19th March, 2009 Banjul, The Gambia

To warm us up, literally, for our trip to Kenya, we have come to The Gambia but this time for a rest. When one of my clients said “We've got a house in the Gambia, you could stay in it if you want”, I don't suppose she imagined for one second that we would go and buy the tickets that night. Although the flight was a nightmare – the people behind us must have had a meal entirely made up of raw garlic the night before - it is great to be somewhere warm and dry for once. The worrying thing is that we don't even know the address for where we are living other than that it is on the sand road opposite the 3D Mini-Mart and if our friendly taxi driver abandons us, we'll be lost forever. Needless to say, animal care is er....interesting here. The donkeys look well but have horrible rope bits tightly fastened around their lower jaws. The horse up the road shelters without water under his own cart under the midday sun.

17th March, 2009 Progression or regression?

William and Coco


Dunnock

At the beginning of this week, I have visited two sets of yearlings – one lot of Exmoors and the other, three New Foresters that I worked with at my course in November last year In each case, the owners have been working with them regularly over the winter. The New Forest ponies are now pretty blasé about everything whereas the Exmoors are still struggling to accept human contact – particularly from strangers. This begs the question whether it is nature or nurture that causes the difference. Regrettably one of the Exmoors has had to be forced to accept veterinary treatment (he had an undescended testicle and the vet insisted that he was sedated and twitched each time this was checked) and yet his owner has consistently worked with him in a kind way. Accordingly, he is much calmer with her than with anyone else. It just struck me that whenever Exmoors are not progressing, they may be regressing, in a way that I haven't observed in any other breed of semi-feral pony. The New Forest ponies soon worked out on which side their bread was buttered and are much more confident and co-operative. There may have been other factors at play here – the New Forest yearlings live together and play for most of the day; the Exmoor colt and the Exmoor filly have had to be kept apart to avoid the risk of him covering her; the New Foresters have been in close proximity to older and friendlier ponies whereas the Exmoors have only had one elderly mare to look to. The New Forest yearlings had “my” method of training from the outset whereas the Exmoor colt was cornered to have his headcollar on to begin with as did the filly. In both cases, the owners are absolutely committed to training them in a non-violent way and both sets have really fallen on their feet but the owner of the Exmoors has got more of challenge on her hands and a lot more work ahead of her if she is to succeed in the end. In the meantime, the owner of the New Forest ponies will have so much fun working with her guys with less risk of being accidentally or even deliberately kicked or bitten.

Postscript (7.4.09) Since my visit, both William and Coco have made some real progress and have become much easier to catch even when they are in together. Once again, time, patience and technique have paid off.

15th March, 2009 Beautiful play things

Top: Aquilino, Middle: Zimbral, Bottom: Petra

What with selling David's toys on e-bay, arranging to go to Kenya for July and work, I haven't been able to get near to my blog site for ages. Selling Dinky toys and sets of Lego is a lucrative business and the contents of David's Mum's loft have paid for Chancer's hay.

In the meantime, Petra has been earning her keep teaching people to long rein. She has also officially gone barefoot and is being attended by Tim Mockford, Equine Podiatrist. I'll let you know how she and Chancer get on.

This week I seem to have been working with continental horses the whole time - Arthur, who was one of the French Rescue although he was in utero at the time, Betty, Aquilino and Zimbral. Arthur is a solid little chap, most likely a Breton or an Ardennes cross. He also has a solid nature and should prove to be a reliable soul. We were teaching him how to pick up his feet for the trimmer. Aquilino, an Andulusian colt who is now 10 months old had his first headcollar on yesterday. It was a delicate job because he is pretty colty and nifty too but all went well and he looked very smart in his new headcollar. By the end of the 2 hour session he had started a few steps of leading and had his wormer without any fuss.

E-mail from Frazer (owner of Aquilino):
I was delighted with the progress we made and it was great to see him with the headcollar on and the wormer done. I thought you did a fantastic job!!

I finished the day with Zimbral who is heaven on four legs. He is maturing nicely and starting to be ridden regularly. He is turned out during the day now (he wasn't turned out at all in Portugal) and really enjoying himself.

E-mail received from Emma his owner: "I dread to think how he would have ended up if I hadn't had sessions with you from the beginning....."

Great news about Intelligent Horsemanship and the British Horse Society. Kelly's unfailing diplomacy has finally started to open doors and both organisations are starting to recognise that there is nothing mutually exclusive and much that is entirely complementary in the techniques that they use. Good tradition has never included the use of violence and much of the BHS manuals is about safe systems of working with horses. If this was infused with horse logic, instead of some of the military logic from which the BHS derived, the welfare of horses would definitely be paramount.

5th March, 2009 No Fear, No Force

The book I have written on handling semi-feral foals should be published in less than 10 weeks and hopefully in time for my demo at Horseworld and Kelly's demos at Wellington and Kingston Maurwood. Those lovely people at the Dartmoor Pony Training Centre have allowed me to use my very favourite foal picture on the front. Anyone wanting a copy can e-mail me and I shall put one by for them as soon as they arrive. Of course I am happy to sign them too.

I tried out Chapter Nine (The Confident Foal) on Sarah B: Wow! You might have written that just for me - so apt! It's reassuring to read that these behaviours are normal.

Anyone ordering before 1st May, 2009 will get a signed copy and FREE postage and packaging.

4th March, 2009 Horses Inside Out

Here's another demo that might be of interest. I have heard that this is a brilliant demo. I shall be there.....

2nd March, 2009 Two and a Quarter

On Saturday I wandered over to Bath to work with two New Forest yearlings that were bought from the Beaulieu Road Sales in October. One, a son of Farrier's Rambler and the other, by Bakeburn Jethro, were both fairly easy to train using the foal handling technique. By the end of the session the owner could touch them easily and put a headcollar on them.

Post on IHDG by Sarah B on 8th March: A big thank you to Sarah W for her excellent help, good humour ( and good sense of same), non-judgementalism (if there is such a word), and for transforming the little foalies. She gave me lots of confidence. It was well worth the visit and so now I'd have no hesitation in recommending Sarah W to those who have reached an impasse with their horse. I found the whole session immensely interesting and absorbing, so that the time flew by. It seems that the pawing is likely to be a result of his hormones encouraging colty behaviour, but he behaved as good as gold - as pie - and has done ever since. Anyway, I'm so pleased with how they're getting on. Today I led them a little way in the field. Archie was a bit slow to get the idea but Spike was a star! Thanks Sarah for all your help!

Then on 10th: Latest news....Can put headcollars on with ease. Wormed them yesterday - they behaved like angels. Led them out of their dining rooms (stables) into the field to meet humans they didn't really know - again they were angels. Spike stood in his food bowl and scooped most of his food out onto the floor with his pawing foot - no change there!


This morning I went off to see a two-year old Quarter Horse to make plans for his training and eventual starting. He is a lovely horse, super teddy-bear colour with a winter woolly coat to match.

E-mail received 12.4.09: Thought I would give you an update on how well Sandy is doing. Since your last visit the naughty nibbly behaviour has completely stopped. How disappointed was I when I arrived at his field armed and ready with my rattley bottle; I have never had to use it!

He continues to amaze me with his attitude towards life and everything he encounters, I really think he is a very special boy. Thank you for all your advice and insight into what is truly going on in Sandy’s mind, the methods you use are compassionate and I have seen instant results with my clever little quarter horse.

2nd March, 2009 MAT!!

MAT? I reckon there are three forms of horsemanship - Managing, Avoiding and Training. Managing (otherwise known as just coping with) and avoidance are what we tend to do when we haven't got the time, patience or technique to train the horse. Trouble is that we are training the horse whenever we are with him, whether we intend to or not.