Starting a Young Horse Under Saddle

Hello, I'm Leyla and I'm here to tell you a few things about starting your young horse under saddle. Things like tips and tricks and how to familiarize the feeling of a rider on the horse's back. I'll also help you establish a great foundation for your young horses' future. I refer you to the article written by Jen Arnold (valuable information used in my research): https://dressagetoday.com/instruction/6-strategies-for-training-young-horses-jenna-arnold-part-1

So a few tips I can give you are on YOURSELF. Be patient, gentle, kind, and set up boundary's for your horse. Things like rules...so don't let them stop unless you tell them to do so...Have them walk beside you not in front of you, not even behind you. You can also create your own rules. But whatever you do always be persistent and NEVER EVER EVER let them break the rules if they do then correct it immediately. Fix it by doing it over and over until they do it right and then reward them immediately. If you don't, and this is a young horse, it will haunt you for the rest of said horse's life. Ha! No but really...it is important to remember that a gentle and quiet kind hand will go a long way in building a bond of trust between you and your horse. This alone will create many positive training moments.

Okay, so a misconception with training a young horse from the ground up is that once the horse stops acting poorly with the step you are on you can move up to the next challange. However, that is not how it works. Once the horse starts responding in the manner you expect (have clear expectations) work on said step more and more until the horse starts to respond quickly and accurately and seems to want to move on. Putting it simply when they start acting like they are getting bored haha! Even when that achievement occurs, you still want to continue to work on that step occasionally. Be sure to recognize when your horse is ready to move on or you will have a whole new set of issues. The same thing applies with starting the horse under saddle and riding. Even if the horse acts great with just the saddle, work on it some more. The next step would be to start adding some weight on the saddle simply by laying on the horse's back. Be careful here and do not apply weight in the stirrup, just simply lay over like a big hug :). Do that a few times then take a break and start using your hands as feet on the same area where your legs and feet would be...lightly press on the area where your feet would be and while doing that tell your horse to walk forward. After you do that for a while and your horse is used to both the feeling of weight on their back and listening to the messages you are creating with your hands then you can try and get on their back. Right before you're about to get on put one foot in a stirrup and push down while doing that lay over the horses back. You are one step closer to mounting your horse for the first time.

Now it's the time for the “Training”. I write it like that because all we're really doing in this step is familiarizing the feeling of a rider on on the horses back. Keep it simple...in this first step we are just walking in straight lines (only walking) being sure you are adding in a few simple and easy turns here and there.

Okay, after you have that all down you can start to incorporate some shallow figure eights and large long and slow turns in both directions. This might seem long and drawn out but trust me you really want to do this because if you don't they, quite literally, will be dead to the leg. That is a whole issue in itself that we will talk about in a future post. You also have to start somewhere, so think of this step as your first test of patience. Notice I said YOUR first step in learning patience. This step helps teach them what to do when they feel pressure on their sides from your legs.

It always helps to start horses under saddle and riding at a young age because it almost gets engraved into the young one's brains for the rest of their life. Remember that this sticks both the good and the bad so be sure to keep it positive and relaxed. Do not rush it! Sure you CAN start at an older age it just might be a little bit more difficult to drill into their brains, not to mention when you have a horse as a baby all the way to a mature riding horse, you can build such an absolutely incredible bond with said horse. You can figure out all of the horse's kinks or issues and it'll be easier to fix these problems instead of having to try to figure it out later like a puzzle with missing pieces. The bond of trust will allow your horse to embrace what you ask, especially in fearful situations.

I hope this helped you and your steed trust each other a little more. I also hope this helped you get your horse under saddle and starting the riding process. Also thank you again Jen Arnold from Dressage Today for all the amazing info. I will be making a few more papers on this matter but until then...

I hope you enjoyed this one!! Bye and see you next time!