What a brilliant session with Indie! Road exposure on this very windy day. Motorbikes... absolutely not! Cars and trucks not so bad.
I am super proud of this girl!
Thanks Allison and Ariel for the company 💕😎🐎
Bundy! Session 3 part 2!
I'll let YOU ask questions or make a comment in the comment section this time!
Go Indie! Big trail ride today. Handling herself better by the day.
Session 2 with Bundy!!
Join up. Have you sat and watch a herd of horses? Have you noticed the pecking order? Have you noticed how they move eachother around (in and out of the herd)?
The lead horse is exactly what we try to imitate during join up and the rest of our training. The lead horse has the respect, love and trust of all of its herd. The herd knows the lead horse will steer them from danger and keep their bellies full.
Ultimately we want the horse to choose to be with us. We send the horse away until the horse gives us the signs that they want to "talk". Inside ear listening towards the circle. Body tilted in towards the circle wants to "face up". When this happens we turn our body and look down to show our "vulnerable" parts offering the horse to come join us in our herd/circle. If the horse turns tail (shows its bum) or looks away that is disrespect. This is when we hunt them away or out of our herd until they give us the signals to come back in.
Once we join up.. the partnership begins!
Indie 💕
Extra long reining today! She is doing super. Learning a lot of patience.
Session 1 with Bundy!
Unfortunately I haven't videoed the very beginning! I know.. shocking! But I figured out I can't be in 4 places at once.
Session 1 is always the longest and the hardest for the unhandled horse. It is also the most important! This boy hasn't had any contact with humans apart from running onto a truck. It is very daunting for a horse to be in the same "space" as a human. We really do give off all the wrong signals! (E.g our ears are always pinned back!)
Lincoln started just walking around Bundy's space. Just being there with him. Pushing him around to see if he will "face up". Bundy wanted no part of it! "Join up" (I'll explain this in another video) was looking to be quite dangerous for Bundy so we moved to an extension of our hand. The flag and the rope.
As you can see in the first photo Bundy is very much saying "Please just touch my bum!". Kaz's Flags & Tail Bags heavy duty flag made an extension of our hand easy! After a few touches with this. Lincoln moved to the rope. Desensitising by throwing it away from Bundy, over rails, over himself and even onto one our veteran horses to show it doesn't hurt. Next was tossing the rope over Bundy's head. Wohoo first go!. Next was to let Bundy feel, sniff and wear the rope. Once he was settled and ready Lincoln used the pressure and release method to ask Bundy to look and move towards the pressure and ideally towards Lincoln.
Next part was semi circling into Bundy's space and asking for the touch. Success! Now all Bundy wanted to do was give Lincoln his nose!
Things were going super so Lincoln introduced the halter. The quicker we get this on the quicker we can worm him etc. Very curious boy! "Halter hmmm not sure about this one" 2nd go. Success!
Such a curious and willing boy.
Indie 💕
Today we revised the groundwork she learnt yesterday and reminding Indie that she can release to pressure.
Indie is doing really well learning "Neutral" to prepare for the one rein stop. We also touched on a bit of long reining to practice the voice cues we are learning during lunging.
To finish off we had a short ride bareback to go over what we learnt on the ground over the last few days 💕🐎😁
2nd session with Indie today!
Yesterday she was very defensive and unwilling to move forward off pressure. Today she was much better! Only a few "No's" and then she got it! Lots of "giving to pressure" groundwork exercises.
A job made easy with Kaz's Flags & Tail Bags as an extension of my hand. Such a handy tool!
Good girl Indie 💕
P.S Yes. I will get that groundwork video done!
First time long reining and mounting block practice for young Bonnie yesterday 💜🐎
On the mountain with Dar 🐎💕
Raven 💕🐦⬛ Such a special girl this one! She just loves people 💜🐎
What a day doing what we love 😍😍🐎🐎💕
Out and about with Raven! Working on transitions today! 💕
Between the ears on a gorgeous afternoon 💕😁
Dar, Raven and Cricket
How do we help horses gain confidence and help with re - mouthing?
Let's long rein everywhere! 💕
Raven did so well that she didn't want to turn for home!
What a top day to ride ponies! 🤠😎
Trail ride with Allison on Ariel, Lisa on Flipstar and me on Dar 🤠🐎
Great morning bringing the cows in 🐄🤠
Til having a ride on Owen! Jaz having a ride on Cricket! What a top day for riding 😁🐎🌞
Proud of this boy. He is just wonderful
