Maida Vale Mobile Vet

09/02/2024

30/01/2024

Insightful words for those of us juggling jobs homes and horses.
Be kind to yourselves and steeds with respect to expectations, taking steady steps to progress.

Help can be had at the many Pony Clubs and Adult Rider groups where sharing instruction and education combine with fun for your horse. Orange Grove (OGAR) join up is this weekend, Saturday 10am to 12 at KARINYA in Grant Street.

Orange Grove Adult Riders Inc
Orange Grove Horse & Pony Club
Karinya Equestrian Park

The principles of training I share are from the French classical school. However, over the years it’s become clear that for the riders I’m fortunate enough to work with, teaching this in isolation isn’t enough.

When we look at the riders of those European classical schools there are some key things to notice. They were typically men from the privileged classes, who, from an early age could dedicate their lives to the study of the horse. They accessed several years of riding school master mounts, including many hours on the lunge, They rode multiple horses a day, and received daily tuition from masters of this art. They had time to study texts and ideas and application. The horses they were presented with were usually bred for the task of ‘dressage’; Lipizzaners, Lusitanos, warmbloods. Collectively they experienced an immersive, academic, demanding, life-long education in the classical horse.

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Most of the people I teach are not these riders. They are usually female, with many other things going on in their lives; care taking families. earning a living (or three) keeping a household afloat. If they get to ride once a day that’s rare, and very often that’s just the one horse; they don’t have access to multiple steeds. They may have returned to riding later in life, and it’s really unlikely they’ve had years on the lunge to develop an independent seat. And, while their horses are hugely beloved, they may not have even been bred with riding as their primary function.

I feel like being honest about this is an important starting point. You’re not a failure as a rider - you just didn’t spend a decade riding 6 horses a day with masterful classical tuition. The specific angle of shoulder-in required for a horse of that conformation hasn’t been drummed into you.

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This is why other disciplines are so necessary for most of us. For instance, the vital grounding that good horsemanship can provide a horse and human partnership. There is no point worrying about ‘collection’, if you’re not sure how to help a horse feel really good about having their feet handled, or confident about leading in a way which is safe and good for you both. You can develop these skills on the ground, day by day with your horse and then when it comes to a ridden lesson where you need to know where your horses hind feet are, you will be in a much better position to tap in to this.

Learning some basic body work skills can really help improve your feel. Spending time with your hands on a horses body - noticing how they respond to your touch - will contribute to how well you will be able to converse down the reins and through your seat.

Committing time to observing horses- potentially with someone who can help you ‘see’ - can develop your ability to notice what your horse is telling you and better understand how to make sense to them.

Working with ‘rider or seat trainer’ coaches is often essential for us. We haven’t had years on the lunge, we don’t have access to school masters, so we need to develop our own balance and independence as riders in whatever way we can. This is going to be essential if you want to use your hands according to classical principles.

I absolutely believe that French classical riding is the best training system for the horse. However, for many riders we need to develop a wide range of skills BEFORE we can really begin that part of our education. Our foundations need to be broader and more established in order to give us both a fighting chance of implementing these principles.

I want people I work with to succeed, that means starting where we actually are, and being proud of doing something very difficult. Not everyone tries to do that with their lives

16/01/2024

The way to a human heart ....

16/01/2024

Lightning in the hills over Kalamunda - fingers crossed no strikes in Mundy regional park

11/01/2024

For help reuniting list pets - a named collar in case the tags go missing...

15/11/2023

Ali alpaca has a corneal ulcer that improved s

15/11/2023

When the sink is not long enough to soak the fish grilling tool- and the "sensitive" shoulder length glove looks like a good idea until it sprung a leak 😆

16/10/2023

Protecting puppies from Parvo especially, can prevent heart wrenching outcomes that can happen in a heartbeat.
These cuties stepped up for protective vaccination prior to a weekend in kennels.

07/05/2023

Hugging trees in my favourite dog park, Jorgenson

04/05/2023

A thermometer is such an important tool! And Strangles is such a contagious infectious disease potentially causing lifelong problems. By

Temperature checking is at the heart of this year's Strangles Awareness Week Campaign because horses tend to develop fever first and typically become infectious to other horses 2-3 days later. This gives us a golden window of opportunity to prevent spread and minimise the scale of an outbreak - which can be devastating to agistment and owners. It's impossible to tell which horses will recover easily and which will face complications so minimising spread is vitally important.
Taking your horse's temperature regularly is so important. In this video you'll learn how to do it safely, whether it's your first time using a digital thermometer, or the just the first time with a particular horse. 👇
http://ow.ly/UbZv50O49KB

30/04/2023

Eyes are so precious and if damaged urgent treatment should be found as they can head south very quickly! This case of a corneal ulcer was treated quickly and every 4 hours. It was deep but healed in a week.

25/11/2022

Happiness is shown with the beautiful smile above

𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒗𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒖𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆.

I am in love with the emotion and passion I feel within this photograph. To me, it represents a man's life long love affair for his Horses, and this is his unique Story.

Every day this 91 year old Man would sit on the back of his Boulonnais horse on the way to pasture.

This is a story worthy of capturing to be treasured for generations to come.

With the power of social media- he has been found!!! His name is EMILE DESJARDIN (FRANCE 🇫🇷)

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064496628653 ©unknown

25/09/2022

If you haven't experienced the magic of this garden bordering Hawtin Road , it is a haven including a hand built amphitheatre in natural red rock, streams, profusion of heavenly planting.

25/09/2022

Recognising oneself!

Let your daughters grow up to be horse girls.

Let her room be messy and her clothes be torn. Let her barns be spotless and her horses shine. Let her be first up in the morning and the last in from outdoors at night. Let her forget breakfast and skip dinners and have flat sandwiches on white bread, gripped in dirty hands. Let her horse share the sandwiches.

Let the kids at school call her 'horse girl' as an insult and let her screen saver tell them she accepts the name with pride. Let her miss class for a show. Let her miss a show for the vet. Let her cry when she wins and cry when she loses. Let her make best friends and make worst enemies and fall off and get back on and fall off again. Let her be the one they put on the crazy ponies. Let her ride every day. Then let her have a second horse. And a third.

And when the going gets rough, let yourself relax. Horse girls become horsewomen and horsewomen don't give up.

- Angelina Vita

05/08/2022

To all the people foaling down mares, if they have an abortion please please please beware of a very serious disease that may have caused it, and can create serious illness in humans.
Chlamydia psittaci.

Do call a vet to check the placenta and they will wear protective clothing masks gloves to examine and sample it.

22/07/2022

PEARLS from : The enduring human-horse relationship dates back milenia. David Johnson photographed these 1000BC bits in Iran, reminding us how intrinsically linked we are.

21/07/2022

A silvery moon (above the first tree) welcomed the sunrise over Melbourne. As ears, fingers and toes froze I was glad to get back to the last day of learning and networking at the equine vets conference.

18/07/2022

Ranvet

Enjoying a week of intensive catching up with other vets of the latest equine innovations products treatments and learning.