Long before a horse becomes a dressage horse or a barrel horse or eventer or a police horse, it must become a riding horse. Being a riding horse is the first thing a horse must learn before it can excel at any discipline.
The notion behind teaching a horse to be a riding horse is to help them become comfortable and familiar with the preparation of being caught, brushed, fitted with headgear and saddle, carrying a rider at all gaits, yielding its thought to the rider’s reins, leg, and seat. It’s about teaching a horse to feel okay when a rider takes off a jacket, mounts from the right side, opens a gate from horseback, bashes through the bush, have dogs running joyfully around, walks through puddles, and streams and over bridges. It’s about a horse learning to feel okay if it was ridden by a 10-year-old boy with a mischievous, carefree, adventurous spirit.
So much of the time a horse comes home from being started by a trainer and is expected to go on a program of turning it into a showjumper or barrel racer or team rope. This often happens long before the horse is comfortable with its new life as a riding horse.
I have watched quite a few colt starting clinics and it seems very normal that on the first ride people are not expected to do much more than sit on their horse and let it go where its mind takes it. Most clinicians I’ve seen tell the student to go with the horse, do a few turns here and there and stay out of the way of the horse. I understand the sense of allowing a horse to just become familiar with somebody in the saddle without too much interference.
But by the third or fourth day the clinician is encouraging the students to do a lot more directing and less passenger riding. I’ve even heard clinicians espouse that by the third or fourth day of being ridden the horse should be on the payroll with a job to do. Without a doubt, there is the occasional horse that might be ready to go to work by then. But in my opinion, such horses are rare. Most horses do not yet have ingrained in their brain that having a human sitting on their back is perfectly fine and normal by the third or fourth ride. It still feels uncomfortable, perhaps scary, and maybe even life-threatening for some.
Horses are incredibly submissive by nature. Without the level of submission most horses possess, we would not be able to ride them and certainly not get away with doing many of the things we do to them (like loading into a float or face up to a charging bull). However, just because a horse succumbs to our will without protesting does not mean he feels okay about it or that what we do is good horsemanship. Obedience is neither a measure of the quality of training nor the emotional comfort of a horse.
It is so important that a horse feels okay with just having a rider and being directed before any of the next steps of turning it into our dream horse are started. If a horse feels anxiety about walking, trotting, or cantering around a paddock with somebody on its back, how can it possibly be ready to teach to jump a log or perform at speed or rope a steer or work in collection?
I know horses that months and years after being started still hump or buck when the saddle girth is tightened or fidget when being saddled. I know horses that can’t be walked or trotted or cantered on a loose rein without rushing. I know horses that fling their head when being bridled. I know horses that won’t stand still when being mounted. I know horses that won’t move forward when a rider’s leg is applied. I know horses that can’t trot without their head being held so high you can’t see their ears through the clouds. All these things are common even after years of being ridden.
These things are just very basic, fundamental things that should not be a problem for any horse that feels okay about being a riding horse. The list of what it takes to be a comfortable riding horse is much longer than what I have indicated and it is rare to find a horse that exhibits no sign of trouble with the fundamentals.
A horse can benefit from just being ridden than being trained. This means instead of picking on every little mistake, we just ride. We are more patient and more tolerant if they change gait or rhythm or get a little crooked or their thought strays a little more than we like. Just take a long loopy rein and ride somewhere. It could be an arena, a trail, a paddock, the desert, or bushland. Stop training on them for a while and just get them feeling ok about having somebody on their back and going somewhere. When that doesn’t feel so terrible to them, then think about your training again. It’s training without training.
Sometimes it takes a horse many days to have developed a firm feeling of comfort with the basics of being a riding horse. Sometimes it takes weeks. Sometimes it takes months or years and sometimes it may never happen. But in our impatience or our ignorance, we rush or gloss over the part of training that helps our horses become okay with just being ridden. We are in such a hurry to make them the horse we want them to be one day that we leave holes in their education and trouble in their emotions. The irony is that oftentimes it’s our hurry that slows our progress or possibly even brings it to a halt. When a horse is comfortable with the basics of being ridden, you’ll be astounded by how quickly the rest will fall into place.
This photo brings back memories of starting my mare, Six several years ago.