21st June, 2012 Deux Chevaux or more

On tour by MG in France, we had to stop and look at a few horses. The ones above had had a long day pulling tourists around the streets of Saumur. The ones below were being driven mad by the early morning flies. All hogged, they took refuge under each others' tails when they could.

In the Cevannes, we found this sculpture celebrating the Arabian endurance horse. Whilst I met this Comtois cross coloured horse when out running in Belesta. She didn't look as if she had missed many (any!) meals!

The black Merens horse is a native of the Ariege-Pyrenees. They are about the size of a Welsh Cob with a Friesian look about them and I am told they have a lot of character!

As we made our way along the back roads between Ax Les Thermes and Axat, and were about 1,800 metres above sea level, we found these Comtois horses living semi-feral. The stallion is third one down.

Another gorgeous Comtois stallion spotted on our way back home.

21st June, 2012 Training Humans

"Nelly, I think we've got her trained to stand on the bridge and now we just need to get her to walk along it without getting off. " "Looks like it Jack!"

Picture courtesy of Jo Monck, Minstrels on the Hill

4th June, 2012 Picture this...

Talented photographer, Jo Monck, has spent the day with me having come over from the Isle of Wight this morning. We spent the day photographing New Forest ponies and others that we found en route.

The flies were incredibly active and the ponies were struggling with them.

This will be me signing off for a couple of weeks now as I am off on holiday and we need to pack the camera!

2nd June, 2012 Mind Your Own Business

One of the hardest things to do when sharing a field with a more dominant horse is to get you horse out safely without interference. The art is to be able to use body language on the other horses without upsetting your own horse. For the owner of the dominant horse it can be equally frustrating to find out that other people have perhaps been using a whip or shouting at your horse and, if anything, making it more aggressive. My last call of the day was to an owner who has two horses where one dominates the other and has taken to moving the mare away from the lady that rides her and then intimidating the lady too.

We worked on using effective body language to ask the larger of the two horses to stop, move away and to mind his own business, keeping it quiet and reasonable at all times but meaning it. By the middle of the short session, the lady was able to use very low key body language to stop the horse and ask him not to interfere which didn't upset the horse that she did want. In fact horses are very good at knowing which body language is meant for them and which is not.

This was in fact my second session with this horse this week. When we met on Tuesday, the owner and I had worked on catching and grooming the horse. Three days later and the owner can catch him in the field using clicker.

They say that routine is good for a horse (I don't necessarily agree) but this horse has been slowly establishing a routine that his owner had to adhere to meticulously in order to get him in to the yard, catch him and eventually brush him. This entailed persuading him to follow a bucket, allowing him a certain number of minutes to settle and eat, having his head collar on and then having more minutes before he would be brushed. Bit by bit the horse has been getting worse and the required procedure even longer. Looking at it, I could see that the horse was ambivalent about being caught and brushed and was trying to say something to the owner about the way he was being approached and touched. In fact, he wasn't just saying it, he was shouting it as loud as he could. 

It seemed to me that there was an awful lot of tickly touch going on around the horse's nose and then with various brushes. The more he fidgeted and complained, the more tentative the owner got and the more irritated the horse became - to the point where he will either leave if he isn't tied up or half rear if he is. Further investigation showed that a deep flat touch with a good hard dandy brush was what he wanted and then he stood still and became sweeter and sweeter. There is so much tickly touch going on around horses and I wonder why we do it. Certainly if someone touched me that way I would scream and probably hit them because I have sensory perception dysfunction but sure no-one can enjoy having their face meddled with and being tickled with a soft brush (don't answer that). Honestly, go up to the next person you meet and start tickling their face with your hands and while you're at it, give them a mighty big pat. No doubt we'll see one of you in court.

Email received 25th June, 2012: "C-horse is 100% better with his head collar but still not 100%, I can now bring him in from the field, albeit a little reluctantly.  Charlotte is able to get T-horse in, C-horse still gives her "black looks" but is not overly threatening.  We are working with your excellent advice and he is getting better." JS

 

2nd June, 2012 Patience and all the time in the world

Got up at 5.30 a.m. this morning to make sure that I had time to catch Anna before Matt the farrier turned up and to ensure that she got her feet done before I go away on holiday. It's been almost three months since I saw her last and I was absolutely delighted when she walked up to me and asked me to catch her. That has never happened before and indicates a really significant change in her attitude to people. It also meant that she had time for a grooming session and a healing session from Karen before Matt arrived. She scored ten out of ten for her behaviour with him too.

Next it was back to the Forest to work with a seven year old Thoroughbred eventer that objects to being injected by rearing and running backwards. The vet has indicated that she wants to twitch the horse the next time she comes. Within an hour of my arrival, and with front feet not even coming a millimetre off the floor in unison, this horse had been mock injected by me, M, Mum and Dad on every part of his neck and back whilst loose in the school and then in the stable in exchange for a click and a treat every time. We imitated the vet as far as we possibly could by waling directly up to the horse in an efficient manner, taking hold of the head-collar, looking him directly in the eye and pressing really hard with the needle-less syringe in both an intra-muscular and intra-venous position. With practise, which for them will include wearing something that smells of a vet (i.e. of anaesthetic) and over six months to go before the next annual vaccination is due, they should hopefully be able to convince the horse that the real thing is just a 'bad one' and carry on as normal.

Almost before I got home I received this email from S's owner: "I just want to say a huge thank you for your work with Splodge today. For me, the most amazing aspect was his reaction to you in the first few minutes of going in to his stable - with any other stranger he would have at least moved back and been wary, or even hidden in a corner while assessing your intention - his reaction told me a lot about both him and you.



I know there is no certainty that he will accept the vet next time, but at least we understand what we can do to try and help him.Many, many thanks again for today, Meg, Simon and I were incredibly impressed with your approach and understanding - you are a real breath of fresh air."SV

1st June, 2012 Kinky boots

What do your riding boots say about your riding position?!!

1st June, 2012 Eager Eagles

 All day clinic at Gleneagles Equestrian Centre today for three of the liveries. First job, wake Murphy up! We covered groundwork and desensitisation for all three horses and it was fascinating to compare and contrast the reactions of each horse and to work at their individual pace. Talking of which Murphy did a very fine funereal walk when asked to match his owner step for step.

We carried on with some of the ridden work that we did with Shay on Monday, thinking 1,2,3,1,2,3 to achieve the perfect canter transition.

We finished with baby Roo, a seven year old Irish horse who coped with all sorts of distractions including a digger right outside the school and my rather loud shirt.

Email from BW: "We are holding a yard dressage championships over the summer and, the day after we came out to you, Shay and I did our qualifier. We won, with 70%, and the judges commented that his paces were very consistent and unforced - perhaps due to the counting and breathing exercises we were putting into practice?!"