Training the young horse and building up muscle

[pengapenga]

Hi

Some of you may know that we have started Frits undersaddle. He is going very nicely after a few issues of actually getting him to move forward:rolleyes: :) He is going well in walk and trot. We have only been riding him for a short amount of time, a lot of it has been teaching him the aids. Yesterday he responded really well to the leg aid which was pleasing, he also showed some spirit the first time since we started him:D

Anyway, I feel that we can move on a bit with the training and I also want to start building up some ridden muscle. I do not want to overdo it and it has been some years now since I last started a youngster. Would appreciate some advice.

I thought of doing some simple schooling excersise to start him off and keeping the amount of time he is being ridden to under an hour. Around the 30 to 40 min mark. Is that too long a time for him. At the moment we have had very short sessions of about 20 mins.

[Skyhuntress]

When we start our horses (say at around 3-4 year old) we never expect them to really focus for more then 10-15 minutes at a time, gradually working up to around 30-40 minutes MAX (and it takes about 4-6 months before I'm confortable working them that long)

As for muscle building, I love taking the young horses out on trail rides with hills. Not only are the hills great for their muscles, but it gives them a different perspective away from the arena. If you don't have any hills, flat cavelettis work awesome so that they pick up their feet and lift their backs a bit.

Don't know what else to tell you. Circles are good so long as you keep them large and don't expect tight corners, but its a way to slowly start introducing a slight bend. Basically though, for now, I'd just concentrate on going forward and eventually starting to work in a contact.

Good luck! he's gorgeous

[pengapenga]

Thanks StormArion:D I shall introduce trotting poles and move to low cavalletties. He is going well. He was started undersaddle in the Netherlands so we are just now bringing him back. We have done several weeks of going forward in walk and trot, so I feel that the time is right to add a new element to the programme. So I shall go with the trotting poles, and see how he goes from there.

[Mehitabel]

exactly how much has he done? can you still count the number of times he's been ridden, or is he fairly established by now?

i also start babies off with no more than 10 minutes under saddle - obviouslty their age, build, maturity and what gorundwork they've done affect how fast they progress.

what i normally do once i can walk, stop and steer in the school - usually about three times ridden - is go out - first led, then with a footsoldier, then alone and in company. especially with a stallion, it's vital thatthey learn towork with other horses around and keep their manners as early as possible, while they are still concentrating on being ridden, and then by the time they have spare attention to give to the others, they re used to it. you can challenge him a bit mentally without straining him physically by going out and about, meeting obstacles, traffic etc, learning to do gates, work with others, go in front and behind, leave others etc.

[Jessey]

As above but given he was broken and working well before I would have thought 30 minute schooling sessions would be fine and up to an hour out and about.
I would agree trot poles and cavaletti will be good but doing things like flat grid work (working around cones doing differnt stuff) can really help in keeping the body and mind occupied. I also like to use belly/back lifts with youngsters, helps to build muscle and gets them strong to carry a rider properly - http://equisearch.com/horses_riding_training/training/general/bellylifts_011706/ or I prefer like these http://www.gaitedhorses.net/Articles/FlexEx/Flex.shtml#Belly just because I have known one or two who will kick out when you do it from behind ;)

J x