Will I Ever Be Able to Call My Horse "trained"?
I’ve had my horse for 3 years 2 months.
She was greenbroke when I bought her. Shes come a LONG way since I’ve owned her. she was tossed around many times before I bought her, she was 7 years old when I bought her and probably had at least 7+ homes.. shes spooky, nervous, tenses up, has trust issues, etc.
she only trusts me. Out of several people that have ridden her (three being "GOOD" really experienced trainers.. only one trainer was able to ride her, and got her to relax.. also because she spent a month with her on the ground before she rode her.
the other two trainers (which are high experienced trainers, who do cross country and dressage at high levels and such) weren’t really able to ride her, the last trainer who is a very good rider couldn’t even canter her because she couldn’t get my horse to relax, she was so tense.
I’m the only one she’ll let ride her. She trusts me. only me. we’ve done so much groundwork and i’ve basically gotten her to just spook in place now instead of bolting. she is nervous in new areas so I just ride her in arenas.
while i’ve owned her, shes learned leg yeilds really well compared to when I first bought her, she would always push against pressure and was stubborn, now I can ride her with just leg yeilds basically.
I haven’t mastered the canter with her, because i’m kinda too big for her (i’m 118 pounds and shes 14.2hh, but my legs are super long.. i’m just under 5’8 and my feet hit just below her belly bareback)
but we’ve pretty much mastered the trot and walk, with leg yeilds, yeilding, backing, halting, slow trot, fast trot, etc.
will I ever be able to consider her trained and call her "trained"? especially if i’m the only one who can really ride her due to her huge trust issues?
I agree with Wasabi. Clinton Anderson is awesome. When I bought my mare she was 5 years old and greenbroke. She was disrespectful on the ground and treated me like a slave she could barely put up with. Under saddle she would spook, crow hop, and balk when she didn’t want to do something I was asking her to do. I was almost 50 and hadn’t ridden a horse in years and my balance just wasn’t the same as it used to be so she could really make me afraid. I started to think the best thing for both of us would be for me to find her a home with someone who could handle her. Then I found an article on Horse&Rider.com called ‘Clinton Anderson’s Lunging for Respect’ and it changed my life with my mare. It was so simple and easy to follow with pictures and everything and you don’t need a round pen. It starts out with basic ground work, then goes on to lunging, then ends up with mostly just changing direction. It worked where just mindless circling lunging didn’t. With just a couple weeks of 3 or 4 days of 20 to 30 minutes my mare started to treat me like a trusted friend she wanted to be around. It was heavenly. The balking, crow hopping, and spooking just disappeared on their own without me having to ride any differenly. It was amazing. You should check it out. It is not really long and you can easily print it out on your computer like I did and take it out into the field with you. I am grateful to
Clinton Anderson for this life changing exercise.
Your horse will just take time.
It takes a lot of patience to take a greenbroke horse with its background to come out of its old ways.
If it spooks at something or shys away from it, lead it to the object and make it touch its nose to it. I know it sounds silly, but I PROMISE it works. She will realize it won’t hurt her, and she will probably never spook at it again.
It seems like you are doing well on your own without other trainers , riders etc getting on and riding this horse for you , it can take along time to gain trust with a horse so maybe diffrent riders arent going to help the situation , how old is your horse btw ?
Do you have regular lessons on your horse ? if you dont maybe you could try this instead of others working with her , this way you can be working with her yourself
also some yards in the breaking and schooling industry also offer help where you can take your horse and work with experienced staff on improving issues such as with her hacking ? , have alook into what yards near you offer help with this
just stick at it the more you take her new places , learn new things to her the better the horse will be
good luck
The definition of a trained horse is the movements or things the horse can competently do, for example
An olympic showjumping is trained to competently jump 1.60m however would not be able to get 50% on a dressage test so they aren’t trained in dressage!
If your thinking of selling this horse your advert could go something like this:
name is a 14.2hh age color mare
I bought Name as as a greenbroke and have had her for just over 3 years, in that time she has mastered leg yielding, backing and sqaure halts (inculde anything else she can do that she couldn’t before but exculde the general paces walk trot canter). She has good even paces and is an affectionate mare. Name however will only be sold to an experienced home to further her education. Name is great to shoe,worm,float,have teeth done,give injections,trail ride (add anything else she doesn’t have a problem with but also take out anything she doesn’t have a problem with)
With my extensive experience with looking at and buying horses if i see needs experienced rider i generally know that the horse may have either some trust issues or is spooky!
Good Luck with your horse!
she needs more lateral work.
loads of one rein stops, serpentines, circles, etc… to teach her to bend and yield her body….
when done correctly and with good timing, these should teach her to calm down.
the trouble with the trainers who had trouble with her….are that usually dressage trainers never do "overbending" they think it’s a sin (lots of them think inside a box, and don’t see out of it)….which is what this mare needs to begin with….lots of "over bending" (one rein stops, etc)….
then worked up to not over-bending and just yielding her shoulders, etc…
the cross country trainers also usually don’t do "overbending" work either, so they won’t know what to do.
Look up Clinton Anderson. he’s got loads of awesome training material online through his store and also on youtube.com
If you have been working a horse for over 3 years, either you do not know what you are doing or you have a horse that God did not make for a person to own and handle!!
I have taken a lot of young horses and with just 3 mo training I have ridden them in rail classes and done will with them. A horse that is honest and willing will train very easily.
You should send that one down the road and get one that you can work with and accomplish something and have a horse that you can enjoy working with and owning.
There are a lot of horses that are just not trainable.