This is Bowdrill, a young Andulusian type horse that I worked with this morning. But don't be fooled by the top picture, when I met him, we were both soaking wet and bedraggled. Nevertheless we had a good session introducing him to the basic groundwork exercises and some boundaries for his life. A horse's advantages are often his disadvantages and the fact that Bowdrill is frightened of very little means that he is often over confident around people. When he couldn't get me to talk to his front end, he presented his back end for scratching. He did some lovely work and leads beautifully. Afterwards he had a drink and a yawn. His name comes from bow drill, a bushcraft term for the special stick that is used to make fire using friction. His owner, Annette, teaches bushcraft for a living - how cool is that? I've had a good wander around her website which is at http://www.campfireskills.co.uk/ Annette's aim with Bowdrill is to travel across the country on foot - what a great education for a young horse.
E-mail 3.12.09: "Thanks very much for your sound advice, I can honestly say you are the first "horsey" person in many months to give me confidence in what I am trying to do."
This has made me think of two books that I throughly enjoyed and can recommend - Saddletramp and Vagabond, both written by Jeremy James who has written and done such a lot for ILPH (now World Horse Welfare). Once again I have loaned my copies to someone, and they, along with Raising Daisy Rothschild, have disappeared. People will always give you back the money you have loaned them but books.....!!!!!
