separating older horses and training?

[wtwool]

Hello everyone - so glad I found this website! I recently accquired 2 older horses (finally my dream was coming true!! )that were free when a woman passed away. They were ridden as trail horses, supposedly the older one was taught english and the other was a race horse (TB). they are 26 and 16. Thinking that the older one would be a great horse for my husband who doesn't ride much and the other would be mine as I 've been taking lessons for the past 2 yrs. and have been working at a horse farm and learning alot. I 'm now working on separating them - started out with 5 min. apart (put one in the barn) and rode the other around outside of it for a few days and gradually added time, switching from hand walking hills and the riding for 5 min. Seemed ok till tried to ride the TB away from the barn, ran backwards and crumpled up and fell over and rolled on me. needless to say in my limited experience I never had to deal with this. Tried to get back on and same experience without the falling over. So I lunged him and tried again to no avail. Felt like giving up, but got on the other and tried her. She behaved that day, but next day she must have talked to the other and started the backingup thing too. I was told to circle them when they tried to back up, but we do lots and lots of them with hardly any movement forward. I've given up on riding them sep. at the time and am working in round pen and lunging. They are also out of shape since they haven't been worked in over a yr. We are up to about a 1/2 hr of separation (since working in pen) with the other still excited in barn, but not sweating. so that is getting better. but have no idea what to do next. Wondered if anyone has any ideas? My riding skills are walk, trot, canter just started to jump. Can lunge and attended a Dan Sumerel clinic last year. Please Help!!!!!

[nutkin]

The only advice I can offer is to take things slowly. If these horses had not been worked in over a year then they probably have always been together through out. Don't forget that this is a new experience for them and at the moment they probably are getting their confidence from each other as they are still getting to know you and their surroundings. try to enlist the help of an instructor to help you with your task of bringing on these horses the right way as they will be the best person to help you decide what is right and wrong for you and your horses. Don't forget like any new learning experience there are bound to be steps back as well as steps forward if you move too quickly for them.

[galadriel]

Sounds like you've started out pretty well already. 30 minutes is quite a significant chunk of time ;) for horses that have been together/unworked for a long while.

Part of what you need to do is to convince the horse that, when you are riding, the horse is not alone--you are enough of a "herd member" that the horse feels comfortable listening to you. The other part of what you need with such horses is to help them understand that they will always be reunited after working--but not in reward for throwing a tantrum.

Since you are intending your husband to ride one, and you to ride the other (at some point), are they doing well enough that you could take them *both* out for a few rides? I think this would also help reinforce a feeling of safety when off the property.

I have a discussion in somewhat more depth here:
http://trainersnotes.lorienstable.com/pair_bonds/