Thursday, December 11, 2008

Zen Horse

Horse Tip of the Week
By Clinton Anderson

When you take your horse on a trail ride, don’t put him on auto-pilot. Horses are just like kids, if you don’t give them something to do, they’ll find something to do!

Trail riding offers the perfect opportunity to work with your horse outside the arena. Do post-to-post exercises with a couple trees or try the serpentine exercise using different obstacles.

Riding outside the arena also means your horse will encounter obstacles that he may be afraid of. Rather than just letting him sneak by them, do roll-backs there and make him use the thinking side of his brain. Doing exercises like these in an open area or on trail rides will help increase your horse’s respect because he learns that no matter where you are, you require the same amount of responsiveness.

A big plus to riding outside the arena is it keeps your horse interested. If you only ride in an arena or enclosed area, your horse will get bored a! nd sour. Taking him outside and on trail rides gives him variety and helps keep his attitude good.

Happy Trails,

Danna

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