24th May, 2015 Cute and Cuter

She who rides the pony must put him back in the field.

24th May, 2015 Alls Well That Ends Well

If you came across a horse in this sort of mess what would you do? Fortunately Caroline who found this little mare knew all about the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service Animal Rescue Team and also called a vet. As a result Abbey was extracted with no injuries although she was bound to be very sore. Friends of the Hampshire Animal Rescue Team

Support your local FRS Animal Rescue Team, you might need them one day. The whole of the Fire and Rescue Service faces cuts and this is one area which will attract great scrutiny. Imagine having to make an economic decision because they were no longer available unless you paid for them to be there or your insurance covered it (which it wouldn't now). You can donate to the British Animal Rescue and Trauma Association and help to support training and specialist equipment. BARTA

24th May, 2015 She Is A Showgirl

Today's bookends are the Fritham Shetlands all intent in getting over to the pond at Janesmoor for a drink. They've still got their winter coats so perhaps knew something we didn't

Lola, looking today like a showgirl, arrived with her owners a year ago looking like a hat rack. She was originally owned by travellers and went through a rescue farm before ending up with Wendy. As with many rescues she was pretty wary and needed to be coaxed to be caught and petted. Over time she has begun to push and pull her owners about as they struggled to set boundaries for a pony they had felt quite sorry for.

Step one was to establish some clear and consistent leadership. The 'motorbike hand' position and a 'smile in the line' both help to make things black and white, or in this case brown and white.

Finishing with rustic L-shaped poles to put everything together.

"Thank you for a very informative session yesterday. We have been for a lovely walk today down to the stream and Lola was very relaxed." WA

The other bookend is a set of four New Forest ponies happily trimming the hedges and verges down our track. One of the joys of living 150 yards down a public footpath is finding your way blocked by a group of wild ponies with ambivalent backsides when someone has left the gate open at the top.

Luckily I know what I am doing a bit and could get round them with some low key body language before turning to drive them back up the path and out of the gate at the top.

Two of them are mates of mine anyway. The two dark bottoms are Pegly and Wilfreda (not their real names), both offspring of Wormy who had a foal in our garden just after we moved in.

23rd May, 2015 Touch and Go

Day two at the Mark Rashid clinic and all of the morning's horses made significant, make that massive, progress. Debbie and Dillon worked on their halt to walk and walk to trot transitions and then their walk to halt and trot to halt transitions. Dillon takes a few moments to go up a gear and Mark explained how you never want to use your aid as a punishment for the horse. Instead of squeezing harder or kicking, he asked Debbie to squeeze and then turn Dillon if there was no response so that he could unstick his feet. In this way he wanted him to learn that it is touch, and go.

For the trot transition he handed her a schooling whip emphasising that if because of his history Dillon had a problem with it, she could just drop it. However, all being well she could just use it against her own leg to make a noise to ask him to go. Although Dillon continued to offer the canter transition that we met on the Isle of Wight, he soon learned to drop into trot and to relax. Mark explained how Dillon had been taught to know that one and one equals two without ever learning how to add up.

Debbie also began to ask him to soften in trot which enabled him to use his hindquarters to better effect. As a result his tail was able to move gently from side to side indicating that he was able to use his longissimus muscles to their full extent.

By the end Dillon could practically do algebra, putting all of the moves together so that he could go from halt to walk to trot and back again and end on a soft halt.

Evie started off by skipping over the pole rather than leaping it as she had done yesterday and soon she was able to walk over it and pay more attention to where her feet were going rather than trying to protect them by not coming anywhere near the poles.

More poles were added and soon she was walking around a fan of poles in either direction.

She finished by walking calmly over a raised pole.

The loading horse looked a lot different from the outset today, calmly approaching the horsebox and going straight in. Once in Mark worked on asking him to stand in the right place and in the right direction and then to calm himself.

He finished not only by being able to close the partition with him in but also by asking him to stand this side of the partition too.

22nd May, 2015 Them's The Rules

We are so lucky to have Mark Rashid here again and so close to home. I got the opportunity to thank him once more for the work with me and Theoden two years ago from which I am still reaping the benefits. I had the most fantastic calm ride on Theoden yesterday and these days he actually feels as if he enjoys going out riding and it isn't all against his better judgement.

Talking of judgement, I like the fact that there are a few set rules for people at Mark Rashid clinics. Quite apart form having your order for a 'jacketed potato' in early, no smoking anywhere on the premises, no one is allowed to talk badly of any of the riders or their horses. In this way he seeks to provide a safe training environment - after all we are privileged to be able to watch.

I have to admit to feeling a little tearful when Dillon walked into the arena so willingly this morning. Debbie has come such a long way with this horse - and not just because she had come from the Isle of Wight to be here.

She and Mark worked on softness - asking Dillon to back up or move forward or halt without a brace or a push.

Like everyone Mark ended up with his arms all around him because he is such a lovely horse, so different from the one that wanted to rear when he was being led, eat you if you brought his English saddle near him, or pull back when he was tied up.

With a soft halt to end, Debbie is already looking forward to tomorrow.

Next up was Evie with Lorraine, hoping that he would have some ideas to help Evie get over her fear of poles.

Now it was time to set some rules for horses. being a lot clearer with where the boundaries are with a pony that is inclined to bite if she is told what to do in a way that she doesn't like. In her case and for now, he wanted her a good arms length away from him when leading and coming to a halt.

He pointed out that Evie should be stopping her body, not taking her second front foot past the first, when he turns to look at her. Only when this was established would he try to work with a pole, he said, since that was part of the problem.

He highlighted the fact that Evie's problem began before she tried to go over the pole and was evident even as she approached it. He worked with her quietly, asking her to go forward to the pole and then allowing her to completely relax. At first she would race over the pole and panic but soon she began to stop and investigate the pole instead. The art is turning fear into curiosity.

Next he began to intrigue her by rolling the pole away from her so that she could follow it. That got her really interested...

...and by the end of the session she had her head over the pole.

The next horse was worried about loading and in the same way Mark explained that the problem started even before the horse arrived at the horsebox with the horse resisting coming forward or attempting to flee and run his handler over. Once again he began by setting up some boundaries before beginning work at the horsebox.

Once the horse was next to the horsebox he just asked him to stand there and relax and when he did so, he led him away, at the same time not allowing him to flee whilst doing so.

Next the horse was asked to move forwards using a kiss noise as a cue. This was backed up by a twirling rope particularly if the horse tried to run into him but it was all done very quietly and with superb timing. With a microphone in place you can clearly hear Mark breathe out and relax the instant he gets what he is asking for and everything else stops too.

Once in the horsebox the horse is encouraged to relax. For now, this is enough and Mark will begin shaping the behaviour, asking the horse to face the rear of the lorry during the second session tomorrow.

However the presence of hay, now that the horse was far more relaxed, literally helped to provide a turning point.

Amanda wanted to work on her turns with Dartmoor pony, Donald. Some adjustments to her hand position helped him to release his neck and to move his legs laterally.

Just as in the saddle, Amanda was asked to notice changes in the energy of the carriage in order to spot when Donald was asking whether she minded him going into walk for this bit! In that way, she was able to answer his question before he made a decision.

21st May, 2015 All the Signs are Good

New signs on the B3078 which light up if people are driving too fast. It's to be hoped that the message gets through with so many ponies taking to the roadside in hotter weather in order to have the insects wafted off them by the draught from the cars.

This group near Deadman Hill includes the three year old stallion, Applewitch Diversity.

Arriving at Kestrel's field today we needed an alarm clock but actually allowed them to wake up gradually before taking Kestrel out again.

He's pretty calm and quiet so short reining one handed was very easy.

We met a really rattley trailer along the track - always good for his education.

We needed to get reacquainted with the bridge where he has a tendency to rush when he reaches the middle of it. It's really important not to feed in to that energy by going up an octave and saying "Steady! Steady! Steady!" Instead I talked to him in a low, slow voice and walked him over it over and over again until he went across calmly.

He seems to have caught on to the idea of jumping things.

Another foal by Walhampton Scholars Farewell.

And a new donkey foal at Fritham.

20th May, 2015 Wiggle Room

With Sarah B over for a visit, we three set out with those two for a one and half hour walk on the Forest. These days we seem to be able to take them out on the open Forest without any problems and we all had a lovely time.

This afternoon we got to take Kestrel out after quite a long gap. He has recently been off work while he was treated for gastric ulcers and so Yvonne wanted me to take him out a couple of times just to get him going again before she rides him. As usual we took in as many sights and sounds as possible out on the Forest.

In the spirit of getting cyclists to like and understand horses, I had a nice chat with these two. Now we need to start on the Wigglers.

These two foals are both by Futurity Scheme young stallion Walhampson Scholars Farewell who was out at Moonhills last year.

Sarah challenged me to share one of our outtakes. On the way home Kestrel grabbed some grass and managed to pull it up by the roots. As he began to shake it there were bits of earth going everywhere and I was worried that there might be earthworms in it. I'm not a fan of earthworms!