2nd January, 2015 Gate crasher?

Nothing so extreme but Taz has a definite fear of gates and he wants to rush away from them or through them once they are open. This can happen when a horse feels that he has been 'bitten' by a gate in the past and it's why it is so important to be careful when negotiating them. The more the horse rushes or is rushed the more likely it is that they'll be caught by the gate again.

First Taz was encouraged to just spend time around the gate and offered a clickered treat every so often.

Then he was asked to negotiate the gate, step by step, and rewarded with clickered treats. It's so easy for horses to be confused by the conflicting aids of the rider at the gate as their legs move backwards when they are leaning forwards to get at the catch.

Taz was also encouraged to stand in the gateway (beware of doing this with self-closing gates). Here you can see he has a running foot up as a sign of some ambivalence about being there. Still, by the end of the session he was opening and closing the gate on the way out in less than a minute, and opening and closing it on the way back in in about 30 seconds. It just goes to show that the slower you take things the faster things become.

I think Julie would have cheerfully ridden him home to her house. Lovely horse.

Up at the fields, Nettles went out into the inclosure on the lead rein at first.

Tracey and Julie practised their halts...

...and he went off the lead rein towards the end of the session. He's well on his way to being a ridden pony again.

Finally Julie rode Bella in the large paddock outside the round pen for the first time.