Equi-lyn horse training

03/16/2020

When you get a non halter broke horse to train but now whinnies when it sees you, has the best park of the entire herd, was scared to death for the 'mounting block' (and from me stepping on it) but parks next to it like a champ now and is more than just relaxed when getting off and on.

02/17/2020

Last week, it was time to have 2 horses go home again after they finished their training. So good to see how Lily was doing with new riders and I can't wait to hear more about her journey.

02/07/2020

Happy horses means happy owner! 🧡

01/04/2020

Variety in training is very important for the horses' well being and performance, hence I love to take the horses for a ride out or even a little jump

12/30/2019

A good 'park' is very important. Not only to get on your horse without him/her moving around but also if you forget something :) Look at Lily being a good girl while I was changing my boots. Note she didn't even move her left front leg beside her right on.

12/19/2019

A pretty successful first half of the week. All the youngsters are growing up :)

12/16/2019

Meet Lily, having both a bridle and saddle on for the very first time. She thought it was time for a nap

12/13/2019

By following this scale, you know you won't ask too much from the horse and it will be easy for it to learn how to respond to your aid

// Terminology Tuesday - The Shaping Scale //

Our shaping scale has evolved over the years as a result of academic scrutiny. When training any new response, it is important to train step-by-step achieving and reinforcing each step before asking for the next - this enables effective learning and increases the likelihood of the horse offering the right response.

To put the scale into context, we can look at training a canter transition. Initially, you would reward a basic attempt of the horse offering canter, and eventually over time and practise you will have trained the response to be reliable in any location. The scale would be used as follows:

1. BASIC ATTEMPT - the horse offers canter (you may have asked for this by asking him to trot faster until he canters)
2. OBEDIENCE - the horse canters from a light aid
3. RHYTHM - multiple strides emerge from one light aid (the horse keeps going).
4. STRAIGHTNESS - multiple strides on your line emerge from one light aid. The horse will also begin the learn the correct lead.
5. CONTACT - multiple strides on your line with consistent head neck and body posture and a subsequent consistent connection emerge from one light aid.
6. PROOF - the canter transition occurs in any environment at any time emerge from a light aid.

(Excerpt from the book 'Academic Horse Training', p. 42)

11/23/2019

Yesterday I brought my horses to their new home! This is also the place where I'm able to take horses in for training.

I'm very excited about this new start and can't wait to see what it will bring me🐴

11/19/2019

The last horse to introduce to you is Nisga'a.

Nisga'a is my newest addition to my horsey team, a halter broke horse that is going to be a project horse for me. So I will start her under saddle, train her and then sell again.

I only bought her in October 2019, blind over Facebook. Quite a risk but as soon as I saw pictures of her, I was sold and she was stuck in my mind all the time. I drove about 6 hours one way to pick her up and to be honest, I got very nervous in the car. What if the horse isn't sound? Has issues? What if my feeling about this horse was wrong?
But as soon as I saw the horse I knew I made the right decision. I was checking the horse before loading her in the trailer. It all looked good, apart from her front legs. They were swollen and the backside of both pasterns were full of wounds. It turned out the horse is really hard to catch so the previous owner had her hobbled to be able to catch her a little easier, hence the wounds.

Once she got to my place, she was walking around in her paddock with tiny steps and she was clearly really sore. Luckily I knew it wat caused it so I knew it would get better again, and after treating it, it got better after 2 to 3 weeks. She's now happily trotting and cantering in her paddock and actually has a massive stride.

I don't have my horses hobbled to be able to catch them, so to be able to catch her I spent lots of time with her, just being with her and trying to be as close as possible to her up to that point she was still comfortable with. You saw her growing from a scared horse to a horse that slowly got more curious and wanted to be around people. From when she arrived, I left the halter on her to be able to make the catching process a little easier. After a week I was able to come close to her and pet her everywhere as long as I didn't touch her halter, then she would run away. At least I was able to treat her legs that way. But then slowly she started to come around and I was able to touch her head a little bit and slowly wiggle the halter a bit too. I was then able to clip the lead rope on her halter. I just groomed her, took her for walks and just spent time with her without asking too much from her, to let her know it is a good thing to be around people. From that moment she got better every day and I was able to catch her the normal way (at first by putting a halter on top of her other halter to get her used to the catching process). I was able to do this every day for a week long without her running away or being tense, so it was finally time to take her halter off and she could live free 🙂 She now comes up running in trot, whinnies when she sees you and loves attention. I (and other people) can catch her super easily and she is not sketchy anymore.

The next step is starting her with ground work and then it is time to back her :)