Thoroughbred Logic, Presented by Kentucky Performance Products: Saddle Time

“[S]ometimes what the horse needs gets lost to the cultural expectations of what makes up a proper ride.”

Welcome to the next installment of Thoroughbred Logic. In this weekly series, Anthropologist and trainer Aubrey Graham, of Kivu Sport Horses, offers insight and training experience when it comes to working with Thoroughbreds (although much will apply to all breeds). This week ride along as Aubrey shares her logic on what amount of saddle time is best for each horse (spoiler alert: it varies!).

Time is one of those things I have always found fascinating. I used to wonder — like with color — if it was the same for everyone. As I grew older and spent a lot of time thinking about culture, I began to realize that expectations of time were exactly that — highly cultured. Time spent, time wasted, not enough time, and expected amounts of time for each thing in the day. And then there is barn time — barn time has been its own meme. You know, the standard one hour at the barn is seven hours on earth type of thing.

An image of my general chaos from when I said, “I just have to do night check – I’ll be back up soon.” An hour or so later, I’m still not back in. Because the barn is a time blackhole. Photo by author.

But interestingly (at least to me), activities inside the barn are all timed and cultured too. Saddle time is one of them. How long one is actually on the horse definitely splits between recreational riders and professionals — though it of course is not that black and white. Diving into this whole time tangle is important, as sometimes what the horse needs gets lost to the cultural expectations of what makes up a proper ride.

I became aware of the time divide in riding when I first worked as a working student. When I was 19, starting two- and three-year-old Warmbloods under saddle was entirely new to me. As a recreational rider my whole youth, I would swing a leg over (and unless I was out on the trails), I’d expect to ride for an hour or so in the arena and probably sit on my horse and socialize for longer (don’t judge, we’ve all been there). I never thought about it (as one often doesn’t when it’s your culture), and only realized that I was conditioned to expect to be in the irons for a specific amount of time when I changed what I was riding … and how.

Butters (Justintimeforgold) putting the work in at home. Yes, Palomino Thoroughbreds exist. Photo by Izzy Gritsavage.

The youngsters I was working with in Montgomery didn’t need an hour. Frankly that would have been downright detrimental. And that took some adjusting. A long walk, some trot both directions and short canters each way plus more walk made up a 20 minute ride, and they were done for the day and we were on to the next. It felt too short – like I got nothing accomplished.

Nope.

Those shorter rides accomplished plenty (steering, riding off the aids, rhythm, fitness, and work ethic were just a few boxes checked) and they had the added benefit of not over-facing or burning out the young stock with drilling or monotonous circling. And while it took a while for them to not feel cut short or rushed (they weren’t — it was just a different way of riding and conditioning), eventually it got through my skull that the saddle time I was used to was not what every horse needed every time I swung a leg over. Enter concepts of horsemanship and the idea of assessing each on a horse-by-horse basis.

Snowman working on his outside rein connection during shorter rides. Photo by Izzy Gritsavage.

With green and recently restarted Thoroughbreds, I tend to keep my rides somewhat short until they are mentally and physically able to handle more. I honestly almost never ride anything for an hour anymore unless I’m legging them up for a level and need to do trot sets or the like. Partially, I just don’t have the time. Partially, they just don’t need it.

Rides look a little like this: A nice warmup “walk” (sometimes a warmup jig, trot, or canter if that’s where they’re at for the day), some “work” and a nice cool down walk (at least at that point most of them can actually four beat walk). Easy enough. This set up allowed me (with the help of one of my working students who was tacking and untacking for me) to zip through six productive rides in less than four hours. I don’t always assembly line ride with the help of others, but when they’re there and able to lend a hand, I’ll take it.

Lily Drew walking No Lime to cool him out while I school Quinn’s transitions. Photo by author.

For my Thoroughbreds, the work that often is sandwiched between the walking of warming up and the walking of cooling down doesn’t have to be long or complicated. Rather, I like to focus on a couple of points and reward them with breaks. For Snowman (Bowing Snowman), who has had around 10 rides post-track, this has meant a fair amount of trot work and getting him softer in my outside rein. I added poles in to keep him from getting bored and to keep him thinking about his feet. We did a bunch of transitions and trot figure eights and circles, small serpentines, and each change of direction work on improving the gait and the bend. I didn’t bother to canter that ride as his trot work will inevitably improve his canter, so I’ll focus on that for a bit.

Pole work for the Snowman. Photo by Izzy Gritsavage.

For Neil (Lute’s Angel) who has been under saddle with me since July, after warming up at a trot and canter (because Neil does not have a walk until way later in the ride) I then added in medium trot work, pole work with trot-canter-trot transitions and walk breaks. Once he successfully managed each activity each direction, we went back to a stretchy trot and a cool out meander.

Jenna the Boss was a different ride all together with her warmup being the majority of the focus — getting a forward-going easy walk, trot and canter completed what I needed from her under saddle. She was done and cooled out in 20 or so minutes. I wasn’t in a rush, but she didn’t have to do more to have put in a super successful day.

Jenna the Boss’ conformation pic is too pretty to not include. Her under saddle work is lovely as well. Photo by Lily Drew.

I could go on with all the different horses and what each gets during each ride and bore you all to tears, but the most important part is that if I were to push each ride to an hour — if I were to think of saddle time the way I did when I rode recreationally — I wouldn’t necessarily be doing them a favor. Sure, some could handle it and might take the “now we work on this next” approach to exercises well. Others, like the just-started-undersaddle Warmbloods, could be over-faced by the asks or might gain little from the extended timeline.

Neil (Lute’s Angel) admiring himself after a solidly good ride… because Neil. Photo by author.

An hour ride isn’t a bad thing — not at all. But riding for an hour because culturally one rides a horse for an hour, not because that’s the best option for the horse, is worth thinking through.

So go ride folks, and enjoy the time you do have in the irons — no matter the number of minutes.


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