7th August, 2011 Rome wasn't built in a day

This is Rome who has an interesting habit of pressing into people quite strongly when he is cross. This into-pressure response is automatic and instinctive in horses, especially colts, and is then doubly reinforced if it works in getting rid of a threat or an irritation. As far as he is concerned that is job done. Yesterday we started to analyse what it is that sets it off - I suspect that it is any pressure on the poll (hard to avoid when he also has a tendency to plant) - and I have suggested that he has his poll checked the next time Kate Boe is out to look at him. It's hard to guess at his history but if he has ever been owned by gypsies he could have been tied to something solid to teach him to 'respect' the halter or indeed tethered. We also needed a strategy for breaking the pattern. Needless to say, hitting him is not an option as that would then turn it into a full blown war and in my view justify his behavour. Instead we worked with the bright white wip-wop rope to establish some distance when he started to invade our space with any sort of intent. Once again, no problem with you expressing your dissatisfaction with life but please, take it over there! The other aspect of his training was to make sure that it was utterly fair - understandable, calm, consistent and that he was rewarded with a lovely touch every time he got it right. Like many cobs, he proved to be very light and intelligent which reminds me, I must get a copy of 'Cobs Can'.

Email from SB 8.8: "...today after reading through your report and looking at the photos a few times, I felt so much more confident around him. I used his normal head collar but with a rope around his nose and added an extra rope on the end for length. Not ideal but it'll do for now. Coming out of the field and going up the hill was such an improvement! 10 times over! There was probably only two moments when he thought about moving into my space, so I did the chicken thing and he backed off so I stopped him and made him step back a little. Before continuing. On the way back down the field he was a little naughtier than on the way up, and we had one spinning around me type incident, but it was pretty much over as soon as it had started."

6th August, 2011 Girls and boys go out to play

Chaos on the green at Fritham last night with animals of all shapes and sizes enjoying the refreshed grass following the rain. The colt at the top is an extraordinary colour. Brandy and Humphrey as I have nicknamed him (Because that's the sound he made when I asked him what his name was), came in for a feed but Nelly and Blue are far too fat to need anything extra. The Forest is feeding the animals well this year. The foals all look really bonny.

6th August, 2011 Milly and Molly

Another training day for Milly and Molly yesterday using a combination of gentle advance and retreat and clicker to ask them to accept head collars. Both fillies (a three year old and a two year old) have been handled since they were foals whenever they visited the house on their travels around the Forest but neither has had a head collar on before now.

4th August, 2011 Listening Post

Make sure you get your Listening Post, quarterly magazine from Intelligent Horsemanship, by joining at http://www.intelligenthorsemanship.co.uk/. Not only do you get four luscious, well informed magazines a year but you will also receive discounts on many items and special concessions at the demos. The Listening Post is the only horse magazine to have truly consistent behavioural advice without recourse to violence. This quarter's magazine features articles on developing your horse's work ethic, identifying gastric ulcers, how your horse's eyes work, endurance and lovely Sam Austin, the equine dentist and foot specialist.

4th August, 2011 Treat yourself

Yesterday the horses treated themselves to just about everything in Fiona Habershon's box of essential oils, dried herbs and powders. Leaning over the fence, to see what else she had got, Chancer decided that his favourites were yarrow, cleavers and dandelion root. It will be interesting to see how much this supports his recovery from his injury, especially now that his antibiotics have run out, and what effect it has on his sarcoid. Jack chose flax and rosehips. When he didn't want something he looked disgusted and walked off!

There's a great article about Zoopharmacognosy coming up in the next Listening Post where we have interviewed the founder, Caroline Ingraham.

I would always see this work as supporting recovery from emotional and physical problems which as Fiona says, "often allows the animal the opportunity to be able listen and learn from good, kind and effective training." With all of this stuff, I think we are making a promise that the horse will always be treated fairly and never punished. It's important to keep that promise or we're building a whole new set of emotional and physical blocks.

3rd August, 2011 Visiting hours

Valley Equine Hospital again today to observe a gastroscope. Fortunately this horse had very little damage to his stomach wall and his trainer has already turned him out for the summer - a rare occurance for flat racing horses in training. Over 90% of racehorses have gastric ulcers caused predominantly by their diet which contains very little and only sporadic fibre. The horse relies on a raft of fibre lying on the top of the acid in his stomach to prevent that acid splashing onto the more vulnerable upper portion of his stomach.

For the rest of the morning, Lindy and I, observed a variety of horses from racing and eventing being trotted up and nerve-blocked to try to identify the cause of their lamenesses. Fascinating and sometimes dangerous work when a relatively unhandled racehorse has to be injected in the hock!

Lunch with Kelly and then off to take more photos for the Listening Post. Gorgeous George was happy to pose.

1st August, 2011 Lindy-hop

Lindy is on temporary loan from Kingston Maurwood College and is teaching me as much as I teach her. Today she did some desensitisation work with Petra starting off with the carrier bags and the hose and water. She has a great philosophy in life - to learn something new every day. Tomorrow we are both off to Valley Equine Hospital to observe a gastroscopy before visiting Kelly just across the road.