Recently, I had the privilege of taking Oscar to a unique session with renowned equine communicator, Cooper Wilson.
I have long admired Cooper's exceptional reputation and remarkable abilities, including his extraordinary communication and keen observation skills that enable him to comprehend the needs of horses.
As an open-minded individual, I firmly believe in the existence of energy patterns and psychic powers. Therefore, I was genuinely eager to discover if Cooper could provide any insights regarding Oscar.
Cooper possesses an inexplicable talent for understanding a horse's thoughts, which some skeptics might attribute to his extensive experience with horses. However, I personally believe that there is something more profound at play. It was quite strange having someone tell me what my horse was going to do.....before he did it and what he was thinking !
I was greatly encouraged by Cooper's positive comments that I have progressed Oscar in the right way for both of us. He observed a happy horse that wants to please and loves jumping.
It's been a slow journey to get this far, hours of long reining with help from Steve P Coyle , solo hacking to build a braver horse, road trips with the help of Robert Coles, so it was really nice to get this feed back from Cooper.
If anyone is interested in having a session with Cooper I can organise one here if I can get 4 plus interested.
Jockey fitness training getting more specific as the race gets nearer.
I really struggled with this exercise at first. Call it a leap of faith that I wouldn't land flat on my face ๐๐ which I did once ๐คฃ๐คฃ
After some rather pathetic efforts I took a moment to visualise how I should perform the jump in good form successfully and this was the result.
Did you know your brain does not know the difference between real practice and visualisation? So you can practice in your mind to improve your skills.
Still looking for sponsorship, not got any business names to put on my breeches yet. Any donation no matter how small will go to the BHS changing lives program helping young people back into a useful role in society through working with horses
See the link below foe more details .
https://www.justgiving.com/page/alison-garner-1716987376405?utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=page%2Falison-garner-1716987376405&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=pfp-share
To begin, I initiated the exercises with all the poles on the ground, and gradually introduced the fences.
It is understandable to want immediate perfection, however, a beneficial exercise will assist in identifying areas for improvement.
In this instance, I failed to anticipate the extent of his jumping stride, resulting in an execution of two strides.instead of 3.
How do you reward your horse ?
I have found that using verbal praise is an effective way to reward my horses. When my horse, Arch, gained confidence in cross-country riding, my voice helped to reassure him. My other horse, Oscar, responds similarly to verbal praise.
I have done very little jumping with Oscar, but we recently made significant progress while practicing exercises outlined by John Thelwall in his book "Make Your Horse Suit the Distance." We started with a simple grid before changing it to a double, then moved on to the second line to work on straightness.
Initially, Oscar was too bold and jumped on two strides instead of three, which caused me initially to hold back too much, which resulted in him chipping in at the first element, then an uneven 3 strides. On this last effort I started to feel some improvement, despite not landing on the correct lead, I believe we made substantial progress during our training session, all work in progress.
I'm loving how his confidence is blossoming โค๏ธ๐
Super proud of Isaac, he only started riding 8 weeks ago ๐๐๐
Putting the work in......After Oscar's performance refusing to load, to come home from Parklands, I ve gone back to basics, loading daily to see if I can get him back in the right mindset.
Anyone else had horses not want to leave the party ? He's never been a problem before.
You gotta put the work in.....fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
You never feel totally ready when going out your comfort zone but all you can do is prepare the best you can.
Oscar was rather wired again at Tuesdays EMDG training , so I really needed this practice although it was late last night.
Thankfully all went well confidence restored. I've no idea how he will cope tomorrow but I've done my homework, sometimes you've gotta just do it !
A little insight of how I try and help a horse feel safe. He needs me to be a confident leader or his natural instincts will take over.
As the the horse leaves his companions behind its important he trusts you, if you are not confident yourself hack with another sensible horse.
A little debrief last night, I felt I needed to ride Oscar again ASAP to re establish a bit of trust. I don't believe horses are 'naughty' .
While hacking it gave me time to think why his behaviour changed. I think the incident with the dog Walker has really knocked his confidence and he's now expecting the unexpected so would rather stay with his mates !!
Riley Mae Oliver 2nd time jumping H. Massive improvement from her first time ( shown in comments).
Riley has just finished a week's work experience lovely to see her confidence grow, well done !
Continuing to share the highs and lows of Oscar's journey.
Last week we made great progress with a lesson with Chris and a road trip to hack out. Yesterday a change in his routine to avoid riding in the heat of the day led to very challenging ride.
Our drive is situated on a bend in the road and as I was about to exit a car came speeding round the corner causing much alarm to Oscar which set the president for the rest of the ride.
For the first time he really didn't want to leave his comfort zone, which led to some vertically challenging moments.
I persevered and got onto the bridleway, I had just got him settled when we encountered a dog Walker with several dogs off the lead, to keep their attention he picked up a large branch and held it above his head. I asked him to drop it so he threw it in our direction ( along with 6 dogs chasing it) causing Oscar to bolt, Ive never lost control of him before but this was just blind panic, which i cannot blame him for.
It makes me sad that months of training can be upset by such thoughtless actions.
Safe to say I was just glad to get back in one piece.
Really pleased how he handled fly tipping on the bridleway
More hacking tips.
Don't be afraid to ask traffic to slow down or even stop.
Oscar had never seen a HGV on such a narrow country lane. So I asked him to stop and when I realised he needed to reverse down the drive we moved back a little to allow him to do so.
As soon as the vehicle was moving away from us I asked Oz to walk towards it .....thus making him feel he was making it move away and building his confidence up.
I don't think I have ever witnessed such a dramatic quick change in a horse.
The techniques I've learnt of Helen Thornton Sports Therapy & PEMF Musculoskeletal Therapist UK & Europe helped tap into her parasympathetic nervous system ( rest and digest rather than fight or flight) and the result was quite emotional. Estch how she pushes her head into me, telling me what she needed, I stayed cradling her head for some time after this video ends. When I left her she was totally chilled out.
Another new horse in for retraining. This was my first interaction with her. As you can see, she didn't really want me anywhere near her.
She was holding alot of tension, and offered to bite or present her backside if entered her personal space.
I spent about an hour putting into practice some of the somatic techniques I learnt on a recent course with Helen Thornton Sports Therapy & PEMF Musculoskeletal Therapist UK & Europe . Watch the following video for the results .
