17th March, 2015 The Brave Girls Club

Tilly's non-ridden session this morning was in two parts. First of all I short reined her. Although she has been short reined before it has always been out and about and she wasn't sure there was much point in doing things in a paddock. Short reining is great for encouraging a horse to go forwards, desensitising them to the white noise of something resting against their sides, and introducing the action of the bit.

Using the fenceline as a guide

Tilly is not sure she wants me against her side - note ears back and flicking tail

Asking her to soften to the bit by just closing the hand

Part two was a walk out to go and see a bit of traffic...she's braver than a  brave thing about traffic.

Apparently there's some roadworks along here

Making sure the road was totally clear and following the gorse cutter

Apparently bags of horse compost

When we arrived at Sarah's she was doing some loading training with Jaz.

Handy having a massive horse lorry in your yard.

Jaz couldn't care less about traffic on the way down to the woods and it comes by pretty fast

Learning to short rein on the move