This week I paid a visit to Hunter Horse Haven in Port Stephens for the first time.
I was warmly welcomed by committee members and volunteers, and quite impressed how organised and tidy the place was and how well looked after all the rescued horses and ponies were.
I had been contacted to make an assessment on two of the horses there for suitability for a woman who was interested in adopting them.
One mare out of the two was deemed suitable which is great, the other little mare needed time and more work before she would be ready.
Charity organisations like these play a very important role in the lives of horses who need help.
Your donations not only go towards the costs of rescue and rehabilitation, they also contribute to training and assessments such as these for help in successfully rehoming these precious ponies💗🙏🏼
https://www.facebook.com/share/x8wvS83VHwDSUFqm/?mibextid=kFxxJD
I might not have a huge following….. but it’s not huge numbers I’m after, it’s those who genuinely want to come along on this ride with me😆🐮🐮🐮
Don’t bother to watch this video or read these words if you’re looking for exciting footage or definitive answers….
I want to show you a snippet of some of the work I do with horses that display behavioural issues.
There’s a stigma with training these days around consent based training- I do actively practice as much of this as is possible, however not every ‘no’ from a horse is beneficial to withdraw from. Particularly if I’m trying to figure out a problem.
So, when I’m doing things that end up being a bother to her, I am feeling sorry in my mind and I keep it to a minimum, but I feel it is a necessary part of the process. Much like a physical wound that might be stinging badly but needs to be cleaned up to help the healing process.
This mare is clearly sending me a message that she is not ok. It is more specifically around girthing, mounting and dismounting only, so the areas I would be advising the owner to investigate would be saddle fit, tenderness or tightness in the body, nutrition and/ or ulcers.
The other area to consider is the emotional tie to the behaviour. Which is why, despite her very clearly telling me no, I choose to remain seated and see what it is that is triggering her. This is not a practice that I would continue with this horse until she goes home… But for me to get a better idea of the WHY it’s imperative in the first week that i take notes (listen) to her problems, steer away from anything that causes major reactions but continue the work gently across a handful of sessions until I have more of an idea on where to go with her.
It’s important to me to film and watch some of the first sessions like these so I can see what they look like from a distance…. I hadn’t noticed the way she was standing while I was getting on. It doesn’t look comfortable, and this will be something to address with a body worker in the coming week.
Awareness is so important if you want to establish trust and build a solid relation
Little Foxy girl- we will miss your big personality and we hope you are a good girl in your new role as kids pony🦄😍
Foxy spent a couple of weeks here to gain some more exposure and get her big backside back into work! She definitely was only here for the social aspect (boys🤨) but did manage to get through it all with flying colours😁
This boy certainly can switch on to movement- first session at liberty and looks like we’ve been practicing all week😜
Ravu is a 9 year old registered ASH gelding sired by the great Acres Destiny, and is officially on the market. Suit campdrafting, mustering, trails.
Experienced home a must, as is a home over the range as he has become mildly itchy over here.
Anyone interested can send a pm and details will be passed onto his owner.
#livehorses #breathehorses #spendeverycentimakeonhorses
How I think I look when I skip, and how I ACTUALLY look are worlds apart🤣
Excuse the athleticism😉 while I explain what I’m doing here…. I’m working with a young horse that’s lacking forward and needs encouragement….
I can either build energy and then direct it AT her… or I can build energy and use it myself and help influence her to step up. Leadership.
This little mare has lots to say about things. A big opinion for a little girl…. It’s my job to show her we can achieve things together and that I want a partnership, not a dictatorship when it comes to work. The last thing I want is to shut her down and make her ‘compliant’.
She is allowed to have her opinion, and by her letting me know, it becomes my mission to convince her she can be ok with what I’m asking. 🦄
Building confidence in a young horse 🐴
To me, this is such an important part of starting a young horse.
And I’ll admit- my favourite part🤭
There’s a bunch of stuff going on here, but the most valuable is the trust that is needed between horse and rider to attempt new things, even when the horse isn’t sure.
I’m not asking him to try these things for me, I’m convincing him he can do this for himself. Establishing confidence in a young horse is so important to get right as a trainer… fail that and I’ve failed the horse!
If your horse is worried about something, you should strive to understand how you can help💗
Blackjack has always had a bit of worry with floating…. He loads fine and travels fine, however just the idea of going somewhere gets him stressing as soon as he sees the float hooked onto the car!
Just to put it into perspective, we’ve hardly had any outings at all, less than a handful of social adult riding club days for experience, and a couple of leisurely trail rides.
When we are out, it’s all low stress and he is always calm.
What I do, and I find it really helps, is bring the float out an hour before we go somewhere.
He sees it and runs away, clings to another horse or just hides in the corner of the paddock…. Eventually though, it seems once he has time to calm himself, he will approach the float, then retreat but this time not so far away. Sometimes he will approach 3-4 times to really check it out.
This day, while eating my breakfast, I caught him rolling right near the tailgate after he had done his approach retreat thing. Rolling out all that worry is what worked for him, and after this he was calm and went back to grazing, at peace with knowing what was soon going to be happening.
Sometimes, all they need is time. You can’t always fix it for them but you can do things in a certain way that allows them to fix it for themselves👌🏼🦄
I know of many horse trainers who, like me, wear the constant guilt of not having the time or making the time to continue developing their own personal horses….
For me, this year has been particularly difficult as I’ve navigated through some pressing issues with Blackjacks level of soundness… I’ve had to scale back and settle for a few sessions of groundwork or the odd trail, while I decide on the best way forward for him.
Today was a pretty good day, though if you look closely enough you can see some discomfort in his hind end. Next week, we are looking forward to getting him the scans and tests we need to determine what treatments to use to heal him🙏🏼
We haven’t done much in liberty, but he is very tuned in to me and makes playing around in this way so much fun🥰
There are times you see me ‘lose’ him but it only takes a wiggle of the flag and a gesture to hook him back in…. I didn’t realise until I watched this how much I look down while moving around- it’s definitely not great for my posture 😂 however, I feel it is just a part of the communication in those moments.
I cherish the connection I have with this boy, he has taught me more than anyone can imagine about language, empathy and training with love😍🦄
I can tell everyone we spent hours on this, teaching all the animals at liberty for weeks on end. But no, being the honest human I am I will say this just happened….. and from the moment after the still picture, it all fell apart🤣
Fiona has just moved to a new home, and the ‘herd’ has become quite tightly knit as they get used to their new surroundings.
An entertaining session to day the least, with the entourage following us for the entire hour as we worked on settling techniques for Molly in her new place🥰🦄
