You have seen dog agility at Crufts but what about horse agility? With the emphasis on good horsemanship, this competitive sport is an interesting alternative to traditional equestrian activities. Amanda Braham, Horse Agility Accredited Trainer in the region, explains what this sport is all about.
Horse agility is defined as: “A discipline and internationally competitive sport in which horse and handler, both on foot, navigate a course of obstacles while focusing on clear communication and positive horsemanship.”
The skills involved focus around good horsemanship on the ground as the whole event is undertaken as groundwork. It requires patience, timing and confidence as well as good observation. You have be a good confident leader for your horse and to teach him that what ever is going on around him, that you are the safe place.
I fell upon horse agility when my horse Rio was having time off and needed mental stimulation and quiet exercise to keep him active. It was the perfect way to keep him mentally stimulated and active. He has now fully recovered and worked his way up to advanced level in about a year. My other horse, Mr Daks, was retired so horse agility gave him something to do in his retirement and it keeps him supple and mentally active. He reached an average score of 98%. Mr Daks was a lovely horse to work at liberty and sadly passed on in May 2013.
I hope to do some more Online Horse Agility (OLHA) with Rio, but as I have been so busy with teaching horse agility I have not had a chance to do so much with him.
The sport’s development
Vanessa Bee is the founder of horse agility and she started the club in December 2009. The club has grown from strength to strength since then and is very much an international sport.
You can compete in the OLHA Competition which means you can compete monthly and gain points and work your way up through the levels without even having to leave home or clean your horse! You download the course from the club website at the beginning of the month, practice the obstacles and challenges, find a patient soul to video your round, then upload, send in by the end of the month and you will then be judged by Vanessa and you will receive a commented score sheet and a rosette all for the cost of £5. You can compete with a 12–foot rope, as well as having a go at Liberty (no lead rope).
The club website has a lovely ‘social hub’ where members can upload their rounds and also discuss the course challenges. As members are competing worldwide, you can also see the different challenges of the weather around the world: whilst we may be struggling with wet fields, Canada may be in six feet of snow and someone in Australia suffering in the heat!
Training
I run what is called ‘Real Time’ Training and Competition Events and the format of my day consists of a session lasting between say 10am–1pm and another 1.30pm–4.30pm, with a maximum of eight participants per session.
We start without the horses and I do an introduction and cover how to use the 12-foot rope. We are always aiming at Liberty so I need to teach handlers not to rely on the rope and use cues and body language to communicate with their horses. It’s all about moving the horse’s feet: horses on the other hand are very good at moving our feet!
We then do a course walk. There are ten obstacles and a lead test for the Starter Competition. The obstacles tend to be things that will be either going up, over or through, ie tarpaulins, curtain, hoop, bridges, narrow gaps, pedestals, crushed bottles, hula hoops, tunnels, backing up, stepping over, moving sideways. The list goes on and on and you would not believe how many challenges you can set with just one pole!
Everyone then comes in with their horses for ‘Playtime’ under my guidance and supervision and we finish the day with a competition. Everyone gets a rosette and a score sheet.
How is it growing in this region?
I have been a HAAT (Horse Agility Accredited Trainer) for over two years now and cover pretty much all the counties in East Anglia including putting on ‘Have a Go’ or ‘Introduction to Horse Agility’ days for BHS Bedfordshire and Suffolk.
I use various equestrian centres: College of West Anglia, Milton, Cambridge; World Horse Welfare, Snetterton, Norfolk; Little Bromley Hall, Essex; Thurleigh EC, Beds as well as visiting private yards to run horse agility days. I am certainly running events nearly every weekend and in the summer I am much busier as we can then be outside. I definitely like to be indoors in the winter!
Getting started
Getting involved in horse agility is easy and you can always come and watch a session if you are not sure what it is all about – and you don’t have to be a member to come to a Horse Agility Training and Competition.
To get started all the handler needs an up to date standard riding hat, gloves and work boots. The horse needs a headcollar and a 12-foot rope – I have 12-foot ropes to borrow or buy. And that’s it! You don’t even have to clean your horse!
Once you join the Horse Agility Club, which costs £30 for an adult and £15 for a junior, annually, whenever you compete you gain points and work your way up through the leagues. The leagues run as Starter, First, Medium, Advanced and Advanced * level on lead rope and then there are also the Liberty levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold. There is a total score at the end of the year and a champion will be named. I also give a cup to the best senior and junior in East Anglia with the most points at the end of the year.
In action
It can look daunting when faced with the challenges, but the training required for the advanced obstacles can be broken down into incremental steps. For example the ‘Curtain’, which is a frame with ribbons hanging down from the top and the horse has to walk through calmly with the handler. The obstacle in itself is narrow and has a height barrier to start with, add to this ribbons which blow in the wind when outside or are quite a solid barrier to walk through if inside. I would start with tying the ribbons back on both sides and then would place myself nearest to the frame and let the horse investigate by sniffing, licking, looking and then walk away, go for a walk and return to walk the horse through, stepping to one side so I am not squashed and walk through. Then I take the horse through both ways and then add a figure of eight around and through the obstacle as well as leading from both sides so the horse is totally relaxed and happy. If this has gone well, I will then introduce one ribbon and repeat the figure of eight. If the horse is still relaxed I’ll add another ribbon. If you manage to get half the curtain down on one side and the horse then braces and rushes you know you have gone too far.
Each obstacle is marked out of a total of 10. 0-5 effectiveness, 0-5 horsemanship. If a handler forced a horse through the curtain with it fully down and it rushed in blind panic, the handler would probably score 0 and the horse 1. If on the other hand they asked for the curtain to be left tied up, the horse may get 3 if it was calm and relaxed and the handler 5 for making the right decision. Any pulls on the rope means a mark deducted! As a judge I will be looking to see that the horse is totally relaxed and the handler is in a safe place at all times: the welfare of the horse is paramount.
Find out more at www.thehorseagilityclub.com, visit Amanda’s Facebook page ‘East Anglian Horse Agility’ or contact amandabraham@hotmail.co.uk
Photos: Chris Doyle Photography