9th July, 2010 How many women does it take?....

.......to fix the pin in the central partition. I do think that trailers tend to be boy's toys and everything mechanical seems to need a lot of effort to move or fix.

9th July, 2010 Interesting loaders

Nikki and I have worked with three loaders in two days. The first, a big chestnut mare, is one I "loaded to go" last autumn when she came back from her loan home. Her owner has decided to see if she can resolve her loading fears before she is sold to a new home. It took quite a while to even calm her down enough to approach the trailer and she had a fine line in rearing. Her field is at the top of a blowy hill where she is surrounded by cows and pigs that she is afraid of and her companion who looks on and urges her not to go anywhere. However, she consented to look at the trailer and then we began to gently work on the ramp where she offered each foot in turn until she was eventually standing on it with all four feet. We ended the session when she voluntarily walked forward half way into the trailer. The trailer itself was not ideal - the manufacturers may say thatn Ifor 505 will accomodate a 16.2 hh horse but it won't take one that has a high head carriage. Accordingly the owner is going to see if she can borrow a taller one for our next session.

Yesterday we had a celestial day, working with Sky (pictured above) and then Mars. Sky is a recent acquisition for his owner and arrived with all of his ribs showing. He looks fantastic now and has got over a lot of his so-called issues already. However, the first clue as to how he feels about loading is his tendency to rush out of his stable door. Horses that have knocked themselves often do this and for the same reason we didn't unload him out of the front ramp on this particular session. His loading was pretty copybook and nect time we will work on closing up the back bars, front bars and ramp. He is another one that is afraid of what is going on behind him which points to him having been got at with a whip in his past.

As ever, Mars was particularly sensitive to change, and a new position for the trailer, a different time of day and lots of horrid horse flies, which meant that we had to work on simply consolidating what we had done before. He did have the partition fully closed and closer to him.

9th July, 2010 In which Sarah doesn't have a lesson....

With David on Chancer, Jenny on Theoden and Nikki on Petra there was no horse for me to ride for a lesson with Amanda (Barton). Nevertheless I gained a huge amount from just watching her work with the three of them. David worked on his steering, asking Chancer to be more responsive by giving him more direction all of the time; until now it has been like piloting a cruise liner. Jenny worked on taking Theoden's handbrake off - asking him to be more responsive, more quickly. The whip-whop rope is used as a visual cue and not to hit. Nikki has learned to ride through Pony Club and traditional riding schools so the lesson was a revalation to her. She breathed for the first time in 19 years! It was fascinating to watch Petra mirror tenfold her levels of tension so that a hurried, worried horse turned into a relaxed, nonchalant one. No need ever to take Petra's handbrake off - she wasn't fitted with one. Nikki described her lesson as awesome!!

In the middle photo, Amanda is explaining how we set up horses up to pull and lean.

7th July, 2010 A bit of a Mystery

Mystery was a pony that ticked all the boxes. Well bred, five year's old and with bags of athleticism, the owner's ultimate dream was to train her for showjumping and cross country. However it appears that there have been gaps in her earlier education, perhaps things done in a hurried or forceful way, which have left her ambivalent about human contact and frightened of things happening on both sides of her at once. These problems manifested themselves the first time she went riding on the Forest. Stepping over a tiny branch, she panicked and fled and went home, leaving the owner, who we will call Iona, on the floor. Good news that she already thought of Iona's yard as home but not such good news on the cross country front! A couple of days later Iona thought she would take her back to basics and attached a long rein to her in preparation for long reining. Bearing in mind that this pony had probably been lunged, Iona didn't anticipate any problems with just the one rein and would have taken precautions about attaching the second line. Too late, Mystery took fright at just one rein and fled, galloping around the field for some time before being calm enough to catch again. So, had she been lunged and if so, what had happened to make her that scared of just one rein? When the farrier came, she bolted and jumped the fence. Lots of work to do here then but an owner that is prepared for the long haul.

In this case, Iona is perfectly capable of doing all of this work herself, but the emotional attachment to the horse and the desire not to inadvertently reinforce any of this behaviour means that we will be working in partnership. My first priority is to inject some fun into her training and to show her just how brave she can be. Clicker training, as I have said before, is perfect for the "self conscious" horse. I don't mean that she blushes all the time - simply that she has become pre-occupied with what things mean for her body and the need to flee if threatened. It is so significant that she is already positively offering me her head and her feet and that she is seeing that life can be fun. She needs her sense of humour restored.

7th July, 2010 Beans talk

The story of how Stacey came to buy Bean is a super one. Stacey had her mind set on a gelding and had been looking for a new horse for over six months. Eventually she ended up at a dealer's yard and had a good look at all the male horses there. Having drawn a blank, she was standing in the dealer's American barn when she felt herself being nuzzled by the horse behind her. The dealer explained that the mare had only come in from Ireland the day before and was therefore a bit of an unknown quantity, but unlike the horses that had travelled with her, she had settled overnight and was clearly pleased to see people. Later Stacey rode her in the school and asked to hack her out along the quiet country lane to the main road to see how she was in traffic. Heading out alone, and still in the narrow lane, she met a cement mixer. With no room to do anything else, she tucked Bean into a gateway to allow the lorry to pass and Bean didn't seem to be in the least bit fazed. Back at home, she has been delighted to find that Bean is polite, affectionate, responsive, willing and definitely able. How great is that?

This story has prompted me to think about recruitment. At the seminar last week, Kevin talked about the statistical probability of hiring the right person for a job. Typically, my thoughts wandered off on to horses and I wondered what would be the statistical probability of finding the right horse for a given person. There is a huge emotional, financial and time investment in buying, selling and loaning out horses - almost akin to buying and selling houses, recruiting staff or getting married or divorced. Beyond this, when it all goes wrong, it is often the horse that pays as it ends up on the market again or in the case of the pony I talked about a couple of weeks ago, shot.

I thought it would be worth coming up with a guide to buying horses that included the necessity of having pretty clear criteria, just as you should have to employ someone or, dare I say it, when you are trying to find a spouse! You'd certainly want to see the horse's c.v. and if it were me, I'd want to assess the horse from a behavioural point of view just as I do when I meet any horse for the first time. Problem is, we fall in love with these horses when we meet them and our heart rules our head, especially if we feel that the horse needs "rescuing" in any sense. In Stacey's case, the only deviation from her criteria was buying a mare instead of a gelding, in every other respect, Bean ticked all the boxes.

Conversely, there are times when I play the oh-oh game when people phone me about a horse they have bought. For example, and I don't mean to judge anyone here, I had a phone call from a lady who said that her Mum was having problems with a horse they had just bought. Mum was in her 60's and the horse was 17.4 hands (sic). First slight oh-oh. Apparently the horse had been described as being "bullet-proof" (sic) and yet had turned out to be really spooky. Oh-oh. Did you ride her before you bought her? No, we got her from Scotland and we needed to get there and back in one day. Oh-oh! Have you had her saddle checked at all? No, we were told it was a perfect fit and it came with her. Has she changed shape at all? Oh yes!, she's really podgy now! It also turned out that the horse hadn't been ridden for two years before they bought her. The lady had bought the horse because she reminded her so much of a horse they had lost the year before........Clearly, if this was going to work out at all, the owners were probably going to have to be in it for the long haul and some people just aren't that patient. To me it sounded as if this horse, which they hadn't had vetted, was going to need a through physical assessment, possibly a new saddle and some good, quiet fittening work. I sensed a lack of leadership and consistency which needed to be addressed immediately and then a lot of work on long reins to build up the horse's confidence again. With fuel costs alone of £40 (to Somerset) it was going to be an expensive exercise. Fortunately I could put them in touch with Tim Piper who was much nearer.

There are hundreds of horses for sale or loan where the photo alone should be enough to put people off the horse. Gadgets galore and over bent horses where they are almost certain to have back and neck problems. I'm always wary of horses that have just come to maturity and are described as ready to break - does this mean someone has had a go and failed? If I were looking at a pony like that I'd want to see how it reacted to someone standing up on a box next to it - particularly on the left - does it move it's bottom away? Well it's like that someone has tried to get on it. How does it's back feel? How does it cope with things happening to it on both sides at the same time? Has it been lunged to within an inch of it's life - circles are not good for young horses. I could sit people down with a list of horses for sale and find a reason for not buying nearly every one of them - particularly when the description then goes on to say that they are a problem loader, don't like hacking out on their own or are ready to come back in to work after a long gap. If you buy a horse with a known problem, just as if you were to buy a house with a leaky roof, you need to have the time, money and commitment to put it right - and you need to be a bit of an expert roofer unless you get outside help. It's easy to over estimate your ability to fix a problem yourself especially if the original owner has already tried everything and failed (thus reinforcing the problems).

Having said all of that, there is always a risk that the horse may have hidden problems, gaps in its education or problems settling down in a new environment. So, beyond the initial criteria, a purchase should always be followed by a period of induction. I am not one for turning a horse out for a few days or week to settle down nor do I think the horse should get straight into a full work schedule. However, a bit of groundwork to establish kind leadership, walking out to establish a follow you anywhere attitude and some ridden work just to keep the principal in place, is fine. I'm a great believer in telling a horse that "nothing's changed" and that it is safe and has fallen on it's feet. During that induction stage, where gaps appear or even just to start off on the right foot, it's definitely worth having a session with me. With just one or two sessions at the outset and continuing advice and support, people and their horse's can be set up for good and happy anniversaries.

6th July, 2010 Beanz Meanz......

It was back to work with a vengeance yesterday but feeling very inspired thanks to meeting Actioncoach, Kevin Stansfield, at a seminar last week. By midday I had written an article on bridle shyness and had a back massage - not at the same time, obviously.

In the afternoon I went to work with a pony I shall call Mystery and started to develop a relationship with her. This pony was bred by a really good stud where they use blue pipe to hit them......we started off with simply putting the headcollar on without her feeling the need to leave. We have agreed to use clicker throughout her training.

Today was hectic with Bean first, Mystery later and then Harry and the pigs. Bean is a recent purchase from Ireland and has proved to be a wonderful buy for her owner Stacey. We did some basic groundwork and foothandling. Mystery moved on to foot handling too - she is extremely nervous about giving her back feet to anyone and the first time the farrier came, she jumped the high fence around her field. Harry was fine with the pigs and mowed the grass around the pig field while calmly keeping a gentle eye on the pigs and piglets; not bad on just his second visit. Between times, the farrier came to Chancer and I had my hair cut. Luckily I have had the company of work experience student Nikki. She is studying at Sparsholt and considering a career in horse physiotherapy. She last came to work with me when she was 15 (four years ago) and is now all grown up. With a great work ethic and a real enthusiasm for horses, we get on like a house on fire - which is good because we will be working with the firemen again on Friday.

3rd July, 2010 Shady deal

There were more than forty ponies taking shade under the only decent tree on Woodgreen Common this afternoon.