Halter Obstacle Class - Obstacles

[Becky Horat]

We've been working our horses on Halter Obstacle and have set up many different ones. We've done the tin cans in a bag, back & side-pass thru "L", pivot in hula hoop, cones, ground tie, bridge, water/tarp, hanging streamers (haven't set up yet), jumps. I'd like to know what else you've seen at a show and especially what was a tricky obstacle??

 

[bevann]

Open and close an umbrella.ducks geese or chickens in wire crate and have to walk past them.

 

[targetsmom]

Sometimes what looks simple can be difficult. For example, walking down a narrow board and keeping all 4 feet on it is not easy. And trotting over poles, especially elevated ones, is hard. I often see minis canter or jump over trot poles. One of the hardest ones I saw recently was three poles on the ground that you had to trot over the first two then STOP straddling the third and sidepass over it. If you didn't stop in time and walked around to get back in position, you were DQd for going off course. We nailed that one!

Yes, the chickens in a cage is a good one we have seen. I once got one of the streamers caught on my minis halter when we were going under the "waterfall" and it pulled the whole thing down on top of her/us. Then she had another class and had to go under it again. They did let us practice, recognizing that this was going to be asking a LOT of her. She did fine the second time and I tried to avoid getting caught on anything.

 

[bevann]

I forgot something.the 1 that usually knocks out lots of competitors is sidepassing.

 

[Becky Horat]

Great Ideas!!! We are going to get to work trying these. We have chickens around the horses, but I bet they'd be much different in a cage. And trotting over poles and then having to stop at the last one and sidepass, that would be tough. We DO need to work on our poles....I have one that is very clumsy. Thanks so much, very helpful.

 

[Flying minis]

The other thing is tight obstacles, and multi-obstacles, like the trot pole to sidepass mentioned earlier. We had one at the last show - front feet in hula hoop, 360 on forehand, then stand ground tied still with the feet in the hula hoop. Some horses thought they were done and ready to walk out once the turn was done! Then in the next class, it was ground tie only - one of my horses put his feet in the hula hoop, and immediately wanted to start the forehand turn since that's what it was the last time!

One of my favorites to practice is set up the bridge as one "edge" of a back through L, then put another pole at the end of the L, go from bridge, step off bridge, back through L, sidepass the extra pole. I've also sidepassed into the hula hoop, then done a 180 on either forehand or haunches - getting the to sidepass into the hula hoop is tough - they don't like to pick up their feet so well when sidepassing.

 

[Sandee]

Practice side passing both ways. Some horses will go one way better than the other. Also side passing over something like flowers in flower boxes or at Nationals one year they used helium balloons.

 

[Grace67]

great ideas, can't wait to get started with my new gelding as he hasn't shown in obstacles yet so that will be something we can work on together.....thanks for bringing up this topic!

 

[Becky Horat]

Have side passed over flowers....but BALLOONS....HA. And, will work on the ground tying after the pivot too. Such great ideas. Always thought it would be fun to be the one making the obstacle course for a show.

 

[horselover161]

One of the "big" horse shows around here puts empty plastic bottles in a square made from poles on the ground and the horse has to walk through them. Guess the horses do not like the bottles hitting their legs and making funny noises. I have not seen it in person, but a few of my horsey friends have told me about it. I plan on practicing it sometime, if my husband would stop recyling all the soda bottles

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The teeter-totter is also popular. They usually try to jump off of it.

 

[targetsmom]

The scariest big horse obstacle I ever saw was a wooden bridge that had a large painted black circle right in the middle. Horses clearly saw this as a hole and would not go NEAR it. The best most would do was put front feet on the bridge and kind of side pass along it. I rode my pinto gelding Target up to it and he hesitated but did not back away. I gave him a nudge, said "it's OK", and he walked right over it. My point is that the biggest thing you can do with all your practice is instill TRUST, so that if you come across something really wild like that bridge, they will trust you and do what you ask.