Horse people live in a world of hopes and dreams, and little is as exhilarating as getting a new horse. It’s exciting and wonderful.

You are entering into a brand-new partnership. To successfully team up for any project, you need to learn about your new horse. The more you know of your partner’s strengths and weaknesses, the better you can complement them with your own.

For most of us, there will be a period of adjustment. So, when getting with a new equine partner, be prepared to devote some time, and be aware of these important steps in building a great relationship.

Build Familiarity and Trust
To have confidence going full speed in timed events, you have to trust your horse. Likewise, the horse has to trust your riding skills. Not surprisingly, this is seldom automatic. Even if all goes well the first few runs, getting comfortable and familiar with your horse is a must if you want to continue to improve.

You need to know your horse. What’s normal for him? The sooner you know what his standard routine and demeanor are, the quicker you’ll be able to know when he feels “off,” or if something is bothering him. What does he like feed-wise, routine-wise, work-wise?

There’s only one way to learn everything about him, and that’s to spend time with your horse—and not just working a timed-event pattern.

A must for new horses on our ranch is riding time in the pasture. We’ve got a few hundred acres where we go around trees, up and down hills, and up and down creek banks. When you foray out of the arena, both you and your horse will get a “feel” for each other. It’s important.

We often take a new horse out and just hand-walk him or her. Since most of our horses live in stalls and runs, nibbling grass is a treat. A lot of times, we take a brush with us and give our horses a relaxing rub-down while they enjoy grazing.

We spend a lot of time of grooming, touching, and talking to them. We’re giving our horses something familiar to take with them. Ultimately, our presence, posture and voices will be soothing and reassuring when our horses are in stressful situations at shows.

During in-arena work on the pattern, we’ll be careful to do slow rehearsals—again to keep our horses quiet. But we’ll also make some faster runs at home in this “getting to know each other” time. That’s because we’ve got to get familiar with each other at a fast speed, too.

We’ll probably do this only every-other-day at the most, and we’ll remember to do about 10 times as much slow work as we do fast work on days that we make a fast run.

While this is happening, the horse is getting to know his new home and routine, the horses and people around him, the new trailer he is hauled in, and a hundred other factors. It’s a lot to absorb. Remember how long it took to just automatically know which drawer the spoons were in the last time you moved? If you’re like most of us, you probably said, “I’ll never move again!”

If we’re that stressed by a move, horses must be, too. And factor in how the horse is also learning about his rider and trying to make sense of cues that likely feel somewhat different with this new person on his back. He’s also finding out whether or not he can trust his rider. Is his rider consistent at home and away? Does his rider have the skill to not inadvertently pull on his face to balance during a run? Will his rider support him or punish him if he makes a mistake? If the answers to these are no, the trust will be a long time coming.

Gaining Confidence
As you become more familiar with your horse and he with you, you’ll both gain confidence. That’s important, because the opposite of this creates some of the biggest problems we see.

When you don’t have confidence, and you’re going at top speed, it is easy to become fearful and intimidated. It can feel like everything is happening too fast, or that your new, faster horse is running out of control. If the rider tenses up and begins to pull back as he or she heads to the first turn, for example, the horse might become panicked and actually miss the cue to slow down. Then the rider is more stressed in the next run because the last one wasn’t right, and each subsequent run amplifies the problem.

At that point, you have an anxious rider and a confused horse who will quickly lose confidence in the rider as well.

Most timed-event horses feel faster and chargier at an event than they do at home. That may take some getting used to. Rather than rushing to enter up, you might opt to do exhibition runs on your new horse for a few weeks at a non-intimidating pace, only gradually increasing speed until you get used to each other and the runs begin to feel less intimidating.

You and your new horse may both love timed events, but it may take some time to get up to top form as a team. Patience pays as you develop rhythm, trust and unity.

Tweaking the Timing
For most horse and rider combinations, it takes a while to get your timing together. Over the years, we’ve seen people who have purchased horses and immediately start winning. But for most new horse and rider teams, it’s “hit or miss” for a while. For others, the transition time is downright awful! And from each of those very different beginnings, we’ve seen horses and riders go on to great success.

Think of this process like getting used to a new car. The first time you drive a car, you do not usually have the smoothest ride. Although you can get to where you’re going, your movements aren’t fluid. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad driver, but it does mean the car may have touchier brakes, more power, tighter steering—any number of things that take time to get a feel for. Learning to ride a new horse can be somewhat the same. It takes time to get comfortable in operating all the controls.

The most common timing errors are usually going a little “deep” or past the turn, or not giving your horse enough room to make a turn and hitting a barrel or pole. As you get to know your horse, you’ll know where best to aim or position him in the pattern. Does he need more turning room or less? You’ll know how much to rate him—earlier for a free-running horse and later for a horse with lots of “set.”

It is really helpful to write down your notes from each run so you can chart your progress in getting together. Refer to them to see if you’re making progress and to decide what needs work.

As your timing with your horse improves, generally the mistakes begin to disappear and your times will improve as well.

Fast Work in Moderation
People who ride timed-event horses usually want to go fast. If they didn’t, they would likely be involved in a different equestrian discipline. But you have to remember that your partner might not need to make as many fast runs as you would like, or he might not be ready for a large increase in speed.

For example, we know a girl who bought an open-caliber horse. We soon noticed the gelding was getting extremely nervous and not clocking at the jackpots. Later, we found out that the girl was making several runs every day at home for “practice!” She could have worked on her timing and gotten to know her new gelding by doing slow work at home. Instead, she upset her new partner because she didn’t have an idea of what the horse needed.

Another friend purchased a young horse that was working through the barrels consistently at a good, fast lope, but hadn’t been pushed to go faster. Because the horse felt so good, she convinced herself he was ready to go fast. He held up for a few runs, but problems soon developed and she blamed the seller for “duping” her. Actually, the horse was doing the best he could, but he wasn’t ready to go that fast.

Thoughtful, Gradual Change
Some new owners begin to make changes immediately. They’ll rampantly switch equip- ment, headgear, feed, vitamins, shoeing— along with revamping the horse’s training and conditioning program and his cues in competition.

Changing too much, too soon is a bad recipe. Taking away the few remaining things a just-relocated horse is familiar with will upset him—and it’s definitely not an ingredient for smooth runs.

When we bring a new horse to our ranch, we refrain from making immediate changes in his equipment and running style. We ride him in what he is used to—even if it is not what we prefer. That helps reduce stress by keeping some things that are familiar to him the same. We’ll try some other options later, when he’s had time to adjust and we’re ready to try to speed up our times.

The exception to this would be in a situation in which his equipment was causing him pain.

When you do opt to make a headgear change, it is important to try new headgear at home first. In competition, the horse needs to be familiar with his equipment so he doesn’t have to think or worry about it.

Finding out about your new horse’s diet is vital. If you do not feed what a new horse is used to eating, buy a couple of bags to make the transition. For example, if a horse has been on a diet of plain oats and Bermuda grass, changing him directly to sweet feed and alfalfa would be harmful. Such a drastic change can be an ingredient for colic.

Switching feed gradually is the key —gradually mixing larger portions of the desired feed with what the horse is already eating. Typically, this takes a couple of weeks.

While it pays to be cautious when it comes to most changes, there are a few exceptions. If a horse has bad feet, needs a trim or a change of shoes, we will immediately get our farrier to fix them. Likewise, if there are health issues, they, too, are addressed right away.

Trimming Tenths
When you get to the point that your runs are mostly mistake-free and everything seems to be working, it’s time to refine your run and trim a tenth of a second here and there. Have someone video you making a run, then study the video. As you review it, consider where you could you have gained some time. Would a milder bit let the horse run a little harder, or do you need one that gives more control to make the turns quicker?

A lot of people want to really get aggressive with a new horse, but we like to take a more methodical approach. When the horse and rider are working as a team, you can add speed without creating mistakes.

Staying Focused
Throughout the process, try to stay focused on your job and your progress. That sounds easy, but we’re all human. Getting a new horse is usually big news for friends and fellow riders, and they often care enough to tell you just what they think about what you’re doing or not doing and, mostly, what they think you’re doing wrong!

That can create real pressure for you. You don’t want to “mess up,” especially if the horse has done well for another rider.

Combat your performance anxiety by remembering you have a game plan and you don’t have to prove anything to anyone. You’re the one who invested your money and your time, and you’re working to learn how best to get along with your new partner. Peer pressure can be powerful, but don’t let it take away your joy in the process of getting with your new horse.