24th March, 2015 Not Plain Sailing

Three women on the ferry to the Isle of Wight this morning to work with three Shetland ponies, Mairie, Mollie and Pie. We were picked up at the port by Jane's husband David who warned us that his lawn looked like a gymkhana and he was right.

We needed to do some more pre-starting work with Mairie who will hopefully be ridden by Jane's grandchildren this summer. Bridle on, saddle on and around the agility course which includes a bit of cross-country.

Mairie's daughter Mollie also seems to like jumping and is frightened of nothing.

Pie came along for the fun, taking no notice of the other ponies and concentrating on his own work.

Jane's horse agility course comes mainly courtesy of e-bay. Easy and relatively cheap to find colourful objects this way.

Like a little police horse, Mollie gets used to the tambourine...

...and Pie is an old hand with the umbrella...

 ...while Mairie considers a new career as a drum horse.

What a hoot...anything I can do...

...Mollie can do better, achieving a little toot through her nostrils.

On a more serious note we needed to do some more work with Mollie's feet because she is still pretty reflexive and kicks out when asked to pick the back ones up. We felt that she was old enough to understand a bit of clicker training and this seemed to work very well. Much more focus with one click (no treat) to ask her to wait and keep doing what she was doing, and a click, click, click and treat to say well done!

"Thank you for the clicker training, I was most impressed with how quickly Mollie responded to you with the training. Mollie also proved to be quite the little show jumper and I think Natasha enjoyed working with her. Really pleased with how calm Pie was with everything and how well he worked with Tracey, she clearly won his heart seeing he is normally very dubious of people he doesn’t know vey well. Mairi was a star with her saddle & bridle.and all the obstacles. I think she passed the test to be a ‘drum horse’ but maybe the full orchestra was a bit much on day one !! A huge thank you for such a successful day."JB

"I'm trying to work out how you call this 'work'!!!!" Sarah B

An overview: that's the sea in the background

23rd March, 2015 She's At It Again

It's rare for clients to update me every day but my best practicer has been at it again with her two Arabs. Last Friday Guy the farrier was understandably bemused when I asked him to wear his old chaps (that he had given me) while he hot shod my two horses. "I need them freshly smoked," I said, "for a horse that is frightened of the farrier." They were duly collected by Sarah B the next day so that she could use them to train Dina. Here she is er...wearing them.

Jaz went for a walk and made the most of the hazards she met - every one is a training opportunity.

And, as if to prove my point about who's training your horse, her yard owner decided to do this with the tractor while Jaz was tied up. Fortunately it didn't seem to bother her.

23rd March, 2015 Who's Training Your Horse?

The short answer is anyone who comes into contact with him - however briefly and at whatever distance - whether they mean to or not. The person who trims his feet or puts on his shoes. The person that pats him or gives him a lovely rub, maybe feeds him over the gate. The person who introduces him to new things such as being bathed. The person driving the car, the lorry or the motorbike or pedalling along with their mates. The person that helps you to put him in the horsebox or to get on board. The person who rides out with you (and their horse!). The person who clips him for the first time or afterwards. Anyone who rides him. The person that rounded him up or just caught him for the first time, or handled him at the sales yard. The person who takes care of him on your behalf at the livery yard, brings him in, changes his rug, picks out his feet or just turns him out. Good or bad, knowingly, recklessly or inadvertently, everyone has an influence.

23rd March, 2015 Swanning Around

A very welcome day off yesterday after twenty five days on the trot, and I didn't even put a hand on a horse. David and I went down to the Swannery at Abbotsbury and enjoyed watching the swans. Good practice for wildlife watching later this year.

 

Up at the fields Tracey was in charge and had Imy and Braydon to help with the ponies. Nettles is such a star.

Natasha has also given permission for the children to ride Mickey bareback, something every child should experience.

Back to work for me this morning and first off a longer ride for Tilly. She was rather awake today on our new route so we just worked on keeping everything low key and relaxed.

Once again she was completely unfazed by boy's toys.

Back at the yard Natasha got on board and rode her for a little while.

Meanwhile Bella went out for another ride and coped well when two riders trotted past her with a loose dog. I wish people would check before they do this sort of thing - their horse was a baby once.

21st March, 2015 Weaving a Tangled Web

Motorcycle training with Tilly this morning and as predicted there was no drama. First she met the bike with the engine off and then with it running.

Following the bike at walk and trot. This is the sort of thing Tilly loves doing.

Gentle 'fly-pasts' with Natasha on the same side as the bike. After a while David sped up and revved up on the bike.

Over-taking with Natasha on the opposite side to the bike. Just after this Tilly turned to look at David as if to say, "Are you lost?!"

Another visit to Castillo with a view to consolidating everything and then handing over to his owner, Alan. Each time he takes less time to be caught than the time before (and definitely a lot less than the two to three hours that it used to take before I was called out).

We got to this stage easily within ten minutes.

Alan was asked to approach him with love and to do everything smoothly. He needs to repeat the pattern that I have been using up until now.

Important to gently fit the headcollar around his face rather than pulling it into place.

All done. It's better than tentative now. We've got another session booked for next Wednesday.

Last call of the weekend, Welsh Cob x Thoroughbred, Cherrie. Cherrie was a resident at HorseWorld for six years until she found Lindy who fell in love with her at one of our Hands on Horsemanship courses. Cherrie has had a very bad time in her past and finds it extremely difficult to trust people, especially men. Lindy has no expectations of her as a companion horse but has reached the stage where Cherrie will have her feet trimmed and will approach other members of her family.

Cherrie's tail had become a mass of tangles and burdock burrs so Lindy asked me to help to untangle it while she worked with clickered treats at her head. It took about an hour but by rubbing baby oil into it first it became a lot easier.

Now as smooth as silk. Note that running foot!

Cherrie has her own companion, Welsh Section A, Ellie.

"I am so relieved Sarah, thank you, had been waiting a long time for this -   no-one else matched up to the job! Lovely to see you again x" LW

20th March, 2015 Feet 'n' Teef

A palindromic sort of day then with the farrier this morning and the dentist this afternoon. Between times we worked the three starters and braved riding during an eclipse - what eclipse?

As darkness falls the drivers put their lights on but we didn't need our special glasses.

Natasha concentrating on asking Theoden to soften and back up.

Tilly having a trot up the hill.

We thought we'd have a little lie down at lunch time but it got interrupted.

Nicky Brooks from The Barn is a chip of the Amy block and always so lovely with my horses.  Bella had a few sharp points and a lot of teeth changing, vindicating our decision not to ride her in a bit yet. She will need to have a six monthly check. The Forest mares were declared to have amazing teeth which can be attributed to their wild diet.

What a dozy bunch...at one stage we had six horses standing in a drunken circle. 

Nicky's Veterinary Student, Nick, seemed to develop a soft spot for Blue.

19th March, 2015 Is It Catching?

Well yes mostly. Catching and then training Tilly, catching and farriery for Anna, and then plain catching for Castillo.

Natasha noticed that Tilly had a greater tendency to overtake her than she does me. Simple solution, walk faster! Tilly has quite a long stride and cannot be expected to tailor her speed to Tasha's for more than a few strides. Once we'd got Tasha walking as if she was going to buy chocolate, all was well.

We hoped to meet a bit of traffic as we went around the village. Tilly was completely unfazed by this pick up and its rattly trailer.

She wasn't bothered about the lorry either...

The donkeys were interesting but not frightening.

A regular visit to Anna and I set Tasha on to catch her too. The key thing with Anna is to ask her to have the headcollar on rather than making her. If you try to hold her head to put it on then she gets distressed and angry. Instead you have to be elastic from your waist and just take the headcollar to her head an put it on.

Even though she is really easy to catch these days, Anna is still ambivalent about having her feet done. Her mood swings pass like skudding clouds across her face and one second she has her ears forward and the next she has them flat back.

Even so she really likes human company.

Castillo accepted a headcollar today although he wouldn't accept it without the scarf draped around his neck. Having something around his neck tells him he has to stand still, nevertheless he finds it difficult to accept a rope around his neck - I think that is where things have gone wrong.

Although he would accept the headcollar over his nose, he struggled to have it go up the side of his face.

Accordingly I switched to putting it on from the side and then he was fine. More consolidation required but at least he is now catch-able.