At 19:46:54 on 15.02.10, Becky_doo wrote:
Hey all, Well, I am attemting my first backing and breaking with my beautiful warmblood. He can be a bit nappy in the school and rearing is a favourite at the moment! He is very intelligent (which is a good and bad thing!) However once he has learned something new he refuses point blank to show me he can do it again! Any suggestions welcome to schooling techniques which keep him on his toes. We vary each day with hacking, schooling, jumping etc. Problems only tend to be in the school.

At 11:02:40 on 17.02.10, Flicka wrote:
The most talented horses need entertaining!! It's good that you keep things varied. Do you think it's because he finds the school hard work? Some surfaces can really work a horse and being a baby he will get tired easily. I overdid it with my young mare once and she became very sour! If I were you (this is what I do now with another very intelligent mare I have) I would keep my school work really varied, put a semi circle of poles, obstacles to work round etc-and not repeat something but keep him on his toes, and keep doing transitions, maybe do a turn on the forehand somewhere, so he doesn't know what you will ask next. To be honest I have a problem with school work myself and get bored so I do this and it makes me really concentrate, rather than repeating one circle after another-ugh!! I also have a plan before I go in there. Hope you get some more posts because it's an interesting subject. See the thread on quirky horses!!

At 13:24:09 on 17.02.10, Becky_doo wrote:
You points are really appreciated!!! thanks

At 11:47:18 on 24.02.10, kellyt wrote:
Yeah i totally agree! Schooling work for young horses needs to be made extremely interesting and done in short sessions to keep them interested. Try and make it almost a game sometimes instead of seeing it as 'schooling!' Do you go in the school everytime to ride, or do you do some inhand work in there too? I think many people forget the importance of groundwork with horses, especially young ones, and it can be so beneficial and can even help build their trust in you. Try putting poles or small jumps out and jumping them with him, practicing halting together a few steps after. Also try leading exercises to get him to stay with you in hand, so when you run he trots to keep up, when you stop he stops dead with you. Some sort of pressure release/monty roberts halter may help with this. Also do things like turn on forehand/haunches on the ground first, just introduce it as a game and see if he can pick it up without the pressure of having a rider on and no support on the ground. Maybe introduce some scary objects too, like tarpaulin laid out over the floor (pinned down with poles or something!) and getting him to walk over it, or objects that he has to step up on or jump over other than jumps. If you let him take his time, work it out and tell him its ok to be scared and take his time with these things, he may be a much more confident horse in the future. He will trust in you that its ok for him to question things, which will give him more confidence to go for the new and scary things he sees.Then when you start introducing small jumps and fillers etc in the future, if you adopt the same techniques on board, letting him see them and take his time, you will end up with a really confident horse that will jump almost anything! When you start to introduce lateral work such as the turn on the forehand/haunches in your riding work, even try them whilst out hacking occasionally too, makes a change and teaches him that just because he is not in the arena he still may be expected to listen sometimes too wihch will help in the future when going to shows. Sorry if im telling you things you already know, i love training and teaching horses and get a bit carried away!Hope you have lots of success and let us know how you get on!good luck xx

At 16:19:26 on 25.02.10, sophieandcallum wrote:
Agree with a young intelligent horse variety is a must! Keep him amused by introducing new things and making him think all the time don't let him just trot round the school do circles, serpintines, figures of 8, polework. Anything you can imagine, my instructor swears by leg yeilding while in the school or out hacking! Really makes a green horse concentrating where to put their hooves next! Many have tantrums when they first start it as it is difficult and requires their full attention to stay reasonably balanced. I've been through this with a 8yr old highland who I bought more like a green 5yr old. I found endurance and le trec too! Le Trec really pushed his buttons, he was in his element and really trying everything and giving it his all (showing off a little too!) He had never seen any of the obstacles before and did every one perfect, I had a very tired but happy pony that day! Transitions, transitions, transitions too! Stand to trot, walk to canter, stand to canter, canter to walk etc etc not just your usual but mix it up a bit so your horse is listening to your aids and not just stepping up to the next gear with a nudge. As for napping I found completely ignoring it and riding through it worked for us, telling him off just started an argument...he soon realised I wasn't reacting so he gave up cause it wasn't so fun anymore. Napping leaving the yard I just nudged him every few seconds for a good 10minutes but not getting frustrated (was very hard!) took deep breaths and in the end he just walked forward and got a huuuge pat and he has never napped again! Hope this is of some help, good luck with him he is very handsome:)

At 22:33:25 on 01.05.10, Natasha wrote:
my horse atm is a 4year old warmblood, shes 14.1hh and she was broken nt long ago, she was proffesionly schooled, hope u hv look with ur warmblood!

At 09:38:20 on 23.07.10, nicky_jess wrote:
i have a 5 year old 15.2hh cob x trotter mare, i got her at 3 and a half when she was broken to drive and broken to ride too however not a lot was done with her. She bucked me off due to a badly fittng saddle (it bounced off her back the first time i put her into trot) so she had about 3 months off while my foot came right and then i had to re back her. She was spot on to do that however we used to have so many fights with bucking while cantering, refusing to go a certain way on the lunge and wrong canter leads. All things because she found it uncomfortable and hard because she was unbalanced and found it easier not to do the things i was asking. She is now 5 years old and with a varied amount of hacking, schooling, lunge work in a passoa and without, jumping and groundwork of which i think is the most important as it got her to respect me so much more. Shes come on so much and is a completely different horse. Persistance and variation is the key along with ground work (cant stress enough the importance of the latter). We still have our issues because shes not very confident with HGV's, buses, trailors and tractors however its a working progress, hopefully one that will get better with age :D xxx

At 12:34:31 on 23.07.10, kibby wrote:
kellyt do you mean jumping with them like this? it really did help his confidence with jumping.. and we had a good day.. infact i might do ground work again while he i holidaying.. never hurts and since he gets carrots he thinks its wonderful..