17/07/2023
Simba - week 1
This week was all about feel, feet and float.
In my opinion these are the 3 most important things to train any horse, young or old as these 3 things allow us to give the care we need to keep our horses happy and healthy.
Feel - Simba is learning to respond to the rope rather than just following my lead. Responding to pressure allows you to ask the horse to move in many different ways and you need to make sure they understand this concept from everywhere on their body, not just their head.
Feet- Simba is now lifting his front feet and allowing me to clean them out. He will offer his back feet, but is not yet ready to keep them there. As a side note - make sure your horse is balanced before asking for a foot (standing square for the front and ārestingā the required leg for the back)
Float - Simba is now happy to walk up the ramp and place his head in the float. This is a big trust exercise for a horse as you are asking him to walk into a big box that limits his sight and renders his flight response useless. Start small. Always allow retreat. Donāt apply pressure when in the float. You want this to be a relaxed place. Ask from outside and then leave it upto the horse how far they want to go. Having food inside the float works as a reason for them to want to go in but the more you leave the choice up to them, the easier they will find it to chose to push themselves.
Looking forward to seeing where Simba has progressed to in another week!