This week got me thinking about beginner safe horses.
We have started to bring some horses back into work after some time off and it has been great and interesting watching them progress.
I am fairly cautious with what I sit on and until I have lunged them tacked up I don't want to ride them. You get an idea of there personalities and quirks before you get on. Lunging them under saddle also gives you an idea of their way of going, if they rush off into trot with their heads up on the lunge line, chances are you are going to get the same thing under saddle.
Angela from the stables sat on both horses before I did too so it was good to speak to her about how they had behaved before I hopped on. Both boys did incredibly well considering how much time they have had off, one with stable confinement for three or so weeks and Ruff has had rehab work and then pen confinement.
Both horses I would say felt pretty beginner safe, on the more lazy side, non spooky and very willing. They felt like fairly simple, if green(ish) rides. They don't understand contact really, outside rein etc but do respond very well to seat aids and leg. They both do get used for lessons in the riding school.
After riding I had an interesting discussion with Angela. Both boys have little quirks under saddle with more nervous or more beginner riders. Both can spook, sucker to other horses, not go forward, fall in off the rail, onto the rail etc, rush etc. I didn't really see much of this, bar Red trying to move off the rail a few times.
It got me thinking about so called 'Beginner Safe' horses that get sold to beginner riders. I belong to a FB group that has beginner riders, a lot of them have green OTTBs or other green horses and there are quite often posts about falls, spooks and people being too scared to ride their own horse who went 'perfectly' for them when they brought it.
When a young horse is being ridden by more experienced riders, they probably don't even see those little 'get out' quirks. I am not a high level rider at all, but even I have begun to make unconscious adjustments during the ride, you might feel a trot rhythm slowing near the gate or another horse so you put your leg (or whip). You might feel them tense towards a corner of the school so you circle away, they speed up, you half halt and so on. These 'issues' don't even really appear as they are caught before they develop to the horse in anything other than a passing thought. On a higher level, the lovely mare I rode with Sara a few months back felt very 'wiggly' when I first sat on her, she wasn't staying out on the rail or going forward to the bit, Sara hadn't seen her like that before, we got her going beautifully by the end with Saras help, but it just goes to show how quirks or behaviors that the trainer has never seen or felt can be there with a less experienced rider.
When a beginner rider goes to try the green or any horse, especially if he is being sold by 'trainers' then he has probably had months of consistent and calm riding. Any quirks have been adjusted before they appear, quite often without the conscious knowledge of the trainer. The beginner rider hops on and wobbles around a bit, the horse might be a bit worried but he knows the drill and behaves pretty well, even if he doesn't go on the bit or go forward very much. The buyer feels safe, even if the horse is green as he knows his job.
Fast forward a few weeks, the horse is in a new place and all the rules have changed both in hand and under saddle, he starts worrying a bit under saddle, so when he sees another horse in the arena he wants to go over to them. As he starts to drift out, his new rider doesn't feel it until he is almost all the way there, a new habit is born! We then start throwing in spooking as he is still worried and tense. This in turn, makes his rider more nervous who starts grabbing her reins and gripping with her legs- ah he remembers, legs mean speed up. But poor lad, along with the gripping legs the rider is pulling on the reins trying to slow him down, so he starts to get upset and fussy in his mouth... it's not long before that sweet young horse has turned into a nervous, dangerous, rider throwing 1000lb problem.
So, who's to blame? The buyer, the seller, or the buyers trainer? I guess it can be all three. I would like to think most buyers have the integrity not to sell a young horse to a beginner, regardless of how well it has felt like it has been going. The buyer should be savvy enough to realize that the super cheap four year old ex racing filly probably isn't the right choice at this time. The buyers trainer plays a huge part and I am amazed how often I hear in the US of their trainer recommending an young OTTB for a new rider.
So, even if a horse seems beginner safe with the trainer/ sales yard, it doesn't mean he will stay that way. Value our amazing, un-fancy, plain, old horses- they probably suit most all of us out there!
