Ride Number 2

Having had time to think about the first ride, Oakley walked forward without hesitation as I gently squeezed my lower calf on his tummy while also asking to walk on with my voice.

For our second ride I decided to move into the arena rather than staying in the round yard.

We walked on the buckle (long reins) around the arena as we would if I was leading Oakley on the ground. I asked for a number of one rein stops as we did on our first ride. As Oakley was walking he was doing his best to find his balance, though felt really wobbly as all horses do when learning to move with a rider on them!

To negotiate a straight(ish) pathway I used one rein at a time to direct Oakley’s head to the direction I wanted to go, doing this without pressure on the opposite rein. I needed to calmly ask Oakley to continue walking on as I re-directed his head.

We continued our ride for about 10 minutes. I dismounted in the same way that I mounted, with Oakley’s head held around to my hip (click here for photo’s).

Ride Number 3

Oakley was relaxed and calm as always, standing still while I mounted and found my seat. For our second ride we again rode in the arena area.

We walked over a few trot poles and walked around the jumps in the arena as abstacles. Being as wobbly as ever I continued to redirect his head to the direction I wanted to go.

Then, having a nice long line to follow we tried our first TROT!

This lasted about 10meters… with Oakley feeling like a complete drunk. I asked for walk by sitting in the saddle and saying ‘whoa’.

We repeated out attempt at trot, then walked a little more and called it a day.

Ride Number 4

I don’t know of any other horse that has been so relaxed on their fourth ride that their ‘man hood’ dangles as they walk along!!!!

It gives you an indication of how chilled out Oakley is!

We repeated our mounting and walking again. I tested the front breaks for the first time today, and due to a great mouth on Oakley (Thanks to Mr HP’s mouthing DVD!!) he pulled up quickly and easily.

The trot was also practiced again. Again, with a night to sleep on it, Oakley was much more balanced and comfortable trotting with me as his rider. We trotted for 60 meters and repeated our trot another three times.

I then asked Oakley for a backup. We have also practiced this on the ground, so it is nothing new for Oakley. After a few seconds with Oakley contemplating what I was asking for he started to move one front foot backwards. In the same instant I rewarded him and ceased asking for the backup.

I walked on for a while before again asking for halt and backup.

We then called it a day. Oakley is a champion to me!!

RECAP:

1^st Ride :       

• Gentle, relaxed atmosphere
• Mount (with the horses head held at your hip)
• Walk and one rein stop

2^nd Ride:

• Repeat 1^st ride
• Take control of the direction you are going by using independent reins.
• Have NO pressure on reins you are not using (opposite rein or both reins)

3^rd Ride

• Repeat 2^nd ride
• Attempt a short trot, repeat if successful
• Walk to finish the ride.

4^th Ride

• Repeat 3^rd Ride
• Attempt backing up your horse ONLY if you give the millisecond the horse gives.
• Praise, reward and congratulate the horse!!!

5^th Ride

• COMING UP! Some more obstacles for Oakley…  if all goes well we’ll be negotiating a dam bank and practicing more trot and backup.

Image Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial

The photo’s can do most of the story telling, though we rode for between 5 to 10 minutes, in walk only practicing one rein stops every five to ten meters.

I found achieving forward movement the hardest part, which was definitely a good thing.

We’re off!

Today, again we did some mouthing work on Oakley, he is taking to it like a duck to water. I suppose one of the great benefits of working so closely with a horse as it grows up does pay off! I have developed a great relationship with Oakley and am so proud to say that our trust and respect for each other goes a long way!

In addition our mouthing work, we tried on the stock saddle for the first time with Oakley. The additional weight of the saddle, compared to the roller I usually put on Oakley’s back, made Oakley turn to the saddle and have a little smell and inspection.

walked around with the saddle on, stirrups flapping around Oakleys belly, he managed it like a pro! We then trotted and had a little excited jump as though Oakley had only just realised he had a heavy saddle on his back!

We trotted a few circles and practiced our ‘one rein stops’ done from the ground by walking behind Oakley, using my voice to let him know we were stopping and putting increased pressure on one rein to move his head around to his shoulder and instigate the one rein stop

I then did some of the seven games with Oakley while he was saddled and bridled. I also put some weight on the sides of the saddle to assess his reaction… which was as I expected, unfazed!

Till next time

I have always ridden Baxter in a snaffle, even when he had finished racing and his mouth was like concrete, we rode in a snaffle bit.

I find that Baxter keeps his mouth open and shines his teeth to everyone when I ride, so today I tried a different snaffle bit to see if it would make any improvement to how he holds his mouth.

I swapped to a loose ring, thin, curved sweet iron snaffle bit in comparison to my usual 3 link, curved, medium weight, aurigan (similar to sweet iron) D-snaffle bit.

From this:
To this:

I am yet to work out why Baxter keeps his mouth slightly open, his teeth are up to date (last done in January 2012) and as far as I can tell there is no reason why he holds his mouth open when I ride. I ride with steady, soft hands and the contact on his mouth is now minimal as we have progressed with our training.

I have heard that ex-racehorses like to play with the bit in their mouth, though I still want to get to the bottom of it.

I noticed a little less chewing with the new bit, though still an open mouth. Time will tell if we have much of an improvement. I’ll keep you posted.

Regardless of the shining teeth, I am amazed how much the contact has improved to now, being such a tiny weight in my hand compared to the old days of holding on for dear life and resistance to any movement of the bit.

With our improvement on contact, Baxter is also finally moving forward through his hindquarters, listening to my legs and maintaining roundness with minimal contact on the reins.

I was able to take away the contact altogether in trot and canter and Baxter maintained roundness!!! A huge milestone in our training!

Patience, persistence, consistency and an enthusiasm to learn are the key to our progress.

Images courtesy of Horseland and Bit of Britain

Baxter showed his anxious racing day personality, which comes out from time to time and makes achieving relaxation and focus very hard with him!

How to deal with anxiety when riding a thoroughbred?

I have tried the following things to help with anxiety, without a huge amount of success so far:

• Breathing and relaxing
• Being firm and clear
• Attempting to make Baxter stand still and listen to me
• Walk around and assess the scary object, let Baxter look at it and smell it.
• Riding long and low to encourage concentration and relaxation
• Changing movements regularly to maintain (or obtain!) concentration.

What do you do to control anxiety in your horse? LET ME KNOW!

Image courtesy of Horse Training Blog

Baxter and I attended our clinic yesterday, run by Aadom Sporthorse Stud and the amazing Allison Domney.

The day started with the usual pack up and float load, Baxter was so excited we were going on an adventure he practically ran onto the float! On with the two hour drive (and a few wrong turns) and we arrived at the beautiful grounds at Brookleigh Equestrian Centre.

First up we had our dressage lesson, which was an hour one on one for each rider. Baxter and I started off doing some large circles of walk, trot and canter with a few transitions, which Baxter achieved smoothly.

As always, Bax was a little stiff in his hindquarters so Allison directed us to achieve more flexion on the circle while still continuing our transitions through trot and canter.  We were nicely warmed up by now, so to further encourage Baxter to loosen up Allison moved onto some canter leg yielding with us. We started on the right rein riding the full arena and on the straight I asked Baxter to move across, away from my inside leg and step underneath his tummy more to leg yield. In between our leg yields we did some huge stretches, where I let Bax drop his head right down and extend his canter stride out to stretch his back and enjoy the ride!

We got the hang of it eventually and Bax loosened up well so we repeated the exercise on the other rein.

The next exercise was shoulder-in. We still need a lot of improvement here, however we have improved from our last efforts. As with most horses we have one side that is easier to achieve shoulder-in than the other. We need to concentrate on Baxter getting his hindquarters really active and underneath him, which I suppose will come with time and practice.

Our last exercise was a little bit of walk to canter transitions. These are hard to do smoothly and cleanly! Allison guided us to work in a figure eight with the transition in the middle, this was a great way to get these transitions working even if we only had two clean transitions out of the ten or so we tried!! Homework for next time I say!

We then warmed down and gave Bax a big drink, wash and put him into his little yard with some lunch to prepare him for the afternoon!

The cross country was a combined lesson with six riders. HUGE FUN! We worked on all different types of jumps from a ditch, drop jump, ditch/log, another log setup and a log combination with shark teeth and a double log.

Each jump was worked on individually, then once we were all confident with them we worked all the jumps in together. Our favourites were the drop jump (which had a nice steep slope coming into it) and the ditch/log. The jumps were about 60-70cm… however, Baxter thought he would make his own height and decided to jump way higher than he needed to over a few of the jumps, say 1m, I think we need to practice judging the height of the jumps Bax!!

Here are some snaps from the day! Photo’s courtesy of Maxine Waterhouse. Hopefully I can track down some jumping photo’s, unfortunately I didn’t get any on my camera!

A big thank you to Allison Domney for running the clinic, to Maxine Waterhouse (also riding at the clinic) for your generous help and support and to the other riders Danielle, Isabelle, Rebecca and Kate for helping make the day so much fun!

Clinic Checklist:

1. Jumping and dressage saddle
2. Bridle
3. boots for Baxter
4. helmet
5. Lunch
6. Gloves, jodhpurs, crop
7. Horse feed for the trip
8. Rugs to keep comfy when we’re not riding
9. Camera
10. Mind on the job!!

Enjoy the time with your friends in the paddock Baxter, we have a big weekend ahead! Giddy up!!

So to make the most of indoors I’ve tried my hand at repairing rugs that Baxter and Oakley decided to use as toys and shred!

I found this great information from a site called ‘Equine Compare’. If you ever do any repairs or would like to be inspired to fix your own rugs have a little read!

Information courtesy of Equine Compare

HOW TO ~ REPAIR HORSE RUGS

The first step to repairing any horse rug is to clean it and then dry the rug so that you can see where it is torn / damaged.

Heavy rugs / turnout rugs

Things you will need:

• Patch of waterproof material (use an old piece of rug)
• Strong sewing thread same colour as rug
• Needle
• Scissors
• Pins
• Waterproof fabric glue or Rug Re-proofer

Method:

1. Place the rug on a flat surface and locate the tears in the rug.
2. Cut the repair patches to size, making sure you leave at least 2cm overlap on each side of the patch.
3. Pin the repair patch over the torn section.
4. Using your needle and thread, sew along the edges of the patch, removing the pins as you go. Start your sewing on the underneath of the torn canvas so that your starting knots don’t show on the outside of the rug. Pull the stitches tight but not so tight that the material bunches up. Finally, tie off the thread securely to end the stitching.
5. Carefully apply the glue to the stitching and leave to dry. This helps to prevent leakage through the stitching.
6. Trim any excess patch material if necessary.

Light rugs and fleeces

Mend small tears in your summer rug, fleece rug, cooler rug, fly sheet, or light stable rug (One lining)

Things you will need:

• Iron on patch matching your rug colour
• Iron

Method:

1. Heat up the iron to a medium heat.
2. Turn the rug inside out and locate the tear. Cut the iron on patch to the size of the tear, leaving a 2cm overlap.
3. Place the patch over the tear and carefully run the iron over it. You may want to place a cloth around the edges of the patch to prevent you scorching the rug with the iron.
4. Make sure you let the patch cool completely before moving your horse rug.

Horse rug repairing tips

• Try using heavy duty gaffa / carpet tape to repair rips and tears in your rugs.
• If you struggle with sewing, try using a bicycle repair kit or iron on patch for small tears. Watch our video: Repairing a small tear in a horse rug for a demonstration.
• Seal your stitching with rug re-proofer to prevent possible leaks.
• Save your old turnout rugs or any waterproof clothing to use for repair patches.
• If you can’t find repair materials such as glue and patches in your tack shops, try a boating shop instead.
• Use / borrow a sewing machine to sew tears in rugs, it will look a lot neater and provide stronger stitching.

Prevention is better than cure

Try to prevent any rug damage by:

* Removing any barbed wire or objects in the field, which could tear the rugs.

* Putting your horse in a field with other horses who don’t show signs of aggression. Horses that kick and bite tend to rip rugs!

* Buying second hand or budget horse rugs, especially if your horse is known to be a ‘rug destroyer’.

* Washing your rugs according to manufacturers instructions.

* Regularly re-proofing rugs to ensure they stay waterproof.