Breaking/backing

[Jessey]

I am a little confused, when I broke Qaboos I let him have his head so that he could find his own carrige, then during instruction with him I was told I should always keep a contact and push him into the contact to get carrige, he now doesn't carry him self very well (he is fairly engaged but will not carry his own head 'on the bit'), and has to be reminded alot about what he should be doing.
I'm going to back my filly this fall and don't know if I should aim to ride with a contact and ask for carrige that way, or ride with no contact and develop her carrige that way.
I want to compete her as a reiner when she gets older.
Any ideas or good books to read much appriciated.
thanks

j

[cvb]

Jessey

I haven't backed anything western, BUT Harry put me onto some books by a guy called Ed Connell cos I was asking about bosals .... and he goes through how to back a horse... one of them is the bosal bit, and the other goes from bosal to bit :D

I've been thinking about getting a few copies shipped over - in new "disguise" as a book-seller. When I got mine, I managed to get one from amazon.com and the other via the Amazon.com marketplace. But you could probably get them from the publisher - Harry has posted their website before.

I haven't ordered any copies over yet as the publisher was sorting out some family stuff before thinking about possible prices etc :D

[cvb]

p.s. my "ambition", if I ever get to train a western youngster, would be to go the bosal route first....

[Jessey]

Cvb - Qaboos was broken with a bosal (and reacently we have progressed to doing reining patterns with just a neck strap - not perfect ones but we can get from start to finnish at the right speed) but he just dosen't fully carry himself and will still fall onto the forehand if you don't remind him.
I like bosal's but have heard quite a few reining people who wouldn't use them, they say you cant control the head set properly, but I don't know if I want to control the head set or just let it happen :confused:

J

[cvb]

...he just dosen't fully carry himself and will still fall onto the forehand if you don't remind him.
..
J


Mm - where's Harry when you need him ;)

Seriously tho' - sounds like what you want to work on next is self-carriage...

and does this lead us into "how do I work on self-carriage as part of my initial training ?"

I know when I first had Fi, I went through a phase where something was "missing" and then realised that I wanted her to work more from behind. So asked her, and lo and behold, she was quite ready to give it, I just hadn't asked :rolleyes:

Its a different situation, cos Fi was backed western by a trainer before I ever got near her....

[Jessey]

Maybe, Qaboos' carrige is not that bad, just still a bit 'arabie' (is that even a word?) hes not that bad but the nose does poke a bit sometimes.
But what I'm really interested in is the pro's and con's of starting them 'free' ie no constant contact (eg. bosal) or do you 'fix the problem before it starts' by fixing their head, as some people have said to me.

I really like riding in a bosal and find most horses take to it really well and it allows a nice slow and comfotable transition into a bit but at the same time when I look at bosal broke horses compared to bit broke horses I find that the bit broke look more 'together' and of the very few professional reiners I have spoken to they don't use bosal's for this reason, so when you want to compete in reining what do you do? I don't want to be fixing problems later that I needn't have caused in the first place, but I still want my horse to be a happy well adjusted pony who I can enjoy being with not one who's sour from being pushed and rushed.

I really want her to do well in reining, thats what I have brought her for, although I know when you buy them young anything can happen and you may never get to do a single pattern but I want to give her the best chance possible to do as well as she can so I guess this is a bit of a moral dilema for me, I know what I like but I know what other people do to get results, is there a happy medium?

J