How to Build a Good Trail Horse Course

Whether you are showing your horse or simply enjoy trail riding, building a practice trail course is a good way to introduce your mount to situations you may encounter while riding outside the safe environs of the arena. Obstacles should mimic actual situations you might find on the trail, so that you can teach your horse how to respond and listen to you no matter what happens.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Location and Materials

1. Find materials that will look natural to your horse or mimic safely those that you will encounter and that the horse has to step in or over, such as logs, planks laid as a "bridge," poles set unevenly or mud. If possible, include a water obstacle in your plan, because streams of any width often give horses fits on the trail.

2. Include in your course obstacles that require the horse to move off your leg, both in the open and in a spot with tight room to maneuver. For example, opening a gate from the saddle will require your horse to stand while you reach down, to move over away from the gate or to close it, and to not move forward until you tell him to. Likewise, a mailbox mounted to a fencepost at stirrup height will teach him to approach and stand quietly while you bend down and retrieve the mail.

3. Use poles to create side-pass obstacles. Even a single pole on the ground, or a fence, can serve as a "wall" to teach your horse to stop, back up or move over as you might have to when negotiating tight spots on the trail.

4. Practice mounting and dismounting near a scary obstacle, such as a blowing branch or sheet.

5. Set shrubs in pots or arrange cut limbs so that your horse must walk between them while they brush against him. This teaches him to ignore strange tickling against his legs and belly.

6. Arrange vertical poles or find trees that are set closely together and rein your horse between them.

7. Use shiny or crackly material such as a vinyl tarp to mimic water on the ground, or hang the tarp on a fence or from a tree to accustom the horse to blowing things that look and sound odd.

8. Tie a rope to a small log or sandbag and have your horse drag it for 15 or 20 feet, then ask him to back up to put slack in the rope. Still holding the rope, ask the horse to turn into it or away from it, to teach him that ropes touching his hindquarters are nothing to fear.

9. Lay a squiggly rope on the ground to mimic a snake.

10. Put rocks in a can that will rattle as the horse comes by.

11. Use a pole laid on the ground as a guide, and ask your horse to back up the length of it in a straight line. Just backing up in a bad situation is not enough; he must do it quietly and straightly, or risk stepping off the trail and making the situation worse.

12. Include a place where you can safely mount and dismount that is nowhere near the barn or your usual saddling place. This should be at least one obstacle on your course.

Tips & Warnings

• Set up your course to take advantage of natural obstacles such as those found on the trail: logs, brush, water, mud, large rocks, fences etc. If you have no area where you can set up permanent obstacles outside the arena, build some that can be moved around in your arena or pasture. Set up your obstacles with sufficient space between them that the horse will have to negotiate one, then have a little space to clear his head while walking to the next one. Lay your course out over uneven ground, if possible. A course that goes uphill as well as down can overcome a horse's tendency to lunge uphill or slide recklessly downhill.
• Avoid building any obstacles that can entangle your horse or that can be knocked apart too easily and spook him if he runs into them. The objective is to teach, not to frighten. Avoid lightweight materials like 2- by 4-inch lumber or anything tied together. If a horse panics and gets tangled, dragging these materials as he tries to get away could instill a permanent fear--the very opposite of what you are trying to teach him. Avoid obstacles that are just silly or have no bearing on real life. Your goal is to teach your horse to listen to you, not to scare him or force him to perform tricks that you would never use out on the trail. You probably won't encounter tires on the trail, so why force your horse to negotiate them in the arena? Be careful of knocking your knees, but use them to teach the horse to navigate between closely set obstacles and to listen to you when you ask him to halt between them or to move away from one or the other.

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