Patience is Key

It is often hard to be patient when training a horse from scratch. In your earnest desire to get busy in the saddle, it seems easiest to just go at it and do it all in one day. While clinicians abound in 'horsemanship' that showcase a horse going from green to broke in a matter of hours in front of an audience of enthusiastic onlookers, the reality is horses deserve our patience when starting them out. Every horse goes at its own individual pace and no one method or routine of training is going to work on every horse.

My husband was fortunate to be trained by James Belman ( who also trained UK team rider Dane Rawlins), and Belman was mentored by the iconic Director of the Spanish Riding School at Vienna, Austria, Alois Podhajsky. One of Podhajsky's many writings included this:

"A ruthlessly condensed training only leads to a general superficiality, to travesties of the movements, and to a premature unsoundness of the horse. Nature cannot be violated."

After 25+ years of breeding and starting horses, hubbie and I both know this to be true. All our horses are started slowly, allowing them time to digest each new task and fully understand their part in the process. We also sincerely believe that a horse should be strong in its topline, and ready to take the additional weight that a rider presents to the equation. Longe work elevates a horse's front end (when done correctly), strengthens the horse through work on cadence within gaits and transitions and helps the horse develop pushing power and balance. Not too mention confidence in doing their job. 

Focus is an important part of the equation and relaxation is key to the learning process. A tense horse will neither learn well or be able to maintain focus on the task at hand. Difficulties are usually caused by lack of understanding or physical or mental inability to complete the training job presented to the horse. Patience is indeed key to successful training.

Charrington WVH was not always an easy horse to train. His apparent stoic nature hid a lack of confidence and it was easy to push him quickly to the next level without giving him the time to properly develop gymnastically to carry himself in self-carriage.

Unfortunately, this can mean that much time is needed to develop a young horse from start to finish. A 'dressed' horse such as our two statesman Tiberio Lafite and Charrington, have taken many years for us to develop from babies to Grand Prix. There have been bumps and plateaus along the road, and those moments have been the ones we have learned the most from and taken forward to other horses in training. 

Making the horse of a lifetime requires a lifetime of commitment ~

When I actively competed in Europe, working with my 'compadre' in all things dressage, FEI coach Greta Kemmer in Switzerland, the horses I rode were also started by her in the same principles. Transitioning between our horses and hers was thus easy, as the proper groundwork had been laid. 

A super mare I competed to St. Georg called Epernay, that my coach leased to me, was a case in point of where patience mattered. When competing at Luxemburg Dressage she arrived flustered from an arduous and frankly too fastly driven transport via a commercial carrier. The day was clearly not marked for success so we scratched. Two weeks later I returned to school her. After a few days Greta and I decided to head out to a quieter show in Lugano, for a go around the ring that was simply aimed at building confidence for the horse and develop better trust between the mare and myself. It was a great go and our scores were mid '70's. The horse was up for sale shortly thereafter and a buyer who had seen her at the Lugano show quickly snapped her up. The educated buyer was fully aware that the horse had overcome her difficulties and was ready to move up to the next stage of her career.

So as hubbie and I try to find time to get our two mares started under saddle, (for sale as part of our mareband dispersal due to our retirement), I am reminded that the patience we take now to develop the horses truly from back to front, with strong backs and carrying power and happiness in their job, will pay dividends later for new 'dancing partner' that steps up to purchase them.

Dutch Warmblood Midi has been sat on just a few times - now building her back to work on the longe in readiness for saddling.

It doesn't matter how old the horse or how far along the training program they are, all horses will learn eagerly with the right instruction and patience.