Wow, what an incredible year I've had!
At the start of 2024 I was continuing to just plod along with life and with riding, having finally begun to get over the trauma of 2023.
Early in the year, my former work colleague brought British Working Equitation up to Scotland ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ by running clinics. Little did I realise at the time just how monumental this would be. Through the kindness of others, Molly and I ventured out for the very first time to attend one of these clinics, and we were hooked.
Our baby boy turned 8 years old. Where have the years gone!? ๐ฑ
Our lovely Vauxhall ๐ developed an unfixable fault, so after quite a stressful time, we welcomed in our awesome Citroรซn ๐.
I dragged the whole family to Yorkshire ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ so I could do the British Working Equitation Instructors Course to become Scotlands 2nd approved instructor, and was able to spend quality time with my parents ๐ซ after what always feels like an eternity.
Molly and I then suddenly found ourselves at our very first Working Equitation competition and actually didn't do too shabby! Discovering we actually scrub up quite nicely too!
Lots of practicing at home and I was incredibly proud of my amazing pony when we came first in our class at our second competition ๐ฅฐ ๐ด๐ฅ
Molly moved house so she could get winter turnout, and it's doing us both the world of good mentally and physically.
Our cats turned 12 years old ๐โโฌ๐ and my amazing man and I celebrated 12 years together ๐
Lots of fantastic family time, balanced with a good year of working with lots of ideas in the pipeline for the future as a collaboration with, now very good friend, the other WE instructor and fellow groundwork and ethical training enthusiast.
Some very difficult news at the end of the year saw us face challenges as a family that we wouldn't wish upon anyone. The prognosis now looks better than it was, and we continue to pull together and stay str
๐ถ๐ต We can build this dream together ๐ต๐ถ
Honestly, if anyone would have told me this time last year that Molly, Molly's adventures , and I, Jean Clarkson Horsemanship , would be performing at a demonstration of The Association for British Working Equitation, organised and run by The Positive Equestrian Coach - Steff Singleton. and her incredible horse, The Adventures of Huckleberry Pie as one of only 2 approved instructors and competitive riders in Scotland, alongside other competitive riders of different levels, I would have thought them completely delusional! ๐คฃ
Last winter we were only just beginning to find hints of relaxation in trot after finally having achieved it at walk. Trust was building, but she was still super reactive to the leg and mega spooky. I found myself not really wanting to ride but also not wanting to handle cold, wet, sandy ropes to do groundwork instead.
Finding this sport, and a massively supportive community that has come with it, has enabled a passion and opportunities that I have not had for many many years.
I fell in love with riding again, with improving myself, to learn new things, to be better for Molly, to believing that there are still genuinely kind and unselfish people willing to go the extra mile (100s of miles!) to support my new found love of a sport and it's community.
The decision to move Molly to a different yard, to allow her winter turnout, has paid off immeasurably as I hadn't sat on her in a month and had only done a tiny amount of groundwork at our demo 3 weeks prior. It was as if we'd not had a break and, apart from the addition of pony eating tinsel, she was absolutely fabulous and did me proud.
The Scottish community involved in Working Equitation will continue to build the dream, of regional competitions and training (unaffiliated) competitions into a reality, together. Along with our magnificent horses and ponies of course!
โจ๏ธ๐งOur fairytale moment at our recent Gateway to Great Groundwork demonstration ๐งโจ๏ธ
Molly is my pride and joy ๐ She made me feel so happy to show our relationship together in front of an audience for the very first time.
We demonstrated some close range, increasing distances, double lines/driving and then she totally blew me away by allowing me to show our little bit of liberty we've been working on. ๐ฅฐ๐ด
A huge shout out to The Positive Equestrian Coach - Steff Singleton. for being the main organiser of our demonstration showcasing our individual skills and knowledge with the same relationship based ethics.
Also a massive thankyou to Mollys chauffeur for the evening, particularly when the weather decided to throw snow our way at the last minute! And to the multiple people who were more than happy to hold her leadrope whilst I was busy during other parts of the demonstration.
#jeanclarksonhorsemanship
#MollysAdventures
Insanely happy with my wee pocket rocket yesterday! ๐ฅฐ
She was feeling great and I was feeling positive. A good calm walk, then a crazy speedy trot! Instead of getting anxious and shutting her down, I felt safe and comfortable enough to allow her to work through her own anxiety and find her calm.
On the right she mostly stayed with the trot and took a few circuits to steady but it was worth waiting for ๐ฅฐ
On the left she wanted to canter first, then settled into a shaky neck trot letting out all that tension then some lovely canters afterwards ๐โค๏ธ
We've never done this much trotting, let alone cantering before as neither of us felt safe and confident enough in each other but yesterday was a whole new level of relationship in horsemanship.
I don't think I've enjoyed riding this much in years! ๐ดโค๏ธ
#jeanclarksonhorsemanship
#mollysadventures
#totalcontactsaddle
After exactly 4 weeks off riding, whilst we focused on confidence and relationship building in the field, we got back to it yesterday.
Desperate to try a new (to me) saddle pad, we had a short groundwork session before I asked if I could ride. Green lights and good to go, we had a speedy walk around, followed by a pocket rocket trot until she started to shake out some of her tension and lower her neck. That's HUGE for Molly to do!
Feeling much more relaxed already on the right rein, she asked if she could canter. I hesitated at first. After all, we'd only had our first canter in months, after a fall, the last time we rode! I decided to go with her idea and was rewarded with a gorgeous ๐ canter ๐ฅฐ.
We had a bit of a play doing random stuff then I decided to take off her saddle and sit on proper bareback. I've only sat on her once briefly bareback in 3 years but riding in the TCS has given me so much better balance and confidence.
#jeanclarksonhorsemanship
#MollysAdventures
#totalcontactsaddle
Relationship before Horsemanship
My wee pony Molly, struggles with change and can become very difficult to catch when she gets anxious.
I've made a point of going in the field and just spending time with her since she went out for summer. This last week she started to come up to the gate to greet me. This is huge!
Tonight she had her feet trimmed, the first big ask of her, so I will see how she felt about it tomorrow. Hopefully she found it an acceptable experience and will continue to greet me. The next stage will be in balancing relationship with horsemanship as we start to get back to work again.
#MollysAdventures
#jeanclarksonhorsemanship
Throwback Thursday
A beautiful sunny day during summer this year playing with figure 8s around the barrels on the 22' featherline with Molly.
The purpose of doing the figure 8 pattern is to balance drive and draw. It practices directing the nose and shoulder away and then asking for them to come towards you before redirecting them around the next barrel. It can also engage a busy brain so can help settle an anxious horse who needs to be moving their feet. Anxious horses find comfort in the repetition of the pattern. Watch that you don't bore a confident horse, once they've understood it, move onto something else otherwise they will start inventing their own interpretations!
Your horse will need to understand how to move their shoulder away, how to disengage the hindquarters, how to back up and how to come towards you before you try this.
How to practice the figure 8 pattern.
- start with 2 obstacles (here I've used 2 barrels but you can use poles, road cones, low jump stands, pretty much anything you can send you horse around and allow the rope to pass over it.)
- stand back from the obstacles but central to them.
- back your horse between the obstacles (if your horse is not comfortable backing between obstacles yet you can start them behind the obstacles and position yourself instead)
- lift your leading/direction hand to indicate which way you want them to go. If they don't go, apply a little pressure towards their shoulder with the stick or rope end. Once they move in the right direction leave them alone.
- As they pass the obstacle draw them towards you. When they look at you, swap the rope into your new leading/direction hand and add a little driving pressure towards the shoulder to ask them to move away from you and around the next obstacle. Leave them alone when they are going the right way.
- as they pass the next obstacle, draw them towards you. When they look at you, swap the rope into your new leading/direction hand and add a little driving
