6/ MARCH/APRIL 2010 THE RIDER

Troubleshooting Guide: Training inside an Arena with Falling Snow

A couple of years ago my wife Gisela and I were helping Chris Irwin field questions and assist him at his booth at the Can Am in London. A lady came up with a question on how to deal with the problem of sudden sliding snow off the rooftop of her arena while training horses. Everyone gathered around for the wise answer about to come for this age old question. Chris’s reply..... “move to Florida”. One can either look at the snow on the arena as a curse, or one can look at it as a training opportunity. Almost everyone is training their horse to perform at a show, train- ing their horse to perform quietly on the trail, road- side or in a desig- nated riding/driv- ing area. We all know that unex- pected situations arise no matter where you are

with your horse. Working in a snow covered arena provides you with “unexpected sliding snow” while working in the otherwise controlled environment of your arena. Your lesson plans may change in that you won’t be practicing your dressage or reining manoeuvres, rather you will be working on building your horse’s trust and confidence in you as a rider or handler. You will be bet- ter prepared the next time you go to that fall fair with big ferris wheel or show pen where the railway track is only 200 feet away.

Approach the conditions from the ground up

In the photos that follow, our student Lucy is lunging her 10 year old Arab Mare, Julia in a visibly snow covered arena. In a situation like this, before getting on to ride, take a few minutes to lunge your horse properly, allowing them to stretch and bend until they are relaxed. Horses don’t always get as much

exercise during the winter months even when turned out, so this is a great step. Lunging is a great way to build trust before climbing in the saddle.

Start them out on a smaller circle at a walk or slow trot until level headed and calm as seen in first photo.

Once level head- ed, increase the size of the circle and ask for a working trot as seen in second photo.

If the horse becomes high headed/fast due to snow sliding (third photo) decrease the size of the circle as in the first photo and keep them on a small circle until they start to relax. Once they relax, release them out onto a larger circle. Repeat as necessary and be con- sistent. Consistency is the key to long term success. We will later use this exact same concept while riding.

In the second photo you will see Julia moving forward calm and “level headed”. Learning how to ride your horse prop- erly to create a level headed frame is a powerful tool for keep- ing your horse calm and quiet. When a calm horse spooks it is usually relatively uneventful. Let’s use a scale from 1-10 to help understand this concept. In the second photo Julia is mov- ing calmly around the arena, so for the sake of this exercise we will assign her an energy level of say 2. When the snow slides off the roof her energy level may spike to say 6. If her energy was at 7 when the snow slides off the roof, that would mean that it would quite possibly spike to 11 which is off the chart. Which scenario would you rather ride through?

and heading off in an unwanted direction. In the event that slid- ing snow does “spook” Julia, Lucy will already have her in a bend and will be able to more likely keep her on a circle to the left. Whenever riding in a stressful situation it is always wise to have your horse in a bend and on a circle.

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Taking the training into the saddle

The goal behind this riding session is simply to increase confi- dence and trust in both rider and horse.

We can work on schooling our horse another time. Looking at the snow on the arena we know that it is just a matter of time before it lets go. It’s not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when. Lucy will need to plan ahead and put Julia and herself in correct position. In the following photos you will notice several key things.

In the first photo you will notice that Julia is in a left bend with Lucy holding the reins relatively wide apart. The wide reins will help pre- vent Julia from eas- ily flipping her bend to the right

Now let’s apply the same concept in the saddle that was used while lunging. If your horse does “spook” due to sliding snow simply turn them into a tighter circle and keep them there until they relax. Once they relax, release them out onto larger circle. As while lunging, repeat as necessary and be consistent.

Confident Leadership Required

If we expect our horse to be confident and calm in adverse situations it is absolutely imperative that we as riders and han- dlers lead by example. I’ve seen nervous riders that spook at something themselves, end up setting off their own horse and then blame the horse. I’ve seen horses confidently and quietly follow calm confident owners down steep treacherous mountain trails. When we sit down in the saddle or take hold of a lead rope we plug our energy whatever that may be directly into our horse and that energy directly affects our horse. Classical dres- sage master, Walter Zettl teaches that in order to control our horse we need to control ourselves first. These words can be a tough pill for some to swallow but the results are well worth the extra effort!

Written by Walter Mantler – Symphony Stables

Walter & Gisela Mantler own and operate Symphony Sta- bles, a training facility in south-western Ontario. They have apprenticed directly under Chris Irwin for years and are recog- nized among his top trainers. They breed, start, train and finish horses for both Western and English disciplines. They run a series of horsemanship and per- sonal development clin- ics throughout the year. To learn more about their techniques and ser- vices please visit: www.symphonystables.com Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72