Trail classes

[Cochise]

Does anyone have any tips for a horse and rider completely new to this discipline? How would one best begin? I imagine that it will take lots of time and patience to get a horse relaxed and ready to compete, but does anyone have tips on eg,
Negotiating the gate...
Rein back through the poles/cones...
Calmly walking over the bridge....
And so on....
Are there ways to desensitize the horse to elements such as these without completely throwing both of us in the deep end?

I'm not asking for a personal plan or anything, as my circumstance is not coming from a green rider and green horse at all, just green to how to train together for this type of class! :)

[Jessey]

what is it they say...'practice makes perfect', with my guys I just keep playing with things, lots of stuff you will find you do out on the trail already.

I find if my horse is nervous of something, I like to put what ever it is in their pasture for a few days, we have had flags and plastic bags hanging from fences, a wooden board on the floor, poles, tarpaulins and barrels dotted around, it gives them time to get used to them and investigate with out any pressure.

Then once they ignor them I will start using these things duing ground work, my boy hated plastic bags so he got fed out of one for a few days (always supervised) and he soon got over that Then trying to ride near them, not asking them to go really close and I pretend that they aren't there, if they are happy with that I will then ask them to walk up to the bridge and just stand there and then possibly take a step on. Any thing you can find laying around that could be scary should become part of the training, not just the things you will get in competition as this is great all round training.

If your general backing up is good backing through a couple of poles should be easy, you will need to practice turns on the forhand and haunches to be able to get round the corners when it comes to the harder set ups. This will also help with the gate.

When working with a gate your horse needs to be happy about you leaning over a bit and also standing quietly next to things so try all this with out the gate first, break it all down into little bits and your horse will appriciate it. I have found that the hardest part of this is getting my horse to turn around the gate rather than walking way round it, thats where your precise backing and turning will come in handy.

I try to make trail practice my horses fun days rather than serious schooling, I also practice on the trail alot, any fallen trees I go clambering over, I go up and down banks and try to find little wooden bridges to cross, it makes the whole thing more fun for both parties.

J

[mustang fan]

Well if you horse gets hyper at shows lunge him/her down very well ( not to the ground but enough that you can EASILY control the horse) and practice as much as you can! :D

[cvb]

Cochise

Not sure how "posh" your classes will be, but in some cases the "gate" is rope rather than solid.

I have a couple of gymkhana bending poles, with hooks on top, that I can then sling a rope on to act as my gate for practice :D

Jessey - I haven't entered trail yet, but the DVD of the show showed me that they had a raised wooden bridge. We practice at home over flat bits of wood and thats fine. But going UP onto an echoey bridge ?? it seemed to put off some and others just toddled across. Any tips on how to work on that ?

[Jessey]

I'm not really the best person to ask about that, qaboos use to just stop in front of the bridge like he was going to have a look at it, then launch him self and clear it :rolleyes: never could get him to walk over it but then we did a demo at windsor in 2003 and we were going to use him as the 'how to get your horse over the bridge' demo and the little so and so just walked over it like he had done it a million times :D At windsor, they also had some jump fillers lineing either side (not sure if this helped ?) but he was also going sideways accross it all, big steps over the fillers then the bridge then big step over the filler to get off again and he's never looked back.

I think if Fi will walk over a board you should be fine, the sound really isn't that much different ;) as she can be a bit spooky you could maybe try using a tarp of something just to really push her to the max, then when it comes to plain old bridge she would find it super easy :D

J

[cvb]

LOL - I want to build a "teeter totter" which is like a seesaw bridge and TTeam use it in their work. But I need some plans for it and then someone handy with wood and nails ;)

[Jessey]

Our lot just use to put a normal bridge over a trotting pole for that, no wonder they don't use it anymore.
One fun one they introduced last year was the 'car wash' a wooden frame with a sheet of plastic hanging down which had been cut into strips :eek: no many of the horses went through first time :D

J