Hedera Horsemanship

Hedera Horsemanship Mars Millichamp-Parry - young trainer promoting ethical communication with their r+ based method.
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Empathy is the most powerful tool of all. It is more powerful than metal, and it is far more powerful than what one may ...
24/06/2024

Empathy is the most powerful tool of all. It is more powerful than metal, and it is far more powerful than what one may think they know.

HH Verdical Flight (Peggy) and I having some quiet conversations today.

•••

Kaz's Flags & Tail Bags

18/06/2024

10 minutes difference.

Context is important with this one. Peggy is a 13yo OTTB mare, who has already had quite a ridden career, having trained to medium dressage and ~90cm jumping. She brought home a plethora of rugs, ribbons and rosettes, so she is certainly educated and decorated.

Peggy also deals with anxiety. She may have been performing well on paper, but she was quite “hot” and “trigger happy” most of the time. Which isn’t really a personality trait of her, but a result of anxiety. Anxiety can come in many forms, which can often be labelled as quirks (-where it can then be perceived in a negative light). Head tossing, rushing jumps, pawing, and so on. These are not “naughty” behaviours, and they’re certainly not a personality trait. They are the result of what the horse is dealing with externally and internally - and you have a great deal of influence on the severity of that.

I speak about this very regularly with my clients; trigger stacking can start as far as the night before. Sometimes there are actually some pretty good reasons for why your horse may be having a “bad day”. They may have been experiencing trigger stacking. Humans experience this too.

A bird flies out in front of the horse’s face and spooks them.

You nearly hit an animal while driving and it leaves you feeling unsettled.

A horse steps on a rock and develops a bit of stone bruise.

You roll your ankle badly, and now it’s aching.

A horse gets handled a bit firmer than usual due to their unsettled behaviour and they won’t stand still.

You get yelled at your boss at work, leaving you feeling unheard and distressed.

After all that, imagine if your boss asked you to complete another difficult task that required mental and physical effort, while you are feeling mentally and physically down in the dumps that day. You can imagine how this is exacerbated by a language barrier between human and horse.

So how did we stop Peggy going into such a state of alarm when going into the canter?

Acknowledging her stresses, thanking her for her effort and clear communication, and allowing her time to breathe and recoup.

Imagine if, after you had a scare and then got hurt, when you went to work, your boss asked you how you felt, offered you support, and let you have a quieter day than usual? Instead of demanding you “respect” them more when you try to communicate with them. Instead of commanding you to “stop avoiding work” when you falter.

You definitely wouldn’t look forward to going to work the next day.

If you were to be that unforgiving boss to a horse, you can imagine how they won’t look forward to seeing you.

This turns into anxiety around work, anticipation, conflict, and at the very least inconveniences like catching issues. It is actually in the handler’s best interests to prioritise their horse’s enjoyment during work anyway.

Time to treat our horses better than some of our bosses treat us!

Meet some of my external clients!Peggy - 16.2hh, 11yo OTTB GeldingWorking on getting him to think for himself a bit and ...
24/04/2024

Meet some of my external clients!

Peggy - 16.2hh, 11yo OTTB Gelding
Working on getting him to think for himself a bit and open up more, and also dealing with a bit of anticipation. So we try to keep him on his toes while giving him the flexibility to contribute to decision making in regards to what we get up to. Overall just working on making him a bit more mentally flexible!

Reeva - 14.1hh, 5yo ASH X Paint Mare
This little lady is working on finding the forward, as well as general straightness as she is still quite green. Making sure we keep things as light as possible for her as she is a bit dull to the aids, so we do a lot of asking for small efforts and really thanking her for those.

Mumma/Toffee - 12.2hh, 6yo Welsh X Andalusian Mare
We are doing general groundwork with her, getting her confident and calm with my questions and asking her to contribute with suggestions, plus making sure she feels heard. May end up slowly starting her over time, we shall see where her training goes.

Thoroughly enjoying these 3! All totally different horses, but so fun to work with and great personalities.

Peggy, Reeva and Toffee are owned by Danielle S.

31/03/2024

Easifa’s first experience with the saddle on. 🤩 She was fantastic! She was so present and willing to try new things this session. She has been a little apprehensive about things going over her back and hanging from both sides, but I feel like she had a huge lightbulb moment and suddenly she found the confidence in herself to overcome anything! I introduced a few new things to her this day and she took to them so kindly. Very happy with her!

Easifa is owned by Yallaroo Endurance Arabians.

Easifa looking beautiful the other night. She had the saddle on for the first time today, as well as her first experienc...
29/03/2024

Easifa looking beautiful the other night. She had the saddle on for the first time today, as well as her first experiences with a hose! Could not have gone better. The hose was scary at first, but we followed our formula, and sure enough

Meet Yallaroo Easifa! Easifa is a 15.2hh rising 5yo arabian mare. She is here to be started under saddle. So far she has...
16/03/2024

Meet Yallaroo Easifa! Easifa is a 15.2hh rising 5yo arabian mare. She is here to be started under saddle. So far she has been proven to be very mature and sensible, with a great personality! 🥰

Easifa is owned by Yallaroo Endurance Arabians.

Happy new year everyone! ☀️This year, we will be operating from our 50 acre property in Gidgegannup which is very exciti...
02/01/2024

Happy new year everyone! ☀️

This year, we will be operating from our 50 acre property in Gidgegannup which is very exciting. This allows for so many more exciting opportunities as well as the Perth clientele. We are still in the process of building more paddocks, a round yard and an arena, but will hopefully be taking clients very soon.

If anyone is interested in float training, groundwork, starting, general education, working on manners, developing your relationship with your horse, or bringing your horse back into work etc please don’t hesitate to send a message and I can let you know when we are available. If you are local to the Gidgegannup area, I can also travel to you.

Fingers crossed for a great 2024.

Pictured is the lovely friesian warmblood mare, Calliope, owned by Jayne T.

3 ½ months difference.•Quinta came to me having been clearly neglected by the spell agistment she came from. The owner w...
21/11/2023

3 ½ months difference.

Quinta came to me having been clearly neglected by the spell agistment she came from. The owner was, not once, informed of her true condition. Once we realised what state she was in, her half-sibling (owned by the same person) was very briefly picked up as well, who was also in the same condition. 😞 He was with me for 4 weeks to help get some condition on before moving him to a safe place of agistment.

Quinta was also left with an ill fitting rug on by the agistment (who clearly did not check the fit or that it wasn’t rubbing), which you can see rubbed her shoulder terribly. She was infested with worms, had sand in her gut, ulcers, was ~200kg underweight, was very stiff and sore and consequently her feet need fixing up, too. 💔

I have not used omeprazole on her, or any typical commercial supplements.

She has been “treated” with hay, small homemade feeds (no premixed, commercial feed brands), herbs (these I owe most of the transformation to), bodywork, love, patience and time. You don’t need to give them 3 massive feeds a day, omeprazole paste/injections, bute etc to deal with the problems that result in an unhappy, uncomfortable horse. If you can be patient, you can treat in a more holistic manner and avoid the side effects associated with those things.

In the last 18 months I’ve really switched gears and converted to treating things in a more natural way, and I can’t see myself looking back. I find the results are achieved in a much gentler way, and subsequently they’re significantly more effective in the first place.

Of course each to their own, but if you’re here then perhaps you are interested in my 2 cents. 😉

HH Veridical Flight. We are in the midst of setting her up to be brought back into work after 2 ½ years off. She has a b...
16/11/2023

HH Veridical Flight. We are in the midst of setting her up to be brought back into work after 2 ½ years off. She has a bodywork session tomorrow morning, we are in the process of changing her feed over, and we are treating for ulcers with herbs as general protocol of my project horses. We have the round yard currently being built so we can start some groundwork in there soon. In the meanwhile I am taking her on walks away from her friends and proposing some basic ideas in the paddock and around the property. She currently has a low threshold but she is a mare that does have the ability to ground herself well. We just need to hone this skill so she can carry it over into her work and when she feels stressed.

We are awaiting more paddocks, the round yard, the arena as well as some other work around the property before I can take clients on again. I should have vacancies around January or February.

⚜️ HH Veridical Flight ⚜️•Introducing HH Veridical Flight, fondly known as “Peggy” who raced under Bridge Pegasus. Peggy...
05/11/2023

⚜️ HH Veridical Flight ⚜️

Introducing HH Veridical Flight, fondly known as “Peggy” who raced under Bridge Pegasus. Peggy is a 15.1 ½hh 13yo ottb mare, who has previously schooled up to medium dressage and 80-90cm showjumping, being relatively competitive in the showjumping arena in particular. She is a project horse and will be sold in due time.
For now, I am allowing her to settle in to the new property and, as a routine habit of my project horses, treating for ulcers and boosting her gut health. I will do groundwork with her before getting back on, to build some topline and ensure she can be as happy + confident as possible when she comes back into work after 2 ½ years off.

“Tiny has been so relaxed since she’s come home. She’s let’s me scratch and pat her all over which is awesome! I gave he...
11/10/2023

“Tiny has been so relaxed since she’s come home. She’s let’s me scratch and pat her all over which is awesome! I gave her a bath today with positive reinforcement and she did amazing! The other agistees and agistment owner have all commented how relaxed she is.”

Thank you to Tiny’s mum for the review. I love hearing how the horses are going once they’re back home. 🥰


11/10/2023

I thought this was worth posting. This is Quinta! She is a nearly-4yo WB x TB filly. She has been here for a few months gaining condition and recovering from being neglected on spell... The owner was not informed of her true condition by the agistment who unfortunately never actually checked on her, or under her rug while she was there. Needless to say we were both disappointed and shocked when she came off the truck. She’s finally coming around a few months later and is feeling so much better. We have just started some light groundwork and she is really fun to work with! When she first came here she wanted absolutely nothing to do with me, so I’ve been eating my lunch with her, sitting in her paddock, giving her carrots and just simply spending undemanding time with her. We have fixed the huge worm burden, the sand in her gut, the ulcers, the rug rubs have grown out, her weight is coming along, and now her mind is more at ease too. She is a very sensitive little thing and very strong-minded, but she has really opened up and started displaying some curiosity towards me. Can’t wait to see how she turns out. She will be coming back to Gidgegannup with us and being started once she is settled in there.

Quinta is owned by Emmaleigh E.

30/09/2023

Tiny left 3 days ago, but I thought I should post this. What a big difference from the start of this session to the end! Tiny is definitely a pony that warms up as the session goes along but this day she really showed a little more trust in my intentions. I would let her walk forward when she got worried so she didn’t feel boxed in, and this greatly improved her confidence. At the end, I could swing the blanket up and onto her while she stood really well. So proud of this little filly. She was nothing short of a delight to have!

Tiny is owned by Hayley W.

24/09/2023

Tiny Update!

We’ve been working on her confidence and letting her know I respect her boundaries, and it’s okay for her to not feel okay. Initially, she was quite concerned about me patting her back and bum, and would usually scoot out from underneath my hand, flinch or try to turn away from me. I always kept a fairly loose contact on her but I was very careful in where I positioned myself, to allow her to have her reactions and be able to remove herself from the situation if she felt the need to. I don’t like the idea of holding them still while doing desensitisation as it can make them shut down and can create a sense of learned helplessness. This is where you get horses that freeze then explode.

If I felt she was moving away slightly but not abruptly I’d guide her with the rope into a little more of an inside bend to encourage her to look for a place of peace and softness while she was worried. Occasionally I will manage her slightly and ask for a little more “still”, just so she knows she can do it. But, I never put her in a box where she has nowhere to go. You can see she had a little moment where she hu**ed up at the sensation, and I hardly reacted, because “That’s okay, you’re allowed to feel that way”. I simply asked her to take a few steps back and then moved her into the other side while being as non-confrontational as possible, then allowed her to stop and stand to think about it. Since that, she became a lot more confident with me patting her back and bum. Now it has actually become a support for her, as she is familiar and comfortable with the exercise!

This came in handy when I started training with the blanket, as she was quite scared at first. She was trying to run away from it a bit, so we did R+ and every time she interacted with it, there was a reward. To begin with I couldn’t stand at her side with it, or lift it up without upsetting her, but by the end of the session she took the blanket over well! If she was worried, she would walk a few steps and I’d either place my hands on her back/bum (which she actually found relaxing and it helped to ground her!) or I’d pull her around gently into a stop and reward when she was still for a moment. In the video you can see a good reaction to throwing the blanket over the first time, and the second time she shies away from it when I shift it whilst it’s on her back, but she came back down to a halt off my energy alone. I exhaled, telling her she’s a good girl, and placed my hands on her back and bum to let her know I was there, and she came around soft and stopped quietly. This was a really lovely moment, and I prefer this to the first blanket. It shows she is thinking, and even though we haven’t rewired that initial flinch reaction out of her yet, she doesn’t keep running from the rug. Her body reacts to the stimuli but her mind is very present. I think a lot of people forget to give the babies credit! They are super smart if you let them show you how clever they are. Tiny in particular is a highly intelligent individual and while she is quite sensitive, she’s very curious and thrives off mutual respect and positive reinforcement. She’s a good little sponge.

Tiny is owned by Hayley W.

Meet Tiny! 🥹 This little cutie is a silver bay tobiano 11.3hh gypsy cob x welsh 1yo filly. Tiny is here for a few weeks ...
09/09/2023

Meet Tiny! 🥹 This little cutie is a silver bay tobiano 11.3hh gypsy cob x welsh 1yo filly. Tiny is here for a few weeks of general handling and education. She will also be our last Dunsborough client before we relocate to Gidgegannup in the next month or two. ❤️

Tiny is owned by Hayley W.

29/08/2023

Comanche, a few days ago. This guy is so cruisy.

Comanche is owned by Zoe G.

Love this.
22/08/2023

Love this.

Thought for the day:
Problems rarely fix themselves.
If they do fix themselves then they probably weren’t problems to begin with.
I find most times with horses its about changing what I do.

22/08/2023

Comanche’s 2nd ride in the arena! We’re at approximately just over 10 rides now. He’s tonking along very kindly. We need to work on responsiveness to the aids, but he is calm, confident and happy. This is the most important thing for any horse, but especially one that has had to overcome mental and psychological barriers just so a human can sit on top of him, and so he can physically canter on the right rein. So proud of this little guy!

Comanche is owned by Zoe G.

12/08/2023

Comanche had his first ride with his mum today. So pleased! He was so happy to be there and they went together beautifully. 🥰 Not sure which ride this is, believe his 6th-8th. I don’t really keep track. 🤣 He did a wonderful job and is showing all signs of being an absolute pleasure to ride with some refinement of the aids.

Comanche is owned by Zoe G.

08/08/2023

Comanche being an awesome little man; walk, trot, canter, halt. So stoked with him! He is really flying along now! 🤩

Comanche is owned by Zoe G.

Comanche working with some of our tools from Kaz's Flags & Tail Bags ! These were a fabulous way to teach him to find co...
07/08/2023

Comanche working with some of our tools from Kaz's Flags & Tail Bags ! These were a fabulous way to teach him to find comfort in suppleness and a bend. This has allowed us to progress forward where we can start some riding as he understand my questions better and he can find a place of peace in softness. 🥰

🎉 Crazy Confetti Flag
☂️ KFTB Umbrella
🖐️ Handy Clap Clapper


Comanche is owned by Zoe G.

Isn’t he just so handsome? 😍 Gosh, he looks good in this gear too! Comanche was a very good boy today, navigating lots o...
31/07/2023

Isn’t he just so handsome? 😍 Gosh, he looks good in this gear too! Comanche was a very good boy today, navigating lots of scary stimuli (from none other than Kaz's Flags & Tail Bags of course). 👻 Each stimuli took him only 2-9mins to get comfortable with. I’m super pleased with his efforts! We worked through some really important questions with him today and he was so calm + confident at the end. 🥰

Comanche is owned by Zoe G.

28/07/2023

Comanche update! This little fella has been rather complicated to get to the point where I can stand above him and make noise, let alone sit on him and walk around. He has taken the longest out of any horse I’ve ever had to get to this regarding a rider, however he has been the quickest I’ve ever had to introduce to gear. It’s like he came out, broke to saddle and bridle! He was remarkably unfazed right from the start and never questioned the gear. But he had a lot of mental blocks regarding me in his space (and especially with the idea of me being on top of him) as he felt intruded upon, and didn’t see the point in my questions. Now we’ve gotten to this point, he has become so much more sure of himself and my questions, and has mellowed a lot. His defences have really come down and dare I say it, I think he might even enjoy me sitting on him now as that’s where all the scratches and treats are! Excited to see how he progresses from here as I think he will start to catch up quickly now we have gotten through the first big humps. He is a highly sensitive and intelligent horse with a lot of curiosity, it’s just been a case of manifesting it in a manner that looks towards being a happy + comfortable ridden horse.

Comanche is owned by Zoe G.

Yes, we train in the pouring rain too.•Comanche is owned by Zoe G.•
13/07/2023

Yes, we train in the pouring rain too.

Comanche is owned by Zoe G.

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Toodyay Road
Gidgegannup, WA
6083

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