A week in December
Been a while since I’ve done one of these. I managed to get clips of most the equines I saw last week. Didn’t quite manage to get everyone but here’s those I did get 😍
Awful camera work for Merlot and Shiraz but Merlot is touching a cone on cue here. I posted about Jack earlier in the week. Lulu’s owner is feeling confident and enjoying working with her after some challenging times, we’ve definitely turned a corner! Dibble is gaining confidence in novel objects, sounds and feelings. Merlin had his first steps with a rider on board this week! 🤩 Young Donna had a challenging start to her session and I was informed that last time she was in this arena she actually jumped out. But both her and Sarah did extremely well by just taking things slowly and carefully. Beech and Frizzy had their first lessons with handlers Erin and Orla. Frizzy and Orla even finished at liberty! Then it was Christmas fun for Dickie, Bob, Juno, Peanut and Wonky.
A good, but chilly week, I’m glad it’s warmed up a bit!
#gaiahorsemanship #horsetraining #positivereinforcement #horseagility
Jack
Great to see Louisa and Jack earlier this week 😁 they’ve been out of action for a while but back on top form again now 🤩
Busy week here this week, bear with me on replies and emails.
#gaiahorsemanship #cobsofinstagram #libertyhorses #positivereinforcement
Donna
Sarah has been a helpful hand at many of my events and this year dived back into horse ownership herself with the very beautiful young Donna!
There’s a been a lot of unfortunate changes for Donna in a short space of time including a vet hospital stay 🙈 so it’s been quite a lot for a 2 year old (and for her human!). We’ve done a few sessions here and there and I’ve been on hand for advice, but now the humans have eventually found a diary match that suits we are making things a bit more regular.
Last session we worked on some leading skills and had some fun with some obstacles which Donna was very keen to investigate! She was fantastic, really lovely to see. We also looked at how to get eye drops into her eyes, and also some work on general touching. Unfortunately Donna is slightly defensive after having some pain related issues and vet procedures. This has resulted in some kicking which isn’t fun for anyone so we worked through some building blocks for that. It’s all about slow, steady, little steps and understanding.
She’s a fantastic and very pretty young mare. I’ll try to get a rugless photo when the weather behaves!
#gaiahorsemanship #younghorse
Lilly
I’m in my monthly judging time for the Horse Agility Club at the moment so not back out to clients until later in the week. So it was really nice to receive this lovely update today from Rosie and Lilly.
They want to start doing Horse Agility and today worked towards the curtain obstacle and were excited to show me progress 😁 they had tried the curtain obstacle a few years ago (well before I knew them) and it was a stressful experience but now Lilly is taking all the little steps in her stride 😍 Rosie is doing just a brilliant job with this clever mare. Well done both 🥳
Rosie is holding a target stick here, if you’re not familiar with positive reinforcement training it’s not a whip used to move the horse about, it’s a target that Lilly knows to touch with her nose on cue 😊
#gaiahorsemanship #horseagility #positivereinforcement
Shiraz
Well what a week of weather we’ve just had 🤯 wasn’t that all fun? 😂
The weekend was a wash out so back out and about today. Here’s a clip of Shiraz, quite a nervy big horse. Good training looks boring. We want to avoid dramatics, avoid chasing around, avoid working a horse up just for social media “before” videos etc. We just want to create a calm training environment and make things clear and fun for our learner. A simple video this one but it’s shows Shiraz leading beautifully, walking on and halting from voice cue and his new “over” cue which he’s very proud of (well I am anyway!) 😁
#gaiahorsemanship #positivereinforcement #drafthorse
Feet lifting duo
These two very much come as a pair, which sometimes takes a bit of thinking about and consideration during training.
We’re currently working on feet lifting, which they’ve done before but it’s good to refresh in preparation for feet trimming as these boys haven’t had a great deal of handling throughout their lives. They were doing very well and despite the mass of food readily available in front of them, they both wanted to play feet. So they both did 🤣
They are lifting from the “up” voice cue, my job was to just catch those big legs 😁
#gaiahorsemanship #positivereinforcement #pair #drafthorse
Greetings!
You know they enjoy their training when you’re greeted with this sort of Black Beauty style entrance 😍
#gaiahorsemanship #postivereinforcement #drafthorse
Dibble
Katie and the very handsome Dibble were amazing in their first lesson today 🤩 Dibble learnt to target a cone and then other things around the arena.
He also found the confidence to do the tarpaulin and mat which was a big deal for this lad. They then finished by doing some liberty work! 🤩 he’s a smart boy this one. Well done both.
#gaiahorsemanship #positivereinforcement #horses
Alex and Juno
A little clip of Alex and Juno working on their liberty the other day 🤩 Juno was so connected and listening she stopped a bit suddenly! 🙈 she was fine 😊
It’s always lovely to catch up with Erin and Alex. I got to know them through Horse Agility and they attended my last camp. On Saturday Erin had a lesson with one of her ponies, Hopscotch (I didn’t think to get photos or videos) where we worked on their positive reinforcement and breaking things down for this month’s Horse Agility competitions. Then Alex had a liberty lesson with Juno. 😊
#gaiahorsemanship #horseagility #liberty #libertyhorses
Wonky
A little clip from Halloween agility today. Wonky navigating the bridges and the murky spooky swamp! I’ve done 3 Halloween Agility days in a week 🎃 photos coming soon! 👻#gaiahorsemanship #halloween #horseagility #horseagilityaccreditedtrainer
Lilly
It was so lovely to catch up with Rosie and Lilly the other week. There was so much progress to be seen! They were working beautifully at liberty and we worked around and over some pole exercises, then we finished with some hip targeting. Lilly was just at the end of her concentration span when I decided to film but she did very well. 😃 we even had some sunshine for it!#gaiahorsemanship #positivereinforcement #horsesofinstagram #sunnyday
Jake
Hope you’re all coping ok with the endless rain. I have to admit, I was not mentally prepared for it to be this wet this soon 😫
Here’s a clip from last week of Liz and Jake. Donkeys don’t usually do rain, but Jake and Storm had been out mooching about in it of their own choice before I arrived so we did a short session. Here we are working on leading from behind. I really think it’s useful to be able to lead from all angles with our equines, something I think I’ve taken from working alongside working equines. We were working around a pole exercise I had set up which had various things you could do, but here we were walking between the poles without stepping over. This can then build into the equine understanding to follow pole patterns on their own and you can end up doing some advanced things with that which can be great for them both mentally and physically.
#gaiahorsemanship #donkeys #rain
