Working Horses in Adverse Weather

One important thing to note when training a horse in adverse weather under saddle, is to stick to exercises and manoeuvres that the horse knows. Trying to teach something new to a horse, or even improve something can be a fruitless task when you are both struggling against the elements. Any new feel you try to impart to the horse will be lost or diminished as the horse will be at the very least expending a degree of mental energy contesting the external forces of the weather.

The picture is me in the process of putting some early rides on the last horse that I started. The weather here was far less than ideal for training – but we were at a point in his education where consistency with time under saddle was important. I kept what we were doing to exactly what we had been working on for the previous days. It is impractical to try and teach a horse something new in circumstances where the weather is severe enough that the horse feels uncomfortable.

The first thing we require from a horse in order to communicate with them is their attention. Part of the training of a horse is to teach them to respond to communication, rather than react to coercion. When the weather is poor to the point where it is hard to focus on the task at hand the potential to learn new things is greatly reduced.

It is important to understand that horses are contextual learners. One of the difficulties in training is teaching a horse to separate the context of the communication we are offering them from all external factors. If we give a horse a good first experience of a training manoeuvre or exercise, then they are far more likely to repeat that manoeuvre or exercise with a willing attitude. If the experience is perceived as being uncomfortable or too hard for the horse, then the horse will likely try to resist future requests for that movement. Adverse weather can make a new experience into a negative one for a horse even if all our efforts have been to make the experience a positive one.

In a nutshell, when we need to work our horses in adverse weather keep the tasks to those the horse already knows and is comfortable with. Especially with young or green horses.