Posts Tagged ‘indoor arena’

When you are thinking about purchasing a horse, you will find that there are many things to keep in mind when you are thinking about looking after them appropriately. Far too many people purchase horses with only the vaguest idea of how to look after them and this will certainly lead to more problems down the line. If you are considering the responsibility of owning a horse, take some time and really consider what kind of care horses need. There are whole books written on the subject, but take a look at the broad outline below.
 
The first thing that you need to think about is where your horse is going to be boarded. If you have the land, you may keep your horse at home, but if you do not, you may also be able to board them at a boarding stable. There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to both sides. If you board your horse at home, you can develop a much deeper relationship with the animal. You will be the one that the horse sees on a daily basis and you will also be able to keep a much closer eye on the horse on a day to day basis. This can make identifying problems much simpler. 
 
On the other hand, you may not have the land, and you might not have the time to care for your horse as he or she needs, and in that case a boarding stable might be preferable. Some people like the idea of keeping their horses at home during summer and then boarding them at a place with an indoor arena during the winter.
 
If you are housing your horse yourself, they are going to need shelter. Many people feel that horses do not necessarily need to be kept in a stable and that living outside is healthy for them. However, even if they do not live in a stable, they do need some sort of shelter. A shelter will keep them warm in the winter and give them a place to get out of inclement weather. The size of your shelter is going to depend on the number of horses you choose to keep. If your shelter has three sides, make sure that you plan at least 64 square feet per horse, with a ceiling that is at least nine feet high. Because horses are so very hierarchical, make the shelter wide rather than deep, so that one horse doesn’t prevent the others from going in.
 
You should also think about what kind of food your horse is going to get. In most cases, the food that horses eat is divided up into pasture, hay and concentrate. Mature horses that do light work tend to do well on pasture food alone, as long as the area has sufficient grazing for them. Pasturing a horse means that they should have an area that is large enough to meet their grazing needs.   Many people will divide up their pasture land and rotate their horses through them in order to give the grass a chance to grow back. 
 
Hay is another food source that you should not overlook. Always make sure that you inspect the hay before you buy it; ask the dealer to open up a bale so that you can see that it is dust and mold free. If it feels warm, don’t buy it; moldy hay can give your horse some serious respiratory problems. If you are looking at working horses, pregnant or nursing mares or growing young horses, look into concentrates to add to the hay. Sweet feed, manufactured pellets and cubes or cracked grains all constitute concentrates.
 
Always make sure that your horse has access to clean water unless they are very hot from work. If you are cooling down your horse, give him a few small drinks instead of access to free water. Your horse will drink between five and ten gallons of water a day. Also make sure that your horse has access to a mineralized salt block. Ask your veterinarian if there are any other supplements that your horse should have. Some areas are poor in certain vitamins and nutrients, and this can mean that supplements are required.
 
Take some time and really consider what kind of care your horse needs; there are many things to think about!

http://horseridingsaddle.com

Author: Marilyn Witt
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Smiling shark

Many years ago while visiting the dressage stable of the late Hector Carmona in New Jersey, I was intrigued by a sign in his indoor arena that boldly proclaimed, “The secret of riding is the outside rein”. I soon discovered that the outside rein (AKA the rein of opposition) has many critical jobs:

1. You control speed with it.
2. You use it to steer.
3. You use it to keep your horse straight.
4. When you combine the outside rein with both your driving aids and your bending aids for 3 seconds, you have a “connecting half halt” to put your horse on the bit.
5. Later in training your dressage horse, you’ll use a momentary closure of seat, leg, and hand to give a “collecting half halt”.

(The half halt is one of the most essential concepts in riding because it allows you to improve your horse’s balance–an issue we’re constantly dealing with in training. But more on the half halt in a moment. ) First, let’s take some time to develop a feel for simply using the outside rein.

LEARNING TO USE THE OUTSIDE REIN

To start, I’m going to give you some exercises to help you become more aware of your outside aids. I think this is a useful first step because riders instinctively rely more on their inside rein than their outside rein.

The first exercise is simply to ride in all three paces on the “second track” which is one meter away from the wall. One meter is a good distance because it’s fairly close to the wall. And you’ll soon find that the wall exerts some sort of “magnetic pull” that draws your horse back towards the track. Plus, it’s a small enough distance for you to clearly tell if you’re staying equidistant from the track.

Your goal is to make it all the way around the ring exactly one meter away from the track without having to make any corrections or adjustments. Pretend you’re on a 4-inch wide balance beam and any deviation off your line means you’ve fallen off the beam. If your horse is between your aids, it’s easy to keep him one meter from the wall.

Once you can do that, increase the difficulty of the exercise by making a circle. Ride one meter off the track as in the first exercise. Then ride a circle that begins and ends at exactly the same point. As you finish the circle, continue riding straight ahead maintaining your one-meter distance away from the track. The critical points are when you start and finish the circle. You’ll need your outside rein both to turn your horse onto the circle as well as to straighten him to tell him to go straight ahead again.

To add an even greater degree of difficulty to the exercise, turn down the centerline and leg yield over to the wall. When you’re one meter from the wall interrupt the leg yield with your outside aids and redirect your horse’s energy so he travels straight ahead. Since your horse will be inclined to continue his sideways momentum and end up on the track, you’ll need to influence him firmly with your outside aids.

HALF HALTS

Once you have a handle on using your outside rein, ask your dressage horse to step through it and come on the bit by giving a “connecting half halt”.

During a connecting half halt there’s a marriage of three sets of aids–the driving aids (both legs and the seat), the bending aids (both legs and the inside rein, and the rein of opposition (the outside rein).

Imagine what would happen if you were to apply your driving and bending aids to their maximum without adding the rein of opposition. That’s right. Your horse would be running very fast on a very small circle. Not very good balance, eh?

However, with the addition of the outside rein, an imaginary door shuts in front of your horse. As your horse maintains his speed and straightness while yielding to this outside hand that is closed in a fist, he bends the joints of his hind legs to a greater degree and changes his balance and shape.

Changing his balance can include anything from putting him on the bit by connecting him longitudinally to improving his self-carriage by collecting him to calling him to attention when he’s distracted. The main difference is just a matter of degree. Depending on what you’re trying to do, all the elements (driving aids, bending aids, rein of opposition) are there, but the emphasis merely changes.

For instance, you’ll use a certain amount of seat, leg and hand to ask the horse to step through the outside rein and come into a round frame in the working gaits. Then you can take that same horse and with a greater degree of the three elements, you can ask for more collection. Or if you want an extension, half halt by using more seat and leg versus the amount of restraining outside hand. When you want to do a downward transition at the end of this extension, you’ll use more upper leg and outside rein to collect your horse. When you close your legs and drive more with your seat into a restraining hand, the educated horse knows to passage. If you then half halt by maintaining your legs and closing your restraining hand a bit more while lightening your seat, you’re asking that horse to piaffe.

When you’re ready to give a connecting half halt, you’ll combine the three sets of aids for approximately three seconds. Of course, there will be times when you give a half halt in one second. But it’s best for the green rider to think that the half halt lasts for the amount of time it takes to take a full breath.

As you breathe in, tighten your stomach and the small of your back. You should feel it as a wave that travels up your stomach into your chest. Your shoulders go back and down and the wave goes down your back into your seat. At the same time close your legs and maintain your horse’s bend with your inside hand.

As he begins to move forward and bend to a greater degree, you’ll feel a surge of energy come into the rein. This is the moment to close your outside hand in a fist. The outside hand says, “You’re not allowed to speed up or bend to a greater degree than you already have. Instead you must yield to the outside hand, and because you’re being driven forward, you’ll bend your hind legs more.” At the end of your full breath, relax all the aids and resume a light but pleasant contact with your legs on your horse’s barrel and your hands with his mouth. Then you can ride him forward in a new state of balance and attention.

WHAT DOES IT LOOK AND FEEL LIKE WHEN YOUR DRESSAGE HORSE

STEPS THROUGH THE OUTSIDE REIN?

When your dressage horse steps through the outside rein, he feels like he’s in an organized package rather than a jumble of disconnected parts. On circles, he “fills” the outside rein and, in turn, the rein envelops his neck. His silhouette or shape is round, and the power from his hindquarters travels uninterrupted over his back through a long and beautifully set neck. Because he moves through his whole body like a dancer rather than holding his back rigidly and shuffling along with his legs, he’s more comfortable to sit on–especially in trot and canter. He’s so uncomplicated to ride that you have a sense of anything being possible within the very next step. For example, if you’re in extended trot, you can just as easily be in collected trot by the next stride. Or if you’re backing up, you can effortlessly strike off into the canter.

As you use your driving aids, you experience a comfortable interaction with your outside hand. You create energy, and your outside rein recycles that power through your horse’s body without any conflicts–sort of like a flywheel that continues to turn by itself because it doesn’t meet any resistance. There’s a cooperative relationship between the driving aids and the outside rein where the use of one benefits the other rather than existing as separate entities that work against each other.

Not only can you feel when your horse steps through your hand, but you can see it as well. As your horse steps through your hand, you’ll notice that his neck changes shape. It gets longer, rounder, and often lower. His neck is widest at the base and gets progressively narrower with the narrowest point behind the ears. (If his neck is widest in the middle, he’s not stepping through the outside rein.)

However, when the relationship between your driving aids and outside rein is not right, the use of your driving aids complicates the feeling in your hand. Your horse might speed up and run through your hand, become hollow, pull, come against your hand, or lean on it. He feels as if he’s jammed up against your hand with the kind of resistance or blockage you’d meet if you were trying to drive your car with the emergency brake on. You’ll also probably feel like you have to resort to doing too much with your inside rein for basic things like steering and maintaining his round shape.

TESTING THE CONNECTION THROUGH THE OUTSIDE REIN

After you’ve pushed your dressage horse through the outside rein with a half halt, you can tell if you’ve been successful by softening your inside rein forward for a couple of strides (uberstreichen). If your horse maintains his shape and position while you give your inside hand away, you know he’s stepping through the outside rein.

Start your test on a circle where the bend of the circle will help you to put him through the outside rein. Give a half halt. Close your legs, close your outside hand in a fist, and maintain flexion to the inside by lightly vibrating the inner rein. Then put a loop in the inner rein by softening your hand forward towards his mouth for a couple of strides. Does your horse stay bent along the arc of the circle? Do his speed, balance, and frame stay the same? If so, you can feel confident that your horse is connected through your outside rein. If anything changes, give another half halt and try the test again.

Next, challenge yourself by doing this same test on a straight line where you don’t have the bend of the circle to help your horse fill the outside rein. When you give the inside rein away after a half halt, ask yourself if your horse’s spine stays parallel to the track or does his neck bend to the outside. If it does, does it bend a little or a lot? The amount that your horse’s neck bends to the outside and he, therefore, loses his straightness tells you the degree he’s connected (or not) through the outside rein.

Once you know your horse is stepping through the outside rein on circles and straight lines, do the same test during lateral work. Start a shoulder-in, a haunches-in, or a half pass. Give your half halt and then soften your inside hand forward for a stride or two. Does your horse maintain his bend and position? If he does, you’re in business. If not, you’re probably helping him too much with your inside rein rather than pushing him from your inside leg to your outside rein.

HELP!

At this point, you’ve ridden a bunch of half halts, but your dressage horse just doesn’t seem to understand stepping through the outside rein. Every time you drive him forward and close your outside hand, he stiffens against the rein and raises and shortens his neck. So what now?

What I do in this case is use the momentum of a lengthening to give the horse the idea that he must go forward “through” the closed outside hand.

To do this, start on a circle where you know your outside rein has to be more definite because of the bend. Then ask for a lengthening. When you’re really motoring along, close your outside hand in a fist while maintaining the lengthening. While doing this, your inside rein is doing its usual job of keeping the horse straight–that is, vibrating just enough to keep the inside flexion of the horse’s head.

If your dressage horse lowers, stretches, lengthens, or rounds his neck even one inch, soften your aids and reward him. If he doesn’t, KEEP lengthening while your outside hand stays closed and your inside hand vibrates until you see his neck lower even slightly. (This could take half way around the circle in the beginning!) When the power of the lengthening carries him forward through your closed outside fist and he comes rounder, soften your aids and praise generously.

If your horse still stiffens against your hand when he feels you use your outside rein, give an “increasing half halt”. Start with a light half halt but over the course of the three or more seconds, increase the pressure of all the aids. If you need “more leg”, you can tap your horse with a whip at the same time that you are using your driving aids and hands to the maximum.

Now here’s the important part. While you’re doing this, watch your horse’s neck very carefully. The moment it becomes even slightly longer, relax all of your aids. By lengthening his neck, your horse is telling you that he’s starting to step “through” your outside hand. He should be instantly rewarded for this both by the softening of all of the aids and by praising him.

Then start again with a light half halt only increasing the pressure if necessary. Always start with a light half halt rather than immediately going to a strong one so that you give your horse the option to respond to a subtle aid. You always want to ride using the most refined aids possible. It’s not much fun for either you or your horse to ride from strength.

In this way your dressage horse learns that when he arrives at your closed outside hand, he should soften and yield to the action of the rein. He has other options besides jamming up against your hand. He needs to view the outside hand as a wall, but it’s an invisible wall. He can step “through” it and come into a better balance.

Are you sick and tired of complicated and confusing training techniques?
Are you frustrated by negative emotions like fear and lack of confidence?
Would you like to be trained by a Three Time Olympic Coach?
Learn how by going to: http://www.janesavoie.com/ or http://www.dressagementor.com

Author: Jane Savoie
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Canada duty tariff

Having a horse is fun, but a major responsibility, so be thorough on your research of barns to board it at. It pays to choose a place that is close to where you live, has facilities that are well maintained and most importantly, gives its horses proper care and nutrition. Each barn has its own atmosphere, is it one you can live with? If you want to participate in horse shows, it may be a good idea to choose a barn that frequents the kinds of shows you want to be in. If you live in a cold climate, make sure the barn has a large indoor arena for winter riding.

Do you ride English or Western? If English is your thing, then make sure your barn has jumps available, and/or a dressage ring. I ride English, and my barn had a top show trainer in it, so if I needed to prepare for a show, he was there to critique my riding during lessons. I liked boarding my horse at a place with a competent, experienced trainer, one that took the time to explain the exercises and gave me quality instruction. Since I spent most of my money at this sport, I wanted to make sure I was doing everything right.

If you ride Western, make sure there are trails to ride on nearby your barn. And again, find a barn that has a trainer suited to your style of riding in order to get the proper instruction. Once you find a barn you like, whatever style you ride, spend time taking lessons there before buying a horse, just to get a feel of the place. If you haven’t found a horse yet, trainers can assist you in looking. Ask around, and tell them how much you are looking to spend on your first horse. Another great way to find a horse is during the summer, many young horse owners are getting ready to go off to college and need to sell their animal fast. This is a good bargaining time, if the seller is motivated, you may talk the price down on his horse. Have them throw in the tack (saddle, bridle, etc) too, as part of the bargain. When I sold my horse to go to college, I gladly gave the buyers (a well maintained show barn) all my tack since I knew he was going to be in good hands. It pays to ask about the tack, to save on money, since having a horse is very expensive any way you look at it.

Make sure the horse is healthy before committing to buying it. This is incredibly important. Make sure to have a vet look it over, and tell you what condition he is in. Are his legs sound? Has he ever been lame? Has he had all his shots, and is he disease-free? Also, make sure there are no growths on his ears. A friend of mine bought an expensive show horse, only to find out he had skin cancer on one of his ears. One of his ears had to be partially removed, it was really sad. Make sure the animal is completely sound and has a personality you can live with.

One way to try out horse ownership is to lease a horse from its owner. Most barns have horses that are up for lease, you can even get a half or quarter lease sometimes. Then, you help with the bills of the horse, but are not fully responsible for it. You work out with the owner, and anyone who may be sharing the lease with you, what days you will ride. That is a great solution if you have limited time, because owning a horse, even when boarded at a show stable, is still very time consuming. You must groom, saddle, ride, unsaddle, wash then clean its feet every time you ride. And, I used to let my horse out into the paddocks and wait for him to have fun kicking up his heels every day, instead of paying extra to have the trainer do it for me. I spent at least four hours every afternoon at my stable since he was my full responsibility, I owned him so his well-being was totally up to me alone. The barn workers fed the horses, mucked stalls and kept the grounds up. I kept the horse clean, healthy and happy, as well as my tack spotlessly maintained.

Keep in mind, horses have other bills that must be paid, such as vet bills (worming, shots, etc) and farrier (horseshoes, hoof trimming, etc). These must be done on a regular schedule and not ignored. Taking good care of your horse’s feet is of major importance so never skimp on cleaning or trimming them. Also, buy shampoo and other grooming products online to save money. If you don’t have a locker in your barn, get a caddy to hold your grooming supplies, and keep it in the back of your car. Leaving it out in the open at the barn invites trouble, in the form of others “borrowing” things and forgetting to put them back, so it’s best to have a locking trunk or keep the caddy in the back of your car.

If you plan to show your horse, ask your barn how much they charge to use their horse trailer. Most barns will haul the horse for you, for the asking, as long as they have enough trailer space for all the horses going to the show. Showing is addictive. Start at a small, local show and see how you like it. Then, if you do well and enjoy yourself, work your way up to bigger shows. Going to a horse show is a enjoyable family event. Many people bring picnics to watch the show as their children ride. If you win a prize, it’s a bonus, but do it for the sheer pleasure of it all. If you show, make sure to wear the appropriate clothing and boots. Advance preparation of both the rider and horse is the key to a successful day of horse showing.

Once you and your horse are settled in and know each other, you will make a good team and build on your experiences together. Bring him treats, talk to him and give kind approval so he learns to trust you. My horse used to whinny whenever he saw me walking towards him. We were buddies and I used to make him carrot cake every New Year’s Day (he was a Thoroughbred and all registered Thoroughbreds share the birthday of January first, whether they were born on that day or not). He plowed through that cake in minutes flat and looked for more. We were a great team and I’ll never forget him. These little things make the relationship you have with your horse all the more special. Owning a horse is a special privelege so enjoy each and every day with him. Grow together, learn new things, and both your lives will be enriched and happy. I highly recommend it.

Author: Carolyn McFann
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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