1. Varied Work
From arena work, games and hacking to jumping, obstacles and swimming we do a range of activities with our horses to keep them engaged, happy and stimulated.
We want to prevent boredom and we want our horses to love their work. A few of the big ways to do this is making sure all the horses get minimum 1 full day off a week (usually 2), limiting the amount of jumping per week (max 2x a week) and getting the horses out of the arena for hacking or fun paddock rides every week.
2. Regular Education Upkeep
It's important to keep our horses learning and keep their knowledge up. Whether that's schooling rides with a coach, an in hand learning session or an advanced rider having a lesson.
Horses learn quickly so when they are teaching riders its normal that they learn little habits. By keeping them schooled this prevents these habits becoming regular, gives the horse confidence with their expectations and allows them to learn more too.
3. Setting Them Up for Success
Just like we do for our riders, we want our horses to have the best opportunity for things to go right in everything we ask them to do.
This means having the foundations necessary for any questions we ask and setting all situations up for them to be able to feel confident and to avoid confusion throughout.
An example of this is when a rider is learning to jump, we ensure they have solid balance, good communication, a steady 2 point and confidence before we start, always going back a step if we need too. This avoids as much confusion as possible as the riders learn.
4. Listening to Our Horses.
Horses are great communicators and often tell us when something is wrong. We always investigate behaviors when they pop up and fix accordingly.
Sometimes its something small like a miscommunication, sometimes its anxiety, sometimes its a pain issue that requires a chiro or vet.
Behaviors like bucking, biting, napping, unwilling to go forward etc are all ways are horses talk to us. They tend to start with smaller behaviors so if you listen closely you can help them earlier and avoid these large issues.
5. Suitable Gear
We want our horses to be in gear that fits and that suits them best. We think less is more, so if they don't need it, they don't use it.
You may notice we often use halters and clip on reins for a few of our lessons. If the horse is happy and comfortable in it, this is the best way to allow riders to learn while limiting confusion from an unbalanced hand.
5. General Care
Of course one of the most important things is taking general care of the horses!
Our horses get regular farrier to take care of their hooves (every 6-8 weeks), Regular dentist (yearly for most), Regular chiro, vet as needed and paddocks with water, space and friends either with them or over the fence.
We watch their condition and adjust their feed as needed as well as adjust their work to make sure we are building topline.
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