Today in the morning I worked with another of my youngsters, our filly Ambika and I was thinking that she knows almost the same things as Rajmani and how much easier it is to train a young horse you have had all your life. So I will talk today about training a yearling and introduce our darling Ambika to you.
Ambika was born on 17th July 2019 from my favorite mare Ashtami who came to us as a weanling in 2004 as the first of the Princess Trails Horses. She has given us two daughters, Anokhi and Ambika.
Ambika’s sire is the famous stallion Siddharaj of Kelwa and her grandsire is the Udaipur Palace stallion Raj Tilak.
She definitely has a great pedigree, even though we do not know much about her mom, but she is definitely a proven safari mare who has done several thousand kilometers on rides and safaris with us and has a great confirmation with good riding horse points. Something as important as a good pedigree I feel.
I have started working a little bit with Ambika, mostly trying to lay the foundation. Not too often and of course never too long. I work around once every 7-10 days with her for 10-15 minutes maximum.
I started with training her to lead, the foundation of every horse training, something every horse needs to know. It is not sexy, but it is essential. So, I taught her the proper leading position and to stick with me. When I stop, she stops, when I start, she starts and so on. I taught her to move backwards, come to me and to turn on her hind and front quarters. The secret here is to train a young horse to yield to pressure. That can be done from an early age onwards. I teach all my foals the basics, how to stand still, give the hooves, get touched everywhere and to yield to pressure. Foals have a natural tendency to lean into pressure, so it is very important to teach them that if they yield, the pressure will be taken away.
When she knew all the basics, I started introducing her to my lunging circle. I trained her to walk at a distance from me and the commands for walk, trot and halt. As she is still young and growing, I never ask more than 1 round of trot on either hand from her, as trotting on a circle puts a lot of strain on the inner front leg.
She also learned to go over obstacles. For that I have places two logs on the circle so that the horse has to lift his legs a bit while passing over them. They are not big, but enough to keep their attention focused and to give them this little extra work of having to lift their legs and measure their steps.
Ambika grew up on our farm, running with her mother and aunts. She is extremely sure-footed, so obstacle or poles are not at all a challenge for her like they are for Rajmani. She just lengthens her stride a bit and passes over them in walk or trot. If she feels she does not manage with a stride, she simply jumps over them.
At the same time, Rajmani needed to almost stop, take a good look and then step over the logs. He just now started to be able to take them a bit more gracefully and step over them in walk and trot.
I have also introduced her to the bareback pad already which was a piece of cake as I have put pads and blankets on her back for almost her entire life. So far, I work her with a simple rope halter and I will continue to do so a little while until she is ready for the cavesson. Maybe after he second birthday in summer. We have a lot of time on our hands!
And training a young horse should never be rushed! A lot of young horses are really clever and motivated to learn new things quickly. Here the danger is to do too much too quickly. Never fall for this trap. A yearling is like a kindergarten child, learning should be done in a playful way and body and mind should not be overpowered if we want to keep this bubbling motivation alive! Always give them enough time to play around unrestrained and never forget, their attention span is that of a small child and 15 minutes work is already a lot for a horse of their age!
Still, I find that the training of a yearling or any young horse is really the most rewarding work, as they are usually unspoilt, super-motivated and malleable.
As we are looking for a good home for Ambika, I know I will be probably not the person who will complete her training and turn her into a riding horse. However, till then, I hope to give her the best training possible so that she will be the pride and joy for her new owner.