Working with a green horse is such a general topic, I doubted whether to include it in my Road to Tevis blog posts. What is certain is that I need to post something. I aim for at least three posts a month, and I’ve done none in May. In part, I have been far too busy with the Rest of Life. No time to blog! But it’s also because my new gelding Jazz is really very green, and we’ve really been doing the basics.
This blog isn’t about how to train your horse. Lots of better options out there, I am certain. This blog is about endurance, mainly (at least the Road to Tevis posts). It’s also about training; my exercise posts are the most popular of all. But I don’t pretend to tell anyone how to start a horse (though I do offer some ideas about when to start working with your horse!) However, starting and working with a green horse are most certainly an essential part of making an endurance mount. Unless you always purchase fully-trained horses (which is arguably the best thing to do!), you’ll be working with a green one sooner or later.
Jazz is leased, not purchased, which lessens my risk. Horses can find ways to incapacitate themselves at any time, and the greener the horse, the more time before you can compete. I don’t mind working with green horses, so in turn I am lessening Jazz’s owner’s risk. Hopefully by the time I return him, he’ll be a sober, calm, experienced endurance mount. But that’s a long way off. So what am I doing with Jazz now?
Really basic stuff, and making it easy for him to do the right thing.
Working with a green horse mainly involves repetition…
and by that I mean many many repeated strides. We walk a lot. We trot a lot. We are working towards cantering a lot. (Well… loping. Jazz is going to be a master at moving his legs as slowly as possible while still staying in gait.) The idea here is obtaining rhythm and relaxation.
Rhythm is the base of the dressage training pyramid.
Known as the basis of traditional dressage (read more about its history here), the training pyramid really applies to starting a horse in any discipline. All horses are going to progress from the bottom to the top, if things are done properly. And in the beginning, to gain rhythm, you must simply work at the desired gait. Only with patient persistence will the horse be able to trot (e.g.) with regular tempo and speed.
As you work towards rhythm, relaxation will come slowly, in bits and pieces. At first, the horse will be excited when you start each day. Slowly, he (in Jazz’s case!) will relax. Each day relaxation will come a bit faster. Well, ok sometimes it’s two steps forward and one step back.
… and setting him up for success.
In principle, where and when you do your repetition doesn’t matter. You can walk, trot, and canter in a pasture, down a dirt road, in an arena… alone, with a pasture mate, or in a busy stable. Ultimately, your horse needs to move with rhythm, relaxation, and on up the pyramid in any environment. That said, one of the most important things to do when working with a green horse is making it easy for him to do the right thing.
Why?
1. Horses remember everything.
This ability has two main implications.
- It’s extremely important to avoid confrontations and any experience that might be perceived as bad by the horse. For example, if the horse spooks and you over-correct him (e.g., a raised voice, boot to the side, touch with a whip), you risk the horse thinking, “See? I KNEW it was a monster. It looked scary and then it yelled at me/hit me in the ribs/ tapped me on the haunches!”
You want to maximize your horse’s good memories and minimize his “bad” ones. This is most easily done by setting it up so that it’s really easy for him to do the right thing. - Once you get the horse into a routine response pattern, it will easily fall back into it, even when in a strange situation. Hence the rhythm: after putting hours into the cultivation of a steady gait, it will be easy to bring the horse back into it after a change of gait or a spook.
- If you have a regular warm-up routine or exercise pattern, your horse will take comfort in it when he’s in a strange place or nervous.
- If you teach your horse that whenever he refuses to go where you ask him to (e.g., wash rack, trailer), he’s going to have to work, it will take progressively less “work” to get him to go wherever you want. By “work” I mean moving his feet. I just twirl the end of the rope and have the horse move round in one direction, then the other, repeatedly. Every so often I give him the chance to go where I want. If he doesn’t more moving. The first time might take 15 minutes, but in short order, all I have to do is twirl the rope.
2. People like things to be easy.
Or at least I do! I’d rather not have my horse spooking all the time. I’d rather it take 1-2 days to teach a new skill than 4-5. I don’t want to fight with my horse. I want a nice relaxing ride. This is most likely to happen if I don’t ask my horse–Jazz in this example–to do more than he is ready to do easily.
Above: Fantazia “practices” ground-tying while I ride Jazz.
Some specific examples of setting Jazz up for success
Providing equine company
I get Fantazia out and pony him to the arena. She then stands in the middle while I work Jazz. I’m actually killing two birds with one stone here. Fantazia feels important and doesn’t get so jealous, and Jazz has a security blanket. He doesn’t need it so much any more, but I still do it most days. Now I leave Fantazia in the arena and ride Jazz alone in the cow pasture. Soon he’ll have to go out on the trail alone, so we are working towards that.
Above: Using Fantazia as a pony and companion horse gives her a sense of purpose and gives Jazz confidence.
Starting with simple patterns
I’ve got lots of different riding patterns I use for arena work, but when working with a green horse like Jazz, I stick to simple routine. At first, all I did was keep him on the rail in our rectangular outdoor arena. This is more difficult than it sounds. Green horses don’t do “straight” very well–notice straightness is well towards the top of the pyramid. (The exception are horses that have been trained to drive first. Driving horses are good at straight.) Green horses wander off the rail or want to stop at gates. Not all–I rode Fantazia when she was very green and she never wanted to stop anywhere! Jazz however has still got to learn forward. As soon as he’s a bit tired he starts looking for excuses to stop.
Once Jazz was comfortable staying on the rail, we moved to the big round arena and started the clover-leaf pattern. Riding a (four) leaf clover pattern is actually quite demanding for the horse, even if it’s simple for them to understand. He must adjust his bend, steps, and stride to the changing arcs while maintaining rhythm. I won’t expect Jazz to master the clover leaf for months. However, it gives him a path to follow and helps teach him how to adapt his bend, steps, and stride as needed. And it is excellent conditioning.
Avoiding unnecessary challenges
Such as my boyfriend weed-whacking just outside the arena (sigh, and he’s a horseman!)… Or open gates: I’ve been closing them while working in the arena. (I never close them with a more trained horse.) I won’t go out on the road for weeks or months, and I’ll pony him from Fantazia the first few times.
Going slow
Literally. I never ever push for speed. Jazz has an amazing trot and a nice canter (and a good buck;-). But he’s not very forward and gets lazy. He’s also slow to think things through. He’ll turn on the haunches slowly. He picks up the canter after thinking about it for a while. It still takes us a LONG time to go through a gate (with me opening and closing from the saddle).
That’s ok. Speed and forward will come when he’s fit and knows what I want. It’s really really easy to speed a horse up. They do it naturally. It’s MUCH more difficult to slow a horse down.
For me, it’s essential that my horses know how to stop and stand at any time and for as long as I want. I had to spend a few days teaching Jazz to stand still. At first he wanted to move all the time. Fortunately that was fixed by trotting long enough to get him tired. We stood for five minutes straight yesterday.
Above: Jazz has finally learned to stand and relax. I encourage him to stetch his neck down at all times.
Encouraging good endurance habits
Eating. I’ve always allowed my horses to graze when mounted. Endurance has just given me the perfect excuse. When I was riding race horses, I let them graze because it relaxed them. And it’s good for horses to eat green grass. Now, I let Jazz graze because it relaxes him, and he will need to eat as he goes on rides. And it’s good for him to eat green grass!
Drinking. A lot of our grazing is done in the overflow from a pond. There’s a stream and a lot of marshy ground. Jazz slurps up muddy water too. Soon we’ll tackle bigger water.
Above: Fantazia and Jazz grazing in the stream bed (you can see the water if you look clsely!)
So what are we doing exactly?
I ride 2-4 times a week. I simply don’t have time to do more, and during June I’ll be teaching a summer session. This means I’ll probably only get to ride on the weekends.
If I could ride on a daily basis, I’d do a bit less than what is outlined below. I’d also mix it up. (E.g., trail ride at a walk around the place one day, 30 minutes in outdoor arena the next, followed by 45 minutes in indoor arena… sometimes no cantering, sometimes only 15 minutes of leg yielding…) As it is, I keep to the basic walk/trot/canter time frame below. I switch arenas (we’ve got three) frequently.
Our basic routine
10-15 minutes of walking, including some bow-ties, small circles, and turns on haunches. I’ve barely started asking for haunches-in.
10-13 minutes of trotting in each direction, each followed by 3-5 minutes of standing/walking.
1-3 minutes of cantering in each direction, followed by five minutes of standing/walking.
5-25 minutes of walking and grazing. Sometimes I get off Jazz and pony him from Fantazia at this point.
We’re also working on ground-tying. In the picture below, Fantazia is teaching Jazz to stand patiently while I do other things
Finer details of arena work
Sometimes it’s trot/trot/canter/canter. Other times it’s trot/canter/trot/canter. Or maybe trot/canter/canter/trot. I have to change every day because otherwise Jazz anticipates.
I never halt twice in the same place. Mostly I slow from canter to trot, but occasionally I come to a (screeching) halt from the canter. Jazz learned a nice stop in two days.
I don’t let Jazz go around with his head in the air and his nose sticking out. It’s not about “setting his head” or achieving a show-ring look. (Although Jazz would be a very nice Hunt Seat Pleasure prospect.) It’s about getting him to stretch down and move forward into the bit. Looking through the bridle. I ask for a long frame with his head reaching down. That doesn’t happen until he gets tired. I have to settle for what I call “green-horse-on-the-bit.” His head carriage (poll) is higher than I want, but his face is slightly above verticle (good) more than 50% of the time.
Jazz is a tooth-grinder, especially when he’s a bit anxious. It’s annoying, but I’ve never ridden a tooth-grinder that didn’t have a soft mouth. He’d probably like a cricket or roller.
We also back and turn on haunches. Coming up soon: side pass, turn on forehand…. haunches-in, shoulder-in. As soon as I believe I can safely do so, we’ll go out on the trail.
Goals?
When working with a green horse, you can’t make precise predictions about when any particular skill will be learned. Jazz is a quick learner–therefore I must be careful not to let him rush. Broad goal? All basic skills in good progress by mid-August: walk, trot, canter on cue, turns on haunches and forehand, side pass, leg yield, shoulder- and haunches-in/out. He’ll still be green, but he should know what I am talking about when I ask for these things.
You can make estimates when it comes to conditioning, however, even with a green horse. Jazz is also a physically talented horse, with great lungs–therefore I must be careful not to let him go too fast or too far. Specific goals? Complete my five mile training loop by mid-August (total elevation gain about 1,500′, lots of steep). Complete an LD this fall.
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