18th July, 2013 Make Haste, Slowly

The quickest way of mounting a horse or negotiating a gate when on board  is to do it slowly. By training your horse as if you were doing it in slow motion, you can break each process down into its component parts without angst and teach your horse not to worry about it. It's rushing to do these things that teaches horses to rush too. That impatience, frustration, and anxiety makes it more likely that they will bump into the mounting block, or the bit, or the fastening on the gate, and reinforce their anxiety. In both situations the rider's body can move into positions that gives the horse a confusing message about where he needs to be. Slow down, explain things quietly with a quiet aid and he'll get it.

Chancer is also making haste slowly up at Ian Vandenberghe's yard in Oxfordshire where he is being ridden by Ian's extremely capable rider, Jake. At nine, Chancer was too young to be claiming his pension and I felt that some physical work would do him good. Furthermore having a stable in the winter was likely to benefit him too because despite my best efforts he does lose weight in early Spring. I decided to look for a loan home for him and wanted to give him the best chance of success with a few weeks of more intensive training. Intensive only in the sense that it will be on consecutive days. He seems to be doing really well so far with walk, trot and canter re-established and riding out on the roads (and even cantering on the verges). I have a very promising potential loaner looking at him and she rode him this morning too. We will always provide a safety net for Chancer no matter what the circumstances as I feel morally and emotionally responsible for him for his lifetime.

On the way back from Ian's I went to work with Denys who I haven't seen for about four months. His owner got an extraordinary amount from our very first one hour session all that time ago and it was great to see how well they were getting on. Denys' previous life has included some eventing and show jumping and he has clearly had a hard time at one stage judging by the pin-firing scars on his leg and his reaction to anything that moves like a whip. At seventeen it is not too late to show him that he needn't be afraid of new things and to prove to him that no-one is going to hurt him. Here I am working with the umbrella. He was particularly frightened of the clicking noise it made as it was put up and so there needs to be a lot of repetition until he realises that it is nothing significant.

I always advise people to wear a hat when handling an umbrella - they can be very unpredictable!

"Thanks so much for today! I feel I've had a boost in confidence and in inspiration for things to try with Denys, and I really needed that. It's so nice to know that I'm doing the right things and it's not my doing something wrong that is causing him to react differently! It seems to make sense now that he was reacting to the sounds he could hear up the hill from his field! I'm so pleased to have come from wanting to sell him after a month of owning him, to having had him for nine months today and seeing him come to me for reassurance before he walks up to an open umbrella. We've both improved a lot with your help! I concentrated so hard today that I ended up sleeping for two hours solidly when I got home - I wonder if Denys had a nap too?!" RD

16th July, 2013 Peace at Last

I have to confess that I have been applying the brakes in Sampson's training, trying to persuade his owner to wait, wait, wait and to give him as much time out with other young horses as possible. Even so, it has been hard to keep him occupied and educated when he picks things up so quickly and is frightened of nothing. When he's bored he provokes people (and other horses) into engaging with him by biting and other strategies. We've tried ignoring him, we've tried answering him with some fairly robust body language and distracting noises.

I was loathe to start long reining him this early given that there is so much criticism of travellers who drive their horses very young and the training of yearling racehorses. Today however we decided to give it a go and he absolutely loved it. He didn't put a foot out of place and seem to be just as relieved to have us out of his space as we were to have him out of ours. We did start off with dual controls but with Theresa very much at arm's length and little by little she dropped back to his surcingle and then his tail while he strode out along the tracks with extraordinary confidence for such a young horse. His absolute bombproof-ness will be such an asset in the fullness of time. For once also I am going to support an owner's decision to start their horse the instant he is three - as long as she doesn't overdo it. Theresa is tiny and agile.

16th July, 2014 Form First

When my Pilates teacher said that she always concentrates on form first, before moving on to speed and repetition, it made me think that perhaps I should go back to some of the basics with my riding. This morning I had an extremely pleasant lesson with instructor Maggie Gill and fellow member of the Wessex Classical Riding Group, Nancy Buchanan. The added bonus of working with her pony, Eddie, there was some social training for Theoden too. Needless to say I got photos of all of them but none of me!

Theoden enjoyed his moments of hanging out with the teacher, and if animals learn by observation we should be okay! Go Eddie Go!

15th July, 2013 The Bean Bag Race

When extending a horse's comfort zones, taking them out and about, I normally talk about treating their home fields as the centre of a flower and extending this area by describing different sized petals, circular walks, to build up the horse's map. That is not always possible where a farm has only one way in and out. The temptation then is to walk too far in one direction, puncturing the horse's confidence or to turn back in exactly the same place each time. The approach that seems to work the best is to imitate the old bean bag race from school (or the flag race from gymkhanas) where you go up and down the same track but a different distance and in a different order several times in the same session. Covering and recovering ground like this but varying the start and end points, helps the horse to be confident but not to anticipate.

This tall girl is a two year old New Forest pony by Lovelyhill Hendrix. I haven't seen her since she was a yearling when I did some groundwork with her. Her owners have done their homework really well and, working from Kelly's books, they have prepared her for a useful and happy life as a riding horse in the future. Today they wanted me to work with them on getting her used to traffic but the first task was to extend her comfort zones to reach the end of the long drive to the farm. Using the fence posts as markers, we did the bean bag race (but not racing you understand!) and alternated that with just standing still at the end of the drive where she proved to be fine with traffic going by.

"It was really good to see you today also. Thank you so much for all the work you did with us today, you certainly boosted my confidence...I do also believe my bond with Bella grew a little today after our work as  despite there being fresh grass, one of Bella's favourite things, she didn't leave my side. I enjoy reading your blog ...Bella came to me straight off of the forest and she was halter broken, taught to lead, tie, have feet picked using your book and the majority of the ground work has been done using the well read, rather tatty, notes you sent me after your first visit. I think you should be credited too." TP 

14th July, 2013 Checking my Privilege

As Nettles was due to go home later today, I thought he might like to go for a run in the woods with his friends. There was a slight risk that I might lose them if they decided that they could manage perfectly well without me, but the promise of barley rings is always enough for Jack, and the other two are happy to follow his lead - most of the time.

Nettles has gone home now. I dropped him off at his owner's house where the first thing to go by was a big fat tractor with huge round bales of hay on it - he took no notice. We then led him down the lane to his field where I popped on his back for one final time. All being well I will see him again for more work in about six months and will call in to see him whenever I am going by. I had become very emotionally attached to him as he really is the best kisser I have ever met, and such wonderful company.

12th July, 2013 ..and Millie is a Heroine

A similar set of subjects for Millie to study today but, unlike Billy, she has a tendency to be very quick, and to anticipate if she is worried. Another reason again to slow everything down and to make sure that she understands each step before going on to the next. Being a Welsh Section B, and therefore having a fair dash of Arabian in her heritage, she is one of those gifted children that learns things really quickly but hates not understanding what she is being asked to do. She was originally rescued by the RSPCA from some appalling circumstances and has become so much more confident in the last two years since her owner fostered and then bought her.

A field overlooking the sea, she even looks like a mini-Arab. She wasn't sure she wanted to be caught first thing and so we did some clicker training for that starting off in the stable where she is inclined to be a little defensive with her hind quarters. The clicker training interrupted that pattern very quickly.

Short reining - absolutely brilliant for children's ponies.

Then long-reining - the short reining helped her to prepare for this too.

Turned out but asking to be caught again.....

11th July, 2013 In Which Billy is a Hero

Very satisfying visit this morning to Fiona and her smart youngster Billy. He was struggling to go forward when asked on the long reins and it would have been easy to think that he was just lazy rather than confused. By breaking it down into smaller components - dual controls with a lead rein, a few strides forward, and then reinforcing the aid for walk on with a quick shake of a carrier bag, and he had got it. Much better than picking up a lunging whip. A quick handover to Fiona and then later a bit of short reining.