Horse Information - Meurer Horsemanship

A lot of people say to me, “I have just got my horse back from the breaker and am having a few problems with it and now am tentative to ride my horse.” This can be quite disappointing as you have just spent good money on having your horse broken in and have been looking forward to enjoying riding them for a while now. It seems to be a common scenario and can end up quite dangerous.

One of the first things I would like to point out on this subject is that, just because your horse is broken in and can be ridden does not mean your horse is still not green. That is, you need to understand you still have a relatively green horse and need to be competent to go ahead with this type of horse or need to seek professional help to aid your progression with your horse.

When it comes to the end of your horse’s breaking in period, you should be able to go to your breaker, ask to see your horse in action and I would even recommend having lessons on your newly broken in horse. What I would like to point out now is a few key ingredients to look for when assessing your horse. They are; respect, desensitisation, acceptance, flexion and forward motion or impulsion. These ingredients are essential and should all be there on your horse.

Respect is something we need to earn from our horse and it starts from day one and needs to be maintained throughout their lives. We need to be able to communicate with our horses and show leadership through this communication. We need to earn this respect for our horses to be able to trust us and rely on our decisions, we need it for our horses to try new things we introduce to them, such as floats, saddles, us on their back! Without respect why would our horses want to try for us or trust our judgement? You wouldn’t follow someone onto a battle field if you didn’t respect them. A few main areas to look for in your newly broken-in horse are;
• Do they back up out of your space?
• Do they calmly lead beside you, stop when you stop, go backwards when you go backwards?
• They should move their hindquarter left and right and face you if they get a fright.
• They should move their front end out of your space when you move into it
• They should move away from you freely in a roundyard, flow forward, turn when you ask and come back into you when you ask.

Desensitisation and acceptance are also important areas to examine in your horse. How are they coping with all our stimuli, things they can expect to encounter during their riding lives? Can you throw ropes over them? Can you wave plastic around and rub it over their bodies? Can you throw rugs on and off? Put boots on their legs? Pick up their feet etc?

Next comes the more directly relevant part to riding your horse. Your horse, at this stage, should be perfectly comfortable with the saddle cloth and saddle going on, they should move around freely with the saddle on in the walk, trot and canter. (N.B Even with older horses who have had a break from training I always recommend putting the saddle on and moving them around in a round yard in walk, trot and canter before getting on as they may need to desensitise again to the ticklish girth). They should be comfortable with you touching them around the head, ears and mouth and be accepting of the bridle. Your horse should also be very comfortable with someone getting up and down and in and out of the saddle, relaxed and without tension or wanting to move.

Flexion is another key ingredient you should look for in your breaker. It is vitally important that you can stand beside your horse and, both on the right and left, softly ask for lateral flexion while your horse stands still. A good understanding of this will serve you well right throughout your horses’ riding lives. You should also be able to take a long line, attach it to the right, stand on the left, wrap the line around the saddle, step back then ask lightly with your line and have your horse flex laterally, the move their hindquarter around until they face you. This should be done both sides. If this can be done you should see if they can go out to the perimeter of a roundyard in good forward motion and turn with ease into the fence and go the other way.

What we have covered so far can all be tested from the safety of the ground before moving on to the riding tests. So once you have achieved these you can go over some of them in the saddle, starting with lateral flexion at the standstill. Once this is done is where you want to make sure your forward motion or impulsion is solid, this is very important!

Impulsion means your horse should move off in the walk confidently, calmly and freely, without hesitation. You should be able to guide them around lightly, turn them into the fence, move their hindquarter around with confident forward motion. The same applies in the trot. You should be able to ask for a trot and have them go into it confidently and freely without hesitation, you should be able to guide some circles and figure eights and have them confidently trot around all areas of the arena. You should also be able to calmly come back into the walk and you should be able to bend them to a stop from the trot.

You should also be able to ask your horse to canter off from the trot. They should be able to canter some basic circles on each lead and around the outside of the arena. Coming back to the stop you should be able to calmly spiral down to a trot then into a relaxed walk.

The key to assessing your horse’s riding should be answering the question; is my horse going forward cleanly? This does not mean your newly broken in horse will be perfectly balanced and smooth, that’s where more training comes in. It means, will my horse move into the walk, trot and canter with understanding and willingness to go forward? This also carries through to some basic flexion exercises while in forward motion. For example, will your horse walk and trot a figure-eight thinking forward not only in motion but also while changing direction? This is very important to assess otherwise you may be going home to get on a horse that either does not understand forward motion, which may lead to bucking, rearing or bolting, or may not respect forward motion, which too can lead to bucking rearing or bolting.

So when your horse is coming to the end of their breaking-in period here are a few key areas to look at and assess to make sure your horse has come through nicely. Remember to look for respect, desensitisation, acceptance, flexion and forward motion or impulsion as your main ingredients to a good outcome. I also stress to keep in mind that your horse although broken in it is still a green horse that, of course, needs ongoing training. So it is also up to you to assess yourself as to whether you are capable of riding and training such a horse to keep your newly broken-in horse progressing forward and not slipping into trouble.

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