Smokey and I have been doing loading practice. My dream is to be able to get out and about exploring hills and the countryside with Smokey but I want to make sure he feels really good about travelling too. Baby steps, little and often is the plan. This is our 2nd session, the first was considerably less successful, but I tweaked some things that I recognised that I could be doing differently and we ended the session walking on and off the box with no issues several times today as well as Smokey happily parking in the box. Good boy Smokey! Self loading is the goal, however we will do a bit more practice stationary before we go driving anywhere.
JayJay Canter
Just a reminder that training horses doesn’t always look beautiful, easy and effortless. Sometimes it’s a bit messy and lumpy and that’s ok. JayJay has also had all the relevant health/tack checks to ensure that he is comfortable.
JayJay has come on so much since his owner, Lisa, had her first lesson with me and he’s already like a different pony thanks to Lisa’s hard work. He really struggles with going forward in the school. Using your legs too heavily or your stick would result in bucking and bracing from J so we’ve found a different way to ask for a forward from our seat, and supporting by “wafting” the stick, this works with J and means that he no longer becomes braced around his shoulders and rib cage. His trot has come on in leaps and bounds and he looks happy in his ridden work.
This was the first time I have asked for a canter again since my first ride. We did do one lovely canter that we didn’t catch on video, he’s still working it out, and he’s still having his moments. However I’m loving his new found ability to offer a try as this was something he wasn’t confident in doing before. Well done JayJay and Lisa, I’m so excited to be on this journey with you both! 💕
Progress over perfection!
I’ve done things in the past riding and training horses that I wish I hadn’t. I’ve had horses who I’ve worked with that I wish I could go back and work with them again as the horse person I am now, I think the results would be different. But I can’t be angry with myself. We’re all on a journey and I was in a world constantly striving for results and progress. My goals for training horses a different now.
The tricky horses, the ones who make us question everything, appreciate them. They are the ones who have the most to teach us.
There are six year olds who are doing a lot more than Smokey, there are also six year olds doing a lot less. But just like us, every horse learns and processes at different speeds. Every horse has different things that they find tricky.
You are exactly where you need to be right now. Don’t let anyone tell you and different!
📸 @vickymatusphotography
#horsemanship #horsetraining
A lovely sunbathe with my favourite boy this morning! Finally it looks like summer might be arriving!
Training horses is a lot about your relationship, relationships aren’t easy.
Some horses have more tolerance for our mistakes than others. I speak to a lot of people who say things like “I feel like I’m letting my horse down because….” Speaking totally openly, I feel the same way about Smokey sometimes too. These are the horses that give us a reason to up our horsemanship game we should be grateful to them.
However, these horses also need to learn that we are allowed to make mistakes and get things wrong too. The world is not going to end if we’re not 100% perfect all the time, in fact, it might make them feel a bit better because it takes the pressure off them a little. There might be times where they have to be handled or even ridden by different people who might do things a bit differently, it’s important for these horses to learn to be ok in these situations where stuff might be less than perfect to keep themselves and anyone handling or riding them safe.
It’s true. The more you know, the more you realise there is to learn. I’m a forever student of the horse and strapped in for the ride.
And each of those conversations will be different… Jessie suffers from PSSM and was feeling a little more sticky today than she has in our previous sessions. Rather than trying to tackle more advanced schooling we just focused on forwards. I kept a soft, consistent contact and focused on really making sure I was moving with Jessie and allowing her to move forwards easily. Today Jessie’s part of the deal was to have a try (as consistent movement is advised by the vets). Today, despite feeling slightly sticky to begin with Jessie offered me several canters today in our schooling session. 💕💕
I’m sure we can all relate to this at the moment.
For full transparency… the next two jumps didn’t look this lovely and quiet. Coco had a spook and I probably should’ve spent more time asking him to come back to me and settled him a little more before we carried on linking the fences. I’m not going to post the video though because the internet is a scary place. 🤣
But I wanted to highlight the fact that sometimes we will all look back at a session or watch a video back and think “I would have done that differently,” we did go round and pop the fence that I didn’t ride how I’d have liked absolutely perfectly afterwards. But the questioning ourselves and asking ourselves what we would do better, whether that’s jumping, flatwork, groundwork or even just how we manage our horses is what makes us good horse people. Always striving to do better and learn more.
If there is one thing I’m learning it’s that the learning and growing will never stop.
The equestrian world can be a funny one, I can be fairly certain that ever single person who has been involved with horses in their lives has felt some sort of imposter syndrome. Whether that is feeling as though we’re not good enough, too nervous or not doing enough with our horses. “I’m only a happy hacker, but I’d just like to improve our schooling.” is something I hear all the time. As if enjoying spending the majority of your time with horses hacking out puts you lower down on the imaginary equestrian hierarchy than someone who is competing or schooling at a high level and less worthy of enjoying our horses. “He’s wasted,” “I should be doing more.” “I’m not good enough.” All things I hear regularly… but when was the last time you thought about why you started riding and continued to build connections with horses? Was it the rosettes or jumping big jumps or was it something more subtle? Food for thought. #equestrian #showjumping #horsemanship #horsetraining #horsetrainer #naturalhorsemanship #naturalhorsemanshiptraining
One of my favourite things about working with horses, especially horses that may have struggled to cope in the human world in the past, is watching them rediscover their playful side and the joy that can come with learning! 💕
(The video was a few months ago, I haven’t made a miraculous recovery after dislocating my knee a few weeks back - although I’m still holding out hope!)
I’m absolutely loving watching Smokey explore stretching and softening! And look at those beautiful shapes he’s starting to make! 😍
I’m so happy to be back doing little bits of work and very excited to introduce Happy the ex-racer, who I am restarting as a riding horse for his owner Louise. He’s such a sweet boy and I’m really looking forward to working with him!
Happy has lovely manners but we will be spending the next few weeks on the ground asking him to explore using his body in a different way particularly looking at flexion and softness through his whole body. Taking the time to do this on the ground and through feel will mean that when Happy is ready to start his ridden work he will have a better understanding about what we are asking of him and most importantly will feel comfortable in his body.
This is only Happy’s second session but I wish I had pictures from our first session because the change in him is already huge. As you can see in the video there are still moments when he gets a little “sticky” or unbalances and then rushes but he is a VERY fast learner!
Teckla
There are very few 5 year old horses that I would happily sit on with my phone out to film whilst it’s blowing a gale AND there is a flappy bit of tarp around. Teckla takes it one step further and just wants to play with the flappy tarp!
Bruce
New boy Bruce! Bruce can easily trick you into thinking that he’s really, really excited about his jumping but really he’s actually quite nervous and unsure.
It is such a pleasure to be working with him and his lovely owner. I’m really looking forward to helping them build confidence in each other! 💕💕💕
A little throwback to Trebor popping a few jumps! He absolutely loved his jumping and gave you the most amazing feeling! 🥰
Trebor
A little throwback to Trebor popping a few jumps! He absolutely loved his jumping and gave you the most amazing feeling! 🥰
