It's been eleven years since I worked with Ruth at which time she must have been one of my first customers. Recently she bought a copy of No Fear, No Force, and I wondered, aha, what have you been and bought? It turns out it that it was four year old cob, Alfie and that he was rather nervous around people.
In the three weeks that she has owned him she has already made great progress and it is clear that he knows that he has landed on his feet. He likes spending time around people even if they make him jump and his early reluctance to be caught has all but gone. Cleverly Ruth has been catching him by putting one headcollar over another so that he gets used to it.
Up until now the headcollar has had to go on from under his nose, resulting in the crown piece being flicked over his head, as he's not happy to have hands on both sides of his neck at once. I worked on getting him over that, making up my mind to put my arm over his neck a hundred times if need be. Of course it took nothing like that but setting off in that frame of mind meant that he got used to it in just firteen goes because my energy levels were so low. When you imagine that you are in for the long haul you tend to pace yourself accrodingly.
His leading is also coming along and we worked n asking him to be by the side rather than behind whoever was leading him. Here I am putting a light pressure on the headcollar to ask him to come forward which will be released once his head is next to my shoulder.
Ruth has been able to get all the way down his front legs with her fake hand on a stick and so I consolidated that work with my trusty feather duster before doing the same with his backs.
He kept a close eye in proceedings and soon learned to keep his feet down when I touched his legs.
A sudden downpour meant we had to go indoors but he was pretty settled in there despite rain on the roof, the radio, and four of us all looking at him. I moved on to asking him to pick his feet up for just a moment at a time.
We don't know precisely what his breeding is (although he has Welsh ears) or his history but he's a lovely pony, ready to learn and relax.
"Thank you for the photos they are lovely and I think show how relaxed he was yesterday... You would always be the first person I would contact with a problem as I remembered enjoying your first visit as I did yesterday, it was informative and fun too so thank you and I hope to be able to carry on what you have started with Alfie." RR
