Articles Written For The Equestrian Press

For a number of weeks (while having my breakfast) I tweeted an equestrian Top Twitter Tip of the day. Here's the definitive list:

1. Save characters by shortening a long URL in Tiny URL.

2. Post descriptions along with links. People are hesitant about clicking lone links - could be a virus! It's more SEO friendly too.

3. Personalise your Twitter page & add an image or logo. Helps to give your brand continuity across the board.

4. Watch your follower : following ratio. Every socialmedia guru has their own view - try 10% more followers than following.

5. To save time link your Facebook page to Twitter - when you post to Facebook they auto-tweet.

6. Don't tweet in the first person unless you are them. I was very disappointed recently when I met a confused equestrian tweeter who had no clue about what I was on about!

7. Horsey folk on Twitter mix business & pleasure all the time, and really easily too. It never gets too personal and gives a great insight into the credentials of an equestrian business. There are phonies out there, believe me - just because someone has 'equi' in their name does not mean they're horsey!

8. Do you need to relate info to staff around the country? Set up a Twitter account, protect your tweets & ask your staff to follow.

9. Give Twitter time - you won't see results over-night. It should become part of your long-term digital marketing strategy.

10. It's nice to be nice! Suggest Follow Fridays & say thanks for and/or retweet FF's ... Help spread the horsey love!

11. Connect inquisitive horsey people with your equestrian brand by using relevant #hashtags in your tweets. #avoid #over #use #though!

12. Tweet often, even retweet horsey news if nothing else. We've no problem doing a following list cull on users who haven't tweeted in ages - now read number 13.

13. However: Don't just retweet everything your favourite equestrian news website tweets. Odds are your followers are following them too!

14. Google reads most tweets & follows their links in real time. Trying to get a new page listed? Tweeting a short link is often enough.

15. Get your existing customers to follow you on Twitter by giving them something they won't get elsewhere. Exclusive content grows audiences – great for a saddlery or competition.

16. Create buzz for a competition by tweeting well in advance. Get them talking early!

17. Set up a Twitter feed on your website, linking the two and generating more followers.

18. Your Twitter introduction should be SEO keyword rich - it gets constantly indexed by search engines because Twitter generates so much traffic!

19. Next time you're doing a Twitter cull try using this great time saving tool Friend or Follow... eye opening!

20. Gain more equestrian followers by following some of the big guys, @HorseandHound @equestrianlife etc.

21. Riding schools: get parents following you, have a poster promoting your Twitter account by the arena – make sure they know about EVERYTHING that's going on!

22. Don't constantly push product/your brand - people will get bored and stop following you! It's about conversation, not broadcast.

And finally...

23. Swearing is only acceptable when it leads to fits of laughter!

Twitter is a really great communications tool. Keep it lighthearted and relevant and you'll find your feet in no-time!

For Abbeyview's guide to Twitter - and other social networking platforms every equestrian should utilise - scroll down to: LETS GET SOCIAL!

(Featured in the November 2009 issue of Equestrian Business Monthly )

Customers have an ever increasing thirst for knowledge and information. We live in a world in which people demand instant access to information at the click of a mouse. Long-gone are the days of relying solely on those in your immediate geographic area. They, along with their international counterparts, are scanning the web looking for the widest variety and the best deals available.

Your website is as important as your telephone number, even if it simply explains who you are, what you do and most importantly how to reach you. People, whether they've heard of you through word of mouth or not, will make a instant decision on you based on your website. Make life easy for them, know what they want and give it to them clearly.

For the smaller/specialist retailer or manufacturer simple 'buy it now' buttons linked to PayPal or Google Checkout are great for selling one or two products. If you have many products with various options e.g. size and colour, then a fully featured shop is better. Online shops are great if you have products that lend themselves to being sold easily online – perfect for saddleries.

For a service business e.g. rug washing or public relations your website is your calling card. Think carefully about the part your website plays in your sales process. The average website visitor only reads 28% of the text on a page, so you need to make sure what you're saying is relevant and to the point.

Your website is not a separate entity to the rest of your marketing. Keep it updated as often as possible with news and updates that will make your visitors stop and have a read - prompting them to come back. An equestrian centre website with a competition schedule from 2006 does not inspire anyone.

Some small businesses fear the web and doubt its relevance to them. In terms of brand recognition and positioning having a website is a must. Ensuring the right people are viewing it is all down to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, index the internet daily for new information but can easily miss a site because they haven't received enough views or been referred to on established sites. Ensuring you have key words sprinkled throughout your text will make it easier for search engines to read it. Alongside this SEO is crucial. Submitting your site to all the major search engines and listing your business (including a link to your website) on equestrian directories like the Horse and Hound Online business directory and Epony are a great starting point. Google 'free equestrian directories' – there are loads out there, post a link to your site on all of them.

Work on your SEO and maybe even invest in a professional SEO consultant to help bump your website up the search engine rankings.

Experience – they need to be up to speed with all the web languages that are relevant to the job e.g. HTML, CSS, PHP and so on.

Tailored – you need to find a web designer who can create a site with design tailored to you.

Creativity – you need to decide if your are allowing them to come up with a concept or if your telling them exactly what you want... the cost can be quite different between the two.

Customer service – they need to see customer service as a priority in the form of ongoing support. You will be working closely with them from here on in and on an ongoing basis with your email requirements too!

Marketing potential – look at their portfolio then search for the sites in google, a good indicator of how well they're coded and how easy it is for search engines to read them.

Flash - Be wary of too much Flash being used in your design – search engines won't be able to read the Flash elements.

Cost – your content should be unlimited and you should not have to pay per page Make sure you get a full breakdown of all the costs involved and take into account annual costs as well e.g. hosting and SSL (secure shopping for online shops).

CMS – they should offer you a Content Management System (CMS) – if they don't, they will try to get you to pay them a retainer to amend the site.

Complete service – they should be able to offer you web design, email and hosting as a package and provide some form of benefit for all three.

Timeline – you need to know what will be happening and when.

Fixed quote – the quote needs to be for the total amount that you will spend regardless of any over-runs. Don't be afraid to suggest penalties for late delivery.

Availability – you need their mobile number. If your email goes down on a Sunday afternoon you need to be able to inform them so they can have it fixed by start of business on Monday!

Most importantly, get a few quotes and make sure you quiz them on their proposals. You'll be amazed how a few questions will sharpen their minds so you can see if you're going to get what you want.

The aim of all of this careful selection and planning is to give you a website which forms an effective communications tool for your business. So a helpful question both before and after go-live is: How do I know if my site is effective?

It's essential from the outset to have a clear idea of your current business objectives and what contribution the website can make to them. So are you looking to increase sales for a particular range or are you hoping to position your business as carrying certain brand values? Whatever the desired outcome - being sure about it means you'll do a better job of measuring it.

So - how do you measure effectiveness online? You can gather statistics on user visits, see what pages they reach and how long they spend on them. If you link to certain pages (like your shop) then you'll want to know what proportion of visitors reach that page from the other parts of your site to see how effective those other pages are being. You may find that visitors come to your home page, but few make it into the pages that really matter - your products and offers! So - with that example in mind, you could do more in your content to entice them to click through.

Whatever the kind of activity you choose to measure - Google Analytics is a great freely available tool to keep tabs on it. You'll need to setup your account and then put the code into your website - a good website tool will make this easy. Once Analytics is up and running you'll be able to login and checkup on your stats whenever you like.

So to recap: take care when selecting your new web provider, be sure to follow our tips list and when planning the site itself, be sure you are really clear about what you want to get out of it. Almost all businesses need to have a website: the most important question for you to answer is 'why?'.

(Featured in the May 2009 issue of Horse Scene Magazine )

When I told some of the techie the guys in the Abbeyview Equine office I was writing an article on hacking I was bombarded with comments like, “don't forget to mention Phishing emails” and, “talk about code corruption.” In hindsight - talking to group of people who see the world through the matrix - there were some crossed wires!

Hacking, in the equestrian sense of the word, is one of the most enjoyable parts of a rider's routine. It enables the horse and rider to bond while out-and-about exploring their surroundings and enables the rider to get a better feel for the horse. Too much time can be spent on monotonous movements in the arena and as we know variety is the spice of life. That's not to say time spent hacking is wasted time, hacking can form a welcome part of your schooling routine and you can make the most of any route available to you; bridlepath, byway or field.

Integrating hacking into the horse's schooling routine I rode for American Olympic show jumping team member Mclain Ward in 2005. We were very lucky as there was an extensive forest at the back of the farm with miles of trails. As the horses we were riding were worth upwards of $1 million they were only turned out in for half a day, twice a week in small paddocks. Their work schedule was intense but we were encouraged to take them out on a hack at least once a week to let them clear their head – which was a welcome relief for them. This was a fantastic opportunity to get some hill work in, which was great for increasing their fitness by walking, trotting and cantering up them.

At home at Abbeyview Farm I have Tana, a 15.3hh TB mare my dad used to breed from. She was quite hard to get in foal naturally and as the TB industry do not permit Artificial Insemination she was given to me to work on. She used to race on the flat and in her day was placed in a couple of group races. So as you can imagine, all she knows is the accelerator. As fun as galloping is, I had to re-train her brain to accept a more quiet existence.

We did tons of hacking. We used to go out on the quite country roads for about 3 miles every day just in walk. Slow and steady road work over a period of time is a great way of strengthening a horses legs. However, prolonged periods of fast work on hard surfaces can result in splints and jarring. When we began I got a friend to accompany me with a school mistress to show her that it was OK to take it easy. Off one of the roads we used to ride on was a long bridlepath. I used this to teach her to listen to my leg aids by continuously leg-yielding from one side to the other. Once we began proper schooling still kept hacking her for a bit of variety, and 10-15 minutes was spent hacking around the farm at a marching pace to warm up.

Hacking came to the fore again when I was teaching her to lengthen her strides. Due to her general obsession with rushing I taught her to extend by using a road with a steep hill. Instead of rushing she had to either extend or canter, and by keeping a quiet, yet maintained contact she remained in trot and started to lengthen nicely.

As pleasurable as hacking is you must make sure you take every precaution to ensure that if something does go wrong you able to cope with the unexpected. During my placement year at CAFRE, Enniskillen Campus I rode for a rode for a local show jumper and we hacked out each morning before schooling.

One eventful morning two of us were taking our usual route along a very quite country road. We were in single file with me and a mare by Cruising taking up the rear. Being a typical Cruising mare she was a bit temperamental and prone to spooking – but for a change she would not be the one cause trouble.

As we went along, from nowhere, the horse in the lead dived into the hedge and took his rider down a 6ft drop into the field. The rider fell off and was winded, the horse started galloping up and down the field along the road whinnying. The mare I was on showed great restraint, probably through shear shock. I rode down to the gate into the field, dismounted and caught the loose horse, unharmed and looking incredibly pleased with himself. The rider also came down to the gate, covered in grass stains and looking furious. This story ended happily, but so many don't.

Hack out in company if possible.

Make sure you let someone know the route you're going to take and how long you expect to be.

Wear a riding hat and ensure your chin-strap is fastened. Hats must comply to one of the following safety standards; BSEN 1384, PAS 015 or ASTM F 1163.

Wear correct footwear. Proper riding boots with good grip and a heel. No trainers or wellies!
Safety stirrups are also a good idea.

Wear a jacket. For two reasons; to prevent grazing if you do fall, and to store items in the pockets.

Wear reflective clothing, your visibility to drivers is key.

A mobile phone with credit.

A hoof pick – incase you pick up some unwanted stones.

Be on your guard. It's surprising how many horses allow tractors and 40ft lorries to pass unfazed, and then jump out of their skin at the sight of a pizza box lying on the verge!

Always be courteous to drivers – it's up to you to portray a good impression of the pleasant equestrian. My partner and I were out for a drive around the lake district when we came across a group of riders taking up the whole road. We stopped in front of them to let them pass. They all had faces like smacked bums and not one of them nodded or put up their hand to thank us... How Rude!

Recently, I came across a new website designed especially for hackers called outhacking.com. Outhacking and mapmyhack have been set up to allow horse riders to tell the world when they are going for a hack, where they've been and ultimately to map their own routes for others. It allows you to create your own profile page as a free member of the outhacking social network, where you can invite friends to join and do the same. The site allows you to create groups, post events, photos and videos for your club, stable or livery by the members.

The mapping tool allows you to add stables and clubs to the map of the UK, plot and record your routes either on existing bridleways and toll roads or as routes you've made up and want to record. Ben, the developer told me, “There will soon be the facility to use an iPhone application to automatically track yourself as you are riding and download the route.” Test it out and see if you encounter any companions!

Of course hacking is only going to get better! The British Horse Society's Access Week is this month: 15-25 May. The BHS continues to engage in regular contact with ministers and officials of government departments, and agencies throughout the United Kingdom concerned with bridleways and other forms of public access. They are featured on many national committees and have frequent discussions with colleagues in other user groups, and run an extensive Access Training Programme, which has been successful in boosting knowledge of issues relating to access. With the BHS on our side the future of our bridlepaths and byways is bright, make sure you check out ride-uk.org.uk.

So get out there! The nights are getting longer and weather is improving, however, if the last two years are anything to go by, Spring is the new Summer so get on that horse and make the most of it.

Happy Hacking!

(Featured in the April 2010 issue of the Equestrian Trade News )

The days of marketing your business solely through the phonebook, word of mouth or local newspapers are over. At least they are over if you want to attract the new generation of web-smart equestrians!

This new breed of equestrian has grown up with the internet and expects 24/7 access to information, entertainment, shopping and news. They can compare and contrast goods and prices at the click of a mouse and spend hours doing so in search of the hottest item or a bargain, making the internet their first port-of-call. Lets not be ageist, 56% of over 70's in the UK have the internet at home (National Statistics, '08). With the increased media coverage of social networking sites we are seeing an increase in the number of silver surfers making the most of them.

If you're not on the web, these potential customers are lost! If you are, the good news is the web has made marketing your business to the web-smart equestrian really straightforward – social networking sites! In the beginning people thought of them as a narcissistic way for people who had too much time on their hands to inform others about the mediocrity of their life. Not the case! Used intelligently they can become a key marketing tool.

Social networking sites, used in parallel with an up-to-date and engaging website, give you the power to reach out directly to new stake holders and add a whole new personal dimension to faceless organisations. Claire Booth, British Dressage's Marketing Manager, agrees saying, “engaging on social networking sites helps to put a friendly face to BD and gives us a voice beyond our more official publications. We’re working hard to reach new members and break down the stereotype that affiliated dressage is stuffy and elitist.”

You can also use them to show your organisations allegiances. By reacting to events that happen in the equine news arena you can come out with a reaction or opinion to certain news which can enhance your brand position.

A short but concise video all about social networking...

Social networking sites really work for getting your name and brand out there and creating a buzz about your business.

(Wikipedia, 2009)

They each require varying levels of technical knowledge. However, for the most part you can get a great deal out of them without being a techie whizz-kid. The three Abbeyview Equine recommend for ease-of-use and results are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

In the UK and Ireland Facebook has the largest following of any general networking site, and is by-far the most user friendly. By 'general networking' we mean sites where people create a profile, add information about themselves, add photos, join networks (e.g. schools and clubs), and invite their friends to do the same.

With Facebook you can add images, videos, testimonials, status updates and links. This is a great form of viral marketing because once someone has joined your business' group they can invite their friends to join. We recently launched a Facebook group for Horse Scene Magazine and within 6 days it had 83 fans!

Believe it or not, Facebook is credited with being one of the main driving forces in securing Barack Obama's Presidential win - 94% of his campaign funding came in sums of $200 or less. A million little donors became the model. One of the men hired to set up this new effort was Chris Hughes co-founder of Facebook. He created barackbook.com – check it out, it's genius!

A 'newbie' to the world of social networking sites, Chris Jones, owner of Windermere Equestrian and Country, uses Facebook to keep customers engaged with what's going on at Windermere E&C. He said, “we find Facebook useful as it has lots of horsey people on it, and it was great for drumming up publicity for the launch of our new store and online shop. I must admit I found it a bit confusing at the start but I'm beginning to get the hang of it!”

Twitter is a striped-down version of Facebook. It lets users add status updates, consisting of no more than 140 characters called 'Tweets'. As businesses continue to invest in their constantly-evolving brand story, conversation enablers like Twitter will become integral. Twitter is not for everyone, but for a targeted niche like equestrian businesses its going to be massive!

Twitter in a nutshell...

The majority of equestrian organisations use it to keep people updated on competition dates, new developments and promotions. It's a really simple format, but do not underestimate the power of Twitter, it's one of the fastest growing social networking sites. Its ease-of-use, and the potential exposure is attracting many, including 10 Downing Street.

I asked BD's Claire Booth about her experience of Twitter, she told me, “All are useful in their own right for raising brand awareness but I would say Twitter is more directly useful - both for communicating specific messages and for usability and accessibility of the application. The concentrated nature of the Twitter updates helps to create a lively productive dialogue with key audiences and the info is concise, targeted and relevant. I also like the way the content is so readily portable to other web mediums - its simplicity is key.”

IV Horse has recently launched Twitter.com/IVHorse to allow for cheap, quick and easy communication with their large consumer base across the globe. James Kontargyris, IV Horse's Marketing Manager, told us, “Twitter has the advantage of basically acting as a glorified RSS feed for latest news but with the advantage of a 'captive audience' who are already on-board with the brand, so will respond positively to any useful or interesting information that we 'tweet'.” He went on to say, “The ability to include links to images, video and other online content is an additional bonus that allows us to keep content interesting and fun.”

YouTube lets users view, upload and share video clips and has become a formidable force on the web. YouTube's bandwidth costs were estimated at approximately US$1 million a day (Wikipedia, '09). YouTube is great for video blogging and demos. YouTube limits videos to no more than 10 minutes long and 1GB in size – but you can add as many as you like. You can also embed YouTube videos into your website, keeping your hosting costs down and enabling cross-marketing. The Vatican and Queen Elizabeth II even have their own YouTube 'channels'.

Queen Elizabeth II uploading a YouTube video...

The whole idea of social networking sites is to keep your endeavours updated regularly to ensure your followers are kept interested and to attract new followers. This is where the potential for 'buzz' occurs around your brand. This can lead to many linking to your site and spreading the word – great for your brand and search engine optimisation.

You can measure their impact on your site's traffic by linking your site to Google Analytics. This generates a number of really clever reports letting you know how many times your site has been visited, how they got to your site (directly, via search engines or referrals), how long they stayed on your site and their location etc. Having abbeyviewequine.com linked to Google Analytics we can see the benefits clearly - nearly 20% of our site traffic comes from social networking sites. One point to remember make sure you have links from your website to your social networking sites – get the traffic going both ways.

Social networking sites should be exactly what it says on the tin... Social, and never a chore. Finding your feet can be quite an enjoyable experience and once you've built up your network it'll become second-nature. Enjoy!

Why not give them a go, and be sure to follow the adventures of Abbeyview Equine!

( Featured in September 2009's issue of the Equestrian Trade News )

Abbeyview Equine has flourished since it's October launch, winning a BETA Innovation Award for their website tool PagePlay which allows businesses of all sizes to take control of their own website. Their affordable approach to marketing has attracted customers across the UK and Ireland. Abbeyview director Liam says, “Equine organisations and businesses are beginning to realise that they need to become more visible to potential stake holders and give a little bit more to enrich the experience for current customers and members.” He goes on to say, “There is no better way achieving this than investing in online marketing. The opportunities are endless from email newsletters, more user friendly and up-to-date websites or interactive campaigns on internet networking sites like Facebook.”

There's no point having a fabulous website if no-one knows it exists, this is a key attribute of our sites as they appear in search engines within days of going live. Research has found that 42% to 86% of websites are found through search engines. In addition to this there are 300 million searches carried out per day, every day – you need to make sure you get a portion of them!

Search engines, such as Google and MSN, index the internet daily for new information but can easily miss a young site because they haven't received enough views or been referred to on established sites. Ensuring you have a website with effective and well planned coding will make it easier for search engines to read it. Alongside this search engine optimisation (SEO) is a must, and can be easily achieved.

Liam's compiled a few trade secrets that will enable you to make the most of your website to ensure your seen.

Submit your site to all the major search engines like Google and MSN. It costs nothing and within a couple of days your site will be visible. This is essential as young sites won't be registered with search engines until other, more established sites display links to it.

When submitting your site to search engines don't over crowd the description field with loads of key words. Keep it short and sweet with a succinct phrase e.g. Quality riding tuition at The Riding School.

Build back links from other sites. The best way for you to do this is to join some popular equine forums (message boards) and add a link to your site in your post footer. This is usually an option in your profile. Be sure to only post helpful messages so you are not seen as a spammer, and be sure you are allowed links in your footer first.

Make sure you use the words that you want people to find you using on Google in your pages quite regularly. These are called keywords and can be a single word or a short phrase, e.g. BHS qualified instructors at The Riding School.

Ensure you use keywords in page descriptions, titles and headings.

Link to your own site's pages in your content using keywords. An example of this could be a link form a paragraph (e.g. we have quite a few rising dressage stars for sale) on your home page linking to a page on your site named 'horses for sale'.

Google also registers photo titles and alternative text so take this into consideration when naming them.

Research has found that visitors only read about 28% of the text on a webpage (Nielsen, 2008). To make sure the 28% they do read is what you want them to, here's my advice:

Shorten your sentences and paragraphs.

Have one idea per paragraph and put the most important point or the conclusion first.

Add quality content sprinkled with your key words.

Use simple language - unless your publishing a veterinary paper that is.

Bulleted lists and highlighted text (bold, italic, or hyper-linked text, but don't go mad) are great for being skim-read.

Avoid headings that are too subtle or cryptic, use meaningful headlines and subheads, nothing puts a reader off as much as someone trying to be smart!

Pictures and videos - adding relevant images and videos helps to keep your visitor interested.

Getting your website reader-friendly ensures your message has impact. By following Liam's few steps you'll make sure your website is visited by more potential customers, the key to successful online marketing.

(Written for Horse Scene Magazine )

There comes a point in everyone's life when we must venture into uncharted pastures. For us this could be going to university, getting married or passing your driving test. For horses, the most mind-altering and character building experience of their life is when they're broken and backed!

The process starts at two or three years old, depending on their physiological development maybe even four. Thoroughbreds, due to race on the flat will be broken as yearlings. The majority of horses will be backed at three. You can however check if the horse is ready at two years old by simply placing your hands along his spine in the saddle area and applying a bit of pressure. If he hollows his back, he's not ready.

Of the Abbeyview horses I've broken and schooled, most were thoroughbreds, but the most enjoyable was Rolo, a 13.2hh home bred Arab/Welsh cross. Rolo was the epitome of a 'dude'. I took him with me to CAFRE, Enniskillen Campus when I started my degree in Equine Management. Believe me, it was a steep learning curve for both of us!

Rolo, of course had been handled lots, hand been taught to walk forward when leading on both sides, to stand tied up, to be groomed and had his feet pared regularly. The farrier at the college remarked at how quiet Rolo was while he was putting on his first set of shoes. I was holding Rolo's head up as he was fast asleep!

During the training process make sure you aren't giving the horse food that is too energy rich. Preferably, he should be out at grass, this will give him enough nutrients for maintenance and lets him clear his head afterwards. Keeping him sensible and sane is of the utmost importance.

Most horses will take 4-5 weeks to get used to being lunged, backed and then ridden. If the horse hasn't been taught to lead, or doesn't lead well, add another two weeks to get him proficient on the lead-rein. Teaching the horse to walk forward with you at his shoulder is crucial, as this will form the basis of lungeing.

Introducing the horse to tack is always fun. An observation I've made with a few horses, kept on yards with other horses ridden regularly, is that when you come to put tack on properly for the first time they tend to accept it with minimal fuss. Almost as if they knew the day was coming. But of course the day has been coming. You should prepare him as a foal by introducing the items of tack, taking measures to eliminate any fear he may have. When the day comes the tack should be fitted one item at a time, and with the utmost care. Give him time to get used to each before adding another.

When fitting the bridle back him up into the corner and let him see and smell the bridle. I always put it on without the bit attached and all the keepers undone, makes adjusting it much quicker. With a headcollor on lift the bridle up with your right hand keeping it clear of his eyes and slip it past his ears by lying them forward with your right hand. Adjust the bridle accordingly and fasten the nose-band and throat-lash. Once he becomes accustomed to the bridle I attach a single jointed eggbut or loose-ring snaffle bit to the off-side. With my right hand round his head I ask him to open his mouth with the bit in my left had. Make sure the bit is fitted correctly; too low and he'll get his tongue over it, too tight and it'll nip. Leave the bridle on him in the stable for two hours each day for about a week to let him get used to it. Make sure there's nothing in the stable for the bridle or bit rings to get caught on though, this would be disastrous!

Prior to fitting the saddle I always take off the stirrups and leathers, making the saddle that little bit lighter and also reducing the risk of flapping. Ideally you should have two helpers if possible, one holding the horse, and one on the off-side. With someone holding his head, place the saddle on – and do not let go until the girth is fastened. Your off-side helper needs to then pass the girth to you. Hold the saddle with on hand and the girth in with the other to let him experience the pressure. Then, the girth should be fastened just tight enough to stop the saddle slipping no matter how much he messes. This is very important as this process has the potential to cause psychological issues in him if the saddle were to slip under. Do this every day and tie him up in the stable each day for half an hour for about a week before taking him outside with the saddle on (don't leave him free to roam around the stable with the saddle on, he WILL roll!).

Lungeing is the horse's first introduction to work and is used to teach the young horse to move forward on his own and obey your voice commands. Eventually lunging will be used to improve his way of going and an additional training method in-line with his day-to-day work. If he has been well handled and taught to walk forward on the lead-rein he should find it relatively straightforward. Any horse will get the better of you if you aren't a proficient lunger – practise makes perfect.

Some people like to use an assistant when first teaching a horse to lunge. However, I prefer to do it myself. It becomes quite troublesome for the horse having to listen to two sets of commands and I always end up becoming more worried about the position and safety of the assistant instead of the horse.

Put the saddle on, without the stirrups and leathers. Put the bridle on with the nose-band and reins removed, under the lunge cavesson which needs to be secured firmly. Due to the endless possibilities for fun frolicking or general messing; front and back boots are a must. You need to be kitted-out too with a riding hat, gloves and lunge whip.

Use an enclosed area when lungeing the young horse. He'll try to stick to the fence so lungeing in the field isn't really an option unless you have a small paddock or can build a pen.

With the lunge-rein attached to the middle ring on of the cavesson, start by walking the horse in a circle on the left rein slowly allowing giving him a little rein all the while sending him forward with the use of the same voice commands he's become accustomed to like, 'walk on'. Do not be afraid to use the whip lightly if required. If he breaks into trot, let him. Allow him to go out in a bigger circle and keep encouraging him to move forward. He'll soon grasp the concept, however, make sure you stay behind his girth in a driving position and use your whip to keep him out by pointing it directly at his shoulder if you think he might turn in.

Then repeat this on the right rein. Make sure you keep his head pointing to the inside, reduces the risk of him getting his hind legs near you. If he proves to be quite strong on the lunge, attach the lunge-rein to the outside bit-ring and thread it over his head and through the inside bit ring for more control. No matter what, if he does play up and tries to pull away, do not let go. A loose horse, with a lunge-rein dangling from his face is an opportunity for disaster.

Long-reining is great to teach him to get used to the bit and accepting contact as-well-as steering. Long-reining is always carried out after the horse has been allowed to relax on the lunge. With a second lunge rein attached to the cavesson and threaded through the D ring on the roller or stirrup iron on the off-side which then wraps around the horses back-end. You lunge him as you would normally but with a lunge-rein in each hand. Gradually you add more and more pressure to the outside rein until it becomes a proper aid. You can then change direction, with the outside rein becoming the inside rein.

Get your assistant to attach the rains to the bit instead of the cavesson. Then you can ask the horse to move forward driving him on with the reins as if they were a riders legs. I find it very useful and used to walk for hours with Rolo around the Necarne estate's many miles of lanes halting and moving-off continuously.

Once the horse is obedient and relaxed on the lunge generally he's good to be backed. If the initial work has been carried out effectively the horse should accept the rider quite freely. Don't try to back the horse in the stable unless the ceiling high enough. This can be dangerous and lead to the development of unnecessary fears. Instead use an enclosed arena or pen built in the field.

Put the saddle on, again without the stirrups and leathers, put the bridle on, with nose-band removed, under the lunge cavesson which once again needs to be secured firmly in addition to front and back boots. Take him out for a lunge as usual to relax him, then bring him in off the circle and get your helpers to assist you. If possible, two helpers are required, one to hold the horse and one to give you a leg-up. If you can only get one willing person try using something as a mounting block.

With everyone on the near-side, and one helper holding the horse by the lunge-rein, go to the saddle and move it about a bit on his back and pat it. This is where your preparation work comes in useful. From a foal I always make a point of putting my hands on their back (without any pressure) and jumping up and down on both sides. Granted at the start they freak-out a little, but over time they become to realise that I'm just insane and let me do it. So in my usual manner I swap sides doing my jumpy dance as usual, but then it's time to add a new development to the jumpy dance.

Returning to the near-side get your free helper to give you a quiet leg-up and gently lean over the saddle. All the while the person holding the horse is reassuring him and you're patting his off-side shoulder. If he objects you can easily slide off. Repeat this on both sides a few times introducing walk into the equation. It's tiring though. It's quite hard to breath when you're lying across a horses back for any period of time.

Once the horse is confident with the whole process of the rider leaning on him, sliding off, walking with someone on him, and shifting about, it's time for the grand finale! Getting the helper to give you a leg-up, throw your leg over the saddle - don't touch the hindquarters. Then once again the helper holding the horse asks him to walk forward. This mastered, the next step is riding on the lunge.

When riding for the first time on the lunge I prefer to have my stirrups but it's up to you. I like them for the simple fact that I find it easier to maintain a soft seat. With the lunger in total control they send the horse out on a circle in walk. They they ask the horse to trot. It is in trot where you need to create a soft sitting trot seat. Rising trot can be introduced slowly with a very slight rising and sitting motion as to not startle the horse too much. As he becomes accustomed to it you can increase the amount you rise by.

The aids can be introduced while being lead around an arena. with the leader taking control at the start and then just to back up the riders commands. Once the horse is responding effectively to the riders aids without any hep from the leader the horse can be clicked off. I like to have the leader walking beside them for a while just as a backup initially. The main aim is to get the horse moving forward and listening to your voice. Everything should be slightly exaggerated, especially corners. They should be met with a very open rein encouraging the horse to get the idea and then move on around the corner.

Canter should be attempted later. Cantering too soon, in my experience gets the horse excited and after this he'll find it quite hard to focus on anything else. At the start canter on straight lines with a very light seat, then bring him back to trot for corners until his canter becomes balanced enough to cope with corners. I've scraped my outside knee on the fence coming out of a corner in the realisation of this.

Getting him to stand still is sometimes an issue that supersedes the issue of his forwardness. Using a helper each time to keep him still while mounting for a couple of weeks is a good idea when using a mounting block, leg-up or stirrup. A few of the other guys at college had youngsters they brought to college to break. We used to all go out on hacks around the estate to get the horses used to new things. Rolo and I used to also go out on hacks with some of the older horses and I used to make Rolo stand in the middle of a field while they cantered up and down. This really helped with Rolo's obedience. He would tremble underneath me as if at any moment he would just explode and join his stable-mates - but he never did, and always listened to my reassuring voice.

When you have your young horse working in a relaxed manner and under your control you need to continue with this for a while to build up his fitness and confidence and then your both ready for the next step, POLES!