How many breaks do you give your horse during a training session?

Barbara F · Grand Prix

How many breaks do you give your horse during a training session?

justice · Grand Prix

This one REALLY "depends on the horse" : ) I work until I am sure that the horse understands the new cue. Lots of breaks or as many as needed to re-establish 'ground zero' during training so as to avoid frustration, boredom and insecurity. My work sessions with the younger ones tend to run about a half hour or so, but not unusual for us to go out two or three times a day for short periods. Not intense work exactly but being clear, patient and consistent in communication is my strongest tool.

-- Edited by justice on Wednesday 16th of February 2011 06:55:38 AM

prospect · Advanced

I am riding a young horse and asking for new things every ride. After a relaxing warmup w/t we usually work on what we worked on the last ride - take a bit of a break, then intro something new take a little break and finish off with relaxing trot/walk work. When it is warmer we will always take a cool down hack through the woods. And now that it is getting warmer he will have a hack at least once a week around the large pasture/cross country field and through the woods.

We have not yet started any real conditioning or hill work yet.

Nikki Salo · Grand Prix

Great thoughts on a great question!

I agree with Justice, this question totally depends on the horse and their maturity level, but with that being said what has worked for me is a general rule of 3 tries. I learned this from an old cowboy way back, and it has been useful for me, I'll ask for 3 tries for the right answer and if I get 3 tries in a row progressing towards what I want, we stop and do a loose rein walk -- the length of the walk will depend on the horse. Some horses need a longer walk to get back to neutral (say 10min) where more mature horses may only need a 5min break. I'll only ask for 2-3 sets of tries before calling it a day in the training department, so this may be 20-30min for the total training session within the ride (excluding the breaks in between). I've had good luck with this over the years aww

dbliron · Advanced

Hey, Nikki:

I do something similar: 3 repititions each way, maximum. In other words, make haste slowly...

I give my horses lots of breaks, especially when schooling new and/or more difficult work. As soon as I get an improvement in the performance of any of the work, especially lateral work and difficult collecting work, I give the horses a walk break on a long rein. I was taught by several masters that the very best reward for a horse is the cessation of the request, and it's always worked for me.

The duration of the breaks varies with the physical maturity, development, and fitness of the horse. My upper level horses recover with a walk on a loose rein once around the arena each way, but younger, less schooled, and less fit horses might take significantly longer.

My average training ride varies between 20 minutes and 60 minutes, again depending on the program for the day, the response from the horse, the level of training, the fitness of the horse, etc....My general rule of thumb is hard/easy, in that I train relatively hard one day, and I ride an easy session the following day, etc. Very young and green horses might only go 15 minutes, especially if they're trying very hard for me - they're rewarded by a hack out, rather than more time in the school. That also sometimes applies to very hard and intense work for the more advanced horses; when I was training piaffe on Nuke, who found it nearly incomprehensible, I'd work on it for about 15 minutes, and as soon as he started to give me the right stuff we'd go for a hack. It took a year to confirm it, but he's now 16 and totally sound, and has never needed joint injections, so I think the time spent was worth it. I expect my horses to work hard, but within reason, and I very much want them to be happy in their work, and to look forward to me arriving at the barn every morning.

sedonasilver · Advanced

Because Lorenzo is still building fitness and muscle and stamina (and top line!), I only work between 15-45 minutes (not including warming up on the lunge, or cooling down after the ride).

I have a routine that we work on which is amended as he progresses, but generally we start the ride with neck bending and extension on each rein in walk, then trot. If he is soft and supple on one rein, I will only do a few circles, and if he is stiffer or resistant on a particular rein we work solidly on that for a good 10-15 mins with 2 minute breaks every 5 minutes until there is a noticable difference. Having said this, excuse the phrase, but there is no point 'flogging a dead horse' - if he's not in the mood and just isnt getting it after 15 minutes, well we're not going to get far. So I'll switch to his better rein and finish of the exercise. This doesnt happen too often thankfully. Then we do canter work and move on to laterals.

We stop every 5-10 minutes or so for a quick 'horse moment' where he is allowed to stand on a long rein and be 'horse' as long as he's standing still. He can look where ever he likes and be 'heavy' on the bit with his head down and be a bit distracted for a few moments. I just need to touch the reins and he starts looking for the contact then off we go! Works wonders :)

As we advance I guess the breaks will be shorter and less often.

Good question!

Queenrider · Advanced

My gelding will be 5 at the end of April. He has been in work since last March. Last March his schedule was 3 times a week for about 30 minutes and this included lunging. Now his work is about 45 minutes and sometimes includes lunging 5 to 6 times a week. He is at training level and we are working on first level stuff. All that being said, if he is working well then the session will be short at about 20 minutes. If it does go to 45 minutes then there will be frequent breaks of free walk for a few minutes.