I have a young 3.5yr old arabian gelding that I recently purchased in October. He came straight out of the pasture, no prior handling before that except for bathing and trimming..etc. He was always handled on the left side.
I sent him to a trainer Oct. 5th 2010 - January 8th 2010, next week he will come home. I have no round pen/arena or even a dry pasture. Only a big dry gravel turn out.
The horse, hee has 2 solid months of ground work and was only finally ridden December 1st.
As of December 1st he now knows: Whoa, Walk, Trot, Canter, turning, he is forward and Reverse. The basics...but not too soidly ye because naturally he is still young and inexperienced.
However, he does NOT buck, bite or kick.
His current flaws (not intentional flaws--lack of experience mostly):
*He is VERY weak on his right side still, not medically. He was always handled from the left so he is very warey of people handling him on his right. When you approach him he sometimes turns away from you or stands stock still, sticks his head waaayyyy up there in the air and you can see the whites of his eyes. He has NEVER been abused either, he is just for some reason very nervous/scared.
He is very spookish still, with only 1 month under saddle I don't blame him. He spooks more often however, go figure...with things on his right side. He is noise sensitive. In an arena if he is trotting in a circle around a cone he might out of nowhere spook and tuck his butt under himseld to scoot away FAST maybe 10-15 feet, then he sometimes faces the object or else scoots away and keeps moving at a fast trot away but still in a circle. It's a miracle the trainer can stay on, but he is very fast and he doesn't do it intentionally he just doesn'nt know what the 'scary' thing is. Then after about 2-3 seconds, once the trainer gets his attention and diverts it elsewhere he is moving again and fine.
Those are the only TWO things he needs work with, and I think they are mostly due to lack of experience. When walking him down a barn aisle if someone walks up on his right he either speeds up to get in front of the person or stops and let's them pass...he doesn't like to walk next to the person. I can make him, but I wonder how long it will take him to get used to walking next to people and other horses.
**I plan to use him mostly for trails the first couple years before I show him as either a Hunt horse or a Classical Dressage horse. He is 100% sound and healthy, beautiful and otherwise very friendly but VERY warey. He tries very hard.
My question is this:
I want to take him home on the 8th of January. I will start training him myself on the basics: Turning, Walk, Trot...Canter, etc. I figure I will be starting out at ground zero since I haven't ridden him yet and I don't know his signals or he mine. I expect to fall off a lot when he spooks needless to say. I plan to work him 3-4 times per week, since I don't have any training area I have to load him into my 2 horse Trailer: Mon-Wed and Fri, then drive 1 mile away to the neartest arena. We live off of a Main Road.
**What, if I am planning to train him as a Trail Horse, should be my main focus considering his 2 flaws that I mentioned and considering he spooks on occasion?? How do I go about working him and should I worry about working him when other people are present or get him used to those things right off the bat?
I basically want him under control and solid in his WHOA, but I figure whatever way I train him and however well he does... What can I work the most on so that when I do actually haul him out to the Trail, he will be safer---more confident (he is a bit of a panzy) and less likely to spook. However, I will still expect that because most horse's spook their first time out but what can I work on with him to lesson that or better be able to control it when it does happen.
Sorry for all the writing, but I feel you need to have ALL the information first before you can adequately give me a good answer. Ideas/tips and help??? Thank you. Also please, do not say bad things about arabians because not all arabians are spooks. I had an arabian before I purchased this one and he was PERFECT for me and NOT a spook, more of a QH personality and very sweet. I think Training plays a HUGE factor and not always the horse/breed itself. Again, thank you. Below is a picture of my arab just for fun and some video links. Please keep in mind he only has 1 month of actual riding on him.
Pic 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22812356@N07/5252724621/
Video 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFaEwrZnruY
Video 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx8s6JWnLZg
Video 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSVTCim_GEA (This is me riding my husbands 4yr old Gelding Rom. 5th time for this horse riding English, normall he only rides on Trails.)|||Let me tell you a couple things.
First, the trainer is doing a good job with your horse. I can't believe one of the answerers(Cassie) was criticizing, that is just jealousy talking and terrible advice. I would watch though, that they get the horse working outside of that round arena and outside, as Victoria said, the horse needs exposure. Many trainers purposefully train at this point outdoors where it is busy to proof the training.
Secondly NEVER give a GOOD and HONEST trainer a strict timeline, as a horse needs to be trained at his own pace, and you want him back BROKE. If he knows what he is doing, he will give you back the horse when he feels like it is safe for you to pick up. Right now, your horse is dangerous even for an advanced rider and NOT broke.
Thirdly, unless your horse is crazy or blind in one eye the trainer should be working on desensitizing him, and he will get better.
Fourth, I don't think it is wise to make him a trail horse initially, since dressage is the BEST foundation a cross trained horse can get IMO, START with this. The training he will recieve if he is a decently trained dressage horse will make competing in WHATEVER you choose easier for him to adapt to. Many European trainers teach dressage even to jumpers initially, and it shows in thier control in the ring, while your average american charges their horse around the ring with its head tied down and a gag bit.|||No offense but you don't sound experienced enough to work with such a young horse yourself. This horse needs desensetization training so unless you know how to do it already I suggest you work closely with a trainer.|||For the time when you will be teaching your Arabian by yourself there's a small paperback book available for less than $10 (used) at Amazon that will give you insightful ways to relate to him to teach him to be as safe as a trail horse can be. It's Basic Training for a Safe Trail Horse with subtitle of Eliminating the Fear Factors. It requires no equipment like round pens, lunge lines, even bits and spurs. It does require patience to be insistent, persistent and consistent to teach him the meaning of words. At You Tube enter "granny with a trail horse" in the search box and see examples of a half Arabian that has been taught by the methods described in this book!|||I think your best approach is to keep him with the trainer at least one more month. Consistency is EXTREMELY important at this stage.
Also, most trainers include one lesson a week in their package-obviously your horse was too green for that up until now (though many Arab trainers I know will give you a lesson on a different horse if your horse isn't ready yet), but you should definitely do a few lessons with the trainer before you bring him home. Again, consistency is vital now, so you need to have the trainer help you understand their processes, and what they are doing with your horse so you can continue at home. The trainer can best advise you on what to work on and how to do it.
Another month of training would really pay off for you and your horse, especially if you are able to me more involved during the extra month.
Arabians are very sensitive horses, so it is important you are using the same cues and approach as the trainer. Little differences will be noticed by your horse and he will be confused.|||ROL are great trainers ask to go up and ride him there a few times before you take him home. They will definitely help you and the more comfortable he is with you there the better he will be at home. Great choice in trainer by the way ROL are the best.|||This horse needs basics, not riding. Training is training and it is all the same for each horse,has nothing to do with the breed. Lots of ground work, basic handling, desensitizing, teaching respect, manners, sensitizing, moving away from pressure, staying out of your space, proper leading, accepting all touching all over the body. Foundation is the key for every horse. Keep him safe. If you are unsure about his behavior in certain surroundings, don't put him into it. If you are not secure in your handling ability, don't get in a dangerous situation. Common sense goes a long way. Be kind, patient, respectful. Help him learn to trust and lose fear. Easy stuff but takes time. Can't rush.|||Arabians are usually spooky there high spirited horses. And high spirited horses tend to be a bit more spooky and weary of things IMO.
On touching his right side in the 3 months of training him I'd think that they would have gotten him over that in that case it my be neurological but thats just me you may need to get that checked if you haven't already.
In getting him to let you touch his right side you just need to work with him work with him for about 30 minutes everyday or in the time you do have just work with him and try and touch his right side. He needs to get the idea that that its okay to be touched over there.
When you get him back from the trainer I wouldn't start back from ground 0 because he already has some training under him in the saddle. As Arabians are they can go green very very fast. So let him get used to you for a couple of days then start right back up were the trainer left off.
To get him to stop being spooky its not something that can just go away right away. The more training the horse has the less spooked he will be. So again just work with him on that. Make him ride past things that scare him he needs to confront what scares him so he can see for himself that its not scary. When he tries to run scared you need to do a one rein stop. By this I mean grab the left or right rein which ever one you or he prefers. Take that rein and pull the rein towards your foot and turn him in circles and make him go back and face what scared him thats the only way he will get over his fear is to face what scares him.
I am sorry lol if I wasn't much help I was using some of my experience with working with Arabians. He seems like he will be a very good horse if you just work with him on those things.
Good luck!!:P|||I hope you did the 2 mo. of ground work because if you paid a trainer to do it for you I would say he is screwing you!! and then he has only done one mo. of ride?. or the horse was a spooky wild crazy idiot. I do hope you went to see him work often?? if you did not bad mistake.
I can see he is a hot and on the bit horse that will need a lot of hard ride. I would hope that you could pay your trainer to go with you and ride him on a loonng trail ride before you take him so you can see how he reacts with the trainer and at least bring him home very tired and that is not easy with an A.
I hope when you haul him to ride him you will not give him his morning feeding , take him, ride him a lot and then find a quiet nice place and let him eat where you rode him. and he may not get the want to go home so soon or not get in the trailer problem so soone because he would be wanting to go out to eat.
You appear to be a good rider but I would think you will have to do a lot of it to make a sweet quiet horse out of him.|||I wouldn't keep him at this trainer after watching the vids- mostly because I like to take things much more slowly with my greenies, and there were some points of safety I noticed in the 2nd video of him that really concern me (cantering a green horse undersaddle in a round pen, rope left on the ground in the center). For the first few months undersaddle, the horse shouldn't even be worked on circles until their joints and ligaments are stronger, and these take much longer to strengthen than muscles. He also has been rushed into being placed on the bit at a point that he shouldn't be, and if you want to do dressage with him, this will create some problems for you further down the road. However, he is a pretty boy and looks like a very good horse. I agree with you, that most arabs aren't the bad spookies that people stereotype as useless horses. I think that people tend to lump most of these horses in with the show horses that are fed too much and such. One of my school horses is an arab, and he LOVES his beginner kids that ride him.
I don't know how much you have heard about Linda Tellington-Jones, but she has a very good, solid method for addressing the issues that you describe. I had a arab curly cross who did really well with this method. She had also been handled exclusively on the left and was much more spooky on the right, but after doing the TTeam work with her she became much more balanced and also reliant on me, the handler.
I would recommend constructing some sort of outdoor arena, even if it is only a low dressage fence with the short court side, and beginning your dressage work with him now at either intro or training level, and also trail riding. If you do this, he will become acclimated to work more quickly toward your long term goals, he will be more responsive to you as a rider, and also the trail rides could serve as a sort of cross training type activity. The classical dressage work will also give you more tools to help him out as a rider, and you will find that over time he will spook less and be more confident.|||Start exposing him. If you have a solid trail horse then I would pony your 3 year old everywhere. Pony in a rope halter so he is unable to break the halter. Anytime you haul a horse somewhere he needs to go to.
At this point if his main issue is that he's spooky it's just time for a lot of exposure. When I first got my colt and I had him broke to tie and lead, he got hauled everywhere. Anytime I went trail ridling he got ponied along. If I was doing arena work he got tied up at one end and stood there until I was done. By the time I got to where he was being ridden out of the arena, he had pretty much already seen the sights. At that point it was building confidence in himself to go out alone.
Before you leave the trainer's with him, make the trainer ride him and show you his cues and then you ride him so you cam figure out his buttons while the trainer is there. It will make the transition process much easier and they should do that before you leave, honestly.|||You haven't shared much about your experience but it sounds like you are a little afraid of him. He looks to have a nice solid start from the videos, but with only 90 days on him he will need someone who is experienced.
The comment you made about knowing that you will fall off alot is concerning, because unless he is constantly throwing his rider now there is no reason to think that. Falling off a young horse consistantly can cause many many problems. If you are getting in over your head with this horse you can cause him a lot more problems that will take months to fix, if they are fixable VS having a little more time put on him.
The last thing you want is him learning he can get someone off his back|||You should start working with him a few hrs every day or every other day. I have an Arab also and he isn't scared of anything. Start walking him on a lead line though out the day. He needs to get use to new things. Put a tarp where you are going to start working with him and have him walk over it.Don't force him to do it let him do it on his own.You can walk him past the mail box,walk him past parked cars. You can take plastic bags and rub him down with it,shake them when he relaxes rub him do that on the right side.Stand a few feet AWAY from the road so he can see and hear the cars go by. You should watch the video of sensitizing and desensitizing. Have fun and be safe
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