Antares Saddles: World Class Saddle Making

December 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Founded by 5 pro riders in March 2000, Antares produces the most intricate and well-crafted horse saddles around. What started off as a common ambition to make customised saddles is now a world-class business serving riders across the globe.

Antares’ aim is to make the finest saddles fit for each rider. Having been established by veteran riders, the company understands a rider’s need to have the ideal saddle for comfort and function.

Customization and personalization is what makes Antares unique. Until now, many riders worldwide believe that nothing can measure up to the quality of saddles Antares crafts.

Now serving Europe, North America and some countries in Asia, the business has expanded to making pony bridles and harnesses also. Considering the growth, the company continues to make characteristic saddles as perfectly gorgeous and functional as ever.

One thing that distinguishes Antares from others is its individualized service for each rider. When you come in and describe what type of saddle you need, a professional will give you options that are within your budget. You may either purchase a customised saddle from them or bring an old one for them to work on. Whatever decision you make, you’re sure to have a very good saddle at the end.

What sets Antares saddles apart from others is that each is assembled with the softest leather around. Such softness is imperative to the rider and horse’s comfort. Not only are Antares saddles soft, they are also made firm and steadier than any other saddle. This has a lot to do with the craftsmen and the consultation team of pros behind it. Each saddle is created with experienced hands so that you can be completely certain of perfect quality.

Whether you’re riding simply for recreation or participate in races or shows, different Antares saddles are available for you. Whichever saddle you choose, you’re assured a selection of sizes, seat depths and twists.

An Antares Close Contact Saddle keeps your legs in close as you ride. You won’t need to be concerned about your legs moving all around the place when your horse begins to gallop. Their close contact saddle is one that keeps you comfortable and well-positioned.

The Fizik Antares Saddle is excellent for extended trips. It’s made with a bigger seat and is stuffed with thicker foam, providing great comfort and more room for the rider. It’s also very firm and is awfully light, which makes it better for your horse.

These are only a couple of the most popular types of Antares saddles among riders. Once you learn more about the company, you’ll find that there are so many options to make a choice from, each with its distinctive characteristic.

Though prices of Antares saddles aren’t the least expensive ones around, your investment will certainly not be in vain. With proper care and upkeep, your saddle can last for decades.

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How To Mount Your Pony

December 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you are wondering about the safest techniques of mounting your pony, you have two choices, you can risk a lot of issues with your pony and to yourself by imitating Zorro or the Lone Ranger, or you can go the safe, normal way.

Hopefully, you have settled on the second plan of action. You’ll find this article of lots of help. Correct mounting of a horse is a critical part of horse riding. Even though you do want to try out some tricky mounting methods at a later stage, you can lay the right foundation with control over the traditional method.

Mounting a pony is not as simple as it looks, particularly if you have a skittish pony. You’ll find this out the difficult way when you try and mount the horse for the 1st time. Mounting is much more difficult than you’ll believe. You do it best when you have established a robust bond of trust and respect with your horse.

Mounting your pony

– Test the girth before you try and mount. It should be tight and snug. You should be able to slide in 2 fingers between the horse’s side and the girth. You don’t wish to cause severe distress to your pony by trying to cut him in 2 with the girth. At the least, girths that are too tight could cause some painful skin abrasions. Try and maintain balance and equilibrium when you mount. You can displace the saddle, especially if it’s been fitted on a bit loose, so be very appreciative of your movements.

– Make it a habit to get on from the horse’s left side, This is standard practice. At the outset, you might consider using a mounting stool so that you can get used to the shifts in balance that happens when you mount a horse.

– Take a grip on the reins and a little bit of your horse’s mane with your left hand.

– Your horse may move toward you to help you take control while mounting.

– With your right hand, grab the saddle at the rear. NEVER grab the horn. Grabbing the horn exerts an unpleasant pull on the horse. You can try for more leverage on the cantle by shifting you hand further toward the back of the saddle. Remember this, though: you’ll need to move your hand out of the way of your right leg as you mount and your leg swings over.

– You can now step into the stirrup with your left foot. If necessary, bounce on your right foot a couple of times to gain enough momentum to swing all the way up, over and across. Stick close to your horse to help you maintain your balance.

– Use the momentum you generate to swing your right leg over. Raise your leg sufficiently high to clear the horse and the saddle on it. When you succeed in learning the knack of how to do this, you’ll find yourself in the saddle with minimum discomfort and maximum comfort. Make no abrupt moves, and don’t impact hard against the pony to prevent him getting startled. Learn how to be graceful.

– When you’ve swung over, get your right foot into the stirrup immediately. Try to not poke your toes into your horse’s side as you try to get it into the stirrup.

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Horse Coaching Requires Persistent Patience

December 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you’ve been riding horses for a bit, you will probably have experienced the actual joy of riding a pony that’s remarkably well trained. But did you ever give thought to the periods of time and energy, and most likely money, spent on making that pony that way?

You can’t train a pony in a day, a week or a month, I might go so far as to say a year, because as far as I am concerned coaching is a permanent process. It takes amazing patience and perseverance.

When coaching a horse, it is basically a battle between your patience and the horse’s resistance. If you show implacable patience, you’ll come out the winner. If you lose patience and snap on any specific day, you lost that day’s battle. Lose too many battles and you will land up losing the war. Handling horses is like handling youngsters. Fury and disappointment only inflame bad eventualities. Anger has no role to play in training or handling a pony, and demonstration of outrage is an absolute no-no. Loud remonstrations, cursing and physical action are among the 7 cardinal sins.

If you cannot accept the unshakable fact that there is no alternative choice to patience, you have no business coaching horses. My apologies, but that’s the blunt truth. Each shortcut you take today is a failure waiting to happen along the way some other day. Like most children, horses learn only through constant repetition. And like with children, some horses require a load more repetition than other horses.

If you come across any books or videos or audios that promise to train you how to teach your pony everything it needs to be taught in 60 minutes, a day or a month, you want to burn that baloney. The single thing you achieve with super fast teaching strategies is disaster. Your pony is not designed by nature to be a genius, so don’t try to make him one. When he learns at his own pace, he learns for life. When he learns at a turbocharged pace, he learns for an hour, or perhaps a day. It’s irrelevant that you need days to teach him something that to you seems to be the easiest thing in the world to learn. You aren’t a pony, and your pony is not you. Start every day with your pony brightly, and ensure it ends brightly. If you should happen to feel anger building up over something, take the day off and do something, anything , that has nothing to do with horses. Tomorrow will always dawn fresh.

As vital as patience is persistence is. Your pony isn’t going to learn constantly if you are not teaching him consistently.

For all the undeniable fact that it could take tons of time, horse coaching is not a difficult task. The largest challenge is finding the patience needed. Anyone who tells you that horse coaching is an arduous task is either too bone-idle to try it himself, or has screwed up by employing short-cuts. Malicious manipulation of whips, bits and spurs will only bring about a defiant horse, and the more the punishment, the more the defiance.

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The Ideal Hunter Show Riders Position

December 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Riders in hunting events should have a entire range of positions in their repertory to be sure they get their horses successfully and safely through the course. A hunter rider needs a highly advanced sense of balance, fluidity and rhythm. He should make the ride seem to be totally effortless, and he should make it seem like he had no role to play in it at all, except sit in the saddle for decoration purposes. The rider blows it if he keeps shifting from 2 to 3 point when a jump’s comes up. He should be able to simply nurse his horse thru turns, however tight, and over slippery ground.

What the rider needs is control over the half seat.

The 3 seating positions are described below.

1. 3 point/full seat: While seated so, the rider’s seat and inner thighs make up the 3 point. The upper part of the body should be erect, with an imaginary straight line thru the ears, the shoulders, the hips and the heels. This seat is used for flat work.

2) 2 point/jumping seat: The rider sits with hips lifted, pushing back a bit toward the saddle’s cantle. The rider’s seat isn’t in touch with his saddle. He’s connected to the saddle through his inner thighs, and this makes for the 2 points. The rider’s weight is centred over his saddle such that he’s not supporting his upper body with his hands or losing his leg support. This seat is meant for jumping.

3) Half seat: The rider closes his hip angle a touch and raises his seat slightly, though not to the extent he loses full contact with his saddle. He’s at the half way point between a 3 point position and a 2 point one.

Plenty of riders have difficulty with staying in a half seat. They become unstable and tend to balance themselves on the hands so that they can support the upper body weight. This is definitely not recommended, since it does nothing for building up a leg-based support structure.

What have you got to do to line up this structure of support while staying balanced?

When supporting yourself with your hands, you are almost certainly pinching at the knees, which implies you are imitating a wobble totter. You need to try the exercise described below if you can get a buddy (ideally your coach) to lunge or lead your pony while you are in the saddle.

Get your pony to stand still (when necessary use your mate or coach to help), drop the reins, lift your hip a little and push it towards your saddle’s cantle to take up a half seat or forward position. By doing this, you’ll find your hip angle closing and the shoulders lowering. Raise your arms until they are level with the shoulders and maintain this position for a count of approximately 10. You can stay balanced only if you keep your leg under and softly wrapped around your horse’s barrel. Make sure your knee isn’t pinching, because if it does your lower leg will get pushed off the barrel, making you pivot. Make sure you do not draw up your heels, as that would ‘goose’ your pony into going forward. The whole of your leg must stay supple and soft as it softly hugs your horse’s barrel. Let your knees open and the toes turn out naturally to point away at about 45 degrees from the horse’s barrel. Your ankles, knees and hips must be relaxed and soft because they function as shock absorbers. Try and release all strain in your legs, right from the joint with the torso to the toes.

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Devon – Equestrian Activity Paradise

December 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Devon has a lot to offer the pony lover.

You can make a start at the two terrific racecourses Devon boasts of. One of those, the racecourse atop Haldon Hill, offers fantastic views of Dartmoor and Exeter. This racecourse does not confine itself to just races; it offers some amazing top quality steeplechase events which make for the ideal family day out. This racecourse has seen some of the most famous horses in action, like Best Male and Desert Orchid.

The Newton Abbot racecourse is also a very famous vacation race venue.

Folk more keen on shows and other equestrian events will prefer to go to Bicton Arena, in the Budleigh Salterton area. This venue has a substantial menu of events to relish. It is very well set up, with stables, grass arenas, a ring for all-weather practice and a cross-country course, as well as a number of other facilities of the very highest standards. The Bicton Arena hosts horse trials and show jumping events, and some single day events.

Devon’s Donkey Refuge and Devon Horse and Pony Sanctuary are venues of interest to everybody, not just horse fanatics. The Donkey Refuge, which is found in East Devon’s gentle hills, is a haven for lots of unwanted and dumped donkeys. The animals receive much care and affection here. Manaton’s Horse and Pony Sanctuary, near Dartmoor, is equally superb.

You may be aware of the fact that Dartmoor National Park is home to the native Dartmoor Hill Pony breed. Life on the moors has made these ponies very hardy. Though they graze and roam freely, they aren’t really wild ponies, they belong to farmers in the vicinity. These ponies have a history in Dartmoor that is claimed to go back about 3,500 years, they find mention in documents going back to AD 1012.

The Dartmoor ponies were utilised for transporting granite and stone in the nineteenth century. They lead far easier lives these days though they have problems with issues like over grazing. There are far more than 3000 ponies in Dartmoor.

Dartmoor ponies have been ridden in show jumping events and cross country events. They have been used as working hunter ponies and for single day events. They have also been utilized for driving carriages, and potentially their favourite use has been in the role of family pony, a role of historic popularity.

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The Ideal Bit For A Newbie Horse Rider

December 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Communication is a significant part of our lifestyles and is the major part of our experiences with horses. The standard of communication between rider and pony establishes the quality of the ride.

I believe each beginner should start pony riding with a ‘solid’ bit with no leverage. The solid (aka pelum) bit is way more understanding and forgiving of the beginner rider compared with the snaffle bit. If misused by the beginner, the solid bit is less likely to confuse the horse. The snaffle is multi-dimensional and better utilised by experienced riders.

I have come across many brand new students who become absolutely disoriented because of the volume of info given to them all at the same time. Ideally, you want to keep things simple with a beginner student regardless of if progress is slow. It is vital that the student receives adequate info to help him make a stress free relationship with his horse as soon as possible.

When you employ a solid bit with no leverage or possibly a bosal for that matter, you are left with a one hand riding opportunity, since it takes just one hand to operate these effectively; an ideal situation for a newbie.

I have come across many new scholars who become totally disoriented thanks to the volume of info given to them all at the same time. Ideally, you need to keep things simple with a beginner student regardless of if progress is slow. It is imperative that the student receives adequate info to help him make a calm relationship with his horse straight away.

When you utilise a solid bit with no leverage maybe a bosal for that matter, you are left with a one hand riding opportunity, since it takes only one hand to operate these bits effectively; a perfect situation for a beginner.

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Identifying Thrush In Your Pony

December 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Thrush is a medical condition caused by bacterial invasion of the bottoms of pony feet. It can attract both front and back soles and is in general caused by excessive exposure to moisture.

Horses that are basically restricted to stalls or to little enclosed areas are rather more subject to thrush. Moist conditions make for excellent breeding areas for bacteria.

If you have a horse that is mostly confined, make sure to carry out inspections of and totally clean out your horse’s feet each day. You should also engage in healthy stable management practices. On the top of the daily to do list is keeping the stable clean and dry.

Thrush symptoms generally are comprised of the leaking of a black, tarry kind of material from the horse’s feet, accompanied by a nasty pong. The frog and surrounding tissue (the grooves on the side of and down the frog’s middle) are rendered soft and brittle by thrush. When thrush is permitted to progress, the heel starts splitting and bleeding. Thrush is deeply painful, and can be a total debilitating experience.

Comparatively mild cases of thrush can be easily cured with some assistance from a farrier. Treatment should be began immediately on identification, as the hoof deteriorates badly if the illness is permitted to build untreated, to the extent that the horse can go permanently lame.

If your horse is a victim of an advanced stage of thrush, you will need the services of both of your farrier and your veterinarian. They will need to debride all affected areas and get rid of as much diseased tissue as they can. Tissue removal of this sort could be accompanied by copious bleeding if the disease is fairly advanced, so it isn’t a sight for weak hearts. If the frog’s center cleft area is affected severely, you must clean it out each day and apply medication and cotton padding, be certain to implement the instructions of your farrier and veterinarian.

With some dedicated care, it’s possible to get your horse back to full health.

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How To Develop Soft Hands For Horse Riding

December 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Having soft hands while riding is one of the ultimate horseback goals, and the biggest beneficiary will be your pony. In the tips in this article, I introduce you to some simple but fun physical and mental exercises which will assist you in achieving soft hands.

The 2 physical exercises are described first.

1. Tie two lengths of reins to a powerful fence. Ropes or even baling twine will do rather than the reins. Hold them like you would hold reins. With each hand, take up contact of not less than 10 pounds. Soften your arms to adjust the reins, weights. Move to 5 pounds from 10, return to 10 and then move again to 2 pounds. Get used to the sense of weight changes on your reins. When you are talented at it, you can carry this technique over to your riding if you feel that you are getting a bit too strong.

2. This exercise has to do with relaxation. It’s a part of your physiology that the tighter you tense any muscle, the deeper it relaxes on release. Get your strong hands tired, real tired. Make fists of your hands with the reins held in them. Clench your muscles and pile on the strain until your arms begin to shake. Relax and release the stress. Repeat several times a day, and shortly you can bring about muscle relaxation without doing the tightening routine first.

It’s time now for the mental training. We use imagery for our purposes.

1. Persuade yourself that you are holding highly vulnerable baby birds in your fists, not the reins. Just a little of additional pressure and you crush the fledglings. It is very important that you work your imagination with great clarity. Think: what sort of bird are you holding? What’s its body color and its beak’s color , what does the feeling of its feathers remind you about? What do you really think it is trying to convey with its chirping?

2. Make believe you are gripping an egg in each of your fists. If you squeeze a touch too much, you are going to need to clean up the mess you create!

3. Pretend that you’re on horseback, with no bridle. You are holding only a silk thread that leads to the horse’s mouth. Even bearing that in mind your pony responds to the very lightest of touches.

4. Think of the bit in your horse’s mouth as a razor blade. You need to be as sensitive as a master surgeon or you will finish up cutting the horse’s mouth.

All this imagery function to launch you off on your quest for soft hands. The most acceptable images you can conceive of is really personal. Think about a soft hands image what jells with you. Keep visualizing it whenever you can, whether you are on horseback or off.

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How To Hobble Your Horses

December 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

By teaching your horse to stand hobbled, you prepare yourself, and your horse, for possible awkward circumstances where there is nowhere to tie the pony. This can regularly occur on ranches, where hobbling is very generally used as it eliminates the risks of tying a horse by the reins or the bridle.

You teach your horse to remain still hobbled by teaching him the right responses to pressure. One of the most helpful lessons you can teach your horse is to yield to pressure. You achieve this by taking your pony to a round pen or an arena. Curl a rope round his ankle and permit him to drag it for some time.

Once he is fairly used to the rope, you can start lifting his leg utilizing the rope. Different horses react in a different way to this move. Some horses show a reaction while others stay indifferent.

Try also to pick up each of your horse’s 4 feet using the rope, obviously one at a time. This way, you are teaching him to stay calm if he ever gets tangled up in fencing or wiring. He shouldn’t be panicking if he’s received proper lessons in yielding to pressure. The basic concept is to get him to yield to whatever position he could find himself in when pressure is applied. Once yielding is just about automatic for him, you can hobble him without causing him to panic.

During the initial few attempts at hobbling him, he is certain to fumble around and trip up a bit. He could even take a tumble. Don’t let this upset you. It is a part of the process of getting him used to hobbles that constrain his capability to move. If he does fall, just undo the hobble with care and help him back to his feet. A pony well used to pressure won’t show much of an inclination to panic as he learns to accept pressure on the legs.

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Begin Your Pony Training From The Ground

December 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It helps no end with your handling of a horse when you know just what makes him tick. In so many different ways, horses share human characteristics on smaller scales: they are individualistic, they’re perceptive, they’re stubborn, and they’re sensitive. When you base your approach on your recognition of these facts, you won’t go wrong.

Reach out to the horse with language of assurance, not language of threats. You will achieve far better results infinitely quicker. You will be surprised at just how much a horse can reciprocate good will. I think that good vibrations between a person and a horse begin from the 1st instant of the first meeting, right on the ground, long before the man gets astride the horse. I really like to call it the Ground Control.

So many folks who’ve observed me at work and listened to my propound on ground control presume that I am just referring to ground work different words. I don’t agree. Ground work has developed into a much overused term, used in so many contexts it has lost its original meaning. Ground control believes in beginning on the ground with the 1st act of putting on a halter and a lead; and progressing really slowly. The guiding concept behind ground control is that each step forward should not only boost the horse’s skills and responsiveness, it should also strengthen the trust and warmth between rider and horse.

In my days as a beginner, I fairly often heard that you had to have the ‘feel’ for handling horses. Much as I attempted, I could never latch onto what exactly ‘feel’ meant. I asked lots of individuals, and not one of them had a convincing answer. I knew it didn’t refer to physical feel, so clearly the connotation was psychological. Soon, I figured out that it meant sensitivity to the horse. I preferred the word ‘touch’ that I heard somewhere else. It seemed to describe things better, because I learned that there was a good touch to which horses responded well, as well as to a light touch, and there was also a horrid touch and a heavy touch which they did not react favourably to. For a considerable time now, I have extolled the advantages of employing a ‘good light touch’ with horses.

A good light touch is when you use something perhaps even lighter than what’s commonly referred to as feather touch. A good light touch depends as much on the sort of virtually mystic expectation that total understanding brings as on physical or oral cues and commands. Ever seen professional riders steering their horses at the more top-notch shows? Ever spotted the indisputable fact that their horses seem to respond to no cues at all (as if they actually read the minds of their riders) and are nearly always spot on? That kind of nearly peculiar coordination is the result of a superbly coordinated pony and rider and a light touch that isn’t really visible or audible to onlookers.

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