8th June, 2016 Ancient History

I always love to look at these Exmoors on my way to work with Crazy. Just like the Arabian, they are one of the worlds most ancient breeds of horse.

A more positive session with Crazy who seems to like the smell and taste of Peppermint. I put a couple of drops on his bit and rubbed it into the leather. This inspired him to take the bit into his mouth and to squeeze it. He is still not thrilled but is definitely improving again.

Another drive across the Forest to get to Nichola's. The ponies at Burley were enjoying the sunshine but not the crab flies.

Nikki's cob is doing very well and they are both heading out with more confidence.

Bert was the biggest revelation of the day. On the first occasion that I worked with his legs and feet I used a feather duster in order to desensitize them to touch so that he stopped thinking the way to get rid of things was to kick or squash. Today I was able to use my hand from the outset, first checking that if I touched his legs he would keep them down.

The next step is to use a signal to ask him to pick the foott up, in his case it was to ask him to unlock his hind leg and bring the foot forward.

 Next I needed to ask him to hold each foot up. By the end of the session he could hold his front feed up for 10 seconds at a time and the backs for 5. This will be extended very gradually.

 All much better than having a fight and using brawn over brains.

Finally, I thought I would teach him a bit of dressage, starting with dressage ears.