From: Aurora Park
Hi Jessica, I would like to say that Horse-Sense is a great mailing list. Also, do you have any exercises for re-training ex-racehorses? My horse, Turning Tide, has a slightly hard mouth and we've just finished about 4-6 weeks of lunging, and are starting riding. Thanks,
Kate
Ex-racehorses can make wonderful riding horses, but you have to keep two things in mind at all times:
1) Horses off the track DON'T KNOW MUCH about the kind of riding you want to do, and need to be taught, slowly and systematically and kindly.
2) Horses off the track are MUCH MORE FIT than any green horse just up from pasture would ever be -- but this fitness is NOT the kind of fitness that will allow you to sit on their backs and work them for hours at a time. Your horse will be quick, sensitive, and energetic, but not necessarily RESPONSIVE in the way that you would like, because he hasn't yet been taught a new way to move and to channel his energy.
If you keep both those things in mind, you'll do well.
At the racetrack, horses learn that contact means "GO." You'll need to be aware of this, because the first time Turning Tide starts to go a little faster than you like, if you curl up and hold the reins tightly, he will probably take off with you -- and he'll just be doing exactly what he was trained to do. Instead, you'll have to make yourself sit up very tall, take a deep breath, and relax your contact, making the reins longer instead of shorter.
His mouth isn't literally "hard", that's just an expression that riders and trainers use to describe a horse that doesn't respond the way they want him to. His mouth IS uneducated, and you will have to educate it. To do this, use the reins as little as possible. Teach Turning Tide that he can trust you not to pull on him, but that you won't throw the reins away either -- you'll just stay softly at the other end of them, holding hands with his mouth.
Then focus on teaching him to respond to your LEGS, which is something he won't understand at first. You'll have to train him the way you would a completely green horse, because he IS green when it comes to the kind of leg and seat and rein aids you'll be using. He isn't used to feeling anyone's legs low on his sides, and he has no clue what you want him to do when you apply pressure with one or both of your legs. Stay with it, and get your instructor to help you teach him what the aids mean. As he learns to understand what you want from him, and what your signals mean, you'll find that his mouth magically becomes "soft" again.
You'll be better off if you work him in places and in ways that don't remind him of the racetrack. A different saddle, bridle, and bit will help -- so will a different environment. Keep the atmosphere pleasant, calm, and quiet, keep him in an enclosed arena if you can find one, and work on straight lines, VERY large circles (20 meters at least) and large, sweeping turns. At first, do all of your ridden work at the walk, because he will stay calm and learn more, and you'll be able to teach him the things that he'll need to know at faster gaits. After a month or so, when he is happy and comfortable and easy to move from a straight line to a circle and back again at the walk, move up to a slow trot and begin again, and incorporate a lot of walk-trot transitions.
If you prepare him well at the walk, the trot won't be a problem for you, because he'll be calm and balanced when you begin trot-work. Then you'll be able to use under-saddle trot-work to strengthen your horse's back and legs, and make him more responsive to your aids. And if you prepare him well at walk AND at trot, canter won't be a problem either, because by the time you do it, he'll understand exactly what you want from him in terms of speed and balance, and he'll be able to do what you ask without getting excited or upset. Take all the time you need at the walk, and if you find that you have an excited, agitated horse when you begin trot-work, go back to the walk for a while. You have time.
Good luck, have fun, keep me posted about how you're doing!
Jessica
Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org
Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.