re-training a older horse

brian.ricks

brian.ricks

Honky
Apr 6, 2007
11
0
0
Deal, Kent. U/K
I have just obtained a 12 year old dutch warmblood, she was trained as a dressage horse but has spent the last 5 years as a broodmare. Problem, I now wish to ride her, appart from getting some of her weight off and getting her in condition again. Any ideas on how to go about the retraining, what sort of timescale before getting on her. Don't want to do anything too fancy, mainly going out on a hack and having fun with her. She is a big girl (16.1hh) but loverly nature. All advice will be most welcome. Thanks
 
Hey congrats on your new addition, lucky you!

If I were in your situation I would start from scratch as you would an untrained horse. What this does is give your mare a refresher course & you get a feel of what she can do & how she reacts. This will give you a great foundation start.

I'm sure things will go quite quickly depending on how well she was trained & her temperament. Some horses resent going back into work because the *leisure* life was a great place to be;) and some horses get back into it with such a great attitude, you'd swear they never took a break.

Now having said that, if your mare is like the latter, be careful not to push to soon, even though she seems like you could just carry on. You need to remember that after having babies, her muscles are lax (soft), so little sessions either on the lunge, long reining or under saddle should be kept short. 20 to 30 min at a time. Lots of walk for the first week, add some trotting the second week. I would leave canter (esp. under saddle) for a few weeks because you want her to rebuild her top line muscles first.

After the second week you can probably either gradually add 10 min increments to the sesions or add hill work (if possible where you are).

By the 5th week she should begin to seem fitter & begin having more stamina.

Just remember to take your time; she'll appreciate that.

Hope this helped.

I'll be bringing back an older mare back in training as well. She's been off for 10yrs now.;)
 
Thanks I will try this out on her and see how she responds.She is very trusting so I will not push her too much, hope you have success in bringing your mare back into training as well.
 
Tried her out today on the long rein, no trouble getting her to accept the bit again. Once in the ring she really enjoed herself, even tried the jumps which she cleared with no effort. My instructer has suggested that when she is ready to try a saddle, we should use an english saddle to start with as she has never had a western saddle on her, then try the western saddle later on. The reason being that an english saddle is a lot lighter. What is your opinion on this, english then western, or straight to western saddle. Any feedback much apreciated. Ta.
 
12 isn't older. Plus I taught my 17yr old to do Dressage took him to interschool and came 4th in the state, he was a 14.2hh Appaloosa that had been trail ridden all his life (Chilla was such a gun!) :D Also we taught 20 yr olds at college how to do tricks and spanish walk. Horses are not dogs. You can teach them anything at any age whether they have been a broodmare or not :p

Good Luck!

Nayds
 
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