Hi there, I’m a owner of two three years old reining horses. They are both nice in a different way, one very easy and the other one more sensitive, he is quite spooky. I have a trainer who ride them when I work but I can go to the stable three times a week. The problem is that every time I go to see them I feel quite frustrated because I can NEVER ride one of my horses(th sensitive one). He is very talented, my trainer says that he should ride him and after a while i could also but this time never comes. I’ve been riding for more than 25 years, I’ m conscious that my trainer is obviously a better rider than I am but the few times I could ride my horse everything went fine. My trainer put a lot of pressure on the horse because he thinks he’ s doing all the spooky reactions on purpose…do you think a horse can actually do that? What would you do, just let him ride the horse or try to get my horse back at least some times?
Thank you
It’s your horse, your decision. If you feel like you’re not allowed to ride your own horse, and the horse in question is within your ability to ride competently, that is reason enough to reevalulate the situation that the horses are in.
Three year old reining horses are by far not a “finished” horse that knows what it is doing and anyone can ride.
They are still learning a very exacting and difficult discipline.
Those geared to the Futurity need to be trained carefully, so they stay honest and don’t start anticipating or get bad habits like leaning into the circles or rushing their changes and that causing penalties once showing.
There are three year olds that are amateur friendly, will ride any one way they are ridden and those anyone can ride, the trainer will keep training and tuning them up.
There are other three year olds that are more complicated rides, the kind that one bad moment can throw their training off for several more, the kind that amateurs should stay off until they are fully trained, “finished”, so they don’t learn bad habits.
Sounds like you have one of each and, being an amateur, the one three year old is ok for you to ride, the other maybe better wait until it is further along?
That is why you have a trainer, hopefully a good trainer, that can bring your horses along as a professional will, properly and teach you on the one that is appropriate and have you wait on the other one that is a more complicated ride, not an amateur friendly one.
Being able to train and bring on a more difficult reining prospect is something better left to the professional.
No matter how many years someone has been riding, unless they have been riding professionally, they just rarely will get to become the kind of trainer a professional will be, why there are amateur show divisions.
I would be patient and let the trainer tell you when you can ride which three year old, according to what the trainer feels the three year old’s training and your riding match best.
You need a new trainer. The spookiness should have been addressed at the beginning. How long have they been with this trainer? It sounds like you are being fed the old BS line of “your horse is talented but difficult, so the trainer needs to ride it, because you will ruin it.” Hogwash. Get a trainer who can actually TRAIN (ie. change the horse’s behavior) and does what you are paying him to do - get you and your horses to competitions.
Thank you very much, the point is that I m not putting pressure on the trainer, I m not asking him to have my horse ready for futurities, it’ s not actually my goal, but it’ s the first time that I cannot ride a young horse, I’ ve been riding a lot of them before and it’ s the first time i feel helpless
Tell the trainer how you feel and that you want to ride both and, well, they are your horses, the trainer will have to get them ready for you to ride, if that is what you want.
We used to train race horses and some owners insisted we run their horse in this or that race because they would be at the track that day, had friends over that day, whatever odd reason.
Most times, with plenty of time, we could do that, have the horse ready and in the right races with a chance to win, which is the idea competing.
Some times, we just could not, not enough time from the previous race or no good race in the card that day for their horse.
It was our task to explain that too, why we were trying, but some times, horses are horses and you can only do so much to do what the owners request.
My point, ask time and again your trainer why that horse is not the right one for you to ride now, listen to what the trainer tells you and if you still disagree, discuss it with your trainer until you are happy, either way.
Or move to a different trainer that will do what you want.
I think I’d find a different trainer if mine thought the horse was being spooky on purpose. Horses don’t really think that way. I’m also a little nervous when you say your trainer puts a lot of pressure on your horse. What do you mean by this, exactly? Without seeing this first-hand it’s hard to judge if the trainer is pushing too hard too fast or you are misinterpreting what he’s doing. But it’s your money, your decision, so don’t feel trapped.
He’ s been training my horse for 6 months so far, the horse ’ s actually been under the saddle since last july but I have the feeling that the horse’ s been asked a lot. I started my other one and doing good things with me, the trainer rides him sometimes but i ride him mostly
Dump the trainer who covets your best horse. Move all horses away from that trainer.
If you don’t want to follow a trainer’s program, then you need to tell the trainer that.
If to follow their program is what that trainer requires, as so many good trainers do, the horses and students they train represent their training, if you don’t like how it trains, you ought to consider finding a different trainer you like better.
I see no reason why you should not be able to do a lot of the riding yourself. You certainly sound like you have enough experience. You will not progress as a rider without riding, and that means riding easy horses, hard horses and everything in between. Your horse might not progress as fast, but what do you want out of the whole deal? My ultimate role is always to learn and become a better rider and horseman, and maybe wins some cool stuff along the way if I work hard enough. But I feel fulfilled and successful when I do the work instead of paying someone else. I don’t mind having a trainer step in during a particularly difficult time or something, but that does not help me as a rider and horseman.
If you think your horse is being pushed too hard maybe it’s not the right program for him. Horses need pushing, but they should progress happily and healthily, not become anxious or sore.
I hear this a lot from horses in Reining Training, a friend of mine eventually took her horse away, and now she is doing distance riding on him, she was fed up of ‘not being allowed’ to ride her own horse. She decided she wanted her horse, more than she wanted him to be a competitive reiner, you may have to decide what you want.
As you say, unless you are that professional bringing a young horse along for a very technical discipline, most won’t see reason to keep each horse training the best that horse trains, for that task.
I have seen plenty of wannabee trainers working their hearts out riding several colts so hard, but that didn’t quite have the skills yet to bring those horses along correctly and so making the whole process harder on the colts and themselves, once they think the colt is doing well and not even realizing how much is not there yet.
Once they start competing, they wonder why they are not scoring well, don’t even know enough to know where they are lacking.
If someone wants to do things right, there are really no shortcuts to learning under a good trainer that has produced good horses and riders and that means, you have to follow their program.
Training to learn yourself, when you don’t know quite what you are doing, just doesn’t make sense.
Neither the horse or you will learn, practice and seat of the pants riding won’t help.
Perfect practice makes perfect and that demands a degree of skill that takes long time to acquire.
Now, that may not be what the OP wants, that trainer and training program may just not fit her, moving on to one that fits better just may.
I have one here that hubby bought for himself. He will never ride her. She is a quarter horse x stock horse and she is too hot for him.
She is just not the horse for him and I can tell that by riding her. My instructor also said he will never ride her.
Oh sure one day he will be good enough to ride her but she will be dead and buried by then. In the mean time I have given him 2 thoroughbreds and he is training them with no problems.
There is a happy medium somewhere. At some point, riders can let go the training wheels and be on their own with just a weekly lesson or weekly trainer tune up. OP has been riding for 25 years and is riding her other horse just fine. Trainer has been riding the one horse for SIX MONTHS. Surely the horse can tolerate some owner rides by now. If not, trainer is not doing his or her job. OP suspects the horse is being pushed. Doesn’t sound like quality training to me, certainly not a good trainer “doing things right.”
That could be, but also consider, there are some very well bred competition horses that are only open horses, not amateur friendly, just too much horse for any other than a professional.
When looking thru cutting, reining and working cowhorse ads, there will be some horses advertised as open, others that can also be shown by amateurs or even juniors, some that are not talented enough for open, better suited to amateur or lower levels.
Some are even suitable to be kept at home by amateurs.
They don’t need to be under a trainer’s direct management to stay honest:
https://www.reinersworld.com/classifieds
There are all kinds of horses out there, we only know one of the two, OP’s trainer is not happy with her riding it, at least not quite yet.
No telling if that one horse is one of those or not.
All we have is the OP’s understanding of the situation, as told to us.
Thank you, I think as you said that it depends on what we expect from a horse. My best friend has a mare and she ‘ll never ride her because she wants her ready for the italian futurity next december. In this case I understand the trainer told her he has to ride her all the time. But I take the example of another person here, she bought a colt 1,5 years ago at the beginning for her than the trainer got him in training and at the end of the day she paid for a horse she never rides(even if she’ s ok with that) went to futurity and actually didn’t go well(that can also happens). I think it really depends on what we want, on my case i don’ t like the situation because i don’t feel comfortable with it and after having read all our opinions i think it is a reason enough to decide that I should ride my horse. The problem now is to let my trainer know. I tried to tell him yesterday asking him when i could ride him and he told me that at the moment it would be better he keeps riding him for a while…i don’t want to bother him because he’ s for sure better than i am…i think it’ s going to be hard to get an arrangement…
Good for you, OP. You absolutely deserve a full and complete explanation as to why you can’t ride your own horse. No one could ever STOP me from riding my own horse. For the past six months, this trainer has done exactly what to move both OP and the horse to a point where they can tolerate each other? Even for just a 30 minute basic ride? I’d TELL the trainer that I will be riding the horse and arrange a lesson schedule. OP, I totally understand that this is an uncomfortable conversation you will have with your trainer, but it is YOUR horse and technically the trainer is YOUR employee. You basically gave him a “job” and now you want it completed.
One huge and critical component of training is to teach the horse tolerance. The horse is not going to be perfectly comfortable every minute of every day and that horse needs to tolerate and accept it.
It is your horse, OP.
Since you disagree with the trainer, you need to stand for what you want.
The trainer needs to change the goals he understood the horse was put in training to reflect what you now want from your horse.
Or maybe time to go find another trainer that will work with you all the way.
Now, if the next trainer also tells you that is too much horse for you, then you have a different problem there.
There are some lines in competition horses that are known for not being very amateur friendly, especially when young.
Others are wonderfully easy to train, anyone with direction can get along with them safely.
Consider that maybe the trainer is right, but if you feel competent enough for the more complicated horses, then make that clear to your trainer, or your next trainer up front, so this doesn’t come up again.
You are NOT “bothering” anybody you pay to work for you when you ask them about that work.
Did you put this one in training to become a Reining Futurity colt for a Pro rider or just to get solid basic training so you can ride him? Often owners are vague about what their specific goals with a horse are until they disagree with something the trainer is doing. Since owners specific goals were never communicated with the trainer, you can see how they can get unhappy with each other with both going towards different goals based on what they think they other side is or isn’t wanting or doing.
Hope that makes sense. Tell the trainer what you want them to do, take it to the Furirity or train it so you can also ride it. With Futurity bound colts, it’s going to be one or the other of you, not both. Reining is extremely technical and precise, young horses need very consistent schooling to master the moves without getting fried so that’s a situation where the Pro gets to call the shots and owner who wants a good performance at the Futurity needs to let the Pro develop the colt and ride something else for the time being.
Do you watch trainer school your colt? What is horse doing when it “spooks”? Letting the Pro develop the colt does not mean you stay away, you need to be there watching the sessions as often as possible and trainer needs to adjust their timing a little so that’s possible. Trainer that does not want owner around and won’t take the time to explain anything might not be a good choice.
It is possible Trainer is pushing this colt too hard too fast.
But it’s equally possible 3 year old colt is acting like a petulant 6 year old human child and being a brat. Many colts go through a " Nope, not going to do it and you can’t make me" phase sometime between 3-5 years when their training goes beyond basics and gets serious. You need to really have a talk with Trainer and communicate with each other about your goals and colts progress or lack thereof if he is just hitting that bratty phase…which will pass if handled firmly and consistently.
