Training Rain Day 1
Rain is an 8 year old draft cross mare. She has some emotional baggage. In Monday’s session she ran away from me for about 20 minutes and three of us had a hard time catching her. Once caught, I gave her a small scoop of grain and made her follow me around the arena. Every time she took a bite, I softly whistled to help teach her to come to my whistle.
Rain’s habit is to run from people and in past lesson sessions we have played a ‘move the feet’ game as long as she is running away from us. I wanted to put that forward energy to use and control her direction the whole session, so I put her on the long reins and I made her do circles at the walk and trot.
All I was looking for this session was calm, attentive, willing, and adaptable. I did not encourage her to run away from me; I used the long reins to control the speed of her trot and when she started to ‘run’ from the pressure, I slowed her to a walk and waited for her head to come down and eyes/ears to get soft.
Long rein work is fascinating. I never escalated Rain into a turbo trot or canter, yet after 30 minutes of walk and controlled trot, she was dripping. Someone watching the session would not have believed she would get so sweaty from the workout.
Long rein exercises help balance horses and encourage them to use all their muscles, especially at the walk. So in actuality, the horse uses more muscles in a concentrated effort at the walk than at the trot. The trot allows the horse to use momentum to maintain balance, and so the horse does not actually have to rely on using all of its muscles optimally. Long rein exercises equate to Pilates or yoga in the people world. Horses use muscle groups they are not used to using on a regular basis, and so they tire more quickly and sweat more readily.
Hi Emma Rose here this sounds a fun way of kepeing track of things .young Harley looks a smaller version of my Zoe .we put Zoe to harness for 12 months before riding and I can thoroughly reccomend it. I had an American how to book in one hand and an English one in the other when neither made sense at one stage we asked an Aussie trotting trainer who told us to just tie her behind the ute..well we led her behind the ute and trailed the cart and after a short while put the two together without problems(she was already good long rein driving by this stage). Have put 3 ponies to harness now and find that the smaller they are the easier they take to it they just seem to love it. It’s also a really good way to get a few miles under their belts without putting weight on their young backs. Actually getting going under saddle was an easy progression.Looking back to when our kids were young our first pony cost $250 for pony,jog cart and cut down trotter harness and we had years of picnics, meeting shool busses and carting Santa around. It was a very relaxing, talking,unwinding from school time for all of us and I would not have missed it for the world. It was also handy as non horsey Dad could drive the cart with small kids in while I rode alongside. Have fun with your mob..cheers Rose. (Rose’s Rug Repairs, short term holiday agistment, care and clipping .Doodlakine!)