April, 2006 (2)

Towards the end of April, the Welsh Cob pony goes home having not put a foot wrong and the New Forest pony goes home with a brand new saddle on order. The next two (ahem!) ponies then arrive, a 13.3 hh Welsh cross and then a 17.1h.h. Friesian cross, both for starting. Little Ollie is being led about and is waiting to have his "plums" removed next week. He is so happy to be around people now and I can even handle him when he is lying down. His owner came to see him last week and was very happy with the results so far.

Out on the Forest, the New forest mares are having their foals. The last couple of months have been so cold and wet that some of them are in a poor condition. They have not been this bad since Foot and Mouth year. I have been supplementing my own ponies' feed but they have now wandered off to Longcross and I think they have a man with them! One of the Woodgreen ponies has had a foal that we have called Whisker, he is Vigo's brother.





On the last day of April, I took Petra to a Hilary Vernon clinic to be bitted. Since giving up the Spirit bitless bridle, Petra has always worn a Myler but has not been as happy as I would have liked. Today Hilary tried her in a Myler Combination with quite dramatic results. I am looking forward to working her in this bit and seeing whether this is the answer we have been looking for. I also bought a selection of Mylers for the horses that come in for training. I really don't like working a horse in a in a single jointed or French link snaffle, these mouthpieces pinch and can cause enormous discomfort to a horse.

April, 2006 (1)

What a splendid start to the month. The sun has come out, the grass is growing and plenty of work to do. I started working with the Welsh Cob pony at the weekend and she is a star. I rode her over the obstacle course on the third day that she was here and she didn't bat an eyelid. In the meantime Patty and I went out to two loaders and got them loading one after the other very easily. The one that had been a particualr problem is much more relaxed now and will walk on with the partition in the fixed position and no longer backs out. These two were followed by a visit to 13 tiny Shetland ponies. One of them was being incredibly difficult whenever his mouth had to be handled and almost impossible to worm. I sat down on an upturned bucket to work with him and he really seemed to appreciate that! In a relatively short time I was able to stick my fingers into his mouth and rub his gums and teeth and then to stick a wormer syringe into his mouth and let him mouth it like a bit. I'm sure it's not pleasant for horses to have foreign objects stuck in their mouths but at least if he is used to his mouth being handled, worming and bitting won't be the horrible shock that they can be to some horses. His owner is going to be putting nice things on the syringe for him to lick at and then fill it up with sweet apple sauce to practice with.
The day after this we met a super New forest pony who is a dream to ride, loves endurance, sweet to handle but just won't go anywhere on her own, ever. I did manage to ask her to go out along a track with some protests but it will take a lot of consistency and persistency to persuade her that this is a normal thing to do. I am hoping that long-reining her will help to build up her confidence and help her to accept that she can go out alone.
I went to see Mary Wanless at Quob on 5th April. She was on very good form and had us all feeling our seat bones. I was relieved to be able to find mine.
I taught Horace something new this week, to stay with me when I fall off. I managed to lose a lot of skin off my fingers but at least he didn't go home alone. I then long-reined another pony in the long rain and got very very wet. What a day.... I quite enjoyed it really and am always pleased to find that I am still alive when I'm lying on the floor.
Just before Easter I have my busiest week to date - with a mobile customer every morning and then four horses plus my own to work with in the afternoons and evenings. For example, Monday I spent an hour with the Ollie, then went to do groundwork with two horses and two sisters, came back to the yard to practise load Bobbin and Petra, rode the Welsh Cob pony out on her own for the first time, took the Hackney pony and the New Forest pony out for a confidence building walk, loaded a non-loader who came in at 4 p.m. and the worked with the Ollie for another hour. I finished my horse reports at 9 p.m. and went to bed at 10 p.m. Tuesday, I backed a 17.1 Friesian cross out at the other side of Salisbury, rode the Welsh Cob pony out with Patty on Bobbin, did groundwork and the obstacle course and some mounting work with the Hackney and the New Forest pony (all in the pouring rain) and then worked with Ollie in the barn for an hour. This is to say nothing of the poo-picking and hay carrying that goes on during the intervals.
Sadly, Patty and I decided to go our seperate ways at Easter and Bobbin has moved back to Burley.
On Easter Monday I took great delight in riding past the same set of picnickers on three different horses. As I use the same green endurance bridle for each horse, I did wonder whether they thought I was riding a chameleon. Both the New Forest pony and the Welsh Cob are riding out well on their own and I took them to see the pigs up at the farm by the pub. Joy of joys, I put Ollie's headcollar on for the first time on Tuesday. That's the longest it has ever taken me to put a headcollar on a so-called untouched pony, but this poor little mite had had an awful time going through various auctions before he was bought by his present owner. When I first went into his stable with a headcollar just in my hand, he started to climb the walls, eight days later and he lets me rest it on his neck, back and bottom and then has it on. He looks even more beautiful in a green and black headcollar. Next step, leading ...

March, 2006 (4)

I went to work at the Margaret Green Foundation Trust in Church Knowle, Dorset for the day. All the staff and the volunteers at the Trust are really nice people and some of them had come in on their day off to do the training and to see me work with the horses. The Trust does it's best to re-home their horses and wants to put them in the best position to settle in with someone new. I worked with ponies called Flame, Squirrel, Velvet, Belle and a big Bulgarian donkey called Maisie. All of these animals have difficult stories and yet their capacity to forgive is remarkable. Because of the way that they have been treated in the past, many of them have had to be "the leader" when a human is around and some of them have learnt to barge through people and move them around. With a little groundwork it was great to see them accepting their human leader and being able to relax for the first time in a long time. At the end of the day I worked with a little black Shetland pony that had been kept in a tiny pen for 8 months so that children could pet it. The Trust is doing its best to rebuild the pony's confidence and physical health. Alistair, the Trust manager and Amanda, the Stable Manager are very enlightened and want to do all their rehabilitation work without recourse to violence in any form; these ponies have been through enough.
The last week in March was filled with emergency cases - a 15 month old Dartmoor colt, an exquisite miniature version of the Lloyd's Bank horse, that was too wild to handle and an Appaloosa cross who launches himself at people to bite them. On the last day of March, Patty, Nikki and I took advantage of our free ticket into Somerley Park horse trials and had a lovely day watching fit and beautiful horses jumping solid and daunting cross-country fences. At lunchtime we managed to sit at the same table as Bettina Hoy - Patty started to talk to her in German and then Bettina was asking us about the type of work we do and how the New Forest works. Her first competition pony was a New Forest pony. This tiny lady was so warm and friendly and genuinely interested in what we do. I told her all about the biting horse and she wanted to know the outcome. It really made our day, week and month.
I am looking forward to a new ponies arriving on 1st April and then two more on the 8th. All three have already been started but for one reason or another two of them have had a break for a while and the third one is just lacking in confidence. I shall really enjoy comparing and contrasting. One is a Hackney Cross, another Welsh Cob cross and the other a New Forest Pony. The little Dartmoor pony, Ollie is also coming in for handling. He is so delicious.......

March, 2006 (3)

Went to see Michael Peace doing a demonstration at Hurstbourne Priors. I really enjoyed watching this quiet man work with the horses. There was no drama and the horses all made extremely good progress from a nervous youngster walking over a bridge, a New Forest pony having its ears touched for the first time in several years and an older horse being asked to listen and go through a gateway as directed. His timing is immaculate and his signals very black and white. I like the way he rewarded horses by taking them for a walk - a horse is driven by instinct to move forwards.
Out on the Forest, Blue has absconded with some Shetland ponies and is making her way up to the Nursing Home. Pie and Nell are still hovering around my fields in the hope that I might let them in to the big bale of haylage again. I have given the them some haylage to keep them warm and happy but have hardened my heart and kept the gate closed. (Later the three of them gave me kittens by wandering off to Telegraph Hill, one of the worst accident blackspots on the Forest. I made them life members of the Tufty Club and was very relieved when they turned up back at Fritham again).
My Safari Party on 25th March was a great success much enhanced by the arrival of a Black Forest Gateau and a lot of wine. It seems we are all getting too old for dancing though.

March, 2006 (2)

The show season must be fast approaching as all my customers this week have been non-loaders. A recurrent problem seems to be horses that will load to go but not to come back (perhaps they don't want to!!). Anyway, I was wondering whether it would be worth setting myself up as a loading service at local shows.......
Patty and I attended a bitting clinic by Hilary Vernon on Saturday, 11th March. What she doesn't know about bitting isn't really worth knowing. She was pleased to hear that I start all my youngsters with Myler Comfort Snaffles. She abhors Dutch Gags the way I do and was able to show me how nasty they really are. Why don't the competition authorities and the Pony Club ban these bits? They pinch the tongue and when the third curb ring is used they drive the bit down into the tongue. When the pony lifts its head up to avoid the pressure then a martingale and flash noseband usually follow. Hilary doesn't work exclusively for Myler and designs bits to suit the horse and rider's needs. We watched for horses being transitioned into new bits and then gently working in them. The improvements were immediate and significant..
Blue, Nell and Pie went out onto the Forest at the weekend. I had hoped that they would stick around so that I could let them in again later and gradually leave them out for longer and longer each day. We were able to trail them for half and hour and then they simply vanished. It's a big decision for me and I just hope they get through their first few days without an incident..... after that they should be fine.

March, 2006 (1)

This week, Patty, Sheila and I and I have been working with a pony that will load into the trailer but only to travel loose. We had to persuade her that she was fine and to accept contact with the partition and the back bars. This horse had previously been a complete non-loader and had also been frightened of going in the stable or through gate ways. We broke the training down to really small steps, working on entering the trailer with the partition to one side, opening and closing the partition down, ducking under the breast bar and back again, putting up the back bar and so on. On Friday I was able to load her completely on my own. It seems that once she understood that not every movement in front of her, down her side or at her bottom was not significant, she could relax and stay where she was. She is going to new owners tomorrow so it is hoped that they will try to load her sympathetically and not take it for granted that she will load like an old hand.
Trailer travelling is a very bizarre concept to a horse. Any horse, especially one that has been wild, will know by instinct (and because it's mother told it) not to get its head or feet caught up, not to get trapped in small spaces and not to go indoors when it is windy or noisy. Who knows what my creep up and eat you?! You'll note that we don't use full length travelling boots as we find these cause more trouble than they cure; horses feel as if their legs are tied together and that they can't move and they may also get too hot. We find a travelling rug does help ponies who avoid touching the partition and walls.

February, 2006

Had my first riding lesson of 2006 and Petra's first ever. She was such a good girl. I need to stop treating her like another one of the baby horses and present her with something more challenging! I have booked her in for the Rockbourne Ride in a few weeks. That'll certainly wake her up! There's always lots of horses there and we can have a go over the cross country jumps.
Went to the RA conference and discussed exciting things for the future. We had talks on the Port Lewis Impression Pad (good for looking for pressure areas under saddles); the Rocking S snaffle and the Tui Loading Bar.
From the 15th to 26th I went down to Exmoor again to work with some Exmoor ponies and to house-sit at West Hollowcombe.This house and cottages are situated in the highest village on Exmoor and the scenery is stunning. Apart from making a few beds for some holiday guests, we could do pretty much what we wanted. David worked with Bertie again and had a great success with him, eventually leading him onto a trailer to go to his new home on a conservation project on the Blackdown Hills. Bertie will never find people easy but he had really begun to trust David. I worked with an untouched colt called Billy and was filmed by the BBC on the first and last days. Billy was an absolute star and went from frightened baby to confident boy within just a few days. When the cameras came back he would lead around the yard and investigate some obstacles (a rocking horse and a bicycle) and then follow me over a tarpaulin. He also chewed the presenter's hat and washed his car! I also had the opportunity to work with Merrion again. I refreshed his groundwork and taught him to long rein and eventually got on his back for just a few minutes. While we were on the moor, Carol Barnett came to work with us for a couple of days and we had a very enjoyable walk with the two resident ponies although there seemed an awful lot of uphill. The plans for the Open Day of the Exmoor Pony Centre (owned by the Moorland Mousie Trust) are going well.
By contrast we saw some pretty appalling horsemanship while we were down there. The traditional method of halter-breaking these ponies involved tying them up to a post and in this case leaving them for hours. This pony had lost half its hair through a combination of stress, rain-scald and malnutrition. Val is negotiating to have this pony gifted to the Trust. If it doesn't happen very soon then the RSPCA will have to be called. It's a difficult line to tread because without the commoners co-operation there would be no Trust and without the fosterers and eventual purchasers there would be nowhere for these ponies to go other than for meat. In another livery yard I saw six horses that are never turned out and rarely ridden. There are two Exmoors, one cob, a thoroughbred and it's two year old son and another warmblood type all cooped up in airless dirty stables with hardly any room to move and filthy thin bedding with nothing to look at all day but the outside wall. The mare was extremely dull and her son was lethargic and had no muscle at all. I also had the misfortune to see their saddles - hard as rock, lumpy and far too narrow. They are all owned by a teenager who thinks she knows how to look after horses. I am rarely faced with such misery but I have been out to the odd client where I have had an ethical dilemma about whether to work with them or call the RSPCA straight away. The RSPCA's powers seem to be so limited and certainly don't cover mental welfare so I often feel that it is better to work with the owners to improve their understanding and change their attitude and then monitor the situation thereafter.

The day after got back from Exmoor I attended a First Aid for Horses Course at a fellow RA's yard. It was good to top up my knowledge and then top up my first aid kit. We spent the afternoon injecting apples with green food dye and I came home with a little green map in the furrows of my hand.