What Your OTTB Believes About Contact Right Now...

Contact is something so many riders want to achieve when working with their horses. However, it’s always worthwhile remembering that your horse was not born knowing how to be ridden. This means that contact is something both of you must learn about and then refine through your work together.

For many horses, the challenge is made even more difficult when they have been taught something completely different about contact because they had a previous career. Especially if that career was racing.

When working with horses, especially ex-racehorses or OTTBs, we need to understand that there will be both training and re-training involved. And sometimes, the retraining can be a little more challenging than the training due to your horse wanting to ‘revert’. Especially when they feel stressed or anxious.

This episode is the first episode in a week of audio horse riding lessons from Daily Strides Premium. You can get all of the episodes and work on this topic with your horse at https://stridesforsuccess.com/dsp

Start on the Lunge

Tempting as it is to mount up, I suggest that you first try lunging instead. Lunging is great because it will give you the ability to help reframe the conversation for your horse. And for your horse to give you instant feedback you need to make adjustments that get results.

Keep in mind, when you’re working with an OTTB, your horse has to relearn or reframe when he learned before – especially when it comes to contact and your seat.

Both are usually quite different in how you would like him to engage with you when working together. There are a whole host of reasons for this. However, it all boils down to the same thing – you must start your retraining by reframing the expectations and conversations your horse has been having up to this point in his career.

Re-Educate Your Horse To Your Aids

One of the most common mistakes riders of OTTBs make is assuming that because your horse has been backed at some point, he knows all of the things. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Being ridden by two different riders practicing the same discipline can be confusing for a horse. When we add changing the discipline into the mix as well, you can see how wires can get crossed when it comes to aids and communication.

A better way to approach this is to assume your horse knows nothing and start from the beginning again. Again, the lunge is a great place to do this for both of you.

And if you’re worried about how long this process will take, don’t. While re-training can sometimes be a little more time-intensive than straightforward training, so much can be achieved in each working session. Especially if you are intentional about what you’re doing and how you’re approaching each interaction.

How to Get Going with Re-Training

When you lunge with just a basic bridle, no fancy additions, you can begin to understand & reframe what your OTTB believes about the contact. Have the bit in his mouth. But no ‘pressure’ coming from the reins themselves, he can begin to explore this on his own.

This is where well-fitted and good-quality side reins can come into their own. You want to get your horse going forward first without any contact. But then, you can simply engage the side-reins so that he can begin to explore the idea of the contact, without any pulling or fussing.

This will begin to explain to your horse to go forward, on the lunge, with consistent contact that can begin to change what your OTTB believes about the contact.

It is also worth spending time here developing your voice aids. These will help greatly when you do mount up and are in the saddle. Your goal is to make things as easy for your horse to understand as possible. Again, the lunge will help you to do this easily.

Mounting Up and Riding

Make sure that you’re in a safe area. Again, keep in mind the expectations placed on him up to this point are vastly different from what you are now looking for. This is why re-training can sometimes take a little longer. Your horse will naturally want to ‘go back’ to the original way of doing things. The original expectations.

Being consistent with your approach to retraining your horse will help him to understand things have changed. 12 weeks of re-schooling done right can transform things for both of you.

There are no ‘quick fixes’ for redefining and overwriting what your OTTB believes about contact. It will take a commitment from you that will include patience, time, and compassion.