Kathryn asked me whether I was going to find Dartmoors dull after working with the Z's. Heavens no! My deepest philosophy is that if they exist they matter. I get so much joy from being around horses of any sort. My heart feels fit to burst when Blue walks up to me on the common and just wants to spend time being rubbed and cuddled, no food involved.
On Friday afternoon I went off to see Harley, who after a break from riding, is expressing the horse equivalent of agoraphobia. After tidying up his groundwork a little in the field, we went down the lane to see if we could push his boundaries outwards just a little, using the same groundwork - no overtaking, counted stops and a lovely rub when he gets it right. We found a big driveway in which to stop and just be and worked on asking him to be as relaxed there as he is in the field. Not easy with a strong horse but he has a favourite scratching place and we used that to positively reinforce him standing still. He was on a mission on the way back home and it wasn't easy to insist that he didn't go ahead but absoloute consistency and persistency worked. I have talked to his owner about creating little petals in order to extend his comfort zone whenever she can. Being in for the long haul shouldn't mean being hauled about.
Only one week to go before we head off to Dartmoor for the Foal Handling Workshop. The course is full and we have a vet, a horse therapist and a mule tamer from Mallorca amongst the students. One of them is the winner of the Your Horse competition and a writer and photographer will be coming down to watch and create an article about the course. In the meantime, copies of No Fear, No Force are gently trickling out of the door and I have ordered a second batch.
