Endurance horse training basics

AppId is over the quota
Chief gets annual hobble reinforcement training.

I’m going to do a series of blog posts about basic training for an endurance horse.  I will include things that are often lacking in the education of many horses that travel and that are taken on trips overnight.  After riding this season, especially on the long XP ride I am left feeling that there are just too many riders out there who seriously lack some of the basics, or perhaps the knowledge required to teach their horses some of the basics.

I hope that this series will help out new riders who may not realize how serious a wreck or accident can occur from a hole in their horse’s basic training.

These are the topics I’m going to cover.  If anybody has any suggestions for something else that they would like to see covered, let me know.

Hobble training.  Very basic.  Have posted numerous times on this before.Tying:  Does your horse panic if he gets tangled up or wrapped around a bucket, or the end of a hitching post?Camping while tied or confined overnight.  Have you practiced this at home?Dragging a rope.  If your horse gets lose, what will he do?Saddle slipping sideways or under belly.  A trained horse will stop and refuse to move.  What does your do?Crupper training.  This is important even if you don’t ride with one.  I’ll cover why, and how.Hoof boots.  Will your horse stop and stand, or try to buck or kick a boot off if it is still attached to his pastern?

I’m sure I’ll come up with some other things to cover, though I think that those are some of the areas where I see a lot of horses severely lacking in their basic training and that can cause some of the most frightening moments if it happens for the first time or concurrently to something else exciting at an endurance ride.  Granted, accidents can happen involving our horses that are out of our control.  Many of them, however, could be avoided alltogether with a little time spent on training ahead of time.

Just as we wouldn’t take a horse to an endurance ride that hadn’t been conditioned, we shouldn’t take one that hasn’t been prepared to camp, tie or deal with other mishaps which can and do occur with regularity at endurance rides.  I’ve seen as many fatalities and serious injuries at rides as a result of horses getting lose or panicking in camp as I have from any other reason.

These basics that I am going to cover should be included in the training of any horse that is going to be traveling and camping overnight or riding with groups of other horses.

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