This little owner is just eight years old and loves her pony to bits. I was called out to see if we could work out why her pony was pulling such awful faces when the saddle appears. The saddle itself has been fitted to her very recently but her past experience of saddles have left her feeling sore and sour. It's those experiences that she refers back to whenever she sees a saddle.
"Thank you so much for coming to see us this evening. P really enjoyed it, and I especially found it very interesting, it
was a real eye opener to see things in a totally different light! Was very
impressed with May and look forward to spending some time with her working on
some of the new things we learned tonight - think she will particularly enjoy
some massaging! I will definitely arrange a second opinion for her back, do not like the
idea of her being so sore."LP
I also went to see a three year old New Forest pony that has never been taught to pick his feet up properly - I imagine that his experiences of having his feet trimmed have all been pretty poor. In the meantime, his inexperienced owner has only ever had experience of lifting up the feet of experienced horses. It's really important to realise that horses don't automatically know how to pick up their feet for people and have no reason to do so. Rather than being stubborn, a prey animal is being sensible when he chooses not to give his only means of escape to a predator intent on holding on to them!
I should mention what a wonderful experience it was to go to a client who keeps her horse at Russells Equestrian Centre, Southampton. I arrived a little early but no sooner was I through the gate than I was scooped up by a member of staff and shown around all of the horses, many of which have come in through the RSPCA. Owner of the Centre, Carol is a keen IH member and we are now in discussion about a running a demonstration together.
