, and the only thing I do is say sternly âalright, enoughâ and it stops.
Snorting can 100% be a way to convince the rider to let a little rein out and them lower their head.
1 Like
With this kind of behavior I always want to know if the horse is responding to real discomfort or if itâs âjust an evasion.â
1 Like
In my experience Iâll often get a series of snorts as the horse warms up and relaxes/releases tension. Iâve always considered this to be a positive thing, not any sort of evasion.
12 Likes
