HA – I know next to nothing about STBs and the way they are trained, but I know that most of them DO travel in some sort of device that keeps their head up (like an overcheck), so I’m not surprised she is stiff.
First, help me out by describing your set-up – you say she is nervous outside the arena, but then you mention galloping her in a field. How far is this field from your arena?
If I were you, I would try alot of the natural horsemanship sort of ground work (of which the ORS is one) – not necessarily round-penning, but the in-hand stuff. The purpose of most of these exercises is to remove “braces” or blocks from the horse – in other words, stiffness.
I’ve also found it really helps establish a bond between horse and handler as well and gets the horse to really focus and trust you. The gal I told you about who did the vocal cues spent almost 6 months on ground work on this horse before she got on him – one of the exercises she did was to walk next to him (remember always do both sides) and – on a totally loose lead rope – the horse had to “match” her pace. And I mean, EXACTLY. So his ears never got past her shoulder/arm. When she walked slowly, so did he. When she turned he did as well. If you’ve ever trained a dog to heel – it’s like that.
There are alot of great dvd’s out there by Parelli, Clint Anderson, Buck Brannaman, Peter Campbell, Martin Black, John Lyons – LOTS of guys. You don’t have to stick to one particular method, but the goal is to establish a stong leader/follower bond, reduce stiffness or braces in the horse, and to teach them to turn to you in times of trouble, rather than just reacting. I am firmly convinced all of this stuff will pay big dividends when you get the horse going u/s.
You don’t have to buy the dvds – there use to be a place online that rented them – try Googling and see what you come up with.
Also there is a GREAT book on horse stretches, but you can find alot of the movements online if you Google “carrot stretches.” If you start each training session with this, I bet you’ll find it helps loosen her up.
And you do need to start getting her out of the arena. If you aren’t confident enough to ride her (and that’s ok), take her on long walks. If you have another solid riding horse and feel comfortable doing it, there is nothing better than ponying them, so that is another option.
Meanwhile, start exposing her to “scary stuff” in the arena (start with you on the ground) – use your imagination – and gradually she will start to learn to accept weird stuff if you say it’s ok.
Now, when you are riding her, are you trying to get her to come forward into the contact or are you riding her on a loose rein? I guess I’m asking what sort of “style” you are trying to train her in.
If it was me, I would bag the gallops for now. IMHO the MOST important aspect of working with a greenie is to keep them relaxed, and galloping the way you described really doesn’t do that – in fact, as I mentioned before, it tends to do the opposite.
Hope this helps alittle…
