Training Horse Profile: Nico the Friesian

Nico is a 4-year-old Friesian Sport Horse gelding.  He had 90 days of training put on him last year, before his current owner purchased him.  His owner had brought Luna to me for training last fall and I was pleased to have them as clients once more!  They had only been able to ride him a couple of times before the weather turned cold and icy, so, after sitting over the winter he was giving them some trouble under saddle.

He even had a mustache!

For the first week, Nico was definitely testing the boundaries and was pushy and nippy.  After a week of consistent ground work, he quit most of his bad behaviors and showed me his sweet personality. My boys loved petting 'Mico' at chore time.

A funny story: 

Nico has two angus calves in the stall next to him. One evening, my 4-year-old son was helping me with the chores. After feeding the calves and watching them eat, he asked:

“Are we going to eat them?”

I explained that once they were big enough, we would butcher them for hamburger. He nodded enthusiastically and then walked over by the big black Friesian. After thinking for a moment, he asked:

“When he gets big are we going to eat him too?”

I have a feeling that Nico’s owner would not be on board with that

The previous trainer carried flags and shot pistols off of his back,
so the plastic bag wasn't much of a concern for Nico.

When I started riding him, if you asked him to trot, he immediately wanted to canter. He was constantly rushing his trot and had difficulty maintaining a steady rhythm. It was apparent that he hadn't worked much on turning or smaller circles. His turns had no bend and were more like angles than fluent turns. His circles had no roundness to them and he rushed so much that he was stumbling over his feet. I placed barrels in the round pen to help him learn to circle and turn and did a lot of figure-8s and small circles.

Once he was trotting steadily and was no longer pushing to canter, I started working on his transition into the canter. He tended to jump into the canter and often would throw a buck or two during the transition. Entering the canter in a smaller circle helped him to not rush into it as much. The first few days, he liked to race around the round pen. I worked on slowing him down and brought his canter to a more manageable speed. Getting into the canter was still a little rough some days, especially the right lead, but it sure was pleasant once you were into it!

We got quite a bit of rain one night and the round pen was super sloppy. You can see how wet it was and Nico's hooves have pretty much disappeared into the slop. Thankfully, the weather this spring was dry and mild overall. While not ideal for the farmer's newly planted crops, it was perfect horse training weather!

The tastiest reward for crossing the wooden bridge is the lush clover that grows on the other side! I take all of the horses across on foot first, so that I can stay safely out of the way in case of a spook on the bridge. Plus, it gives them confidence to follow me across. Their hooves are fairly loud on the planks, so many of the horses are a little nervous with their first step. After crossing it a couple of times on foot, they usually have no issues crossing it under saddle.

To give him some variety and to give his brain a break from circles, I started taking Nico out on the trails. He did exceptionally well and went everywhere I pointed him to. He wasn't bothered by the neighing of the other horses as we disappeared out of sight either. He did spook jump a few times at a squirrel or a bird, but as soon as I picked up the rein, he would come to a stop. It was nice to go out on the trails for once with a horse that wasn't super nervous!

Views From the Trails

He is a lot of horse with big gaits, but soo much fun to ride. I wish I could have kept him! I appreciate his owner's business once again and can't wait to see what he's up to in the future.