The Making of a Riding Horse

I have not posted an update about Rajmani for a long time, but of course he ist still with me and I am still working with him. Over a couple of horse safaris and riding programs, I did not do much with him, but now he is firmly back on top of my agenda, as I want to turn him into a proper riding horse in the coming six months, so that I might use him for our horse safaris at the end of the year, if we ever get over Corona and back into riding!

Summer and the mosquitos left him in a bit of a sorry state. He had scrubbed away his mane and some of the coat on his neck and despite all my efforts, lost weight. He basically needs around 50% more feed than some of my other horses who gain weight by looking at food. Rajmani gets the same portion than my lactating mares and he is still on the lean side. He is definitely not an easy keeper!

His mane slowly started growing back and his coat looks better, but still, he has dandruff and his coat is not shiny but dull. 

I tried different local mineral supplies but decided to bring him zinc and beer yest from Germany which he has been given now for the last three weeks. 

Part of this might be a hormonal imbalance from the castration last November. I had the same experience with Dhanraj, my own gelding. But now, 14 months later, he should improve.

I am trying to get some local flaxseeds but so far, no luck.

At the same time, I am seriously trying to muscle him up now. During November and December, he was worked and ridden only from time to time due to my higher workload. On the up side, he was really good. Sometimes I rode him after a 14 days gap and he was perfectly behaved and relaxed. I keep on riding him out alone as I really don’t have anyone coming along with me. My students are not so secure in the saddle, that they can deal with any tantrum and I don’t want to ride him out with guests just yet.

In the beginning we just walked. When he offered me a trot, I let him trot. When he went back to walking, I was fine with it. I wanted him to be comfortable with me out alone and not put any pressure on him. In-between we stopped for a grazing.

Slowly I started to take more control of the speed. I began to cue him for trotting and pushed him a bit when he wanted to slow down. When he offered me 20 meters trotting, I requested him to trot for 50 meters. So, bit by bit, I pushed his limits further out. We still stop for a grazing here and there, but I decide where and when.

He got really relaxed and we have even cantered twice now. I did not ask him to, but he offered it to me and I accepted.

At the farm, I keep on doing Equikinetic and groundwork with him to build up his back muscles. Now we do it in walk and trot. When he has the support from the poles, he is happily trotting where I am asking him to. Still, his balance is not great, but he manages to trot over a log without stumbling now which is definitely an improvement. Take away any poles or visible demarkations, he has issues staying on a big circle. His circles start big but then get smaller and smaller. He falls on his inner shoulder and still has a lot of issues balancing himself.

An area we still struggle with is the canter. When I lunge him, he keeps on pushing inside and falling on his inner shoulder. Because he is overbending, he then always lands in a cross canter, more so on the left than on the right hand. The problem I see here is, that he was probably lunged “the Indian way”.

This means lunging a horse around a central pole where the lunging rein is wrapped around, giving the handler a lot of force to control the horse. One person stands in the middle holding the lunge while a second one runs behind the horse with a whip to make him run as fast as possible. The horse is forced on a circle as the lunge is fixed to the pole in the middle. Some people at least lunge their horses on a big circle, but I have seen tiny circles which force the horse to lean on the inner shoulder for support to stay on the circle or to lean on the outside leg to get away as far as possible from the people. One way or the other, it is definitely a horrible sight and will do nothing to teach the horse balance, flexibility or correct gaits. It is usually a way to get rid of surplus energy of horses who have too little exercise or who are never left free to roam or graze.

And I should mention, most of the time, the lunge is attached to the bit of the horse, so naturally the horse will overbend his head and neck in order to avoid the painful pull in the mouth. 

Keeping this in mind, I know where his aversion to lunging in general comes from and also his distrust in people.

I guess he needs more time and patience. Working him inside my circle of poles with fixed boundaries helps him a lot to relax and get balanced. Take that away and the painful memories return.

I have tried working him with a body wrap. This is an elastic band going round his bum, so he gets a better feel for his body. This works to some extend but cantering is still his weak point and I decided to first work on his balance and then canter him in straight lines before going back to canter work on the circle.