Obstacles

[Paintlover24]

I have not posted in a while but I was wondering if you guys have any ideas of what i could use as an obstacle. The reason why I am asking is because I hopefully will be competing in an obstacle challenge in February at the fair and I need ideas of what I could easily make for this competition. My horse already does a wooden seesaw bridge, walking, trotting over poles, tarps, pool noodles, opening and closing gates, and flags. I use him to compete at shows in the trail classes. I am looking for something a little more scary to practice with him.

 

[LauraM]

Are you going to be in rated breed shows, or just local open shows? If it's a breed show, see if you can borrow a breed rule book from someone and that will show you the obstacles you can expect in a trail class (for instance, teetering bridges are prohibited). If it's a local show, you may want to call the show chairman and ask about what obstacles may be included, since at the local level, they are freer with what they can include.

In some of the obstacle classes I've built for local shows, I've included being able to mount from a hay bale (you'd be surprised as to how many horses want to turn around and eat the hay bale and won't stand still to be mounted), having to pick up something (like a rain coat or a bucket (many horses want to stick their noses in the bucket which prevents the rider from being able to grab it) or a bag of empty tin cans, and moving it down the ring to hang it on another place, having to pick up a raincoat and put it on and then take it off and hang it back up, and being able to grab a rope and drag something tied to the end of it, like a tire or some brush.

 

[FarmerChick]

open and close mailbox

put on a raincoat and take it off later

balls thrown at horse to see if that is ok around the legs

all spooky stuff usually and hard for horses to "get very close to something" like a mailbox and stand while you open and close.

alot of it is ---just stand there while I do this and that..LOL

 

[Paintlover24]

open and close mailbox

put on a raincoat and take it off later

balls thrown at horse to see if that is ok around the legs

all spooky stuff usually and hard for horses to "get very close to something" like a mailbox and stand while you open and close.

alot of it is ---just stand there while I do this and that..LOL

I can already open and close a mailbox and throw a jacket around my gelding. I have not tried throwing balls at hime yet. HEHE!! Thank you for the suggestions.

 

[ducks4you]

put on a raincoat and take it off later

This reminded me of a recent program where a Vet suggested sacking out your horse to the raincoat BEFORE you attempt to put the raincoat on while mounted. His story was about a client who lost his life when he untied his duster while mounted and proceeded to put it on, and his horse bolted. Just FYI

Thanks, LauraM. I was thinking about doing this stuff after our hobby winds down. I've had many instances where my horses eat the bale and turn on the forehand away so you can't mount from it. We're training "Cuppin Cakes" to be led to our mounting block, then stand while we walk around to use it. He turns out, too. Pretty funny, that, watching us shove his rear end back into position. He hops back into position, then repeats--sometimes it takes 4-5 times to get it right. (might make a good utube submission)

 

[FarmerChick]

I volunteered for disabled riders at my old barn in PA and was a side walker. The owner threw many things at the horse to help bombproof it.

threw balls at the legs while walking.

had an experienced rider hold a staff and threw rings at the horse for the rider to catch on the pole.

just tons of flying motions to help the horse become use to whatever might happen with a disabled rider aboard.

 

[Bronco Hollow]

*note: I have to use a disclaimer as we have all levels of riding/training abilities here: Use safe judgment when trying any of these or any others mentioned in this thread. If your unsure how your horse will react, expose them to it slowly and with supervision. NEVER try to force your horse and expect the unexpected in their reactions. If your horse starts to just lose it or shut down STOP, you are done for the day, do a simple and quite task you know you both can accomplish and end it.

~~

standing or walking calmly past rocks tumbling down a metal chute

walking through a "car wash"

walking through empty plastic bottles [small water bottles are best as they really make noise....no lids]

pushing or rolling a jumbo ball [these are expensive to buy however]

dragging cans [or anything for that matter] ***NOTE: don't try this unless you are supervised by someone who knows how to work with ropes

opening an umbrella while mounted [yeehaw lol]

A narrow two tiered step up and step down... be surprised how many horses will not do that one

walking past a pig or lama or geese [my horse does pigs and lamas but definitely not geese lol]

If you know someone with a costume - ape, rabbit - whatever - you can try that too. I was horseback with hundreds of small kids at a "Safe Easter Egg Hunt"... there were kids running around bumping into my horse, grabbing his legs, between his legs, egg baskets flying, balloons, screaming...it was chaos! lol! All was well until suddenly a guy dressed as a white easter rabbit jumped right in front of my horse. I thought I was going to have a heart attack! Don't know what my horse thought, but I know he was scared or startled like me!!! Thank God my horse didn't move, but his head went way up into the clouds lol .....he was really thinking about it...

Anyway thats a few that came to mind. Good luck, these events are such fun...let us know how you do! Pictures too!

 

[Countrymom]

Not sure if it was mentioned...

Ground tying.

 

[Wildsky]

I didn't see it mentioned, I did a obstacle course once and one of the things was to pick up rocks that were on top of a barrel and take them to another barrel and drop them onto that.