| Programs for Horses |  |
We are always excited to welcome new horses to Rancho Pura Vida!
With a new horse, we typically start with an evaluation of the horse's physical and mental readiness for training. We can do the evaluation at our facility or one of the owner's choosing. We'll discuss the owner's goals for the horse and themselves, and depending on the horse's ability, do some ground handling, round pen work, and/or ride to determine to what level the horse has already progressed.
Then depending on what we have to start with, we develop a training program that is in line with the owner's goals and the horse's ability. For all of our training horses, we strive for positive experiences for the horse and methodical progression from one training challenge to the next.
Ground handling
About half of the young unbroke horses that come to us already have their basic ground handling well underway. For horses that have had little or no handling, our first goal is to teach the horse to accept ground management calmly and obediently -- so we work on leading, tying, and standing for grooming and the farrier, and gaining respect for people and their space.
Free longeing
Once the horse is easily manageable on the ground, we move to the round pen. Our goal here is to begin to teach the horse from the ground to move in either direction and stop on command using body language and voice to achieve basic control of the horse's position and movement. When the horse gives us the expected responses consistently and quietly, we start introducing tack -- bridle, surcingle, side reins, saddle -- putting the horse through the free longe exercises and letting them get accustomed to the tack while still expecting them to perform appropriately.
Longeing on line and ground driving
We next introduce the longe line while still in the round pen, and we start to work with the horse on basic "body follows head" exercises. As confidence and ability grows, we add a second line and begin ground driving.
Under saddle
With ground handling and longeing under control, we progress to under saddle training.
We always start the horse on the lead line with a handler on the ground for safety. We first spend some time just getting the horse accustomed to active movement of the rider on the ground next to the saddle, then putting weight on the horse's back, then in the stirrups. With this preparation, the actual getting-on is usually pretty quiet -- we will lay over the horse's back at first and ease into sitting position with both feet in stirrups when all is going well.
Then still on lead line, we do some walking, trotting and stopping, keeping the horse relaxed and quiet. Usually within just a few sessions, we can take off the lead line and ride the horse freely at walk and trot.
When the horse shows basic understanding of the aids for go, stop, walk, and trot, we'll move on to the canter and then from there to more advanced work that is in line with the horse's discipline(s) and the owner's goals.
