Day to day starting of Freckles
We like to share with you how we work. But first we clearly state that this is NOT a guide on how to start a horse. Every horse is different and needs his own approach. To show you that we work with all kinds of horses we picked an older Clydesdale mare to share with you. Freckles is 8 years old and she had 2 lovely foals. Her owner wants to ride this very special girl so she came to us. This is Freckles's story...
Day 1
Freckles arrived at the ranch today. She straight away makes a big impression on people. Not only because of her size (a good filled out 16 hh) but also because of her beauty.
All horses that get in for starting or training have the first day to settle in. The next day we start working with them. They get their own private paddocks, with automatic fresh water, safe electric fencing and other horses around to share experiences with. Our herd is pretty quiet and the surroundings here are very peaceful. Most horses settle in quick. Freckles loved her new extra big paddock.
Day 2
Today's the first day of work. As with all horses we do a join up and follow up. It was a bit of a challenge for Freckles to do a canter in the round yard. After 2 steps she gave up. Which is fine. As long as they come in and want to be with us when we ask them to. Freckles hasn't been handled a whole lot. She was a bit wary at the beginning, but once we started brushing her she was fine. She has a problem with picking up her feet, so we didn't go there yet. We were able to touch her everywhere else. These first days are about getting to know each other.
Day 3
Freckles wants to be with us, so we don't do a join up any more. No use telling a horse we are boss if they already acknowledge that. First she gets a nice brush and then the work starts. Today we worked with ropes and a bag. The reason for this is that we want her comfortable around ropes and we can touch her legs and the rest of her body with the bag. This way we desensitize her. We also teach her to stand still if there is something she is scared off. So basically what you do is put pressure on her, by swinging the rope or touching her with the bag, and you keep this pressure up until she stands still. Then you take it away. This is the whole principle of training. You put 'pressure' somewhere, wait till the horse shows the behavior you want, then you take the pressure away.
Day 4
Yesterday we taught Freckles to accept the rope around her legs. We also were able to touch her feet. Today we want her to start picking them up. Freckles is 8 years old and never had her feet done yet. Nobody was able to pick them up. Being such a big girl she just puts all her weight on them and doesn't lift them. The first thing we do with that is loosen her legs, so keep her moving so she is shifting her weight. Then we ask her to lift her legs when we touch them. We don't hold on yet. As soon as she wants to plant them, we make her move again. Slowly we keep holding them longer, until she stands still and lifts them automatically for us. The whole process takes about 2-3 days. She has to learn to trust us, how to shift her weight and keep them up without leaning.
Day 5
Today Freckles has a day off. We work the horses in training 5 days per week. Most of the horses that come here are fairly young. They need a bit of a break and it also gives them time to let things sink in. Freckles had a big lesson yesterday with picking up her feet. We needed to make her work and keep her moving, otherwise she shuts down and plants her feet. What we see often after a day off is that they handle the exercises a lot better. See what Freckles thinks of picking up her feet tomorrow.
Day 6
As expected picking up feet went a lot better today. She easily gives them now. Front are a bit better then back. With the back feet she wants to walk off, but at least that is better then refusing to move. She will get there soon.
During the feet session on Day 4 we also put the bridle on (without reins). This way she could get used to the bridle without thinking to much about it. Freckles tends to play with the bit a lot, putting her tongue over and under the bit. We don't worry to much about this. She will find out that it is easier to keep her tongue under the bit. Fitting a saddle was a bit of a challenge, but our widest western saddle fits her well. She does needs a none slip pad under it. Because she is so round, although the saddle fits, it tends to slide. Once she is balanced this is not such a problem, but at the moment you do not want her to get afraid of a slipping saddle.
Lesson for today was getting used to the saddle and bridle and giving to the pressure of the rein. We need her to come of pressure and bend her head around. This way we can start teaching her the one rein stop and the beginning of steering.
Day 7
Today is the BIG day. Time for the first ride. During the past days we prepared Freckles for this moment. She is not afraid for things around her body, she is used to the saddle and bridle, she gives to pressure and she puts her trust in us. If we do our job right the first rides should go easy. As with Freckles today. We always use a mounting block in the beginning (even with small horses). Firstly because it puts a lot less pressure on the horse's back and second because lots of clients will use them later on. Also we always lead a horse around on the first sessions. The rider is purely to give the horse the feeling of the weight and the fact that a person is on her back. Slowly during the next days we will transfer the aids from the ground to the aids from the rider. Continue ...
