15th November, 2008 Strictly Foal Dancing

Susie and Gina came over today for a foal handling course. Mellow Mink is a handsome and sturdy chap and behaved beautifully. His owner seemed very pleased with the results. Three more on Monday and Tuesday and under cover (not like spies) too......what a luxury!

E-mails received: Hi Sarah! Thanks again for yesterday. Wish I'd seen one of your foal handling demos before I bred my first foal 14 yrs ago & also 12 yrs ago when I impulsively put my hand up & bid for the highest priced filly foal at the BR sales. After enticing him into the pen things went very well. Used the clicker training at first but then put the headcollar on & off a few times without.Did pressure and release on lead rope & he followed me around the pen in response. Kept the session short. Will keep you updated in a few days time. MH 17.11.08

MM's education progressing quite well. Am now catching him in small electric taped area {not electrified of course.}. You may collect pen anytime now as hopefully no longer needed. MH 24.11.08

E-mails from participants:

Thanks so much for sending all the pictures end the notes so quickly..I had an absolutely lovely day, and learnt so much…thank you.
GS 19.11.08

Just wanted to say thanks for course last Saturday, G and I enjoyed it v much and felt we learnt lots. The foal was such a smart little chap!
SF 20.11.08

12th November, 2008 They think it's Christmas

Today it was off to Oxfordshire to meet Anne and her new Dartmoor Hill pony and New Forest pony. These ponies have really landed on their feet and are now part of a menagerie which includes cats, dogs, pigs, goats, alapacas and reindeer. The reindeer above is called Stig but he tells me that he has never appeared on Top Gear.

E-mails received: Good grief Sarah - that was quick! You are so proffessional but so easy to be with - thankyou so much for everything you did - I am so grateful and so so lucky you could come today. I can't tell you how much better I feel about managing my ponies . I will go and read the report - I think it could be described as very comprehensive and substantial !!

And later….

What a difference a day makes!!! Had to tell you how today went. still felt some trepidation yesterday - hoping I could carry out the training you gave me. Went into the stable this morning, put the leadrope on and took Henry out and practiced everything you showed me and it worked! He went along with everything I did and I felt so pleased! He and Merlin had their feet done by the farrier and although I thought they were fidgety the farrier said they were good. Thank you so much Sarah I feel so much better and so much more confident, it's incredible. AW 13.11.08

11th November, 2008 Write!

Victor, one of 62 horses that have already taken up residence at the Glenda Spooner (World Horse Welfare) stables near Somerton, Somerset. We were very kindly allowed to use this as a venue for a meeting this morning. Having been here a few years ago when the yard was owned by a racehorse trainer, it was interesting to see the changes they are making. It will be a while before it is open to the public.

So, (read this quietly), I had a meeting with a publisher friend this morning to make plans for a book on handling the wild foal. All I've got to do now is write it.......

E-mail received: Thought I'd tell you that I used your "laying the table" technique on a little-touched 18-mnth-old Exmoor today, and it went swimmingly from both sides. There is a small - mini, really - herd of Exmoors grazing Greenham Common (well, they had to do something with the land after the Greenham Common Women left) and I was contacted by the couple who manage the ponies on behalf of the District Council. A very sweet little chap.
Joanna O’Neill 12.11.08

9th November, 2008 Here come the boys...

Zimbral, Lusitano stallion with immaculate manners.

I've now got a collection of clients who have taken on stallions with the intention of keeping them entire. The word stallion is derived from the phrase "stalled one", indicating that traditionally, stallions have been confined to barracks. Stallion owners have to make an informed decision about the way they want their stallions to live their lives and how they are going to balance the need to keep them safe against the need to keep them sane. Ideally stallions should be turned out regularly and allowed to socialise directly with other horses (or even a sheep or a goat) This way they are much less likely to become aggressive around humans and good consistent groundwork and varied ridden work means that stallions can be just as easy to handle as other horses.

E-mail received: I worked Zimbral yesterday but I just used body language for upward and downward transitions. He was so much calmer & very responsive. Afterwards my mum lead me round using the dually and he was very calm. We kept breathing out and he did too!
EB 12.11.08

1st November, 2008 250% at least

I've come to the conclusion that at least 75% of good horsemanship comes down to the right facilities. If you have a good pen with safe fencing and a way of funneling a horse into it, you can work with the wildest of ponies. Whereas, if you have manky fencing, no way of separating out other horses or only have 10 acre field with nothing smaller in which to direct the horse, you don't stand an earthly. If you're stuck on a yard where there are corridors between the fields made from barbed wire fencing and a gate which is falling off it's hinges at one end, you're not going to find it easy to insist on good manners when your horse is being assailed by geldings on one side and stampeding youngsters on the other.

Another 75% is technique - if you don't know what you should expect from your horse or how to ask him then you're a bit stuck too.

The next 75% is the right horse - if your horse is too big, too fast or has too many issues then that can make life difficult and a further 75% is money - it's so important to budget for training and knowledge when buying anything other than the most straightforward horse. Lots of people expect to pay for riding lessons at some stage in their riding career but groundwork lessons can be just as critical.

All of this adds to way over 100% but each block always appears to be bigger than any other when that's the one you're facing.

Talking of blocks....when I talk to an owner about their horse, I am often met with blocks. Sadly many are imposed by yard owners - my horse has to go out at such and such a time and come in at such and such a time and have his hay in a haynet and no, I can't put an electric fence corral up by the gate so that I can take my horse out of the field without being attacked by others. It is worth considering the blocks to see which are real and which are self imposed and how you might get round them. Could you get some hardcore for that muddy gateway, could you build a wooden bridge over the stream (Linda??) or could you build a pen with 6 foot high railings? I do wonder if our horses feel these blocks too and decide that it's not worth communicating with us at all.

1st November, 2008 Mental abuse?

I have been thinking about horsemanship systems which use the same equipment, for example a rope or a stick in parallel, to de-sensitize and to sensitize. For example, using a long rope to whizz over the horse's head and body whilst requiring the horse to stand stock still and get used to it and then using the very same rope to flick the horse very hard if it doesn't move off as quickly as the handler would like. It's not a good analogy but imagine a small child sitting in the kitchen - sometimes mother gets out a plate to put a delicious meal on it and every so often she breaks the plate over the child's head. Isn't the child likely to become very wary of plates whenever they appear but at the same time be too frightened to move? I'll try and think of a better analogy.

1st November, 2008 Brrrrrrr!

A cold, windy and wet end to the week. We managed to avoid the hunt this morning and Julie sat on Buster for the first time (if the picture was bigger you'd see the rain lashing down!). He then went home again after a week here being long-reined out on the Forest. We all got taught yet another lesson in trailers - as the back bar in his trailer is fastened by two clips which allowed the bar to lift and the pony to leave backwards. Very fortunately no harm done and he did re-load fairly readily. This time we put the ramp up immediately after the back bar and before the front bar. Not very keen on this Sinclair trailer that his owners had hired for the day. The partition only moves to one side at the back, the front and back bars are thin and mean and allowed this to happen. No wonder that Ifor have stolen the market on value for money trailers - they are very easy to work with. The only problem I have heard about is the pins coming out of the bars when travelling. Some horses don't seem to like the skirting on the partitions either.

I sometimes feel like a Health and Safety officer and try to do a dynamic risk assessment whenever I'm working. It annoys me when purpose made equipment like this, lets me down. Fortunately Buster was wearing a New Zealand rug and went under the bar cleanly.