2nd April, 2012 Never too old for Pony Club

I have had a wonderful afternoon talking to and demonstrating techniques to the New Forest Hounds Pony Club. All of the children and young adults there were an absolute credit to their Club. They were quiet and attentive and participated when asked. It really was a pleasure.

Leading practise with Hip-Hop and two young members of the pony club. Here we are working on counted stops to ask him to stop when we stop.

Some human-to-human work, a great way of developing feel and intent. This 'horse' was particularly tricky but within a few minutes she just found it easier to co-operate and to accept gentle leadership.

The weather was gorgeous and the audience was great.

Desensitisation work with Strider, Hobbit and Hip-Hop. 

Strider is reputedly worried about lunge ropes and being lunged. Taking it all very slowly, we desensitised him to the lines before long reining him for the first time.

Romy was brought home from Menorca and since then has been difficult to load. He's half Menorquin horse and half Standard-Bred. You can see in the last but one photograph that although he is prepared to move his front feet when asked, he tends to leave his back legs planted into the ground as far away as possible. Nevertheless he loaded three times in a row - and we ended on that good note.

All of these superb photos were taken by Savannah and what a great job she did. 

"My goodness, just looked at your BLOG - you are soooo slim. I am so used to seeing you in lots of layers through the winter that now you have peeled them off the true extent of your amazing weight loss can be - well done you! I will hop onto the sponsor site and sponsor you too as I have also experienced the pain of a relative suffering from dementia and it is the slow cruelty of losing them before they actually go!" CH