Things you can work on by yourself:
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Turn on the fore hand
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Turn on the haunches
3.Backing off of the trail into thicker and thicker brush until your horse will go almost anywhere you put her butt.
- Teach her to respect your leg through leg yielding and such. This will help when you have to allow staff to pass, have a reverse field, anytime another horse is close and you can’t get “off” the path. If she respects your leg and will keep her hip “over” then you can help to keep her from bumping the other horses or worse, from kicking others.
5.Practice stopping and standing stock still for 5 seconds, then add on until you can have her stand stock still for 10 minutes. This is not as easy as it sounds, especially after you’ve had a good trot or canter or gallop to get the juices flowing. I had a large hayfield to use to practice this skill. Begin at a walk and stop and stand at the same spot each time. If your horse won’t stand, walk a small circle until the its the horses idea to stop. Ask for forward before your horse asks. Then work up to doing the exercise at a trot, canter, and gallop. And ask for more time standing to make the exercise harder. Once you are good at the standing at the same spot each time, then change the spot. Go to the middle of your line, or the middle of the field and ask for the same thing.
- Another hard thing is to develop the endurance of the mind and body. Most people will ride for 45min-1 1/2 hr. If you are going to foxhunt, you will be out a minimum of 2 hours riding, plus trailering there, plus getting ready, plus cooling and untacking, plus socializing, plus trailering home…I get to the barn at 7 am, loaded in the trailer by 8, at the meet by 9ish, mounted by 9:45 ish, hunting by 10, dismounting sometime around 12-1pm, socializing for 30-45 minutes, trailering home by 2, unloading by 3pm! THAT IS A LONG DAY. It’s best to find out before you hunt, what are your horses mental and physical limits. Can those limits be extended through work and training…
