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Date Posted: 08:34:23 01/04/08 Fri
Author: Janet
Subject: walking in hand
In reply to: Sue B. 's message, "Walking in hand" on 11:54:08 01/03/08 Thu

>>My four going on five year old gelding who is broke to
>>the saddle and I am riding him does very well in the
>>arena when I ride him. He walk trots and canters just
>>fine and most of the time picks up his correct leads.
>>In the arena he almost seems to lack energy and seems
>>almost lazy but when I lunge him at liberty especially
>>this winter he is full of energy. My husband and I
>>try to hand walk him in a couple of fields outside his
>>comfort zone and he gets so excitable that he is very
>>hard to control. Bucking on the lead rope prancing
>>striking out at the air with his front feet
>>occasionally. I lunged him first last night until he
>>was actually sweaty and then tried to take him for a
>>walk on the lead rope. He started out fine then
>>decided there was something in the field that might
>>get him and started geeting excited. How can I get
>>him over this? He is not really afraid of much, I
>>throw rope over his head and do all kinds of things to
>>desensitize him and he is great about it. It is just
>>when he gets out of his comfort zone that he seems to
>>go into overdrive. Also it is not that he has pent up
>>energy as he is turned out every day rain or shine.
>>Any suggestions or has anybody else experienced this
>>with their Friesian and how do you get them to
>>overcome this in a safe manner for the handler which
>>is me. Denise
>
>Hi Denise,
>
>My experience has been that my friesian gelding and I
>are best when we go out of our comfort zone with an
>experienced been there done that horse. Then my horse
>doesn't feel alone, and he is much braver, especially
>when the other horse we are with is very calm. I
>don't know if you have the opportunity to go with
>another horse, but it really does seem to make a
>difference.
good luck, Sue


Hi Denise, I thought those tantrums were a two year old thing. My filly did that to me too. I am by far no expert, but when we were walking and I would sense one of those tantrums coming on, I would try to redirect that energy. I'd say, uh uh uh, NOOOOO. I wouldn't let her take off with that kicking tantrum at all. We'd back up, or turn back and go back the other way. Also, I'd think, maybe I'm taking her too far away too fast, so I'd simplify that and stay (walk her) just beyond that comfort zone, until she calmed down. Never going back to the barn all wound up, she'd have to end the walk happy and calm. Another huge thing is consistency, if we only took that walk once a week or so, we had big issues, but if we go every day, by the third day, we had no tantrums and I could see confidence building. It's a ton of work huh? Hope this helps.

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