"Thanks so much for the session today! I think I now feel confident to do some more long reining with Ahanna and it will be great for me and for her. Lovely photos, too :-)" MB
There's a fabulous Facebook page called As Seen Through Horses' Ears where people put photos on from all over the world as taken through their horse's ears. I discovered that it is not such an easy thing to do on a Highland Pony with a short neck! I either got perfect ears and blurry ponies, or blurry ears and perfect ponies.
Angus was a little taken aback by the water loving dog and his squeaky ball so we stood and watched him play for quite a while. Lots of people talk about being in harmony with your horse but I think of it as an agreement. You can be in perfect harmony, both believing that the important thing is to be safe, but his idea of how to make sure your safe may differ greatly from mine. His idea might be to rush off as if you mean it never mind what lies in the way, whereas I'd prefer to stop and consider our options. In Angus's case it's a matter of who owns the bit in any given situation. Most of the time (99.9% re-occurring) he's a really laid back chap, a comfortable, energy saving, benevolent chap and he only thinks he is being helpful when he's not so sure about something when he takes hold of the bit and tries to trundle off more energetically. In those circumstances it's important that I take ownership of the bit, turning him using pressure on one rein only and re-directing his energy to something else. I don't want him to learn that he can just lean on the bit and leave.
