Very excited about saturday?

Question

Saturday I am taking my horse to a thing throuhg 4-h to put us into groups of beginer intermediete and advanced for lessons. I havent really gotten the chance to ride her that much(when we first got her her feet were all cracked and she was VERY overweight) but i have done alot of ground work with her(we have had her since spring). She is very distrustful of people besides me and my mom. She does have alot of experience, just her last owner didnt ever use her so she just basically got food and didnt really get any attention. She is a kicker, so im a bit nervous about all the other horses, especially since i havent ridding her with other horses around.

So heres the question: Is there anything I can do to helop get her ready and keep her as calm as possible when there? I am really only gonna get to ride once this week and we jsut brought our horses home from where we boarded them so we dont have an area yet, just a paddock, so I wont be able to do much more than a slow trot

Answer 1

First off, I would recommend putting the traditional red bow in her tail so all of the other riders know that she is a kicker. As far as getting her ready, I would try to trailer her in as early as possible to give her a chance to settle in to her stall and the arena. You may realistically not be able to ride her this weekend. You may spend all of your time getting her settled and comfortable in that large of a group. You want to allow her to see the farm or show ground where this event is being held, take her around, allow her to graze, or relax and just see that its no different that any other place she's been. It helps that she's comfortable with you, but if you haven't ridden her a lot, and she's a nervous horse to begin with, she may take the whole weekend to get calmed down enough to handle and ride safely in a group. You may want to talk to the instructors and see if they'd be able to help you before or after the larger lessons to make sure she's safe for you and the rest of the group. Ideally you want to make sure this is a calm, relaxed and entertaining weekend for both of you to make sure that neither of you remember your first outing with fear or anger. Best of luck with her, and just remember, you need to take this as slow as she needs to take it. You want to make sure she's okay with everything before you move on or you're just going to put different fears into her.

Answer 2

There's not much you can do to get her ready other than what you have been doing (riding her in a slow trot). I don't think she will get nervous when she sees the other horses. Horses are generally herd animals and I believe she will enjoy the company of other horses. She might start nickering to the other horses.