15th July, 2011 Puck and his Sisters

It has been three years since I have done any work with Puck and yet he accepted his headcollar, lead rein and being led, really easily and seems to have forgotten none of the things he learned as a baby. Today his sisters, aged two and three years were introduced to the headcollar for the first time. Having been born on the Forest, these three have now moved with their mother to the same farm as I bought Blue and Nelly all those years ago.

Angela says that Milly and Molly, top and middle, go to different hairdressers...

14th July, 2011 I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow

Appropriate lyrics for this Danny Boy where his owner wanted to work on strengthening her bond with him. He is a little ambivalent about having people around him and wants to know whether they represent friend or foe and whether they can be relied upon as a leader. On the other hand he is bold about new and colourful objects and out in traffic. Hopefully the work we did today will be a good start for them both.

14th July, 2011 Unanimous decision

When all three of your horses take to someone instantly it's hard not to be jealous. No. seriously, I think horses are a great judge of character and Chancer, Theoden and Petra all worked really sweetly for Jenny B today. It's tempting to want you horses to love you the most and not to want to be with anyone else but it does them no favours. All of my horses are turning in to great teaching horses and earning their keep very quietly. The great news is that Jack-Jack will shortly be mine too - just need to transfer his passport into my name.

Jenny and I have been working on energy and tension levels and how to reduce your aids down to the minimum number and the maximum softness. All of the horses felt just how relaxed she was and the tables were turned when Jenny showed me a technique for asking Chancer to come forward that he clearly preferred to mine. I shall pinch that then!

13th July, 2011 Fautras Fortress

Loading practice for Badger today who looked rather dapper in his poker playing poll guard. This was the first time that I had worked with a Fautras trailer - only a tiny ramp or they can be used as a step up (not so keen on that option). They are a really solid looking trailer with loads of room for the horse. It has double doors at the back like a wardrobe! Successful session with Badger loading time after time.

E-mail received 14.7 from JG: Success - Badger loaded 3 times tonight.

E-mail received 1.8 "All went well with the travelling on Sunday. Badger walked straight in the trailer and was quite calm once shut in. He called a lot as we went up the track and his field mate was shouting back, but he soon tucked into his hay net and travelled well. We had a good crack at our first le trec, poor Badger was very tired by the end of it, it was quite hot too, but he was very good. He argued a little, maybe 5 mins but not long, before getting in the trailer to come home but I felt quite confident with the skills you had taught me that we would get home so I kept him moving, kept a little presure on the rope, looked at his feet and eventually he walked in and travelled well. I loaded him again at home on Monday morning because I thought he might say 'no way, you drove off with me yesterday' but he didnt hesitate and walked straight in - what a good boy!"

13th July, 2011 Ain't nobody here but us chickens...

Latest news from LF about her chicken phobic pony....

Just wanted to give you an update on our chicken training. Had a real breakthrough today and can't wait to tell you. We went out for a ride as usual and when we came back to the yard the chickens were out and I had an 'oh no!' moment and then thought, no you can do this together. I walked her up to her tying hitch and asked Pat to get me the Dually headcollar as I thought I need to keep control and not ruin the progress we made already. So I did deep breaths, said nothing and untacked her. Still she coped no real panic so she was to washed off, and given her feed which she ate with them in plain sight. One even decided to have a dust bath right near her!

12th July, 2011 Best foot forward

This is new boy Woody, a New Forest pony with a vaguely Lusitano look about him. He's a nice pony with lovely manners. However he has not been too keen on having his feet picked up by the farrier so we did some work on that using desensitisation techniques and I have suggested that he have his back checked just in case there is a physical element. When I moved on to the second desensitisation technique, otherwise known as chasing things, Woody thought this was fantastic fun. Makes you wonder if the instinct to drift other ponies has made it in to their evolution.

10th July, 2011 Faces

Jenny and I were working with a few of our regular faces yesterday - Beau, Champ and Teddy - as well as a new pony called Woody. Here are a few new faces from Horseworld on Thursday including Mario at the top.