( schooling q&A) )
Mountain Horse and Imogen Gloag team up to answer your schooling questions
International event rider Imogen Gloag, 23, is based in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
In 2016, Imogen was the youngest competitor at that year’s Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials riding Brendonhill Doublet and the pair are former Pony Club Champions and British Junior team members.
In 2018 she made her first appearance at the Mitsubishi Badminton Horse Trials on the same horse completing with just one unlucky run out.
Imogen’s ultimate goal is to be selected on to the British teams and to ride at the Olympic Games.
Imogen is sponsored by Mountain Horse which makes stylish, elegant and durable riding gear. Visit
www.mountainhorse.se.
What can I do to see a better stride?
“I’ve been really trying to work on seeing a stride, but more often than not, it is miss rather than hit. If I lose canter on my approach to the fence, or my horse slips or spooks, it all goes to pot. What should I do when this happens?”
Make sure you’ve done plenty of home- work so that in situations like this, your horse takes control. You should be able to leave him to make a judgement. That doesn’t mean dropping him in front of a fence - you should keep your position, maintain a light contact through the reins, and support him with your legs, but let him use his head and neck to get himself
out of trouble. You are aiming for the horse to be able to take care of himself, but don’t interfere with the balance.
How do I deal with my spooky horse?
“When I am out hacking, my horse can spook quite suddenly
. It takes me . It is at the most odd
things, like cow parsley growing in the hedge, an odd mark in the road, or a fluttering piece of litter
unaware. There’s no malice about the spooking, he’s genuinely frightened. If I can preempt a spook, say if I spot the demon cow parsley before him, or the dark spot in the road, by talking to him and smoothing his neck, using lot of positive encouragement from the leg, he’s fine. It’s just when he takes me unaware. And at a tall 16.3hh it’s a long way to fall if I come off.”
I think if you had more connection with your horse spooking wouldn’t be as much
Don’t worry if your horse wants to have a look at something, or if his head comes up, but keep a positive contact on both reins, and try and keep your leg on, moving your horse towards the contact.
It’s a good idea to hack with a quiet horse too, to give your horse confidence. You could go on a route together, and then try it alone, but always tell someone where you are going. There’s an old saying “miles make the horse” and the more time you spend on your horse, getting to know him and all his little quirks, the more fun you will have together.
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as an issue. You say that if you preempt what he might spook at he’s fine, and my guess is that at those times you have the leg on and a contact with both reins. Perhaps when the spooks happen out of the blue, you’ve relaxed and are enjoying the hack and scenery.
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