When new clients visit my training facility, they are often dismayed by the trek they make up our wide lime rock road, especially after a heavy rain. Karel and I sometimes complain about the road, too, but today's training sessions reminded me why I love living and training (these beautiful, expensive show horses)in the country.
Sometimes it is drudgery for the horse to go day after day into the rectangle (aka the dressage arena). I have a weekly training schedule, but I know when it is time to bypass the arena and head out onto the wide lime rock road and hack (long trot or gallop on a long rein). We can go straight ahead for 1.5 miles without stopping. I let the horse decide how fast he wants to go, and when the energy is there, maybe I collect him and do some lateral work. There are little detours along the way, shooting off into the woods where there may be a log to jump or a grass easement to ride down, and now and then there are new baby calves to spot on a spring morning. There is also traffic, trucks and cars that pass and once in a while a farming machine. We ride past a vast watermelon field where dozens of workers are busy picking and throwing the fruit into old school busses.
I use trail riding for training, conditioning and building the horse's confidence. The training includes mastering all paces (working collected and extended), leg yielding, negotiating obstacles and backing up. The conditioning gained improves the horses fitness level so he can meet the rigors of showing. The horse also gains confidence by accepting unfamiliar surroundings and all types of terrain and other horses.
Horses have to be trained to be confident in the great outdoors. It is not possible to expose the horse to every situation he may encounter at a show or on the trail, but I try and do a lot of preparation in advance by taking him over cavelettis, jumping gymnastics and going into the back forty ( a large pasture where he can see no other horses) and gallop.
This training is not limited to the young or training level horses. I take the FEI horses that I compete out more frequently than the others. I try and limit there 'schooling sessions' to twice a week in the dressage arena. Even those sessions may be short, beginning or ending with a trail ride. For instance, if the lesson is pirouettes that day, and the horse gives me an exceptional effort, I may leave the arena on a long rein and go out to the big world to do something else. This way the horse leaves that lesson on a positive note, and trusts that the next training session will not be grueling.
Posts
