The adventures of Phoebus

28/12/2023

Phoebus on ponying duty. Two old hands teaching two newbies trail skills.

28/08/2023

On ponying duty again tonight. Lots of Wallabies about, but logs were much more scary.

24/08/2023

A recent little fun sparring session in armour, with Phoebus and Algernon being very obliging. Thanks to Jo for the video!

12/06/2023

Adventures at Rocklyn today.

10/05/2023

At the SA Medieval Fair, getting ready for the joust. Ridden by Sir Craig.

29/04/2023

Last weekend Phoebus and I enjoyed a horsemanship clinic with Pat Puckett. I've been following Pat via his and Deb's The Disciplined Ride FB and even more so, their youtube channel for some time, and been blown away by Pat's depth of applied knowledge.

So when I found out he was due to come to Australia, I booked a spot at a clinic. So off we went to Bendigo, accompanied by Amber and Luna. The clinic was fantastic, and I can't recommend Pat enough.

It turned out that what I had learned from all of Pat's videos and worked on with Phoebus (and the rest of the crew) and had put into practice is heading in the right direction. And we got some more stuff to work on. A Sunday well spent around nice folks and in a great learning environment.

29/04/2023

Another picture taken at the Mount Gambier Fantasy Medieval Fair.

17/04/2023

At the Fantasy Medieval Fair in Mount Gambier on the weekend. I saw the back of Phoebus' ears on Saturday, and the front of his ears on Sunday, when he was on loan to Sir Craig while I rode Keldan. Here I was seeing his ears from the front.

21/02/2023

A big thank you to Amber for helping us get dressed and taking some lovely photos.

27/01/2023

Phoebus met a new horse yesterday. He thought it was a bit weird. The T-Rex was a weird, too. There was much wide-eyed snorting and blowing bubbles at the start, but after a little while it was all ok, and we could carry the black horse around, and even had a canter around while carrying it.

All in a day's work for Phoebus 😎

27/12/2022

Out for a little ride after the heat of the day. Checked out the local letterboxes.This one is a pretty creative one. The owl even has a nest of rocks.

06/12/2022

Little moonlight ride.

21/11/2022

03/10/2022

I haven't posted anything for a while. That's not because Phoebus didn't have any adventures, but more because I'm too busy having all sorts of adventures and not having enough time to write.

We've been doing training with The King's Horses most weekends. Due to the weather those were mostly indoor sessions, but we also had some nice trail rides at Dereel and in the Wombat State Forest. I have also been trying out different items of gear including spurs in the style of the 15th Century, different saddles, and a couple of new bits.

Phoebus is gaited, that is, he has a four-beat saddle gait. I like to call it toelt, since that's the first word I learned for it, but there are plenty of other names for it, such as amble, rack, single-foot, paso largo etc. I spent the first couple of years of having him in establishing the toelt properly so that he is now capable of doing long stretches up and downhill and regardless of footing. Of course we also worked on his canter and his lateral gaits, so that he is more balanced. I basically didn't trot him at all during that time. However, the trot is an excellent schooling gait, so I have brought it back into our sessions, and I use a specific signal to ask him for it, so that he is clear about when to trot, toelt or canter. We are now working towards laterals gaits in trot, as as stepping stone towards other fun things. However, when out on a ride, we do toelt :-)

Attached are a couple of pictures from a recent session, playing with travers. And I say "play", as I was seeing if I could get more by doing less, so we aren't pictures of perfection. Photos courtesy of Cherilyn Fuhlbohm.

05/09/2022

We had a nice day with the Military Equitation Association on Saturday. It was a fun and training day at Unicorn Park Equestrian Center, and included a lot of folk from The King's Horses Equestrian Society as well.

Phoebus was accompanied by his mate Keldan (Icelandic) and Amber's mare Luna (Peruvian), making it a float full of gaited horses we took along.

We did skill at arms training with quintain, rings and other little targets, and we used daggers, swords and lances. Amber also had a ride on Phoebus while I rode another one of my horses for a while. Late in the afternoon, some of us armoured up and we did a bit of joust practice. Phoebus and I hadn't done any jousting since our display at the SA Medieval Fair in May. So it was really good to have a go again. It was also great to be able to assist Zeph in having his first few successes in putting a hit on someone. He and his little mare did really well.

Some photos from the day below thanks to Yvonne and Joanne.

09/07/2022

First ride out in a while, making the best of the sunshine.

02/07/2022

Phobus pretended to be an Appaloosa today....

27/06/2022

Another busy weekend for Phoebus. We had a clinic with Anke Hawke from NSW at Narrawin Stud over the weekend. I had the opportunity to ride two horses while benefitting from Anke's eagle eyes, constructive critiques and useful suggestions. She pointed out several things that can improve my journey with Phoebus. It has been a while since she first saw him, so it was good to get feedback on how he is progressing and what we can improve on. Yvonne kindly took some pictures from one of the sessions on Friday.

More lessons on Saturday, followed by a bit of a trail ride, where Anke enjoyed Phoebus and I rode Keldan, with Melanie along on Morgana. Yet more lessons on Sunday, and to finish off, a short and pleasant trail ride out with Melanie on her youngster Eldur in the sunshine this morning, Phoebus being the schoolmaster/nanny.

11/06/2022

A few pictures of Phoebus are included in the updated King's Horses website. He even has his own page there :-)

Horse Equipment All of the equipment for our horses is based on actual historical examples, or depictions from historical sources, such as manuscripts. At present we are shifting our focus more towards the 15th Century, and our equestrian gear needs to mirror that. From bits and bridles based on dra...

29/05/2022

Another busy weekend for Phoebus.

Friday night we had a late evening arena session under lights. A bit of in hand work, playing with piaffe, then a brief ridden session where we worked towards renvers and counter-shoulder-in. In the prior session I had introduced a signal for him to trot at medium speed, and he just "got it", so this time we returned to that subject and ended up with several walk/canter and walk/trot transitions on request. I know this doesn't sound difficult, but so far with him, we have worked on either amble or canter and I had actively discouraged the trot. However, I want to be able to solidify his lateral work at medium speed, and that is easier in trot than in amble. So I am now (re-)introducing a trot on request. And while my trot signal is big at present, and sometimes he's still unsure, we are getting there rapidly. The other benefit of trot is that it uses the muscles differently to amble and canter, and while I detest it, I know it is a valuable gymnastic exercise.

Saturday, we had a King's Horses training session, which involved some quintain runs but mainly was about sword techniques on horseback. This soon shows how useful it is to ride a horse that can turn on the haunches, can do lateral movements and is responsive to seat and legs. Also, all the work we've done getting our horses comfortable working in close proximity and with weapons is definitely showing. Of course, we can still improve. But I'm very happy with how Phoebus handles himself.

Sunday was a good time for a short trail ride and the first time I tried to pony another horse off Phoebus. He handled it like a pro, and it was amusing to see that although Altus is the boss in the gelding paddock, Phoebus was more than happy to muscle him around when I asked. Pushing things, I discovered, is something that Phoebus is not only good at, but also quite fond of :-) This was also the first time I ponied Altus, but I assume that in his previous life as harness horse, he's had tons of times being led from a vehicle, so I expected no issue. Amber came along on the lovely Luna and we had a pleasant little ride. A couple of pictures showing the view from both sides are below.

17/05/2022

SA Medieval Fair 2022 - SAA demo by The Kings Horses. Photo by Inquisitive Images

17/05/2022

SA Medieval Fair 2022 - Skill at arms demo by
The Kings Horses. Photo by Inquisitive Images

17/05/2022

SA Medieval Fair 2022 - Joust demo by The Kings Horses. Photo by Inquisitive Images