THE MONTANA DIARIES – Part 2 by Lisa Gregory

I hope you all enjoyed the first part of my Montana Diaries, in which I will be taking you on my training journey with our lovely home bred girl.

As I explained in Part One I thought you would be interested in hearing about how I train a young horse from the very first step.

Montana – a pretty girl with a wonderful temperament

Montana is just four, the daughter of my Dutch Warmblood stallion Zidane and our beautiful registered Welsh Section D mare Larosa. This pretty girl has had a wonderful temperament from the day of her birth and I hope this will mean smooth progress through the training process.

When I look back at our babies they all have different traits to their personalities. And when I think about training Montana’s mum I remember how she presented no problems at all and I think mother and daughter are very similar.

Montana

Baby Montana shares a special moment with mum, Larosa, and Lisa

Time to Saddle-Up

Step one was to gently introduce Montana to her bridle and saddle for the first time. This was done in the quiet of her stable and she proved to be as calm and sensible as I had hoped.

Now we have reached step two and for the first time I am taking her into the arena. She has her bridle and saddle on and I will be attaching the long reins.

Friends can be a distraction

One problem with my home breds is that they are very attuned to their herd. This means that when I take them in the arena they sometimes do a lot of shouting and can get easily distracted. Communication can prove a bit tricky and I have to be very patient!

Bethan, one of my girls, comes into the arena with me to help me attach the long reins. It is very important that a young horse does not spook and spin, so it is a two person job. Montana’s stirrups are secured underneath her and then Bethan moves away so she doesn’t get entangled.

And as I expected, Montana is distracted and shouting to her friends so I decide to go straight into long reining her. She takes to it like a duck to water!

Within 15 minutes she is walking and trotting and changing the diagonals. And she is happy when halfway through the session her big sister Indiana pops her head over the wall to reassure her.

I am finding that like all Zidane’s children Montana is very smart and trainable. I am able to keep her moving straight down the long sides of the arena and then move to circles.

Montana’s first out the gate when it comes to training

I could not have asked for more in our first session. She is forward, clever and listening to me. Then I notice a little spot of soreness has appeared by her mouth so I call a halt immediately and we switch to a little join up session, the first time I have done this with her.

By next day her little sore spot has vanished and I can start planning our next session. We will continue with the long reining and I will be asking for extended walk, trot, extended trot and moving up to canter.

I also want her to walk around the arena with me driving her from behind so she gets used to the sight and sound of me behind her. This will be a big help when I get to the stage of getting on her.

I am delighted with Montana so far. I can’t wait to share Part Three of her story with you.