Let's use this thread for postings about our horse related activities. It can be horse showing, trail riding, steeplechase, show jumping, dressage, western riding, betting at the races, carriage driving, foaling, wilderness rescue, horse camping, cattle drives, ... , anything that you do, have done, plan to do, or would like to do which is equine related.
To start it off:
Equine Soccer Training Camp
These two videos are of my two horses learning to play soccer. I just thought some folk might be interested in how to teach a horse to play soccer. Some folk just jump on and force the horse to go after the ball. IMHO that's a good way to get dumped. To a horse that giant ball is scary. Better is to introduce the horse to the ball with the rider on the ground and the horse free to make up its own mind about the whole thing without the additional pressure of a rider.
The first video is of my 5 year old mare, Bobby, getting introduced to kicking the ball. She has already learned not to worry about the ball and will freely go up to it and touch it on command. My friend and horse trainer, Jean, is free lunging Bobby, and times a reverse so that Bobby stops facing the ball. Jean then uses a lead line to teach her to step forward and kick the ball, rewarding Bobby with scratches when she reaches out and kicks it.
http://s255.photobucket.com/albums/h...GroundWork.mp4
The second is of my 9 year old mare, Lena, learning to seek the ball on her own while ridden (no rider guidance). This is fairly advanced work. Jean is on horseback, but without reins. Lena already knows how to kick the ball and will kick it around when guided and told to do so. This is towards the end of the lesson with Lena seeking out the ball out and kicking it on her own.
http://s255.photobucket.com/albums/h...laysSoccer.mp4
Later that afternoon, with six mounted horses and goals set up in a large arena using orange traffic cones, we practiced guiding the the ball through the goals and working together to control the ball. A strong wind was our opponent. Since I was mounted on Lena, I don't have a video to show any of that. Sorry.
Also sorry about the video quality. I was 20 feet up in the air sitting on a stack of alpha bales and using my digital video camera for the first time. I clearly need to read the owners manual and learn how to adjust the exposure setting! The ground in the round pen does not look like that, honest. It really is just a light colored sandy loam.
Next time I'll also bring a tripod.
Last edited by LarryG; 13th May 2012 at 15:25.
Larry, you're mad! I love your horses and wish I wasn't so scared of them. I'd love to have ridden. Very impressive and I'd greatly like to see a full on footie match when you sort out a tripod and cameraman. I'm sure it would be a darn sight more entertaining than what's about to be served up over here.
Hah, that's awesome Larry.
Since today is Mother's Day in the US, I thought I would also share this video. It was February 11, 2000 at 9:44 PM. The mare is Hardy (Hard to Resist), and she has just given birth to her first foal. She was my first horse and holds a special place in my heart. Maybe this will give you a glimpse of why.
My dad lives on a ranch now with some horses, and when I visit him I get to pet them.
Cute as you like. I think I could probably cope with something that size.
I should edit my first post - our last day of the footie season was enormously entertaining. But I still want to see the equine version.
I'll be damned. I would have never thought of horse soccer.
I've had mixed results with horses. Good ones I have no problem with but I've had some try to drag me off under a tree limb or dump me in a pig wallow. My neighbors have always owned them and we've had free access if we wanted. When my daughter was young I noticed the white one looking awfully strange and upon closer inspection discovered it had lipstick, rouge, and blue eyshadow on. That was a gentle horse to let a little girl do that to her. I had to laugh at what my neighbor must think when it came galloping up for feed.
You can lead a horse to the ball but you can't make her kick
Thanks for sharing Larry. Interesting idea but seems like an uphill battle. They seem surprisingly uninterested in playing with the ball. Maybe if they were kicking goals the other way with their hind legs...
If you can get them both comfortable with kicking forward, maybe they will kick with each other for practice.
I tried operating a horse once.
It did not end well.
You'd be surprised. A friend of mine, an LA County Sheriff in the Mounted Enforcement Detail (MED), has a horse who just loves to kick these giant soccer balls. He, the horse, seems to think it's great fun. Next time I get a chance I'll film him galloping around an arena dribbling the ball all the while and post it. In fact he almost likes it too much and doesn't want to let the other horses play!Originally Posted by heywood
We're not teaching them rugby! That's way to rough for horses!!
Last edited by LarryG; 15th May 2012 at 13:28.
Speaking of mounted police, reminds me when I lived in the Upper East Side of Manhattan (Jefferson's territory) I was a few blocks from their stables. I was just taking a walk around and ran into it and saw the horses, which was ... unexpected. I was surprised to learn that one of the oldest still-running stables in the US is actually in Manhattan surrounded by skyscrapers, well townhouses anyway. It's pretty big too.
There are still several NYPD mounted unit stables in Manhattan, but the only public riding stable, the Claremont Riding Academy at 175 West 89th Street, closed in 2007. If you ever saw ordinary folk riding in Central Park, that's where their horses were stabled. It was a multi-story stables with both ramps between stories and, I kid you not, a horse sized elevator! But no more.
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