Week Seven:
You Need:
As for Week Six.
Day 1:
Repeat Day 6 of Week Six, but when it is time to
ride your horse, take of f the caveson/halter and
the lunge line. Have your ground person stand in
the middle of the round pen as before. You are
riding on your own, give lots of praise to your
horse and give yourself a pat on the back!
Day 2-6:
Repeat Day 1, but start lunging your horse in
your arena to get him use to it. Move him to the
round pen for riding.
By the end of Week Seven, your horse should be
walking, trotting, and cantering with a rider easily
and in an appropriate low frame for a young
horse. He should be halting 100% now and
should always been perfectly in control during
your rides. If not, repeat Week Seven until he is.
Week Eight:
Canter-Halt-Canter
By the end of Week Eight, your horse should be
completing all of his transitions easily and you
should feel that he is listening and comfortably
in control both on the 20m circle and around the
entire arena without stopping. You should not
have to ask more than once to complete any
command. If this is not the case, then repeat
Week Eight until it is.
You will notice that even though this is supposed
to be an 8 week program, I do tell you to repeat
certain weeks if your horse is not 100%. Each
horse is an individual and some may need more
time to feel confident in the things you ask them
to do.
You have also most likely noticed the absence of
a lunge whip in my needed equipment. I have
found that, while helpful, a lunge whip is not
needed and can cause difficulties with a young
horse that is not sure of himself. It can also be a
hindrance in your horse learning to respect you.
He will learn to respect the whip instead of you
and that can be a bit of a problem if there is a
time when you do not have a whip with you.
You Need:
As for Week Seven.
A note on spurs, I know many people ride with
spurs at all times. This should be based on each
horse and the rider’s skill. However, with a young
Day 1:
horse, I have found it best to leave spurs out of
Now we are going to start both lunging and riding things for the initial backing process. Simple is
your horse in your arena. So, start by walking,
best, especially now.
trotting, and cantering him in a circle. Gradually
enlarge the circle until the horse is going
the full length of the arena. If he starts to
rush or want to get away from you at the
trot or canter, just bring him back down to
either a walk or a trot and then proceed
once he is under control again.
Day 2-6:
Repeat Day 1. Continue to work on your
horse’s transitions:
Walk-Halt-Walk
Trot-Walk-Trot
Trot-Halt-Trot
Canter-Trot-Canter
Canter-Walk-Canter
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