youngster help

[Sparklie]

There is a youngster at the yard where I have Twig which I'm thinking about taking on loan :o She's very sweet but I don't think that she's been broken in very well.

She's rising 3 and around 13.2hh. She was broken in (I'll use that term loosely) about a month ago and apparently ridden away. However my friend has had a sit on her and although she was fine with my friend mounting and didn't freak out at all she also didn't have any idea what my friend was asking her to do. She didn't understand aids for walk or halt and would randomly trot off or change direction.

The people who broke her in claimed to have hacked her out lots although hadn't done much schooling and have jumped her over about 3 ft (:eek: yep...i winced when I heard that too). She was also broken in using a kimblewick as they felt she was too strong for a snaffle :( She has no manners and attempts to go through pockets and barge into you as most youngsters do but she can also be quite spooky.

So anyway, I want this pony to begin to enjoy being ridden, which lets face it she can't have done so far!! So what kind of things can I do with her? Fun yet educational things...hacking out with another experienced horse? Groundwork? Are these good ideas?! :confused: I've worked with youngsters before but have nearly always been told what to do and how to handle them, this time I'll be on my own.

She wont be able to be ridden for a while anyway as she has cut her shoulder in the field :rolleyes: so I need some ground work ideas to start off with her?

I'm thinking lots of grooming, learning to pick out feet without a fuss, moving over when asked, walking, halting etc. on command. Anything else?

[Mehitabel]

poor little soul - essentially she needs backing agian, properly. breaking in is not just getting on and seeing what happens, they need to be taught the aids and taught how to respond to them. seems like the previous people just thought she'd know by magic! :mad:

you need ot establish the aids onthe ground first - yielding to pressure, moving away from pressure where the leg goes, walking on and trotting, and stopping by voice, first. then you get on, or someone gets on, and led, you do the same, but adding in the rein and leg aids, so the horse already knows voice, so you use voice, and also leg/rein/bodyweight, so the horse understands they mean the same thing. then over time you phase out the voice.

[baxter]

if she were mine, i'd take her right back to basics and treat her as unbacked... she needs to know all the aids of riding from the ground first, lunging and longreining, off voice commands, and aid commands, reins connected to bit etc etc...i've been reading lots of books as i have a youngster i'm backing, and all horses should be able to be light in the mouth and responsive to the leg from the off start, it's unfortunately the inexerience of others and the "riding away" where most damage is done....
i've been longing and longreining my lad for 12 weeks (although he's been ill quite a lot of that) and when i bought him he was "just starting to have a rider on his back", the first time i got on he bronced me off, so i treated him like a three year old, teaching him to lunge properly, listen and buckle down to his work, and i've been on his back lots since then, he's off on sunday for three weeks to be backed professionally, obviously most of the work has been done by myself, but even his trainer won't sit on him for a week, she'll be doing groundwork with him still, and he'll come home just knowing how to go forward indepently from the leg probably only in walk and trot.... and i take over from there, but i'm quite sure he'll go back again for extra schooling, whatever we do to youngsters determines their path of their ridden lives so we need to make sure everything is SO correct, in order to have a well educated horse.... Good Luck.:D

[Sparklie]

Looks like I've got my work cut out. She's an honest little pony so I'm hoping that with the correct handling she'll come on in leaps and bounds. I'll treat her as unbacked then and begin ground work this week. She seems like a quick learner from what I've seen so far so I have a feeling that she'll get the hang of things pretty quickly.

She really has just been sat on and expected to know everything straight off. When my friend sat on her after being told that 'she's been broken in...just needs some miles on the clock' she didn't resent having a rider on her back at all, she just didn't really have any idea what was going on. She followed my pony around happily but on her own had no idea what she was supposed to do. Needless to say some serious voice work needs to be done so that she can respond to what I'm saying. She understands if you click your tongue to move forwards so I suppose that's a start!

Hopefully I'll manage to make things a little more enjoyable for this lovely pony

[KateWooten]

Sparklie, look out for yourself here, don't get hurt. You can learn a huge amount about bringing on a youngster through this experience. Definitely start her right from the very beginning. I've been through this process twice now, and am beginning to have some of my own ideas, BUT it's a HUGE help to have a 'program' to follow that someone who's started hundreds or thousands already has written out for you and ironed out most of the wrinkles. I don't even really think it matters too much who's particular program you follow or have in mind - I do think you get a lot more out of it by following a program than by trying to reinvent it all for yourself. Personally, I'm with Clinton Anderson because for me it's so much cheaper than any others, but pretty much any system that is based on establishing respect by moving their feet you would find invaluable. If nothing else, such a program will give you the ideas and incentive to do some more groundwork / schooling and will inspire you to make it interesting, whenever you feel you're flagging.

However, you will be starting, schooling sorting out this little horse for free. Someone else will always own her, right ? You will end up having put many hours into her, and the danger is that you get heartbroken when someone else sells her for a bag of money to someone you know is not right for her. Can you not buy her first, while she is cheap ? I have found to my cost, that I can not train a horse from scratch without forming a huge bond with the horse. If I don't bond, I don't train well. If I train well, I bond. Clearly, commercial training is not for me LOL! You are starting on the best journey of your life, but make sure you don't get burnt.

[Sparklie]

Kate...there will be a loan contract drawn up and I have every intention of bringing her value into it. The person I would be loaning her off is my YO (just to note that this is not who broke the pony in) and having loaned from him before I know that he is always fair. He would not sell the pony from under me without my say so and will have her best interests at heart.

I'd love to be abe to buy her right now but I'm a student with not a lot of spare cash. I'll ask after her price though...just out of curiosity...honest!

[Afellpony]

Echo what Baxter says

[neen]

Oh you're going to have so much fun! Echo what Kate says about watching the emotional involvement though -- check that loan agreement!

My share pony is 3 and a half and was home-backed, very gently, so a bit of a different situation from your girl. By the time I met him he was happily carrying a rider but hadn't started his proper schooling yet -- sounds like your girl in that respect. I'd never encountered such a young horse before. We did lots of in-hand work to start with -- ""Whoa" was his favourite voice command in the beginning, you could feel him thinking "Whoa -- hooray, I *know* this one!" and he would stop with a little flourish. So cute. It didn't take him long to pick up "walk on", "trot on" etc. which as Mehitabel says were then really useful when it came to teaching him the ridden aids.

I got myself an extra-long schooling whip (5 ft) for the in-hand work -- never used to like using whips but it's been invaluable, like having an extra long arm. Very handy when you're running alongside and you want him to turn, for example (you hold it out ahead, sort of pointing in the direction you want to go, and he follows the line of it round).

Second Kate on following a method too. I got Kelly Marks for groundwork (Perfect Manners) and Klimke's "Basic Training of the Young Horse" for the ridden stuff. It's been a great help.

Looking forward to lots of updates!

[*Sparkle]

I second what the others have said- it is important to establish basics on the ground (through longeing, longreining, etc) before you can expect her to behave under saddle. Another thing I have found very useful with the youngsters is having a bond with them. Play with her, spend time with her, do what you need to do so that she acceps and trusts you. A horse that has trust in its handler is much easier to train than one that has no connection with you. best of luck to you :-) Two summers ago I had a very similar experience- we had a pony mare who had never been properly backed or trained, so I took her back to basics and re-started her; it was an incredible experience and it is amazing to see a horse blossom under the proper treatment. Being an arab/welsh mare, she was very much a one-person pony, and by spending time playing with her, working on the ground, and hanging around with her I developed a very close bond with her that resulted in a very fast-learning and confident pony. =)

[cobloopy]

This has answered a lot of my questions regarding my new loan horse -So thanks guys!!!