Showing

I laughed a little inside when I read Practical Horseman's Rider to Rider column recently and saw someone's response to the question: "How do you decide which shows to attend?"

I don't have the issue on hand right now but the answer was basically, "Whatever's the cheapest." At this point in my life, I'm 100% with that respondent. Though I wish I had the money, time, and you know, a horse to show at rated shows, over my college years I have only done a handful of local fun day shows. And I've had a lot of fun. Before college, I really hadn't shown much--just one full season that ended in a rather dramatic way that resulted in my parents not wanting to pay for shows any more. So when I had the opportunity to free lease a boarder's horse at Gentle Giants for a summer, I jumped on it. I was just excited to start showing again.

I know, I know. This just screams CHAIR SEAT!!! to me now but I love how happy we both look in this photo.

He was an 8 year old TB gelding named Humphrey--the perfect name for a horse who, yes, was nervous, but tried really really hard to please. His owner allowed the rescue to use him as a lesson horse, but once he started tossing his head and scaring the beginners, the rescue director had me ride him to get him to settle down.

I have always loved Thoroughbreds for a very particular reason--when they spook, all you have to do is let them run away and then look at the scary monster from afar. Then when you walk them back toward it, they realize, "Oh. That monster was actually just a chair that has been there every day for the past three years. Whew! Let's work some more!" Thankfully Humphrey's nervousness only manifested itself in little skitters away from the object of terror rather than full-out bolting, so it wasn't really a big deal, and I kept our sessions fairly short at the beginning. His head-tossing didn't bother me, so I just let him shake it out until he realized that wasn't going to get him out of working, and it became less and less frequent. We also worked on moving forward with impulsion, rather than allowing his mind to wander. I  found myself with a horse who always looked for the right answer. Once he did, I stopped the session.

Good boy Humphrey!

I think this is what made his owner propose a free lease, with local show expenses paid. I was careful with Humphrey--our sessions were pretty short, and I tried hard not to fry his nervous little brain by asking too much. This is key to building good relationships with boarders, farm managers, and any other person with a horse that you want to continue riding. Treat their horse as if it was yours. I realize that in a world where many horse people mean well but have different opinions on every aspect of horse care and riding, that little piece of advice is almost meaningless.  What I mean is to recognize any limitations the horse has and work with them constructively, rather than just riding the crap out of him just because you're starved for riding time. If you ride well, you'll always have someone who would be happy to let you ride their horse, especially with tools like the Chronicle of the Horse thread for Horseless Riders and Riderless Horses that Analise mentioned in a comment a few weeks ago. 

And educate yourself--read magazines, blogs (see my blogroll for ideas), even Pony Club manuals. Not all of the advice you find will be sound, and not all of it will work for your horse so it helps to have a large arsenal of ideas for various training issues.

One of Humphrey's big problems (that I only began to make progress with near the end of the summer) was picking up the left canter lead. There was nothing physically wrong with him, and you would think that as a TB bred to race, he would have no problem doing this, but he never actually made it to the track and apparently is right-handed. 

I tried all kinds of things with him that I found from a myriad of sources online--Yahoo Answers, Trocha's Training Tips, Chronicle of the Horse, all of the things that came up from the Google search "horse won't pick up left lead". What seemed to give us the most success was putting a pole on the ground coming out of a corner, then asking right there every single time. That seemed to help because it was a visual cue to me to collect him up a little bit before the "jump" and then ask while he was stretching his legs over the pole. I would also move the pole around the ring so he wouldn't automatically canter in the same spot, and added a lot of circles at the trot to build suppleness on that side.  By the end of the summer, Humphrey got the left lead correct about half of the time...but even when I took away the poles, he also had the idea that poles=canter always. Oops...

With my current trainer I've really learned how to ask for the canter correctly because the horse I ride, Clyde, absolutely WILL NOT canter without being asked correctly. Perhaps I could have made faster progress with Humphrey now that I know the technically correct way to ask (I didn't have a great idea of how to correctly ask for a bend or that inside leg=bend and outside leg=gas), but who knows. What I do know is that Humphrey gave me a great summer of fun day shows, summertime rides, and the feeling of having my "own" horse that I was making great progress with. 

Moral of the story: Hooray for free leases! And, be smart.

The basics

Even if your parents were indulgent enough to invest their money in years of riding lessons in exchange for the baffling happiness you found in playing with large, dangerous animals, the investment doesn't end there. Like a drug habit, horses are an infinite pit that can swallow as much money and time as you throw at them (Funnily enough, when horses try drugs, they learn to say no).

(From Amazon.com)

Since riding is an expensive hobby, I had to come up with some creative ways to get my horse fix once I started college and the free-flowing babbling brook of cash slowed to a trickle that didn't babble cheerily anymore, but rather said, "Get a job." The startup cost to begin riding is high, but I was lucky that I already had the stuff I needed--boots, breeches, a helmet, and even some nonessentials like show clothes, a groom kit, and a bareback pad for the old Thoroughbred I free-leased in high school while his owner was away at school herself.

However, the problem still remained. How was I going to ride in college? Here's what I came up with.

Go to a college with an on-campus stable: I figured this would be the easiest solution, and it was one of the biggest factors in my college search. Unfortunately, I ended up not being terribly comfortable with my college's equestrian club (not IHSA). Four of their eight horses were lame during the entire first (and only) semester I was a member of the club, so each lesson was comprised of two horses and four students. We had to switch in the middle, which put a damper on each lesson because that wasn't what I signed up for. And although I wasn't sure if it preventable, something just didn't feel right to me about half of their horses being lame. The club had a barn management system so that several people shared responsibility for various aspects, which sounds good on paper but I think there were cracks in the system. I have never seen any other farm of eight horses that had multiple barn managers, and there must be a reason for that.

Maybe riding on campus can work at colleges that have the right facilities and management--mine didn't. On-campus equestrian clubs are cheaper than taking regular lessons or leasing, but they can come with other costs and you do have to do your homework.

Unfortunately, all of my other options require the use of a car or the use of a horsey friend with a car. If you know of one, put it in the comments, but I'm sure the farms that are reachable by public transport are few and far between.

Volunteer: I lived close to home so I could borrow the car and head up to a local horse rescue on weekends and breaks-- Gentle Giants. It has grown a lot (from 30ish horses to 2009 to 60ish spread across two farms today), and making relationships at a small farm is always a better way to get riding opportunities than a big one (more on that later). Plus volunteering makes you feel good!

I was lucky that I had worked with green (and spoiled--that's an entire post right there) horses before, so after helping with the imperative stuff like feeding and daily chores, I had plenty of opportunity to ride and train horses for their future adopters.

The first horse I ever started from scratch--Tucker at Gentle Giants

This is where the seven years of lessons really paid off--I had developed enough of what I like to call "a sense of adventure" (others might call "a death wish," but hey, that's their prerogative) that I am now the proud recipient of Gentle Giants' inaugural Most Creative Spectacular Dismounts volunteer award. I was just happy to ride anything, whether it was an ex-racehorse or a Haflinger with iffy steering (that would be Chopper, who became one of my favorites and is in my profile picture).

However, if you aren't yet at a level where you can help polish a green-broke horse:

Take lessons: I realize this goes slightly against my original idea of "riding on the cheap" but hear me out. Green+ green= black and blue, and no matter how badly you want to ride, it's not worth misrepresenting your actual ability to a rescue. First of all, you'll look like an idiot because you can't really fake knowing how to ride well. We've seen some attempts at the rescue...from an entire family showing up in shiny, obviously unused Western gear to a prospective adopter who couldn't halter a horse any better than he could a handsaw. Secondly, getting hurt is bad and could keep you from riding ever.

So get a part-time job, save up some money, and take lessons with a good trainer for as long as you can afford to. I think the key is to take lessons at a SMALL BARN. 20 horses or fewer. A large barn is less personal, you won't learn as much, and you will probably actually have fewer opportunities to ride, which leads me to my next point...

Put in some hours mucking and cleaning: Once you have established a relationship with your instructor and maybe even some boarders at the farm, start offering your services. You might be able to work out a deal where you can work off an extra ride a week or even a lesson by doing barn chores, and I've found that this is a much more common agreement at small barns where everyone knows each other. Being nice and introducing yourself to everyone helps too--no one will know you're looking for more opportunities to ride if you don't tell them. Also, talk to boarders who travel for business or go on vacation--they might want someone to exercise their horse(s) while they are away.

Free lease: There are a lot of horse owners who need someone to keep their husband horse in shape, who overhorsed themselves and need help, or who want someone to ride their kid's horse while he or she is away at school. Try to find these people on craigslist, DreamHorse, equine.com, or your local equine publication if your area has one (The Equiery is good for the MD/PA/VA area). If you've made some friends at that barn where you were taking lessons or you have a trainer who will come with you, it's always best to hunt in a pack when horse shopping.

So there's my first stab at this huge topic. I figured I'd start with general ideas and see where that leads us. As always--comments and ideas for future posts are welcome.