21st September, 2009 Mutual Appreciation Society

I have the good fortune to be surrounded by people I can really trust these days and whose work I really admire. Kate Boe (pictured above) is a McTimoney-Corley practitioner who not only does good bodywork but knows how to be round horses too. Fortunately for me, she also approves of the way I work and recently we have been working with her cob, Blue, overcoming a couple of confidence issues including large traffic.

E-mail 26.9.09: "Just a quick update- Today I hacked Blue out on the roads, with Mum on foot. We came across rattley trailers, groups of cyclists and motorbikes, she coped very well and even stood still in a layby whilst a trailer past us and got very excited chasing it away!!"

I have immense admiration also for Amanda Barton whose ridden sessions and confidence work has already made a huge difference to me and to other people I know. I really care about what she thinks of me and was chuffed (!) to receive this in an e-mail from her:

"I would wholeheartedly recommend you to help with ground work to any of my current or future clients. Without exception I think people are getting an enormous amount out of the work they do with you and I am seeing examples all the time of where they have a really clear idea of what they need to be doing and have the tools to make a difference and feel more confidence about the situation."

Vets and a farriers need to be judged on the work they do with your horse's physique and feet but their attitude and approach can make a massive difference to how your horse copes with what they do. Amy Reynolds (the vet) and Guy Reynolds (the farrier) who are incidentally married to one another, are both great around horses and do nothing to make things harder for the horse. I really feel I can talk to them too and explain why I do what I do.

What a team - now, if we could all get out to Africa..........

You may have spotted that I have changed farriers again. It is likely that Petra and Chancer will have to go back to wearing shoes at some stage when their work levels really increase. Both of them seem to really struggle with the gravel on the Forest and I am doubtful whether any amount of careful transitioning could make it any easier for them. It's hard enough for any horse in a country where we have a wide variation in climate and moisture levels. I hear too many stories of horses struggling for 18 months to two years and never really being right without shoes. Don't get me wrong, if barefoot suits your horse and his welfare is paramount, I envy you the ability to keep him that way.

You may have also spotted that Sheila hasn't gone into business with me after all. She has gone and fallen in love with (an admittedly lovely bloke) from Gloucestershire and I expect she'll want to go and live with him eventually with his farm and his cows. Sheila has now done all her case studies and will soon be able to ask to be a Recommended Associate.

21st September, 2009 Another day at the sea side

It was off to Weymouth on Saturday where Julie and I worked with Ziggy and Danny, both youngsters. Ziggy is a solid bodied and solid natured horse and pretty bombproof. Danny is a character and has been leading (literally) his owner a merry dance. By the end of the session they were at least dancing in unison! It is so easy to be overly benevolent with young horses that you've bred or bought when they were tiny. They still need some ground rules - and they certainly need leadership.

On Friday I worked with a fifteen year old cob who was doing a similar thing.

"Thank you so much for Fri. I really feel that I am more in control now I know what we were both doing wrong. I practiced leading again tonight, asking him to move over with the pressure on his hip and he tried once to kick out and I managed to react appropriately, not crumble into a heap as usual. I was very proud of myself but not as proud as I was of C when I managed, after desensitising for a short period until he was happy and consistant I, relatively effortlessly, put 1 front boot on and off twice and he just stood there!!! Amazing. I know tomorrows another day but baby steps... "
CF

E-mail 29.9.09: "Connor has been such a good boy. His leading has been fab."

21st September, 2009 Warmbloods

I have some sweeping generalisations to make about warmblood horses. It seems to me that many of them will take a lot of stick, quite literally, and like a pressure cooker, only go bang at the end when the pressure put on them really is too great. This is especially true of the warmbloods bred on the continent and intensively prepared for the auctions. Being big, athletic horses, they tend to be confined a lot and contained in their ridden work. No turn out and no hacking out.

The ones I have met, usually those that have gone bang, appear to be 11.2 ponies in a 17 hand suit. Taking them back to the basics and spending time consolidating each step, seems to be the best approach. I tend to treat everything I meet as if it is a New Forest pony anyway. It seems a good standard of temperament and energy to me!

17th September, 2009 Odd angles

Having loaded Pete to go up to Hartsop to complete his training, it was back to my own horses to check they were upright. I managed to catch this sunbathing donkey before experimenting with my favourite view of Chancer.

This evening we got the dressing up box out so that Ludo could try a few things on. He wore a rug for the first time, then a saddle with stirrups dangling. After a short session of long reining he wore sports boots for the first time and practised his moon-walking. Sadly, no photos of that!

17th September, 2009 Caster Semenya

The controversy surrounding the true gender of Caster Semenya, the South African athlete, has prompted me to write about a horse/pony that I saw last year. I have promised the owner that I will never reveal the identity of the horse - so don't ask. Could have been a horse; could have been a pony, but I shall call it a horse. Anyway, I was working with her and noticed that she was quite nibbly, like a colt. During a break I noticed that she didn't have the normal configuration under her tail - she had a normal vagina but at it's base there was a tiny penis. I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing so I said something along the lines of "Er...is your horse alright on the bottom department?". "Ah", they replied, "you noticed". Further discussion revealed that she was a hermaphrodite. Because her external genitalia were overwhelmingly female and she also had mammary tissue, her owners had assumed that she was a mare but her behaviour and later, tests, revealed that she was in fact a he.

16th September, 2009 Blackberry picking

This donkey foal was out black berry picking this afternoon.

Another successful session with Boris and his owner Maisie. He has now been introduced to the partition, bars and ramp and is much happier to be in the trailer than he was. Maisie has practised, practised and practised some more over the last few weeks and today's session was pretty textbook. More practising ahead before he goes out for a journey in it.

15th September, 2009 We don't do early mornings.......

.....Jack and I! I don't know who was the most bleary eyed when I arrived this morning. I had to get the horses into the small paddocks and pens away from the hedgecutter. Cello amused himself by burgling the shed and Chancer just looked at the girls going by out on the Forest.