Hi this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride, and riding today is Karen Loshbaugh on our new horse that we are introducing to you today!

Our latest project comes to us because he had become difficult for his owner and trainer to work with, they felt that he had become dangerous. We recognized immediately  the problem was that this horse who is 17’1 has huge strides and like so many of these big striding horses, they get into the hands of beginning riders and simply have too much movement for them to deal with and they start shortening their strides down in order to make them physically capable of riding, which makes the horses become very frustrated. That is what happened in this case.

He is been absolutely lovely, and this is only his third day! He has never been stretched before, and had been worked a lot in draw reins. As you can see, his neck is rather bent over and he doesn’t stretch quite out all the way as he should, but he is going to be fun to watch! We will be putting videos of him up every week or so, so that you folks can see him develop. You will see how a horse should be ridden when his stride is this size and when you let them find their natural stride and their natural working trot and then develop from there. If you don’t, the horse will become very frustrated. As you can see, this one is completely relaxed.

The first things we did with the horse were to go over his body to check his shoeing and saddle fit. We did find him to be somewhat sore in the back, so Karen fit him with a Schleese saddle, which has made him much much happier. He seems to be much more free in the shoulder and is able to stride out into a much longer stride, his natural stride. We are also looking for a name for this horse, so if you have any suggestions please let us know!

This is Will Faerber from Art2Ride. Thanks so much!

classical foundation Karen Loshbaugh saddlefit San Diego horse training stretching stride Will Faerber