How do we manage to have calm horses at shows?

Australian Stock Horses at the Adelaide Royal Show.

Australian Stock Horses at the Adelaide Royal Show

On the weekend we took three horses to the most important show on our state calendar.

If you are wondering what an Australian Stock Horse is, feel free to view this previous video filmed at Chalani some years ago by a British film crew.

Despite uncertain weather during the past week, the oval was in immaculate condition, and the cloud cover was replaced with lovely sunlight in the afternoon.

Our three horses performed exceptionally well, with the highlight being Champion Led Stallion for our 3yr old boy, Chalani Galaxy whose behaviour was faultless. A steward even asked us whether we had put Vicks on his nostrils!

Galaxy also came first and second in his two ridden events, this being only his second ridden show.

Chalani Galaxy - Champion Led stallion Just look at the shoulder and correct balance of this horse.

Left - Chalani Truffle, yearling filly. Right - Chalani Surprise with junior, Avah went brilliantly for her first ever Royal Show.

Chalani Card Tricks - Kim Ide

There were a few readers of this newsletter who showed, and they were very successful as well, but the trouble is, when exhibiting, it is hard to catch up with them on any meaningful level.

Congratulations to all.

Our training regime

I have since been asked “what do we do to have our horses so quiet and sensible at big shows?”

Well firstly it is my daughter doing the training and showing nowdays. In a nutshell, she is the key to the stud and I am behind the scenes. But we started out with a baseline of quiet, proven mares and kept only those whose progeny measured up.

Conformation is easily improved, but temperament is easily lost!

Take a look at my previous post The Right Temperament

Our horses are neither ridden daily, nor stabled and are expected to behave when ridden at home, starting with the training of them as youngsters.

Here is video #5 of our Starting Out the colt, nearly 9 months ago. (The four videos leading up to this, were in previous posts, or you can view them on my YouTube channel here.)

Under saddle

Here is a short clip of Galaxy in his ridden class. Not perfect, but not pushed or grinded upon in the lead-up either. We are very comfortable with his stage of education. In particular, he is happy in his work.

We maintain a calm attitude both at home and at the shows. Horses pick up on chaos, anxiety or confusion of their person.

We therefore don’t behave any differently at an event.

We left home at 4:30am to allow enough time to be unhurried for our first class.

When at big shows, we work on needing one person per horse minimum, in the way of helpers, so for three horses we needed three helpers, in addition to the rider.

All our training is explained in my book “The Thinking Horse Breeder”

For those interested in pedigrees, here is the breeding of the horses:

Notice they are descendants of our foundation stallion Rannock.

Our routine

We don’t show our horses pig fat. Overfeeding is a primary cause of misbehaviour. Being out in paddocks with others, allows them free exercise, and reduces boredom.

Even Galaxy is out with another gelding (and yes he knows what mares are - his first foal is now on the ground.) Stallions are territorial, and his territory is his paddock at home. Being out and about puts him in neutral territory.

Simply put, we treat our horses as naturally as possible, with routine, consistency and respect. They gain confidence through us, and are confident in us.

Confidence allows them to feel safe, and therefore they can focus on the job we ask of them.

When handling a horse, especially a stallion at a show, it is important to know them very well and to make minute adjustments and signals based on your awareness before they do anything untoward.

In most cases, where a horse misbehaves, the handler has not foreseen the problem so makes corrections too late. By then it is obvious there is a difficulty and the horse is anxious or confused.

Please feel free to ask further questions or reply in the comments below.