We were waved off this morning by this charming filly who'd obviously heard that the best hay had been delivered. I explained that Christmas hadn't come quite yet and she's have to wait for Nelly and Blue to come home to be guaranteed any spare food.
It was good to have my partner-in-crime, Tracey, back this morning as she has been caring for sick friends and relatives. Not only is she my best friend but she's also the Car Curator, the Senior Weekday Photographer, Navigation Technician, Report Transcriber and General Support Engineer.
We were off to see Catherine's new horse, Sky, who she is sharing with a lady called Jess. Having learned so much last year, she wanted me to work on a few issues that she is having with Sky and to work with Jess to make sure they were being consistent with each other.
We started with foot handling where Sky sometimes snatches her feet away. Getting your own feet really grounded and holding the foot in the optimum position can really help with this.
Like a lot of horses, Sky has an aversion to being hosed, something that often comes about because someone has insisted on just getting on with it rather than introducing things step by step. Using a watering can to trickle water on to the horse and then rubbing the same area is a good first step. The rub is the equivalent of taking the pressure away. A small section of hose can be used to desensitise to the hose-pipe itself and then the two can techniques can be combined with a trickle of water coming through a hose-pipe.
Next we worked on leading. It's the one area where IH really differs from BHS teaching and therefore a bit of a change for Jess who has completed an equine course at Sparsholt.
I worked on making it more restful to just stand quietly, parked, at the mounting block, and just a bit more troublesome to be moving around. Agitating the right rein and making an annoying kiss-kiss sound was contrasted with absolute peace and quiet when she was standing in the right place. A lovely rub just sealed the deal. (Incidentally the saddle has been checked and is about to be checked again).
Time out without a rug at the end of the session. I expect she wasn't quite as white as this when she came back in to go to bed an hour later!
Sky had a very ropey start having been found by the RSPCA in a field where some of the horses had died from neglect. Sky was so poor that they considered putting her down too until a woman offered to take her on. She has done a wonderful job of bringing her back from the brink and turning her into a riding horse from a feral horse in a relatively short period of time.
