Basic Trail Horse Etiquette

August 2009                                     

Trail Etiquette 

As a member of the Connecticut Horse Council Volunteer Horse Patrol Unit,  I am always on the trail.  One thing i always try to keep in mind when out on the trail is to be polite.  Trail Etiquette is one thing that many horse owner forget when they hit the trail.  Below are some suggestions that you should keep in mind next time you hit the trail.

First and for most, Don’t ride on private property without permission. Respect property owners.  Make sure that "you" have their permission to ride on or cross over their land.  Do not gallop across open fields, leaving hoof prints behind or destroying crops. Use common sense and stay to the edges. Again, it takes one bad experience to ruin it for everyone else. If you absolutely feel the need to let you horse stretch its legs make sure its in a area where it won’t disrupt anything or anyone.  Find a soft dirt road or a hay field that has just been cut so you won’t trample the grass.

Protect the environment.  Don’t cut switchbacks and avoid using trails that get muddy very easily. Also,  Unless stated somewhere avoid swimming with your horse.  I live along the coast and it is strongly suggested that horse not go swimming because of the shellfish colonies.

Train your horse to keep moving will pooping so the whole load doesn't land in one spot.  In some cases, on well used multiple use trails and Greenways, it's a good idea to dismount and move the manure over to the side, or go back & clean up.  

Now that we have the basics down you should make sure you and your horse is “trail savvy” You should be a skilled enough rider to manage your horse at different speeds, be able to negotiate a variety of terrains, and deal with unexpected situations.  Even beginning riders can have a safe, happy trail ride if they know their limitations, are properly equipped, and are accompanied by other experienced trail riders.

Riders need to use common sense and follow basic safety rules when on the trail.  Don't ride alone, have a general plan for which direction you're going and about how long you'll be out, and tell someone or leave a note. If you do ride alone stay close to home and if you are at park tell a ranger where you are riding and when you expect to be back. Remember to Pay attention to the weather; some horses tend to get spooky just before or after a storm, or during cold or very windy weather.  Never ride out in thunderstorms.  It's dangerous! 

Now that you are ready is your horse. Good trail horses need just as much training to develop specific skills for their work as horses in other disciplines.  Generally, a safe trail horse will be a sound, willing partner suited to his rider, and neither lagging far behind, nor charging out in front.  When riding with a group, safety dictates that the group ride at a speed at which the least experienced rider is comfortable.  This way the group stays together and can "sandwich" novices during encounters with other trail users or in difficult situations.                                                                                             A courteous trail rider trains their horse to walk carefully through water or mud, stay on the trail (no shortcuts), and pick its way through rocks.  Jumping or plunging through these areas is dangerous, and not environmentally sensitive.  Encouraging a horse to drink is fine, but some like to paw exuberantly, defecate, or roll in water.  Be polite, get a drink, move on to a less delicate part of the trail, and wait for the rest of the group.                                                                                                                             Treat the trail with respect; discourage your horse from snacking.  Some plants may be toxic to horses; others could be endangered species. Eating and trampling vegetation leads to bare dirt, which leads to destroyed vegetation and polluted streams.  Minimize impact by staying on designated trails and avoiding muddy conditions.         Many horses will move slightly to the side to relieve themselves, the responsible trail user will try to keep his horse's end products away from high traffic multiple-use areas.  If a horse is trained to keep moving while defecating, the material will biodegrade within days (because equines are herbivores), and with less environmental impact.  Deep hoof prints and manure are the two biggest concerns of other trail users.   Don't smoke on the trail, don't litter, and keep the trail head clear of manure and trash.  Be environmentally responsible, and trail-train your horse.  Your goal is to leave no trace

If you want to learn more about equestrian trail laws in your state, contact your State Department of Environmental Protection Agency.  And remember to share the road and be respectful.

10 Common things About Gaited Horses

Common Horse Myths
Ariel Kent

I’ve been crammed with work and have been preparing for finals. So quick column on the common myths about horses. Enjoy!
1.) Don’t expect your young, or new, horse to gait very well right “out of the box.” Young horses need time–often a full season or two–to correctly develop the necessary coordination, muscles and neurological memory to be able to obtain and maintain a consistently good quality 4-beat gait. The same thing is true of a newly purchased horse. Many gaited horses have been rushed through training. This results in stiff, poorly gaited animals that need to be brought back to basic work under saddle. That’s your job. If you take the time to do it right, it will pay rich rewards for many years to come.
2.) Don’t neglect the basics. (Ground work, line driving, stopping, bending, etc.) A gaited horse is still a horse, and needs to know much more than how to cover ground in a fast, smooth manner. A horse that can gait super fast becomes downright dangerous if he gets so undisciplined that he won’t respond to your turn, slow down and halt aids equally as fast. Give your horse a few months’ of basic training before even thinking about the gait.
3.) Consistently ride your horse right up to–but not beyond–the point where he wants to break to trot, pace, or gait. I call this the ‘breaking point.’ As you practice this technique, make transitions between an active, swinging free walk and an increasingly collected fast walk. This is called walking your horse into gait, and is the single most important riding technique one can use. Over time your horse will be able to increase speed and his ability to flex and stretch, until one day his collected walk is so fast that he’s actually performing his best natural gait, in the best possible form. It’s really that simple, but does take time.
4.) Make certain the saddle fits, not just when the horse is standing still, but also as it moves. When gaiting, each one of your horse’s legs needs to move independently of every other leg. This requires tremendous coordination and a high degree of suppleness through the body. The muscles of loins, back, and shoulders in particular need to be able to stretch and flex freely. Often a more flexible, well-fitted saddle can dramatically improve a horse that’s not gaiting properly. For more info on this subject, check out this link.
5.) Learn the basic mechanics of how bits work, then choose one that is humane, effective, and fits your particular horse’s needs. Stay away from severe gaited horse bits. I also discourage the use of so-called ‘Tom Thumbs,’ or any other kind of bit that incorporates both a broken mouthpiece and a shank. These bits teach a horse to get up behind the bit to avoid the nutcracker effect of the broken mouthpiece compounded by the pressure of the shanks. Choose a curb bit that permits your horse to relax and enjoy the feel of your hands through the reins and bit.
6.) Learn & practice gaited horse equitation, as the way you balance yourself will greatly enhance, or hinder, the gait. The typical stock seat position, whereby the rider sits up on his/her crotch, generally places the rider too far forward to encourage gait. In essence, sit a gaited horse with your butt slightly tucked, shoulders open, elbows in, and feet slightly (and I do mean slightly) ahead of the vertical. Your toes should still not be pointing down, nor should they be pointed at the sky. Your foot should be almost level with the ground, with the toes pointing slightly up. Practice to see what works best with your horse, as they–and we–are all different.
7.) Work your horse at the walk, walk, and more walk. All of the intermediate saddle gaits are faster variations of the walk. Therefore, energetic walking helps develop all the necessary muscles needed for a four beat gait. It also helps to program your horse’s neurological memory to get him set, or established, in gait.
8.) About the trot and canter: Do not allow your horse to trot until the gait is well established. Simply check him back into the bridle slightly, and ride at the breaking point. A horse that is pacey may be encouraged to canter, as it helps teach him how to break up the extremely lateral action of the pace. A trotty horse, however, is likely to try to shortcut the very hard work of gaiting by leaping into a canter lead every time you ask for an upward transition. Therefore it is usually advisable not to canter such a horse until the gait is firmly established.
9.) Use deep going ground, and hills, to your advantage. Riding through sand, freshly plowed fields, etc., is a great way to teach the horse how to move with impulsion from the hindquarters. Hill work speeds up correct muscle development, as well as improves hindquarter impulsion. A pacey horse can be worked strongly uphill, as that encourages diagonal action. A trotty horse should be encouraged toward more speed when going downhill, as that encourages lateral action. (Always be careful not to speed up so much when going downhill that your horse loses its balance.)
10.) Don’t look for any ‘magic bullets.’ The only secret ingredient to developing a gaited horse is good basic horsemanship combined with many hours in the saddle. Too often riders run from one ‘horse guru’ to another looking for some magic formula that will cause their horse to suddenly become the magnificently gaited steed they envision. What usually happens is that the rider switches tack and alters riding techniques on a too-frequent basis. This causes confusion for the horse, and increasing frustration for the rider. Relax, enjoy the horse, practice these simple tips. . .and in due time, you’ll have the best gaited horse on the block!

Why a bolting horse is bad and how to deal with it

A bolting horse is always dangerous. A large animal running uncontrollably at a high speed is an accident waiting to happen. There are many reasons a horse may bolt. Bolting can be the result of being spooked. Horses are flight animals, meaning they run away from scary or harmful situations. This is a natural instinct, and can be hard to retrain. Horses can be spooked by anything. A deer on the trail, a bird in the bushes, a bag blowing on the ground, a car’s horn, even some stationary object that is not usually there can be a scary proposition for a horse.
Improperly fitted tack can also make a horse bolt. A saddle that pinches at the withers or rubs that back can be painful, and horses run from pain. Bridles that are too tight around the poll can put pressure on the nerves in the horses face, as well as make the mouth sore. Check the bit that you are using. Harsh bits that are in untrained hands can make even the most broke horse upset, causing him to try and alleviate his discomfort any way he can. Girthing your horse can also cause your horse stress. A girth can be too tight, so be sure your horse is comfortable before you mount. It is not necessary to use all of your strength to cinch a girth. A clean and comfortable saddle pad is also a good idea. A pad with crusty sweat, dirt, or other particles can suddenly irritate a horse.
Some horse may bolt simply because they do not want or are afraid of being ridden. This can an especially dangerous situation, and should be handled by a professional in severe cases. These horses may not have been trained adequately or were scared or intimidated in the training process. In some instances it may be necessary to start from scratch.
In training a horse, the most important thing to do is to create a good mouth. This will come in handy for years to come, especially if the animal ever gets scared and bolts. A good mouth is a responsive mouth. Introduce bridles, tack, and training slowly. Some people prefer to “sack out” a horse. This technique can involve various objects being tied to the horse’s saddle and lunging him until he becomes comfortable with them. If the horse bolts when you try to mount, practice pretending to mount by lifting your leg into the stirrup until the horse accepts this by standing still. Then add the step of putting your weight into the stirrup and lifting yourself up. Repeat this step until your horse is at ease, until you can move into swinging the other leg over. Patience is your friend in this effort.
If you are in a situation with a bolting horse, you may need to utilize the one rein stop method. By just pulling back on both reins evenly, the horse can lean on that even pressure, or even grab the bit in his teeth, yielding your efforts useless. No human is going to out match the strength of a horse. By just pulling on one rein, the pressure is unevenly distributed in the horse’s mouth, and he cannot take advantage of this. Slowly pull the horse’s head to your leg. Making circles will also slow the animal into a stop.
A bolting horse can become a trusting companion; it will just take time and dedication on both of your parts.

When to Canter

When to Canter

One of the many myths of gaited horses is that they can’t canter. Every horse can perform a canter to a certain extent. For gaited horses pacing is a huge factor for whether or not the horse should be able to canter.
When a horse that paces they will most likely do what is referred to as a “cross canter” which is when the horse takes up opposite leads in its front and back legs. If you feel your horse is doing this gait you should feel like you are being violently pushed out of the seat of the saddle and will most likely do a summersault out of the saddle. If your horse is doing this you should immediately bring the horse to a walk and try working back up to canter again. If many of you have been reading these newsletters you should already no how to collect your horse so encountering the “cross canter” should not be a problem.
If your horse still paces though collected the best way to ask for a canter is on a hill or and incline. A horse paces with its weight evenly distributed over its body. If you are riding a horse up a hill the horse should shift its weight onto its haunches making an entrance to a canter much easier.
If there are no hills where you live then you will want to teach your horse how to balance its weight into its haunches without toppling over. To do this you will want some ground poles and a good collection of the horse. When collecting a horse you should hold with one rein having enough pressure that you should have the rein pulled past the swell at about 3-5 inches. And with the other rein you should be performing half- halts. You should see your horse begin to round around the pressure. Once you have collected your horse you can begin to work on cantering over the poles. I suggest starting the poles half way into the turn. When you enter the poles you should ask for a canter and your horse should pick up the canter through the poles and hold it out to the straightaway. If your horse breaks to a hard canter again you should try riding through the poles again.
And lastly, not only will balancing your horse properly help balance it but also condition it to distribute weight properly. I also stress not to do this exercise if your horse is under the age of four. Young horses should be able to discover there own balance not having it forced on them.
Also, if you have a trotty horse and are doing the poles exercise I would advise working on cueing into the canter because very trotty horses tend to jump into the canter. Also if your horse is very trotty I advise not attempting the canter until its saddle- gait is performed well. A horse that is allowed to trot, pace, canter and do what’s easier will loose muscle tone and become counter- productive. A horse that performs its proper gaits will have better long term soundness than that of a Gaited horse that performs trotty gaits.

Keep warm! The winters almost over!
~ Ariel Kent

New Arrivals

We are expecting! well she is expecting. We are suppose to on monday recieve a mare and her filly. They are missouri Fox Trotters or at least he mother is. From the video the baby didn't foxtrot. We have also already decided on names. The mother will be Esperanza which means Hope in spanish and the filly will be Second Chance. For short they will be called Z and Chance. There bailout money was 800+ and it had to be raised to get them out. And gosh ive been rambling on but i forgot to say how we got into this.

The couple was dropped off at a large auction barn in Pennsylvania. Since the economy is so bad nobody wants to buy them so wha thappens is when nobody makes a bid the meat buyers will buy them and they buy by weight. so if you have a 900 lb horse the horse will be $900 or in there case i think it was probably 50 or 25 cents per pound.. anyways the meatbuyers buy them and the horses go to the kill pens where they have to wait until the meat buyer gets enough horses to ship to Canada or Mexico. Luckily Another Chance for Horses was able to get a hold of these horse and made a deal with the meat buyers that if they could find someone to take them that they would pay there bail. So I saw them on the website and was able to get a hold of them. If they pass vet check and hopefully don't have strangles they will arrive on monday.

But if everything goesto plan and we do get them we have to quarintine them for a week which means bleaching, and disinfectant cream. oh and did i mention the baby is 5 months not weaned and has had little human contact. If you know anythign about training babies you start them right when they are out of the womb so we will have a hell of a time. hopefully though in 6 months we will be able to list them for sale.

il keep you guys posted.

Yeah I Did it!

This is completly off Topic but i did it!!! i got into college! This school is my #2 choice named cazenovia. There equestrian team almost made it to nationals last year and there equine major program had a waiting list of 30+ but besides all those factors i got in. Now my only problem is that my #1 school is the Smallest public in the U.S it was based off of Outward bound Program and you can guess that it is all outdoors oriented. My Dream was to be a Mounted Backcountry Ranger and my #1 Sterling has horses but they are draft. I order to really succed with my major there i would have to bring one of my own horses up. Cazenovia on the other hand has a Equine Buiss major and a a biology minor so i could kind of be doing a outdoor oriented prgram. But also Cazenovia has an equestrian team. ANd they are also recruiting me for swimming. I plan to do an overnight at Cazenovia and i don't find out till January 15th if i get into Sterling but if i did i would do an overnight there. It is a hard descion becasue Cazenovia has more to offer but Sterling Has the resources that i want.

Here are the links to both colleges.

http://sterlingcollege.edu/
http://cazenovia.edu/

Why to Retrain the Pacey Horse

It seems that the majority of gaited horses you will meet do not do their natural gaits. Most will pace or do a stepping gait. In this article I will why it is important to retrain your horse to do there natural gaits.
A horse that paces is moving one set of lateral, or same side, legs in perfect unison, creating an even 2-beat gait, with a moment of suspension between one set of feet picking up and the opposite set striking the ground. The motion of the pace is from side to side, and because of the suspension, there’s also some up and down movement. Neither of these gaits are a smooth ride. If your horse is doing something incredibly bumpy when you are riding and you not knowing anything about gaited horses bought this horse from a person who said this bumpy gait is its special gait your where told wrong. No fun for the rider!
The stepping pace is nearly identical to the pace, except that the hind foot sets down a split second before the same side forefoot. This eliminates suspension, and the resultant concussion, that occurs in a straight pace. I typically see this in Missouri fox trotters more often than Tennessee Walkers and Rockys.
Sometimes a step pace is a smooth gait for the rider. But any horse performing this gait is normally strung out, is holding a high head and is hollow in the back. The stepping pace causes hyper extension of the legs and puts a lot of stress on the joints. This is common in gaited horses to occur because it is easier to perform than the running walk or Fox Trot. This frequently results in problems with the soundness of these structures. It also encourages a ventroflexed – hollow backed – frame, making the horse hard to fit for saddle, and weakened throughout its topline. Since the horse’s back muscle (the longissimus dorsi) is the largest muscle in its body, you want to keep it strong and healthy for as long as possible.
The Pace isn’t only bad for the horse, however. The most common complaint, by far, is from people who have horses with extremely uncomfortable pace gaits under saddle. Many of these people despair of ever being able to retrain these horses, yet are emotionally attached to them.
Many people do not realize there is a problem with the pace or step pace, and believe it is a correct saddle gait. One highly respected mainstream equestrian magazine ran a feature article on the subject of gaited horses, and every photo in the article showed horses, with widely grinning riders, performing fast pace or step pace gaits. Shows how much people know about gaited horses.

Look out for next months article on how to solve these gait problems!
~ Ariel Kent