Storm
Liz and Storm working under the trees ☺️ it may look simple but Storm is beautifully happy and soft working a long distance away from his friend Jake… which is a huge deal! Look at those ears 😍
#gaiahorsemanship #activedonkey #donkeys #bitless
Anyone else having flashbacks of last winter today?! 🤔
#gaiahorsemanship #britishwinter #wetwinter #rain
Anwen
I’ve recently started working with Gail and Anwen, with the aim of helping them develop their confidence in each other. So lovely to see such a difference in their latest session 🤩 #gaiahorsemanship #horses #ponies #flag #sunnydays
Merlot and Shiraz
I’ve been working with Merlot and Shiraz in preparation for loading for moving. They are big lads with not a lot of “life experience” at all and can be quite nervous. We haven’t got a lorry to practice with so I’ve been using the stables to work on being enclosed and giving them some tools that will hopefully be some help on move day. They’ve not had great experiences in the past and I know the lorry itself will be a trigger but any preparation we can do to beforehand will all help.
They’ve been going into the stable with me, turning halting and waiting before coming out and also walking in with a pallet alongside to practice being more confined and then backing out. They have learnt to target towards a cone. It’s been quite a big deal for these big flighty boys. This week we progressed to them being confident enough to go in without me which is fab 😊
Note, although there’s hay in the stable they had free access to hay on the yard during training too. #gaiahorsemanship #positivereinforcement #drafthorses
Merlin
First proper sit on for Merlin today 🎉 lovely to see both him and his friend Kip who also had a session and is so much more confident these days. Lovely boys. #gaiahorsemanship #startthemright #backing #cobsofinstagram
When your client forgets you’re coming 🙈🤣 so you make do bareback in a headcollar 😁 the beauty of less is more training, no need for tack!
Looks like I’m wrapped for winter! Looking forward to it warming up again next week.
#gaiahorsemanship #cobs #bareback
Back in this school!
I quite often end up visiting yards I’ve visited before. I’ve never been taken back this far though. Today Lulu worked with me in the school for the first time, and we managed some lovely relaxed pole work (we’ve not done this before so not quite champion agility standard yet 😂). But it was the first time I’ve gone into that school for 30 years, as it’s the school I learnt to ride in!
Check out comments for a photo of me learning to ride!
#gaiahorsemanship #waybackwhen #horsemanship #positivereinforcement
Fred
After the excitement of the weekend I was back out working from Tuesday this week. Today I seemed to spend most of the day either sat in traffic or going the long way around to avoid traffic 😩 seemed to take all day to see 3 horses. But I got out to Fred today… dear Fred who seems to be as accident prone as myself and had a mishap last week but recovered quickly, and was fine for me to see this week. Really pleased that he’s back to his normal ridden self after our own ridden mishap a few weeks back when something fell behind us. He was superstar today with a fence being bashed in near us, and the wind! #gaiahorsemanship #backtowork #ponies #cobs #positivereinforcement
August camp
August camp was awesome. Thank you so much everyone for coming - participants and helpers! Hope you all had an amazing time and thank you so much for agreeing to be filmed. Photos to follow!
We have one more camp this year, and it has one space left!#gaiahorsemanship #summercamp #horseagility #horsemanship #equestrian #summerfun #proud
Shiraz
Shiraz last week. Working on confidence coming into a confined space as preparation for loading practice. He was given free choice and worked up to this gradually. Super star ⭐️ #gaiahorsemanship #postivereinforcement
Greetings!
Always lovely to get a nice greeting from clients 😍
#gaiahorsemanship #horsegreeting #horses #drafthorse
Self haltering
Self haltering with a nervous horse 😊 we were at the end of training session here hence he’s still chewing on the previous reward a bit! 😍
#gaiahorsemanship #positivereinforcement #horses
Fred did his first one day event the other day!
Well ok….. we had a play in a large field where there was a dressage arena set up we could walk around, lots of logs and tyres we could play with and some tiny show jumps we could walk over and knock over 😂 but he was a star nonetheless. We were mostly dodging dogs, I can confirm this pony is totally dogproof!
#gaiahorsemanship #backing #startthemright #cobs #ponies #dogs
Some fabulous moments from our July camp! I’ll post some photos soon too. Everyone did so well 🤩🥹 we started with basics and getting to know obstacles, moved through challenges, liberty work, the “play pen” large obstacles, long reining, riding, working as a team, competitions, games and most of all fun and partnership with the horses. Inara even got to show her skills off to a small audience. Well done everyone.
Can’t wait until our next one, it’s not far off now. Our final two camps of the year are full.
#gaiahorsemanship #horseagilitycamp #horseagilityaccreditedtrainer #summercamp #fun #positivereinforcement #horsemanship
Megan and Maverick
Megan and Maverick came for their first lesson the other day, they want to work on liberty work, horse agility and improving their positive reinforcement. Maverick is very sweet young horse who has some anxieties and just needs some understanding and patience. It was clear these two already have a lovely relationship and Megan puts him first which is super 🥰 we worked on refining a few things including working over horse agility obstacles and getting some clear voice cues established. Maverick is super smart 🤩 here’s a clip from the end of the lesson.
#gaiahorsemanship #horsesofinstagram #libertyhorse #positivereinforcement #horseagility
