4yrold schooling advice please

[sheddy00]

hi, bought a new horse idxtb end of october...he was very green, but nice temprement, exceptionally good on buisy roads etc. thought he would make nice eventer. was supposed to be 6... but believe it or not, he has grown since we got him!!! lots... vet,/ dentist/phisio/ instructor thinks he's only 4( though it says 6 on his passport).he is very unbalanced, and knows no lateral work at all. though i did teach him turn on forhand... and he does it everytime we stop aarrgghh! even when out hacking. its very hard at the moment schooling him. no menage, wind, rain, dark nights etc, so i only get 1 lesson a week. thought i would not rush him, and wait till spring til i school seriously.. is this a good idea? or should i be making more of an effort to school him. any advice would be most welcome..... thanks

[sheryl]

Hi,
If your dentist and vet says your horse is 4, then I would believe he is. It is very easy to age a horse at this age, so I'm sure they are right. A bit strange though that he's 6 on his passport:confused:
Anyway, presuming that your horse is 4, I would concentrate on his basic training under saddle, before doing any lateral work at all. When you get the time, do lots of transition work with him. This will help to improve his balance. Keep his lessons short and sweet. About 20 mins max, because young horses have a short concentration spam. If you over do it, it will sour him. Try to make each lesson a little different, and always finish on a good note.

I have a 3 1/2 yr old. He is turned away for the winter at the moment, but we do a little groundwork training every day, just to keep him tuned, and used to listening to me.
In the summer I will resume his work under saddle, and once we've fully established the basics, I intend to start hacking him out, with company.

If you don't have anywhere to school at the moment, could you hack him out, or is he not ready yet?
If he's not ready, I think you should you just do as much as you can now, and then work on him properly in the summer, like me:)

Feel free to PM me anytime. I love to hear others stories, in the same boat:)

[Torny]

Personally,

I would start from the ground. Work with him on responsivness, take him out for walks, do short lunge lessons (20mins) mixed with in hand work, including lots of transitions Halt,Walk,Trot ( I would avoid canter for now, he needs to develop and strengthen) back up, move quarters away, move forehand away. Have fun, build a bond and play games, use clicker training .....all of this will help create a bond with your horse and gain his confidence in you.

When you come to working in the saddle, you would have done the 'lateral' work from the ground as well as gaining your trust and better understanding when bringing the work to the saddle. ;)

Take everyone opportuity to spend time with him. Schooling/training work is not just in the manege. It literally all the time, like asking him to step back for you so you can get to the empty feed bucket, asking him to move aside so you can get by etc... this is all lateral work because you will be asking the same way but instead of your hand and voice, it will be your leg and voice. If you get my drift. lol :D

Hope this helps, have lot sof fun!!! all the best! :p

Lx

[Pink's lady]

We've recently bought a 5 going on 6yr old who has next to no school and not a clue what one leg on means. We don't have a school at all (and fields far too wet to ride in) so have being doing a fair bit in-hand in the yard.

Kalli is very responsive to pressure on the ground so we're establishing that first before moving onto ridden.

I've been using a 12ft parelli rope and looping it around her shoulders or quarters to draw her towards me or pressure on her shoulders to move away. to begin with she just shuffled or leaned sideways but now she's enthusiatically (she gets a click and a treat) moves over with lovely crossing of legs. In fact she occasionally gets her legs tangled she takes such big steps sideways:rolleyes:

Next we'll move onto moving forwards and sideways at the same time, then out a rider on and transition her to rider aids instead.

[sheddy00]

thanks for the great responses.... found out that previous owned said he was 6 so they could get more money for him(ie 6yrs means more rational mind) he's so calm, and takes to traffic fantastic, but hacking out everythings so scary!!! there was a really dangerous bush yesterday.... he thought it was going to chase him for miles... i have taught him to move back to voice now in the stable... move over he can't quite get yet, i still have to push him.. but i found polos are very effective. god.. i hope i don't rot his teeth before the weather gets better.. on a serious note though. i took him to a hunter trials traing day,( you get all day on the course) he was brill. travels well and flew round. never refused anything. there was plenty of space between jumps, so he managed just fine. he has one hell of a jump on him. seems to love jumping,, very naughty boy, he jumps out of his field.to get to a mare. 5 foot hedge, with a 3 foot spread, hawthorne and holly, with barbed wire... with a rug on too. gives me heart failure. tried electric fencing, but he's clearing that too... going to reasearch this parelli thing.. sounds good