Services

Here at Morris & Smith Young Horse Specialists we predominantly offer long-reining, backing and breaking. We also offer the option of a two-week assessment to have horses that are already broken and are displaying concerning behaviour, or where owners are looking for a second opinion on a horse.

We are very passionate about giving young horses the best start to their life, and believe doing ‘something’ earlier rather than later is the main ingredient to producing a well-rounded, confident horse for the future, that is able adapt to new environments, competitions, clinics and stay away shows etc.

Long-reining is the key, for us it is absolutely crucial, and does so often get missed or skimmed over as people may find it difficult, find it boring or not fully understand all the benefits. Long-reining is how the horse learns to steer and stop, learns to move forward away from pressure (the long-reins emulate the leg) and most importantly they help to desensitise the horse to being touched all over whilst moving, seeing them flapping in the corner of their eye, especially their off side eye (which lots of horses find quite alarming, as owners tend to do most handling, tacking up etc from the near side).
Please do not skip the long-reining!

We strongly believe that a number of common issues such as napping and overreacting to something (whether that be rearing, spinning, evading) can be prevented if horses are given the correct grounding early in their career.

We fully appreciate that some owners are worried that their horses haven’t finished growing or are not physically ready to be fully broken in, in this case we highly recommend the horses doing 2/3 weeks of groundwork in their 3rd year; manners, introduction to tack and long-reining, before being turned away to finish maturing and finish the breaking process the following year. This enables them to think, use their brains, and answer questions but they don’t physically have to do lots of work.

We find this invaluable as it really opens their minds to learning and gives them a taste of what is to come without doing anything too strenuous. The sooner they realise what life is really about, the easier they will find the process of becoming a ridden horse and there is a really good chance they will then enjoy their career, whether that be show jumping, racing, hacking or dressage.