Well! Kitty May is already proving to be a dream to train. Although she wasn't born on the Forest, she has spend some time out although I'm told that she didn't settle particularly well. That said, she's definitely a woodland girl and seemed to enjoy herself immensely while she was out with Indy today.
Kitty didn't hesitate to jump things or to walk over any kind of terrain. She's had rather a sheltered life until now so it was great to see her give everything a go. Indy on the other hand was just showing off!
It was off to Parley this afternoon to work with Champ and Django again. Now that Champ has found his halt and is less afraid of his mouth, we decided to try him in a bit again. Until recently he was ridden in a Dutch Gag, grackle and martingale. The problem with the Dutch Gag with a single jointed mouthpiece is that it gives too entirely conflicting messages. The single joint asks the horse to lift his head and the curb rings of the bit ask him to lower it. The stock answer is to the confusion this causes is to add a martingale. When he arrived with Nathalie she stripped everything down to see what would happen and found that he had developed a range of strategies for evading the bit (or at least, evading the discomfort of the bit) probably because he had never truly understood what the bit was asking him to do and had just done what horses do - i.e. gone 'into-pressure'. Nathalie stripped everything down even further and has been riding bit-less for some time.
Although he is seventeen, it appears that Champ can learn something entirely new to him. The action of the Myler Combination bit is all consistent and asks the horse to soften. There's a long way to go but the picture is certainly looking a lot prettier.
Having spent time long reining in the school brushing up their skills, it was time to long rein Django out and about for the first time. With aeroplanes flying low immediately overhead and horses in fields either side of him, Django was really good.
"Really enjoyed yesterday was very interesting learning about the bits as well and seeing such a difference in Champ :) I'm feeling very positive now!" JA
