Urgent advice on training a horse - PLEASE?

[Horsey Bird]

Hi all
I'm doing BHS Stage 1 in 1 weeks time. At the weekend, I took a trip to the school where I will do the exam and got to ride one of the 4 horses which will be used in the exam. Its not my normal riding school.

I had 2 problems with her which I hope you can help with because I'd like to be able to handle her correctly in the exam;

1. While riding her, she constantly tugged at the reins, pulling her head down almost to the ground.

2. I found it almost impossible to keep a safe distance from the horse in front of me. I tried using the reins to control her speed, I tried using my seat in rising trot to slow her down, I rode her deep into the corners, but nothing worked. As soon as we got to the long end of the arena she raced to catch up with the horse in front.

I asked the school manager whether both problems were because of something I was doing. He said she always tugs at the bit; the school is very well run, they really care for the horses so I find it hard to believe they havent checked her teeth or other possible causes of the problem.

He said that at one point I was holding the reins too tight, but when I gave her more rein it didnt stop her tugging at them.

So what do I do ? Any help would be appreciated because I'm getting nervous thinking I may have to ride her in the exam. I'm not an expert "horse person" and I have basically tried all I know at this stage....HELP !!!
thanks

[Piaffe]

I must admit, I find it hard to believe this horse doesn't have anything wrong with it! Unless she has been ridden by so many different people that she totally ignores any leg, seat, hand and voice aids and is fed up with any rein contact at all.

As it isn't your horse, there probably is not a lot you can do - if it was your horse, I would certainly recommend teeth and back check, making sure the bit fits properly and that it is the right bit and saddle for her.

I would also recommend plenty of schooling - long warm ups before asking her to accept the contact etc. It may be that she needs time to warm up and therefore rejects any contact at all.

It is very difficult to tell what is going on here - could you not ask for a different horse? It doesn't seem very fair to give you this horse when you are only going to be using the riding school for a short while until you do your Stage 1.

[Speedy]

I don't think this will help you in an exam situation, but if I'm on a horse that's constantly pulling, I drop the reins so the horse nearly falls on its face and then pick straight back up again - a few of these will make her hold her own head up! What's she like if she's in front? Remember to be quick rewarding her if she tries at all. Also, try turning small circles if she keeps running down the long side - teach her that she has to listen to you and that rushing won't get her there any quicker.

[Lucy J]

this is a tricky one. my youngster puts her head down on the lunge to relax her neck muscles and stop her having to work so hard, I pull her head up and push her forward at the same time. With this horse perhaps you could pull her head up using one rein as this will have a better effect than hauling on 2. perhaps ride with a lighter contact? I don't really know though.

[Mehitabel]

in your exams, the'y're more interested in how you cope than what the horse does. when i did my stage 2, one girl fell off in the jumping, and passed because the examiner had been watching the horse all day and said she did incredibly well to get it round the jumps at all. you sound like you're doing the right thing trying to ride with your seat, and the examiner should see that. in my exams, i was always asked how i found the horse, and what i would do if it were mine. just say honestly what problems you had, and that if the horse were yours you'd get it's tack checked etc etc. in my stage 3 i jumped a lunatic ex polo pony, and did a hideous round. the examiner said i passed because i knew what was happening with the horse and knew what i should be aiming for. they should also tell the examiner if the horses have any particular quirks.

[Horsey Bird]

Hi all
Thanks for the quick responses - much appreciated. Piaffe, I tend to agree with you that there must be some cause of this constant tugging, but like you say, its not my horse and I dont take lessons at this school, so I cannot work through the problem with her.

While I was riding her, these thoughts were running through my head, that its either a physical problem or something I was doing. I dismissed the physical problem (such as back & teeth etc) because this school is a very good riding establishment and they take good care of their horses. But maybe I was being too quick to dismiss the liklihood of there being a physical problem.

Also, my impression while riding her was she is used to having experienced riders on her. By this I mean - she was very quick to transition to trot, canter etc when I used the slightest aids, so she isnt like your average riding school horse which might be more dulled to the aids. So I cant believe she didnt understand what i was asking for, which is why I'm lost here.

Other than the 2 issues I mentioned, she was really good - she transitioned correctly, she didnt need to be chased to maintain any given gait and her downward transitions were very smooth.

Lucy J - I tried using less rein contact but it made no difference. However I will try your idea of using 1 rein to ask her to bring her head up instead of 2. Would you use outside or inside rein or does it matter?

I did try to avoid hauling up her head with my reins - I tried to make her collect more and attempted to ride her into my hand by using leg contact. Again, that seemed to make no difference.

Speedy - your suggestion is a good one. If I have the (mis) fortune of riding her in the exam, I will definitely do as you suggest. Also, since the BHS are watching your approach to safety in Stage 1 they might be expecting me to do that.

My problem is I am used to riding school horses who err on the side of "slow" rather than "fast", so I know how to use the aids to keep them moving in a nice manner. I was led to believe that these were the kinds of horses I can expect in Stage 1, but really my normal horses are a totally different experience and I dont know how to deal with it. I'm out of my depth here because I dont have enough knowledge to know how to handle it.

thanks again !

[Lucy J]

erm, I would probably use the outside rein otherwise the horse may end up in the middle of the school, I would do a short sharp tug and keep pushing the horse forward - the way you would do if they stopped to eat grass, although I would suggest is the horse does have some pain, as I mentioned peviously, my youngster does this when her inexperienced muscles start to ache!

[HoRsE ChIcK]

WOW,

this horse sounds so much like my morgan mare!I have a couple of suggestions for you.(and there are not any problems with my horse or her tack so that isn't the problem)(i have had her vet checked and have had alot of tack people look over my tack)
1.These kinds of horses pick up on your nerves, and even if you dont think your nervous at all, you probably are and theywill pick up on it.
2.When she pulls with her head, let go of your reins and then immediatly pick them back up.
3.When she is running up another horses butt, circle her sharply as far away from them as she will go.
4.When she is racing up the side of the arena,pull her back using your seat your bum and your hand and legs.
5.Just keep calm and collected and explain to your examiner how the horse really is to ride and what you were doing to try and stop it.

Good luck and hope this has been of some help!
~Holly~

[heland]

I passed my stage 1 exam in November and I agree with what Es suggested..........as long as you can cope you will be fine.

The examiners know the horse's very well and if you are unfortunate to ride this one on the day, then the examiner will tell you which horse you are going to ride next.

I had the experience of riding the difficult horse first but the second horse which the examiner pointed out to ride on change over was a dream.

Don't worry and I wish you the best of luck :)

Keep us posted!!

[Lucy J]

can someone explain these exams to me, what they consist of and can anyone do them? I would really like to...

[Horsey Bird]

Many thanks to all of you - this is great advice and I appreciate someone else out there being able to shed some light on my little dilemma.

Lucy J; you should probably take a look at the BHS website for detailed knowledge about the exams. Essentially the exams are divided into 2 sections; Horse Care & KNowledge and Riding.

HK&C is about how much you know about the horse, ie psychology, feeding, how to tack up correctly (they are very specific in how they want you to tack up), how to groom etc. The basics of looking after a horse.

Riding in Stage 1 is walk, trot & canter plus walk & trot without stirrups. Again the focus is position & balance.

There are a few other things in there too, but thats essentially it.

My experience of training for this exam is that in Stage 1 their big focus is 2-fold;
1. Your position and balance
2. Your attention to safety.

My exam is wednesday 13th March which is only next week, so I'll let you know how it goes after that.....
thanks all again!

[Lucy J]

thanks! and good luck!

[tillynz]

I know it's probley way to late to give you some ideas but anyway, it may just help you in the future.
Sometimes just try and keep your posting steady and this is what I do sometimes (it's really stupid), is sing just quietly to my self. It calms you, makes you relax a bit more, the horse can sometimes hear soft calm words and it cools them and it keep you in a steady beat.
Remember that is you are riding a tougher horse, it's not the end of the world, the testers will see how you handle it and it may give you the edge you need to pass. Anyone can ride a oush button pony, but only riders can ride harder horses.
Good luck and Smile, you'll do fine. You sound like you have a case of the nerves.

[Mehitabel]

somthing else that i thought of; remember to say something nice about the horse you're riding - someone loves it, even if it isn't you! it'll give the examiner a really good impression of you. with the polo pony, the first thing i said when he asked me what i thought of my round was "well, he's clearly a very talented jumper or we'd both have broken our necks". when you talk about your ride, say "the horse did x which was good and y which wasn't so good. i encouraged the good points by doing this, and i tried to help the bad points by doing whatever. i didn't really feel i got the response i wanted, but if i had more time i'd check its tack and bla bla bla." that'll show the examiner you have a wide knowledge and you know what to do when you hit a problem.

[H & Bailey]

Is the riding school where you are going to take your exam near you?If it is can you not pop along and watch him being ridden by someone else?
When I did my riding exams we were taken to a yard miles away so were not familiar with them at all.Luckily the group was split into 2 and I was in the 2nd lot so we could watch all the horses being ridden by other riders who did a swap over so we saw them being ridden by 2 different riders before we got on.
If you can watch and see what the horse is doing and see if it settles with a different rider and try and see what they are doing or if it gets worse try and figure out why.This helped me loads as out of the 20 horses I got given the smallest ones..as I am short.
I got put on a arab X who hollowed its back and stuck its head up it was only about 14hh..all the others were alot bigger.I figured that it was the type that need you to ride with your legs and not use your hands too much..which worked then I got a little grey welshie that just couldnt keep up.I had to cut corners and 1/2 circle..but explained to the examiner that it was unfair to make the pony go at a flat out trot with no outline.I asked to go lead file and found that the pony was much happier and didnt get stepped on as she sped up anyway.I passed so this worked.I dont know how long it would have taken to suss them out without seeing the horses working first.

[Horsey Bird]

Hi All
Just to let you know, today was D-Day !! I had my exam. And since you were all involved in my saga, I thought I'd let you know how the day went.

Luckily "that horse" wasnt part of the exam.

The first horse I rode was lovely - she went really nicely. She needed lots of leg, which is the kind I'm used to, so we were fine together.

The second horse though was really strong. One of the students who actually trains fulltime at my exam centre got on him first and she had serious problems controlling him. She had to keep breaking away from the group tp ride him in circles, and she knows this horse well, so if she couldnt control him, it would be difficult for anyone else.

I had the same problem, but I also couldnt get him to slow from trot to walk. Again I tried holding him back with my reins, tried using my seat to slow him down, tried soothing him with my voice. Nothing worked. So I tried riding him in circles at the empty end of the arena, when suddenly his whole hind collapsed. He fell, I fell and smacked my head on the ground.

I was stunned; thats never happened my before. Luckily I came off the saddle very cleanly, meaning I didnt get caught in the stirrups or under his body. All I had to show for it was a headache.

Anyway, the examiner was really nice; she said it wasnt my fault, he just slipped, and she asked if I wanted to continue. I hadnt done all that preparation for nothing, so I got back on another horse, and after that things went fine (except in my "confusion" i went about a full circuit of the arena with the whip in the wrong hand).

Another girl also rode him and she's more experienced than I. She said she felt his hind wasnt 100% when she rode him. At the end of the day, I was glad it wasnt just me had the problem with him; but he was too strong for me.

The part where they sit you down & get you to talk about horse psycholody & feed etc went brilliantly, so I was very happy with that.

However, I screwed up on the tailbandage and they said i was too slow on the tacking/grooming side, so unfortunately I failed the HK&C section.

however I dont work with horses in any way, so I'm not as polished as other people were. I figure thats something I can easily sort out with some practice so I'm not too worried about it.

Anyway, long story short, I passed the Riding section which I was delighted about. I would have been really upset had I not passed the riding as I had worked hard to get it right.

Heland, I think it was you who wrote the description of your Stage 1 a few months back; you were right when you said it was better to have worked with horses. Although I was able to talk adequately about my experiences, I wasnt as good with the tack end of things.

However, you live and learn !!

So once again, thanks all for your help and advice last week!
M.

[Mehitabel]

well done! you did really well to get back on and carry on, you deserve it.

[galadriel]

I know this is already over for you, but I just had one comment :) about your original post.





I have a mare which I use for lessons. For a beginner, she's like push-button; does exactly what's asked no matter how garbled or badly executed the aids are given. Once you start to learn, though, she begins to challenge you, to _make_ you prove that you know what you're doing.





Duchess is very responsive if you give her the appropriate aids, very like she is used to having experienced riders on her--but she WILL challenge your every move until you prove that you can do it right. She'll pull, she'll resent your turn aids, she'll refuse to walk straight--and yet for the wee beginner five-year old she lets them tug her all over the place and just behaves _perfectly._ [Silly girl.]

So while it can be weird to have a horse who acts properly schooled, yet gets uppity with you--it happns. You sounded very frustrated, and I just wanted to let you know that it's not as outrageous as you seemed to think, that she responded well to some aids and yet was being pushy with you. Mares particularly can insist that you prove yourself _entirely_ before they begin to really listen to your aids.

[heland]

Well done for getting back on Horsey Bird, I admire your courage:)

I am so pleased you passed your riding.

[Horsey Bird]

Hi all
thanks again for your wishes!

I think I mentioned that the examiner failed me partly because I screwed up the tail bandage.

Just to give you a laugh; my husband (who has no interest at all in anything horse-related) has been telling people that I did really well on the riding section but not so well with "tarting up the horses tail".

It gave me a laugh !!

[Alison+Rio]

it may help to 'play' with your reins when riding the horse. I find that works when a horse is pulling like a train! dont give her/him something to pull against, keep using your seat but play with the reins. once the horse softens and stops pulling relax your reins. keep doing this every time you feel the horse pulling and relax every time she softens! this may help but it has no effect on others! good luck with the exam though!