This is Ocamilla, a beautiful young mare that I met at the first session of TRT Summer Nights a couple of weeks ago.
She had a traumatic experience when she was started under saddle. Her owner couldn’t ride her anymore.
In this second session with Ocamilla, I showed her how to feel confident again and delved deeper into the crucial steps of the right preparation before getting on.
Then we move on to the understanding of the whip. If your horse gets tense and is going into reflex when using the whip, you have to change the meaning of it.
When touching the whip, your horse should feel relaxed, and he should follow the whip.
The whip is a tool to help your horse with moving front legs at a distance, for example. This pattern will give your horse connection in the body.
When starting a young horse, we have to think about what we want them to understand.
Just lunging for hours isn’t explaining; it’s doing, not teaching.
So through the groundwork, we’re teaching a horse the right pattern and order of movement in their body that creates stability and relaxation.
Your horse should be fully educated before you get in the saddle, not a green horse that doesn’t understand what’s going on.
This is where the TRT Tools come in:
As your horse becomes familiar with the tools, consider elevating the challenge.
Introduce tools that bring more energy and speed into the equation, all while maintaining your horse’s internal focus.
The goal is to prepare your horse for potential situations when your riding.
This way, your horse has the knowledge of what to do with himself when he’s faced with the unexpected.
One of the steps I take to start a horse safely is girth pressure. It’s a really important part of the process.
When your horse is introduced to the girth and saddle for the first time, we usually try to be super quiet and gentle.
But sometimes, something unexpected happens, and the horse freaks out, creating a bad memory.
To avoid this, I explain things like pressure, sounds, and movements involved in girthing.
Check out my method here:
Ocamilla had a known issue—she would panic when it was time to mount.
To address this, we focused on how she approached the mounting block.
That’s why I’ve learned ‘Getting on the magical way’.
Teaching your horse to position themselves for you to saddle up isn’t just helpful for you; it’s also a positive experience for your horse.
Before actually putting the saddle on, make sure there are no insecurities within your horse.
Watch the process here:
Once the saddle is on, we want to work on replicating the things we’ve been practicing without saddle.
No stress. No dangerous situations.