18th August, 2013 Take it to the Bridge

I'm working with a number of novice owners at the moment - not necessarily novice in terms of the number of years that they have owner horses but novice as owners of young, inexperienced horses. When I get the initial telephone call or email I can hear a definite oh-oh buzzer in my head, rather like the one that goes off in Family Fortunes if you can bear to watch it. If the horse is a really recent purchase and is already exhibiting difficult behaviour then part of my advice is always to put the last owner on notice that they are having problems. It's not necessarily that I think that the horse should go back but to make sure that the owner still has their options open. Quite often the horse has come from somewhere that they couldn't contemplate the horse going back to or they have fallen totally in love with the horse already. It may be that they have no cause for complaint anyway but people who are trying to get shut of a horse will often lie about whether their horse is really suitable for a novice.

These days there are significant barriers to people get all round experience with horses. The days when teenagers spent all day at the riding school bringing ponies in, turning them out, grooming them and moving them around in return for rides are long gone. College courses may offer a very limited band width of experience too. I meet very few people who have real experience of young horses, traumatised horses or remedial horses. Even experienced people have gaps and all too often experienced horses have gaps. Both can be short on mileage too.

For novice owners the gap needs to be filled by a quest for knowledge, practical and theoretical and of good quality. Time and patience are one thing but they also need good techniques. Love and luck may breach the gap in some cases but success can be the enemy of excellence. The most vulnerable time for owners and horses is when there is a gap - both run the risk of injury and accidents and loss of confidence. For the horse they may be wrecked for life.

The bigger the experience gap, the more time, patience and money you will need to spend to bridge that gap. I wouldn't deny anyone their dreams for their horse but this is a simple truth.

Click on the diagram to see a clearer version

Ultimately my advice would be choose your horse carefully and to have strict criteria written down. Try not to fall in love with the first horse you see and stand back and really think about whether a given horse is really suitable for a novice. Take an experienced friend with you. Make sure you see the horse ridden in a school and out and about and then ride the horse yourself. Choosing the wrong horse can be expensive and heartbreaking. 

I accept that there are exceptions to every rule (and I would be inundated with good examples of this) but typically young horses are not suitable for novices nor are breeds such as the Welsh Cob, Warmbloods, Thoroughbreds and Arabs; any horse with a quirky problem or remedial problems; or any horse that needs to learn something that you won't be able to teach him. 

17th August, 2013 The Caneven Horses

How often has your confidence been undermined by comments from other people? "Her horse can't even....", "She can't even...". The weekend is a good time to remind yourself of what your horse CAN EVEN do. When you think what a horse's natural instinct is to do and yet they can even be caught, have their feet picked up, follow a pressure, allow a predator on their backs, leave their friends, and so on...it's amazing. Horses are naturally co-operative creatures, willing to give up their natural instincts if they are inspired to do so. 

16th August, 2013 Lost Resort?

Early start to the day with short-reining and then riding for Jazz. She wore the jingle-bells breast plate and didn't think anything of it.

She'd clearly had enough of me by the time that Charly rode her and felt that I was cramping her style as she tried to bite me!. Hopefully we will be able to go 'off-line' next time and then she'll only have one person to listen to. I blame Queen Victoria who, in an attempt to 'improve' the breed loaned a couple of Arabian stallions to the New Forest Commoners. As a result even supposedly pure bred New Forest ponies have some Arabian traits such as the Arabian neck twist. Ponies like Jazz are always saying "I know! I know!" and getting a little ahead of themselves. Not really a bad trait to have.

After this Lindy and I went off to a horse that is fine to load into a trailer but a really difficult unloader. Happy to load, happy to stand in the trailer and happy to travel, he still comes out of the front of the trailer like a bullet which we can only put down to the fact that he has been knocked by a few of the slam gates on the Forest and the sides of the front door of the trailer since. This has been going on for a year or more and gradually but surely getting worse so that the bar only has to come down for him to be off. It's impossible to stop him with the head collar alone and it wouldn't be a good idea to stand in his way.

I started off by teaching him to back out of the trailer so that the owner has a good fall back position.  He has never been asked to do this before. Although he was a little bit worried about it at first, he backed off calmly and slowly, step by step and grew more confident as we practised without speeding up or making the decision to back off without being asked.

With that in place we took a good look at what was happening when he was asked to unload through the front ramp. He was very happy to accept clickered treats at intervals but at this early stage they had no influence over whether he was prepared to stand still in the trailer once the bar was down. Unloading into a panelled area didn't slow him down either although it did mean he was safe once he had gone out. The answer maybe to recreate a similar scenario for him where clickered treats might be used to reward him for simply standing still and waiting. I just hope that in a situation where I am perhaps the last resort it isn't actually a lost resort.

15th August, 2013 Jazz Club

Isaac quickly graduated to a long rein out on the Forest. Going out on the tracks does give him a real sense of direction and purpose.

 Jazz went for a short walk to assess her energy levels.

We asked her to walk around with Charly's chaps over her so that she could get used to something occasionally touching her front legs. Charly has pretty long legs (I'm not sure whether they are actually pretty or not) and might touch a pony's legs by accident when riding them. In this way they are desensitised to that possibility.

Second ride and walking around in large circles this time. I can't extol the virtues of work riders like Charly and Jake (yesterday) enough. These early sessions are some of the most critical in a horse's life and a cool head  and a calm attitude are an absolute must. Jazz spooked at something while he was on board today and it was hard to predict whether that reaction would escalate as a result of the sudden movement of a rider. It's so important that the rider doesn't suddenly grip, tense up or even say anything, even if their adrenalin takes a might big spike. Fortunately Jazz came to a halt after just a little scoot forwards and a tight turn.

14th August, 2013 Team Meetings

A very successful day all round. First Julie (Chancer's previous owner), me, and Nicky (Chancer's new loaner), all met up at Hartsop Farm to see how Chancer was getting on. Ian, Sandy and especially Jake have done a great job of re-establishing Chancer's ridden work so that he is happy going out along the roads on his own and popping the odd jump. This was Nicky's last chance to make sure he is the horse for her pending his arrival at her yard. The contract is now signed and all being well he will be gift-wrapped and beribboned in her stable next Monday evening.

I must admit that I am no great fan of the Dutch gag bit, especially when it is used with a single jointed mouthpiece. The mouthpiece tells the horse to lift up his head and the curb tells him to put it back down. Nevertheless I could see that this set up had taught Chancer not to lean on the bit and trundle around on his forehand. We'll be working our way through the bit collection to find something that does the same job but without the potential confusion.

Horses at Hartsop have to be trailered out to quiet roads for hacking. This means the horse is followed everywhere by the truck and trailer, something else that is pretty good for their education.

Even quiet roads have their fair share of hazards but Chancer wasn't fazed by any of them.

Nicky riding Chancer in the school. We'll be shortening those stirrups.

Next it was time for team Jazz to meet up at the fields. Jazz was backed for the first time and seemed pretty calm about the whole idea.

 A little lean, followed by a little lick...

Charly on board bareback and moving in small circles. Later we introduced a saddle and Charly finished with another lean over.

And finally Team Isaac finished with his introduction to long reining. Between step one, walking around with the surcingle on, and step six, long reining solo, there's a number of exercises we do to assess his likely reaction to the reins. We want to avoid him taking off with the long reins. Step five is to use a dual control (Julie!) to show him what we would like him to do.

13th August, 2013 Bushcraft

A slightly quieter day today since Theoden and I went for a lesson this morning. Round trip this takes three hours for a one hour session but was well worth it. It allows me to socialise Theoden with other horses as they are working and we also learn something too. However, my key learning point this week is that Western riders by their jeans 4" too long so that you can''t see their socks when they're riding.

My major priority for the last year with Theoden has been to get him out hacking, enjoying himself and going forward. With another clinic with Amanda Barton looming, I realise that I have got a lot of work to do to achieve the same in a school where he feels stuffy and resentful. To be honest, anything more than hacking is a bonus so if I have to settle for what I have got, I will.

Even with the poles on the ground it all feels like a bit of an effort.

This afternoon the plan had been to take Sampson out on another trailer ride and Forest walk but when the opportunity came to turn him out with a five year old pony, Theresa jumped at it. Since the two years olds that he was in with all left Sampson has been back in with the old fogies. Lovely as they are they don't teach him anything because they are so relentlessly benevolent to him no matter how provocative he is. Now he can have another wild adventure with his new field mate and they can play Cowboys and Indians and Hide and Seek all day.

12th August, 2013 Pony Ability - Top Tips

Isaac's education continues apace and he is willing to give everything a go. Nevertheless it's important not to assume that he will be fine with everything and to use logical and incremental steps to ask him to accept new experiences. Here are some of my top tips:

One: When introducing the feather duster it's important to touch less controversial areas first - such as the shoulder or the side of the nose before touching the pony's feet.

Two: When asking a pony to touch something new, avoid him taking it into his mouth.If he becomes worried he is likely to clamp his teeth and frighten himself. If he takes off then he will take the item with him and frighten himself even more.

Three: Place yourself between the pony and the thing that he might be frightened of. Quite often you'll feel them ask if you are frightened of it.

Four: When standing at a height next to a pony use a deep flat touch on his back to make it a pleasant experience.

Five: When negotiating more complicated obstacles make sure that the obstacle is sturdy but relatively easy to dismantle.

Six: Go through each obstacle at least three times so that you end on the calmest note.

Seven: Sometimes just stop and wait and allow the pony to investigate things for himself.

Eight: To slow a pony down try acting as if you have lost 50p. He'll help you to look.

Nine: On narrow obstacles make sure that you aim for the centre of the obstacle and control the pony's feet.


Not to be outdone, Jazz negotiated all of the obstacles too.