Beginning Riding an Off the Track Thoroughbred

by Sheri
(New Jersey)

Hi Elaine-
I am beginning to ride my 6 yr old OTTB mare, and I don't think she really understands what I want. I'm just trying to teach her to "go". I gently squeeze my butt, then thighs, then lower leg- but need to cluck to get her to move on. She is very good about it, but seems confused and always turns to the round pen gate. I am not comfortable riding her outside the round pen as of yet. I am only using one rein right now also, which I think is not working as well for me. She is always bending around looking at my foot like saying,"Why is that there?" Am I doing something wrong? Or maybe not enough? I've looked on the internet a lot about re-training ex-race horses- but they don't really tell you how to begin, and don't really give the horse I chance to get used to this new way of going. (I think). I trained my last mare the same way, but she had never had a rider on her at all, and she wasn't a Thoroughbred.
Any help or direction would be great!

Thanks

Sheri

Answer:

Hi Sheri,

The best way to begin with an ex-race horse is to assume no training has been done. Look upon them as knowing nothing like a young horse you are just starting. This way you will avoid a few assumptions along the way like they know more than they do!. The challenge of course is that they do have baggage from their treatment within the race track industry.

I will refer to my horse Ajax, who is also an off the track Thoroughbred. Here is a session where I am discovering what he knows and how he interprets my asking.

The kind of training that a race horse is subjected to is full of short cuts to get the job done quickly which lends itself to many of these horses very confused when learning. They are now making assumptions regarding new information because all they have as a reference point is what they had previously been shown. Which again was not much and full of negative reinforcement, do it or else mentality. So how I proceed in these situations is to know that they have been handled but I need to “re-write” the files/lessons in their minds. In other words I need to put a lot of good information over top of old bad information.

I start with a solid understanding of Ground Training exercises always combined with Clicker Training methods because positive reinforcement training is just so powerful for teaching and building a language with horses. It also engages the horse so much that they don't want to head for the gate!

During all this training I incorporate three words for “cues”. Walk, Back and Whoa. Plus I want really great lateral flexion (bending of the horse’s neck) on both sides for that future one rein stop and in case I need an emergency break!

Whenever you feel a horse is confused it just means “information overload” to the horse. Back up a step or two to find where the confusion ends and begin again. In other words go back and do something the horse knows well how to do.

In addition, feel free to go back to using two reins for timing of the release, clarity and safety.

Elaine Polny
Training Horses Naturally