Preparing Babies for the Show Ring with Prue Richardson

A successful career on the line can improve a horse’s chances at being noticed by perspective buyers, but perhaps the most beneficial aspect is the valuable life lessons it will learn on its way to becoming a well-adjusted performance horse.

Prue Richardson of Palgrave, ON, has made an international name for herself breeding and showing ponies on the line and preparing them for successful lives in the hunter ring. “Youngsters should be taught good ground manners from an early age,” believes Richardson. “Shipping, clipping, being tolerant of golf carts, strollers, and screaming children . . . although I don’t believe a career on the line is absolutely essential or that it dictates the success they will experience later on.”

Contact from Day One

All youngsters should experience daily handling to desensitize and acclimatize them to human contact. Developing good ground manners begins days after birth, with the foal being taught to lead, using a lead rope behind the rump, to and from the field. Pick up his feet every day. Stroke him gently all over, initially with your hand and then using a soft body brush. Pay attention to the mane and tail, separating the hairs by hand before moving on to a brush.

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One essential key to establishing the independence so crucial to a young horse headed for the show ring is the weaning process. Richardson separates the foals from each other immediately after weaning to ensure they do not become herd-bound and attached to one another. Their workload is increased as soon as they are weaned, when they are led around the paddock every day. When weather permits, Richardson will walk the weanlings for “miles and miles and miles,” which not only helps improve manners in hand, but conditions and develops the muscles important for that sought-after show ring look.

“A great way to teach a young horse to walk in a straight line is to lead them on the inside of the paddock, with the baby against the fenceline,” suggests Richardson. You can then progress to teaching them to trot smartly and obediently in hand without dawdling behind or pulling ahead. “You can carry a crop to prevent them from lagging behind, but you have to make sure they don’t swing away from you to the right side. Straightness is the most important, and this is where the fenceline really becomes useful,” suggests Richardson. An assistant can also be enlisted to encourage the baby to move forward.

When it comes to setting them up for inspection, Richardson says not to worry too much. “It comes fairly naturally for a horse to stand up properly. If they’re well-behaved, you don’t really have to teach them anything. I don’t do a lot of work teaching babies to stand, because it just irritates the young ones. You want them to stop in a position that’s natural for them.”

There is a delicate balance between leaving youngsters virtually untouched until they begin their training as performance horses, and overburdening them with too much fussing. “I think it’s quite traumatic to just ‘let a horse be a horse’ in the field without much handling,” says Richardson. “It takes a long time to earn the trust of those horses when they’re older if they don’t know the kindness of human hands.” At the same time, overzealous handlers must be careful not to over-stimulate young horses, which according to Richardson makes them “very tired, mentally.” She stresses that even if the youngster will not be shown on the line, it should still be handled every day and know the basic rules – it needs to stand for the vet and farrier and it should ship without too much fuss, in case an emergency trip to the vet clinic is necessary.

When introducing babies to new situations such as the vet, farrier, or loading into the trailer, Richardson notes the importance of a supportive hand and patience. “Absolutely everything has to be positive with our babies; they have to want to do it. I don’t believe in being really rough with them, and nobody that handles them in their early lives gets them rattled or nervous.” Ensuring that every new learning experience is positive offers you the best chance for yielding the desired results.

Turnout without Trauma

Meticulous turnout is the icing on the cake while presenting your youngster for judging, and is one of the aspects that you do have control over in the show ring. With the quality of young horses being shown on the line these days, it is not acceptable to have a baby that will not stand to be braided or clipped.

With braiding, clipping, and early grooming lessons, Richardson recommends using a stall – somewhere the young horse feels comfortable and there is safe footing. Be sure to leave the stall door open a crack so the handler has a quick escape route. She is also very cautious about using cross-ties before the horse is at least a year old, preferring to have them hand-held by an assistant whenever possible, or tied in the stall with a quick-release knot. “I’m very careful about tying babies up. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.”

Richardson prefers not to body clip bays and chestnuts, but to instead groom them out and allow their natural dapples to come through. A grey horse she might body clip a week before a show. “Body clipping a baby is slow and tedious,” admits Richardson. “I start at the shoulder and just go slowly. If I don’t get it done right away, I’ll put them away and try again later without starting a fight. Whatever you do, don’t start fighting and wrestling.” While Richardson has always done all of the work herself, it is ideal to have a second set of hands for help. “You have to be very careful of yourself at all times,” says Richardson. “If they have to be tranquilized, in my opinion it’s not the end of the world – as long as it’s a pleasant experience. I think it’s much worse to be twitching or earing-down, stuff that eventually makes them head-shy.”

She also tries to avoid bathing them unless absolutely necessary. “I often don’t bathe them unless they’re grey. I prefer to groom them clean, as bathing takes the oil out of their coat. As with everything, patience is key when teaching a young horse to stand for a bath.”

The manes and tails of the youngsters showing on the line should be braided professionally, unless you are confident in your skills as a braider and are able to produce top-quality results. Richardson is not opposed to adding a fake tail to young horses, although she insists it be dyed to match perfectly and that it be a realistic length “appropriate for the age of the horse, and only one that adds fullness. It cannot be obvious.”

Hoof trimming should be a routine part of the young horse’s schedule. “They should be done regularly every six weeks. When you have a big show coming up, you should time it so that the feet are done at least a week before the show. Any sooner and they may be a little foot-sore.”

A Weighty Topic

Conditioning of young conformation horses is a hotly-contested debate. While some feel it is a burden on not-yet fully-developed bones and tendons to carry around extra weight, the reality is that young line horses need to be filled out to make them appealing to both judges and buyers. “They have to be fat on the line,” admits Richardson. “That fleshy look is what you are looking to achieve. My babies that go to Devon are turned out on grass, get fed good-quality grain and have excellent second-cut hay in front of them at all times months in advance. When they arrive home again, they’re turned out and they don’t get any more grain until they’re older.” While Richardson doesn’t use any supplements with her babies, she suggests speaking with a nutritionist who works with your local feed store if you feel it would be beneficial in your situation.

It is an all-too-common occurrence in the breeding world to have your perfectly built, adorable yearling turn into a gawky, skinny adolescent overnight. In fact, the biggest challenge of preparing a youngster may be one that is completely out of your hands. “They grow in different stages,” says Richardson. “Sometimes two months before the big show they look absolutely perfect – their toplines are stunning and their angles are good, and then all of a sudden they look like little giraffes.” When faced with a young prospect going through a badly-timed growth spurt, Richardson urges breeders not to despair and to keep in mind a saying used often in the breeding world: “If you like the horse at three days, and you like it at three months … don’t look at it again until it’s three years.” Thankfully, in most cases of awkward baby syndrome they will “grow out of it.”

Richardson would pass up showing a gangly youngster that is not going to do well. “Personally, I would prefer to wait and show one that best reflects my ability as a breeder/handler – one that will be competitive. People only remember when you get beaten; they don’t often remember when you’ve won.” As an example, she recalls, “I tried to sell Northwind CatCall in February of his yearling year and nobody wanted to buy him. He was the only foal out of 16 that I wasn’t able to sell that year, and he went on to be Grand Champion at Devon five months later.”

Breeding a horse or pony that will succeed showing on the line is a journey that begins long before one steps into the show ring. Without a doubt, the most important aspect of preparing a young horse for the show ring is the time put into the development of manners and mind. Richardson can attest to this philosophy. “It’s the simple things – just introducing them to prolonged human contact and touch, grooming, and handling from a young age – that gives you the best head start to creating a well-rounded youngster.”

Prue Richardson has been breeding quality hunter ponies out of her Northwind Farm in Palgrave, ON, for the better part of 30 years. Many of her home-bred graduates – sporting Welsh, British Riding Pony and Thoroughbred bloodlines – have gone on to high-profile careers south of the border. Recent success stories include Grand Jete, a small pony by Richardson’s stallion Northwind CatCall, who was recently awarded Small Green Pony Hunter Champion and Reserve Grand Champion Pony at the 2010 USEF Pony Finals in Lexington, KY. She has bred and owned two Devon grand champions, Northwind CatCall and Northwind Marodona, and in addition her stallions have sired two Devon grand champions for other owners. Richardson is the first North American to have been invited to judge the pony and line horses at the Horse of the Year show in Great Britain.

Richardson has downsized her breeding program for the 2011 season. At one time breeding as many as 100 outside mares and raising 16 foals a year of her own, Richardson has leased out several of her stallions and broodmares who she couldn’t bear to sell. She now has 25 horses of her own, stands seven stallions at home, and is expecting to foal five babies this year. Says Richardson fondly, “I love this life and I love my ponies.”