16th November, 2015 A Breath of Fresh Air

In the land of the Cerne Abbas Giant, I was somewhat dwarfed today by three Warmblood mares AND their foals. All six months old, they are all very tall with plenty of bone. They have the joy of living out full time with the dams on eight acres of green pasture with plenty of shelter, and when needed, rugs.

They came in en masse...

The biggest one is Theo, a Hanoverian colt, by Woodlander Supertramp, out of Trenda.

and then there was Savannah, by Soliman de Hus, out of Hanoverian mare, Anna. All of the foals had headcollars on briefly as very young foals but owing to circumstances haven't had them on since. During the intervening time they have become less inclined to have a headcollar on but happily they are all fine with being touched everywhere else. Not only that they have kind temperaments and there wasn't a hint of a kick or escalating their behaviour at all.

It's not always easy to work with an older foal that is still with it's Mum. They can calmly evade attention just be moving around and tucking in behind them. It's also important to allow them to feed when they want to and to engage in important social activities such as mutual grooming. We worked first of all with Bella, half sister to Savannah.

No horse is too posh for the soft scarf which we used to reintroduce touch around the face. She wasn't convinced at first and hid  behind Mum just because that was the easiest thing to do but soon she was accepting it around her neck and wrapped around her face.

Theo was pretty confident and as a colt liked to take hold of the scarf. It wasn't long before he too was having his face wrapped up in a figure of eight...

...and then accepting his headcollar when put on using the No Force, No Fear approach, i.e. from the back rather than up over the nose.

Savannah didn't like the scarf on her face at all, finding it far too tickly, but accepted a flat hand and then the noseband - an important reminder that no two horses are the same no matter how closely related.

Back to Bella and she accepted the scarf and...

then the headcollar in quick succession.

Having put these three back in the field, it was time to find some more!

Holly, aged three months and Archie, four months, were keen to come in with their dams...Holly is a Danish Warmblood cross Thoroughbred by Monaco and extremely cute. Archie is full Danish Warmblood by Monaco.

Archie was a sweetheart and between bites of hay he had a scarf on and then his headcollar pretty quickly.

Holly is a little more nervous and in the time we had left we concentrated on getting her happy to have the scarf on.

When she chose to go for a walk, I walked alongside her just holding the end of the scarf - it's a good way of establishing the concept of leading just by gently mirroring her.

A kiss for Beccy her owner. Hopefully the scarf and the NFNF technique for putting the headcollar on will prove to be useful.

Four of these foals are for sale. They are all beautifully bred and being raised in an ideal and healthy set up. They should all be well rounded mentally and physically as a result.

14th November, 2015 Old Habits Die Hard

It's been eight years since I last worked with Woody, a New Forest pony, that came in to me at that time, aged 8, for starting. Over the years he has developed some interesting habits which were desgined to influence people through asking for attention, or postponing things, or simply to keep himself amused in the stable. For example, he agitates the door very loudly with the underside of his jaw, driving everyone else in the yard mad. Whilst his owner walks away, in an attempt not to reinforce the behaviour, other people give him hay in order to keep him quiet. It works, and for him, it really works!

It is possible to address these long standing behaviours but it does take some commitment and absolute consistency. He's pretty immune to any low key body language and so asking him not to keep interfering with your pockets or pressing you with his nose and lips is nigh on impossible and in order to achieve this calm position I had to rattle a rattle tin at him and mean it. It's hard to do something quite so radical but years of fudging it mean that nothing else works. Another example of needing to finish on the full stop rather than the comma.

He's got an interesting habit of taking his front feet off anyone trying to handle them or clean out his feet. This was readily addressed by a different hand grip.

On the up side he was long reined for the first time since he left us all those years ago and hadn't forgotten a thing.

He proved to be a lovely teacher for his owner, Natalie...

and very very calm but forward going...

and he seemed to enjoy it.

Our afternoon appointment was cancelled due to the horrible weather so we called in on Chancer who was on our way home. He's looking really well and was enjoying a duvet day.

13th November, 2015 Little Prince

Having spent most of yesterday looking down, I spent this afternoon looking up...a very long way. Irish cob, Prince, is at least 17 hands high but he's yet another 11.2 horse in a 17 hand suit. He was bought six weeks ago from a dealer having come from Ireland. In the time his new owners have had him he has put on weight but not really fulfilled their expectations of him. Having ridden nicely at his trial, he has become very spooky, finding it hard to even stand still in the stable yard.

We worked on this in the field to begin with, asking him to stand still and this went really well. His owner is already pretty skilled at IH type techniques so it was a matter of encouraging her to finish her training on a full-stop rather than a comma, i.e., if he walked into her space by one stride, she should back him up two strides.

Up in the stable yard he showed how frightened he is. The building emits a low hum in the wind (and Abigail was helping to accentuate this) and he has never been into the barn itself. Up until now his energy has been contained by allowing and encouraging him to circle and sometimes, that is all that people can do. However, this can lead to the horse pushing through people or moving them with their inside shoulder.

Instead, I asked Prince for some very short periods of standing still, turning his head towards the building so that it wouldn't be in his 'rear view mirror', and made use of the one sunny spot on the yard.

After just a short while each time, and before his energy overwhelmed him, I took him for a little tour of the yard and then into the stable area itself, so that he could walk off his energy and explore the building so that it was no longer a mystery.

Towards the end of the session he was standing still much more easily. In time hopefully he will relax a lot more but until then he should not be tied up in the yard as this will simply make him feel more vulnerable.

"...thank you so much, I feel like we have a plan now. Didn't imagine we would get him standing still in the yard today so thats a real breakthrough." LB

Photo received 17th November:

"Prince had his dinner in yard last night, a first, thank you so much :-)". LB

12th November, 2015 Ferry Across The Solent

Despite leaving home shortly after 9 this morning, I didn't reach the Isle of Wight until 12.30 thanks to a broken down ferry which necessitated getting off one and then onto the next. At least as a foot passenger I didn't have to reverse my car down the gang plank.

My late arrival meant that I missed the appointment with the vet who was due to trim Mollie's feet and meant that Jane had her debut holding Mollie for the vet's visit. It's probably been overdue anyway but they both excelled themselves and Mollie earned herself a big kiss.

In the afternoon she had some fun going over the agility obstacles. She seems to really love jumping...

...and is becoming much more tolerant of things fluttering around her back legs...

...she also seems to be talented at designing the new Olympic rings.

Jane long reined Pie and they worked on halt and trot...

...before tackling the obstacles.

"Thank you for another brilliant day. It all worked out really well in the end despite the broken down ferry !! We achieved some important training with Mollie in her stable and increased her tolerance levels. As the observer, she clearly tried very hard to control herself when she felt the hoop and the flag, very pleased with her. Again she excelled with her jumping. Pie had a great time being long reined, it is so good to see him enjoying himself. He was very brave negotiating all the obstacles whilst being long reined and gained himself a gold star for jumping the barrels without any stressful bucking." JB

11th November, 2015 Nothing to be Proud of

Despite the best efforts of the police who have issued more than 2500 speeding tickets on the Forest, horses, ponies, donkeys and pigs continue to be killed and injured by drivers, many of whom fail to stop at the scene or to report the accident to the police or the Verderers. Now that the clocks have gone back, an average of three animals have been hit each week and the pages of NFED read like an obituary. The name at the end of each incident is that of the agister who has to go out and destroy animals that are so badly injured that they cannot recover.

NEW FOREST TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS - Monday, November 9 2015
Supplied by the Clerk of the Verderers Week commencing Monday 2nd November 2015 02/11/2015 ~ Brown Jenny Donkey - Injured & Destroyed ~ Hilltop - B3054 ~ M Lovell 03/11/2015 ~ Pony - Nothing Found ~ Hatchet Moor - B3054 ~ R Maton 03/11/2015 ~ Palomino filly - Injured ~ Crows Nest - B3078 ~ A Napthine 04/11/2015 ~ Black filly - Injured & Destroyed ~ Latchmoor - B3055 (E) ~ R Maton

NEW FOREST TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS - Monday, November 2 2015

Supplied by the Clerk of the Verderers Week commencing Monday 26th October 2015 28/10/2015 ~ Brown Roan Filly - Injured - WEARING REFLECTIVE COLLAR ~ Hatchet Lane, Beaulieu - B3054 ~ R Maton 30/10/2015 ~ Roan Filly - Injured & Destroyed ~ Ipley Bridge ~ R Maton 31/10/2015 ~ Brown Jenny Donkey - Killed ~ Bramshaw Golf Course - B3078 ~ A Napthine

10th November, 2015 Hope and Bray

Whilst the donkey may be very pleased to see Benny, the feeling isn't mutual...

...and when he hears the raucous greeting he decides that he had better be off.

This is genuine fear illustrated by leaving, passing droppings, a tight lower jaw...

...and an exaggerated running foot.

Bit by bit, and with clickered rewards, he gets a lot braver...

and copes well with the next enormous wave of braying...

...before getting pretty close. This is where we left it for today after about an hour and a quarter.

Once he was able to concentrate, moving him forwards four steps and immediately back three helped to bring him closer without putting too much pressure on him and he stopped trying to run away.