21st September, 2014 Give Us a Twirl!

As I went across the Forest this morning I was thinking about how the love for a horse can fill your heart but also your lungs and your head. That's how I feel about all of mine. As I turned the corner I met this jenny donkey and her newborn foal. I think I would have room in my heart for another one!

 

Our only appointment today was to go and see Lenki, a Throughbred cross who is having difficult getting his head around the idea of loading into a rear facing horsebox. Yes, we have talked about the safety aspects of these horseboxes with the owner and she purposely went out to find one with a sturdy and high back partition.

Lenki is willing to put his feet on the ramp and is rewarded with a click and a treat...

...but then runs backwards when he is asked to step forward any more. He needs to walk right into the corner before he turns towards the back partition.

With the panels in place he was willing to go on board and would happily turn anti-clockwise but that wouldn't help him to be in the right place for travelling. He just didn't seem to be able to get it and it was as if he thought the box was far too small when he was being asked to turn that way.

We practised clock-wise turns in the panelled area and then began to practise in the box...

Head for the left hand corner...

...and turn...

 ...nearly there...

...not rushing out. With this all in place we all decided this was a good time to stop today.

"I am chuffed to bits. The photos really do tell the story. I am so proud of Lenki and impressed with the way you worked with him :-)" RMcV

20th September, 2014 Commercial Break

It's been almost a year since I last saw Dalai, a Hanoverian filly. There was some important stuff on her list such as teaching her to be tied up and putting a rug on her for the first time. She's happy to be doing anything new but infuriated by anything boring like leading and standing still. We had our work cut out at times.

Irish Cob, Gaelic, watched on with interest before starting her own session. This four year old has been trained beautifully for Western riding by her loaner (she's a Blue Cross horse) and Michael Langford.

June asked me to work on asking her to stand still throughout the mounting process as she has a tendency to walk off just as June puts her foot in the right stirrup. I checked and those spurs do not touch her inadvertently at any time.

Gaelic is well used to learning cues. For instance she knows that feet forward means halt and therefore it was pretty straightforward to give her a cue for halt and then click her for standing perfectly still.

We then switched this to a variable schedule of reinforcement so that I could click as I put my foot in the stirrup and she would wait, click as I put my bottom ion the saddle, click for the second stirrup and then click, click, click treat for standing still throughout. This meant that she could be asked to stand still for an extended period of time.

"It was lovely to meet you and for Gaelic and I to work with you .We have been practicing with both of the mounting blocks and both in the school and the yard, She gets it every time ...."JM

Once this diversion was over and Dalai had had a while to rest, it was time for a second session with her and another clear case of her being much happier with something definite to do.

20th September, 2014 Katie M

My motorbike training expert has gone out to train his motorbike today. He's dressed for a lot of fun and is going trail riding all the way to Thruxton, watching some car racing, and then riding back. He deserves a rest after cutting up all that wood.

If you book a training session for your motorbike shy horse, this comes free and is also available in leather!

"Excellent hack out in the Forest today, Oscar learning that cantering with a buddy doesn't have to mean race ! Had our first encounter with a motorbike since all the training with Sarah Weston last year, with a little support from Semote and some clicking and treats he was a really good boy !" SM on Facebook

19th September, 2014 Annie the Appaloosa

Annie the Appaloosa went out for some traffic training this morning. She's another horse that has only just arrived with her owner and, although she was backed and ridden for six weeks, she has not met much in the way of traffic at all. It became clear though that she needed some basic groundwork first to establish some control of her body and some control of her emotions. These two are so closely connected and the art is to establish some basic ground rules such as you must not run me over and you must not overtake me so that you can connect with her body and then connect with her mind. 

"Thank you Sarah, I came away from our session thinking that a few extra weeks input now will make all the difference to my relationship and partnership with Annie long term, and also my ability to keep her safe!" MJ

19th September, 2014 Rear Facing Horsebox?

If you travel your horse in a rear facing horsebox at any time I would urge you to go and read about a very recent incident which was dealt with by the FRS Animal Rescue Team when this horse went over the back partition. Friends of Hampshire Animal Rescue Team  It is possible to have a retro fit to prevent this sort of accident happening.

18th September, 2014 Moving House

I've literally driven around in circles today. My first stop was to see a new client and her pony that she has had for just over six weeks. Since moving the pony seems to be fairly insecure and has been difficult to lead. The priority seemed to be to set her up with some good groundwork and this worked very well.

This is a fairly common scenario for me to deal with and there are a few common factors in the horses I meet in these situations:

1. The horse seems to be absolutely fine in their old home; settled and calm, confident and working well.
2. The change of environment is sudden and significant and there is absolutely no common link to the old home in terms of humans or horses.
3. The management regime in the new home is significantly different to the old home - in terms of food and turn out. Changes in feed content or grass available can make a real difference as can suddenly keeping the horse in for long periods of time.
4. The horse has no company in the field when it had company before or is separated from other horses by electric fencing when it wasn't before. The horse cannot therefore engage in all important synchronising and mutual grooming activities
5. The horse has had some time off from work at either address
6. The new owner trains and works their horse in a completely different way.

As I left the first client, I spotted this group of young Thoroughbreds all in one field. A useful reminder of what horses will do if they are allowed to socialise. Horses kept in groups tend not to get separation anxiety when they are asked to be alone. Horses that have been isolated from others make up their minds that they are never going to let it happen again and cling to any new companion.

However, it is also important to consider whether there are any medical problems which may have been present before the horse arrived, have started since, or may have even started on the journey!

My second call of the day was to meet a client in a very similar situation. Her new horse had a long and arduous journey from her old home and the horse's behaviour changed almost as soon as she arrived in her new home. All of the symptoms and behavioural changes pointed to gastric ulcers and today she had arranged for her horse to have a gastroscopy with expert vet Tim Brazil. I'd gone along to give her support and found myself literally supporting her horse's head while she was under sedation with the camera exploring her stomach.

The vet confirmed that the horse had a significant number of Grade Two ulcers and confirmed that they could have been caused by the stress of the journey. Worrying that it can all happen so easily and from one event.

The list of symptoms for gastric ulcers is absolutely vast and it's only when two or three are present that owners become aware that there horse is a candidate for gastric ulcers.

Last stop of the day was very straightforward. I introduced Sampson to clippers in readiness for the winter. We could only clip along his mid-line as he is going to a show in a couple of weeks but he accepted it easily.

This is just the time of year to start getting a horse used to clippers before the winter weather sets in and it has to be done for real.

17th September, 2014 Deforestation

What, no photographer?

After an early morning training walk with Kestrel, there was just time to say hello to his new field companion,Ollie before going out of county and on to the next three ponies.

Gorgeous hair

The first pony, Poppy, needed a little work on her leading - no mean feat when walking her over the lushest grass you have ever seen. She had taken to putting her ears flat back and overtaking her owner in order to get to the grass. This is instinctive behaviour developed even as a foal when they overtake the mare in order to stop her and take a drink.

The children's other riding pony is a young Welsh Section C. He's a pretty solid sort of character for his age and breed but he does occasionally worry about drain covers and passing through narrow places. It seemed a sensible idea to show his owner how to accustom him to a variety of new objects using techniques which can be applied to almost everything he might meet.

Next, an appointment I have been looking forward to for some time since I first met Marilyn at a Monty Demo late last year! Marilyn has done some fantastic work with her pony, Pye and I was just asked to fill in any gaps I could find. There weren't very many!

The right hand turn is a real opportunity to influence the movement of the horse - asking them to yield out of your way.

She was really curious about the umbrella

Chasing the bike - believe it or not, Marilyn is making motorbike noises! Next time, the real thing!

We finished with long reining. Although Pye was absolutely fine about being directed at walk, she wasn't so comfortable about making upward transitions. Rather than asking her to go into trot and stay in trot, I worked on asking her just to calmly go up a gear and then come straight back down again. Hopefully this will take the anxiety and anticipation out of the equation.