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| Filly foal by Catherston Springsteen |
Tracey and I set off early this morning to meet up with Kelly and Ele for the Interactive Sports Horse Workshop at Catherston Stud. The purpose of the event was to get judges, breeders, and competitors together to discuss the marking scheme used in various Sports Horse Classes and to have a look at how they might be applied to different horses. It was interesting to see just how widely the marks varied!
There was a fine array of horses and Jennie Loriston-Clarke led the discussion. It was fascinating to hear what she had to say about the horses and I almost swooned when she said that she would never give more than a six to a horse that was consistently behind the vertical in a dressage test because she wanted to get the message to the rider that it was not acceptable. Kelly on the other hand definitely swooned when this three year old colt, son of Totilas came in to the arena, "And then George Clooney walked in", I over heard her say. He certainly looked great and he positively floated in trot.
Back to reality in the afternoon and a pony much more our style. Willow, a New Forest cross Arab has been a bit reluctant to set off in certain directions from her field and you can almost here the theme to Mission Impossible playing at a low volume in her head as she goes out. Today she immediately encountered a large group of wild ponies just outside the gate and there were plenty of other things to contend with. She is not overtly frightened but you can tell that she is a little apprehensive and she has developed a few strategies to slow things down a bit.
Rather than getting big and energetic with her, reinforcing everything she knows about going out alone, we introduced clickered rewards at short and regular intervals with a view to breaking the pattern. We've made a good start and her owner fully understands what we are trying to achieve and why we have taken this approach. We'll see how it goes.
"Thank you for your help and guidance today. I know with hard work and patience Willow will walk that road perfectly. To finish the afternoon off as I got into my car Willow came over to me gave her a little rub behind the ears and both left happy. I'm excited about taking this on tomorrow even if we only get half way, slowly but surely." AP
2.5.14: "Just to let you know Willow decided not to be caught on Wednesday, but I did exactly what you told me and after about 5 mins she came to me and took the head collar well. I then tried the halt action whilst walking back to the gate in field, yeah result every time Willow stopped sharply and level with my shoulder every time. I lunged her then took her out on road, no ponies. Willow did well about 20 paces majority of time, so really pleased and retuned home for Willow to have a nice massage. Very enjoyable afternoon." AP
