Starting horses under saddle

Many horse owners are unsure when it is the best time to start their horse under saddle.

Unless you are a racehorse owner or are training your horse for the futurity (both of which I don’t condone!), I don’t see the need to start two-year-olds (or even younger!) under saddle and put them into full training.

I’ve seen too many horses that are started under saddle when they are barely two years old, then put into a heavy training regimen and ridden way too hard, often by a trainer who weighs 200 lbs. or more.

The result is often a horse that breaks down at eight, nine, ten years old, an age when a horse is just starting to come into its prime! Horses can have a useful working life of 20 or more years, but if we put a lot of pressure on their young bodies, that most likely won’t happen. So waiting until they are three, or even four or five years old (some breeds such as Arabians are late maturing) may add five or more years of usefulness to your horse’s life. Riding horses at a young age is not only hard on their growing bodies, but often also on their minds. Keep in mind that these youngsters are just kids, not only physically but also mentally, and have a very short attention span. Too much too soon not only puts unnecessary pressure on their body, but also on their mind, which can cause them to mentally shut down.

As well, growth spurs can temporarily render the horse conformationally incorrect, and adding work on hard surfaces and work at speed or in tight circles makes matters worse and puts even more strain on the colt’s joints.

A few years ago, I was working for a dressage coach and trainer, and we were asked to start a group of then not even two-year-old quarter horses. While we were both not too happy about the horses’ young age, we decided to take them on rather than the owner sending them to someone else. Both my coach and myself are fairly light women, and this way we could control how they were started – very carefully and lightly. After about a month of groundwork (the horses came off the range and were practically wild), we spent four, five days a week riding them for very short periods of time, five to ten minutes of riding at the beginning, and maybe 15 minutes towards the end of their two-month training. Most of it was at a walk and jog, very little at the lope.

Having a choice with my own horses, I prefer not to ride my colts at all until they are three years old, or at least later in their two-year-old year, IF I feel they are mentally and physically capable of some light riding AND I feel that some under saddle work will help improve their work ethic. I will, however, only put a handful of rides on them at a walk and a little bit of jog, no lope at all, then put them away until the following spring. When they turn three, I start working them more regularly, while still keeping the sessions short, with very limited loping/cantering.

Some years I am so busy with lessons, clinics, and training clients’ horses that my own colts get put on the back burner, so it happens every so often that they don’t get ridden until they are four or five years old. I’ve never found that to be a problem. I have several Arabians and Arabian/quarter horse crosses, and since Arabians are later maturing, I prefer to let them grow up a bit longer anyway and become mentally and physically more mature. But even with other breeds I’ve never found that starting them later was more difficult.

A few years ago, a 10-year-old Arabian mare was sent to me for training. She had been turned down by other trainers because “she was too old to be started under saddle”. She had a little bit of groundwork done with her (mostly lungeing), but nothing else. She was one of the easiest horses I have ever started under saddle. On the other hand, I also worked with a seven-year-old Arabian mare who had been used as a broodmare for most of her life and otherwise didn’t get a lot of handling. Now this horse was a totally different story, and one of the most difficult horses I have ever worked with. She had a very strong sense of self-preservation and couldn’t handle any type of pressure.

It’s never too late to start a horse under saddle, but how easy the under saddle process is going to be, will, to a large extent, depend on the quality and amount of groundwork that has been done with the horse as well as the horse’s disposition.

So while I prefer to start horses under saddle rather later than sooner, that doesn’t mean I don’t work with them when they are young, as in my experience exposing them to a variety of things at an early age and teaching them about work ethic creates a mentally more mature and willing horse. My colts also see me work with a variety of other horses, and most of them are curious and rather interested in what is going on in the round pen and in the arena and want to be a part of it.

All the youngsters at our place are handled on a daily basis, from day one, haltering, leading, having their feet picked out, grooming, tying. They are also taught boundaries. I introduce them to tarps, flags, plastic bags, whips, whatever I can think of.

Exposing a young horse to a tarp

Tarp training

I trailer load them.

 

I pony the youngsters on the trails.

I introduce them to carrying a surcingle, a saddle (I use a light English saddle at the beginning), a bridle and bit, and work them in the round pen and on the lunge line with and without tack. I keep the work in the round pen and on the lunge to a minimum though, and preferably mostly at a walk and jog/trot, so as not to put too much pressure on their joints and tendons. I also make sure that whatever work I do with the horse, that the horse is in a correct frame. So no running around on the lunge line inverted (high head and hollow back) and/or counterbent (ribcage bent towards the lunger, instead of around me). That would be counterproductive and place a lot of stress on the horse’s joints.

Lungeing

I then progress to long-lining/ground driving, first off the halter, then with a bit, again helping the horse to find its proper shape.

Long-lining

 

Ground-driving

I also introduce the youngsters to going forward into contact, first in-hand (through in-hand leading), then through lungeing, and eventually through long-lining. They also learn verbal commands such as walk, jog or trot, lope or canter, whoa, and back.

By the time I am ready to get on their back, the transition to riding is just another step and usually uneventful. I keep the sessions as short as possible, and the youngsters don’t go into full training (five days a week, 45 minutes to an hour) until they are four.

I like to do the first couple sessions under saddle with the help of an assistant. We start out with the assistant walking slightly ahead and to the side of the horse, with the horse following the assistant’s drawing energy. We then progress to the assistant round penning the horse at a walk, maybe asking for some turns, while I am a mere passenger, and maybe even do a little bit of jog, depending on whether the horse is mentally ready for it. This gives the youngster a chance to get used to my weight, which is the only new component, as he is already used to being lunged and round penned and carrying tack. During the first ride, I don’t ask for much from the colt.

(See a short video of a first ride: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkO6gWUc9Cg)

Starting horses of any age requires us to be athletic and fit and at the top of our game. We need to be able to sit centred and well balanced, without having to rely on the reins for balance, know how to ride a horse from back to front with our seat and legs into receiving hands that never pull, and know how to ride with consistently centred riding aids that are supple and as soft or as strong as necessary. We also need to know how to properly shape our horse’s body, as a horse’s frame of body equals its frame of mind. The more we know, the more willingness we can get from our horses with greater ease and less resistance. Consistency, patience, calm, compassion, empathy, awareness (paying attention to the horse’s body language, our body language, as well as what is happening in the environment), focus, assertiveness, and setting firm, but fair boundaries no matter what we are doing with our horses, will go a long way in getting the horse’s body, spirit and mind ready, able and willing to say “yes” to whatever we want it to do and develop a happy, healthy, willing horse-human relationships.

Here’s a short video of the first ride I put on FS Firewater (aka Shooter) in the fall of his 2-year-old year. The entire ride lasted about seven minutes. I put two rides on Shooter in the fall of his 2-year-old year, and then he was not ridden again until he was three years old, when he was lightly started.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkO6gWUc9Cg

I do not believe in putting a colt through all the paces on a first ride, but will not stop him either by pulling back on the reins if he does have the need to go faster. As a matter of fact, I don’t do anything with the reins (which is just the lead rope of a rope halter in this case). With my right hand, I am holding on to a nightlatch (which is basically a piece of leather like a dog collar) buckled around the fork of the saddle. This prevents me from inadvertently pulling on the reins should the colt spook, buck or bolt and allows me to (hopefully) ride out whatever he throws at me without pulling on his face and scaring him even more. I’ve rarely had to make use of the nightlatch, but it is a nice piece of insurance to have (on top of a helmet and safety vest!).

It is also very important that the body language of the person on the ground is very correct so she can assist me and the colt and help keep the ride calm and smooth and uneventful. Giving mixed messages at this stage of the game can be disastrous.

As a sidenote: Shooter is slightly inverted at the jog (high head and hollow back), and as a general rule, anytime a horse is inverted, the rider should be posting (rising trot). However, on a first ride, I don’t generally post as I am in a very vulnerable position if I am in the posting phase of the trot and the horse decides to buck or bolt or spook. Safety first!

Spiralling in and out

Spiralling in and out is a great exercise and one of my favourite. It is useful for every horse at every level in every discipline. It is a very effective way to get a horse laterally supple and to teach a horse to leg yield. It will also help your horse to learn to balance himself. The exercise can be done at any gait, but it should be practiced at a walk first.

Start out on a 20-metre circle at the walk in one direction, then switch to the other direction after completing the spiral exercise in the first direction. The goal is to spiral your horse into a 15-metre circle and then back out to a 20-metre circle. At the beginning, you don’t want to spiral in to too small of a circle as your horse won’t be able to stay balanced. As your horse’s training progresses and he is able to collect more, you can spiral in to a much smaller circle, all the way into a turn on the forehand or a turn on the haunches.

Louisa spiralling in EA Shades of Fire

For ease of explanation, we will start with a circle to the left. On the out-beat (the horse’s barrel, or mid-section, swings to the right), turn your core (belly button) to the left and twist your seat to the left by bringing your right hip forward while keeping your shoulders square to the horse’s body. At the same time apply pressure with your inside (left) leg at the girth to bend the horse. On the in-beat (the horse’s barrel swings to the left), use your outside upper (right) leg to move the horse’s shoulders in. If your horse is still green and not very supple yet, you may also have to use your outside lower leg slightly ahead of the girth to turn your horse’s shoulders in. Your inside (left) rein has soft contact with the horse’s mouth and is open to maintain your horse’s left bend, not to pull your horse’s head to the left. Your outside (right) rein controls the horse’s shoulder and neck and keeps it balanced as well as regulating the amount of flexion in the horse’s neck to the inside. In other words, the outside rein controls the size of the circle by changing how much give or take you have on the outside rein (the give and take comes from your outside shoulder). Add a half-halt with your outside rein in timing with the out-beat to make the circle smaller.

The outside rein controls the size of the circle.

Once you have spiralled your horse in to a 15-metre circle, start spiralling out. This is the beginning of a leg yield. Release the half-halt on your outside (right) rein and open the outside rein to the side, while keeping the inside (left) rein open as well to maintain left bend. Release pressure from your outside (right) leg (without taking the leg off the horse), straighten your core, then use your inside (left) leg at the girth on the out-beat to bend and push the horse back out to a 20-metre circle.

Spiralling in is more difficult for most horses as the horse has to put more weight over his inside hind leg and at the same time hold his inside bend. The tighter the circle, the more collection is required from your horse.

Make sure you don’t lose impulsion while spiralling in and out. Keep your seat swinging in rhythm with your horse’s movement (your hips should be swinging left and forward as the horse’s barrel swings left, and right and forward as the horse’s barrel swings right). Spiralling out is the first step of leg yielding as it is much easier to teach a horse to leg yield on a circle than going straight.

Once you and your horse have mastered the spiral exercise at the walk, increase the difficulty by doing the exercise at a trot or jog and eventually at a canter or lope.

To spiral in at the lope or canter, the inside leg cues at the girth for bend while the outside lower leg cues behind the girth for forward on the downbeat. The outside upper leg turns the shoulders in on the upbeat.

Spiralling in to a turn on the forehand is a great way to lower a horse’s head when he’s inverted. Spiraling in to a turn on the haunches helps bring a horse that is heavy on the forehand back on to the haunches by rocking its weight back and to bring the horse’s head up when he is behind the bit.

Horses are a mirror of ourselves

I recently got back from teaching a horsemanship clinic for women together with my friend and fellow trainer Kathryn Kincannon-Irwin.
The two-day clinic took place at Riversong Ranch Equestrian Centre in Peers/Whitecourt, Alberta, the home of world-renowned horse trainer, coach, and clinician Chris Irwin. Our round pen and outdoor riding arena here at Falling Star Ranch are unfortunately still covered in a foot of snow, so it was nice to be able to work in a beautiful indoor riding arena.

We had an interesting variety of horses in the clinic, draft crosses, a Morgan gelding, a paint/quarter horse cross mare, a mustang gelding, and even a Belgian mule.

Belgian Mule Flame

Participants and spectators from all over Alberta braved the spring breakup conditions to attend the workshop. After everybody introduced themselves, we started out the weekend with a group exercise (including the spectators) without horses: long-lining. We split everybody into two groups of six people and had them line up. The person at the very front was the horse’s head, the next person was the horse’s shoulders, the next one was the barrel, then the flank, then the hip. The person at the very back was the driver. The purpose of this great little exercise is to allow everybody to experience how it feels when a rider uses the reins properly, never pulling, only blocking unwanted movement, but also to experience the feeling a horse has when a rider pulls on the reins to turn and stop. Whenever the driver (rider) demonstrated bad use of rein aids, the human horse would become very unbalanced, was jerked around, with the different parts of the human horse bumping into each other, and generally felt very uncomfortable. Not enough outside rein? The human horse felt very lost and was drifting all over the place.

The long-lining exercise was followed by a round pen demo by Kathryn with one of the participant’s horses.

Kathryn Kincannon-Irwin giving a round pen demo

Kathryn and I explained how horses communicate through equine body language and how horses read our own body language. We also talked about the three different energies (push, block, and draw) which are always present, whether we are riding a horse, lungeing a horse or just grooming a horse, and how to set clear boundaries by being assertive, but not aggressive.

After a great catered lunch, every participant received a round pen session with Kathryn and a groundwork session with me. The groundwork session involved mostly in-hand leading, and re-enforcing the lessons learned in the round pen.

In-hand leading

The second day started out in the cozy viewing room by the warming fireplace, with Kathryn, Riversong’s working student Brenna, and myself explaining the use and mechanics of various bits and also bitless bridles and riding halters. Then everybody left the warmth of the fire and bundled up to head back out into the arena, where more individual sessions followed. Some horses were round penned again, others lunged or long-lined, and each participant also had a session in the saddle.

The changes in the horses over the course of the two days were remarkable. A horse that came into the round pen with a lot of bravado and loud body language on the first day, followed his owner around in the round pen calmly, politely, and with a low-head during the second round pen session. Bridling issues and not standing for mounting issues were resolved. Pushy horses became more polite and respectful of boundaries and unfocused horses became relaxed and focused on their handlers as the humans learned to stay in the moment, be proactive and pay attention to their horse’s shape and body language as well as their own shape and alignment to the horse. Horses who didn’t want to bend ended up willingly changing bends when the handler asked with proper body language and alignment. High-headed, inverted, and braced horses became softer, with a level to low frame and a calm, curled tail, as their riders started riding their mounts from back to front, steering from their seat and legs instead of from their hands.

Resolving bridling issues

Horses need us to be the best we can be, benevolent leaders who are aware, in the moment, consistent in our behaviour, relaxed, calm, clear, confident, assertive, and fair. Horses are a mirror of ourselves, and once they start seeing such positive changes in us, they can and DO change for the better. And that is such a huge sigh of relief for all of us.

The weekend was filled with lots of information, hard work, fun and laughter, and went by way too quickly. It was a very rewarding clinic for everybody, and Kathryn and I are already looking forward to teaching the next one starting on May 31.

As per request by some of the participants and spectators, the next clinic will be a six-day comprehensive clinic covering all aspects of horsemanship. Participants will learn a unique approach to handling and riding, all in a way that de-stresses both owners and their horse, building confidence, mutual understanding, and a solid foundation for long-lasting results. This is a once-a-year, one-of-a-kind clinic you won’t want to miss!

Participants are welcome to bring their own horse or spend the week getting to know one of the Riversong Ranch horses. For more information call tollfree (877) 394 6773 or email info@chrisirwin.com. www.chrisirwin.com; www.equiana.com; www.fallingstarranch.ca.