From: Kathryn
I have an 11 yo arabian gelding that is quite suitable for showing. I have had him for 2 years now and he is lovely. Only his previous owner used to use him for pleasure and he only learnt 2 speeds, stop and go. I have been trying to do hacking classes on him and I must say that we have progressed quite nicely but he is either too collected (as in short strided) or too eager to gallop (I guess they are one and the same problem). Someone suggested that I should just let him fizz out by working him hard first and a fast canter. But when I do that he gets REALLY excited and starts changing legs with his back legs only causing an unsittable hop. You can forget about settling him down once he's got go on the mind he very rarely rests.
So I can ride him nicely as long as I don't ask him to move out. I have had the chiropractor out (last week he fell in his paddock) and he said that he seems to be stepping under himself and needs to relax and step out. But I haven't had any luck. I've tried lunge work but he won't step it out and slips on poles on the ground.
If you can find him on an off day he has the most gorgeous canter. Just like a giant rocking horse but that is rare and you tend to dream about it later.
I hope I have made sense, It's just that I really think that he would do well in the ring I have him carrying his head nicely and shining in his bay coat. The image is good but the workout is disasterous. Any advice will be worth a try.
Thanks in advance
Kathryn & David.....
I expect he can learn to do what you want him to do (walk, trot, and canter, all with different gears for variety, in addition to his gallop), but you are going to have to work quite hard. At his age, he has strongly-established habits -- he is quite sure that he knows his job! What he needs now, like any other worker who's been made redundant, is ANOTHER JOB. You have that job in mind: hack classes. But to do a new job, he'll want some retraining, and that's where YOUR new job comes into the picture.
He is certainly not too old to learn. But if you want to enjoy taking him to shows next year, I strongly suggest that you forget about showing this year, and devote your time, instead, to retraining this horse from the ground up. It will take time and patience, and the early work will take longer than the later work -- if you are willing to do it, you can turn this horse around.
He needs, first, to learn to walk. He needs to learn to take longer steps when you use your legs to ASK him to take longer steps -- he knows how to step out more quickly, but he doesn't know how to step out with a larger stride. When he's learnt this at the walk, you can add a pole on the ground and just squeeze your calves on him as he approaches it, so that instead of shortening his stride and taking a tiny step or two, he learns that your leg pressure means "reach forward!" and begins to take larger steps instead. He should also be learning to reach out and forward and down with his head and neck.
When you have him doing this nicely and calmly at the walk -- and it may take a couple of months before he figures out (a) that this IS what you want him to do, and that (b) he CAN do it -- do the same again at the trot. Ask him for a balanced, regular trot. Use music if you like -- it helps you give the horse a rhythm to follow -- and when he is good and steady at an easy trot, ask him to take slightly longer (not faster) steps. You can bring the pole back into the picture at this point, and practice asking him to reach forward as he trots over it.
Then go back and forth between walk and trot -- and not just walk and trot, but all of the gears at the walk (same tempo, same rhythm, just different stride lengths!): short, normal, long -- and at the trot: short, normal, long. Don't ask for very much shortened walk or trot, do most of your work at normal and long walk and trot.
You're probably wondering where the canter is, not to mention the hand-gallop! I haven't mentioned them because your horse needs to do his basic re-training at walk, then at walk and trot, then again at walk and trot, but with more bending and figures, and hundreds and thousands of transitions up and down. Canter is exciting for horses, and hand-gallops even more so. Your horse can only learn when he is calm, not when he's excited. So.... you'll need to teach him new behaviours, confirm those behaviours, and improve his muscle and his ability to carry himself BEFORE you work at canter. But don't worry -- you won't lose any ground. You'll be amazed to see how much improved that canter will be IF you can be patient and do months of walk-trot work (yes, ALL those transitions!) FIRST.
One thing that works very well with clever horses, because they can learn to anticipate your daily routine, is to have one or two days each week when you simply react to your horse's movements and change your plan accordingly. Here's what I mean. You get on and do your usual warmup -- lots of walking and stretching and then some trotting. Then you just let the horse trot on, and FEEL what he is doing -- and what he is THINKING. Then do something entirely different -- not what HE was anticipating, but something else -- and do it sweetly and smoothly, so that there's no suggestion of an argument. For example, let's say that he begins to turn right -- you would immediately straighten him, send him forward, and turn him to the left. If he then offered to canter, you would do a smooth transition down from the trot to the walk; if he then began to drift toward the left side of the school, you would straighten him and then leg-yield him toward the right side of the school. If he began to shorten his stride, you would put him together and ask him to lengthen it -- and so on. If you keep this pleasant, it's a wonderful exercise as it gets both you and your horse in the habit of listening to one another -- but YOU are the one who decides which dance the two of you will do, and YOU are the one who leads.
All of this will make him more responsive, stronger, and more flexible, and if you work him like this all through the show season THIS year, without actually showing him until -- perhaps -- the very end of the season (give yourself at least six months to remodel the horse!), and then continue the work through the rest of the year, you should be able to have a marvellous time at the shows NEXT year. Sometimes you have to take your time so as to save time later -- this is one of those instances. The horse sounds worth the effort, though!
Good luck!
- Jessica
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