Return to Work after the Summer

Like every year, I spent the summer holidays with my family in my native home, Germany. During those weeks, the horses were out on the farm, enjoying their time off, Rajmani included. I felt, six weeks of leisure to mull over what he has learnt so far, would do him good. Time for him to grow, physically as well as mentally and to find his place in the herd.

Sometimes, this is exactly what a young horse needs. Far too often, we push our youngsters too hard, particularly when they are eager and willing to work. We forget that they are equine children, that they need their week-ends and holidays in order to grow and think about everything they have learnt so far.

Muscles grow during rest time and this also works for learning new things. If you want your horse to learn something new, make sure he has had time to think about and committed to memory the other things he has learnt. Only then has he the mental capacity to learn something new. If we bombard our horses with new things all the time, they will eventually shut down, just like us. We also need our sweet time to learn new stuff and need a break once in a while in order to freshen up our mind.

The brain is – in a way – a muscle. It grows with training, but it needs rest time in between.

When I returned to India, I was curious about Rajmani. How had he fared in my absence and how would he react when I started working him again.

Before the holiday, he had shown me clearly that he was a horse which could not be pushed. He needed preparation and did not take kindly to being thrown in cold water. He also had some issues with respect and had clearly learnt to say no and to test whether he had to do what he was told or whether he could sneak around it.

Even though he had become calmer, he was still often restless and did not like me to touch his head. I had ridden him, but he had spooked and resented when I wanted to trot him.

When I reached the farm, I checked all the horses, even before unpacking and changing out of my travelling clothes. They all looked good, but Rajmani had grown a bit thin in my opinion. He had turned extremely light in color and had suffered from some insect bites on his neck. As a consequence, he had also rubbed away his pretty mane and did look a little like a featherless chick. I rubbed some ointment on his neck and mane and put some insect repellent on him and the rest of the horses in the evening.

On the next day, I took him out to do some basic groundwork. I decided to start at the beginning and see where he stood. First of all, I groomed him and was pleasantly surprised when I brushed his head, that he lowered it and let me touch his ears and poll which he had previously always resented.

He also seemed to be happy to see me back and stood still when I examined him and cleaned his hooves. Finally, I put the rope halter on and we went over to my exercise arena.

We started with the Seven Games and some lunging. He used to have a difficult time turning directions. Not anymore, he turned nicely, did transitions from walk to halt and from walk to trot without any issues. I did not canter him, as my lead rope was quite short and I did not want to pressurize him too much. But I was satisfied. He turned nicely on his hind and on his front, crossing his legs just as he should and there was no more biting into my stick or into the rope. When he finished one exercise, I gave him a rub on his neck or head and he just stood there, enjoying it.

He had become really calm, I almost doubted it was still the same horse.

Next evening, I introduced him to an exercise of Equikinetic (a way of working a horse on a circle with a constant bend towards the inside developed by the German horse trainer Michael Geitner). I had not done this before, as he had been always a little unruly and this exercise requires a horse to be calm. And he did it well, without fuss or naughtiness.

Of course, not all is well and perfect just because of a six-week break. He still tests me; he still says no at times and forces me to circumnavigate and ask my question in a different way. Or just remain calm and strict.

I rode him again once, since I am back, just an easy round walking and was fine. On the other hand, I took him along as a hand horse another day and he stopped and tried to turn three times until he realized, all revolt was fruitless and he gave in. He got frustrated and bit my lead horse in the bum which was of course answered with a squeal and a kick.

There is still a lot of work ahead of me and the road with him will never get boring. But in general, the six weeks break did him good and gave him time to settle and find his spot.

At the moment I am not working him as much as I should, in fact I almost have a bad conscious. But we got two foals at the farm and waiting for a third and the night watches simply sap my energy. So, I try to work him twice a week at the moment which is not enough. I hope once I can go back to a sound and long sleep, I will be able to gather my energy and work him 3-4 times again.