Taking your horse for a walk
Posted by Bill on Jan 28 2007 at 01:02 am | Tagged as: Riding, Tack, Horse Leadership
Temperatures were in the upper 50’s today, warm enough to make me want to be outside, doing chores I’ve been putting off. One of the fun chores I’ve been putting off is saddling up my horse Moonshine to get her familiar with having a saddle on her back. She had been ridden by previous owners but not often. In fact, the first time I “rode” her, she reared up and dumped me off the back. I’ll have to write about that someday. I’ve ridden her since without incident, but hardly at all. It’s time to start enjoying this pony from a saddle. In the absence of a round pen, which we’re working on buying/building, we have a few options for working our horses. We could longe them (halter and lead them in around in a circle with the lead rope, using a whip to gently coax) and saddle them and walk them around to get them familiar with having a saddle on their backs again. We did some walking today. I have this new saddle and wanted to attach everything and adjust it for my horse. The first thing I noticed was just how stiff my new saddle is. I mean it’s like a pair of new cowboy boots that needs breaking in before it’s comfortable. Next, it occurred to me that riding horses is probably not something you decide to do when you have a half-hour to spare. It takes that long just to brush your horse and strap a saddle on. (We weren’t in a rush or anything - I just had this revelation that horseback riding isn’t something you could probably do on your work lunch break.) Although it took us a while to strap this new saddle on, Moonshine was patient. This is the first time in a while she’s had access to all the yummy green grass in our yard so she was content just standing there eating. Once we had the saddle on and adjusted, of course I had to sit on her to make sure the stirrups were long enough. I admit, I’m still a little nervous getting on this bolt of lightning but this time I had my cowboy boots and long jeans on and figured our lawn was soft. I didn’t ride her but I mounted her 3 times without incident. Mikki and I then walked her down the street past some neighbor homes. She seemed to not want to go near the caged yappy dogs down the road but reluctantly agreed after some coaxing. We’ll have to keep up the walking to desensitize her to barking dogs.
As I mentioned in Vacationing with horses on my mind, I recently spent some time in Arizona and got to ride a horse while I was there. As I’m riding along at dusk, some pit bull comes running over to us and the first thing I think is “crap, what if this horse is afraid of dogs and takes off?” Fortunately for me, that didn’t happen. The horse I rode was pretty laid back and didn’t mind all the other dogs we encountered on that ride, including lots that would wait until we were near their fence and then run out towards us, barking viciously. That’s how I need Moonshine to be.
So for now, we’ll be walking our horse like a dog. In fact, Mona over at the Horse Approved blog wrote about that very subject earlier this month in her post Walk Your Horse Like a Dog. Not only does it get them familiar with your neighborhood and your tack, I have to agree with Mona that it’s good bonding time.
I’ve done that in an effort to get Hero off the property. I lead her all the way to the trailhead, about 4 blocks. The rationale was that if her leader takes her there and she survives, she’ll do it again on her own. It helped, but a LOT of round penning works well too.
We did gymkhana yesterday & she was awesome! It was the most fun I’ve ever had on a horse. Try it sometime!
I’ve actually taken Moonshine down this road before and she didn’t seem to mind but this time it’s like she was outside her comfort zone. I hope I haven’t sheltered her too much. So maybe I need to take her off the property more and more to get her familiar with it. Yes, we sure do need a round pen.
Gymkhana, eh? Never heard of it. I’ll have to do some research on that.
Go to our blog for a quicky explainatin of gymkhana. Basically it’s a play day. Much fun!
Here’s a question. Does Moonshine like to go off and leave your other horse behind at the farm? I ride alone on the trails and my horse is more anxious if there is not a “buddy” along. I think it is important to be able to ride with and without others. Thoughts?
Moonshine seems to prefer having Valentine along. And although we will mostly ride together with both horses, I completely agree that it’s important that she be able to ride without another horse leading or tagging along. So we have some training to do. I wouldn’t say she spooks easily, though, which is good. She just seemed a little unsure. Which is why, I think, we need to take her out of her safe pasture more often so she’s familiar with cars, dogs and bunny rabbits.
I just recently bought a horse. I haven’t owned one since I was a teenager. I didn’t have tack yet so I started walking her like a dog. She is rather skittish and nervous. It got her used to me and me used to her. It got her used to the neighborhood, the dogs, the bridges, things I would have had trouble with had we not met them first with me on the ground. Then when my tack came in she went freely out with no problems. Walking your horse like a dog is a great idea!
I’m new with all this but my Q is why does my horse try to bite me or stomp her foot when I try to groom her????
Debbie, despite being at this for a year now, we’re still pretty new too. The most obvious answer, though, is that she doesn’t like what you’re doing. One reason could be that she isn’t used to being groomed and it makes her uncomfortable. If that’s the case, you just need to take it slow. Let her sniff each implement you use, talk to her gently, let her see what you’re doing. Only do it for a little bit at a time until she builds up some trust.
It could also be that a previous owner was mean to her when they groomed her. Again, just take it slow until she knows she can trust you.
Another possible reason could be a physical one. It could be a little thing like that she’s in season - our mare hates to be touched at the back end or on her belly when she’s in season. She’ll kick and stomp then. If it’s been going on for a while (over the winter?), it could be something more serious. Is it a general grooming thing, or just one area that sets her off? Check for swelling, areas that are warmer to the touch, areas that just don’t “look right.”
If none of these things work out, have someone who knows what they’re doing check her out for you. A good person to start with is your farrier, next time you have him/her out.
Good luck, and let us know how things are going!