Thoughts on Obstacle training

Sheridan wrote me to see if I have a list of obstacles that I train my horses on. "Hello, I like your website and check it often to see if you have added more articles. By chance would you have a list of obstacles that you train your horses on? If you do, could you list them on your site or reply back to this e-mail with a list? Thank you in advance."

I really don't have lists, except maybe for grocery store trips. While there are some obstacle type exercises I do with horses, I don't have a checklist of what I want one of my horses to be able to do at any stage. I haven't really decided if obstacles and desensitization exercises are the same thing. If they are not, then both have overlapping purposes. At the origin, getting a horse good at an obstacle, can help the horse think through a problem as opposed to just relying on their instincts. If, of course, the rider goes about introducing the obstacle in a manner that a horse can accept. In the column on the right hand side under Annual Arena Challenges there is a bit of information on the type of obstacles and tasks I asked riders to do in these past events.

In those Annual Arena Challenges that I ran for nine years, I tended to stay away from the "carnival" type obstacles, instead I used props they were related to horsemanship and functional tasks. When I was a Army Range Rider, when the horses I rode would encounter new things that trouble them. I would make a mental note and when I was riding for non work related reasons, I would set some things up at my home ranch to continue to expose the horses to those new things. One time I was riding up a hill to get a view point to glass a valley. The hill was rocky with ledges like stairs. So later at home I built a set of stairs using railroad ties and dirt fill to ride my horses up and down.

One of things we encountered on duty as an Army Range Rider was supporting Army Change of Command Ceremonies. We would ride onto the parade ground and up to the viewing bleachers where we would receive a bouquet of flowers in those noisy crinkly plastic wrappers, which the noise always unsettled the horses, so we could dismount and give the outgoing Commander's wife the flowers, and the in-coming Commanders wife flowers. So the logically thing to do was to stop at Wal-Mart buy some flowers in those crinkle wraps and sack the horses out with them. You may have first put a fly mask with Velcro straps on a horse and found out that the first few times the horse flinched or spooked at the Velcro ripping away.

Another time, four of us Range Riders rode in a PRCA Grand Entrance for the National Anthem as we had to ride down a narrow entrance lined with supporting signs and banners. That troubled the horses, probably mine most of all, so at home I hung signage and tarps across the fences until the horses never minded them. Didn't take long.

Doing ground work with the young, green horses or restarting older horses, I sometimes drag a bag on the ground with tin cans with the rope on the bag on one hand and the lead rope in my other. I set it up so the horse is following the bag and me on the ground leading, but soon I will stand by the horse's head and drag the bag towards us. This may only take 5 minutes for a horse to get used to, or may take 30 minutes, Once the horse is comfortable with it, I'll mount and using a 14-18 foot long rope without dallying it on my saddle horn, back the horse so the bag is coming towards us. Not always, but most times I'll drag for a few feet then walk the horse forward and let him drop his nose on the bag until he becomes disinterested in the bag, then back the horse up, pickup slack in the rope and begin again.

Another thing I'll do on a green horse is set up a couple of parallel ground poles and a traffic cone at each end maybe 10 yards away. I can trot the horse around a cone, then straight through the ground poles, then around the other traffic cone in the opposite direction. I'll change that up sometimes with a turn around the traffic cone then going wide and across the ground poles. I'm trying to put a reason into the horse following a feel on the reins and my legs. See diagrams below for clarity.

You can extend the distances between the traffic cones and ground poles in the beginning the benefit and tighten it up as your horse get better at turning in small diameters then going straight, between your legs and reins, through the ground poles. I got onto being able to walk then trot very small circles, without losing forward momentum, as some of the trails I followed into the mountains, checking for Mule Deer and Adaud Sheep sign, would sometimes lead me to dead ends when I would have to turn uphill around and in-between Cholla and Prickly Pear cactus. It became just necessary to be able to do that.

I think that doing many different things and exposing your horse to odd things just helps them learn they can think through a new situation. But a key point here is to allow them the time to do so. Pushing a horse through something scary to them causes them anxiety from both ends,...the scary thing (obstacle) and you pushing them or banging on them. You may get the horse through it, but he will still be troubled. One of the key points in the Arena Challenges I ran is that I did away with a time constraint. I did not want a horse to balk at crossing at bridge then given only 30 seconds to get comfortable with another try. Sometimes, I had horses and riders take several minutes to do an obstacle. I can't remember anyone verbalizing an issue with the lack of a time requirement. Besides a 30 second delay in a horse doing an obstacles would seem like 5 minutes for the rider so sometimes a rider would quit the attempt before success, despite my urging to just let the horse settle, relax then try again. Funny thing about horse's and their curiosity, if a horse you are riding becomes concerned at some object, they will often stop. If you do not try to push them forward before they are mentally ready, they will often resume taking another fee steps forward before stopping again. This is a win for the horse. Let him settle and he'll often continue a few more steps. Eventually arriving at the object and dropping his head and nose on it.

So take a look around at your environment. If you are riding on a county road with the occasional ATV or side by side, or even loud motorcycle driving by, then it would pay off for your horse to have seen this before and became used to it. One my youngest horse, the first time he saw the tractor right by his pen, he became frantic and ran to other end or his pen. So for a couple days in a row, I would drive the tractor up to his pen, work the bucket, dismount, call the horse over and pet on him, then get back on about my tractor business. After a couple days, three days maybe, he didn't pay it any mind. They can get used to a lot if we give him the time necessary to understand in their minds that the obstacles or situation isn't a threat.

Sorry I really didn't cover a list of obstacles, but really any object that the horse needs just a bit of time to accept becomes an obstacles. What I have available and sometimes use are ground poles to step over/side pass over or to back between; bridges to cross; platforms to step on with the front feet and do a turn on the front end; slickers - picking them up off the fence, putting then on, and sometimes handing them from a bow gate so the horse has to walk by it or underneath it; pulling a bag up using a rope over a bow gate and backing your horse; tarp to drape over the horse and have him carry it, and/or walk across it when it's on the ground. I have coffee cans with upright 6 foot PVC poles cemented into the cans, much like poles for pole bending, and sometimes place them so I can ride the horse through them set up as tight switch backs - you'll need good control of the horse's feet to independently control the horse's front and rear feet to get the bend with forward momentum necessary so do this without knocking over the poles.

Whatever you use for objects and obstacles, I would think that these things are important:

Slow is fast - meaning give the horse time to accept the object and he will rapidly progress as pushing him through on your time will just extend the time necessary for him to get comfortable with the object and increase his anxiety, perhaps learning that you are not a very patient leader.

Make sure whatever you ask the horse to do is safe. An example is using a old dry rotted tarp and ask him to step on and walk over it, could run the risk of the horse foot penetrating the tarp and getting stuck to on e of his feet, especially if he is wearing shoes. I have saw this happen. Same for a wooden bridge or piece of plywood as a platform. Just look at the obstacles and minimize potential mishaps.

Lastly, in my mind the objective is not getting the horse through an obstacle. It is how you ask and how he does it. An example is asking the horse to back through parallel ground poles. A rider may be happy with a horse that is backing straight through the poles. but if the horse's head is high and his mouth gapping and he is pushing with his front feet and falling backward with his hind end, well that's a plain ugly, imbalanced backup basically using pressure in his mouth through the bit and the horse will soon get bracey and worse about it. Instead, back more with your seat with the horse's broke at the poll and nose vertical where he is stepping with the hind end and picking up his front feet to follow to follow the diagonal.

2016 Functional Horsemanship - Red Bird Ranch Arena Obstacle Challenge Results

In between uncharacteristic days of windy and rainy September weather, we lucked out and had perfect weather for our second annual Arena Obstacle Challenge. Some competitors drove over 100 miles to compete and I hope they were challenged, and likely so, as new locations will often make the best horses a little hinky.

I tried to find a good mix of prop related obstacles and basic horsemanship maneuvers to give each rider and horse a challenge within their respective divisions.    

The competitors entered the arena and proceeded over ground poles then through a funnel with plastic arms. Next they were required to trot through traffic cones placed 10 feet apart, stopping past the last cone, Open Division riders had to back in a circle, Intermediate riders backed in a 180 degree arc and Novice riders back straight for 10 feet.   The full AOC arena diagram is below:

The Garoucha pole was next were Open Division retrieved the pole and jogged a complete circle around the pole while other Divisions were required to retreive the pole and ride their horse between the pole and the fence. This seemingly easy tasks proved to be much harder than you would imagine for several of the horses as they viewed the dark hard wood pole leaning up against the fence with suspicion.

Next, all rider were required to two track about 30 foot, traveling laterally about 15 feet. Two tracking is forward movement combined with lateral movement where the horse's outside front foot stepped over and forward of the inside front hoof while the horse has forward movement. Open Division did this at a trot, while the other Divisions could do it at a walk. This proved to be the singular most difficult task for most all of the competitors.

Obstacle 7 was gait transitions - Novice a walk to a trot transition; Intermediate - a working trot to a extended trot; and Open was required to do a canter departure.  Photo below left: Angela Beltran-Flores on Starbuck.

The next obstacle was a 32 inch wide, 8 foot long bridge which the majority of horses navigated okay.

And this led to side passing ground poles where Novice Division had to side pass a 6 foot ground pole; Intermediate was required to side pas a longer 8 foot ground pole; and Open had to side pass both ground poles.

Navigating vertical poles placed 4 1/2 feet part was next to challenge the rider. This required riders to be pretty careful as they moved through them not to knock over the poles with their stirrups or their horse back end.

The riders next had to dismount then send their horse though a couple barrels like they would if they were sending a horse into a trailer. The rider followed their horse through then re-mounted from either a mounting block or the fence. All rider's chose the mounting block - a couple competitors did this for the first time, trying to opposition their horse in order to step up and mount.

From here the rider's moved to a rope and while holding onto the rope they backed their horse's pulling a bag of cans up to the top of the arena bow gate. I thought this would be the most difficult obstacle for horses but the majority of competitors and their horses did just fine.  Photo below right is Lynn Gonzalez, riding Sonny, from High Rolls New Mexico pulling the bag of cans over the bow gate. 

The final task was to demonstrate control of the back end or fore end. Novice Division had to do a 180 degree turn on the front end; Intermediate - a full circle on the front end; and Open - a 360 degree turn on the haunches.  







2016 Functional Horsemanship - Red Bird Ranch AOC Winners:


Open - Luanne Santiago, riding Tippy, won Open for the second year in a row.
Intermediate - Luanne Santiago, riding Nutmeg who narrowly beat Marianne Bailey riding Apache.
Novice - Lisa Rains, riding a borrowed horse as her dressage trained draft horse was held out for a cautionary health issue.

Just a notable few of the other competitors were Gina Blankenship from Deming, NM riding Dee, a Buckskin mare who will appear tonight on Julie Goodnight's program; Jenna Mendez, a nine year old riding Harley a Palomino gelding, and Jenna was competing for the first time in an AOC format, nevertheless securing 4th place in Novice; and Angela Beltran-Flores, last year's Novice winner, riding a fearless old horse Paint horse called Starbuck.

All competitors made a trip to the prize table and a Perfect Harmony Horse Rescue was the receiptant of part of the entry fee proceeds as well as the money made from the raffle. After an enchilada lunch, some of the competitors took their horses back into the arena for further schooling on the obstacles.  We also hosted a couple ladies from the Netherlands who are visiting dressage riders and attended to watch their first AOC.   Next year's annual AOC will probably be held on the last Saturday in September as well.  And lastly a big thank you to Arden Evans who helped judge the event.       

ACTHA Arena Obstacle Challenge Results 26 Sept 2015

This past weekend saw us hosting an Arena Obstacle Challenge (AOC) under the sponsorship and guidelines of the American Competitive Trail Horse Association (ACTHA). We had 14 riders sign up to compete, relatively small by national ACTHA standards, but par for ACTHA participation in the West Texas/Southern New Mexico area.  This event was a benefit for the Perfect Harmony Horse Rescue and Sanctuary.

Division Winners (see photo below).  Open Division: Luanne Santiago, Competitive Pleasure Division: Marianne Bailey tied with her daughter Jessica Bailey, but had more pluses, so Marianne took home the Blue Ribbon and the first place Plaque.  Competitive Novice Division: Terri Rutter. Scout Division: Angela Beltran-Flores.   Additionally, each of my judges, Vicki Maly and Arden Evans each gave out a custom hoof pick to the rider who made the biggest positive impression on them.  Luanne Santiago and Dan Bailey, riding a huge Percheron, won the hoof picks.

We obtained great national and local level prize support from sponsors including Smart Pak, Hoof Wraps, Camel Bak, Noble Outfitters, Eclectic Horseman magazine, and Sanctuary Leather, while we had great local sponsorship including Alamo Automotive, Riders Tack and Feed, Diamond Bar V Horseshoeing, Leonard Benally and Chaff Haye. The donated prizes allowed us to put $1,300 worth of prizes back into the hands of competitors.   

The obstacle course consisted of the following obstacles:

Trot Weave - weave between six cones placed 7.5 feet apart, turn and repeat.

Stop and Back - stop your horse on a spot and back in a straight line for a distance determine by your competitive division.

Drag - retrieve a rope off the fence and drag an orange bag of cans about 25 fee.  Open Division had to also back their horse while dragging the bag.

360 Degree Turn - riders entered a 6' x 6' square box and executed a 360 degree turn; Open had to also turn 360 in the opposite direction as well.

Slicker - riders had to retrieve a slicker from the fence and run their horses necks and hips with the slicker.

Gate - open, go through and re-latch a 10' gate.

Cowboy Curtain - or what ACTHA calls the Vine Simulator. Riders rode through the rope curtain and Open Division had to back their horses through it.

Circle Trot - riders trotted around a 35 foot circle, enter the circle and exit at the trot going the opposite direction.

ACTHA competitors and their horses are judged per obstacle on a 10 point per rider and 10 point per horse system.  The bottom line on ACTHA competitions, be they Competitive Trail Challenges or AOC's is that you expose your horse to more training opportunities, some of which you may not think of, continuing to build that brave, safe trail horse.  And as it is with horses, some were great at dragging a loud, clanking bag but fearful of a yellow slicker handing on the fence, and vice versa. 

My objective for the chosen obstacles was to balance the pure horsemanship tasks with prop related obstacles. In the video below, I am doing the Rider's Brief explaining the negotiation of each obstacle.

Prior to the AOC, I held a short clinic on backing your horse in an arc and extending that to a circle and figure 8. As well as a competitive strategy on jogging into the obstacle, stopping and immediatley backing to get momentum for the backing in an arc as most ACTHA obstacles give you 60 seconds to complete an obstacle and time can be ate up pretty quick on the Figure 8 Backing when you are in deep sand or with traffic cones placed far apart.

The competitors and their horses also had 30 minutes or so to warmup on my fixed obstacle course which included single and two level Bridges, Cones for backing in arcs, Two Step platform, Narrow Figure Z path, Nerf Bar obstacles and a heavy Rope Curtain.
     

Arena Obstacles for Horses - The Basic Bridge

I have received quite a bit of mail in the last couple of months asking for some ideas for easy obstacles that can be used in a small arena for training or competition. I think this validates the popularity of arena obstacle competitions.

The American Competitive Trail Horse Association (ACTHA) recently developed a competitive event concept for arenas or small fields for rider's who do not have access to six miles of trail and six people who volunteer to be judges. ACTHA calls these ATHCA Arena Challenges (AOC's).

These arena obstacle challenges are really nothing new. Craig Cameron's Extreme Cowboy Association have been doing these for years, although I reckon many riders would find these events too challenging.

Whether or not you compete in or host a ACTHA challenge or Extreme Cowboy Association Race in an arena you can still set up obstacles for training,....or yourself and your horse, or for a group.  It'll help your horse learn to think and make a safer horse for the trail. 

Consider obstacles that have more than one use. Meaning an obstacle that you can negotiate in several different methods. My example for this article is the simple bridge.

The bridge in the video below is a simple re-inforced wooden pallet (wooden skid) using two additional pieces of 2 x 4 board to re-inforce the existing braces. Then a piece of plywood is cut to size and screwed down. At least 3/4 inch plywood is best to ensure a solid platform to bear the horse's weight. Wood putty can be applied over the screws to help keep them from backing out and catching on a horse's foot or shoe. It would be a good idea to inspect obstacles like this before use to make sure it's safe.

A double pallet (2 pallets high) could be constructed to make crossing it just a bit more difficult - it's going to be heavier and harder to move around, so consider this also. On some of my bridge obstacles, I have tied a rope to it so I can drag it around on horseback. It you attach a rope to your bridge, be sure not to include any loops that a horse can get his feet caught up in.

An even simplier bridge is just a plain piece of plywood. Have some caution, on whatever platform you use, that a horse's foot can't go through it. Worse case, a horse's foot goes through the wood and gets caught up in it.

So now you have a bridge for your horse to cross for one obstacle challenge. You could require the horse and rider to cross the bridge, turn around then cross again. You could stop your horse with all four feet on the platform. You could even have the rider count out loud to five to demonstrate the horse's willingness to stand still, on a loose rein, with all four feet on the bridge.

To could add a turn on the fore-end by having the horse put his front feet on the bridge then side pass a complete circle around the bridge. If a full circle is too much then maybe a quarter or half circle. For the turn on the fore end, ideally the horse's inside front foot, the foot opposite the direction the hind end is moving, stays in place (or relatively in place) as the pivot foot during the turn. In the video below, I'm taking a horse across the bridge, turn around then re-approach the bridge and ask my horse to put his front end on the bridge then side pass a circle keeping his feet in the bridge. Practically speaking, elevated turns on the ore end come in handy. There have been several times I've followed a slight trail on a steep slope only to have that trail peter out where I had to turn my horse upslope to turn around.





Lastly you could do the same with a turn on the hind end. Crossing the bride, the rider stops with the horse's back end on the platform then while keeping the back feet on the bridge, does a quarter, half or full circle turning on the hind end.....pretty much like the spin in a reining pattern.

I am going to do a couple more videos on simple arena challenges and try to have obstacles that are multiple use. For more information of arena obstacles and some videos on how they are judged, go to the ACTHA website.

Safe Journey.

Don't Feed The Bears ACTHA Obstacle

A few weeks ago I rode with my wife in an American Competitive Trail Horse Association (ACTHA) competitive trail ride event north of Las Cruces, New Mexico at Isaaks Ranch.

These ACTHA rides features a six mile trail course with six obstacles where judges grade the horse and rider on their ability to negotiate each obstacle.

One of the obstacles we faced was called "Don't Feed The Bears". This obstacle was designed to replicate hanging a food bag high in a tree to "bear proof" it like you would on a pack trip when camping in bear country. The way this obstacle was set up was a lariat rope over a tall gate entrance and connected to a large blue Wal-Mart bag. See picture at right top.

The rider had to approach the gate through a set of cones, retreive the coiled end of the lariat handing on a fence, then back their horse up pulling the blue Wal-Mart bag off the ground a certain distance.

Most of the horses and riders in our group had a hard time at this obstacle, as most horses were a little skittish at the blue bag or had trouble accepting the bag moving and leaving the ground.  This was really a good obstacle to test the brave horse.

The way I thought this obstacle should have been approached was if the horse was having some difficulty accepting the blue bag, then an approach to the blue bag just like any other obstacle.  If your horse has trouble as you approach the bag, then let him stop,.... don't let him back off it and when you can tell by his body language and head set that he is more comfortable with the bag there in front of him, then ask him to move forard. You may have to repeat several times before the bag isn't an issue.

You can then side pass him or otherwise move him to the coiled lariat. When you pickup the lariat, I suggest holding the coils in your rein hand (like when you rope) and use your off hand to manage the running end of the lariat so when you back the horse you can keep the rope off his head. Be careful if you hold the coils in one hand so the coiled lariat won't snug down over your hand if your horse bolts.

The video below is an example of this type of obstacle and how you can practice at home or the local arena. Any obstacles like this, if you take your time - really allow your horse the time, will only make him a better and braver horse.