Top to bottom - although quiet, Sunny wasn't at all sure about all this new fangled equipment; Garth the mule was born in 1963 the same as me but he dribbles less!; this Shire horse is one of four heavy horses at Horseworld - they all look fit and happy; Prince is probably the tallest yearling I have ever worked with - he was the foal I worked with last year that came back from his loan home just for the day.
Another busy week ended with two short demo's at Horseworld. Three loaders during the week all with different issues - one a first time loader, second a New Forest pony that has previously jumped over the front bar and then a big horse that I had actually met six years ago, when I was training, that has decided to go into pressure against the partition and scrabble with his feet. We managed to get each one loading nicely and the last horse is now travelling without a partition but with a full width front bar and back bar. He wasn't totally relaxed yesterday but it was fascinating to see him make use of all that room and standing with his back feet wide apart.
I also went to work with a horse I haven't seen for a year and his owner is now hoping to bring him back into work. Along with the Haflinger I went to see on Thursday, he was one of the lightest most responsive horses I have ever worked with and deeply offended if I didn't use my most subtle request. Bliss. I also introduced Frances' pony, Pete, to long reining and he accepted the surcingle and all the kit like an old hand - except when he saw the long rein move towards his right eye - he could cope on the left or out of both eyes but wasn't at all sure about the right hand side. Weird isn't it? But it gave us something to work on before we blithely carry on long reining him.
Horseworld was a delight. It was so sunny and there were 100's of people there to see all of the horses.
