Young horse starting is an incredibly important time in a horses life. It is when your horse wears his first saddle is ridden for the first time and what takes place in this process will probably affect the horse for the rest of his life. It is important this is done by an experienced person.
The Starting Process
Horses will go through a process of starting beginning with accepting the human and gaining a language with the horse on the ground. This will be geared towards the next step of saddling the horse so helping the horse to see things over his back in a variety of different ways sometimes including riding the horse bareback.
When this process is going well then it comes to saddling. Again this process will be geared towards the next step of riding the horse. So causing the horse to be calm with the saddle and the pad not only while saddling but also moving, again in a variety of different ways. Then it comes to riding the horse firstly just sitting on the horse and gently moving but when the horse is ready then beginning to take leadership- asking the horse to go when I ask- probably more important to slow when I ask and also to turn.
Then as soon as we have a little language we start on a foundation. The foundation will be for the horse to go through the Parelli levels program until he/she goes home.
The usual time for a horse to come is for 5 weeks. This depends upon how quickly the horse is ready to progress and also how much you want your horse to do before he/she goes home. All going well your horse should be ridden at walk, trot and canter both in an arena and in a field, hacked and jumped. They will often have been ridden in both Western and English saddles and at times by a few different people. They will have been exposed to ground skills which include on line and liberty also ridden freestyle (loose reins/ no reins) and finesse (short/ concentrated reins). They will have been exposed to preparations for the farrier and tying preparation as well as other things.
Equally it is important for the horse that the rider is ready for the horse when the horse arrives home. For this reason I do not start horses for everyone.
Applications
If you would like to have your horse started please apply to me telling me about you and your experience in and out of the Parelli program and tell me also about your horse age and experience. A limited number of horses are accepted to be started throughout the year. The fee for starting will be dependant on time taken on a weekly basis and includes a full Livery service.
Alison Jones Starting A Young Horse