11th January, 2014 The last little bit

By all accounts, previous and present owners,  this Arabian mare has always been awkward about having her bit in. More recently it has become a bit of a battle and her current owner wants to avoid that. Of course it is always an option to avoid the issue altogether and ride her bit-less but that isn't always a safe option for every horse. In any event, most of us would like to keep all options open.

The key thing to me was to avoid the argument itself and I began by retraining her to accept the whole process of putting on the bridle stage by stage using clickered rewards for each element. Soon she was looking for me to put her bridle on. She will need lots of gentle repetition before she is sure that it is all okay but she has made a great start. I have written an article on this subject for the next (February) edition of Horsescene which is available free in many tack shops.

Just a few miles across the Forest we went back to see Angus for a bit of revision. At the end we took the camera with us so that we could record his antics when turned out into a new field. It unfolded as walk into the field, put head down, eat...oh well.