hello again and welcome back to work
horse trainer this time we start to
introduce flora to first few pieces of
equipment like a bridle and a mouthpiece
for starting young horses and the reins
and then a girth for holding up the
reins and we start to long rein flora
for the first time I use a machlin
bridle which has been developed with the
horses skull anatomy in mind and
therefore sits more comfortably on the
horse's head than other conventional
bridles as a mouth bit I use a full
cheek snaffle with roller the roller
sits on the horse's time which
encourages her to play with it and
salivate more this has a relaxing effect
on the horse the cheek pieces help to
spread sideways pressure on the horse's
face to help the horse to understand my
request for turning right or left the
girth applies some pressure around
horses back and belly to prepare her for
the saddle but also to hold of the reins
along the horses sides so that she does
not step on them by accident as reins I
use Salus rope it does not slip when wet
and sits well in my hand I have attached
snap hooks at the ends to snap them onto
the bridle easily and then we get to try
the bridle on flora she has seen and
sniffed the Briley before so it's
familiar with this piece of equipment of
course from putting the head collar on
and off she's well used to things around
her eyes ears and nose her first
reaction though to the beta's to keep
her teeth closed Arthur finds this all
rather peculiar and because he's not
impressed that flora gets all the
attention he gives her a little bite
flora still doesn't want to open her
mouth and she's unsure about the metal
bit I offer her after all it doesn't
smell a food at all so why should she
put it in her mouth some people use food
as a bait for the
to get them to open their mouth for the
bit I think this just distracts them and
they are less focused on the real job at
this stage I just have to persevere stay
calm and basically wait for her to open
her mouth which she will I massaged
Flora's gums to get her to relax her
jaws and eventually she does and accepts
the bit in her mouth flora starts
exploring the bit with her tongue she
also discovers that she cannot spit it
out
as it is attached to her broil I closed
the noseband
and her chin so that she cannot open her
mouth too wide and get a tongue over the
bit which would hurt her when I used the
reins this surely is a very new
sensation for flora but she takes it
calmly and is quite focused on really
working out what this new not too
unpleasant thing in her mouth is the
next step is to show flora the girth
she's not fussed about it at all so
we're ready to proceed and I put the
girth on her back I make sure she really
knows it is there by moving it around a
bit
then I tighten it lightly a more
sensitive horse might need some more
preparation for this like applying
pressure around her belly by hand for
start again i wobble the girth around so
that flora can really feel it applying
changing pressure instead of the same
level of pressure is a much more
effective way to get horses to learn
consciously about touch sometime later
we move on to long reining the reins are
attached on both sides of the bit and
they run through the loops on the girth
back to my hands as flora has been out
and about with her parents she knows my
request for starting to walk which is
get up already you might want to choose
a different word like go
walk on it doesn't matter what you say
really as long as you're consistent and
used the same word all the time also
practice stopping combine your word for
stop with gentle pressure on both reins
which you release immediately when the
horse responds Flores very eager to keep
going but I insist that she sticks to
what I want her to do which is to stand
still Flor shows some resistance to my
rein pressure by shaking her head of
course this is a new sensation but soon
she works out that if she responds
quickly to my requests the pressure is
released we also practice going
backwards pressure on both reins
combined with the word back the first
long reining lesson is just about
keeping the horse going you may want to
help her at the horses head or a little
stick in your hand if your horse does
not react to your verbal requests at all
just tickle her with the stick on her
backside a little bit to reinforce your
words horses are very quick to work out
to go left when you pull on the left
rein and vice versa with a young horse
like flora it is essential to always be
ready to praise Lots by voice or touch
or both and to finish when things go
well thanks for watching I hope you
found this helpful
next time we will do a bit more long
reining with flora and we will also
pitch our for the first time so see you
then bye bye