A Clarification About '30 Days'....

A friend (who has sussed me out and figured out who I am! Honestly, I did not tell her or any or my friends. I'll explain more of that later) sent me an email about the 30 day rides.

Okie dokie, here's my explanation. In my world, we go by 30 days training but that's not 30 rides. I don't think it's good for a greenie to be ridden every single day, maybe 3-4 times a week but you have to fit the training to the horse, IMHO. If the colt is worn down (like hiding his head in the corner of his stall, trying to disappear), back off, if he's picking it up and dealing with stresses of training, maybe fit another 1-2 rides in for the week. Read your horse and then follow through.

From a billing viewpoint, I always went in 30 day cycles. I've tried charging by the ride and it's too much work and can be difficult to keep track of how many times you've forked the horse. Then the owner wants an accounting of when you rode and (I've actually had this happen) if they watch you from afar (oh, yes, he sure did!), will argue that you didn't ride as many times as you said. So I now (if I still did train professionally) would only go in approximate 30 day cycles.

30 days can mean 30 saddlings but not necessarily (sp?) a calendar month, follow that?? After you've done quite a few colts, you get a feel of where the colt is even though the days don't match up. So 30 saddles can mean 45 days or so. So when someone asks you how many days the colt has you can say '30 days' even though you've had him longer than that. 30 saddles could actually mean YEARS if you didn't saddle your colt for long stretches.

At about the 14 saddle mark, a light bulb should go off in your colt head what you're trying to do. That's when he'll start to 'get it'. After 30 saddles, you get the hay-wagon-turning effect. 60 saddles, you start to get some good turns and understanding a bit about leg pressure. 90-120 saddles, you've hopefully got a decent neck rein and working off leg pressure and the horse is still sane.

Maybe a better way for me to say this in the future is saddlings and not 'days'. I never really thought about it that much as it was sort of just understood. One of those non-verbal things.

I'm thinking after reading some of the training posts, that maybe they mean you actually get 30 saddles in 30 days?? Or even just fooled with the colt on non-saddle days?? You'd have to talk to them and read their contract then ask questions.