A Safe Approach To Horse Riding

Even with the very best of training, your horse is still likely occasionally to get scared or spook. He may unexpectedly jump to the side, came to a jarring stop or take off like a rocket. It is a good idea to begin to know what spooks your pony, and stay always alert to any circumstances that will pop up.

If your horse is especially liable to shy, it is vital that you get him in a totally calm mood before you take him out on a ride. You can take the hard edge off him by working him for approximately 20 minutes on a longe line. This could put your pony in the right mindset to be absolutely cooperative as you mount and ride him. When your pony has total trust in you, he isn’t very likely to start violently at sudden noises, or at a bird or little animal popping suddenly out of the under growth ahead.

To an enormous extend, it is possible to get your horse to conquer his spooking bents by introducing all sorts of things to him while in coaching, particularly items he is likely to encounter while out riding. When you personally handle these sessions, you’re also instilling confidence in him that he does not have much to fear with you around.

As the rider, you need to be alert to objects that blow and flap. You also have to look for weirdly shaped or colored or sized objects that your horse could find weird and frightening. You need to remain in total control of the pony at all times. Ensure there is steady bit contact through your reins, never drop them or hang them up on the saddle. This is often a perilous practice because if the pony bolts you are left with no way of bringing him under control and relaxing him.

You need to also take care to never allow the reins to get so loose you can’t instantaneously apply pressure when needed. When the horse shows signs of being spooked, or appears hesitant to proceed, stop him and take time to get him to familiarize himself with whatever is bugging him. Talk with him calmly. If need be, back him away and get him to approach the object from an alternative angle. Try dismounting and leading him forward slowly and calmly right past the offending object. Allow him to sniff at and give it a good inspection. On the return leg, take your pony at a walk past the same object, at a little distance. You will find that your horse starts accepting the object and the surroundings without any further terror. One thing you don’t ever do is run your horse past the object, you are laying the grounds for a very dangerous habit.

Do not indulge yourself in stunts with the horse unless under the close supervision of a veteran stunt rider. When you try to ride side saddle or slide off the horse’s back or stand up on your saddle, you are a mishap waiting to occur. If you have others around, ensure they also don’t resort to stunts and other risky activities that are bound to create issues for your pony and you.

Responsible riders are careful about avoiding any explicit objects they know engender negative reactions in their horses. They’re going to try to get their horses used to these objects with some mild desensitising. Just to name one example: if your pony does not like motorized autos, don’t take him to roads and highways, especially those with high traffic volumes. If your horse has a tendency to get highly excitable on occasions of stormy weather, don’t ride him at such times. If you’ve got access to a covered arena, take him there for some work out.

Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about simco saddles

Equine Management Studies: Teikyo Post University

Located in Waterbury in Connecticut, Teikyo Post Varsity is a 4-year private institution run on a non-profit approach. One of the courses offered here’s a Bachelor of Science Degree in Equine Management. This program focuses on equine sciences together with business administration. This way, scholars become adept at the technical side of equine management as well as the business side, as the equine part of the course concentrates on subjects like correct horse care, stable management, ethical treatment, anatomy and nourishment, current information pertinent to veterinarians and instructor training. Scholars are given ample chances to gain comprehensive hands on experience. Aside from equine subjects, students must take varied business subjects. These subjects, which are part of a core Interdisciplinary Leadership Curriculum, enable scholars to gain robust roots in management aspects. Each student is advised to pick on streams of maximum relevance to their future career plans and to focus on them.

Students who go through this Equine Management Program receive solid instruction of the kind that assists them to succeed as professionals in the highly competitive arena of horses. Each student follows a curriculum that he or she has customized to help achievement of career ambitions. Aside from the bachelor’s degree, every student, based primarily on the College’s courses in equine matters and business, can achieve licensed recognition as Career Specialist. Beside study room components, students are given plenty of chances to gather some highly valuable ractical experience. A couple of the Equine Management Program’s unique features are:

– Classes of very limited size, enabling personalised care from distinguished instructors with years of background in various horse- related fields;

– Flexibility given to students so they can customise their subjects and receive Career Specialty recognition thru Concentrations or Certification;

– Thorough lecture room instruction together with in depth hands on coaching;

– Opportunities given to scholars to go to England for study, with potential for certification as pro instructor from the British Horse Society;

– Field training at off campus sites for chosen career specialty lines;

– Structured balance between equine-related subjects and subjects on business and management, adhering to each student’s preferred career speciality or focus;

– Access to an in depth panel of specialists, representing different equine industry areas, who can provide internship openings and practical work chances to students. Some of these experts will also permit scholars to go with them while they are at work;

– Opportunities to benefit from Equine Resources Committee organised events like demonstrations, lectures and clinics;

– Possibility of inclusion in the IHSA Equestrian and the IDA Dressage teams.

Students are presented with a whole range of career choices, including riding instruction (BHS/CHS certificated); therapeutic riding instruction (NARHA licensed at the High Hopes Therapeutic Riding Center); equine law; equine sports management; equine selling; equine massage; equine podiatry and a number of other equine associated areas.

The mixture of text book and field learning and experience under the Equine Management course is a great blessing for scholars, as they are going to face glorious demand when they’re ready to enter professional life in the equine industry. This boosts their prospects of successful careers significantly. Students receive much encouragement to accumulate as much experience as they can. The reasoning is that the equine world is big and it is very difficult to teach scholars everything. Scholars are expected to gain from their experiences by developing the ability to think laterally and therefore increase their chances of excelling in their equine niches. Students learn to become both good business people and good horse folk? A combo that greatly improves their possibilities of success once they receive their degrees and diplomas and enter the equine work world.

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Be Alert To Horse Navicular Disease

The term navicular bone describes a smallish smooth bone shaped like a pyramid sited deep inside a horse’s foot. It fundamentally functions as a pulley over which tendons have smooth play. A horse develops navicular illness when the little navicular bone loses its smoothless. Tendons are not in a position to pass over smoothly, and the resulting friction can cause significant pain to the horse. It is bizarre that the definite cause or set of causes that trigger this condition haven’t been identified.

Navidular disease conditions worsen as time goes by, and unfortunately a sure treatment for this affliction still has to be found. If the condition is spotted at its terribly early stages, the agony caused to the horse can be relieved by utilizing pain relievers and bute. Special shoes are also of real help in alleviating the condition, as I can confirm by dint of personal experience. Inexorably, though, the condition gets worse and shortly the afflicted horse can no longer be ridden. It becomes a stable and pasture decoration piece.

There is evidence that horses with heavy bodies and small feet are most at the mercy of navicular illness. Characteristic horse breeds are paints, some quarter horses and appaloosas breds with little feet. There is one criterion that you must stick to when purchasing a horse: make sure he has massive feet.

Navicular disease is very commonplace among horses of the breeds discussed a couple of sentences earier, particularly those that lead a relatively inactive lifestyle. Contrarily, the condition also appears in horses that are ridden hard in events like hunter jumping. Occasionally, horses appear to develop the condition for no identifiable reason.

Your best chance is to be in a condition of constant alert regarding the condition of your horses’ feet. A horse’s feet are potentially the most delicate part of him, and you need to ensure they’re always maintained in the top of condition.

Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about professional choice

Understanding Horse Social Structure

In my early days, I was frequently told that horses are herd animals and had a rigid order based primarily on strength, which suggested the strongest horse bossed round the rest. I now know, after a life spent with horses, that they’ve got a social structure, nevertheless it is definitely not primarily based on fear. Neither is the head horse always at the front of the herd. Horses in a herd are basically terribly protective of each other, as is abundantly demonstrated when a mare gives birth: she’s surrounded during the process and care of her new born foal is looked on as the entire herd’s responsibility.

The head pony reaches his or her station through respect earned the tough way, by acing practical tests in the herd’s life. Some tests were planned, but most were not , and the head pony was certainly the one that handled tough’s scenarios best.

There were similar strategies used to allot a place to each member of the herd. I haven’t seen horses rebel or luxuriate in trade unionism, so I presume each horse was fine with his or her place in the herd.

I also realized that this was less complicated to cope with horses if you appealed to their entrenched herd instincts. These instincts are robust, because they are part of equine evolution.

When you train a pony, you either let it control or you rule. While you strive for a relationship of equals, one entity has to be more equal. When you establish yourself as the more equal party, you are pretty much taking the place of the herd leader, and the horse begins to offer you its trust and obedience. You can’t achieve trust through bullying or a punishment-oriented approach. Things work much better with a reward-based approach that doesn’t compromise on your (subtle) predomination. At times of emergency, the herd leader or some other dominant horse takes the lead, and the rest follow with total and unquestioning trust. That is the sort of trust you would like to earn.

Clearly, you do need to know your horses. Like human youngsters, they come in all types: compliant and rebellious, dominant and meek, inquisitive and unquestioning. Again like with human kids, if you dig deep into it you’ll find that horses respond to the treatment they receive. With patience , you can work nearly any pony into line. Their herd instincts are far stronger than their sense of individualism.

Just remember: horses think along straight lines. When you teach them something, they don’t forget, so long as they’re not confused by contrary instructions later on. Horses aren’t capable of the kind of multidirectional thinking human beings are. Horses can’t reason the way we can. Thus, it is down to you to initiate relationships: you’ve got to reach out to the pony because you cannot expect it to relate to you mentally. Put simply, you adapt yourself to thinking along one direction, like a pony.

You are literally capable of joining its herd, but it isn’t capable of joining yours.

Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about mini chaps

Your Pony Grooming Kit

There are not many horse-related activities as nice as grooming horses on an excellent sunny day, especially if you have an extensive collection of apparatus for grooming. If there’s any downside, it is the dust and the summer season’s beginning malting coat, but all that is of no significance after you get to see your horse’s summer coat come through in shining triumph, shimmering with vigour and health.

A grooming kit for summer must include these essentials: shampoo, sponges and fly sprays. For whatever purpose: washing the pony down after a good afternoon run or giving him a full-on bath so he will sparkle for an outing, shampoo and sponges are indispensable summer accessories. In winter, when it is too cold for a full bath, they may also be used to get shot of stable stains. Make sure your grooming accessories include tail and mane conditioners and coat shines, which make the ideal material for getting your horse to look spanking clean. Use them as a post-bath spray to give him an additional sheen. To top it all off, apply fly spray all over so your pony is clean, good looking and cosy too. That should leave you both content. To protect against allergies, always test out new lotions, creams, sprays and potions on a little patch of skin and keep a look out for allergic reactions.

Other must equipment that your grooming set should include are a mane comb and a small pair of scissors. A pulling brush is useful for trimming, as it is handy enough to reach nooks that are normally hard to get to. At the beginning of the season, almost all of your horse’s hair should have been taken off with clippers. Unless your horse is very hairy, a brush and scissors are ideal for constant trimming of straggly hair growth on areas like the fetlocks and moustaches.

We haven’t finished with your grooming kit yet. Other can’t-do-without stuff your kit should have are quarter markers, plaiting bands, wipes and stable rubbers. While a lot relies upon the kind of pony you own, getting a horse groomed before a show needs these things for that incredible look. Horses are scared travellers, and never cease to surprise their owners with how much muck they can generate even after short journeys in trailers. That’s why wipes are absolutely essential. It is easy to get a neat job done with wet wipes, which are also handy for cleaning out and shining up areas round the nose and eyes. For hygiene’s sake, you ought to use separate wet wipes on each area.

Think about every viewpoint when you start a list of the grooming accessories you want to procure. It may be sensible to have separate kits for competition grooming and for yard grooming. The competition kit should be renewed with any products that are getting ready to finish or wear out before it can become unusable. It is better to have extras and be rather safe than regretful, because there is nothing so deflating as finding out you are short of something at a competition. When your grooming kits are complete, and your grooming efforts have borne fruit, take a while off to enjoy feasting your eyes on your stunning equines!

Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about western show clothes

Ponies And Their Social Sensibilities

You can try to get a pony to adjust to your own social sensibilities, and you will fail. You can make attempts to adjust yourself to the horse’s own in-built social senses, and you will succeed.

I have earlier discussed horse herd patterns: the leader of the pack could not always be the strongest horse. The strongest horse is the one which takes charge in emergencies. The leader keeps social decorum intact.

Equine social structures have developed from the need for herd protection and preservation. The structure suggests that all horses are equal and so the actions of one can have repercussions on all. It also suggests that all are responsible for protection of each member, as can be seen when members of the herd encircle a foaling mare to permit her free space and protect her when she at peak vulnerability.

You work to get yourself accepted inside this structure. You will get nowhere if you attempt to break this structure, not necessarily physically, but from the perspective of equine perception.

Consistency of procedure is also key to acceptance. Just consider the straightforward, regular act of cleaning your horse’s feet: you will do better if you always stick to the same sequence for the four feet. Gentleness, of course, is a definite prerequisite, since horses are sensitive to touch and its intended messages.

Sometimes, it is up to you to make the first move. As a stranger to you, a horse isn’t going to come up and ask to be ridden, or to be trained. You take the initiative. Horses are curious, and they may also be sneaky in a manner of speaking. Your pony will test you, initially with light instances of insubordination. If you don’t pay attention to these instances, you pay the penalty. You get no respect. If you put your foot down and make it clear you’ll put up with no nonsense, you’ll do better. Horses can be gracious losers, and your pony is willing to live with the undeniable fact that his attempts to defeat you failed.

Consider one thing, though: you’ll never really get a horse’s esteem if you resort to physical punishments for transgressions.

When you handle him right, he will actually go the other way, accepting you as the superior. But that recognition incorporates its own load of responsibility. When you establish your domination over a pony, you are accepting responsibility for his health and well-being, for his security and contentment. Once a horse accepts you as the chief, he expects you to resolve all of his problems. That’s his herd instincts kicking in.

Rearing a pony is not different from rearing kids at home. Give them what they desire inside reasonable limitations, but confirm they know their place, ensure they know who runs the show. Reward them for doing things right, and punish them for doing things wrong. Remember: punishment is not always a physical act. Getting your kid or your pony to do something over and over again until she or he gets it right is in itself a form of punishment.

Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about country supply

Lunging Is An Essential Part Of Pony Training

Lunging is a very necessary part of horse coaching. It assists in improving smoothness of motion and coordination irrespective of the discipline and may also be used to take the sting off an over fresh horse.

Lunging enables the coach to make critical assessments about whether a horse is ready psychologically and physically to go a higher level of training. Lunging enables your pony to master the practice of correct pressure regarding the reins and head control, and also to gain command over the various gaits , as well as commands like “whoa”. You’ll become consciously aware of the fact that “whoa” is one command that it’s mandatory for each horse to appreciate and obey.

When you are engaged with lunging, ideally you should use a rope of about 12 feet long. You may have a longer rope if you like more distance. You use the lunge to coach your horse in gaits like the trot and the canter.

The Lunge

You need to make certain you are operating on a level friendly surface. Uneven surfaces can wreak havoc with the tendons and ligaments in your horse’s legs. Round pens are appropriate if they’re roomy enough.

Before moving on with the training, get your pony into a good mood. He’s not going to be particularly responsive if he is despondent or irritated by or frightened of something. You should sweeten him up with a little bit of rubbing down and sweet talk. It’s fine to use tools that will help you conserve your energy while improving your capability to exert pressure. Never punish your horse physically. Avoid even screaming at him cruelly. There are other better ways of correcting him if he is going wrong. You must maintain the best of rapport with your pony to get him to absorb the training well.

Just a note: you shouldn’t be training your pony in lunging if you are not prepared for it.

Start your training by getting your pony to start moving. Let him go round in circles while you hold the rope slackly. Project your energy behind your pony to keep him moving forward.

If your horse is moving too quickly, take a couple of deep and slow breaths and ease off on the rope so he slows down. Occasionally your horse can act a bit bone headed and take his time about stopping. Use the rope with a touch more aggression, if necessary. Your training is meant to make your pony sensitive to the tiniest bit of pressure. You may have to drop your whip once in a while to get your pony to stop.

Move your horse clockwise and then ant-clockwise. Bring a halt to events by pulling in your pony toward you at the centre.

Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about western clothes

Why Have Pony Training Goals

In any sort of coaching endeavour, the exercises involved must be designed around a group of goals. Every piece of training must have a required result that’s to be attained. This truth is no less pertinent for the coaching of horses.

I like it the way a buddy puts it. This buddy, the world’s pre-eminent author on training, claims that “If you do not know where you are going, you never will know when you get there”. I find a great illustration of the reality behind this statement in the history of America. Going west was a dream for hundreds of thousands of people that basically had no clue where they were going. They were going west because they were seeking greener pastures, but they actually did not know what they would find and where they might find it. Many of them settled down because they found what appeared to be ideal spots, a few of them set down roots because they became incapable of proceeding any farther and a few of them decided on California as that was as far as “west” would go.

It continues to amaze me that so many folk begin to train their horses without clearly defined objectives. What is rather more superb is that a large amount of pro trainers are guilty of this oversight. They just do not seem to be aware of the potentially serious results their approaches can have.

You really need to have your training aims clearly set in 3 categories: the required end result; the factors for deciding when the result has been achieved; and the conditions that should prevail when the result has been achieved.

Let me give you a clearer picture.

When we discuss desired end results, we are talking about objectives like, say, a horse loading into a trailer without trepidation. When this is the objective, the pony is trained to get over its nervous tension about getting into trailers and accepting trailers as being harmless conveniences. The final result is accomplished when the pony loads without demur and without pushing and prodding.

The desired factors that have to be met include the horse loading without demur, without pushing and prodding, and without jumping or hustling into the trailer. Associated criteria would include the pony getting into the trailer with the lead rope tied at the neck, simply responding to a verbal cue. Obviously, you would have different criteria for different training exercises.

We now come to prevailing conditions. The quality of a performance can be contaminated or boosted by a set of abnormal circumstances. Taking the example of the horse loading into the trailer, is he doing it just when there is not any distraction. Is he capable of doing it when other horses around are showing laborious objection to loading, say after a show has ended? Is he equally at home with an open stock type trailer of 16 feet and a smaller trailer for 2 horses?

Obviously, you are covering all grounds when you know beforehand what the perfect end results which you desire are, what the ideal criteria are that decide their quality and what the perfect circumstances are that determine their effectiveness. That way, you can finely tune your training to just the sort of end results which you desire.

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Showing Your Pony In A Hunter Event

One very fashionable event at horse shows is the Hunter Under Saddle. While these events are possibly most widely seen in Northeast America, you can see them at other parts of the country and the world too. Irrespective of your horse’s breed and your level of participation, judges are alert to certain indicators. These are some revelations for you.

The perfect hunter shows perfect manners, pliability, quality of motion and correctness in function. Hunters must be eminently acceptable for the purpose, which suggests they ride the fields and cover enormous territory with little effort. An ideal hunter’s stride is long and low. He reaches ahead with ease and grace. The rider should be able to reduce or lengthen the horse’s stride when necessary. The pony must move unreservedly and with smooth-flow thru all the gaits. 2 of the largest scoring elements as far as judges are concerned are movement quality and gait consistency.

Hunters should exhibit obedience. They ought to be bright and alert of countenance, and react to the lightest of hand or leg contact. They should be able to transition between different gaits effortlessly. When they are required to extend trots or canter, it should be done smoothly, with the flow of motion that characterizes the other gaits. The horses poll should be level or merely above its withers. Judges penalise for polls held lower than the withers. The head should be held in a position of vertical or just a bit forward of vertical.

There are penalties if the hunter is on a wrong lead leg while cantering or the rider is on at a wrong diagonal while trotting. The hunter will also be penalised if he is taking short, quick steps or exhibits too much knee action. He faces penalization also if he is too swift or too slow, though most judges are courteous of every horse’s need to run at the pace that it finds most comfortable. Judges don’t require disproportionate canters, nor do they want exhibitors getting all nervous about passing. When you are passing a fifteen-hand pony on a seventeen-hand horse, you’ve got to do so at a canter. Horses are also penalized if they fail to tame the gait on cue or if the break the gait regularly.

Hunters also pay a penalty for head carriages that are too low or too high, and for intolerably flexing or nosing out. The rider needs to maintain contact with his horse’s mouth, since he has to ride the horse in-hand. Tossing of the head and constantly showing too far off the rail are also penalised.

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Show Jackets For Your Horse Discipline

When you procure a new show jacket, you are laying down a large investment for a top notch item of accoutrement that you expect will serve you faithfully and usefully for a long period of time. If you’re purchasing one for the first time, you can face a large range of likely products and that can leave you in total uncertainty about what exactly is best for you.

Riding jackets of dark colors are suitable for you when you’re a competitor in dressage events. You are allowed to sport a tweed coat if you’re not above the Advanced Medium class (a black or navy blue jacket would be best if your need is for a specific discipline). While details of rules may differ to a tiny extent between various ruling bodies, the essential necessities are pretty much the same. A tail coat is best for Advanced tests, but as this is a somewhat specialised requirement, it may need some consideration before you invest. Obviously, your largest obsession should be with getting a jacket that is of the perfect fit for you, every brand has its own kind of individual fit, and you want something you look good in and feel confident wearing.

The rules are similar for show jumping: the best jacket would be short and dark in color; tweed coats are also accepted. There are some fascinating more recent innovations like riding jackets with zips on the front made of some breathing water-proof fabric. These innovations are satisfactory in some show jumping events only. Though traditionalists consider these new jacket types not nearly as smart or suitable as traditional jackets, they have become highly regarded with professionals because they are eminently suited for high performance. Some places have strict rules about logos and sponsor’s decals on the jackets, but in the main, these rules customarily target semi-professional riders and do not apply to the non-professional rider of leisure. Jacket rules for the dressage and show jump disciplines have their own conditions, for reasons of practicality.

In showing events, jackets can be changed. What you wear will often depend on the class you participate in, the horse type you’ll be showing, and your country of origin. I have noticed that usually, black show jackets aren’t in favour, while navy blue appear to be fine for women on show ponies. So far as the rest are concerned and especially for local types and working hunters, tweed coats are suitable. While tweed coats can be found in a wide variety of colours and designs, you would like something that’s not too loud, so that it becomes versatile and you can use it for more than one discipline. One of the greatest selections would be a subdued tweed jacket with subtle stripes in a colour that matches the color of your tie or the band on your horse’s brow, so that you can achieve a pleasant coordination with your pony.

While this article has debated almost all of the larger disciplines that necessitate your wearing a riding jacket, you may run into other occasions when you are required to wear such a jacket. This is also the case when you are involved with disciplines that aren’t so well recognized. When you are in doubt, take it up with the governing body of the event or take a look at their rulebook. For all-around use and when you’re competing for sheer fun, it could be best for you to choose a straightforward navy or black show jacket. These jackets are flexible and draw no raised eyebrows at the lower tiers of the majority of the disciplines.

And before we wrap up: you fairly obviously must take your own personal tastes and budget into account. This suggests that before you step out on your trip, you make very sure of what you are out to get and how much you are prepared to spend on it. You should never only be exceedingly comfortable in your new jacket, you have to also feel and look confident in it. It is in the nature of equine events that looks must complement functionality.

Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about cheap horse rugs