Goodall Equestrian

About

Riding lessons, horsemanship lessons, youngster handling, SJ schooling, re schooling

Story

Goodall Equestrian has come about due to an expressed need by clients and friends to extend our services to the wider public. We already Coach and have coached many kids up into the Pony Gran Prix Division and beyond, we are looking to extend our services into clinics around New Zealand for all ages and abilities, so if you have a need in your area then gather a few like-minded people and feel free to private message us.
We also are extending our Break in service; it’s something that Julz has built up over the years using a wide range of techniques which are applied according to the personality of the horse. We believe that by treating them as individuals you can avoid the big disasters and the big frights, we spend a large amount of time doing ground work so that nothing is a surprise (the ground work is a mix of parelli and other natural techniques combined with some old fashioned horsemanship) a firm but fair approach which means no grey areas of misunderstanding between horse/pony and handler. We believe that the horse indicates when it has learnt and you can move on to the next step, Julz has even had horse try and push her on when she is working over the top of them as if to say 'get on with it already', that’s a pretty good indication they are ready for mounting.
One of the major factors in break ins are the expectations of the owner vs the trainer so lets clear that up.
We break it into 3 sections
1. Ground work
2. Backing
3. Riding on
What we have found is that a lot of people are getting their horses back incomplete, either missing ground work or the riding on, so to simplify here is what you should expect from a full Break in.
Horse should: Tie up, lead, be able to be washed, pick up feet, be able to be shod, wear boots, be used to spur and a whip, be able to wear a martingale standing or running and perhaps even draw reins, be able to be lunged, be obedient and submissive, not panic if rope is stood on or entangled, be bitted and happy to be bridled, be accepting of the saddle and girth.
Be quiet to mount and smooth through the transitions from halt to lengthened canter. Be able to pick up correct leads, be able to do trotting poles and a small grid with some understanding of what’s expected, be able to jump a natural fence as well as a water jump, be able to be road ridden, we also include float or truck training within our price.
When you send a horse away to be broken in and schooled it can take anything from 3 weeks to 3-4 months to achieve these results to our satisfaction (this does not and should not cost you more, again it is the horses personality that dictates this).
You should be able to just pop in anytime and view your horse, it does pay to warn if you would like to see it worked as timetables can change and you might miss seeing your horse doing their thing.

We also work with 'problematic' horses, we try very hard to drop that word when they arrive and replace it with ‘misunderstood’. Julz has lost count how many times she has had a horse delivered that is 'arrogant', only to find that it has puffed its chest out because fear has forced it into a corner (normally fixed quite quickly resulting in happy equine and happy rider) . Unfortunately we as humans try to place our emotions on horses, emotions they just don't have, we are Aggressors (fight animals) and they are flight animals, so we just do not think the same, we step into their mind set when we have them at Goodall Equestrian, allowing them to think as horses and understand the rules and expectations as such. It seems to work extremely well, we have produced, rehabilitated and broken in over 80 horses and it is so exciting and rewarding to see them all out doing their thing in 'their' chosen disciplines.