With indoor season looming and an unfortunately active kiddie lesson program at the barn, I am a little bit regretting getting Courage all strong and fit this year.Last year, he could skip turnout for a week, get ridden occasionally, and just hack on the buckle around the indoor as nice as you please.
Unfortunately, that horse is not here this year. Courage is curvy and fit and PROUD OF IT. I don't love lunging horses down, because it's hard on their bodies and makes them more fit, but I also don't love being a human projectile into the side of the indoor and/or trampling children and the cute lesson pony.So please share your wisdom here, blogosphere: what are your favorite strategies for horses that come out hot in the winter time?
The more a horse gets up or hot, the more zen and chill I get. You can't let their energy transfer to you or you'll sink the ship. They need you to be the leader and deal with the shit. So, I kinda just say ya, I got this, no big. You can trot past that. Or have your moment and get back to work. That is me though. Others are different.
ReplyDeleteHaha I'm no help cause I just quit in the winter. I was projectiled one too many times because my hot OTTB can't handle cold weather. No matter how zen I am my horse is still batshit.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big proponent of ground work before I decide to get in the saddle, gets their brain activated before you ever swing a leg over, I think often lunging gets them amped more. Walk, halt, disengage front end, disengage hind end, back up, lower head, etc, if these are not possible than it might be a good day to skip the ride. That said, I had one OTTB that did 1000s of times better if I let him cruise around the round pen for 5 minutes before I got on.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree re ground work. Get them listening and focused on you first before getting. Also (and I know this is may not be possible), 24/7 turnout when the weather isn't crazy.
DeleteExactly what I was thinking. Groundwork mentally engages them and gives them a job. Also, I always hand walk a few laps around to make sure he's not cold backed. Lunging is hit or miss, sometimes it amps them up, sometimes it lets them get that big buck out so you can climb aboard safely. I also keep them on the fuzzier side. It means I can't work as hard under saddle but I also don't have a nekkid, super fresh horse on my hands.
DeleteI'm with the groundwork. I might let Lily zoom around for 5 minutes at liberty if she seems "up" so she can be free to do whatever she wants. 5 minutes is about all it takes for her to be ready to pay attention. We then we do basic groundwork to confirm her brain is in the right place.
DeleteWith Gracie, who is also what I would consider a hot horse, we just do groundwork. She is a very intelligent mare that gets bored easily and engaging her brain in a game is the best way to get her focused on me and ready to listen.
And seriously...these are two horses that can easily go for 20 miles without taking a break. It is impossible to wear them out with lunging/round pen work. Groundwork is the only thing that does it for both of them!
DeleteA fifteen mile trail ride in the snow might help. :)
ReplyDeleteFull time turnout, I never have to lunge!
ReplyDeleteWell I'm pretty fortunate in that my horse is on the hotter side, but he also never does anything dangerous. I typically will either let him power trot it out for a few laps, and if that doesn't settle him down I will do a lot of walking lateral work to turn the brain back on.
ReplyDeleteyea i'm similar to lauren - my mare runs hot but usually uses her powers for good not evil. this usually means just swinging a leg over and letting her GO for a lap or two (or three or four), no fussing whatsoever from me. then just reeling it in and getting straight to work. your mileage may vary tho!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first got my 3 yr old TB/WB, I didn't wish to ride every day for training and (his) sanity reasons. However his turnout wasn't ideal in winter. So I (with knowledgable help) taught him to free lunge, first in the round pen and later in the indoor (later still, in the big outdoor). It helped our communication and gave him a safe place to move, sometimes a buck or two. Even as a 5-6 year old, I'd sometimes just feel that he was getting edgy (weirdly enough, about once every 3 months), so we would go to the big arena. He would wait for the "go" signal but without any more encouragement from me, would gallop just flat out for what seemed like ages. The next day he would be mentally ready to work again. I found it to be a really helpful tool for us.
ReplyDeleteI'd third the ground work option, but I would also recommend doing some days where you just walk on the buckle for like an hour. Walking is surprisingly good for fitness and building muscle, even if it's boring as fuck. And if Courage can listen to you, power trotting. 20 m circle at ever letter if the arena's not too crowded, or just trot around the outside. All he has to do is forward and not be a giraffe.
ReplyDeleteLunge. Turn out in the arena. Lots of trot laps to just work it out. And when all else fails, perfect prep. Because that's the only thing that got us through the 2008 show season.
ReplyDeleteAnother vote for ground work! Under saddle it depends on what makes him hotter, but I always default to lateral work because it gets my leg on (and I always fall into that bad habit of keeping my leg off of a hot horse) and it puts the energy into something more productive.
ReplyDeleteStart out at the walk. Do lots of small circles, changing the bend, making him move his body off your leg. Get his mind engaged. That's the big trick. Then, don't be afraid to go right into the canter and warm him up at that. It'd always a good gait for a TB.
ReplyDeleteMy horse felt claustrophobic next to the arena walls and would rush like crazy in canter. It helped if I only cantered on the quarter line or in circles tangent to the wall.
ReplyDeleteI agree with suggestions to keep his busy.
And today, I am so ridiculously grateful for TWO indoor arenas. If my horse comes out hot, I get off and let him blow around the smaller indoor until his brain re-engages.
ReplyDeleteI tend to get on and go STRAIGHT to work (but tactful work, low on the demand. So, stretching trot and shoulder in.) I also try to avoid things that make the hot brain act stupid. Like, using a quarter sheet so he doesn't get cold and start rearing and kicking out. If he's too hot for the activity, I ride outside in the snow and frozen. If it's scary I get off.
ReplyDeleteKinda crappy advice. But that's all I've got.
I always do a sanity check before mounting up, basically the groundwork mentioned above. Can I halt you off a light aid? Can I back you up without you throwing your head into the stratosphere? Will you walk forward quietly off a light aid? Can I lift your head up/down? If I get too many nos or even half-hearted yeses I'll repeat the training for that segment of groundwork for a while. Then when I get on, I agree very much with Austen, immediately to work. Although I usually go straight to leg yielding & figure-8s (where possible, trust me I totally understand the crazy lesson kid thing) rather than stretching but that's because all the horses I ride right now are very bad at stretching.
ReplyDeleteAlso a firm, enthusiastic, "hell yes" to: if it's scary, get off.
Another vote for walking it out. Walking is life.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, lunging or round penning makes a hot horse hotter. They get more and more amped up the more they work. You got some good suggestions here, though: ground work, walking on a loose rein, lateral work at the walk. I use a combination of all those to get my boys settled down for work. It works great at shows, too!
ReplyDeleteMy favourite tactics for dealing with my hot, opinionated mare are free lunging, maintaining a regular work schedule, and never flatting after a day off. It's a recipe for a fight. She does try to be good & contain the insanity, but you can always feel it bubbling just below the surface. So my job is to determine how close we are to an eruption on any given day, and decide what she can handle without turning into Mount St. Helens! Some days if I get on and we're alarmingly close to an eruption right from the get-go, I'll hop off half way through and let her loose. It isn't her fault she can't run and play outside, so I try to remember that she's not being a nut just to spite me & do my best to harness her energy rather than fight it into submission.
ReplyDeleteIt truly depends on the horse and what works for him. You will have to figure that out. Some I lunge then ride and some I can just ride it out and focus on being relaxed and calm. Definitely focus on some ground work first to ensure you have his attention. Poppy' trick when she is up is counter cantering. It gets her focused and more manageable. Every horse has something different. You will figure it out.
ReplyDeleteOh god, ask me how I know about WINTER!horse. With Pearl, when she's having a "day," there is literally nothing you can do that ride to make her brains come back. I mean she stays safe to ride because she would never intentionally do anything "mean" but dear go the energy on that horse. When she was sound I used to play the "if I just sit here how long will she keep cantering on her own" game and I'd have to pull her up after a few minutes because I was afraid her lungs were going to explode. I just have to remember that by putting in a solid ride today, I'm helping myself to have a quieter ride tomorrow. So that's my motivation for getting out there even when the weather is terrible and riding is not that fun because I'm sitting on a powder keg.
ReplyDeleteI hate lungeing with a passion, but I will make an exception if it is going to prevent me from having a bronc. Instead of lungeing to get them tired, I lunge to get them listening. Indy gets hotter if I try to get her tired on the lunge too, so I'm better off working towards her focus instead. I usually don't work them that hard on it, they may not even canter much, but I ask for lots of transitions until their responses are sharp and they are focused on me. If I don't lunge, I do the same thing in the saddle. Lots of transitions, lateral work, serpentines, whatever it takes to get them listening. I did have one horse that was better off going for a long trot and then a few rounds of canter before I really went to work, but he was more the type to come out fresh rather than hot. He didn't get stupid, just wanted to go.
ReplyDelete