28th August, 2015 Living with Livery

I am fortunate, very very fortunate, to be able to rent land for my horses and despite the lack of facilities, no school, no stabling, I am extremely happy where I am. I could not live with my horses at livery. I am sure that there are happy livery owners and happy horse owners at livery but all too often I find a palpable tension when I go into livery yards, a quiet stand-off between the yard owners and the horse owner or between the horse owner and other horse owners. It's not easy running a profitable business, it's not easy answering to the needs of different people, but so often horses and owners are forced into a regime that doesn't suit them, doesn't suit their horse, and compromises the horses safety and health.

Many livery yards have grown up on farm land where the farmer has been forced to diversify. The grass is dairy grass, too rich for horses, so the field size shrinks, the fences are electrified all round, and the amount of movement, shelter, interest for the horse diminishes. Often horses are kept alone, possibly next to other horses, but unable to engage in behaviour which is necessary for their soul. In one livery yard I went to recently, all the other horses in adjacent paddocks had been taken in, leaving one mare completely alone who eventually crashed her way through the electric fencing.

Management regimes insist that horses come in for prolonged periods of time, increasing the risk of gastric ulcers two fold. The stables are rarely safe from a fire safety perspective - dusty, with cobwebs and flammable materials such as hay, straw and even vehicles stored within the same buildings. Horses last less than four minutes from the beginning of a fire. In many yards they wouldn't stand a chance.

Things are unlikely to get better with farm land being sold for housing. As a result there is pressure to have more horses per acre and beggars can't be choosers.

Livery yards can also be terrible places for bullying. People offering advice they haven't been asked for and talking behind other people's backs. I know I couldn't stand it. That daily tension can feed into the emotions that you take to your horse. You have to be strong to ignore it.

Where horses are on part or full livery, owners are well aware that all of the training that they do with their horses can be undermined by inconsistency of approach whether deliberate or inadvertent.

27th August, 2015 Jump with Joy

Charly the Shetland pony hasn't been very happy about anyone going beyond his waist. Frightened of people it's hard to know whether this is a result of instinct, poor or illogical handling. In the end it doesn't matter as the approach is just the same. Arming his new owner with a feather duster, we began to get his body used to being touched without the risk of being kicked.

His beautiful field mate, Oldenburg cross Elkie, was so calm and reassuring.

Towards the end of the session we were able to start picking up his back feet. He needs lots of repetition over the next few weeks and the sort of touch that he thinks is worthwhile. We found that rotating his ears, massaging his poll, withers and sacro-iliac area, and scratching the dock of his tail, all helped him to relax and realise that humans can be useful.

"Thanks for such a positive session last week. Slow but steady progress so far which is even more than I'd hoped at this stage." hw

Later I went off to join Amanda,  T and Rory at Rockbourne UK Chasers course. Although my role was to ensure that he would load at the end of the day, I had a thoroughly great time going round with the pony, his mate Pickles and his rider, L.

Pickles was very good at giving Rory a lead and, given an opportunity to look at the fences first, and a chance to have a little think, he got braver and braver.

However, the inevitable happened at the water complex...

Someone had to try to roll...

The rain held off right until the end.

Rory was still a little bit sticky about loading but with just one panel behind him he consented to going on. Therefore we just needed to find something that would have a similar effect without needing to take a panel everywhere with him. The grey tarpaulin did just the trick...

Rory and Pickles weren't the only ones having a blast. The Riding Camp contingent had a great gallop up the hill back to the venue.

26th August, 2015 Pitta Patta of Tiny Feet

25th August, 2015 The Ofsted Inspector

Dressed like Columbo, I did some more work with Banksy's ears today. With some latent learning and yesterday's first practice he was already stacks better - willing to give it all a go and trying his best to be as co-ooperative as he can. It takes a bit of patience to do this sort of work but not as much patience as it would take to have a battle with his bridle every day. Of course, we could just take it apart each time and that's not much of a bother but eventually he needs to be able to wear a driving bridle and that is far more difficult to dismantle.

You may just notice the red-headed Oftsed Inspector in the background. Henrietta is a bit like the office cat, she goes wherever she likes.

24th August, 2015 Ear Ear

Ghastly weather so an ideal day to start on Banksy's bridle work. Like many horses with aurol plaques, he is extremely sensitive around his ears, and finds it very hard to tolerate anything coming into contact with them. It's an ideal place for clicker training coupled with a very clear, set procedure, which he can predict and trust. The first step is to establish an association between a click and a treat, and then a series of single clicks and then three clicks and a treat. The single, un-treated clicks, encourage patience and stillness, where the three clicks tells him that he has done his job and can expect a treat.

The next step is to ask him to tolerate having his ears folded forwards in three stages. I use a flat hand lengthways along the back of his ear so that the whole of his ear is covered by my hand. The intention is to 'post' his ear through the gap between the brow band and the crown piece without touching him with the leatherwork at all. I made a start on this with a bridle with no bit and will continue work with him in this way every day this week.

23rd August, 2015 End of Shift

Lovely Lindy has finished another summer with me and goes back to work at Kingston Maurwood College tomorrow. It's always loads of fun having her around and we get some serious work done too. Of course we talk about nothing but horses all day long.

22nd August, 2015 The Eleventy Million Club

Four horses worked today, well three bay New Forest ponies and a horse, and what a horse! Everything has gone swimmingly.

We started off with Nettles and Banksy. Banksy was his usual incredibly calm self and was happy to take the lead, walk beside or go behind Nettles on his long reins. Early on we were arrested by two New Forest mares who were convinced that he was a stallion.

We saw a peleton of cyclists (who very kindly slowed right down and said hello and thank you, and polite things like that, which we repeated back to them.)

Nettles has had a set-back recently when a little girl fell off him. Her mother had persuaded Tracey that her children had ridden off the lead rein before but of course there is a world of difference between a riding school or trakking pony, and a five year old pony that hasn't had much life experience. Anyway, he set off at a bit of a meaningful trot, the lady threw her arms out to stop him, he spooked and the child fell off - fortunately she was fine. Unfortunately this has set him up to be worried about things going bump behind him and Tracey and I have been trying to undo that since. It just shows that a young pony needs several years of trouble free riding to ensure that they don't develop a fear of things.

Julie has been riding him a few times for us and he is doing very well. However, this, coupled with the fact that he has grown and is much stronger now, means that we don't think he is suitable as a lead rein pony or a first pony any more. At the end of his loan period next month we'll either be taking him home or trying to find a new home for him with a competent older child or a small adult.

Next it was off to Jackie's to work with Copper. Copper, if you pardon the pun, is a different kettle of fish to Kesali, having had a lot less done with him in his early years. On his last walk out with Jackie, about three months ago, he did pull away from her more to get to the grass than out of fear though. Therefore it was with a little sense of trepidation that I led him out for a walk this morning but he didn't puit a foot wrong and really seemed to enjoy being out and about again. Jackie and I talked about three key points with him:

1) Buffer zone - Copper likes to have and needs a 2' rule, i.e., a buffer around his head in order not to feel crowded. This does not mean that he can walk 2' ahead of his handler.

2) Concentration - the need to answer his frequent questions even when you are talking to someone else.

3) Insects - if he gets an annoying insect it is his insect all the time he is creating about it, and you only need to help him when he is still and patient. - otherwise you are drawn in to his emotions and a dangerous situation.

"Copper really seemed to enjoy his walk and it has given me renewed confidence and determination to get him out more often again." JH

 Next time we hope to be able to long rein him out.

As we left we bumped into an old friend, Castillo, being ridden by his owner Alan. They looked very happy together and I'm told that Castillo is being caught consistently.

This afternoon we went to an extremely posh yard which must have been incredible in it's hay day. The whole house and grounds are being steadily restored to their former glory. Acres of beautiful park land for a horse to gaze at but not graze!

Mali and her owner T have had a couple of very unsettling incidents recently which have set them both back confidence-wise. A change of yard and hopefully temporarily being kept in an individual paddock has upset Mali and she has become spooky and reactive. When we arrived today she had been left as the only horse up at the paddocks and she was in quite a state. However, once we began to work with her she calmed right down and seemed to be very pleased to have the company and the guidance.

As an owner in this situation it is difficult to forget big incidents and to start that all important conversation with the horse about how things are going to be. Much as the horse also wants eveything to be alright, they cannot initiate change themselves. Accordingly T and I talked about being Mali's calm rock, trying not to feed into thise big emotions that horses feels and express from time to time.

The good news is that energy levels on both sides came right, right down, and it all felt rather serene by the end. Like all Arabs Mali is extremely quick to learn but also quick to fill in any gaps left by her handler. Whilst the groundwork can feel like a series of mechanical moves, it is the heart and feel which go into them that makes the critical difference. We need to show the horse that we are part of the solution and not the problem, and that we are literally there for them when they are in trouble. We made a very good start on that.