These two ladies can take the credit for my weight loss and fitness. Little Indiana because she needed some help and then Sally her owner, because it turned out that not only had I written a book on semi-feral ponies but she had written a book on fitness. I realised that I needed her more than she needed me! When I went to meet her to make a start it was a bit like being interviewed. How many sessions a week was I prepared to exercise. "Three?" I answered quereously, "Try five", she answered. Almost three stone lighter and later, I can't thank her enough.
Yesterday we took Indiana and Theoden out for a walk and got chatting about the use of words around horses. As you know, I think horses understand feelings and intent but I don't think they understand a word of English. As we approached a little gap in the trees I said to Theoden "Come on" and Sally said to Indiana "Wait", just proving that most of the things we say to horses are actually to inform other humans of our intentions or that we are doing something about the horse's behaviour. I think this is why people shout at dogs too.
Last night I spent another hour with Emma and Max who are doing so well. Bit by bit Emma's confidence has developed to the extent that she is trotting Max around the school. This is massive progressive in relative terms for this partnership since Max has spun and bolted a few times in the past and was as worried about being ridden as Emma was of riding him. Confidence is vital and yet fragile. You can only be confident that a horse is what he is and then do everything you can to build up his trust and confidence too so that he no longer feels the need to resort to past behaviours. Max expresses his confidence levels through his bit and nowadays he is able to relax and just hold it rather than fighting it or surging through it.
Returning to the subject of words though, Emma was using the word "T-rot" to ask Max to go into trot at the same time as a gentle leg aid. This caused Max to transition into trot with a lot of energy. By changing the request to trot into just a breath out, the transition itself was a lot calmer. When I go running, I don't transition from walk to jog with a flourish - in fact I do very little with a flourish!
