Training Sessions

Lengths of a training session:

• Foal: train them for about 15 minutes and do this for about 5 times per week. Since they are still young they should not be gone from their mothers for too long.

• Weanling: train for about 30 minutes and do this 5 times per week. Obviously they are a little older so they should spend a little more time training with you.

• Yearling: train for about 30-60 minutes, and train them 3-5 times per week. Since they are only a year old they should spend more time with you and getting used to you, but you don't want to work them too hard so if they are training for 60 minutes only train them 3 times per week.

• 2- year old: train them for about 60 minutes, and do this about 4- 6 times per week. Your horse should definitely not rely on their mother any more, and their training should get more serious. 

• 3- year old: training is up to 90 minutes, and train them for about 4-6 times per week.

• 4- year old: train them for up to 2 hours and keep on training them about 4- 6 times per week.

• 5 to 20- year old: training could be up to 1- 4 hours, do this 2- 6 times per week

Training sessions with Lily: My own experiences with training my filly, Lily, have not been quite so easy.  Lily is kind of a little brat, some people would call her "spirited"!  I always have to be on my toes when I enter her stall, watching for a fast moving foot or a horse butt aimed in my direction.  I never can be sure when she turns around if she wants to be scratched or she is aiming a hoof at my knee!  As for training her for 30 to 60 minutes, I don't think it is possible. Her attention span is much too short to expect her to do what the books say she should do. When she doesn't want to work, she can be as stubborn as a mule.  Her first birthday was yesterday and I am waiting for some better behavior.  If she would just stop biting and kicking the heifers she is corralled with both my Dad and I would be happier! She is very good at bossing the heifers around even though they are all twice her size, I guess it is because a cow can't bite back! She has let the heifers out on more than one occasion by chasing them through the fence and 8 heifers running wild down the road are nobody's idea of fun, and it always seems to happen when I am at school! Poor Dad!