I had a young horse in training that seemed to always focus his attention
further than 50-100ft. in front of him. He’s a horse that thinks he needs
to be watchful for the “enemy” anywhere from a quarter of a mile to as far
as he can see into the distance. His owner wanted to use him for trail
riding and hunting so occasionally we loaded up this horse and another one
and went riding out in the foothills. One such time we were riding back to
the trailer down a valley covered with numerous granite boulders and I was
intentionally watching this horse trying to decide how far ahead he was
looking. We were approaching some large boulders when all of a sudden this
horse jumped sideways 10-15ft almost losing his rider. Because this horse
gave no warning until the very last second he was a difficult horse to
ride. In my opinion, he was trickier to ride than a cutting horse because
this fast side movement seemed to come out of the blue leaving you
unprepared. In comparison, with a cutting horse, you are prepared and
expecting these same sweeping sideward moves.
By observing this horse I noticed he was focused too far ahead of himself.
He didn’t see a big boulder until he was right beside it and was forced to
bring his attention up close to his surroundings. That boulder just seemed
to jump out of no where. I had to explain to the rider why his horse
jumped so forcefully. I suggested to the rider that he start asking his
horse to travel with a lower head in order to bring his focus closer in
front of himself. Over time this rider has been able to do this and it has
made a huge improvement in the amount of jumping sideways his horse will
do.
I encourage you to know how far out in front your horse is focusing. It
might explain why all of a sudden he jumps at some object on the trail.
Jane can be reached at
www.janezubia.com
or 307-254-0666
