June 2006

This is a special message for Linda Ray Brown - if you are reading this please get on with your coursework and stop surfing the net!
Good news - it looks like I will be doing regular work at the Margaret Green Foundation Trust, a charity set up for animals. They are hoping to re-home more horses in the future and need some more focused training for some of them to enable this to happen. Bad news, I came off one of the Fell ponies at speed and although I haven't broken anything, I am so sore I could cry. I am forced to catch up with admin work and daytime t.v. Fortunately David came to my rescue over the weekend and helped me to look after the ponies (and my landlord's flowers, fish and pheasants). The following week Auriol, Bea, Sheila and Yolanda all helped me to work the horses and keep the fields tidy. Auriol has even offered to take my crutches back to the hospital! I managed to ride a few times and to do lots of groundwork. At the end of the week the two Fell ponies and Boss all went home leaving me a rope-shy New Forest Pony to work with. For a change, he is not black!
During the week my talk on the Moorland Mousie Trust went down well and raised a little money for the charity itself.
I had a wonderful animal sitting job this week not only do I have to feed the cat and the ponies but I also have to provide cordon bleu food for the wild birds, foxes and badgers. Each evening David and I have sat extremely still in the summerhouse and watched the badgers and foxes.





A little rant about saddles. It's really quite simple, a decent horse deserves a decent saddle. All horses are decent therefore, they should all have a decent saddle right from the outset. I have had too many horses come in accompanied by terrible saddles that I am told will do for starting them ( because "it's not worth getting him a good saddle yet because he will change shape"). What message does it give a horse if the first time you sit on it with a saddle it is bloomin' uncomfortable if not painful and when they move it restricts their movement? I have seen horses with saddle damage simply from being long-lined in a badly fitting saddle. Muscle wastage can happen really quickly. When someone buys or gets given a horse, no matter how cheap and cheerful the horse is, they should still budget for a good saddle that fits properly. I am amazed by some of the saddles I see being used on horses - they are too narrow at the front, twisted and lumpy, having not been serviced or checked for years. Saddles should be checked for fit at least every 12 months and fully serviced (locally this costs me less than £50). The flock shouldn't just be topped up, it needs to be replaced. I don't care if the saddle has a posh label - if it is too narrow, it is too narrow. There are very few saddle makers or fitters that I feel able to recommend - most simply fit to the shape of the horse without allowing for the recover of badly wasted muscles and just exacerbate the problem. I really don't like synthetic saddles as they are so unsympathetic to the shape of the horse; I never see top riders using them. I am reserving judgement on treeless saddles as I am not convinced that they don't create pressure points on the horse at the front, back and where the stirrups straps cross the horse's back. I have found them to be too slippy in most cases for using on starting horses. Poorly fitting saddles are one of the major factors in creating behavioural problems in horses - a horse can't tell you that a saddle is nearly killing him, all he can do is fidget when he is tacked up, pull faces at you, move awkwardly when ridden and when he feels the need to shout, start to nap, buck or rear. Don't get me on to Dutch gags and martingales!!!
I have been to visit Kelly at Lambourn and it was good to catch up with all the exciting things that Intelligent Horsemanship is doing. The courses are as popular as ever- always oversubscribed. I had the privilege of riding out on Kelly's beloved Pie alongside her lovely new racehorse, Nessie. Kelly gave me the kick start I have been needing since I came off a couple of weeks ago. Despite having good reviews, I do suffer from self-doubt. That's one of the side-effects of having an open-mind; you always wonder if you could be doing something differently. Nevertheless, by the time that the rope-shy pony went home, I could ground tie him and throw a rope on the floor next to him without him even attempting to leave. With him I used the de-sensitization technique coupled with using a click and a reward. Next week is going to be strange as I have no ponies in at all as I wind down ready for Exmoor.
Out on the Forest, my three ponies are doing extremely well and haven't taken to chasing tourists or lane creeping. Blue is living with Cinders, a pony I fed through the winter as she was so thin. Nell has taken up with Oliver, a big blue roan gelding and little Pie, the honorary Welsh New Forest Pony is co-habiting with a little skewbald mare and her dun coloured foal. I see them almost every day as they tend to drink over at Janesmoor Pond now that the streams and small ponds are dry. They don't come back for food anymore.

May, 2006 (4)

On Bank Holiday Monday I ran a "Turning Fear into Curiosity" course with the help of David, Kayti and Alison. Despite the odd heavy shower, it was a wonderful day. All the people and the horses that came were lovely and the highlight was a congo of ponies following the noisy tractor around the field and then weaving in and out of the bollards behind David on the trail bike.





During the last week of May I have worked with a pony that is very frightened of tractors and noisy vehicles. This seems to stem from her being run over as a youngster - even though it wasn't a tractor that hit her. We can only guess at how noisy this would have seemed at the time. On the NFED open day she followed the little grey Ferguson tractor in the field and the following day we took her up and down the track walking behind and beside the tractor before performing gentle "fly-pasts". She did well at this and became blase about the whole thing and the day after that we repeated this exercise down a narrow lane where the hedges are high. She then graduated to a bigger, redder, noisier Massey Ferguson tractor with cattle trailer attached. Again she was fine. Before she went home on Saturday, she was ridden beside the tractor and it was driven past her down a narrow lane. Eventually she was cantering with it next to her!

May, 2006 (3)

Halfway through the month I went to a talk by Patrick Kempe at the Wessex Classical Riding Group. His talk was excellent - he described the horse festival in Portugal and how he came to buy his fabulous Lusitano horse, Tetua. Tetua graces the cover of Margrit Coates' book Horses Talking. Patrick is also a healer and has his own website. By coincidence I am phoned the next day by a lady who has imported an Andulucian stallion and is worried about the future. I urge her to ring Patrick because he has having so much fun with his horse - which show jumps, does Iberian horse classes, picks up litter on the Forest and plays football. I am feeling a little sad myself because Olly and the lovely Hackney horse are due to go home and I have become very fond of them.
Two new New Forest ponies, Jamie and Oliver (formerly Graham!) have arrived for some handling before they get turned out in the field next door. They belong to my neighbour who very kindly gives me access to her outdoor school. Jamie is bright chestnut and arrived in a delapidated trailer. The other, a rose grey, was bred by the same people as my Forest pony, Nell. Both are friendly and need to be get use to being touched, having a headcollar on and being led.





This week I went to Patrick Kempe's to experience healing for the first time. Patrick tells me that his horse is a healer too and I spent a long time with my hands on this beautiful horse. I wish I could say that everything became clear after that but I did feel I got something positive out of it and felt quite serene on the way home.
The following day I went down to The Donkey Sanctuary for a Donkey Behaviour Course only to find that the course was being presented by Ben Hart. What a bonus. It was good to be made aware of the significant differences in the natural herd behaviour of donkeys and the way that they react to fear and pain. Ben uses a lot of positive reinforcement with the donkeys and it was a great opportunity to watch clicker training in action. He worked with a mule called Mrs Knox although he calls her Martha (pronounced Marfa) because when asked she says "I'm arfa donkey and I'm arfa an 'orse".
I do despair of the New Forest Commoners sometimes. There is a pony walking around this village at the moment who likes like a skeleton. I mean condition score 1. Visitors are shocked by her appearance and it will be giving the New forest commoners as a whole a very bad reputation. She has a colt foal at foot which is doing really well and she is now about 30 and probably won't carry another foal. She is absolutely valueless to the Commoner who owns her. I have offered to buy her and her foal but the Commoner said that he didn't like the fact that I had said that she was thin and would rather take her off the Forest himself and send her to Beaulieu Road Sales..... which means for meat. So she has to suffer for his pride. If I contact the RSPCA or ILPH they won't be able to do anything until she is at death's door and anyway he would probably just take her off and have her killed.

May, 2006 (2)

I backed both of the Fell ponies on day six just in the field without separating them. I think they took a lot of comfort in each other's company although, to be frank, it was difficult to get them to stay awake! I just sat on board bareback untangling their manes for a while.At the weekend I am due to go to Exmoor for the Moorland Mousie Sponsored ride. I am borrowing an Exmoor pony called Bracken and it is debatable whether she will carry me or whether I should carry her. There are some very steep hills so I expect I will be on foot for some of them. I have raised over £100 so far and I am hoping to increase that (hint hint). I've always wanted to ride through the water at Tarr Steps - let's hope we don't get swept away.





On the way to Exmoor I went to work with a New Forest pony at Bridgewater that is utterly terrified of ropes and on the way back I go to see yet another black horse. Both of them are likely to be coming in for me to work with.

May, 2006 (1)

Boss, the Friesian Cross is now backed and has been introduced to the pleasure of long-reining on the Forest. I have to think ahead with this horse because he can't just walk under all the trees! He has worn his saddle and a Myler bit and seems to approve of both. (he is in a 5 1/2" Myler slotted comfort snaffle with 04 mouthpiece - plenty of room for his tongue). The Hackney horse is much more relaxed about being ridden now - she is wearing a 4 1/2" Myler Comfort Snaffle and seems quite happy in it.
Poor Ollie has his social status radically altered when he was castrated. He stood like a rock to be sedated and I felt like a traitor! He went through the operation very well and was soon up and enjoying a new area of grass. He will go home in about two weeks time.
Two super Fell ponies have arrived for starting. They are very typical of the breed and quite bewitching. Their groundwork is so light I can't wait to take them for their first confidence walk on the Forest. They arrived beautifully groomed...... and tomorrow I am going to get them muddy! In the meantime, Boss has proved to be an amazing horse and is happily plodding about in the inclosure with me on board and is apparently frightened of nothing. I rode him back from the school yesterday along the roads and he was absolutely fine. He had a good look at some donkeys but was all curiosity and not a hint of apprehension.the Hackney horse is riding out like a ranch horse and loves it when we go looking for my Foresters. She gets quite broody when she sees the foals. Little Oll is walking out in hand and can now pick his feet up for me without playing colt games.

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 ...