age effects

now that you are familiar with the optionsavailable for sessioning your horse, as well as the basic functions of the energy bar,i'm going to take you through a month of sessioning with a few different horses so that you canget an idea of what it would be like to session horses at various levels in their training.afterwards, i will discuss popular methods of training as well as some helpful tips.

age effects, before i begin sessioning i would like todiscuss a few things that can affect your horse's training speed and progress. a horse's learning speed is affected by primarilyby two things: genetics and age. some horses are more willing than others and will learnmore quickly. this is often referred to as

their trainability. this is a genetic trait,and like any genetic trait selective breeding can improve or worsen it. age is the secondfactor. the earlier you begin working with a horse, the quicker they will learn. if theyare used to people, and being handled by people, they won't be as resistant to training. ageeffects learning during ground and green training and has no effect on discipline training.a common misconception is that the intelligence trait effects a horse's training speed. thisis not true; a horse with higher intelligence will not learn more quickly than a horse withlow intelligence. however, a horse's temperament will have an effect on how quickly it learns.a foul-tempered or high-strung horse with higher trainability will not learn as quicklyas an even-tempered, willing horse who has

slightly lower trainability. now that you're more familiar with what does,and does not effect a horse's training speed, i'll begin sessioning. to get to the sessioning area i can eitherscroll down bob's page or i can use the "sessioning" link to jump quickly down to the appropriatearea. since i'll be doing groundwork with bob iam going to take this opportunity to hide the discipline training options by clickingon the "x" placed above them. now i can't accidentally click a discipline option. hidingthe discipline options in this way can be a very good way to help prevent against unintentionalclicks that could result in an injury to a

young horse not prepared for discipline training.when i decide to begin discipline training i can click the "+" sign and expand thediscipline options to full again. first things first. before i can do too muchwith bob i have to get him used to his halter. so i'll start by clicking on the "introducehalter" task in the ground training section. pay special attention to bob's energy baras i do this. well, it's very obvious that bob wants nothing to do with me or the halter,and as you can see his energy has dropped quite a bit. since i'm new to bob and bobis new to me, i'm going to quit training after this first session since it took a lot outof him and i am unfamiliar with how much stress he can handle. you'll notice now that his"time worked today" is 10 minutes because

i used one session, and i have gone from 10available sessions down to 9. note that because i began training with 30 days remaining bob's"days sessioned this month" has not changed from zero. as soon as i begin working himwith 29 days remaining, his "days sessioned this month" will begin to tally. since istill have several sessions available to me i'll take this opportunity to groom bob. aswe discussed in part 1, you'll notice that grooming requires no energy from bob, butstill requires a session to complete each grooming task. each time i perform a groomingtask bob's time worked increases by 10 minutes and i lose another session. bob has no beenhandled for 40 minutes and i have used 4 sessions. i still have 6 left, but i would like to continuetraining bob, so i'm going to click on the

"next day" button and begin a new day. you can see that i now have 29 days left availableto me and my sessions have been reset to 10. bob was rather tuckered out from yesterday'ssessioning and today he has started with less than full energy. this is nothing to be alarmedabout and can happen from time to time. i'll keep it light today and only try introducingthe halter to bob once. you can tell by his reaction that he is still not very pleasedwith the halter, and his energy has dropped a good deal. i'll spend a few more sessionsand groom bob, as i do not feel it would be wise to continue training him today. bob has now been handled for 1 hour and 10minutes. i have used 7 sessions, and his "days

worked this month" has changed to 1. thereisn't much else for me to do with bob today, so i'm going to click the "next day" buttonand begin a new day. now you can see that i have 28 days remainingand my sessions have reset to 10. bob had a good rest last night and his energyis full. i'll attempt to introduce the halter to him again and see how he handles it. well,he's still very shy about it, but today he didn't expend quite as much energy as he didthe day before. i think he can handle another training session with the halter so i'm goingto try introducing him to him once more. still shy, but he is making progress. i'm goingto play it safe and stop training for today, as bob's energy is now a bit low.

as i'm sure you've realized from these fewdays of sessioning bob, energy loss is not static. even for the same task, bob lost moreenergy during some training sessions than he did others. depending on the horse's reaction they canlose less or more energy, so it is wise to keep an eye on their energy bar to make sureyou don't push them too far. this is something you will develop a feel for with practice,so don't feel intimidated if you over-exert your horse a few times by accident. now that you've been able to watch me sessionbob a few times, i'll jump forward to the end of the month and we'll see how he hasprogressed.

well, it's the end of the game month and bobhas made some progress. due to his age it has been rather slow, but he is a little lessworried about the halter and as you can see from his reaction he is beginning to inspectit and take some interest in our training sessions. my grooming sessions have also paid off andbob's coat condition has gone from good to excellent. the next horse i'll be working with is milly.she is a 6 year old mare who has finished her groundwork and is ready to move on tobasic under-saddle training. she's accustomed to being handled from the ground, is comfortablewearing tack and being driven on the long

reins. since being ridden is new to her, i'llbegin by simply trying to get her moving out at a walk by selecting the "train to walkout" task in the under-saddle basics section. all right, well, she's unsure about this andhas decided her best plan of action would be to not move forward. this request has takenquite a bit out of her, so i'm going to call it on training for this game day. i'm notconcerned about grooming at this time, so i'll go ahead and proceed to the next dayand resume training milly. you can see from her reaction that she israther confused and unsure of what she should be doing. the stress of carrying a rider,as well as the presentation of this new task is wearing her out quite a bit. i do not believeshe can handle another session of training

today, so i'm going to proceed to the nextday. since milly is old enough to handle the weightof a rider and more stressful activity, i can break up her training routine with variousexercises to help improve her fitness. as i mentioned in part 1, these exercises requirevarying levels of energy to complete depending upon how strenuous the activity is and thecurrent fitness of the horse. milly is not very fit right now, so i'm going to startwith something that isn't too strenuous: lunging on the flat. this exercise took a lot outof her, so it will be all i do for today. milly may not be able to do a lot right now,but once her fitness improves she'll be able to handle more activity.

now that you've seen me train milly under-saddlea few times, as well as demonstrate exercising, i'm going to skip ahead to the end of themonth and we'll see how milly has progressed. the going with milly has been a bit slow.her temperament isn't the best and she did begin under-saddle training at age 6, so shehas her age working against her. despite this, i was able to make some progress. milly madean effort to move out during some of our training sessions and i as able to improve her fitnessa little with some light exercising. it may seem like training can take a longtime but remember what i talked about in the beginning of this video. selective breedingcan be used to improve trainability as well as temperament within your herd. so don'tfeel discouraged if you begin with a horse

that isn't the swiftest of learners. when your horse is mature enough to be startedunder-saddle, you can also begin exercising it. exercising your horse and improving itsfitness can increase your horse's energy and enable him to handle more training and exercisingeach day. however, it is important to note that a fitter horse will also be able to putmore effort into his work, and because of this, he will expend more energy. remember! the energy your horse expends isnot static. bill is the last horse i will be trainingfor this tutorial. he has mastered his groundwork and has a great understanding of the basicsunder-saddle. today i'll be beginning his

more specialized discipline training. i'veopted to train bill for dressage, and i've done research into the discipline so i knowwhat will be expected of him. on this first day i'm going to work a biton improving bill's gaits. by working on his walk, trot and canter i will help to improvehis way of going which will be beneficial in the dressage ring. you can tell by bill's reactions that he isunsure of what i want, but in time he will become familiar with my more refined cues.i'll finish off the day by working bill over some cavalletti, which will help improve hisfitness ratings. you'll notice from this day of training that bill has used far less energythan the previous horses i have handled. he's

more fit and better able to handle the stressof work, so he can handle more sessions. note though that practicing the walk, trot andcanter is not nearly as intensive as many of the other discipline options, so rememberto always be careful and pay attention to how much energy each task is requiring fromyour horse. on this second day i will continue workingon bill's gaits and followup his training with a quick sessions over the cavalletti. since i've already spent a few sessions workingon bill's gaits i'm going to move on to some other tasks. i think today i'll practice thereinback and some basic leg yielding exercises that will help to prepare him for the moredifficult maneuvers he'll be performing later.

you can tell by his reactions that he is strugglingwith even these basic maneuvers and it will be some time before he understands and isable to skillfully perform every maneuver required for dressage. now that you've seen me session bill severaltimes as i work on preparing him for dressage, i'll skip ahead to the end of the month anddiscuss his progress. well, i've sessioned bill for 30 game daysand he has made quite a bit of progress. i was able to introduce him to many dressagemaneuvers and i broke up his training with different exercises to help improve his fitnessso that he is able to more easily perform his job.

as you can see, his fitness ratings have improvedquite a bit. there are several important things to rememberwhen you begin training your horse for a discipline or for a specific class. first and most importantly: don't rush! unlikeground and basic under-saddle training, discipline training is a much more involved and lengthyendeavor and while it may be tempting to rush through your horse's discipline training,take a moment and consider what that means. when horses in real life begin in beginnerlevel competition they are still new to their work and would not have mastered the basics,nor have they touched upon the more complex tasks that will be asked of them later. equine-ranchis no different. fully training your horse

to his maximum in discipline training is beforeyou even begin in beginner competition is unfair and unrealistic. your horse does notneed to even be competent in his discipline training before he begins showing; he needonly have a basic idea of what is required of him. remember! horses in beginner are beginners.this holds the same through all the competition ranks. intermediate horses will be a bit olderand have more knowledge, horses in advanced level competition will be even more fluent,expert horses will be adept and higher ranked horses will be masters. this is very importantto remember, as it keeps the playing field fair, more realistic and it will get yourhorse into the show ring much quicker. secondly, don't forget to do your research.if you're unfamiliar with a discipline or

class, do some research into what is requiredfrom horses for that class or discipline. remember that equine-ranch is based aroundrealism; there is nothing obscure about the requirements for a class. also, don't forget to exercise your horse.if you're wanting to get into showing with your horses, you'll need to remember to exercisethem. training is important for each discipline but, as in real life, an unfit horse willstruggle to compete with a fit horse. you'll want to try to get your horse up to his peakfitness so that he can better perform his job. now that you've seen several examples of sessioninghorses at various levels in their training

i would like to discuss, and show examplesof, the two most popular methods players use for training their horses. first, you can simply transition between horsesusing the "next" or "previous" button on your horse's page. clicking one of thesebuttons will take you to the next or previous horse in the barn or pasture. you do not needto have a bunch of tabs open to utilize this method. however, all the horses you are workingwith must be in the same barn for this method to be effective. because if they are not,you will have to skip between barns trying to session all of your horses. if you havea large ranch it can also make it more difficult to keep track of your horses and their training,particularly if you start moving your horses

between barns. to get the most out of thismethod, you will want to keep all of the horses you session in the same barn so that you canswitch through them more easily. the second method is referred to as "tabtraining." this method utilizes browser tabs to efficiently maneuver between horses.often, horses kept in training are bookmarked or simply opened in their own individual tab.the player will then train a horse and either click the next tab available or use a shortcut,usually ctrl-tab in most browsers, to quickly jump to the next tab and train the next horse.the player's ranch page is kept open in another tab so that "next day" can be clickedwithout having to leave any of the horse's pages.

the pros of using the "tab training" methodcan be argued, and really depend upon your personal preference. but generally it makesit easier to keep horses sorted and you do not have to worry about horses being in differentbarns since you'll be cycling through tabs. you are also able to pick the order of yourhorses by moving their tabs around. the cons of this method are that you willneed to have multiple tabs open at a time. for large training projects this can causea great deal of clutter, and some computers may struggle to open many tabs at once. mostimportantly, you will need to be sure that you pay close attention to that "next day"button. it is not uncommon for a player using the "tab training" method to forget toclick "next day" and accidentally exhaust

a horse, so be careful. i've talked about the two most popular methodsfor training, but it is always best to find what works for you personally. everyone hastheir own preference, and there is no right or wrong method. do what is most comfortablefor you.