What Is Your Horse’s Game Face?
- September 12, 2015
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- Lynn Kohr
Posted in: Featured, Horse Care, Horse Training
My goal as I ride my young horses is to get to know them. To really learn each and every nuance of them! My favorite chapter in Seabiscuit, the amazing story of a superstar race horse, is, “Learn Your Horse”. Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit, captured the essence of learning your horse: knowing what, how and when about your horse.
When they have an especially good day: feet are crisp and mind is relaxed, they willingly do what I suggest and look forward to their next step…what sets this day up for them? What leads up to these good days? What feed keeps them looking bloomy, shiny yet mindful? How much exercise do they need to have thoughtful yet crisp feet while keeping their mind quiet and at peak performance? How each horse travels?
Every horse is his own being. Be so careful to NOT categorize horses as this one is racier, this one is all cow bred, this one is a combination, cow on the top race on the bottom…they are all combinations and they are all their own beings with their own set of needs, their own set of worries, their own set of habits (learned and inherited). For examples…
A mare that had the potential to be very hot and nervous, Dashing Misty Isle, race horse bred on both sides, needed her time OUT. When I would return home from a futurity, I would turn her out for 3 days. The first day she would run and run and be on the move. The second day she would sleep, out flat for hours at a time. The third day she would mix it up with moving all around, then sleep, then on the move again and then more big naps. At the end of her third day she would hang out at the gate ready to be caught, relaxed and rested, ready to go to work. A friend owned her during her futurity year and she at first wanted to have Dashing Misty Isle at her place, stalled, in a beautiful barn and confined. Vegas would come back to my place mad and scowlly!!! I would turn her out and she would play and run and run and when she was ready, meet me at the gate, relaxed and ready for work!
Another race bred colt, Affirmed Cash, wanted time with me. Turned out some but he gained his confidence with me: setting limits, having a routine and lots of my time and attention.
I rode him to go check my water tanks, check fences, he was the horse I sat on to give lessons. I did way more slow methodical work and drills and very few fast runs. He liked to eat grass hay nonstop, with a full tummy he fretted less. At competitions, he wanted me to be close by and needed company. Although during his training he was tied up and separated often and he learned to handle being alone, he was always more comfortable with company.
Some like more contact and to be closer to our hands, in pens part of the day and out part of the day. Bueno Sugar Frost, double the cow and with loads of speed, loves to be turned out and caught only to ride, but she then stays aloof and snorty of fly spray, me, anything that moves…so I keep her up near us more to maintain her connection with me. If handled every day, she acts like an old broke horse while, if she is left alone she is very watchy of anything and everything that moves.
Others just want their time out and meet us at the gate each morning, looking for us.
I watch their engagement behavior…if their attitudes changes or they suddenly leave and go out to pasture when they see us, I mix it up and tend to their needs, always the goal of a quiet, thoughtful horse who is ready to work and keeps their engagement, keeps their eyes and attention on us!
Posted in: Featured, Horse Care, Horse Training
About Lynn Kohr
I am a barrel and pole horse trainer, giving springtime barrel racing and pole bending clinics and workshops, competing in barrel racing and pole bending futurities while marketing our horses for sale. I am a Mom of 3: Sage, Cedar, and Stratton. And wife of...