NA Equestrian's video: Starting a Young Horse Lyra Month 3 Update

3rd month with Lyra! I'm super late making this sorry, but this covers our progress from early August to early September. Lyra is a 5yo KWPN who I bought unbroken and only lightly handled at the beginning of June. Up to the point where this video starts she had about 10 rides under her belt and had learnt the basics. She'd been a little backwards to ride and would sometimes protest at being asked forwards, trot was coming along quite well and we'd done a few little canters but she wasn't overly confident in those and was tending to have a bit of a buck rather than go forward! You can watch the previous month's video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLXrtHI12bo I feel it looks like there's a less dramatic improvement in her through this video (compared to the last) but she really went from feeling like a very wobbly breaker to a 'proper', albeit green, horse. One of the best things about this month was getting her hacking, I think hacking is essential for young horses so I was very keen to do as much as possible. Unfortunately from my yard you have to do a fair bit of roadwork to reach bridleways and these roads can be quite busy with lots of lorries so I did wait until I had adequate control of Lyra in the school before venturing out. She's just been doing short rides with two reliable horses for company but has really grown in confidence and is becoming increasingly comfortable in traffic. Another thing that was introduced this month was poles, again which I think are really useful. She was quite cautious about these to start with and still is a little (she is generally very suspicious of what's under her feet) but has got better and better. In terms of her general way of going I spent about two weeks just in walk and trot, fine tuning our controls and building her strength and confidence. She quickly went from being a bit backward to very forward, sometimes a bit too forward at the beginning of rides but I'd rather it that way! She then got to a stage of offering up the canter so I begun asking for it again, building up from just cantering down the long sides to doing whole laps, and we've had no dramas. She favours the left lead so it took a little while to get her striking off on the right lead but this came in time and she's just got stronger and stronger! I was also super impressed by how well she behaved at our first little groundwork clinic, she really seemed to enjoy it :) Before making any judgements based on this video please bare in mind that there is no set way of training a young horse and they all progress differentially. I'm in no rush and my approach is to build her up properly and correctly, with no training gadgets etc but instead encouraging her to use her body correctly. The overall picture may not be as pretty as a horse who goes along with their head tucked in but I'm hoping my patience will pay off in the long run. I think Lyra will be a bit of a slow burner as she has a busy brain and likes to think things through rather that just doing as you say, but I feel these types make the best horses in the end once they're confident in what they're doing! Thank you for watching, Natalie x Follow us on instagram: @skewbaldlife Song 1: Extenz - Endless Summer (Vlog No Copyright Music) Music provided by Vlog No Copyright Music. Video Link: https://youtu.be/KwK9NYMyExw Song 2: Vlad Gluschenko - On the Way (Vlog No Copyright Music) Music promoted by Vlog No Copyright Music. Video Link: https://youtu.be/tm3zqMFQ-e4 Song 3: Peyruis - Feelin' Me (Vlog No Copyright Music) Music provided by Vlog No Copyright Music. Video Link: https://youtu.be/zbZ1J3Q3mqc